Krista Shipperbottom
LUTHARO
Krista: It is a kind of an in between, right now we are playing local shows. We are finally at full capacity starting last week, which is nice. Things are slowly starting to get back to normal, but it is still a little weird and there are still restrictions which vary from place to place. So, we are getting there. Full capacity crowds are varying in different places, right now in Hamilton, where we are, it is full capacity. There are still probably a few bars which are iffy on certain things, but I do not know about the rest of Canada, it varies from town to town.
Krista: The pandemic did give us a long time to write the album. That is the one good thing which came out of it for us, because we had unlimited time to work on it, work on our setup, and switching that over. The only thing is, once again, the touring. We have not been able to tour, we released this full-length album and an EP, both within the pandemic, and we have not really been able to travel and play them. We have been selling the merchandise on our online store and it has been doing well, but I mean, people definitely buy it more in person.
Krista: No, we never did. We were thinking about it at one point and then things started to get better, then things got worse. It has always been this back and forth. Maybe we will be okay, maybe we will just skip out on it, but we still may do one. We will see.
Krista: INCARNADINE was the original name of it, but we found out that the name was already in use. When Victor [guitar] started the band, it was the original name that he wanted, but then we had to switch it.
Krista: It was LUTHARÖ, but we recently switched to LUTHARO, just because it was confusing for a lot of people. It was pronounced like LUTHARO, but it was just throwing everyone else. It is still work in progress, the switch is still in transition.
Krista: I think the only reason why we did not have a full-length album was because of our constant line-up changes. We were always looking for drummers, for whatever reason we can never keep a drummer. We just have not had the actual time to write any music or enough music, because we have always been catching up members. So, we would put out an EP and then we would lose a drummer. Then we would have to catch up another drummer for however long and then we write something with them. Then once again, they leave and we have to repeat the cycle over and over.
Krista: I think it has always been positive having someone new, because it keeps helping us evolve and it opens our mind to like different styles of music. I feel like every time we get a new member, we evolve as a band, because they just open our mind more and they know things that we do not, so it has always helped and it has always been a positive thing.
Krista: Yeah, we have been trying to get to the United States and also to Europe. We want to go to Europe more than anything, because our main fan base is in Europe. If we look at our Spotify statistics and we look at all the stuff we are selling online and who is listening, then the number one is Germany, France, and Sweden. Then Canada is up there, the United States, but not as high as Germany. They are our number one.
Krista: I have always been singing through my life, nothing like being in a band or anything. It was not until when I was in high school. I met Victor and he was looking for a vocalist for the band. I was in a musical theater program and he heard me doing a mic check for the musical theater. Then he approached me, because I was wearing a MEGADETH shirt. He wanted a female vocalist for his band. I have always been singing in a choir, musical theater, and just like random things here and there. I have always wanted to be in a band, but did not really find Metal until high school, which made me realize that is the genre of music I want to be in.
Krista: At first I came across with it, when I heard ARCH ENEMY with Angela Gossow still being in the band. When I heard her that was it for me. I knew what I wanted to do was screaming as soon as I had seen her and saw how intense she was. I still think she is one of the best female vocalists out there. She was the one who inspired me to do that, because I never thought in a million years that I could produce that sound or do it without losing my voice, but she just gave me a little nudge in that direction. I also went to her vocal coach Melissa Cross, who taught her screaming.
Krista: When I started, I did not go to Melissa Cross right away. I was self-taught from the beginning and actually, I watched a seminar that Angela Gossow did on YouTube. She was explaining to a class of people how she started in screaming and how she did mimics like a dog barking and stuff, which is what I started to do. I think a lot of people start on their own to begin, and then, when they want to do it further, they just make sure that they are doing everything properly. That is when they will seek out a vocal coach, but there are so many people who learn just on their own and I have met so many people who have just taught themselves.
Krista: Yeah, we tried to put our finger on it, basically to try and figure out what our genres are…
Krista: It all comes down to breathing and placement. If you have a good base of breathing, you can do all of them. I started out with false chord screaming, which is what Angela does, and I believe Tatiana does it as well. Then I switched over to fry screaming for doing the "Hiraeth" album. So, I mimicked more like Alexi Laiho from CHILDREN OF BODOM. That actually made it easier for me to switch between my clean and my screaming vocals, because there is not as much air being pushed really quickly. You are holding your vocal chords more straight and there is a little bit of air going through with a lot of pressure, but you are able to sustain a note and the placement is also more up here at your sinuses. It also helps me with my higher notes, because I just have to keep that placement, but just switching the resonance in what I am doing. It also comes down to mouth shape. If you are trying to hit lower notes, you are making your mouth like an O shape and if you want a higher note, you open your mouth, which is all your pitch. That helped me, because it is all in the same place, you just have to visualize it and feel it.
Krista: I am honestly not sure. I feel like I cannot have one without the other, because I would be missing the intensity of the screaming. It is just like certain things need to be screamed [laughs]. It is hard to say, I think it goes day by day. Some days I have a good singing day, some other days I have a good screaming day. I think I do really prefer screaming a lot though, because you just feel more powerful and it is almost like a little massage. You also do not have to be so scared about pitch when you are singing live. It is not as stressful, because as long as you can feel that the resonance is happening, everything is happening properly and you know that it is okay. You do not have to hear yourself 100%. It is less stress.
Krista: My favorite is obviously Angela Gossow, but I also love Tatiana. She is one of my favorites. As far as clean singing, I love Beth Hart. She is a blues singer, but I absolutely love her voice. It is funny, because I sing the Power Metal parts with a high voice, but I love a deep and warm voice like Beth Hart or Amy Winehouse. Then obviously Rob Halford and JUDAS PRIEST, everyone likes the classics.
Krista: There are so many different meanings to it. It is hard to put that into words, it is more of a feeling than an actual like definition. What I have seen it is defined as like a deep yearning for a purpose or a home, whether that has never existed, will never exist, or exists like in an outer plane of what you think reality is. It is strange, but it also can mean like a homesickness, or it is a nostalgic feeling as well, that you do not even know why you are feeling it.
Krista: That is a beautiful name for a band. I wish we would have thought of that, but an album with that is close. As soon as I seen the word, I fell in love with it. For me, it is like more of a feeling than anything.
Krista: It seems to be really good. We had a ton of pre-orders for our little boxes we made and we have been getting a lot of views on our videos and people messaging us constantly from all over the world. People are still messaging me and it has been out for a month now, so yeah, it has been really good.
Krista: We joke around and we call it "Custom Metal", because that is our joke within the band. It is hard to really describe what the sound is, because there are so many different things all put in together. There are a lot of people who would describe this as melodic Death Metal, some would say just straight up Heavy Metal, some have said Thrash Metal, Power Metal, but it kind of all comes down to every song. Maybe one song is more Power Metal influenced like our song "Worship Your Path" which is very like JUDAS PRIEST influenced and I do more clean vocals and more falsettos. Then you go to a song like "Phantom", which is more like a melodic Death Metal song and it is more screaming and it is darker and heavier. Then there is "To Kill Or To Crave" which is more Thrash Metal and then you got some little bluesy singing bits in there. It is all over the place, I would not be able to tell you.
Krista: I can see that. I would say just European influence in general. I mean, there is a lot of Swedish melodic Death Metal we listen to, such as AT THE GATES or ARCH ENEMY obviously, but I would say it is kind of all over the map. Our guitar player Victor comes from Romania, and he came here when he was nine, I think. He is heavily influenced by European music and Metal. He is our main guy and all of it spawns from there and he showed me so many European bands and our friends have shown us as well. So, I would say that it is definitely European based influence.
Krista: We write all the songs together, like we write them all at practice. So, either Victor or John [guitar] will come up with a riff, sometimes even Chris, our bass player. Then it goes from there, we will add our own little pieces which is why there are so many mixed genres in there. All of us have different influences, and different things that we would like to listen to. I think that is where it comes from, because we are all putting our two cents in and everyone is writing their own part, essentially. It is like we are getting all the best pieces of our own worlds.
Krista: I write all the lyrics, some of them are written at practice and some of them are written just at random places when I am inspired by something. All of them have come from my daily experiences and things which inspire me. "Hiraeth" in particular was less about myself, but more about what I was observing in other people on the Earth, because I like to write a lot about having a purpose in life. That was where "Hiraeth" came from, me watching people not pursuing their purpose in life and not finding their home meaning their place in life. Basically, they are kind of blowing their life away, but still have this deep yearning for something. I think a lot of the inspiration for that came from me just watching people who are unhappy. As terrible as that sounds, but it was more me observing than coming from here this time.
Krista: I love "What Sleeps In Your Mind". This is one of my favorites. I absolutely love that one and I love the concept behind it. I would have to say that also "Hopeless Abandonment" is my favorite and "Lost In A Soul" is definitely up there. That one was the first one which I heard and I was like: this has to be a single, because it is just so sinister and epic sounding. But I would have to say Hopeless Abandonment" is up there and the same with "What Sleeps In Your Mind".
Krista: We started about a year in advance. After we released our EP "Wings Of Agony", we had already kind of started to write, but it was not like we were writing like crazy. We were just writing here and there, but I think at around a little bit into the year was the time when we got really serious about writing, because the pandemic got really bad. So, it took us a year to write it and we really took our time with it too. We had to work around all of the restrictions as far as recording goes. There was a lot of delays in that. It was messy, but it worked.
Krista: It was dependent on what the restrictions were at the time, and how many of us could be in the room. During the pandemic, most of the time it was me, Victor, and Duvall [drums] in the room. Then we would send back and forth to Chris and John, but whenever the restrictions would lift, Chris and John would be there again. We could only have a few people in a room, so we would just kind of go based upon that. As soon as we could have all of us in the room, we did the front of the writing. We had the same problem in the studio. There was, once again, the restrictions, so we could only have a certain amount of us there. Actually, when I went to record vocals, it was only me and Victor who went to the studio. Chris would be in a separate room, because we could only have a couple of us in that room. It would have been cool to have all the guys there, but it was as it was.
Krista: Basically, we come up with an idea for a video and then we message Joe from Dark Moon Productions. We just message him like: we are thinking about doing a video and this is our idea. Do you know of any places which we could use? It goes back and forth until we have more of a solid foundation and then we have Skype calls and talk to him, because he lives in Ottawa and we are in Hamilton. So, we just figure it all out that way, talk to him, and then that day is usually an 8 to 12 hours day of us shooting the video. Usually, it will be all the band shots first, and then we will do the B roll of a storyline.
Krista [laughs]: It is usually me who comes up with ideas. The guys are like you figure it out, we are just going to play our instruments. That is cool, because, I come up with the lyrics and the story idea. So, it is a little easier for me to come up with the visual aspect of it. Additionally, we would get a few ideas from Joe how to improve it, but the main core idea is usually from myself.
Krista: Yeah, he is actually my best friend. It was really funny to film, because he was laughing the entire time.
Krista: In the song "To Kill Or To Crave", it was my idea that I am representing the Universe or a higher source of power in that video. It is the Universe way of saying: get off your butt, do what you got to do, stop going with the flow. If you do not do it, then someone else is going to do it, they are going to take your place. That was the idea behind me yelling at some random guy, me being in power. It was not really the intention to kill him, just to kind of smack him around a little bit and be like: What are you doing? You have something to do, you have a purpose, you have a dream, get off your butt, do it.
Krista: I would say sharing the stage with ARCH ENEMY would be a dream come true, because they are our band's biggest influence as a collective and just one that has inspired us to become what we are now. So, I think that either them or METALLICA would be pretty cool [laughs].
Krista: For sure. Oh, my goodness.
Krista: I would have to say probably "Khaos Legions" by ARCH ENEMY is my favorite, because that one was the first which I had heard front to back by them. I obviously went back and listened to their older stuff and I love it, but I think "Khaos Legions" was a big one for me. It was a game changer.
Krista: I would say European for sure.
Krista: Oh, Power Metal. I do not know. I need to think about that one. Maybe "Painkiller" by JUDAS PRIEST or actually, I really love their newest one "Firepower". That one front to back is awesome. I am just thinking more about recent ones. If I were to say of all time, my favorite album of all time is "Black Sabbath" by BLACK SABBATH. I absolutely love BLACK SABBATH. It all started there. That is why and I am a huge fan of BLACK SABBATH. From JUDAS PRIEST, I absolutely love "Sad Wings Of Destiny". It is less Power Metal, but it is my favorite album by them. I like the old school like the 70s kind of sound. He used his voice in so many different ways on the album. He sang deeper, but it was just groovy. I really love that one.
Krista: I started out being more of an IRON MAIDEN fan in the beginning when I started to get into Metal and I still love IRON MAIDEN, but as I went on I really started to like JUDAS PRIEST. I still love them so much. I am more into JUDAS PRIEST, I would say, I do not know why that is. They are both super talented and awesome bands and I have seen IRON MAIDEN a bajillion times live.
Krista: Honestly I feel like I am 50:50 split, because sometimes I am more into melodic Death Metal for months or whatever and I would go on a binge of melodic Death Metal bands and then for a few months after that I am listening to Power Metal or to MÖTLEY CRÜE or something like Hair Metal, something like STEEL PANTHER. It all depends on how I am feeling, but I could not choose between now.
Krista: Okay, it depends if you ask me it is going to be a different answer than Victor's. For myself, if it was to be like a guest vocalist, I would love to have Tatiana from JINJER. Oh my god, that would be so crazy. She would blow me out of the water, but that is okay.
Krista: That would be also very cool. If it came down to a guitar player, obviously myself, I would love to have Tony Iommi, but that is never going to happen [laughs]. I know Victor had said if you had someone, it would be Richie Faulkner from JUDAS PRIEST. I also said Zakk Wylde, I love Zakk Wylde too. It is a huge question. It would vary for every person in the band.
Krista: I think, I am more influenced when a band has put out a new album. For example, JINJER just put out their new album "Wallflowers", which inspired me to start writing some new stuff. I think the biggest influence for me behind a band is seeing their emotion which they put into it, their rawness, their realness, their creativity, and if they are bringing something different to the table. As I said, the first time I had seen Angela Gossow, she just had something different than other female vocalists. She was very like: this is me, I am a monster, I am raw, I am not putting on any kind of fake show or anything, I am Metal. She was like Metal to the core. So, when I see someone like that, it is the biggest inspiration to me. I feel that with Tatiana as well, where she is just like herself to the core. She is so unique, creative and unapologetic. That is what I look for as influence.
Krista: Yeah, I have kind of had the same thing with it, where there are certain songs that I really love. I love the song "Disclosure" on that album, but I think it is the lack of a hook in it, like a chorus hook that is missing there for me, which is usually what they have and Tatiana is really good at that. I think this album is very artistic and it is very heavy. It just has less of a catchiness to it and that is why I have kind of struggled a little bit trying to get into it as well.
Krista: For sure it has an effect. When I started in LUTHARO, I would mimic Angela Gossow all the time, like her stance, her everything, because I was just so fascinated by her. It has changed over the years and a lot of people have made fun of me for doing certain things that Robert Plant has done on stage like these groovy and flowy things. So, definitely watching all these musicians has an influence whether we like it or not. For example Victor, I always commented that he stands like Michael Amott when he does the solos. It all comes down to that we were watching them so often, so we start to mimic them, whether we know it or not.
Krista: I have heard of them. I have heard a few songs, but I have never like gotten huge into them, but I do know of them in a few songs.
Krista: Oh, we actually played with them. It was it back in the summer, it was around August that we played with them in Quebec. They were really cool and super nice guys.
Krista: I never really got huge into KATAKLYSM. Once again, I have heard songs and it just never was something which struck me.
Krista: I love them. They are probably one of my favorite band and one of the bands which I have on repeat constantly. I have been listening to their "Abyss" album two months like every day from front to back. We played with them a couple of years ago, we are actually playing with them next month in Toronto. They are super nice people and I love them. They are one of my biggest influences.
Krista: We actually played with THE AGONIST in our second year of being a band. I love THE AGONIST, but I like their older stuff more, especially the first album which they had with Vicky Psarakis. I absolutely love that one. I am finding it hard to get into their newer stuff, because it is pretty heavy for me. Once again, I need the vocal melodies, the catchiness and it is just been a lot for me. They are very nice people.
Krista: It is definitely a challenge. Just living in Canada for Metal is a challenge. We do have a lot of people who love Metal and we do have a really good scene, but it is definitely more difficult to make yourself known in Canada than in Europe. We are kind of the underdogs a little bit. So, for us, even trying to reach out to different parts of the world is difficult, because maybe Canada is not as interesting. I do not know what is going on, but it is definitely more difficult being a Canadian band than like a European or American band. Metal is not something that is mainstream at all here.
Krista: In Hamilton, we do not have anything really big here. In Toronto it is okay, except that they lost a lot of their venues during the pandemic, which sucks. Montreal is pretty good, Montreal has an amazing scene. The same with Ottawa, it is pretty good as well. In Hamilton, we have to go to other places in Canada, but I have never been to the States besides Buffalo where I have seen MEGADETH. I can imagine they probably have a lot more bigger and cooler venues than we do. From what I have seen, from bands on tour and from talking to people, their venues are a lot better than ours.
Krista: The benefits are that we get to keep all our money [laughs]. The struggle is definitely that with a label like Napalm Records or Nuclear Blast, you have a bigger reach and you also have someone vouching for you for tours. It is really hard for us to get on a tour or to have anyone looking at us without a label, because they do not trust that we are going to bring people out. When you have a label backing you up, you have a lot more reach and a lot more people who are willing to trust you. That has been a huge challenge for us, because we either need to get signed to a label or need to get a booking agent, but also a booking agent does want to work with us having a label. It has its pros and cons, but if we want to go further, a label is going to be an important thing. We have been trying and we have sent out stuff out to labels, but I think with the pandemic, they are a little afraid to sign anybody. It is the same with booking agents. They do not want to take anyone on, because nobody is making money right now. So, that has been a challenge. We are hoping once everything goes back to normal, maybe they look at us, that would be nice.
Krista: We have to do it by ourselves. We usually start with the day we get asked to do on a certain date and we work everything around that, but we have not really had the chance to go anywhere besides outside of Canada, because the pandemic. We need to get known as a band and start to put out more music. Our last two albums have suffered, because of the pandemic and we have not even been able to tour the last two albums.
Krista: We have local shows coming up just in Canada, but we do you have some shows for next year that are exciting. I cannot mention them, because they are a surprise. They are definitely outside of our comfort zone and out of Canada.
Krista: Yes, but I cannot say exactly where.
Krista: We have started writing more music, but it is a kind of slower process now that we are starting to play shows again. Also, once again, another drummer situation, we figured out that we need a new drummer.
Krista: Honestly, we have always parted ways in a good way. It is always been that the drummer has just not been in it as much as we are, because it takes a lot to be in an independent band especially in Canada and we are still working our way up the ladder. For some people, it is just not for them, or they do not have the time, the money, or they do not have the drive for it anymore. There is no harm in that.
Krista: I think he is not getting vaccinated. It is a shame, because you cannot force yourself to do something you do not want to do and you cannot put your body through something you do not want to. When it comes to your dream, it is so hard to make that decision and that was with our former drummer, he did not want to get vaccinated. We were not holding that against him. We are still friends, but we realized and he realized too that we cannot leave Canada without having every single member vaccinated. We did have some people who were not happy about it, but in the end, if you want to be a touring band, you need to be vaccinated.
Krista: Thank you for supporting us, thank you for supporting Metal, thank you for continuing to support Metal artists especially during the pandemic. We need it, a lot of bands are falling apart and a lot of venues are falling apart. So, we need everything we can get right now. Thank you.
Krista: Hopefully I will see you in Germany, it would be awesome. Thank you.
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