Nick Quijano, Sagan Amery

Hail Sagan

HAIL SAGAN is a rock band from Los Angeles California. The band consists of Vocalist Sagan Amery and guitarist Nick Quijano, formerly of POWERMAN 5000. They are joined by a group of anonymous musicians called The Nothing. HAIL SAGAN Is a fairly new band but has several videos on YouTube as well as a self-titled EP out. Metal Temple Co-Editor-In-Chief Bradley Karr talked with the band about a variety of topics.
By Bradley Karr
March 15, 2018
Nick Quijano
Please allow me to give you a big welcome from Metal Temple! I love the name of the band, Hail Sagan, can you give us some insight into the process that led you to that name?

It's a play on pop culture and our vocalist Sagan Amery's name.

The song Dark Cloud along with its video have a powerful message about abuse, do you have a message for any fans or anyone for that matter that may be suffering?

With the popularity of social media and people believing there aren't many consequences for their actions, abuse seems to be a theme in everyone's life these days. The best thing you can do is to get away from the abuser and then try to help others do the same. Block them, delete them, get the law involved if you have to, and avoid them at all costs.

You are backed by mask clad black skeletons, and they play a part in the Dark Cloud video. What do these figures represent?

Safety from a host of things. Anonymity. Anyone could be under there, even fans.

Who were some of your influences growing up and now?

We were influenced by a variety of musicians, artists, movie directors and actors. Mostly horror, rock, metal, punk, industrial, electronic, and everything else in between. If it's heavy, creepy, and generally cool, we were influenced by it.

Are you guys currently working on any new material and if so can you give us any details?

Yes. We are currently writing a new EP. It's all about quality over quantity for us, we don't push out new music just to have it. We are a brand-new band, so we are letting our fans digest what we have put out in the last year. We'll release some new stuff when the sound is right.

The band did a small West Coast tour with two other bands. Are there plans to do a bigger tour in the future?

We got to go back to some places we've played before and hit up some news ones too. The fans were amazing and it's so awesome how many people drive several hours or fly in from other cities to see us. We have the best fans in the world! We will be touring all year and just announced a show at Bar Sinister in Hollywood, California on Saturday, March 3rd, which is Sagan's birthday. So, she's having her party at the venue as well. And we announced that we're direct support on a festival called Metal in the Mountains which is on Saturday, June 2nd in Pipestem, West Virginia. There will be more to announce once everything is confirmed.

The video Doors Will Open has some strong imagery of you in dual roles. Was there any particular thing you were trying to express with the visuals?

It was just artistic, which is subjective. The viewer gets to decide what it means. The two videos we did previous to this, "Dark Cloud" and "Stealing the Crown," had more of a direct storyline. It's funny, since we did our first two videos as strict storylines, we decided to do this video just as a surreal art piece. Then you get the people who discover that video first and do their review and say, "we would have liked to have seen more of a storyline in the video." Ha. But they didn't even check out the other videos. We have a little bit of everything in all of them. This one was just an artistic expression since we're also artists as well as musicians.

In many of your songs you switch between a beautiful singing voice to a raspy scream. What methods do you take to protect your voice from damage?

Cadbury chocolate is the best thing for the voice and for the mind. But really, if you scream properly, you'll never do any damage.

Where would you like to see Hail Sagan as a band in the next coming years?

Playing all over the world, possibly in space if that's a thing by then. Bringing our purple brand of darkness and light to every home around the planet.

I came across the band when you followed me on Instagram. What methods do you guys use to try and get your music out there?

We don't have access to large, big name promotions since we're independent and not on a label yet. So, we have to get creative. Making friends with nice people like you helps to spread the word. Old school flyers and newsletters definitely get people's attention.

I know from your webpage that you guys give a percentage of the proceeds from touring, merch and music sales to foundations. That is amazing is there anything you would like to say about the foundations or causes?

We really just believe that it's important to give back and to help support important causes. There are many that we are a part of, but one area that is very important to us is helping veterans, especially those that are wounded or dealing with emotional and mental distress after deployment. We really love the Independence Fund because of all the things they do for wounded veterans such as providing all-terrain wheelchairs and rehabilitation programs for PTSD.

Thank you for your time and this opportunity I hope to see you all at "Metal in the Mountains" in June. Is there anything else you want to share with us that I might not have asked?

Thank you! We just want to thank our fans, without them there wouldn't be much inspiration to make music or art. They give us a reason to keep creating and connecting.

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