An interview with Nervecell a Deathcore band from UAE :"The passion for metal music is what basically inspires us. We always have this thing about our music and we know it's our creativity with this genre. "

Tell me about your band "Nervecell", what new shit is going on for you guys?
Rami: Latest is that we will approach a full EP. We are recently working on the recording and all. Release is in October.

Could you please explain your name to us? What do you mean with Nervecell?
James:Back in the days when the band played pure hardcore music, the name was pretty related to the sound; depict a lot of emotion like "she's getting on my nerves" kinda thing, but the main idea was that the band wanted to have a very sophisticated description of one of the human's functionality and how simple things like nerve cells are essential for survival. The music and the name doesn't relate at all now, we don't talk about biology *laugh* but what had in mind is that we wanted to relate a name that symbolizes our frustration with the ways of the world basically…

What things inspire you when writing your music?
Rami: The passion for metal music is what basically inspires us. We always have this thing about our music and we know it's our creativity with this genre.

How often do you guys get together to jam/rehearse anyways? Are you all within pretty close contact of one another? How does a Nervecell song generally come together? Is it a democratic "jam" sort of process, or is there any members who specifically bring stuff to the table?
Rami: We jam every now and then, we don't have a specific time for jamming, depends on what's going on, if we're writing a new song we jam it for months till we move to the other stuff and sometimes we play what ever songs we wrote in shifts…really depends on the mood and time. Older songs too, we jam them for a short period of time just for a refresh. For upcoming gigs we jam whatever set we're playing…I guess most bands do that, it's typical.
We've always been great friends together, even before I joined the band, I knew both James and Barney and even went to their gigs to support Nervecell *laugh*. We're not only friends as Nervecell, but as individuals too, James is my neighbour, me and him see Barney everyday, we go out together most of the time, and that's a very important thing for me, there's great spirit within the band. We joke around a lot, we rarely argue when we jam. I know a lot of bands that break up for lame reasons, and them come back together for a lamer reason *laugh*.
When it comes to writing music, we contact each other to sit and exchange ideas…all of us…we keep on exchanging ideas till we all agree and carry on. I then write solos and drum lines for the song most of the time. We all work together, and of course each one of us contributes in the song, that's a must for a Nervecell song.

You surprised me with the quality of the demo. All songs are technically well played and sound just perfect. How do you write such songs? Tell us about this process.
Rami: *Laugh* The quality is ok, but I still can't compare it to our upcoming album, its nothing now to us, may be before recording 'Human Chaos', but now I can assure you that our upcoming album will be a 100 times if not 1000 times better than the 'Vastlands Of Abomination' EP in sound and production…Damn man, its unbelievable…
Well, writing songs for Nervecell is not an easy task. Since I joined the band I always focused on coming up with the riffs and parts that fits our style…I'm influenced by vast subgenres in metal which helps me a lot in writing songs. I kinda accomplished a way in coming up with riffs of course along with Barney that is challenging and sometimes hard to distinguish the exact "style" when played all together as a song…

I thought I heard the 'Quanun' in this demo (... Did I just hear it wrong??), is this a promotional choice or just artistic?
Rami: This instrument is 99.9% Arabic and 100% Middle Eastern *laugh*. We NEVER thought or had any plans in adding Oriental/Arabic instruments to our music. What happened is that a friend (who recorded for us that Vastlands Of Abomination EP) suggested to put on some kinda touch to that part which was kinda empty with the bass being played by itself along with the drums (which is before the solo), anyways, so we got the 'Quanun' and recorded that part without thinking twice, and not a single clue on how the output will be. We risked really cos I personally knew many metal fans will think the addition of this instrument will sound artificial but for a weird reason a lot thought its fucking cool! *laugh* So answering the question, we thought it would be a total artistic touch to the song nothing more…Of course on the new EP we're re-recording the song and we're not adding any "weird" instruments on this song, nor to the other songs.

You were in the TMO (the metal observer Radio from Germany) top 20: 20th from June 11 to July 11, and 102nd from July 5 to 11, How where the other reactions to the demo?
Barney: We are shocked really, cos we never expected that in a couple of week's time! The demo was 2 songs as you know, and these songs are what we have until today [till we release our new EP]. Reactions here in the UAE are extraordinary and we knew that by having 100s of people coming to our shows to hear our songs! That's all what I think man…People coming to shows to see you perform your songs which they liked is what I think is the biggest way of saying that you have good songs…

What about the metal scene in your country, for how long does it exist, can you tell us its history? Can you recommend us some bands?
Rami: The metal scene here is progressing gradually for sure but at a very slow pace. Better than many other countries though...History is basically when Battle Of The Bands started and more of competition kinda gigs than independent started to take place…Nervecell is one of the metal bands that started playing gigs when gigs started in the UAE ! So we are proud to be one of the starters in the so-called scene…Then of course more bands, and a lot of different styles in metal, some continued and others died out. As for other bands we recommend The Mo'alya Traditional Khaliji Band *laughs* a great band!

You played a lot of live shows (Battle Of the Bands, Turbulence I&II&III, Disorientation, Warm Up, Al-Mariah …) can you Tell us more?
James: That's right, we played many shows... All successful as for Nervecell, but sometimes the show it self could have shitty equipment sometimes or bad stages, but that never stopped us from pulling a great show...Nervecell's first gig was Abu Dhabi Battle of the Bands 2000. We won an award for creativity and the best guitarist award. Then gigs went on and on and the first huge gig was Turbulence III 2003 and that was one of the memorable gigs were we had a different line-up at that time, but it was kickin'! More than 1500 people out there into the music and we had a great time with all the fans. Disorientation was great too where we had massive mosh-pits to our set with some injuries in the crowd, kick ass!! *laugh*. Warm Up was a come back gig to us cos at that time we didn't play for a year or so…that too was great, we were headliners along with 2 other bands and we destroyed the show…Al-Mariah gig was amazing too, this was our last gig for the year in Abu Dhabi, and as usual AD metal fans were brutal! We had excellent reactions and unbelievable mosh-pits! And with out us knowing we won "Best show" out of 9 bands…Yeah and many small gigs that I don't really remember, like the ones in front of 40 people *laugh*. This is metal dude!

What kind of interest do you have outside music? Where can you talk about for hours?
Rami: Apart from music we like a lot of football, house parties and private hotel gigs for sure, hanging out at bars. Art for me, I'm into alot of art...And for the rest of the band and me we talk about alot of lame ass shite you don't wanna know *laugh*

What are your favourite bands? Maybe also listen to non metal music? And what kinds of music do you disapprove?
Barney: Top 6 favourite bands that I can think of right now would be, Dying Fetus, Cryptopsy, Suffocation, Cannibal Corpse and early Sepultura and of course Pantera. Other than metal I think I could settle for any other sorts of music as long as it has a message or a good vibe to it. Something that has meaning and is original in its own way. However I highly disapprove hip-hop simply because all those guys do is rap about shite like money, girls (who apparently to them have to be called bitches and nothing else) and last but not least bling bling, I mean come on man, there is more to life than just that. What pisses me off is that whole west side east side shite. It only shows the lack of intelligence and lack of brotherhood that they claim to have !

What is your definition of the underground?
Barney: The underground to me is all about having this real don't wanna sell out attitude, judging from what I've seen and learnt from bands that claim that they are underground, you need to sell only 6 copies of your album and hate MTV even though they didn't do shite to you. *laughs*

How do you see the metal scene in Arabian countries?
James: It sucks cause no one will help support a band here especially if they play metal. Long story short, you cant make a living out of it.

Message for Arabian metal underground?
Barney: Sell only 6 cds of your albums and don't smile when you do cause then you wont be "trve" *laughs*

Anything your forgot to say?
Rami : To every metal fan ; grab a copy of our upcoming album 'Human Chaos' which will be out this October. For further details keep viewing the one and only in the Middle East Lelahel Metal, or visit our official website www.nervecell.tk

Your last rites?
Stay brutal!

Interview by Lelahel

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