Prymary (Chris Quirarte)

Prymary… Voor degenen die deze band niet kennen: Het is een prog rock/metal band uit California. Ze hebben net hun 2e CD uit. En het is niet zomaar een album, het is een concept album waarop de teksten gaan over het misbruik dat de vrouw van drummer Chris, met wie ik trouwens dit gesprek heb gehad, heel haar jeugd heeft meegemaakt. Het was moeilijk om erover te praten, maar al bij al was hij zeker spraakzaam.

How are you?

I am tired but doing great. We are in rehearsals right now for some upcoming shows we have.

Can you describe Prymary in a few lines?

We are a Progressive Rock/Metal 5 piece group from California, USA. We have been playing together since 2000 and have just released our second album entitled The Tragedy of Innocence. We draw influence from a lot of bands including Dream Theater, Rush, Yes, Pain of Salvation, and Fates Warning to name a few. We tend to write music with an emphasis on Musicianship, Melody, and technicality.

After 3 years you already played with bands such as Fates Warning
and King’s X. How felt that?

All of these shows were great experiences. The King’s X show stands out as one of our greatest shows. The crowd was so energetic and we seemed to play really well. King’s X put on a great show and were a pleasure to watch. Playing with Fates Warning was great but the venue we played in was not so great. It was a small little hall with only about 40 to 50 people there. The sound and stage setup left a lot to be desired as well. Still, it was a great pleasure and honor to play with Fates Warning as they are a definite influence on the band.

April 2005… The first European gig (AND it was in Holland!) Is there a great difference between American and European audience?

I would say there is a difference between the European crowds versus the American crowds in the broad sense. A lot of the European crowds seem more willing to get into the music and seem a bit more open minded where as the American crowds can be more reserved. I am speaking in general terms here as there are some American fans who get deeply into the music but for the most part, they can be tough. We do seem to win over the American crowds in the end. It was great to see our European fans though as we were not sure of what kind of reception we would get. But they seemed to really like the music and we actually had a couple of die-hard fans who have been with us since the beginning. To see and meet people who live on the other side of the planet and are so enthralled with your music was really such an absolute pleasure. We hope to make it back soon as we would love to play there even more.

Also in 2005 left James Sherwood the band. Was it hard after so many
years together?

It was very hard to lose James after playing with him for so long. We formed Prymary in 2000 but James and I had been playing in early versions of Prymary since 1996. We developed a very solid drum/bass relationship and grew up a lot together. We always knew that replacing James was going to be a hard thing to do. He has a very unique sound and style and a lot of that became Prymary’s identity as well. He contributed tremendously to the songwriting as well. Things just seemed to gradually deteriorate though and in hindsight, I can see that this split was inevitable. He began to change
as we all did but he was slowly distancing himself from the rest of the band. We found it difficult to be around him during the final recording and mixing stages of our last album. The four of us would have fun and joke around but as soon as James would walk in, the mood would become dark. It was not pleasant. It became difficult to collaborate with him and I personally loathed the prospect of having any future collaboration with him. The situation was very bleak. We did try to work things out and come to some sort of compromise but it was too late. We would talk to him and he would seem to understand but things never changed. Luckily we found Rob Young who is a great talent himself, and filled some big shoes in this band. He is a BIT graduate and brings a lot of experience.

Where are the lyrics going about from the CD ‘The Tragedy of Innocence?

Our new CD is a concept album based on true events from my wife’s life. I was reading some of my wife’s poetry one day and came across a poem she had written called What Little Girls Are For. It recounted her early life where she was molested at an early age and subsequently raped in her later years. The depiction was so powerful and inspiring in her choice to relay it all, that I began to construct a story based around that one song. It was very cathartic for her to tell the story. I took parts of her real life with bits of fiction to complete the story. Basically it tells the story of a young woman who is sexually abused at a young age and how that one incident can effect the rest of her actions and life. As she gets older she puts herself in situations where she is raped again. She turns to drug abuse and begins to act out against her mother. She also begins a pattern of promiscuity as a means to take control. In her head, she feels that she is not being raped if she consents to having sex. But it always leaves her feeling empty and used. She eventually gets pregnant and pledges to change her life for the good of her new baby. She subsequently meets a man who she thinks is her knight in shining armor. She is deceived though and the man slowly begins to physically abuse her. She neither has the courage or self-respect to leave him though as he always comes back with an apology. She trusts him with her secret and tells him about the rapes and promiscuity. Instead of a confidant though, she gets betrayed as he calls her a whore and walks out on her. Feeling beaten and betrayed, she chooses to end her life rather live with the emotional pain. She cuts her wrists and fades away. She has a near death experience and feels the presence of the afterlife. As she is about to walk towards this heavenly bliss, she is told that it’s not her time yet, and she is pushed back into her body. At that same moment, here knight in shining armor come back with another apology only to find his lover dying on the floor. She is rushed to the hospital with a new sense of everything that has transpired. She now realizes she has a choice. She can continue along the same dark path she has already tread, or she can break new ground and make changes for the better.

Can you tell me something about the production progress of the CD?

We actually recorded all the basic tracks in our own studio. It was great to record and not feel the pressure of the clock ticking and knowing that you were paying for every second that ticked by. We were able to take our time and really develop things. We demo the whole album before we actually recorded it so we had a great sense of where we wanted to take it. Smiley and Mike would engineer while Sean prepared all of the click tracks. It was a great way to work and a great learning experience. We produced ourselves which allowed us great freedom to take it in the direction we wanted to go. We wanted to make the guitar and drums really stand out on this album.

It’s a concept album, wasn’t it hard to write it?

It was very difficult to write this album because of the subject matter. It hit us all pretty hard and we all had moments of uneasiness. I pushed the idea through because I thought it would make for a powerful and emotional album. In a way, writing a concept album keeps you very focused. We would write music only to find we had no place for it within the concept of the album. We were extremely conscious of making the music match the mood of the part or lyrics. We were also very picky of Mike’s vocal delivery so it would match the moods of the story as well. I must say that Mike did a great job of capturing the female characters emotion. I was insistent that the story be told in first-person for the most dramatic effect we could get. This made Mike feel a little uncomfortable and uneasy at first but I think he warmed up to the idea. He could see the validity of delivering the story in such a personal manner.

You had a release party on the 10th of October with Kamelot and Epica! Do you like Epica?

I am not a huge fan of Epica but I must say they sounded great. Simone is an awesome vocalist and the band consists of really talented musicians. I can’t believe the performance Simone gave after being really sick that same day. Great progmetal band. It was an honor to share the stage with them and Kamelot who is another great band.

Do you know some other Dutch or Belgian bands?

Mike has become good friends with the Sylvester and the guys in Ulysses. They are a great Dutch band and it was a pleasure to meet them in Amsterdam. Some of the guys in Prymary got to attend a Ulysses rehearsal and they were all just a great group of talented guys. We would love to play some shows with them.

Ok! Thank you for the interview! Is there anything you like to say to the Blastbeat-Readers?

Thank you to everyone for your continued support and appreciation. It really means a lot to us as a band and as individuals. We have received really good reviews and radio airplay in Dutch and Belgian areas.
We are hoping to play some shows very soon.

www.prymary.com