MOONSPELL: Fernando Ribeiro talks new album, orchestra, touring S7 E5

#moonspell #fernandoribeiro #interview 

THAT METAL INTERVIEW presents Fernando Ribeiro of MOONSPELL (recorded June 2026). Portugese legend Fernando Ribeiro talks new music, getting the right orchestra composer and life married to a musician. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 1:39

How are you doing, Fernando? You're doing good? What part of the world are you at?

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Well, right now I'm in uh Al Cobasa. That doesn't sound uh it's hundred kilometers from Lisbon from Portugal capital, and I'm uh enjoying uh a full day of uh interview sessions for Far from God, so I I'm uh I'm home basically.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

Before we get into your I know there is a brand new album you guys are about to release, we'll get into that in a little bit. I do want to talk about the orchestra mexical coming up, right? Can we talk about that real quick? People that don't know what goes on in organizing these things. Of course, you gotta find an orchestra, right?

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Well, it's it's a bit hard to organize, but it's also a fantastic experience for musicians such as us. Muscle has always had a bit of an orchestral symphonic flare. And uh we never got ourselves to do it with uh a full orchestra. So in 2023, someone from a big company here in Portugal called me up and told me, Do you want to headline the biggest arena in Lisbon? We're maiden plays, we're sleeping out plays, and I was just about to answer hell no. But um we I had um you know started a relationship, a communication with uh with uh a maestro with a conductor here, and I thought it would be uh a good uh time to do so. So we definitely uh jumped into that head first. We had 8,000 people in um in Lisbon, and then we just you know kept uh a new show for us. The arrangements were done, you know, the the orchestra was a Lisbon orchestra, and we got uh two other invitations so far. We went to Mexico in May, played with Synchronica, uh local orchestra from Mexico City. It was amazing. We had like 3,000 people um over there, and right now uh we are in train of um going to Bulgaria to a very cool and old and old amphitheater, right there, an old Roman amphitheater, and play with the Loracol Orchestra too. And in the process, we also recorded uh DVD, uh film, uh, and a live album that was uh out on Napalm Records uh last year called Opus Diabolical, which is a recording of that Lisbon show.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

Wow, super busy, busy band, super busy guy. Uh do you do you have a live?

SPEAKER_01 4:27

Um I do. I have moments of my life, you know. But um I always tell my wife, she's always telling me, You're busy because you don't love me. Of course not. I'm busy because I'm the the kind of guy that wants to be busy. I'm setting up all the rest and all the book reading and all the fishing when I'm 17. Right now I'm 51 and I have to press on. You know, being in a band from Portugal is quite a privilege. Uh, you don't get to live this kind of life often. You don't get to play with orchestras often. Of course, I love my wife, I love my kids, I love my friends. But um, you know, I try to balance them. Yeah, but sometimes it's hard to to uh to have uh a life, but also Munspell is also my life, so and that one is like uh in full uh power right now.

SPEAKER_00 5:12

Some people don't know uh you're married to uh your wife is a singer as well.

SPEAKER_01 5:17

Yes, she is.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

Is she a part of those events as far as uh uh no?

SPEAKER_01 5:22

I mean she supports us uh and myself and uh the other way around, but she has her own career, she has her own band. It's called The Gift, it's more of an indie pop band. Uh they are incredible, they got uh incredible records. She's an amazing singer. She was born to sing like myself, and um she also she's also teams up with uh the voice in Portugal, that talent show show. So she's yeah, totally independent. But of course, every time uh we have the chance we go and support each other's gigs, you know, it is also crazy because I think to understand your life, you really have to have something, someone as a peer, you know, and that's the fact that we are gold singers. Sometimes it's hard for the agendas and the and the grinding of touring life, but on the other hand, it's really beautiful because sometimes we have all the time in the world to be with each other and with our kid, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:19

That's just awesome to be married to somebody, a musician, right? That's awesome. Um back to the opus, the bolum. Who writes the score, the music for these uh for these cello parts, violin parts, and all that? Do you have somebody special? Uh you handpicked, or these do these orchestras they handle their own uh writing?

SPEAKER_01 6:38

Well, we have we have to have an arranger. His name is Filipe Melo, and he's a Portuguese jazz piano player, but he works all the time with our maestro, with our conductor, uh Vasco, and we hired him to do the the you know the the orchestration, so to speak, the the arrangements. Then he puts it everything in a big program, then we print the sheet music, and then we send it to the to the orchestras because it's the way it's like uh he did an amazing job, even in the intro, you know. Philippe who we work with him uh in a totally unrelated uh manner. He was directing some videos for Moonspell back in the day for Lincoln's rope, I'll see my dreams, and some other some other um songs, and uh he's like uh a big friend of us. We go back uh in time, uh, and he's like a renaissance man because he's a wonderful jazz piano player, he's a wonderful scorer, for uh he's also uh an accomplished film director, uh, and also he has some uh comic books that are very popular. I think one of them is even going to be soon adapted by a big, big comic label like Marvel or someone. Uh so I mean it's it's great. And he's also the translator, he picked he knows Moon's call by heart. We picked up our music and made these arrangements, and everybody that is playing them, they say it's it's great, and and they are. When I was to um listen to the orchestra just playing by themselves, I even thought, well, Moon Spell is just spoiled these with our guitars and shouting vocals and big drums because this sounds beautiful just with the arrangements. But the plan was to have Moon Spell too. So maybe one day we'll just release the orchestral ver version because trust my word, it's beautiful, it's heartbreaking all this.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

Yes, I saw the film, that's awesome. I saw that uh Mexico uh footage and all that stuff. As a musician, I understand what they're playing, but then again, as a fan, if you're a fan of Moonspell and then you hear it like that, it's just uh uh icing on the cake, right? It's just awesome stuff for fans. Thank you for thinking of fans like that, or definitely.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

I mean, for us it was a big extension of our music as a dream come true. I mean, we are sitting down in our small rehearsal rooms or uh venues or you know, even our own private rooms with a keyboard and a computer doing that, and then all of a sudden you have 45-50 musicians. Listen to that. It's really overwhelming. I think it's one of the peak moments. It's about the people, of course, it's about the shows being packed too, but it's also about the moment when you go to Rearse with the Orchestra and they just blew your mind. And sometimes you feel you are like humbled by that, and you start asking yourself, Oh, was that our music that they just played? And it did it was.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

Yeah, incredible. Uh Far from God, July 3rd, Fernando. Uh, can you speak about that album? Uh the first in many years, I think. Uh, you guys have uh an EP and a live album, but uh Far from God, uh the title speaks for itself. Uh it's just metal, right? Uh how about the tracks uh themselves, uh, the production, the arrangements?

SPEAKER_01 9:54

Well, uh, this album, yeah, it's it's the follow-up to Herbita. So it's been five or six years that we waited. I think we had to wait because I wanted Moonstone to be more inspired, more sure of the path we will go down musically. And I think this is a very simple, easy-to-listen, gothic metal album with a lot of rock uh influences too. It's not very extreme, it's very melodic, it's very musical, um, even. And I think it's uh really like one of our best creations so far. It was very important because uh, you know, when you do so much music and so much different music, sometimes you place yourself on crossroads that are hard to choose, so we have to double down. So um we already released two singles, Far From God and Cross Your Heart. But I believe they are just singles, they're representative of the album. But I think the main focus will be on the album itself because there's many musical surprises, there's a lot of music going on. There's uh baritone vocals, there's screaming vocals, there's heavy guitars, there's all it's a very uh um complete album as far as the moonspell discography uh goes with our main influences, but also it's an album that we use moonspel and everything that we have uh done so far as uh an influence, too. It's very enjoyable. It's not a wall of sound or something like Night Eternal or but on itself, it has a lot of um uh value. It's very hard to listen to to speak about music because I think best things in life are to be experienced, it's not to be uh debated. So the best thing I can say is for you to invite you guys, to invite your viewers, to invite your listeners to um really um tap into that and to find out what makes it special for each one of them. For me, it's it's the songs. We have great songs like Great Wolf in the Sky that's coming out as a single too. It's an epic, beautiful song. Uh we have Our Freedom to Fall, which is almost a cross between uh Morbid Angel, Type of Negative, Paradise Lost, Moonspell. So, as any other Moonspell album has this importance of being diverse but also very solid in a way, and we're very, very happy with the result of it.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

You mentioned uh the last album about the pandemic, give or take, right? Uh did the songwriting start ever since back then, or was this a recent uh well the the songwriting starts immediately.

SPEAKER_01 12:25

I mean, it's it's a kind of uh cool thing for a band to make an album and then to start thinking about the next, at least for us, because it's always like you have the feeling that this mission is done and you need another one as far as songwriting comes. Of course, there comes all the tours and all the promotion and all the jazz, but um, you know, uh music is always very vital in its session to keep you uh going. But like I was saying, I didn't feel we were particularly inspired already to make a new album. That's why we had all these EPs and this screen we made in Europe, in the US, too, and of course the symphonic uh album. And just like one year ago, we really started to go like um headfirst to um to compose Far From God. That's when we felt the muse has arrived. And I know it's a very romantic standpoint when you have uh a scene that kind of grinds you to grinds your creativity to have two years on the road, then another album, then more two years. And I think and I have a lot of friends in music, I think it's killing their creativity and also their joy about being in a band. So with Moonspell, as we're very independent, we don't have a manager like uh screaming at us, like do music, make albums. We kind of took advantage of that and and uh did everything with time, uh which is I believe a luxury, and but that reflects on the final result of the album.

SPEAKER_00 13:56

How did you guys decide on uh the producer, uh Jaime Gomez? Uh, because you produced the last one, right?

SPEAKER_01 14:03

Yeah, yeah, and I think our story with him was not over, you know. Uh because he became a good friend of us, he's a great producer, and when you listen to the songs, he had his own vision about the sound. He's originally from Colombia and he lived in the UK for a while. He worked with many bands, Ghost, X-Vaxel, Insomnium, uh, you know, Perthy Bader. He does all kinds of stuff, he does a lot of indie metal uh too, Great Pleasure, etc. And we liked that approach on him. And he was so possessed about the album that um sometimes he was even butting heads with us because he had this vision. And I understand that. Uh and he just saw it to to till the end. Even sometimes when the band was like, Yeah, but you know, it's our music, they say, Yeah, but it's my production. So it was this kind of production. I like that. Music is also about conflict, about uh challenge. If everything goes too right, maybe you you you lose the human touch, you lose the flair of it, you know. And I think he did an amazing job because the album sounds very simple, it has it doesn't have a lot of layers, a lot of all of sound, but it's when it gets starting getting complicated for the production that everybody everything sounds totally tight and in tune. So we have um, you know, um a hard recording to get everything the way that um he wanted to. But I think it was great. He deserves all the trust, and much of the success of Far From God is also thanks to Heinz Gomez and a giano production, I believe.

SPEAKER_00 15:37

For people that don't know about productions and recording and what a producer means, does that mean that uh Jaime is an extra band member? He has a power like that, is that what you're saying?

SPEAKER_01 15:47

For us, yeah, but for other bands, they just hire the producer to be kind of a sound engineer and just to translate their ideas, which I think it's a bit frustrating for both parts. For me, since we started working with producers since Wolf Art, really, um, we have to be generous with our music. Because if you hire someone, it's not like you're going to ask him or her to put another extra ingredient in your pizza pie. You know, I don't see music like that. I see music as a collaboration. So sometimes you have to listen, you have to go around, you have to have to compromise, you have to have a lot of patience. But I think the producer is someone that steers you on the right direction, that keeps your ego in check, which is very important for musicians, and the one that helps translate sonically uh what were you thinking? You know, one thing that Jaime told us straightforward was that you guys are gonna record the demo, and we did, and you guys are getting used to the demo, and you're gonna really love it, and you're gonna ask me to make it more like the demo, and I'm not going to do that. You know, like, yeah, but you're right, because sometimes we just get used to it. It's a special moment for the band, only friends listen to it, etc. And we become addicted to it. But I was totally focused uh on uh what he said, and I think a producer for me is someone that definitely is a helping hand and not just a hired gun.

SPEAKER_00 17:10

I was reading your bio, Fernando. Uh it says you're a translator. Uh we all know you're a writer, of course. Uh, what does that mean? Translator, do you go how do you apply that in life and society? Uh, what do you what does that mean?

SPEAKER_01 17:23

I don't do it professionally, but uh, it's like a hobby for me, you know. And uh of course I already make some money because I had three very successful poetry books. One of them, the anthology called Purgatorial. I have translated in English, and you can find it in our shop if you're interested. I've translated it myself from Portuguese to English. And I did two novels so far. I'm working on my third one that is coming out next year. They're all in Portuguese, they are released via Penguin Books here in Portugal, which is an important international group publisher. And um, I've worked with translation, it's been a while since I've translated uh stuff, but uh the most famous books I've translated was uh I'm Legend, Richard Mason. My the Portuguese translation is mine, and I've translated a lot of tales from uh Lovecraft and his biography on uh comic book. Um so it's a hard work, it's very underpaid, you know. But uh it's it's I love it. I love it to bring my authors um into life in my own language. It's a great challenge, too.

SPEAKER_00 18:26

Before we let you go, Fernando, uh will we see the orchestra performance in America maybe one day?

SPEAKER_01 18:34

Well, you know, that doesn't only depend on me, but uh as far as Moonspaw goes, we would love to do that. You know, we probably can make some contacts, we probably can play with a local orchestra. It's high time for us to get our asses back to America too, because it's been since many years that we've been there last time with um with Elaine, so our fans are asking. And uh, I mean, if you know anyone that could make it happen, I think we would love to do that because it's it's a great moment, definitely. And I hope that um sometimes we can take it to uh North American fans too.

SPEAKER_00 19:09

That'd be great. Well, I'll keep an eye out. Uh awesome. So people uh listening, Far from God, uh pre-order and pick it up uh before or on July 3rd. So appreciate your time, Fernando.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

Thank you very much for the opportunity.

SPEAKER_00 19:24

We'll see you sometime in the US. Thank you, appreciate that.

SPEAKER_01 19:27

You overseas, thanks, man. Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_00 19:30

And so there you had Mr. Fernando Ribeiro, frontman, sensation, and legend from Portugal for the band Moon Spell. For people that had been asking, when are you gonna have Fernando on the show? There you go. Mission accomplished. First single release from this album was Far From God. Uh, same title as the album, man. The newest single they came out recently, Cross Your Heart. Uh, second single from the album, 14th full-length album for Moon Spell. For those of you keeping track. And don't forget to pick up and pre-order this album and support the guys. Go out there, you see them on tour, go to their merch booth, as I always say, support them, pick up a t-shirt or some type of merchandise, right? The live album Opus Diabolicum, the orchestra live show released in 2025. Also, a great live album where you can experience and listen to Moonspel with Orchestra, the jamming metal songs with their cellos and violins and so on and so forth. So, anyways, thank you, Fernando, for being a part of that metal interview. Truly appreciate it from your friend James from the humble state of Texas in the US of A. Fanatics, don't forget to subscribe to the channel, don't forget to ring the bell for notifications, share, download, blah blah blah. Don't forget to keep it metal.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

That middle interview.