Ana Kefr Interview

Having just reviewed their groundbreaking new album The Burial Tree (ll) I was fortunate enough to be able to get an interview with Ana Kefr's creative driving force Rhiis D. Lopez. I want to thank Rhiis up front for being so down to earth and for taking time out of his busy schedule to chat with Heavy Metal Time Machine.

Andy: Tell me a little about how Ana Kefr came together as a project. What were your influences?

Rhiis: Ana Kefr was, in some ways, a lucky accident. I'd been living in Egypt for 3 years, traveling the Middle East and Europe here and there while working as a casting director in the film industry in Cairo. At the time I had absolutely no intention of ever living in the United States again, but the opportunity came to visit family and friends back in California and I was overloaded enough with work and stress to want a break. I flew into Los Angeles in March of 2008, thinking I'd just take a month or two before returning to Cairo. A couple weeks later, I met Kyle and everything just changed. We started writing together, Ana Kefr was born a couple months later; the line-up was different then but Kyle and I have always been the source of the Ana Kefr sound. I've never 'clicked' so well artistically with someone, we don't have to debate or talk when we write or even record, we already know what the other is thinking and our individual angles for music compliment and bounce back and forth to make the end result. It's kind of surreal. The more we worked together, the clearer it became how serious we were about not just working on the Ana Kefr project, but to live it and become it, to let it engulf everything. Over time we've shed some members, gained some new, but the drive remains and I'm just glad to have Ak still alive and kicking through the good and the bad.

As far as influences go, it's hard to pin-point anything that makes sense. We don't write with an influence in mind, we aim for something that we want to hear and something that is outside of the box. Kyle grew up on Oingo Boingo and The Cure, he still listens to that along with a bunch of death and black metal, dub-step and hip-hop. My biggest influences would be Tom Waits, Pink Floyd, Mr. Bungle, a handful of weird stuff that annoys most people when they hear it.

Andy: Obviously I would assume that having spent so much time overseas helped to shape the band's philosophy. Do you consider your message to be the driving force behind Ana Kefr or is it simply a by-product and secondary to the music itself?

Rhiis: Living and traveling abroad definitely transformed the way I perceive the world, the way I approach and deal with it and you're right, it completely influenced and influences the band's outlook and ideas. As far as it being the driving force, it's hard to say. For me personally, the message and the music go hand-in-hand with equal individual importance. Obviously I love music, and I've always been into philosophy and religion, so it's important to me personally that the art I enjoy has a lot of thought and meaning behind it. If a band puts out an album with absolutely amazing music but lyrics that might as well have been written by a toddler, it spoils it for me. A mind great enough to make amazing music should either be smart enough to write great lyrics or aware of their shortcomings enough to find someone else to help them with it. But for the others in Ana Kefr, or fans of our music, I can't speak for them. They may feel that it's all about the music and that the flowery words are a decoration. For me, music without a message is like a beautiful woman who has no brain.

Andy: I couldn't agree more with you especially with that last bit. Moving on though what can fan's expect from Ana Kefr this year? With your new album set for release soon does the group plan to tour in support of it and if so what should someone expect who has never seen Ana Kefr live?

Rhiis: I think this year is going to be busy as hell. We've got a show with our friends My Ruin in Hollywood on April 2, then a couple weeks later on the 15th we are having our album listening party at the Fender Guitars Factory in Corona. May 7th at the Whisky a Go-Go is our album release show and, after that, the real madness begins. Lots of shows. We've only played outside of California once, putting a tour together can be painful financially but the time has come to do it. Alphonso and I are, and will be, putting together West-coast and eastward-bound tours, I have a feeling we're going to be at it pretty hardcore for a good amount of time.

As far as the live experience, I think it's going to be a bit different now. Our first album, Volume 1, isn't as intense and dramatic as The Burial Tree, so while our past performances were energetic and, from what I've heard, entertaining as hell, I think that the new material will translate pretty wild live. When we were rehearsing it, before entering the studio to record it, the vibe was very different from anything we'd experienced before. It's as if the music possesses us, the performance aspect seems to naturally get pushed more extreme as our music gets darker, angrier, wilder. We're not one of those bands who get onstage with the tough-guy act, nose up and sunglasses on with that "rock star" attitude. The performance of the songs themselves are sweaty, enraged and intense, but in between songs and with our fans we like to have a real connection. Life's too short to be a walking penis.

Andy: Well, thank you again Rhiis for taking time away from Ana Kefr to answer a few questions. Any parting words?

Rhiis: Thank you for the amazing review and the cool interview questions! I appreciate you taking the time to chat :)

Be sure to check out The Burial Tree (ll) when it's released later this year. It truly is an amazing work of brutal metal with an experimental mindset. It's a twisted blend of beauty, mayhem and madness.