Can you give a brief introduction to Arian 1?
The band began like many projects in the 90s, with the idea and with the same difficulty related to hardware. To make everything you want with the hardware available and a big dream to follow.
Arian 1 is named after the French space program, why did you pick this name and for what does it stand in your eyes?
We wanted to use a not so common name. A name related to technology programs, and similar to any ships or space programs, arian 1 is easy to remember and for us it sounds good.
Who are the members of Arian1 and what is their role in the band?
Cesar Leiva : founder and today he works with me in the studio Mixing and also doing our Live Sound,
Mariano López : Live Keyboards, e-pads and Graphic design
Eduardo Leiva: Founder, Music Producer and live Vocals.
Arian 1 started in 1992, what do you remember of the beginning days, did you already have a direction and plan for Arian 1 or was it just experimenting with sounds and style?
In the early days my Brother Cesar worked a lot in sound design, making all the midi sequences and doing research to bring us a characteristic sound, he was the main producer until 2000. In the early days it was a hard time because not many people listened to this kind of music in our region, also we didn’t have a clear plan to follow. We were very young guys and had of course no internet or cable TV, the information was very limited and hard to get then.
From 1994 we decide to take a direction, more close to EBM/industrial styles. Which was a good decision.
Yes, it was a hard time for us, a lot of economic problems, we are studying and working at the same time, but between work and studies we decide to have a break, but we always had the dream to come back and continue our project. Like we did in May of 2006.
In 2007 you released the ep “Machinegun” how were the comments on that ep and did it help spreading the name of Arian 1?
Positive, it was a good result, many people helped us to finish the single, was a very powerful comeback for our region and also for other regions who never heard about us. In 7 years Arian 1 was dead, And what a surprise… we came back to stay. And the goal of the machine gun CD was that.
In 2009 you released the full length album “Evolution” how did the recordings of this album go, did it all went according plans or did you encounter some problems?
Well, we had a lot of problems. To record a CD is not as easy as many people think, there was a lot of work around the project, thousand of hours, and of course… money!
I would say the album is a nice mixture of old school ebm with newer (dark) electro influences, can you agree with this?
I’d agree with you :)
What surprised me are the vocals, they are really diverse, sometimes shouting, sometimes singing, sometimes distorted and sometimes clean, how do you decide what kind of vocals a track needs?
You are right, the Evolution CD was a mixture of sounds and a mixture of SUB-styles. Why ?
Simply, in that moment (August 2008 to June 2009) we were 3 producers working on this CD! and every producer puts in his ideas and styles, and we try to put everything in one work, crazy right? :) Well, this was very difficult, to complicate it a little more, we also rescued some old tracks from early days (1992 and 1994) like Stand Up, Misterio (in Spanish) or you Want it, these tracks for example are different and show specific things from that time. Then if you compare it with Move your body of Pure control (1996 – 1999) you can see an evolution of sounds and styles.
But at the end of May, we finished the CD and closed this chapter, for example Ivo D. whose picture appears in the packing, and one of the co-producers (from 2007 to 2009) left the band days before the Evolution Launch, and my brother Cesar, left the co- production weeks later also due to time and internal issues.
This was bad at the time, when I received the news from them but today it works out really well because now, I can take the project in ONE direction, Today everything goes smooth.
Arian 1 has one style for the next work. I think this is very important for a band, if you are not consistent in your music style you cannot be
classified in any music scene… as a result nobody can understand what kind of message you are trying to transmit.
What are the lyrics about and why are not all lyrics in English?
In Evolution the lyrics mostly talk about social issues, injustice, abuse, corruption, and technologies. In Immersion you will listen all the lyrics in English, I think English is a good channel to communicate ideas around the globe.
I remember Ivo D. spoke to us about Patrick C., and he also has spoken to him about Arian 1’s work and history, later on (2009), Patrick kindly accept to do a Remix for us, was a huge honor for a Latin-American band.
Arian 1 is coming from Peru, not a country known for its electro bands, how is the electro scene over there, can you describe it?
It is growing very fast, from 2006 you can listen a lot of good projects coming from Peru and other South-American countries like Chile, Brazil and Colombia, this is very good for the Latin scene and for the people who like some Alternative styles of music.
Also there are new promoters and record labels.
I hope, some people will take this “seriously” and work really hard like many musicians and producers who put all their energy into their projects.
Coming from Peru, is that a blessing or a curse for an electro band, I guess you have time to work on your own sound but on the other hand, it might be hard to get shows abroad?
That’s right in South-America is a little more difficult to do shows, Festivals or events, than for example in US, Canada or Europe, in our region you have a really strong Latin-Pop and Rock-Pop Scene, and of course the Tropical scene that are simple “huge” comparing to our little
Alternative scene, it is like 99% vs. 1% !
But the people I know, believe firmly in this kind of music and they have a strong feeling to keep the movement alive, we are not millions but we know what we like to hear.
You recently did a show with Alien Vampires, how was it to play with them and are there other bands you would like to play with?
Awesome, the guys are very talented and have a powerful show., about the second question… I think so … there’s a lot of good bands around here.
The first: Immersion have a new and fresh sound for Arian 1.
The second: a consistent style, not too EBM, I mean, now it will be more close Industrial/Electro.
I began to work in this project since Ivo and Cesar stopped working in the co-production, so for me it was hard at the beginning but now it is more smooth and easy going.
Progress: Well, it depends about what everybody think about this concept, I think every single, EP or LP has something new to show, sometimes it related to the feelings of the members of the band or just to protest about anything, or to send a message using only a sound or sampler.
We need to understand that every project doesn’t have to compete with the last, you only need to be yourself and try to transmit what do you feel in that moment using your instruments or your favorite sounds.
The rule about being a great musician or to get success because you are using the top gear or to put “thousands of sounds” in the same compass is not the best way to show that you are better than yesterday or you are progressing in time.
Any last words for the readers?
Work, Work, And Work!
If you want to do something good in your short life? You must Focus, work and spend everything you have, (can be time, research or money) you need to be without fear, this is the only way to do something.
In Latin America we Said: Si quieres azul celeste, que te cueste! Translated to English means: “No pain no gain”.