Fierce and Loud speaks to AraPacis

Fierce and Loud recent­ly came across the band Ara­Pacis, who kind­ly agreed to an inter­view. Before we get into that, I’m going to give you a brief back­ground of the band for those of you that aren’t aware of them right now.

Ara­Pacis has been a sta­ple of the Mon­tre­al music scene since its for­ma­tion in 2003 by gui­tarist Jer­ry Field­en. The band is known for blend­ing the essence of 1970s Hard Rock and Pro­gres­sive Rock with the pow­er­ful influ­ences of 21st-cen­tu­ry Prog Met­al, Doom Met­al, and Met­al­core. Front­ed by Scots singer Michelle Macpher­son and dri­ven by the superla­tive key­boards of 13-year-old prodi­gy Gillan Macpher­son-Brig­gs, son of Michelle and Jer­ry, who has been men­tored by ex-Rain­bow man David Stone, Ara­Pacis brings a unique and pow­er­ful sound to the music scene.

The band has shared the stage with leg­endary acts such as Blaze Bay­ley, Uli Jon Roth, Anvil, Raven, The Ago­nist, Doro, and oth­ers. Ara­Pacis has col­lab­o­rat­ed with notable musi­cians such as Guy LeBlanc (RIP) of Camel and Nathan Mahl, Steph Honde of Di’An­no and Hol­ly­wood Mon­sters, Don Airey of Deep Pur­ple, Rain­bow, Jethro Tull, Vin­ny Appice of Black Sab­bath and Dio, David Stone of Rain­bow and Max Web­ster, John Gal­lagher of Raven, Kay­la Dixon of Witch Moun­tain, Derek Sherin­ian of Dream Theater/Sons of Apollo/Whom Gods Destroy, and Mark Focar­ile of Mile Mark­er Zero, among oth­ers.

Two sin­gles from the upcom­ing album have also already been released:

“Let in Love” fea­tur­ing Derek Sherin­ian:

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“The Park”:

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Over the years, Ara­Pacis has released 10 albums and 3 EPs, carv­ing out a unique space in the met­al com­mu­ni­ty.

Ara­Pacis are,

Jer­ry Field­en (gui­tars, man­dolin, back vocals, synths)
Gillan Macpher­son-Brig­gs (key­boards, back vocals)
Jean Audet (bass)
Michelle Macpher­son (lead vocals)

Now, let’s see what the band had to say.

Can you intro­duce the band and tell us how you all came togeth­er?

Jer­ry: Sure, thanks! I found­ed this band in 2003 with some old band­mates from two of my 70s bands and a cou­ple of new faces. The line­up has evolved over the years and now com­pris­es my wife Michelle Macpher­son on vocals, our son Gillan Macpher­son-Brig­gs on key­boards and back vocals, Jean Audet on bass and myself on gui­tars, man­dolin, synths and back vocals. We have guest drum­mers and some­times oth­er musi­cians to help out.

What inspired the band name, and does it have a spe­cial mean­ing?

Jer­ry: I am a big fan of Roman his­to­ry since I went to Rome and Pom­peii as a child with my moth­er, and actu­al­ly did a BA in that His­to­ry spe­cial­iza­tion at McGill U! The Ara Pacis is a beau­ti­ful lit­tle tem­ple in Rome built by the Emper­or Augus­tus to cel­e­brate a vic­to­ry over the Ger­man­ic tribes and the peace after it.

How would you describe your sound to some­one who’s nev­er heard your music before?

Jer­ry: A mix of Hard Rock/Prog/Doom with some Blues Rock and oth­er influ­ences but tend­ing towards Clas­sic Met­al.
Gillan: The music I play ranges from prog rock to heavy met­al with exper­i­men­tal songs com­ing every so often.
Jean:  I’d say it’s hard-prog met­al-ish. We have a mix of melod­ic, yet hard music type. I like to call it “music for adults”.
Michelle: Ara­Pacis are a smol­der­ing caul­dron of Hard Rock, Heavy Met­al, Blues And Pro­gres­sive Rock.

What are some of your biggest musi­cal influ­ences?

Jer­ry: For me it’s Deep Pur­ple, Black Sab­bath, King Crim­son, Heart, Rush, Gen­tle Giant, Dream The­ater, Frank Mari­no and so forth; real­ly most­ly the 70s rock of my teen years and some of the cur­rent new­er met­al.
Gillan:  Don Airey from Deep Pur­ple, ELP, David Stone, Jim­my Smith, Jor­dan Rudess, Derek Sherin­ian
Jean: As an 80s teenag­er, Steve Har­ris is my main influ­ence. I also like Bil­ly Shee­han and John Myung. I like to sound as heavy as I can, with a few touch­es of high­er notes.
Michelle: There is only one vocal­ist that I would con­sid­er my biggest influ­ence and that is Ian Gillan of Deep Pur­ple.

What’s the sto­ry behind your lat­est single/album?

Jer­ry: I want­ed to play a cou­ple of my 70s-80s tunes (Let In Love and The Park) and try some dif­fer­ent styles like sym­phon­ic met­al I had nev­er tried before (on Symp­to­matic Reac­tions, for exam­ple.)
Jean: For me, it’s pret­ty much the same. After I get the tracks, I take time to lis­ten to them many times and see where inspi­ra­tion takes me. I usu­al­ly think about how hard I can make the songs sound. For many, it’s real­ly easy and the bass line comes to me quite eas­i­ly. I get a lot of free­dom in what I do, and I like to try dif­fer­ent things with the songs. I once read about Kirk Ham­mett say­ing that he likes to learn new things between albums and include that in the next album. I try dif­fer­ent things, but my play­ing is quite con­sis­tent from album to album…

What’s it like being a female-front­ed band in the rock/metal scene?

Jer­ry: I’ve always liked to work with female singers and have been doing this since the 80s, in my Toron­to band Ris­er for exam­ple.
Jean: I have only been in bands with female singers, so it’s quite nat­ur­al for me. It all depends on the rela­tion­ships you devel­op with the singers: some are more intro­vert and oth­ers are more extro­vert, mak­ing it very easy to get close to them on stage.

Do you think the indus­try is becom­ing more sup­port­ive of female rock and met­al musi­cians?

Jer­ry: Absolute­ly and not only singers, you have fan­tas­tic gui­tarists like Nili Brosh, Ori­anthi and Nita Strauss and amaz­ing bass play­ers like Mohi­ni Dey paving the way. Also fresh new bands like Blame Zeus, Lost Neb­u­la, Dis­trict 97, Giant Walk­er, etc.
Jean: I think that more and more, with bands like Arch Ene­my, Halestorm, Delain, Nightwish, Evanes­cence, and a lot more, it is becom­ing very com­mon and peo­ple don’t seem to make the dif­fer­ence. I think that as long as the music is good, peo­ple will be there.
Michelle: Absolute­ly. It has tak­en many, many decades but it is final­ly becom­ing eas­i­er on female musi­cians.

Are there any female artists or bands that have influ­enced your career?

Jer­ry: Heart is right up there, I have loved them from the start and they are a big inspi­ra­tion! Also Lee Aaron, Head­pins, Toron­to, etc.
Gillan:  Heart
Jean: Heart most­ly.
Michelle: No, while I have huge respect for a lot of female musi­cians (Janis Joplin, Melis­sa Etheridge, Ann Wil­son, etc.) I can’t say that they have influ­enced me direct­ly. Per­haps I am sub­con­scious­ly influ­enced by them?

How do you approach song­writ­ing? Does the whole band col­lab­o­rate, or do spe­cif­ic mem­bers take the lead?

Jer­ry: I usu­al­ly write ghost tracks on gui­tar then the band takes it from there.
Gillan:  Spe­cif­ic mem­bers do indi­vid­ual parts and then the parts are synced up
Michelle: Jer­ry is the main song­writer but he is always open to ideas from the oth­er band mem­bers.

Do you have a par­tic­u­lar process for com­ing up with melodies and vocal parts?

Jer­ry: I’ll sit down at the work­sta­tion then start writ­ing stuff as it comes along and put it togeth­er into a piece, and I add the lyrics lat­er usu­al­ly, some­times with my wife for that last part.
Gillan:  Go with what the music calls for, either that or I do some­thing that fits with the music as best I can.
Jean: Like I said before, make the song sound as heavy as can be.
Michelle: Tri­al and Error. Tak­ing the time to find what fits and what does­n’t. Think­ing out­side the box some­times too.

What advice would you give to young female musi­cians try­ing to break into the rock/metal scene?

Jer­ry: Ignore the sex­ists and haters and just do your thing.
Jean: Music has to be first. Do what you believe in. Then there is the looks. Not the oth­er way around. It’s true that sen­su­al­i­ty seems to have a lot to do with the music indus­try, but music is what sep­a­rates you from the lot.
Michelle: Do it. Don’t give up. Fight for your place. You belong.

What are your thoughts on the cur­rent state of rock and met­al music?

Jer­ry: It is always in a state of flux, with some­times met­al show­ing up in an awards show and then being buried again until the next dis­cov­ery, most­ly under­ground now.
Gillan:  It is not as big as I would like it to be, I assume the 70s/80s were very excit­ing times for rock and met­al music, shame I could not expe­ri­ence it first­hand.
Jean:  It’s hard­er than, say 30 years ago. Stream­ing has made it more dif­fi­cult for artists to earn a liv­ing with their music. That is why they tour so much, that tick­ets are expen­sive and so on. The indus­try at this point val­ues a cer­tain type of, it seems, for­mu­la­ic music, that lacks orig­i­nal­i­ty. Rock music (of all kinds) has become a bit more under­ground.

What’s next for the band? Any upcom­ing projects, tours, or col­lab­o­ra­tions?

Jer­ry: We have start­ed record­ing a new album, our ex-drum­mer and friend Math­ieu Roy will be doing the sticks on this one. As for col­labs maybe our friend David Stone (ex-Rain­bow) will do a piece or two with us this sum­mer, but he is very busy, so who knows?
Gillan: I am noti­fied as soon as cer­tain affairs arise.
Jean: Since I’m involved in oth­er projects too, on top of my day job, I try not to plan too far ahead. But I’m ready for any­thing that may come.

If you could col­lab­o­rate with any artist—past or present—who would it be and why?

Jer­ry: We have done a lot of col­labs, with some Deep Pur­ple, Black Sab­bath, Dream The­ater, Raven and Rain­bow etc., mem­bers so I think we will tone down the col­labs on the next album!
Jean: Heart, Bon Jovi, Delain, Myrath, Mastodon, and as weird as it might sound, Plat­inum Blonde, Tina Turn­er, and Depeche Mode.
Michelle: Ian Gillan-Because with­out him I would not be where I am today. After I watched ‘Ian Gillan: High­way Star‑A jour­ney In Rock’ in 2007 I knew I had to be a singer.  

What’s one thing about you or the band that fans might not know?

Jer­ry: I’m an old­er  guy so  have been play­ing gui­tar since 1969 (and yes it was a great sum­mer as Bryan Adams would say!) and play­ing shows since 1971. But I start­ed on piano when I was a kid which did not last very long!
Jean: I’m an old teenag­er that learned to play the organs a kid. I enjoyed play­ing Christ­mas songs and nation­al anthems. I picked up the bass lat­er when the school I was work­ing at did­n’t have a bass play­er for the band.

If each band mem­ber had to describe the lead singer in one word, what would it be?

Jer­ry: Ver­sa­tile
Gillan: Fiery
Jean: Calm

If you weren’t musi­cians, what do you think you’d be doing instead?

Jer­ry: I was a con­cert pho­tog­ra­ph­er in the 80s and enjoyed it very much so there’s that.
Gillan:  Same as I do now except with­out the music: Cadets, Karate, etc.
Jean: I’m a high school teacher, and I don’t think I’d like to do any­thing else, even though I’d like to dri­ve coach bus­es when I retire from teach­ing.

If you could cre­ate your dream fes­ti­val line­up, who would be on it?

Jer­ry: Us, Deep Pur­ple, Black Sab­bath, Jethro Tull, ELP, King Crim­son, Gen­tle Giant, Rush, Heart, The Bea­t­les, Frank Mari­no, Robin Trow­er, Iron Maid­en, Judas Priest
Gillan: Us, Heart, Deep Pur­ple, Yes
Jean: Dream The­ater, Iron Maid­en, us of course, Mastodon, Myrath, Orphaned Land, ZZ Top.
Michelle: Us, Deep Pur­ple

I would like to Thank you all for tak­ing the time to talk to Fierce and Loud. It is great­ly appre­ci­at­ed and, i hope, has also pro­vid­ed read­ers with a much deep­er insight into your music.

If you would like to fol­low the band then please check out the links below.