Noah Histeria might not be a household name, but for fans of progressive rock and metal, their music feels like discovering a well-kept secret. Hailing from Spain, the band has spent over a decade crafting songs that are thoughtful and unpredictable. With their distinct blend of intricate melodies, raw energy, and heartfelt lyrics, Noah Histeria has been quietly building a reputation as one of the underground scene’s most intriguing acts.
In this chat, we sit down with vocalist Juan Giner to talk about their journey so far, the stories behind their music, and how they’re navigating the ever-changing world of independent music. If you’re not already familiar with Noah Histeria, this might just be the perfect introduction.
Noah Histeria was formed in 2012 and quickly gained recognition with your first single, Un Lugar Mejor. Looking back, how do you feel that early success shaped the band’s journey?
Although we were (and still are) an underground band belonging to a very small niche such as prog, it is true that with “Un Lugar Mejor” we started to be taken seriously. We felt some attention and respect from musicians, specialized media and people who don’t see music as a cheap hobby, but as a way to create art and beauty. This conditioned us much more than we thought it would. After several years, we see it more clearly. At that time, some people referred to our music as “indie-rock that was close to progressive rock”, and almost none of us knew what prog was, we were very young. So we started digging around, we immersed ourselves in the prog world, and it became part of our identity. Therefore, what people who listened to us interpreted from that first song shaped the music of a band that still didn’t know which way to go.
Your music is often described as a fusion of post-rock and progressive metal. How would you define the essence of Noah Histeria’s sound?
With our first EP, we wanted a sound closer to post-rock, but it didn’t work out. Then, when we started writing Hautefaye, we stuck with the same idea. I remember we discussed things like including more post-rock crescendos, but we gradually fell into the arms of prog and, later on, we explored some more extreme sounds. Although the first line-up of our band thought we were doing rock, I think there is a consensus among the public that we do progressive metal, a label we have not been comfortable with because there are some characteristics of the genre that certainly don’t appeal to us too much. On the other hand, it is obvious that djent, which we understand not so much as a genre but as a musical approach through polyrhythms and syncopated riffs, allowed us to build the groove that we are comfortable with and that represents part of what we do. Jazz is also a source of great inspiration, and our ultimate aspiration is to bring its sophistication to our sound. So, I would say the first EP is alternative rock, Hautefaye is progressive rock/metal and on OJEPSE the sound became much heavier. I don’t think we invented anything new but, like any band that aspires to say something of its own, we try to find our voice and be aware that every moment, every era, requires textures that suit what you want to say.
The 2017 album Hautefaye explored themes of mass hysteria and human duality. What inspired you to delve into such a complex and historical concept for that album?
The inspiration came from the origin of our name. Noah Histeria comes from the first documented case of mass hysteria in 1870 in French Aquitaine, in the village of Hautefaye, over a grape vine contaminated by phylloxera. Noah is the name of that vine. From there, we built a medieval fantasy story and we tried to make the characters speak not through theatrical-style voice impositions, but through the environments that the music was creating. The idea was to introduce us to the concept albums as programmatic music, describing the different chapters of the story of a defeat. For more details, I recommend reading the lyrics of the songs (with translator in hand if you are not Spanish-speaking).
After a four-year hiatus, you returned with OJEPSE in 2022, a concept album about the blurred line between reality and dreams. How did the pandemic and lineup changes influence this album’s creation?
The pandemic was terrible for everyone. Many lives were lost along the way. Nothing comparable in importance, of course, but many bands also went down or barely held on. It would have been logical for Noah Histeria to have suffered the same fate, but we kept going because we thought we had something to say, and that ended up being OJEPSE. It is an album born of that dismal period, one that made us vulnerable, one that cracked many of us inside. I suffered depression, as many did, and I remember perfectly the moment when I realized that I had no more strength to get up in the mornings, back in September 2020. I tried to give shape to what was going on inside me and, with that, we made an album that led us to a heavier, darker, more extreme sound, more over the top, less balanced, less beautiful. It is not an album that I personally feel comfortable listening to, but I feel that what it tells me has truth, almost like a document or record of a stage that I don’t want to go through again. We don’t want to make a record like that again, but that was the record we had to make.
Critics have praised OJEPSE for its technical complexity and operatic ambition. Was this intentional, or did the album evolve naturally during the creative process?
We shy away from complexity for complexity’s sake. Perhaps it may seem not true, but exhibitionism is something that does not attract us in this genre. Nevertheless, when there are techniques that, however complex they may be, have a language of their own and structure a credible discourse, we are the first fans. If this album became more technically complex (although we don’t think much more) it was because when we were making the songs we felt that they had to have those passages to give them the narrative force that each section was crying out for. There are periods in which ideas are born like that, you don’t look for anything, it comes out like that and that’s how you embrace it. There are things that fit you, others that don’t, but I have to say that in this album only a few ideas were discarded, hence a certain sense of density that people usually comment on when talking about the album. There are people in love with Hautefaye who didn’t like this last album. As we usually tell them, it requires more from the listener, more commitment and time. I think it is not an album that will captivate you at first listen but, if you trust us, you will listen to it more times and maybe you will see what we see. On the other hand, more than a few people have told us that they prefer OJEPSE to Hautefaye, so it’s a matter of taste. Anyway, our intention for the following albums is to try to make it easier but without losing our identity signs.
Your upcoming 2025 album aims for a more organic sound with jazz-inspired harmonies. What led to this shift in approach compared to your previous works?
Well, I don’t know how you know this, I don’t know where we’ve said it! But indeed, that’s the direction the album is going in, I think you’ve described it much better than we could. I’m thinking of pinning this message in our WhatsApp group: “more organic sound with jazz-inspired harmonies”, it’s perfect! I see it as difficult for us to finish it, record it, go through all the promotion, sending it to labels and record companies to see if they’ll release it, making videos, and so many other things that aren’t about making music in less than a year, almost impossible actually. But that’s our goal, and we will fight for it. So far, we have a draft of three and a half songs, shorter and more direct than our previous albums, and I think we’re starting to see the direction our music is taking. And yes, less production, we want to sound like live music, we want to sound a bit rawer or, better said, minimalist, with fewer layers, fewer synths, and this time there will be no choirs or orchestration sections. We are constantly looking to play with harmonies, but from an open sense, opening from harmony to make the song elevate, not modular for the sake of being modular. That is, dynamics through harmony and not through a chain of pedals that saturate the distortion. The reason? We believe that with the EP, Hautefaye and OJEPSE we’ve closed a trilogy. The feeling is that a new phase is coming, though we won’t force anything, we are still Noah Histeria but getting older.
You’ve performed at major festivals like Resurrection Fest. How do live performances influence your creative process in the studio?
It’s a very interesting question, Niko, you really know about this. After some time without doing it, we returned to playing live in 2024. It changed our perspective when we brought the songs from OJEPSE to the stage. We felt that by being more austere, we connected better with the audience and with ourselves. So, we are going to return to being a band that tries to elevate its songs in the rehearsal space and then goes to a conventional studio to record them. No more time in front of the computer screen in our house recording riffs and arrangements by line, that’s over. We want to come back to a professional studio to feel the valves crackle, or even if it’s not tube amps, to feel how things roar in the speakers, to let the music breathe, to feel the space and the air. This is what we want to feel again, and much of it is because of the connection we’ve felt with the music and with the people who listened to us in our last live shows.
OJEPSE received international acclaim, even being included in Metal Hammer’s Top 10 International Albums. How has this recognition impacted your reach as a Spanish progressive band?
This totally caught us by surprise. As I’ve said, we are a small band, but things like this make your heart happier. In October, we were also included in two major international progressive metal TOP lists as a band. These are great achievements for us. Despite doing this because we love music and making music, recognition is something we aspire to, this is the truth. Being in these TOPs helps, you see more people talking to you, they listen to you more on platforms, from there come opportunities to play, and that’s what we want: to play songs we really love. We still enjoy each and every song we take to the stage, a lot. This is something that’s rarely said, but playing music that you like and that you’ve created fills your soul, or at least it fills ours.
Conceptual storytelling plays a significant role in your albums. Can you share your creative process for crafting these intricate narratives?
The music speaks first. We start making music, riffs come out, transitions happen, sometimes you raise dynamics through rhythm, other times through harmony, or through the textures of the synths, and you search for the most important thing for us, contrast, calm and storm, which sequence and articulate in a way that you can never predict at the start of a creative process. Suddenly, you begin to see a form, and above all, some colors when you close your eyes, with their grooves, mixes, and nuances. You give yourself time, try to gain distance, and you see part of the whole, and that whole speaks to you and tells you what you want to talk about lyrically. Right now, I don’t know what we’re going to talk about on the new album, but I know I’m close to seeing it, and I also know it will come related to the feeling of space that we’re looking for in our music. That’s how we work. One day we will sit down, share ideas, make our sketches and, like with the music, we’ll articulate a message, a narrative, perhaps something more ethereal or more specific, we don’t know yet, and that’s the exciting part, we are close to discovering it, but for us right now it’s a big mystery.
Your sound has been compared to renowned bands like Haken. Do you find inspiration from other progressive acts, or do you aim to carve your own path entirely?
It’s impossible not to be inspired by other bands. Especially when you see them live. In 2024, we saw Haken, who are a fantastic, incredible band. The music that permeates us becomes part of who you are, and who you are reflects in the music you make. When you see new ways to reach a climax, or minimalist grooves that walk straight, or perhaps from side to side, making you move your head or feet nonstop… These are things you incorporate into your repertoire, and that’s fine. We are the music we listen to, just as we are the people we talk to and the food we eat. Things don’t come from nowhere. We want to do what we like, and what we like is shaped by the incredible bands we listen to, and that inspires us to make music. The creative fire is a collaborative process, and we too ride on the shoulders of giants, to whom we feel proudly indebted.
As a Spanish-language progressive band, do you feel any challenges or advantages when reaching a global audience?
At first, we thought about it. But we understood that it was inevitable, that it had to be this way. We don’t dominate English, and we want to tell stories without feeling limited by a language with which we couldn’t express what’s inside us. We don’t want to fall into clichés or hit the autopilot to use worn-out narratives. I think Spanish is in fashion, but even if it wasn’t, it wouldn’t matter. Has it limited us or not? Probably, but we haven’t invested much effort in taking our music outside our borders, our mistake without a doubt, but it’s how it is. We also haven’t succeeded, by no means, in Latin America, a more natural niche for us. What does all this mean? We don’t know. Perhaps our moment hasn’t arrived, or our best music is yet to come. Time will tell.
How do you balance technical complexity with emotional depth in your music? Is it something you consciously work on during songwriting?
As I mentioned before, there is no balance. Emotions always come first, and technical complexity or simplicity is the instrument to express those emotions. It’s always been that way. If you have a wide range of colors, more chromatics and nuances you will be able to introduce into the sunsets you paint. But we won’t use those colors, for example, to paint pictures with multiverses and impossible fractals because that’s not what touches our soul. We stick with sunsets, their points of light, mist, reflections, and life. That being said, many people won’t appreciate it this way, they’ll think what we do is rococo and doesn’t say anything. After all, that’s part of the beauty in any art, the different perspectives.
Your 2024 national tour has been a success. What has been the most memorable moment for you and the band during this tour?
We’ve had some really good concerts, much better than we expected after some time off post-pandemic. But I think we’ll remember the one in Barcelona in September with Moonloop, a totemic death metal band that is an influence and idol for us. It was a night we’ll never forget.
What lessons have you learned over the years, from Un Lugar Mejor to now, that you’re applying to the new material for 2025?
That’s the million-dollar question, my friend. The main one is that there are no lessons, we don’t know anything, or maybe a little… Talent exists only if it goes hand in hand with time, that great songs come from the most hidden places (even though there’s the possibility that we’ve never written any good song). The beauty is inscrutable, you never know what it will be like, what shape it will take, but when you find it in front of you, you recognize it instantly. Everyone sees and chases beauty but only knows what it is when it’s right in front of them. Music is the most common passion in the world. Anyone you pass on the street could be a diamond on legs. There are so many people to love that it makes no sense to waste a single second of your time hating. We are all crazy, but terrified someone might notice. No one has the formula for success. Most things happen by chance, but there are talents so immense that not even the whirlwind of this world can shake them. And from all this, we’ll try to make an album that tells us something and, hopefully, tells something to a few others as well. These are some things we’ve learned over the years.
What message or feeling do you hope fans take away from Noah Histeria’s music, both past and future?
Beauty. We are not that band that makes you fight against the system for just causes, or encourages you to get up every morning despite the unbearable lightness of being, or makes you want to turn this world into “a better place” (that ironically was the title of our first song). We want you to feel that there’s something inside you that pulses when you communicate with the world through the sense of hearing, and even so, you perceive a certain red light, a certain aroma of wet pine resin, a slight fruity tone, and the warmth of fire from your insides.
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