Interview with IMPERA

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Lisbon’s Impera are newcomers on the metal scene. After the release of single “Wings of a King” in 2016, the band returned this October with the release of their full-length debut album titled ‘Weightless,’ a concept record comprised of nine songs. In an interview for Prog Sphere, the band tells us about their work, ‘Weightless,’ and more.

Define the mission of Impera.

What we want to do is to continue writing and performing our songs and hopefully release more albums.

Tell me about the creative process that informed your debut album Weightless and the themes it captures.

For our process we like to work on themes that are really close to each one of us. The album is like a maturing of those ideas that come together as a single concept.

What is the message you are trying to give with Weightless? 

We’re trying to share our perspective over the fact that we are all somewhat accountable for everyone else’s social environment, and we’re trying to bring attention to the fact that there seems to be little awareness of this.

How did you document the music while it was being formulated?

We usually write our ideas on a computer software and sometimes record riffs with our phones.

Is the dynamic flow of the pieces carefully architected?

We believe so, yes. Ours is a concept album, so every song connects with each other somehow, telling a story. There’s a main theme going on throughout the album, so we’re able to maintain an interesting flow.

Describe the approach to recording the album.

That was pretty straight forward, we just talked to Tiago Mesquita, who recorded the album, went to his studio and played to microphones. We first started with the guitars and bass, then the drums, and last the vocals.

How long Weightless was in the making?

It actually took a good amount a time until we were happy with the final result. The first music we wrote for the album was the third track “Diluted” and that goes back to the summer of 2012, so has you can see it started a while ago. But all that time was not wasted, because it helped us mature as individuals as well as a band, so looking back we don’t regret that at all.

Which bands or artists influenced your work on the release?

Each of us is influenced by a huge variety of artists, even from different genres of music. But if you ask as a band, probably the top 3 bands that influence our music are Mastodon, Lamb of God and Tool.

What is your view on technology in music?

These days, technology is super important in everything and music is no different. The access we have to music from every where in the globe is massive. And as musicians, the way we can expose our music so easily to the world is really a great advantage of having technology. Of course, like everything it can have it’s downsides, but we believe that it can all be surpassed with a good amount of imagination.

Do you see your music as serving a purpose beyond music?

Like we said, we explore concepts that are really close to each of us. And our hopes are that the people who listen to our music can also find connections with those themes we talk about, and hopefully bring some closure to them as well.

What are your plans for the future?

Being in a band, making music and share it with the world is really all we want to do. So, our plans are really everything that helps achieving that.

Weightless is out now; order it from Bandcamp. Follow Impera on Facebook and Instagram. 

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