Anyone else the rather awesome society-building game Settlers from back in the Amiga days? Turns out it’s turning into a big online thing, but you can’t beat the old version. Today’s band aren’t the old Settlers. They’re the Ancient Settlers…
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
Hi, Rene here!
Well, we’re (almost) from Venezuela, but we’re currently located all over Europe; Rex, Miguel and Agustin are in Spain, Herman is Portugal, Antony is in the US, and I’m living in for the time being.
How did you meet?
We’ve been good friends from back home. Back in Venezuela, we all had our respective bands, but (almost) all in the same vein, which is melodic kind of Scandinavian Metal, because we really love that music genre.
How long have you been playing as a band?
Well, the project started around mid 2020, when we got in touch with each other, you know assessing the situation of each and every one of us, and then we decided you know, to make something together, which is this beautiful journey that we now share together.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
Never will get tired of that question though; the name is actually an homage to what humanity has been doing since the beginning of the human era; which is migrate and settle… And it’s applicable to the band because all of us in the band, our common story is that, we’re all migrators, we all had to leave behind our home, in search of a better future, of some hope, in search of a new life, in places that are not ours, and facing those odds, all together. And it doesn’t apply only to the band, it’s an homage to all those people that had to leave their homes behind, quoting the words of a famous video game character -“I am you, and you are me”.
What are your influences?
As a whole, the band really loves this Sweden/Finland metal, you know, very melodic, fast paced, energetic, very catchy and dynamic, and the Finn side, also, really melodic, but more emotion oriented, melancholic.
Of course, we all love 80’s new wave (1984 for life!), more heavy things, not so heavy things… it’s a whole universe.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
What would make us unique in the musical aspect. We adopt a whole lot of different styles that are very rock/metal and integrate them into our music. We also combine cinematic elements; we imprint our emotions and our feelings in the right way into our songs.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
Mainly it would be about the human decadence, in a very suggestive, and in a not so evident way. Antony is an expert in “outside the box” lyric writing.
If you like what we do, consider ing us on Patreon for as little as £1 per month!
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
First of all, we have to use the rollercoaster analogy to answer this question – It can start heavy, dynamic, fast, virtuous, but then it can change, and get really emotional, melancholic, beautiful, climactic to descend again into this madness; the best part is that our set list turns out very different every venue… How random can you be? (lol)
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
The fact that we pulled out an entire tour in the middle of a world scale pandemic is wild enough… but well, I tend to throw beer cans to people (sorry if somebody reading this was a victim of a flying object)
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
Live wise; we try to be the most portable as possible (not the drums of course). The guitars use portable high-end pedalboards, as sound source, well curated and well set up to sound authentic. Really, it sounds legit.
Keyboards are tricky though. My rig consists on a main MIDI controller, plugged into a laptop that communicates as well with a rack synth unit (the sound source of my lead sound only) and all the effect processing, program change MIDI messages go through a marvel piece of software called Camelot Pro.
What, if anything, are you plugging/promoting at the moment?
We’re currently promoting our first long play album, called Our Last Eclipse; Settlers Saga Pt 1. We’re starting our touring campaign for later this year, the 2022 ECLIPSE tour, which will be in Europe (Spain, Portugal, , Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland)
Don’t fancy Patreon? Buy us a one-off beverage!
What are your plans for the next 6 months or so?
As mentioned above, we’re preparing the tour, so besides promoting, establishing the media campaign, etc. We’re rehearsing like crazy to deliver the best shows we can.
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be ing and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
There is a whole universe of bands that we look up to, and we would be much honored and humbled to be chosen by any of them to be ing act. My personal choice, I would love to share stage with Amorphis, they deliver one of the best shows live.
A band to us? We would really love to share stage, as equals of course, with Empire of Disease, it’s an awesome Spanish band, trust me, their music is awesome!
If you want to check out more new music, then fire up our Headline Act playlists on Spotify and YouTube!
Ancient Settlers: official | facebook | twitter | instagram | spotify | bandcamp | youtube
