Slaverty is a symphonic/melodic metal band from Santiago, Chile, formed in 2014 by lead vocalist Karin Monserrat and by ex-bassist and actual manager of the band, George Ugalde. Together, they started using the name “Slaverty” to look for musicians to play on this new metal project. Some guitarists and drummers came and went, but it was not until Juanjo Ulloa‘s arrival that the band started taking its official path. Recommended by a friend from George, Juanjo was recruited as a guitarist for the band, bringing the perfect touch of “metal” sound the band required. By 2015, Karin was taking singing lessons at Verónica Villarroel´s Academy, the place where Matías Schwartz (who later became Slaverty´s keyboardist and arranger) worked as a piano accompanist for the academy.

By that time, the band needed a more melodic approach to enhance Karin´s beautiful voice, so the need to incorporate keyboards and more instruments became essential. After a meeting together with Karin and George, Matías took a first listen to the demo “The Biggest Mistake” and immediately decided to be part of the band to help with instrumentation and additional sounds to the project. One of the first big contacts that George had been trying to enroll since the start of the band was Oscar “Oz” Silva (drummer) to no avail, but it was around that same time, close to when Matías joined the band, that, after many conversations, Oscar decided to be part of this project, joining Slaverty to offer a powerful and virtuoso sound. The band was almost complete. The last member was needed that could help with additional arrangements and musical production, so another guitarist was scouted, a musician that could add both delightful yet skillful solos to the team, so by Matías´ contact in 2018, Slaverty recruited Edgardo “Soco” Moraga on guitars. At the beginning of 2020, the band releases its first single and music video “Dementia” which got an honorable mention for the film festival “Santigo Horror“. Then, the band released the lyric video for the powerful song “Dreamcatcher” and after that, they decided to release the sweet and sad ballad “Be Free”. During the quarantine of 2020, the band had a meeting with the Italian record label WormHoleDeath, and after many agreements, finally, they signed with them to release their first album called “Beyond Imagination” on November 27, 2020. Here’s our interview with the lead vocalist, Karin!

Behind the name:

It’s a pun! We joined two English words, “slavery” and “liberty” and that gives you: “slaverty”! and you can take its meaning anywhere! Think of these two concepts overlapping now applying to the obstacles in our minds. We can feel free in our minds, we can think and imagine whatever we want, but unfortunately, sometimes society shows us limits to this imagination.

Inspiration:

It depends on our mood while we are writing a song (laughs), but real experiences, creepy fantasy stories created by us, something dark and crazy, or even cold and rainy days. I love Tim Burton and his films. Also, many bands inspire us to start and continue with this project; Nightwish, Evanescence, Therion among others. They have been working in this industry for years and that inspires us.

Inspiration behind the new album, Beyond Imagination:

Thoughts… well of course. (laughs) The album has this theme of situations that happen (or could happen) in our daily lives, and even when we are not directly involved with such events. It sure is easy to relate as they all relate to human emotions: the feeling of wanting something, losing something, or sometimes, going back and wandering about the things that happen if they could have been different.

Describe the album in five words!

Uhm… Longing, dreaming, adventures through experience, and sorry, but I have to add “magic”. (smiles)

Teamwork:

I create the concept, the melody, the lyrics, and some arrangement ideas which are later shown to Matías and Soco, who take these concepts and give them a real sound with arrangements to portray the mood. It is then presented to both Juanjo and Oz Silva who then add more arrangements and ideas to the structure that has been presented completing the song. After rehearsals and not a small number of listens, we might add details as we go before giving it the “green light”. That’s our process today. It might change, who knows? It depends on the moment.

COVID-19:

Fortunately, we recorded the album and videos before the pandemic, I was going to leave the country for a long period, so we planned recordings beforehand and launched material during 2020, which just happened to work as everyone was at home, and so we could just upload at ease. The not-so-positive side of it goes for our physical albums as the whole process of acquiring them changed by the second and everything took longer than how it would have been in previous years. So as of now, a little waiting is of the essence, but do not worry! We will have it sooner than expected. (smiles)

Online concert:

The most important event is about to come in soon. Little details must still be checked, but be sure that we will let you know when things become official!

Not sure if it’s good or a bad omen, but two days before the online album release, Matías -the keyboardist – wanted to fit two keyboards on the same case (which worked surprisingly well!), but when taking one of them out, a key (the lowest key) got stuck on the other keyboard and broke without advice, so now he’s searching for a KEYVID-19 synth doctor.

FUN FACT