"Another Word" With Barney from Nervecell !

Nervecell !

The region's thrashing death metal veterans, and one of the first band's to spread the word about the scene in the Middle East and UAE.

Recently the band performed at the BACK2SCHOOL Fest and Rock Nation, that where held in Dubai. At the moment the band is working on the final touches for their latest video "Demean" that will be the first video from their full length album "Preaching Venom", which should be out before the end of the year.

I got the chance to have another GREAT interview with Barney the band's founding member and guitarist, got to ask Barney about the metal scene in the early days, about performing at the BACK2SCHOOL fest, his Guitar Idol, new comers Of Brutality and Grace and Sun King, his musical background and more.
Heres how it went:

TMR: How was performing at the BACK2SCHOOL festival with Alien Ant Farm ?

Barney: Not too bad actually, at first we were like wow we are going to be scaring a lot of 12 year old lil kids along with their parents as we didn’t know what to expect for a turnout haha but it was a lot better than we expected to be honest. In any case it went really well, we had a killer set and the audience seemed like they were breaking a few necks and having a blast too so that’s all that matters.


TMR: What did you think of the performance by new comers "Of Brutality and Grace" and "Sun King" ?

Barney: Both bands have immense potential, It's good to see local bands rockin out on a highly professional stage and production set up for a change, it gives them the opportunity to experience what you've dreamed off after playing shitty venues or backyards for soo long.

Both bands were of different styles too which kinda helps for a festival of that sort.


TMR: Can you tell me about your musical background ?

Barney: Wow well I was always into music right from as far back as I can possibly remember. My parents were fans of music too in general, we would always have the radio cranked up in our place and I was the kid staying up at the odd hours (3am or so) only to watch like Head bangers Ball on Mtv or The Friday Rock Show on VH1 so yea...

I remember it was the summer of 1994 and I was on a 3 month vacation from school so I decided I'd go for Guitar lessons and utilize my time doing that rather than just sitting around playing video games at home which was what all the other kids in school were doing at the time..Lol, not that I have anything against video games but I just wanted to do something constructive haha and that’s how it all started man. Grew up listening to Metallica, Alice in Chains, Slayer Pantera, and Sepultura etc. and just wanted to shred right from the start even though I couldn’t even strum a chord at the tender age of 12 when I was just beginning. I basically went for classes for about 3 to 4 months and then just went around my own way learning shit from books and stuff.

I remember finding kids in school to jam with was like the hardest thing ever, damn I hated school!


TMR: Who's you guitar Idol ?

Barney: Dimebag 100%, everything about that dude impressed me.

R.I.P my brother.

Long Live The Legend!


TMR: When did you start listening to Heavy Metal ?

Barney: I was around 12 years old (1994) and I remember seeing the videos of Slayer "Reign In Blood" live and Sepultura "Live in Barcelona" on TV and remember going "FUCK ME, what in the world is going on here" to myself. It was the most shocking thing for a guy who was born and raised in Dubai, especially the fact that back then we had no access to this kind of stuff here as a lot of the metal records were banned from being sold in this region.

But man I remember that stage when I first started discovering all those early Thrash Metal bands and the old school Death Metal bands from the late 80's and early 90's.

I had a cousin who would keep sending me stuff from abroad like mags and recorded cassettes of death metal compilations and I still keep that stuff...lol, it was the greatest feeling ever once you discovered a new band back then.


TMR: How was the metal scene in the early stages of Nervecell ?

Barney: It was a lot better in terms of playing shows, we would have a show or 2 every month pretty much. It was also really cool to see all the bands from like the first wave all hang out and help put the stages together and play on that stage a couple of hours later. I would have to admit it was a tighter community for sure as there were no "scene kids" so to speak.

Man I sometimes look back at some of the old gigs Nervecell played and there is not one band that I can find from those flyers or posters that are still around today, it’s really kind of sad but hey that’s the way it is unfortunately.

There were a lot of kick ass bands though from what I do remember and just so you know this goes as far back as 1997 / 1998.

Not a lot of people may believe this but Abu Dhabi had a fucking kick ass scene back in the day, like 1000 times better than Dubai ever did in terms of bands and crowd turn outs at local gigs! Man every time Nervecell would get called to play an Abu Dhabi gig we wouldn’t even think about it for a split second - the answer was always FUCK YEA! I've met the most hardcore Nervecell fans in Abu Dhabi that’s for damn sure.

If I could recall a couple of Abu Dhabi/ Dubai bands that come to mind now from 10 years ago they would be Illuminatus, Circe, Eskimo Disco, Redemption, Anthology etc.


TMR: How often do you guys practice ?

Barney: Well we each practice independently on a regular basis and probably get together once every 2 weeks and just have fun jams and rip it up a bit...its different once you come off recording an album though, the last thing you would want to do is to sit down and jam with your band mates soon after your albums done...haha.

It really depends on the shows we have, the more shows we have coming up the more hyped we are to jam again!

Lately we have been busy just trying to push our album out there and hoping to get onto a major label who will take us on the road to tour our freaking asses off.


TMR: Can you tell me a bit about your song writing process (do you all pitch in for example) ?

Barney: Yeah Rami and I basically write our own ideas on the guitars and pretty much bring it to the jam room and show it to the rest of the guys, typically it all starts with the guitars and we try and get a skeleton going for most of our songs that way. So basically once we all agree on a certain part and where in a song we feel it should fit best (intro / verse etc.), we kind of take it from there.

Rami is good in programming drum tracks so that helps a lot with regards to getting an overall feel to each of our songs during the writing process.

We are not the kind of band that argues over silly shit like wanting my part to be more dominant over someone else's part in a song. We were never like that, we basically learn of each other all the time and try and accommodate everyone’s ideas in the writing process and unless everyone in the band feels 100% about it only then will we move on.

James basically hears the songs we compose and according to the mood of the track he eventually picks up on some pre written lyrics of his or alternatively comes up with stuff at the spur of the moment he hears a riff! That’s how it works with us.

We used to send samples to each other all the time over the internet when I used to study in Canada and man we are glad that is over! There are a few riffs in Preaching Venom actually that we wrote over the internet so I can’t complain I guess.


TMR: Did you watch Global Metal ?

Barney: Yes I did, its fucking awesome! Sam is going to be remembered and honored amongst metal heads the world over for a long fucking time. Pure genius!


TMR: Did you go to DDR as a fan before ?

Barney: Yeah I did, the year Iron Maiden and In Flames played, was a good time for sure.


TMR: Do you think that the Metal Scene in Dubai is growing at a positive rate at the moment ?

Barney: Nah, I think its growing but at a really slow pace, the problem is we have all these big events that take off but then there is no metal for the next 6 months which is rather unfortunate for metal heads here.

We do have a metal theme night every Wednesday now called "Blacklist DXB" at a local bar here which only started recently, so there is hope I guess and it's a great start as it gives all the metal heads the chance to get together and just hang out with good company, good tunes and get absolutely wasted! I've definitely had my share of that...haha. Hails to the good times!


TMR: Would you like to add anything ?

Barney: Thank you for your interest in Nervecell and for doing such a kick ass job with your website bro...It’s really nice to see someone take such an interest in this and the fact that you do this independently is fucking awesome!

RESPECT.


TMR: Thank you so much for your support and awesome words Barney, I really appreaciate it !
Its an honor to be able to contribute and show support to our Veterans of Death Metal !

All Hail, Respect and Raise Your Horns Up to the Veterans !!!!


Check out Nervecell's:
Official Website
Myspace

Make sure to keep an out eye for Nervecell's upcoming BRUTAL video for "Demean" which should be out in a month.


But until we get out our fix, here's the band performing the song live at MetalStock (Australia) 2007