More Metal in GateXIII 14/1/13

Image compliments of GC Photographics

Symphonic metal band Gate XIII are one of the only bands playing this unique style of metal in the city. Originally starting off as a solo project by John Connor, the music produced has been getting some great feedback online and locally (after only one appearance!), which has encouraged John to expand what was a studio project into a band.

“It’s a studio thing mainly. Like symphonic metal, lots of orchestration. There’s myself and the singer but I play all the instruments. We never intended to play live but then we were given the opportunity to play so ended up doing it at really short notice. So we’re trying for City of Culture to get a proper live line up of it all but the orchestral parts will probably stay as backing tracks because some of the tracks have up to forty instruments at once, it’s a bit much to pull off live. I sequence the drum parts and then I play the guitar, the bass and lots of keyboard parts. I like to get the full orchestra sounding realistic instead of using the “orchestra sound”. It would be like maybe five or six violin sections going, then a brass section and things like that, flutes, oboes, lots of other instruments.”

Every band experiences little hiccups when starting out but John explained that they had their fair share of problems on their debut performance where John and vocalist Shonagh performed with their own backing tracks. “We played a gig there and we were on the metal stage with all the metal bands but with piano solos and violin solos so were simultaneously one of the lightest bands and one of the heaviest bands in one song. Everything that could go wrong live went wrong. We were using backing tracks and for our first song we had no onstage sound so we had to lean forward on stage to try and listen to it. We were on the metal stage where all the sound was really heavy so a lot of the piano parts we couldn’t hear. We kind of got to the point where we decided we’re not going to do any bar gigs again anytime soon. We did our track, “Once upon a time” which starts with a marching beat intro and then a 2 minute piano interlude but the crowd there was a bit drunk and just after a really upbeat band.”

Even though there were experiences to learn from John was over the moon with the performance and in particular with Shonagh Lyons, the lead vocalist. “She’s a fantastic singer, I loved hearing it live, I was sitting there trying to play but being distracted thinking, ‘This sounds really good’. Shonagh didn’t really record any of the tracks so her live interpretations were a bit different. The track “Peace of Mind” we haven’t finished in the studio yet but we did it live and she changed the vocal part to match her voice better and that was the first time I’d heard it and was almost blown away thinking, ‘Wow! That’s a really nice vocal line’.

The line up of GateXIII has always consisted of John with other members coming and going, one of which includes Elizabeth McGeown of Belfast band Uber Glitterati. John got Elizabeth on board after deciding to lay down just a taste of the two hours of music he had written at the time for GateXIII’s EP. Current singer, Shonagh Lyons also features on the EP on the five track EP, as do John’s vocals.The EP is called “Once Upon A Time” and is available online for free on the website gatexiii.co.uk.

Even with all of John’s creativity in composing, playing and singing he reveals that he never really got into music until his teenage years. “I actually didn’t listen to music at all until I was around 13 or 14, then I started listening to guitar music and learning guitar. It started with Metallica, Iron Maiden, bands like that but then I found Sanara Artica and Nightwish, these bands with big orchestras. I did an A-level in music technology, which is all recording stuff so when I was recording I tried to do a lot of orchestra stuff along with the metal. It started from that but then I actually started to learn keyboards properly. I took guitar lessons for a while, then as part of my A-level I started learning up to grade five theory and things like that so I built up a lot of theory and listening to music, playing other peoples songs.”

Although John plays guitar, bass and piano he explains that he has to use his knowledge of theory to write parts for the orchestra while making sure they sound real. For a violin section I know what range a violin has and I try and phrase it the way a violin would phrase it so it’s possible to play. That makes it sound realistic on the recordings, quite a few times people have heard them and asked, ‘Is that a real violin?’ and I’ve said, ‘No, it’s just me playing it on my keyboard.’ It sounds real because it’s so close to the phrasing of how a violin would be played.

Sometimes however, this approach can lead to a little confusion when live musicians are added to the mix. “I remember we were trying to play one song and the drummer got a bit angry at it because all of the lead parts where in four-four but the drums where if three-four with the rhythm guitar, it all resolved in four-four with three-four underneath it. Because I’m playing improvised stuff, I know it’s theoretically correct whenever someone actually deconstructs it they’re thinking, ‘What’s going on here?’ but it actually works.”

John is hoping to get gigs in venues such as the Nerve Centre or in the outdoor venue in the coming summer as part of the City of Culture. GateXIII is also in the process of building an album for release within in the year as John finds his current writing a step above the material he’s produced before. John’s expressed that they’ve been compared to Nightwish in other reviews and have also had a very good response on internet site Reddit.com, where the group stayed rated top of the symphonic metal category for two weeks and the power metal category also for two weeks. For a sneak preview of Shonagh’s vocals she is currently taking part in the The Flying Dutchman with NI Opera but symphonic metal fans should keep an eye out for gig listings on GateXIII’s website.