Interview: Sectile

Recently the Irish metallers of Sectile released their debut full-length, titled Falls Apart. DutchMetalManiac’s Tim van Velthuysen recently interviewed Sectile’s guitarist Mark O’Reilly.

Hey, how are you?

Good! Excited to bat some questions.

Can you tell us something about the history of Sectile?

We started to get the ball rolling in the summer of 2016. Myself and the bassist Cormac are actually long time friends, and we always shared similar musical interests, but the timing was right around then to get a band started. We found our singer Gabriel online and shared demos and ideas with him remotely for a couple of months while we hunted down a drummer, and once we met Zachary we started to get into the rehearsal studio. Things became official in November of that year. We’ve gone through a couple of people for the other guitarist position since then but now we’re happily settled with the wonderful Marcelo!

For people not knowing Sectile (yet), how would you describe your music yourself?

For us, balance is everything in music. We always wanted our music to be equal parts challenging and engaging, and we try to achieve that through combining the elements of more technical metal with the more emotional characteristics of music in general. We always felt the flashy or aggressive songwriting was put to better use when contrasted with something emotionally deep or equally catchy! We really strive to get this balance right and, from a songwriting perspective, it really is the ultimate goal of Sectile.

What makes Sectile unique?

Those musical goals we have really are a response to the music we listen to. Of course the bands we love are the bands we feel are doing it successfully, and that’s why they inspire us. But, when you spend so many years listening to the genre you’re a part of your interest is harder and harder to grasp, so we feel we’re unique in the sense that we’re trying to do something we haven’t heard yet!

Any future plans you can already tell us something about?

Our first full-length album, Falls Apart, is out on the 25th February! This really is a milestone for us a band as we feel we’ve become relatively coherent with the kind of musical ideas we’re trying to convey, and we are very proud of the end result. We simply cannot wait to share this music with as many people as we can. 2020 is going to be about exactly that – promoting and gigging with this album.

Any upcoming gigs for Sectile? Maybe coming to The Netherlands?

We would love to come to the Netherlands! I’ve done a couple of trips there, not band related, in my time and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every single one. The people are great fun and seemed to be more than accommodating for a group of Irish lads. In terms of upcoming gigs, our next one is part of Bloodstock Metal 2 the Masses competition here in Ireland. It is a fantastic setup for bands of any level as we get to have a brilliant night in a packed local venue with all of Ireland’s top metal talent, and as a bonus, the winner gets a slot at Bloodstock festival! We also have a headline album launch gig in Dublin on the 28th of February at The Grand Social, we’re very excited about that one!

How do you think your life would be without music?

Difficult. My day job is a means to serve the musical part of my life and without it I’m honestly not sure how tolerable it would be. It’s not a bad job at all, don’t get me wrong. It’s just that all of my personal fulfilment comes from music, so I really struggle to imagine not doing it. Even though it can drive me crazy sometimes! Hah, I guess that’s when you know you love something, you keep doing it even though you hate it.

What advice would you give to young and starting bands?

Probably the same thing I tell myself everyday – Absolutely no one is going to do it for you. It’s probably true to any creative endeavour, but if you want something to happen absolutely 100% of the responsibility is on you to make it happen. As well as that, the stories of luck, success through nepotism, great timing, whatever – all of those are in the minority. So never get dissuaded.

Thanks for your answers! Is there anything you want to say to DutchMetalManiac’s readers?

We want nothing more than to hear what people think about our music, whether it’s positive or negative. So if you get a chance to hear it, drop us a message on Facebook, Instagram, whatever and let us know what you think! And thanks for listening!

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