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An interview with Tantric’s Hugo Ferreira

Kim Walz,
Grand Central Magazine, Arts and Entertainment Editor

It has been a rough journey for lead singer and lone original member, Hugo Ferreira of Kentucky based hard rock band, Tantric. With his label dropping him and original band mates of seven years walking out on him in March 2006 after only two albums and hits like “Breakdown” and “Hey Now”. Photograph by Andrzej Liguz
(Click here for more images.)

GC: Over the past couple of years Tantric has gone through a death and rebirth of sorts with your previous record label dropping you and band mates leaving, any average Joe would have given up and called it quits. What drove you to keep believing in Tantric?

HF: Basically, all that I went through. I kinda used that as emotional inspiration to write this record. And I really didn’t know that I was going to be able to get another deal, but I think that ultimately I started writing if for more of a therapeutic thing and, ah, you know, I shopped around. At that point when I was actually writing it, I didn’t really – I wasn’t really thinking about a record deal. I was just thinking about a way of not going crazy and that’s kinda how it went. That’s how I do stuff; it’s kinda like writing a letter out, but I’m just writing a song. I guess it was my inspiration, like I said; I was just lucky enough to get another record deal.

GC: You guys have been touring for the past few months, since your album dropped at the end of April. How does it feel to be back on the road with a new band?

HF: Actually, I really love this band and they’re definitely the best band I’ve ever been with; it’s been fantastic. I can’t really complain about anything.

GC: Your new album, The End Begins is a harder kind of sound than Tantric has previously produced. How has the new line-up influenced this? And what does each member throw into the mix artistically?

HF: They’re all very incredible musicians, all of them, they’re all really good. It’s still Tantric, but it’s more veteran players now.

GC: Listening to The End Begins, I’ve noticed that you guys have incorporated an electrical violin into it, which adds a whole new twist into your sound and actually makes it sound like a guitar. Have you been thinking about experimenting with any other instruments like that?

HF: You never know, I mean I’m always about trying new things. I don’t have anything off the top of my head, but I would definitely like to do something with a harmonic orchestra at one point, but that requires a lot of money. I guess I’m not in creative mode, so I guess everybody will have to see.

Photograph by Andrzej Liguz
(Click here for more images.)

GC: Unique artwork on the album cover. Any significance to a message you were trying to convey on The End Begins?

HF: The end begins, is kind of like basically signifying that the ending of something is the beginning of another thing. There’s a track on there that was probably the first chorus that I had written for the whole record, a long, long time ago, and I only had the chorus. It was right after my other band had kinda left and the label fell apart, and went through all that drama, and I was like, “the end begins”. Now it’s kinda taken on me and changed, as the end is the birth of a new beginning. With the artwork there’s all these different symbols, which symbolize each member of the band. And the middle is a lotus flower, which is along the lines of Tantric and Tibetan stuff. It represents rebirth and the snake eating it’s own tail is a sign of death and beginning.

GC: Which symbols represent each one of the band members?

HF: Well, the one on the bottom is me and the rest of them are self-explanatory; the one with two circles represents drums, and then there’s one with six stings that represents the guitar, and one with fours strings that represents the bass and one that kinda looks like a violin. But, they’re all kinda, very…I wanted to make them old school looking, beaten.

GC: There’s a song on the new album that’s something that was one of “lost tracks” of what would have been on the third Tantric album, Tantric III

HF: Yeah, you’re talking about “The One”?

GC: Yeah, you collaborated with Kevin Martin of Candlebox on it. What was it like to work with Martin?

HF: It was awesome. I’ve always been a big Candlebox fan, so to be able to actually you know, have them come out and sing a song with me was fantastic. Kevin’s super-talented, a great singer; it was awesome. And the thing is we’re on the same label with each other, so it makes it better, you know? I’ve been doing this for a long time so I know a lot of my rock star buddies of mine and I definitely wanna invite the big guns in to sing with me, but when that name popped up it was just the convenience of him being on the same label, because I think we are going to release it as a single. I was going to ask my friend, Brad [Arnold] from 3 Doors Down to sing it, but then it’s like you want to release it as a single and it becomes really difficult because labels don’t want to share their artists. That’s why when it’s in the same family; it’s a lot better.

GC: Any embarrassing moments since Tantric has been resurrected?

HF: Um…no, not really. Everything is ah…I wish I had another story for you, but…no actually once when I was filming the video for “Down and Out” I did a stage dive and they threw me back on to the stage and I actually fell and slammed my head into a monitor. So that was kind of embarrassing with all those people there, but I do a pretty good job of embarrassing myself just by being me, so to pick one out of the many might be difficult.

GC: Just that one stands out in your mind?

HF: Yeah, that one stands out ‘cause it was on video.