AraPacis

AraPacis

Interview conducted on October 22, 2020

By Dan Locke

AraPacis (Ara-Patches) is a female-fronted metal band hailing from Montreal, Canada. Formed in 2003 by guitarist Jerry Fielden, and fronted by Scots singer Michelle Macpherson, their main goal is to re-create some of the original aspects of 1970’s Hard Rock and Progressive Rock and fuse it together with 21st Century Prog Metal, Doom Metal & Metalcore to make an interesting metal hybrid.

What is your upbringing?

I was brought up by two artist parents – actors and writers both, they made me very aware at a young age of history, current events, and science.

How did you discover music?

My mother played piano and we listened to everything at home, from classical, jazz, folk and all sorts from Dylan, Johnny Cash, French Folk , and Pop Singers, Simon & Garfunkel, to The Beatles (the band that I discovered I wanted to become a musician within 65, with the “Help!” album.)

How did you start to write music?

I started writing songs around 1969-70 when I had learned a few chords on the guitar

How did you get your first guitar, and do you still have it?

My first guitar was an Aria classical, in 1969, that I traded the next year for a cheap electric, which made my Mom very angry! I have had some very nice guitars, my first pro guitar was a 61 fender Jazzmaster in 1972 then I had a really nice 74 Les Paul Custom 20th Anniversary like Randy Rhoads’ that I bought brand new, but these are unfortunately all gone. My oldest guitar right now is a 2004 Strat. I do endorse Godin guitars and got a really nice xTSa from the factory in Montreal in 2006.

What was your first performance at like?

At my high school in March 1971 with a couple of friends on bass and rhythm guitar and my brother playing drums, it was a lot of fun, we played some originals, some Grand Funk, some Black Sabbath, etc.

Why did you decide to fuse 70’s hard rock/progression rock with Doom metal/21st-century progress metal and metalcore for your brand of metal hybrid?

These are all genres of music I like including all the 70s stuff I grew up on – progressive rock and prog metal, hard rock, classic metal, blues-rock, jazz fusion, doom metal, and yes later on some metalcore which fits well with a female singer, just thought I would make an amalgam of all of these within the cadre of this band if such a thing is even possible!

Is there a word for your type of metal?

I usually say we play hard rock for short.

How did you get your band together?

The band was founded in January 2003 with two members from a couple of my 1970s bands, Landslide (Pierre Ryan on keyboards), and Blade (Kirk Bennett on bass), and two newcomers (Nicole Morissette on vocals and Yves Poupart on drums) and myself. Members have come and gone a lot over the years and my wife Michelle Macpherson (who I met through Ian Gillan and Deep Purple) has been our lead singer since 2013, and the present lineup also features former Rainbow and Max Webster keyboardist David Stone, bassist Jean Audet and violinist/violist Gwendolyne Krasnicki.

How did you get your band name?

I am fascinated by history, especially the Ancient Roman Empire (in which I specialized to get a BA from Mcgill U,) and thought the Ara Pacis (Altar of Peace,) which is a monument built by the emperor Augustus to celebrate peace, was an excellent name for this project.

How did you get the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal?

I co-wrote a book on the history of 438 RCAF TACHEL Squadron of the Canadian Armed Forces from 1934-2009 for their 75th anniversary, did some volunteer works for the Air Cadets and participated in the RCAFA.

What makes a good songwriter?

A sense of melody and harmony, a good chorus hook, and some half-decent lyrics. Also a willingness to go out of the box sometimes.

How did Roger Fisher of Heart hear about your music?

I emailed him in 2004 to get a signed picture for my ex-wife and we continued to correspond, I bought a lot of his music as he’s such an excellent songwriter and I just love his stuff, also a guitar method called Rog’s Regimen and learned some things from him, I eventually sent his music to listen to and he would always give me excellent advice and critiques. I do think I was very fortunate and I consider him a mentor!

What was the title of your first original song? Did you record it?

I have some recorded music on reel to reel tapes from the late 60s that may or may not have my first original song in it but I would have to listen to these tapes and digitize them, will do it someday. At this point, the oldest material I know about is on cassettes from the 70s with my band Landslide and we made new versions of some of it on AraPacis albums and EPs, for instance, Sorrow of a Lost War on our album A Disturbing Awakening (an album which also features Guy LeBlanc of Camel
and Don Airey of Deep Purple on it!), The Devil’s Prince on Paradox of Denial and Fast Fingers on the Déjà Hard EP. All these songs date from 1976-77.

What is your favorite track on the album?

Favorite track on the last EP has to be Tale Spin with that gorgeous organ intro by David Stone. This was actually the first song written by AraPacis, in 2004. We have made a couple of versions of it on record but this is my favorite!

How do you stay healthy while touring?

I haven’t really toured much since I was in my 80s band Riser based in Toronto, but mainly I used to drink in moderation and take a good book to read in the hotel rooms, and did a lot of walking.

What are your feelings about streaming music?

Not crazy about it BUT it is good to discover new bands from which I buy physical CDs if I like. You can’t make a real living off that unless you are big names but then again we didn’t make much of a living apart from gigging back in the day either, so I suppose we get some form of exposure that way. I actually prefer to download services like Bandcamp

Digital vs. vinyl?

All good with either format as long as I can listen to something I like.

How was your birthday during the lockdown?

Just my wife, my youngest son Gillan and I, it was nice as they made me a homemade cake – we are also celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary at home this year on the 23rd of October so that should be fun although we had much much bigger plans!

What is your option on today’s radio?

I don’t listen to the radio except for a few favorite online prog, metal, and female-fronted bands shows.

What is your option of MTV Canada?

Never watched it, used to watch Much Music and Musique Plus back in the day, it was fun.

Should Quebec be its own country?

Either way is fine by me as long as it is a majority democratic decision by the people of Quebec. But right now I think sovereignty is on the back burner here and has been for a while.

Do you think kids should go back to school?

My youngest is doing his school online to avoid bringing COVID home as I am an older gent at risk of complications in a few categories. My 3 older boys are finished with school and have been for a while.

In Canada, they just released a new Covid-19 vaccine for schoolchildren which gets rid of the invasive nasal swab and instead asks kids to gargle and spit. Now, this is for children only. Should this also be given to adults?

It sounds interesting but they are still in Phase 3 testing mode, if it works I would definitely be interested in trying it.

Studies are showing that because of COVID-19 many students who were ready for college have decided to hold off because many schools are doing virtual school and charging the same amount for school as they would for on-campus classes. Do you think the colleges should give some type of discount for these students?

Yes as you don’t get the full academic experience but no, the workload for the teachers/professors is the same if not more. (I know a lot of teachers personally and used to lecture at McGill U too so I have an idea.)

What song from the past is in your mind right now? Moreover, what is the meaning that song means to you?

Working on some songs of mine right now so those are in my head but my wife and I are always listening to old 70s stuff so I guess Deep Purple takes the cake, although we have been listening to their new album Whoosh! One favorite song on there is Nothing At All which talks about Mother Nature getting rid of humankind and our pollution.

Canadians have been urged to keep vigilant during Thanksgiving amid a troubling Covid-19 surge. What is your Thanksgiving going to be like? I know your Thanksgiving is different than the one in the USA.

We did not do anything special for Thanksgiving this year, just stayed at home.

How do you feel the Covid-19 virus going to affect the music business in the future?

It has been very hard on musicians everywhere and also for bars and concert halls so there might not be as many venues left to play in in the near future as they will have probably closed permanently during the epidemic.

What have you been doing with your self-quarantine?

Working my day job selling CD/vinyl/cassette/USB pressings/duplication to bands from home instead of our office, working on new music, working out in kyokushin karate with my youngest son.

Have you discovered or rediscovered any new hobbies?

Not really but I find myself working out more on my karate.

95% of people said that they have changed the way they watch television. This includes people who don’t have television and using their computers to do streaming of programs and movies. Which is your favorite streaming channel?

I like HBO, Netflix, Syfy.

Many artists are doing nightly concerts over either YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. In October that is going to change at least on Facebook. Facebook is cracking down on livestreamed shows that include recorded music with new terms of service, preventing artists from using the platform for “commercial or non-personal” purposes, unless they have
obtained the relevant licenses.
The updated music guidelines state that users “may not use videos on our products [which include Instagram] to create a music listening experience […] This will includes [Facebook] Live,” and stipulates that such content should be posted for the enjoyment of friends and family only.
How do you think this will change the landscape of Facebook?

Isn’t facebook mostly friends and family anyway supposedly? What’s the use of having a music page if you cannot use your music on it, live or recorded? I think the whole thing is very confusing. I have yet to fully understand its legal ramifications completely. We did do an online show using some background tracks back in April but that was our own music, so theoretically it should not be a violation now at least of the copyright clause.

How can bands keep their fans if they can not play live in front of the fans and sell merch to them at the show?

You have to engage more with them on social media and keep putting out music and hope they like it and buy it which ours have been doing: the whole of our last EP we just put out a month ago was completely prepaid as far as the money for the pressing before we released it online presales so our fans are loyal!

Is pay to play still a thing?

We did something more like sell-tickets-to-play at the beginnings of the band n 2004-2006 just to get a few gigs but we stopped doing this after a couple of years when we got known enough to be offered some paying gigs, or sometimes we just get a venue with no charge to us and have fans pay at the door. We are not a huge band but have had some nice gigs
sharing the stage with Doro, Uli Jon Roth, Blaze Bayley, Anvil, Raven, and so forth so that’s nice. We’re more of a studio band anyway so a gig is just icing on the cake, although I would like to do some soon, getting itchy for that. Finally, pay-to-play does go against my principles, yes.

What about Holographic concerts in our living room?

That’s an interesting concept. I did not like the whole Dio hologram thing but then that could be interesting for smaller “in your living room” kind of gigs, as a novelty maybe, yes.

If you can’t do music what would you like to be doing?

I would definitely be a writer (you can actually find some of my BA and MLIS papers here: http://jerryfielden.net/essays.html) and my book on 438 is at the McGill U Library amongst others- I would have liked being an intelligence officer for the CAF with my buds from the RCAF as I had the qualifications but I’m too old now. I also liked piloting airplanes but not sure I would have made a career out of it as it’s incredibly tough to get there and quite low-paying. The point for me is moot anyway as I lost part of the vision in my right eye so had to stop piloting before I even got my leisure license.

Anything you would like to say in closing.

Thank you Dan for interviewing me and your readers for taking the time to go through my answers. Also thanks to our fans and to the fabulous guest musicians we have had over the years – Don Airey, Vinny Appice, John Gallagher, Steph Honde, Kayla Dixon, Guy LeBlanc (RIP), Mark Focarile, Rachael Beaver and so many more super talented people!

Cheers!

Jerry Fielden, guitarist,

AraPacis

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