Interview with Dekonstructor

Hi! What’s the biggest inspiration behind Ominous Game? Were there any non-music influences?
Hey Stanley! William here – So, the inspiration for Ominous Game came from a few different places. Different bands can be called as influences depending on the song or the concept. For example, as for the general album mixing and mastering, we had a heavy influence coming from Testament’s latest albums and some coming from Arch Enemy, trying to aim for a modern-sounding and powerful outcome.

From a song structuring perspective, it was more of a planned effort to reduce complexity from the previous album, but had no specific band in mind for this. Same deal as for the lyrics.

Depending on the individual song and type of riffing, we could say that Testament was an influence in one, Metallica for another one, Kreator, Slayer, even Death, with some elements from other sub-genres such as melodic thrash or melodic death metal, but also small sparks of 90’s Death Metal, or 80’s Metal or Speed metal (again, very subtle, but they’re there), and even some Costa Rican bands can be called as to have an influence in some songs, such as Heresy or Age of the Wolf.

Are there any social or political themes on this album that are especially important to you?
The lyrics deal mainly with personal issues that have to do with one’s own abilities to deal with the harshness in life. Whether it is dealing with a cursed destiny (and what you do about it), greed and power, ego-provoked disgrace, deception, betting on life and matters of high stakes, broken dreams and hopelessness, and control and manipulation by faith or hope.

These are the main topics covered with a bit of bluntness but also with some creativity in the choice of words, rhymes and cadences.

What’s the hardest part about breaking into the global metal scene from Costa Rica?
Well, the good thing is that with the internet, you can get in touch with many people faster than you could in the past and get your songs heard in the craziest places.

Even though Latin America has a lots and lots of great underground bands, rock and metal are not the biggest selling acts. Touring is a bit difficult (not impossible though). To give a practical example, if you were to tour the USA, you can go freely from state to state. However, in Latin America, all countries are different, each have different immigration policies, also some places can be a bit more dangerous than others, and even in the case of having all conditions to tour safely, not all of them have conditions for proper gigs, and the public may be hard to get them to support local acts. Fans are there, since when you see big acts, the concerts are crowded.

And getting to the places where we could have a greater impact such as Europe, is way more expensive (but not impossible). We are working on it currently to expand our options to travel and play.

So, from our perspective, we do our craft the best we can given the circumstances, and we try to self-fund all of the trips to wherever we want to go, and luckily we encounter great and passionate promoters who provide us with amenities such as a decent place to sleep, food, transportation and so on, which creates a bigger bond with people from other nationalities who are also passionate about metal and you realize we’re all in the same struggle to get our art heard and seen.

Do you think people have any misconceptions about thrash metal coming from Central America?
Well, the first thing is that people usually imagine that we just have Latin groves coming from here, and sometimes it is even inconceivable to listen to extreme bands from these latitudes, especially self-producing music and albums of high quality.

What makes Costa Rica’s metal scene unique?
Based on what I have talked with friends from other countries whom we have toured with, they tell us they usually see great productions and high sonic quality coming from Costa Rican bands in general, so it seems that high quality is one aspect we are getting recognized for.

Is there a particular song on Ominous Game that you feel best represents Dekonstructor’s style?
It is a bit difficult to define that, since we come from an album (Horrid Vistas) which featured much longer and complex songs, but on Ominous Game we went in a different direction with shorter and more concise songs. But if I were to choose, I would take “Deceive The Deceiver” as the best example of Dekonstructor’s current musical direction. It has very percussive elements, guitar harmonies, a concise song structure, a small solo duel, and a heavy slow riff, so to me, the usage of all these elements makes the whole album like a rollercoaster with ups and downs in terms of speed and energy, to make it more interesting.

Do you feel more comfortable in the raw energy of live performance or in the controlled environment of the studio?
We’ve learned to adapt to both. For example, we are comfortable playing to a click whether it is rehearsing at home or recording in the studio, and we make a decent job. On the other hand, when we play live, we do not use click and we do it all by ear and feel, and we input a lot of energy and sweat into the show while we try to engage with the audience as much as possible.

Was there a specific moment on tour when you realized the fans were truly connecting with you?
There were many. I could say a couple of recent examples include friends of the band who have told us that a particular song lyric touched them in a personal level. In other occasions, we’ve had friends of the band who have traveled 4-6 hours from where they live to see us perform. This is very touching, and you feel a great connection and gratitude with these friends who not only you like at the personal level, but they also engage and identify with the music we make.

Have fans interpreted the songs on Ominous Game in ways you didn’t expect?
Recently, someone reached out to me saying that he felt one of the songs was directly talking to him at the stage of his life where he is at, while dealing with his own struggles. This was very powerful to me, realizing that on one hand, people actually read the lyrics (ha!) and on the other hand, making a powerful connection is still possible in this day and age where the predominant consumption method is digital, as opposed to having the physical CD, cassette or vinyl in your hands and be able to read the artists’ thoughts.

How does the band’s songwriting process usually unfold? Do you take turns leading?
It is just THE RIFF. THE RIFF is everything. For this album also, we took into account song length, cohesiveness and try to have an energic but also natural feel overall. And the lyrics came at the very last stage. Given most of the songs pre-date the current lineup, I took the task to do most of the songwriting. However, it is important to listen and have an open mind in terms of production and the way others execute and interpret their parts.

When creative conflicts arise, how do you work through them as a band?
For example, in my personal view, I hate telling people exactly what to do. I would try to give a more or less vague statement about something that needs to be improved, but I want the person executing the instrument to be solving the problem and have the fulfillment associated with it. So, I guess it comes down to avoid micro-managing everything and instead have trust in your colleague’s abilities.

With three years of this lineup, how has each member’s style influenced the band’s evolution?
Well, the newest members are Dennis (drums) and Franco (lead guitar). Dennis has a very heavy touch, while he is great at improvising and incorporating other styles, so we took advantage of these things to make the drums come to life. Franco, on his side, has a great melodic -almost neoclassic- feel that contrasts with my own guitar-playing style and make the whole guitar soloing thing to feel refreshed. This in combination with Daniel’s bass playing style, which has proven over years to be very articulate and distinct, all has become a great combination to have within the band. And especially the energy at the personal level, we kind of vibe in the same frequency in terms of humor and taking life lightly, but at the same time taking music and art seriously.

Now that the album is out, do any older songs take on a new meaning or feel different to you?
Personally, some of the old ones are still pretty enjoyable to play, such as “Troops from the Underground” or “Life Sucking Machines”, but some of the other ones feel to me as a style I am proud of exploring at the time, but also shows the areas where have recently improved and are witness to where need to move away from, all in the pursuit of learning to make better music.

If you could collaborate with any band or artist, who would it be, and why?
Definitively, I have a few Costa Rican bands in mind I’d like to collaborate in the future. We have a lot of talented friends, but we need to have some serious thinking into what we are looking for to determine exactly what we want and from there define who to invite. So, it is still a matter of discussion.

What’s next for Dekonstructor? Any specific goals or challenges you’re excited to tackle?
Next, on November 22nd 2024 we will premiere the official music video for Triple Or Nothing. Also, we have a couple of more official music videos coming for the next couple of months. All professionally recorded and self-produced.

Once we’re there, we are exploring more ways to reach fans, so we are developing better strategies for social media marketing to reach out to more potential fans, so we have to adapt to the times.

On the other hand, comes the two more exciting parts. Making new music with the new line up, new records, and especially tour more places. We’ve been so far to countries such as Nicaragua, Honduras, Colombia, and we want to get to more places to play ad connect with more metal heads across the world. So, we look for more travel and experiences!

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