CELLADOR - July 2006 - Interview with Bill Hudson (guitars, backing vocals).  Written by Alina Michelle.

PM:  In one word, describe each band member, including yourself.

Bill:
Michael Gremio (vocals) – confident
Chris Petersen (guitar) – initiator
Bill Hudson (guitar) – dreamer
Valentin Rakhmanov (bass) – hardworking
David Dahir (drums) – prodigy

PM:  What does the band's name mean and where did the name come from?

Bill:  Chris came up with the name after reading an essay by J.R.R Tolkien (South African writer), where he said he believes that the combination of the words “Cellar” and “Door” when said together created a very beautiful sound. The movie Donnie Darko also touches on that subject. Chris was trying to find a name for his then brand new power metal project, and came up with “CELLADOOR”, because it sounded very epic to him. After some time he changed it to “CELLADOR”, to make the name even more unique. It doesn’t really have a meaning, but I think it’s a very strong name. Honestly, when I first heard it I loved it and thought it was really easy to remember. I like it because it’s really unique, rather than using generic words that so many other bands have used over and over again in the past.  

PM:  Why are the songs on Enter Deception all credited as being written by Chris AND Cellador? Is there a reason he is named separately?

Bill:  Chris wrote all of the songs and lyrics of Enter Deception, even before I joined the band. I’d say those are HIS songs. However, everything has input from the band. Not enough to be somebody else’s song, but enough to have the band credited as a whole. Things like small sections, guitar melodies, drum fills, choirs… small details that really make the difference. Take “Wakening” for example. The song wouldn’t be the same without the backing vocals in the chorus, which were written by me. However, I can’t say I wrote part of the song, since legally, only harmony and the main melody count as a “song”. “A Sign Far Beyond” was written by both Michael AND Chris, and once again, had input from the band as a whole. We are already working on the songs for the next album, and it’ll have songs from different people this time. I wrote one with Michael (which is already demoed) and have a couple more ideas which I’m working on. Chris and Michael have some material they’re working on as well.

PM:  How is it that Erik Rutan, known from being in Hate Eternal and Morbid Angel, got involved in the engineering, mixing and producing of your album? How does he know the band?

Bill:  Cellador made the choice to work with Erik Rutan after hearing some samples of what he and his studio did in the past. Metal Blade and the band agreed that we wanted to try a type of production that was different from what the European bands generally had so to appeal more to the American audience. We needed something more raw… natural sounding I should say…but also very heavy and intense. Metal Blade sent us a couple of CDs done by different producers and the one that caught our attention the most was by a band called Into The Moat. Such a clean, yet aggressive production! Just what we were looking for! Erik Rutan was the producer on that record, and the band was intrigued by the idea of having an extreme producer…that would definitely be something new for a power metal band, and our music is more extreme anyway. He knows the band through Metal Blade, since he’s worked with many of their artists in the past. It turned out to be a great experience! Erik is very professional and understanding, and has definitely pushed us to our best performances.  He liked and believed us from the beginning and I honestly can’t say enough good things about him!

 
PM:  When you "arrange" backing vocals with Chris, are you actually involved in writing any of the harmonies and then arranging them, or does Chris write them first and then you both arrange them?

Bill:  Well, I wrote and arranged all of the backing vocals, except for two songs. Chris did those even before I joined the band (they were used on the “Leaving All Behind” demo). Basically, what I do is I work with each voice separately (usually three of them) based on the chord progression and each one of them has it’s own melody. As a result, you hear the voices forming the chords. I learned a lot about writing/arranging/conducting different kinds of choirs in music college, and used that knowledge to write the choirs for Enter Deception. For those who know a little about it, I did it as a baroque choir. Chris and I never really sat together to work on one particular song.

PM:  I know you guys pretty much all do backing vocals live and you do a lot of the counter harmonies to Michael. Why does Michael do all the vocals on the CD and who is doing the "chants", as is done on the chorus of Leaving All Behind?

Bill:  Michael and I actually talked about having me sing some of the harmonies on the album, but because of time issues, he ended up doing them all. We might try something different next time. Honestly, the choirs were written in the studio. We did them before, in the pre-production, but by the time Michael started recording the vocals, we forgot most of the lines, haha. That’s because we had some delays, which forced him to start vocals almost 3 months after he was supposed to initially.  Basically, I’d be in the room with the engineer and Michael in the vocal booth. I’d sing the melodies to him through the communicator (the one the engineer uses to talk to whomever is in the booth). He’d then learn it, sing it a couple of times and start recording it. Meanwhile, I’d be working on the next line, so when he was done recording whatever he was working on; I’d show him the new one and so on. The tracking went really smooth and fast because Michael was singing all of the voices. He did the chants in Leaving All Behind as well.

PM:  Both you and Chris have pretty different lead guitar styles and you swap leads on much of the songs. Is it hard to incorporate both styles in one song? Are both of you able to play each other's parts interchangeably?

Bill:  Not hard at all. I think it’s a very good thing that we have such different styles, because people can tell who’s playing what. I have more of an 80’s background, but I am also into the modern guitarists. My soloing style is very influenced by guys like Steve Vai, John Petrucci, Kee Marcello (ex-Europe), Reb Beach (ex-Winger, Whitesnake), Zakk Wylde, Yngwie Malmsteen, and some fusion guitarists like Frank Gambale, Allan Holdsworth, Scott Henderson… whereas Chris is more into thrash and even some death metal guitarists, since he listens to a lot of extreme music, in addition to power metal. However, when it comes to Rhythm, we like the same people (Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, etc.).  That helps a lot in my opinion, because we have to be tight, and that’s not always easy, especially when playing at 220 bpm, haha. I can play most of Chris’ parts; although I’ve never sat down to learn his solos in detail. Most of our solos came from improvisations anyway. I think the same applies to him.

PM:  Okay, I have to ask... how did a guy from Brazil get involved with a band from Nebraska and decide to move there?! Same goes for Valentin, who is original from Russia... how'd he get there?

Bill:  I first heard about Cellador online, through Myspace I believe. I was in the USA for a couple of months previously, in late 2004 – early 2005, and had to go back to Brazil because of personal problems. During the time I was here, I was constantly placing ads and looking for someone to start a power metal band, but nobody seemed to even KNOW what that was. The style is HUGE in Brazil and has been like that for way over 10 years now. I saw Helloween live for the first time in 1996, when I was only 13, and the show was packed! When I found Cellador, I couldn’t believe they were from the US. I heard the demo tracks and I was like “WOW…these guys are from the US? Why didn’t I find them before, when I was there?!” and started doing some research on the band. It didn’t take me long to find an ad saying that they were looking for a guitar player. I then e-mailed them, inquiring about the position and talking about my influences, background, and what I was currently doing. Chris then asked me to learn the 4 demo tracks, which I did very quickly. Within 3 days I sent them the 4 tracks, plus 2 songs they were working on at the time (which turned out to be Never Again and A Sign Far Beyond) and some of the stuff I was working on. After a couple of messages more, I got in a plane and came to Omaha to jam with the band. We played the six songs, talked for a while and went out together (you know, it’s always important to be able to get along well). After a couple of days, they decided I was the guy they were looking for. That all happened within 2 weeks or so…it was totally crazy! I still remember telling my parents I was going to the US again, this time to Nebraska and watching their confused reactions, haha. It’s funny because I lived in Florida AND California, and ended up finding my band in Nebraska! Valentin is a totally different (and less complicated) story. He was born in Moldovia (one of Russia’s republics), but has been living in the US since he was 9 years old. He moved with his family as refugees. He doesn’t have an accent or anything, and went to high school with Chris. It wasn’t until summer 2004 that he joined the band, though.

PM:  In a hundred years from now, when you're dead, would you rather be hatefully remembered or totally forgotten and why?

Bill:  That’s a tough one. I think I’d rather be hatefully remembered. You see, in my opinion, every single person in this world is unique and interesting in his/her own way. No matter how much you hate somebody, that person is always interesting in a way and is really important for somebody else. I believe the most important people are always remembered, whether it’s by good or bad acts. I am a spiritualist, I believe in reincarnation and that we’re all here to learn, it’s an evolution. I wrote a song about it, it’s called “Stages of Soul” and it was recorded by The Supremacy (if you have a chance, check that song on our MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/supremacyroxx). However, as a HUMAN BEING with flesh & blood, I can’t accept the idea of dying and being forgotten… maybe it’ll change… maybe not… but that’s how I feel at this point of my life and how I’ve always felt.

PM:  As a band, were you originally shaky about the idea of having such a very young drummer in the band?

Bill:  I used to talk to Dave online a lot before I moved to Omaha, and when he told me he was 16 (he’s 17 now) I was like “Oh my God! How is that possible?.” But you know what? Even though he’s so young, he’s been playing for a very long time and his dad is a very good musician (and Dave’s biggest supporter!). He’s been around music since he was 3 or 4 years old. Aside from me, he’s the one in the band who’s been playing for the longest time. Dave is a very talented drummer and musician, and we totally trust him. Unfortunately, I can’t really tell how the band felt at first, as he was the very first musician to join Cellador, and had been in the band for a year or more when I joined it.

PM:  You will be embarking on a mini-US tour in a week. Have any of the band members toured for that long before and what made Chris decide to book it himself? What made you decide to do a tour on your own instead of starting out as part of a tour package?

Bill:  I have toured before, but never with a metal band. I did some work as a sideman in Brazil. It will be all of the other guys’ first experience touring, though. Chris didn’t really book the tour, we had a booking agency called taking care of those dates. Unfortunately, some of the dates were a last minute thing and that’s why we are not in a package. However, we will be playing some shows with other bands such as Behemoth in Mexico, and even an off date of “Sounds of The Underground” festival here in Omaha, with bands such as As I Lay Dying, The Black Dahlia Murder, Terror, among others. Should be fun and definitely a good experience for the band as a whole!

PM:  Do you think you will have any conflicts of interest between you being in Cellador and in The Supremacy at the same time? Do you believe you will be able to give enough of your time to both bands?

Bill:  There will be no problem at all, for a number of reasons. First, The Supremacy is not anybody’s main band. Mark (Cross, drums) has Firewind, Joost (van den Broek, keyboards) has After Forever, Fernando (Giovannetti, bass) has Aquaria (and a ton of other stuff actually) and Rafael (Gubert, vocals) has Akashic. All of those bands are signed and very active. Firewind is releasing their new album “Allegiance” (the first with Mark on the drums) in July. After Forever is switching labels, Aquaria is writing for the next album and Akashic is promoting their latest record, “A Brand New Day”. Second, the music is very different. In fact, I see Cellador and The Supremacy kinda like musical opposites. The “yin and yang of Bill Hudson”, haha! While Cellador is so fast and happy sounding, The Supremacy is slower and darker. Most of the songs use low-tuned instruments (seven string guitar and six string bass) and the lyrical content is totally different. That means I will always be able to work with both without interfering on each other when it comes to writing. Also, since The Supremacy is not my main band, I’ll work on it when I have time off of Cellador. The same applies to all of the other members and their main bands. I’d like, however, to find some time in everybody’s schedule so The Supremacy could play at least a couple of shows somewhere. We’ll see what happens with that.
 

PM:  What was your main impression on playing the Minnesota gig with Gamma Ray?

Bill:  The crowd was awesome! We had a great time and met a lot of really cool people.

I’ve seen Gamma Ray in Brazil in 3 different tours, and it was always a blast. They are one of my favorite bands! I think my main impression was that America is definitely getting more and more interested in Power Metal. I mean, it took Gamma Ray 16 years to come here, and people were definitely anxious to see them. The crowd’s reaction was really surprising; people were singing our songs, although the album was not even out yet. It was definitely a great night! Power Metal is breaking the boundaries of the United States of America, and I think it tends to get stronger and stronger. Good for all of us Power Metal fans! 

PM:  How long have you been playing guitar and what made you start?

Bill:  I started playing guitar in October 14^th, 1993. Yes, I do know that because it was my first lesson, and I still have the receipt for it! The reason why I started was literally seeing Slash soloing outside of that church in Guns N Roses’ video for November Rain. That was totally insane, and, to this day, I still get emotional when I see it. My sister used to be a huge Gn’ R fan back in the day and watched that video a lot. The first time I saw it I was like “That’s it! That’s what I wanna do with my life!” Now she’s an attorney who doesn’t listen to that anymore…and I haven’t changed my mind about what I wanna do, haha!

Official Website:  www.cellador.com

Official Myspace Page: www.myspace.com/cellador

For more live and offstage photos of Cellador, please click here