An acoustic session with four different bands. It was October 14th at the FemME Metal Event that I saw ‘Leecher’ for the first time. The performance was a big success and I got interested in the band.
The band is Hungarian (Budapest) and they play ‘Cello Metal’.
So I asked them if it was possible to do an interview.
Adam, the bass player of the band answered my questions. So thank you Adam and thank you ‘Leecher’!
The band is called ‘Leecher’. Can you tell us something more about the name? Is there a special reason why you choose the name?
This question we get almost every time we do an interview. And all I can say about it is that we tried very hard to come up with a good name. And this was the first one we came up with and hadn’t been already taken. And a good name means that it evokes some kind of feeling and…..it is easy to chant for an audience.
When was the band established?
The has been established around 2008. It was when Dave, I (Adam) and Abel (he’s living in the US now, but still writes songs and takes part in the recordings) created the band.
At first we were playing mostly covers but during the next years more and more songs written by ourselves.
But I think the band became more “serious” around 2013, until then it was more like a hobby project.
Can you introduce the band members to us?
Anett (Horvath) – vocals & songwriting
Agi (Szijarto) – solo cello
Barabas (Botyik) – rhythm cello (think of it mainly as a guitar, but sometimes as a regular cello)
Adam ( Nagi) – bass cello (actually a cello with bass strings) & songwriting
Dave (Tamasi) – drums
Abel (Libisch)– songwriting & orchestral arrangements
Are there other things you guys do besides playing in ‘Leecher’. I mean other jobs or are you professional musicians?
Barabas is an universal student and everyone else has a job. Unfortunately we aren’t big enough (yet) to live as full-time musicians. Which gives the band a lot of limitations in terms of time especially.
Your music sounds very professional, do you have a musical education?
Everyone has a been to music school and Anett also takes lessons regularly. But we didn’t learn songwriting or composition though.
you playing is other bands also or only in ‘Leecher’?
Barabas is playing in a lot of other bands. I can’t even keep track of all of them. From time to time the other band members have site projects too. But ‘Leecher’ is the most important project for all of us.
Why did you choose for, as I may say, classical instruments?
Well, the cello was the instrument we were playing, and symphonic metal the genre we liked. So we had to cook with what we had.
You call your music ‘cello metal’. Is this a common name, because I never heard of it, or did you invented yourself?
I think ‘Apocalyptica’ had come up with the term before. Or maybe they called it ‘cello rock’. Since we are playing a bit different kind of music with a permanent vocalist and background orchestra, we like to call it ‘symphonic cello metal’. And that is something I haven’t heard anywhere before.
Have you released any records so far? And can you tell us something about them?
We released our first studio album ‘Sightless’ in July 2016. At the end of November we will release a special acoustic selection from that album, with Hungarian lyrics. And we are also working on our second album right now.
Who writes the music for the band?
Songwriting basically happens just like this interview. I (Adam) or Abel write the music. We send it to Anett, along with some proposed lyrics (if any). Then she writes the vocal lines and we send the whole thing to the band to listen to it and give their comment.
On the second album Anett is more involved in the music parts, for example she wrote the solo in the song ‘Messengers of Fear’.
You’ve been to Holland just a few weeks ago. What did you think about the performance and the public?
It was absolutely great! I mean, we were playing at 2PM and did not expect the place to be full by then for an opening band, but it was. The sound was also really good. And in spite of being a first-timer, essentially unknown band in your country, we were signing CDs and taking photos with people for like half an hour.
We are really happy and grateful for an amazing audience. Thank you!
Are you coming back to Holland soon?
We are now working on our second studio album, so we aren’t really planning shows for some time. But we surely want to return as soon as possible.
Which bands do you like?
Beyond our obvious love for symphonic metal (‘Nightwish’, ‘Within Temptation’,’ Epica’, ‘Delain’ etc) our musical taste is fairly wide. For example I like bands ranging from ‘Dead Can Dance’, through ‘Dream Theatre’, ‘Celldweller’, ‘Tesseract’, classical music and soundtracks from movies and games, all the way to bands such as ‘Fleshgod Apocalypse’.
I believe good music is mostly about melody and feeling.
Are there future plans?
As I said, we are working on our second studio album and the songwriting will be done probably this year. Then we’ll go through all the songs and polish them to be perfect before a lot of practicing and finally recording.
Meanwhile, in February we are going to do shows, but only in Hungary. And, of course, when the album finally comes out, we want to do a proper tour.
Have you been on tour with other bands?
Not in a “tight” way, like traveling in the same car or bus. But we’ve done some shows with ‘Dalriada’ and ‘Tales of Evening’, both Hungarian bands. Joined ‘Arkona’ on three shows in early 2018, and in October we did most of our shows together with the Italian folk metal band ‘Blodiga Skald’, who are awesome people to party with and I also recommend their music.
Are there bands you want to tour with if they ask you?
Of course! First of all, I think every musician dreams about touring with their favorite bands. But dreaming aside, touring with a bigger band isn’t only good because they already have a huge audience, but we could observe how pro’s are doing all the work that is necessary for a bigger band to function and learn a lot that can be applied to us as well.
Thank you so much Adam for this interview. Is there something you want to say which is important and I haven’t asked?
Maybe that people can find out more about us on:
ONS NIEUWS MUSIC 
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