Metal bands who don’t use the basics like guitar and bass are rare in the metal community, Apocalyptica can be considered as the fore-runners for cello metal and Hungarian’s own Leecher is the runner up when it comes to quality music done on cellos. Anett Horvath provides the vocals for Leecher since 2012 and the debut full-length “Sightless” from 2016 has gained some attention for the band but still not enough so read on about this exciting band.
Hi Anett, recently you did a small tour with Arkona. How responded the people in the audience to your music? I’m assuming that there where a lot of people present who didn’t know Leecher or am I completely wrong??
No, I think you are right, probably many of them hadn’t heard about us before and didn’t exactly see how we were fitting in such a folk-metal environment like this. Fortunately, there were no bad reactions at all! The audience listened attentively to us, I think they had a good time, and we got very positive feedbacks. We were so happy!
Who came up with the idea to use cellos instead of guitar and bass?
The three founders, Abel (cello), Kutor (cello) and Dave (drummer) were classmates. They loved Apocalyptica and talked a lot about the idea of having such a band. Later they started to take this idea more seriously, they started to play Apocalyptica covers on cellos, added an orchestra to the background, and ta-da, that’s how Leecher’s basics were made :).
Sightless, your debut album is out since 2016. How has the overall response been so far from music critics and fans on the album?
In Hungary the album was released as a supplement to Metal Hammer magazine, so Sightless reached quite a few people in this country. But – it’s a bit surprising – we received a little more feedback from abroad, the reason could be that we have English lyrics. Most of the feedback was positive, anyway.
Are you still happy with how Sightless turned out or, now that you had about 1,5 year to listen to it, are there things that could be done better?
Sightless is basically good as it is. I’m very content with the work of the other musicians and the post-production. As for the singing and the melodies, there are some parts that I’m proud of, but of course, I would do most of the things in a different way if I had to record them again. I suppose this is because people are constantly evolving, listening to different kinds of music and changing their minds.
How about a new album? Are you working on it, are there plans to release something or is it still in the writing process?
We are planning to start recording the new album at the end of this year, for which about 7 songs are already written. For a long time the workflow was stagnating, for that, I was a little scared, but now we are full of ideas again, fortunately.
When did you start singing and why did you want to sing?
In my childhood, I always said I wanted to be a singer as an adult… Then I changed my mind and started playing guitar at the age of 13. For a long time, I dreamed of being a guitarist, but then I started to write songs with lyrics and vocals that, for the lack of singers around, I had to sing myself. In my previous bands, I was still a singer-guitarist, I even played guitar solos sometimes. But then somehow singing started to feel more natural. Ever since I’ve been concentrating on that.
How did you discover your own style of singing and do you have advice for other singers looking to develop their own sound?
I wanted to learn as much as I could about singing, so I learned from a lot of teachers, which was a mistake. The basics of singing are the same, but each of them explained them differently… it caused confusion that was very difficult to settle later. So I suggest that if you find a good vocal teacher, don’t let them go just for the curiosity of something new As for my own style, I was observing the style of many singers and trying to imitate things that I liked in their melodies. Alanis Morisette, for example, was a very good inspiration for me, and I’m very happy if I discover traces of her style in my own melodies.
Do you have any practices to keep your voice in good condition?
Besides still learning, I also practice regularly – as far as I can because I’d like to spare my neighbors’ nerves. In addition, I find it very important to practice not only specific songs but also different scales.
In the bio from Leecher is stated that Leecher started as a cover band. What was your favorite cover to sing?
In the beginning, we had a lot of covers, but these days only a few left. For example, “Fire with Fire” by Delain is a great addition to a good party, I like to play that one. But once we made a cover of Fergie’s “A Little Party Never Killed Nobody”, just for fun. The guys created a wonderfully epic song from it with orchestral arrangements and heavy riffs. It was very funny because the original version is totally different… unfortunately, we have moved on to other songs since, but I hope we will put it back once!
The last one, last words from you?
As my vocal teacher says very often: Wait for luck with work!
Order: https://itunes.apple.com/hu/album/sightless/id1123598343
More Leecher: https://www.facebook.com/leechermusic/
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