Interview with Lilith's Revenge

What got you into music, and if you had not gotten into music what would you be doing today?

We share different backgrounds of what brought us to music. Paula (lead singer) started off at an early age to take piano lessons. She was a very shy kid, and this was used as a way to get her to become more social and interactive. While she took piano lessons, she used to walk by the singing classes, and was fascinated about them, and decided one day to take those classes.

Our guitar player, Paulo, got into music because of his father. Paulo’s father was a musician in the local symphonic band of Lagares. He used to play the clarinet, and took a very young Paulo, around 3-4 years old to the rehersals. These rehersals and the home practice made Paulo very interested in music.
Also, on the car trips, Paulo’s dad would often play classic rock mixtapes with bands like Foreigner, Outfield, Baltimora, etc which exposed Paulo to rock from an early age.

The bass player Edu, around the 8th grade, was shown a couple of rock and alternative bands, with a special mention to System of A Down, which became one of his favourite bands ever. This got Edu to fall in love with the rock/metal world, and when he became friends with Paulo in highschool, Paulo invited him to join his own project as a bassist, that featured Paulo as the singer, and nowaday’s Lilith’s Revenge soloist, Bruno Sousa.

Bruno Sousa got into music, with also a lot of influence from his father and his older brother. Bruno alongside his twin brother Joe (Lilith’s Revenge first drummer) used to play in a local traditional Portuguese band since an early age, as a guitar player, and his brother Joe, played the accordion.
Their older brother was the one getting them into rock and metal, by presenting them with Metallica, and then the twins got more interested in this type of sound, which made them start their first project (Strings In Veins) with Paulo a few years later.

None of us live exclusively as musicians. So we would probably be working the same jobs, only with a more dull lives for not being able to perform our craft.

 What do you like to do when you are not playing music and how does that influence your creativity?

 Paula does a lot of exercise. May it be jogging, or dancing, or even boxing, it’s something she always try to fit in her daily routine. Paulo loves running, listening to music too, and much like Bruno, likes to fill his spare time with online gaming, often together. Edu shares the gaming interest but also enjoys other artistic activities like drawing and designing,

How long has your band been around?

The band has been around since August 2020. We’re nearly two years old as a band.

Where are you based out of and how did that influence your music?

Every member is from the Porto district, Sousa Valley region. Where we’re from, there’s a lot of metal bands. The metal bands featuring a female singer, are often a mix of a really heavy sound with guttural and an epic lyric singing voice. We take some of the heavy into our sound, but we try to shift a bit more into the hard rock sound. We’re not as heavy as most of the local bands, because we keep a more balanced genre between metal and rock.

How did you come up with the name of your band and what does it mean to you?

The name “Lilith’s Revenge” was Paula’s idea. Lilith as a biblical character, according to some gospels, is considered to have been the first Adam’s wife in the garden of Eden. Lilith was not submissive and was cast into hell for refusing to submit to someone else’s will. We use the Lilith character in one of it’s lighter layers  to represent a movement that fights oppression and gender inequality, and to help people who are struggling with mental or physical abuse, being them women or men.

Tell me about your most memorable shows.

We could address some, but for this interview we would like to talk about our live debut, which came on the 21st of May 2022, in the iconic Porto’s metal bar, called Metalpoint. On the same day we also released the single “Children From Eden”, it’s videoclipe, and our first album also named “Children From Eden”.

The week before the concert was very troubled. Paula had to ride 200km the day prior to go to the factory to make sure we had physical CD versions to sell on the concert venue. And two days before, Bruno got diagnosed with Covid19, causing him to miss the show. So, todays before the concert, the band was without the lead guitar player. There was a lot of antecipation building to the event, so the band had to think of a quick solution. It couldn’t be done with a single guitar, so the band called their producer of the album, Jorge Lopes from the Redbox Studios, who accepted to fill in as Bruno’s replacement. On the day before the show, the 4 remaining elements, met with Jorge in the studio for a single rehersal in the day before the show. On the day, everything went smoothly, until we started to play the first song “The Sword” and suddenly Edu’s bass was without sound, causing the tech engineer to go on stage to try to figure out the issue, and causing the first song to be played without bass. Once this was solved, we played the first song again, and it was all smooth sailing from there on. The producer Jorge did an amazing job filling in for Bruno with only practically two days to learn every lead guitar line from the album. At the end of the show we autographed a lot of albums, and took a lot of pictures. Our debut was long awaited by the fans, and it all became very emotional, because we were lucky enough to debut close to home in front of family.

What is your favorite venue to play at, and do you have any places you want to play that you have not already?

Aside from the already mentioned Metalpoint venue, we also loved playing the “Female Front Festival” in Portalegre. The site was great and the city was lovely with a very traditional look. The light’s set was very nice, and it created a great scenario for the videos and pictures we got from the show. On a local level we would love to perform in one of the Hard Rock Porto rooms soon, and any stage on an international level.

If you could play any show with any lineup, who would be on the ticket?

I think that if we’re looking to please every member, the night would open up with System Of a Down, followed by our own band, followed by Guns n’ Roses, then Metallica, and finish with Insomnium. (laughs)

What is some advice that you would give to someone who is just getting into playing in a band and some advice that you would give to your younger self?

Playing in a band can be one of the toughest and more will requiring activities. So our best advice is to do it with people you love, and get along really well. The band members need to be the first believing in their own music, and shielding their bandmates from the world. To be united in a band is one of the greatest things, and it will make every trip, rehersal, and concert memorable. An advice we would give to our younger selfs, would be to save more money, because this activity can be really expensive. (laughs)

If you could go back in time and give yourselves advice, what would it be?

Advice we would give to our younger selfs, would be to save more money, because this activity can be really expensive. (laughs)

Of your songs which one means the most to you and why?

Every member got a song on the album. By this we mean, everyone got to put in a demo they started working on, and everyone got to participate in it’s writing. To Paulo it would probably be “Unforgettable”, because he wrote the lyric, and it’s main riff when he was just 15 years old. To Bruno it would be “Dead Doesn’t Mean Gone”, because it’s a strong song addressing how those who past away stay with us as long as we remember them, and ever since day one has been a favourite to Bruno. Edu would probably pick “White Crow” because it’s a song with a genre he had been looking to write for a long time. And Paula would pick “Midnight Rain” because it’s a story of overcoming a very bad phase in life, and coming back stronger from it.

Which songs are your favorite to play and which get requested the most?

As of now, in our short career, we could say “Unforgettable”, “White Crow” and “Revenge”

What is the creative process for the band, and what inspires you to write your music?

We’re all very sensitive people, so when we feel like writing, it becomes a pouring of our longtime feelings that were being kept inside. We work on the first draft, and then share with the group with an open mind, so that everyone can contribute and make it a Lilith’s Revenge song, while respecting the original message. This created, in Edu’s words, a “very colorful album” with something for everyone.

What kinds of messages do you like to get across in your music?

We hope to get a message of strength, hope and will to fight. We want to give some comfort to those who are fighting issues like depression, abuse (physical or mental) and other mental struggles. We wish to make the life of those who struggle a little bit better.

Do you ever have disagreements in your band, and how do you get past them?

Like any group activity there’s bound to be disagreements, specially when it’s a creative art. Luckily we’ve known each other for more than 10 years, and when we realize something isn’t right for someone we know it’s best to immediatly address the issues by talking in person than to hold resentment.

What are your plans for the future, and do you have anything that you want to spotlight that is coming up?

Paulo has some demos in the works, but we’re still working on promoting our recent release “Children From Eden”, so in the near future we’re looking into release a new videoclip for one of the songs in the album.
In the future we would love to play internationally and get to be heard by as much people as possible, so we get to try and help to the best of our capacities.