If you are looking for meat-and-potatoes heavy metal riffs with touches of both classic and contemporary metal, Contracara has got you covered. And yet, their recent album ‘1307’ shows that the band from Lima is also aspiring to be more than just that. Founding guitarist Gino Bogani, singer Sara Monzón and bassist Eduardo ‘Cheta’ Deza promise more of that on their third album in the near future.

“We try to find a good mix in our music”, Bogani says. “Not just pure heavy metal. We try to add some thrash metal, maybe some progressive metal. That gives us some different shades to play with. The biggest change from our first album ‘ENDM’ to our second album ‘1307’ is that we became more complex. Longer songs. We thought of adding some different parts, maybe extending the songs and creating something different from other bands who play roughly the same style.”

The slightly progressive direction on ‘1307’ did come as a bit of a surprise though. “When we started working on the riff from ‘Manipulados por el Sistema’, we didn’t know the song was going to be that long”, Bogani explains. “We just brought in all kinds of different ideas and before we knew it, it became a long song. Our producer suggested to review the song, but we decided to leave it like that. It’s not a repetitive song anyway.”

That does not mean the band didn’t value the opinion of producer Mariano Gardella. “He is a good friend of us and we appreciate his work”, Bogani says. “He had a different vision of what our music could be. When we showed him the music, he had some really good suggestions on how to improve it by changing some parts, or maybe adding some parts or making some changes to the lyrics. He created new music within our music. If we didn’t have his help, the album might not have had the same quality.”

Band of Brothers

Contracara has been around for over a decade at this point. The band started with a seemingly random meeting between Bogani and drummer Teddy Gutierrez, where Bogani suggested they should start a band with their brothers: guitarist Ricardo Bogani and original bassist Rex Gutierrez. “I met Teddy at a Dio tribute concert, one year after Dio passed away”, Bogani explains. “He invited me to join his band. After that, I contacted him and said: I play with my brother and you play with your brother: what do you think? That’s how Contracara started.

Unfortunately, his brother couldn’t continue because of work commitments. We changed singers twice until Sara came along. And we changed bass players a couple of time: first Teddy’s brother, then Gerardo Abad, and now Cheta. Cheta is a great bass player and he has experience as a producer. Sara started playing punk. After she joined the band, she started listening to more heavy metal and really found her own style within the genre.”

Given the fact that the Bogani’s are brothers with a similar playing style, it’s surprising that they never shared the stage before. “Just with Contracara”, the younger brother confirms. “Ricardo played with other bands, but as I told you, I invited him: why don’t we start playing together? He said: you’re right. And now we’ve been playing together for twelve years in this band.”

A Different Experience

Monzón’s vocals are a defining factor in Contracara’s music these days. When she joined the band in 2014, however, she had no prior experience singing metal. “Before joining Contracara, I have been singing other styles of music”, she explains. “I was in a punk rock band called Contra Atake. So singing heavy metal was a bit difficult in the beginning. It’s a totally different experience. Very challenging. So much power and crazy musical scales.

Heavy metal is characterized by very high notes. I like that a lot, but I had to adjust to it. Also, women singing this style of music are often singing music that is very melodic or very symphonic. When we recorded ‘ENDM’, I think I stuck to that a little more, but on ‘1307’, I wanted to demonstrate a stronger voice. My voice was allowed to be a little rough-edged, a bit more aggressive at times; it didn’t have to be super clean all the time. I wanted to find my own identity and my own style of singing. At least within Peru. Because I am different than other female singers.”

The fact that Monzón’s predecessors in Contracara were all male did not pose much of an issue. “It wasn’t difficult for me to sing the songs that were written for the previous singers”, she says. “The hard part was to come up with original parts that sounded the way I wanted to express myself. When I listen to heavy metal, even the male singers tend to sing in their higher registers. So the parts written for the male singers weren’t the issue. I just didn’t want us to sound like a Contracara cover band.

In South America, the machismo of a frontman is normal. Many people won’t accept a female singer. But I try to respect myself and sing the music that I like in front of an audience. In the past, it was considered very strange to see a woman singing heavy music. Fortunately, it’s getting more common nowadays.”

Exciting

The biggest concert Contracara has played so far was when they opened for Slipknot at Lima’s Estadio Nacional in 2016. “The biggest crowd we have ever played for”, Bogani nods. “I was scared! Thousands of people were watching us and I was quite worried about making mistakes in front of so many people. Of course, most people came for Slipknot, but opening that concert was a great responsibility and a great experience for us.

Teddy had some contacts and we sent a cd to Slipknot’s tour manager. They told us: it’s different, but we would like to try working with a different kind of band. It’s still metal. That made it interesting for us as well. When we walked back into the crowd to watch Slipknot, several people told us they never listened to our music, but they really liked us. That was unexpected for us. When people asked us to have photos taken with us, we realize: wow, we must have done well, haha!”

“I can’t in all honesty tell you it was a very good gig”, Deza admits. “But it was the most exciting experience in my whole life. I wanted to cry when I walked onstage at Estadio Nacional. Having at least ten thousand people in front of you is not something you do every day.”

“During the show, I didn’t feel nervous whatsoever”, Monzón adds. “But the moment Ricardo and Gino walked onstage and everybody’s hands went up… Oh my god! In this moment, the realization that we were at Estadio Nacional, as the first Peruvian band with a frontwoman… An incredible experience!”

“The production was quite different too”, Bogani says. “At a small concert, we just need one amplifier each. In that place, we just needed a little pedal. When you walk around the stage, you can hear anything. My mistake was that I didn’t have in-ears at that concert, which I bought immediately afterward.”

Connection

“The show at Estadio Nacional was exciting, I have no words for it”, Deza nods. “I was so proud of Sara too. Out of all female lead singers Peru has, I think she is the most creative, the most emotional and the most energetic on stage. She connects with people in a way only she knows. The people are close to her. If I wanted to do that by myself, people would just laugh at me, haha!”

“For me, that connection with the people is so important”, Monzón explains. “Because I remember when I was a teenager and I saw various rock and metal bands that just didn’t connect with their audience. Sometimes there was more emotion coming from the audience than from the musicians. Their concentration to put on a good show meant that there was no connection. As a teenager, I already realized I wanted something different. When we played Estadio Nacional, I was there for the people, since I was there because of them.”

“She is like a tiny Bruce Dickinson running around the stage”, Bogani smiles. “Also, when Sara started singing our songs, it changed the vision of our music. We had an idea of men singing these songs, but when you have a woman singing the same songs, it changes completely. Sara can sing very melodically and because of that, she added a whole new dimension to our music.”

Creative Liberties

“At the moment, we are working on new material”, says Bogani. “It will be different from ‘1307’. We never wanted to continue doing he same thing over and over again. We all prefer to make music in which each song sounds distinctive. I expect the third album will be a further reflection of that, with songs that will be completely different from what you heard on the second and first albums. But it still clearly comes from the same brains and the same hands playing the songs.”

“On the previous album, we had the help of our producer”, Deza continues. “He always told us to do the things he planned to do with the sound engineer. Maybe that took away some of our creative liberties to make what we really wanted to make. This time, we will not be working with a producer. The only producer is Ricardo. And Ricardo is part of the band.

Our guitarists are the ones who make the sound. They are the two main minds in the band. But this time, Sara is going to be one of the greatest minds here. She is going to be the one who is going to come up with the lyrics and vocal melodies. She has a very big responsibility right now. And I know she is going to do the very best she can possibly do. I promise you.”