In this episode of The Rock Metal Podcast, we're chatting with Ric Galvez of the band Malice Divine about their new album ‘Everlasting Ascendancy’ out now.
During our chat we touch on a lot of great tips for musicians, such as how Ric kept his mental fortitude while working on the project, and never letting anyone tell him who he is as a person.
'Everlasting Ascendancy' was Produced and Recorded by Ric Galvez; Mixed by Tyler Williams (Sludgehammer, Monolithic Productions); Mastered by Jaime King (Between the Buried and Me, The Contortionist, Scale The Summit).
For fans of Dissection, Immortal, Watain, Thulcandra, Skeletonwitch
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Guest Resource
MaliceDivine.Bandcamp.com - Connect with Malice Divine!
Guest Music Video
3 Heavy Hitters
1. Set up your work in clear step-by-step moves to always know where to go next to complete your goals
2. No matter how hard the obstacles, always continue moving forward - a quitter never wins, a winner never quits.
3. Test out multiple guitars to find which guitars fit properly in the mix, you might be surprised, and the mix engineers job will be much easier
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Show Notes // Transcript
Jon Harris: Rick, thank you so much for coming on to The Rock Metal Podcast today. Go ahead and say Hi to all of our beautiful listeners.
Ric Galvez: Hey, guys. Rick from Malice Divine here.
Jon Harris: Beautiful. Great to have you on, my good man. So we've got this full album, second album, sophomore album coming out 'Everlasting Ascendancy' that came out in January 2023 for fans of Dissection, Immortal, Watain, Thulcandra, Skeletonwitch.
Ric Galvez: Damn straight.
Jon Harris: Damn straight, buddy.
Ric Galvez: Yeah.
Jon Harris: What was the greatest moment for you producing this record?
Ric Galvez: I think just having it done and ready to go. Just, like, having it fully mixed and mastered, because it was definitely quite a bit of a challenge to get enough funds to get all of that done. So when it was officially finished, it was definitely a huge relief and definitely a very proud moment for me.
Jon Harris: Mm-hmm, yeah, you can go back to eating, like, name brand mac and cheese.
Ric Galvez: Haha, instead of No Name.
Jon Harris: Instead of no Name, and you're just like, oh, there can't be a difference between these two different boxed mac and cheeses until you have to go there.
Ric Galvez: Yeah, exactly.
Jon Harris: You mentioned a challenge was to get funds to get the whole thing done. Was that the biggest challenge for you on this record? And if so, what did you learn from that? Especially if somebody listening in is also a one man project.
Ric Galvez: It's hard to say if that was the biggest challenge. Actually, you know, I think it was like some of the parts to record were also pretty challenging as well, because I'd say overall, this record is a bit more technically demanding than the first one, so that was pretty challenging, too. But, yeah, just saving up enough money to pay for the tracking and mixing and mastering. And then also I hired Dylan Gowan again to handle the session drums, so I had to pay him for his session drumming Evan Austin's artwork, too. So, yeah, there was definitely a lot to cover. So I'd say I think that was probably the biggest challenge. But what I definitely learned from that is no matter how big the obstacles I face, as long as I keep plowing through it, I keep going. Eventually it works out and I accomplish my goals.
Jon Harris: Well, that's a powerful thing that you said. You said never quit. What is that saying? A quitter never wins and a winner never quits.
Ric Galvez: Yeah. Exactly.
Jon Harris: What was it that kept you going? Was it just the fact that you named a lot of things that were step by step? Okay, we've got to get the tracking done. I know what's required there. We need to get the session drums done, which should be part of tracking. We know what to do there. I need to get the mixing done. We know what needs to happen there. Was it because it was so clear, the steps of what needed to happen?
Ric Galvez: Oh, yeah. The steps were very clear in my mind of, like, what needs to be done. Obviously, there was co-ordinating mixing and mastering, but after that, I knew how to get the artwork done and then I had to get merch printed and then reach up to PR. So it was definitely a very clear step by step process in my mind, which definitely helped me push through. Definitely. So as long as you have a clear vision in mind of where you're going through it and what the steps are, it definitely will help pushing through all the challenges that come about.
Jon Harris: Yeah, setting up clear steps to achieve your goal, because it's 1,000 steps or something or journey of 1,000 steps. You got to know what them steps are, baby.
Ric Galvez: Yeah, it's definitely a lot, but accomplished.
Jon Harris: Very cool. Who did the mixing and mastering?
Ric Galvez: For the mixing, I got Tyler Williams again. He also engineered the album, too, so he was there for tracking. As for the mastering, this time around, I got Jamie King to do the mastering.
Jon Harris: Cool. Rick, something you mentioned was this was a more technically demanding record. Did that just happen, or was that a conscious effort when you were planning the sophomore release?
Ric Galvez: It definitely just happened as far as what I was writing for the second album. So maybe a little bit intentionally, but I think it's more so just naturally, as you gain more experience playing guitar, you actually get better, obviously. So I think that's something that really happened naturally for me. It's like just writing more difficult. Yeah. Overall, I think it was more of a natural progression, for sure.
Jon Harris: Okay. Very cool. And you also mentioned something that trips a lot of people out the P word. If you practice, you get better.
Ric Galvez: Yeah, practice. Can't say how important that is. Very important. I remember even when I was getting ready to track this album. I didn't really have much of a social life at all. Just stayed home, just fucking practice pretty much all the time I started working.
Jon Harris: Well, I mean, we could bust out all the one man black metal band jokes if you want. What jokes? Just I'm kidding. I'm kidding, Ric. I'm kidding. Well, something that you mentioned or not that you mentioned, but something came up in the EPK was a music degree from York University. Because one of the things I noticed about the album speaking of one man band black metal jokes, it usually sounds like one guy in his basement. And it's hard to describe what that means, but I'm sure you understand. This, however, did not sound like one guy in his basement. It sounded very musical. It sounded like a top quality production.
Ric Galvez: Yeah.
Jon Harris: I guess as far as you're allowed to with black metal before it becomes uncool. Did that music degree from York University assist you? I imagine you did jazz or something as opposed to black metal or are they teaching black metal now?
Ric Galvez: I wish they taught black metal at York. Well, actually at York I did a lot of classical guitar. So I think as far as how that in my music of Malice Divine because in Malice Divine I do do some classical guitar sections on this album. Four out of the eight songs had a classical guitar and then. Then on the first album, five of a nine at Classical Guitar. So it really helped to incorporate a lot of classical guitar technique into my music. And then aside from that, I think for us, I take definitely some music theory concepts that I learned along the way that creeped into my songwriting. It I say those are the main reasons how it assisted my songwriting.
Jon Harris: I overheard the music theory creeping into my songwriting, which sounds like it should. That seems like a natural thing. Instead of spending your time thinking about which chord should come next, you just know because, you know, the music theory or what scales would work over this chord progression. Well, you know, because, you know, music theory. Is that something maybe you're self conscious about? Because I know that there might be some musicians listening in who are on that fence. Do I really need to know music theory? Oh, no. You had music theory creep into your songwriting. Maybe just address that.
Ric Galvez: Yeah, I think music theory is an excellent thing to learn, I think at this point, since I've become so familiar with it for so long now, pretty much a lot that I know about it does creep into my song running subconsciously at this point. So I think that's a really good way to go about it. If you can get familiar enough of it so that you don't have to think too much consciously about it. You can kind of just play around with different concepts and stuff like that and try different things, because that way you can be very creative with it and you don't have to be stuck in a box of it. Because I think a pretty common misconception that people have about music theory is that it's limiting or about it's like a bunch of rules you have to follow. I know that's not true at all. It's essentially guidelines and you can play around with it. You can mix and match different things. There's a lot of room for creativity with music theory, so I definitely got to recommend to all the songwriters out there, if you're on the fence about learning music theory, definitely get into it.
Jon Harris: Definitely a good skill to have, for sure. Absolutely. Now, speaking of other skills, I wanted to get into the themes on the record. It says that your lyrics are inspired by psychology. Spirituality and personal experiences involve overcoming obstacles and hardships, which we've actually chatted about quite a bit. We chatted about the greatest moment for you producing this record, having it done and ready to go, getting it fully mixed and mastered in your hands so you can start working on the next steps. And then it was a challenge to get it all done, but you had to find out the step by step of what needed to happen to overcome those goals. So I'm not entirely surprised that that feeling of empowerment came up as a theme in the record. But perhaps talk about this record as a whole. Is there a general theme to this record? Is there a concept to this record? What went into these kinds of themes on 'Everlasting Ascendancy'?
Ric Galvez: Yeah. So I wouldn't say Everlasting is necessarily like a strict concept album, but I think loosely, all the h racks there is, like, underlying theme of empowerment in some sense. In some sense, across all the songs, there's definitely some sort of tie into personal strength, coming obstacles, and just essentially just never giving up. Yeah, it's definitely a very personal record for me, so it's definitely a good outlet for me to just get out some of the frustrations of stuff that I went through in my life. So I say overall, yeah, definitely is like an underlying theme of strength and empowerment that really ties all the songs together across the entire album.
Jon Harris: I'm curious, did you feel at all self conscious about writing on that kind of a personal level? Hey, this is what I went through in my life, and this is how I overcame it. Or was it pretty natural for you?
Ric Galvez: No, I didn't feel self conscious about writing about it because, lyrics, it's a very personal thing, especially with this being like, a solo project, first and foremost. It gives me even more leeway to write about more personal matters as far as lyrical content is concerned. So, no, I didn't really feel self conscious writing, but stuff like that.
Jon Harris: Okay. Very cool. Being a one man band, you get to touch a lot of different pieces of equipment. Throughout the recording of this, you mentioned some classical guitar. Obviously, there's electric guitar in there. There is bass. You even mentioned vocals. Were there any pieces of gear that you used on this record different from, say, the first record that maybe surprised you?
Ric Galvez: Let's see. I wouldn't say there's anything different that surprised me. As far as gear that I use, there definitely was a few different pieces of gear that I use that were different this time around. Like, for example, for all the lead guitars, I used a different guitar. I have a White Jackson Dinky with stock, Seymour Duncan pickups I use for all the guitar solos and lead guitars. Then I got my charcoal gray Jackson dinky, which I used again for the rhythm guitar tracking. And then I used also different bass guitar this time around. So I used a four string Ibanez bass. But I bought shortly after I recorded the first album. So for the first album I used Tyler's bass, I borrowed his. So I had my own bass that I was able to use for this time around. Other than that, it was very similar. Like we tracked the guitars through real amps this time, whereas with the first album we tracked the guitars through amp Sims and then we ReAmped the guitars through real amps later. But that's time around it was all just straight from the source as real amps from the get go. So, yeah, there was a few things that were a little bit different, but nothing that was really talking definitely just changes up a little bit here. But nothing like stalking or anything.
Jon Harris: Yeah, we definitely mentioned a few things. There two different guitars, one for rhythm, one for lead and obviously we could spend the rest of the interview just talking about that. But something that I thought was interesting, that caught my attention was tracking through real amps. And what you meant by that was not reamping and what ends up on the record as a real amp, it's you plugged directly into that amp, you miced it up and that's what showed up on the record. Whereas last time, recording DI and then reamping. Do you notice, because there's a debate on the Internet that it sounds different? Do you feel yourself that it sounds different taking a DI, running it through an amp versus plugging directly into it?
Ric Galvez: It depends, because I think 10-15 years ago it definitely would have been the case that it definitely does feel better. However, I think the technology has gotten good enough now that with certain plugins it actually does feel like playing through a real app. Like, for example, Neural DSP products. Verse software for Am. Sims is excellent. I remember we tracked on the first album the guitars through Neural DSP software and it felt fantastic. I have a Neural DSP software actually on my computer and that feels really good as well. So, I think Amp Sims with how far they've come, I think they actually do feel pretty damn real at this point. I can't say no to recording with Amp Sims at some point in the future because at least that way I can also reamp it for a real amp later. As long as you have a DI set signal. So, yeah, I think Amp Sims yeah, they come far enough to the point where, yeah, they can feel the gorilla app, in my opinion.
Jon Harris: Wow. Very cool stuff. There's always a debate between Tube and Solid State, and now everybody's going to a modeler, which technically means everybody's playing through Solid State now. Right? Because if it's digital, it ain't Tube, baby. I understand it's emulating Tube, but it's interesting how they're able to do that. Super cool. We do have enough time. I was going to ask then lead guitars. You mentioned having two different Jackson Dinkies. What is the difference for you? Is it the rhythm? I'm imagining the rhythm sounds thicker or it sounds lighter.
Ric Galvez: Well, between my two Jackson Dinkies, they have different pickups. So in my white one, it still has the stock Seymour Duncan pickups. And then with my charcoal gray one, I actually got Seymour Duncan Black Winter pickups installed. So, yeah, I had just has a different tone to it, which works really well for the type of metal that I play. So when we were going into tracking the album, I tested out both of my guitars with different amps that we had, and then it quickly became apparent that the gray one with Black Winter pickups was definitely the best one for rhythm guitars. And then the one with the stock pickups was the best one for the league guitars. They can technically work very well for both, but just have that extra notch to both jobs for them. So that's why we decided to go with that.
Jon Harris: Wow. Very cool. So just testing it out and using your gut instinct and what sounds good is good, baby.
Ric Galvez: Exactly.
Jon Harris: Okay. It. Rick, how would you define success at this stage of your career? And it could be with regard to this release, it could just be your career up to this point in general.
Ric Galvez: That's a great question. I define success essentially as just being able to realize your vision, like, take your vision that you have in your head and then bring it into reality, which something that I do talk about quite a bit in my lyrics. Just a concept of just having a vision in your head and then manifesting into reality. So that's definitely a common theme that appears in my music quite a bit. But, yeah, that's how I define success, really. It doesn't have to be financial, like making a ton of money or anything, as long as you have a vision in your mind and when you make it real, then you're successful.
Jon Harris: There's a Drake line that comes to mind. You know it's real when you are who you think you are.
Ric Galvez: Yeah, it's all about bringing the mental into the physical.
Jon Harris: Which I imagine you're electric on dates. Like, you just say this stuff so naturally, and the girls are just like, he's going to manifest stuff. But how do you get to where you are? Do you have a morning routine? Are there any books that you recommend? Any audios that you recommend? Are we talking like Jim Rohn? Tony Robbins? How do you get to where you are, where you're able to speak so clearly about manifesting your bringing your goals to fruition.
Ric Galvez: Yeah, there's actually one author that I really like who writes about stuff along these lines. His name is Dr. Joe Dispenza. So I definitely recommend looking into him. He has some excellent books on that. So he's definitely probably my favourite author because his content really inspires me. His work is definitely fantastic. There are definitely some YouTubers that I was really inspired by for names escape me at the moment, but there was definitely some really good stuff on YouTube that really seeped into my subconscious mind and really influenced how I think about this kind of stuff. There was a lot of really good information out there regarding these topics.
Jon Harris: Very cool. Yeah, I just wanted to touch base on that because it's so important, especially being an artist, putting your stuff out there to have that mental fortitude and that self confidence. Some of had mentioned earlier, and I wanted to jump back to it was Dylan going? And you had met him, I believe, when you were a contestant on Banger TV. Shredders of metal seasons one and two.
Ric Galvez: Oh, actually, I met him before that. I've known him for a little bit before that because. Before I was before I did Shredders of Metal. Actually, I think it was a little bit afterwards. Yeah, I remember I met Dylan actually, I think, a little bit before my Shredders of Metal, I think maybe a few months before, because he was friends with the vocalists that I was in the band with at the time. So that's how we got quaint with each other. And then when I was in my previous band, Astaroth Incarnate, he actually filled in on drums for one show that we played. So I got to actually work with him briefly before I got him on board to play drums from my music with Malice Divine. So I was super impressed by how fast he learned the songs with the band I was in before Malice Divine, and how tight we played and how tight we sounded with him after only literally two rehearsals. So I was like, yeah, I definitely have to get this guy on board to practice the drums that I'm writing for my music. And that's what happened. And he did a fantastic job on both times. A fantastic job. He took the drum parts as I wrote Guitar Pro, and then he just amped it up a little bit more with his own fills to it. So I'm really glad that I got Dylan on board both times.
Jon Harris: Yeah, you mentioned you wrote the stuff in Guitar Pro for black metal. I'm imagining that you had this custom kit with like, twelve toms and like, 40 symbols, but how did the whole thing work exactly? So you gave him sheet music. Did you just give him, like, I don't know, EZ Drummer stuff and said, yeah, I wrote this in Guitar Pro? Here it is, an EZ Drummer to give you an idea. How did it work?
Ric Galvez: Well, I had all the songs written now and tabbed out in Guitar Pro. So as anybody that knows the Guitar Pro, it's a software that you type in the notation or tablature and then it plays it back to you as Midi. So I wrote all the drum parts in interrupt notation Guitar Pro, so it has like that, plus all the guitars and the bass and stuff like that. So I sent Dylan the guitar profiles and he was able to listen to the songs in Midi form that also had the drum notation as well. So he was able to listen to it and then look at the drum notation and then learn the parts that way. And then he can improve on the fills and stuff like that, is all? No types of fills and stuff. So that's how we went about it. I had all songs notated in Guitar for all. I sent him the files and he just learned it over a period of like month and a half, two months, something like that.
Jon Harris: Wow, very cool. Very cool stuff. Okay, what is the number one thing you want people listening to the podcast right now to do? And that could be the plug. The shameless, utterly shameless plug. That could even be something spiritual. It could be both. I've had both responses to that question.
Ric Galvez: Yeah, actually, I am going to go with both. So, first of all, yeah, definitely follow Malice Divine on not just Instagram, but like social media in general. So Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Malice Divine is on TikTok now as well. So you can go follow Malice Divine TikTok and also go support Malice Divine on Bandcamp because we got plenty of CDs and merchandise like shirts and hoodies and patches on Bandcamp. So if you support Malice in that way, that would be fantastic. And then as far as anything more spiritual, just like just keep going. Just never give up on your dreams and goals and just never let anybody tell you who you are. You determine that for yourself. So just keep going and never give up.
Jon Harris: Beautiful. Everybody listening in right now. Go ahead and go to TheRockMetalPodcast.ca. There you'll have all the show notes for today's episode which will include ways to connect with Malice Divine and of course, go to Bandcamp. Support Malice Divine financially. S'il vous plaît, if you please. Por favor. Are there any other languages we should use? Keep going. Never give up on your dreams or goals. Never let anyone tell you who you are, baby. Okay, thank you so much for coming on to The Rock Metal Podcast today, Rick.
Ric Galvez: No worries at all. It was a fantastic time. We had a great conversation today.
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