intervbronze

Hello Mina, Let's start with an introduction of you and Bronze.

We're Bronze and we play heavy metal, hehe.


Bronze is an international band with you and your brother being from Spain and Ced being from Sweden. Have you relocated or do you guys meet up for tours? Or how does that work?

I've been living in Sweden for years now, but we were already working as a distant band since the early days. This is just a step up. We basically meets on the road. Don't every band do that these days?

I mean, we have to travel to the concerts or festivals anyway, so in some cases we just go on our own. People want to think that it's way more complicated than it really is, but it's like any work that requires some move to get to the office. Except our office changes place everytime, hehe.

Bronze: Ced, Mina & Lap.

Are the bassist and drummer session based or do you have a more stable lineup now?

Lap is the bass player of the band, but whenever he's not available to play live, somebody steps in. The role of drummer is fully for live musicians at the moment. We work with fantastic people and if someone is not available, because they have other projects or lifes to take care off, another guy steps in. It can be a feel chaotic from the outside, with all the puzzling going on. We like to joke of “let's try to conquer all the possible combinations of who plays with who!”, but it is way easier than hearing people “Yes, yes, I want to be in the band... but I'm teaching my goldfish how to read pictograms and I cannot accept this gig at this festival that you've been waiting all your life.”

When I was a naive kid, I used to believe on the illusion that bands need to have “full time members” to be real, and then I realized that it is bullshit and a lie sold for marketing purposes.

Sure, there's band with lineups where it makes sense and they work as a team on creative purposes. But the truth is that most bands are 1-2 people's project and then studio/live musicians step in. There's some that are still ashamed and scared of giving that image and wll do everything to hide it. Most bands that are not treating this like a hobby, but are not on the major leagues, work like that, but some are more open than others about the topic.

What are your main influences and how did you get into metal music?

I got into heavy metal thanks to Iron Maiden... probably like 98% of us?! I heard Blood Brothers, from Brave New World, and I was inmediately sold on it. I absorb mostly from the old school heavy metal bands: Manowar, Dio, Omen, Riot, Crimson Glory, Running Wild, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Warlord, Grave Digger, Accept, Metal Church, Malmsteen, Virgin Steele... the list is endless. I also nerd out with medieval/renaissance music, classical, etc...

I've read that you're very inspired by Iron Maiden. I think that can be heard in Bronze's music. It has that Maiden meets Running Wild brand of riffs. Do you agree with that?

I would say that I'm look up after Iron Maiden, it is an influence, like I was mentioning before, but I would not say that I'm very inspired by them. It's the band that opened this world for me, it's the best band on the universe and I love them with all my heart. The thing is that everyone is going to compare any classic heavy metal band with Iron Maiden, but in reality, I don't get that spark from them to create my own music in comparison to other bands. About Running Wild: I love Running Wild, it's always been an inspiration. The funny thing, tho, is that people were not bringing RW to the conversation before Cederick joined in, and now that he's in the band, it seems that everybody suddenly thinks about Running Wild.

We knew it would happened and did a bunch of “memes” before based on “how people will judge Bronze based on which of the band's members they knew before”. The half information and stereotypes are everywhere, hehe. Which is funny, because I'm the one writing the songs... There's some things here and there that are very much inspired by the German force, but people tend to quote the wrong ones, and it's amusing. Like for example Fool... I can tell you that the song is fully on inspired by Yngwie, because I was having a very neoclassical rage era, but I've read reviews and comments of people swearing that it sounds like Running Wild. Oh well, hehe.

I've interviewed over a hundred metal bands over the years and this is actually the first time I'm interviewing a female musician. (Yeah, Shame on me. hehe) So how is life as a frontwoman?

The biggest difference is that I get this type of questions and Ced doesn't. It's honestly people trying to make it relevant. Unless I have to really speak about what's like to have period pain on tour, I don't see how it is relevant. I don't know how life is as a “frontman” so I can't compare it to my own flesh

Are you influenced by any female vocalists in metal?

I don't really care about the gender of my influences, only what I can learn from their talent, charisma and craft. In my huge list there's women, sure, but not that much in the sense of my vocal delivery or growth.

Bronze was formed out of the band Kramp, How come you changed your name to Bronze?

Bronze is Kramp under a different name. That was something that I was pondering for many years, but kept delaying because I didn't have a good name. Time went on and on and I almost gave up, but I finally had a spark with the word "Bronze" and I knew it was the one and the moment to make it happen.

What's your opinion on the New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal? Do you consider Bronze to be part of it. I guess it should be called something else than a wave by now since it's been around for like 20 years.

This is a very fun topic, because just some days ago I brought this topic out to Ced and I wanted to explore the conversation in a wider sense, because it's... yeah, interesting. Should the term still be applied to bands that are formed these days? Why is it applied to older bands formed way before the term was coined? Ahhhhhh. Panic? Marketing? Lack of imagination? Pretending to be younger than we are?

Heavy Metal was never gone, but when bands like Bronze were starting in the early 10's, there was a huge emptiness in our hearts. Many of us were tired of seeing how other substyles were imposed and nobody seemed to remember that heavy metal was a style on its own and it didn't.

So there was a bunch of bands like mine who tried to give some justice to that sound, and while many of us thought we were "the only new ones" turned out there was a good amount to call it a "wave". But now, 20 years after and when the "wave" has been stablished, there's festivals solely dedicated to the style, many bands are headlining and there's been already some generations since then... are these "new wave of the new wave of trad heavy metal"?

Bronze

Historically, NWOBHM lasted for 5 years if we're very generous and we want to stretch it. It implies that there was already heavy metal bands, and that this particular movement refered to a specific area. It was a term to describe a particular movement, more than the sound. Because while many bands shared a particular type of characteristics on their song-writting, there were some weird birds doing their own thing.

When that wave was not standing out anymore, those bands were just called heavy metal. But here we are in 2026, hehe. I see bands being formed in these recent years and also being called NWOTHM... man, most of the bands that were originally labeled as that, have knee pains, bald spots and acid reflux! I think it's time to ditch it, but I don't think people are ready to accept it.

Your latest record In Chains and Shadows from 2024 got some great reviews, I guess you're happy with the album and how things turned out?

Very happy, indeed. It was a lot of work and a new approach in many ways, but a healthy re-arrange in many ways. I'm very proud of the album and it's great to see new people discovering it these days and falling in love with it!

I noticed that you created the artwork for the album, is that correct?

Yes, I usually take care of the graphic aspects of the band, including artworks. I wanted to bring back the Necromancer as a figure. Not that is our Eddie or anything like that, but at least part of our lore. You know, a Necromancer with dark powers can do whatever he wants... so if he decides to open portals and defy the rules of past and present, he does it.

I love your logo by the way. Did you make it?

The logo is so fucking cool!!!! I did not make it, no. And that's a huge pride here! Haha. When I started the process of changing the name, behind the scenes, I did some attempts. And people around me wanted me to do the logo. But I was stuck... the logo for the previous name was quite strong. C'mon, two crossed axes! It's a bold idea, quite hard to get rid off. So as much as I tried to keep the link but give the new logo some freshness, I did not find the way to do it. Before I got burnt out as fuck, I did something new for me: I delegated on somebody else. I decided to get in touch with Daniel Porta from the Pit Forge. He was supporting the band, he knew the music, the aesthetic, and he's a badass. So it was the right choice. It took some time and back and forth, but he nailed it.

I've seen that you've recorded a handful of music videos. They got that early 80's look but not the 80's grainy VHS production. It looks good what can you tell me about them?

I love the idea of music videos, and my original plan was to make for every song. But life gets in between... maybe one day! I'm not a fan of that fake VHS filter that many bands are going for, honestly. Making it look retro with lights and other tricks yes. Emil Westin, from Blazon Stone, filmed the videos for the songs of In Chains and Shadows. We basically invaded his living room and covered the rooms with black bedsheets that we score the day before exhausting every second hand store of the area. We didn't get enough, tho, so there were some bald patches, but you don't see that on the videos. MEHEHE.

He set his lights, fog machine and he wielded the camera (that mf is a heavy device!). Very humble, even if his equipment is very cool. On August of 2023, we did Realm of the Damned, Time Covers no Lies the first day. Lap was supposed to fly to Sweden, but our father got ill and he decided to cancel the flight. One year after, we did the other half of Time Covers no Lies and In Chains and Shadows with Lap. That second one was in the summer of 2024. Imagine that.



Bronze - In Chains and Shadows.

For Realm of the Damned and Time Covers no Lies, Ced took care of the edition. My computer couldn't handle shit and I was going to overthink the shit out of it otherwise. I decided to step away and let others work. I only showed up a couple of times to sneak on his screen and complain here and there, but besides a couple of details, it was him. He worked with the raw files as they were. I love the videos, but t it's true that the hue of the first two videos are mostly “red” or “blue” on the raw essence. Which fits well for those. Some scenes were just fog, because it was a tiny space and we had to open the doors and windows often to let it out.

That's how it looked right there, because our resources were very limited. That bugged me a bit, not about those videos, but about the upcoming ones. So for In Chains and Shadows I was able to edit myself, and that's when I took care of color twitching and other post-prod things. Of course I love all the cheese. C'mon, it's obvious. But there's no point on pretending to use potatos with this day an age technology in our hands. The bands from the 80s put out material the way they did because that's what they had, always searching for improvement and new technologies, not because they liked how it looked.

That being said: let's set some good complimentary colors and a fog machine and we can start the party!

Any last words for our readers?

This is the Age of Bronze!

Thank you!

2026-02-03