Interview with Nina Segueda - A Sound of Thunder, March 2012

A conversation with vocalist Nina Osegueda Photos by Duytran Photography Female-fronted U.S. metal band A Sound Of Thunder are stirring up quite a buzz in the metal world with their sophomore release, Out of the Darkness. The band play a brand of timeless, classic heavy metal in the likes of Black Sabbath, Dio, Blue Oyster Cult, Rainbow and Ozzy Osbourne, as well as being steeped in European power metal influences. Their sound is an interesting mix of genres and influences with fantasy/sci-fi and history-inspired lyrics which adds to the unique flavor of the band. Speaking with vocalist Nina Osegueda, she talked about the band’s diverse influences, the brand new album and what the future holds for A Sound Of Thunder. Music wise, who are all of your influences? Each of us have different influences. Josh (Schwartz) is really into Sabbath. Chris (Haren) is really into Rush. Jesse (Keen) really likes Tool. I really like power metal. So we each take all of these things and put them together. That’s why we have these random sounds coming out of our music because it’s coming from a different place. And it all works out pretty well because it is metal. Even though someone is playing ’70s metal riffs, I’m going to bring my power metal vocals to it and it’s going to sound different. How did the band form?  After I joined, we were looking for a bass player. We thought one guy was going to work out and then he kind of disappeared. Not long after we auditioned two more guys and they were Jesse (Keen) and this other guy. We were thinking they were both really great but ultimately we wanted Jesse and it was a really good decision because Jesse is absolutely perfect. As soon as we realized how perfect Jesse was, that’s when the band solidified and became A Sound Of Thunder, finally. We could do exactly what we were planning on doing.

Who are your influences as far as singers go?

I’d say my influences right now are Dio, Rob Halford ... Someone who’s really awesome is Mark Tornillo from Accept. I just love his voice and I love how energetic he is. I would love to be able to put forth that kind of energy on stage. I’m a big fan of power metal vocalists too: Hansi from Blind Guardian, Joacim from Hammerfall. I love power metal guys!

Are you more akin to male-singer role models than female ones?

Generally yes. And that’s always been that way forever for me. I love chicks and everything but for some reason I’ve always related more to guys when it comes to vocals in metal. There are a couple (female singers). It’s just that they’re not doing exactly what I would want to do. Mostly when you think of female-fronted metal bands you think of opera vocals or really soft pop vocals. There’s a few that do what I like to do ... Veronica Freeman from Benedictum is one of them. If I was going to be compared to any female in metal, I’d want it to be her.

Although Out of the Darkness is not a concept album, the songs seem to have a general theme about good stuff like death, killing and murder.

Ha ha! Mostly it’s songs we’ve written together there is a few of them that were written before the band came together. “Discovery” was written before I came into the band and was a song I auditioned with. There’s not really any type of theme to this album except life and death.

Does history inspire your lyrics — specifically on the song “Calat Alhambra”?

That’s right! It’s about the conquering of Spain by Queen Isabella and Ferdinand. I’m really into European history, especially Spanish history because my mom is from Spain. I did some research on Isabella long ago and I really wanted to put it to music. Queen Isabella sent Christopher Columbus (1492 voyage) ... she did all this stuff and a lot of people don’t realize that she was a warrior queen wearing full armor on horseback leading her army to conquer Spain. History is very inspirational. But I also like things beyond the norm. I’m into things that are weird, different and crazy.

How was working with Raven frontman John Gallagher, who makes an appearance on the album’s title track as a duet with you?

Our producer Kevin (Gutierrez) did a Raven album and knows John personally and they hang out. So when he mentioned him ... I’ve never listened to Raven but when I listened to them, I thought they were awesome. John was amazing. We had such a great time hanging out with him. Originally, we were going to have another friend of mine to sing a duet with me on the album but he didn’t follow through. That’s when Kevin brought up John Gallagher but his voice wasn’t going to fit on the song that we had planned. So we thought, ‘What about “Out of the Darkness”? That’s a great song for John Gallagher,’ So we split it up in two parts and it just worked out perfectly.

What’s next for A Sound Of Thunder? What do you hope to achieve?

We’d like to go on tour. We’d like to put out several more albums. We already have the next album written and we’re going to record in several weeks. We have a lot of dates booked. We’re pretty much hoping that eventually we can put out enough music that people will actually like enough that we can do this for a living. That’s pretty much the dream.

Interviewed by Kelley Simms