Pic courtesy of: Rocknica "We had to take that time so that our new singer, no let me correct that, so that we can fit into our new singer, Jefferson’s style of voice, if you haven’t notice his voice is very different from what we used to sound"

CR: Roberto, how are you?
Roberto Pana: Fine thanks

CR: Roberto a couple of weeks back I got a change to catch Mantra in El RetroVisor (September 25, 2005 ), was that gig the return of Mantra to the metal scene?
Roberto Pana: No, the return sort of speak was in Peres Zeledón, a couple of weeks back, and it was pretty good if I may said do, more than 200 people showed up, and you know that for Perez that’s a lot of people in a metal concert (This interview was done in the middle of October 2005)

CR: How much time were you guys away from the stage?
Roberto Pana: Let me see…the last gig we played, was opening for Anthrax back in March, so pretty much 6 months we were away; we had to take that time so that our new singer, no let me correct that, so that we can fit into our new singer, Jefferson’s style of voice, if you haven’t notice his voice is very different from what we used to sound; and of course we were preparing the new material, Begin to Burn, have you heard the song we placed early this month in our web site?

CR: Yeah I have
Roberto Pana: Well we kind of put that there so that people could begin to realize that there is a change in Mantra.

CR: Why don’t you explain that style change please? Mantra used to be a symbol for costarrican death metal
Roberto Pana: Well we used to said that we were death/thrash metal now we are more into thrash, in fact we go from thrash to heavy, not to death so is kind of a big change.

CR: Why don’t you talk to us about the new material?
Roberto Pana: Well, I know this is going to sound a little cliché but is true, this work is definitely a big progress for the band, we are working and creating better material, from a musical point of view, a little more complex rhythms, if you listen carefully to our new single “Fifth Dimension” you can hear a more united and solid band, is like this, someone that is not into death metal can hear this and like it I think, is more melodic and easy to understand, that of course doesn’t mean we are selling out.

CR: Since you brought that Topic up, what do you think of this sequence of events: a band begins with a lot of anger, their music is full of anger and is just fast and hard, but then the guys in the band start to grow up as musicians an the band begins to play more professional and melodic music, and a lot of fans start to hate the band for it.
Roberto Pana: (Laughs) Yeah is something that happens, but for example Morbid Angel, no body cant deny that those guys are very professionals and mature musicians, but in their own way, I think that if we had stayed with our old sound we would eventually mature in it, but we wanted to go a different direction, and we did.

CR: Where are you guys recording this new album?
Roberto Pana: In Audio Arte Studios

CR: How are our national recording studios to record metal?
Roberto Pana: Well that studio is the best one, even people from Cuba come to record there, if you look at it, it has everything you need to work in it. The only thing that Audio Arte is lacking is a more metal expertise engineer, but still the guy we are working with is very good, is one of those professionals that is always trying to do the best, and that is always very good motivation for us.

CR: When did you guys started to record this album?
Roberto Pana: Well, a month ago we recorded Fifth Dimension and in approximately 15 days, we have to go back and record more tracks, this record has to be finish by the end of this year.

CR: Is there any record label behind this effort?
Roberto Pana: No, this record is some sort of a vengeance for all the things that happened to us in the past, for example we worked for two records with a Mexican record company “Denver”, we recorded for them “Un mundo decadente” and “Planeta Odio” both at the same time, but when the whole job was finished they never fulfill their part of the deal, they just robed us, and I’m not afraid at all to said this, because it happened. After that big disappointment we cant really complain, we worked with Subterranean Production, and they really help us out with our album Creature; this company is the one directed by Victor Mora, the guy how brought Helloween and Therion to Costa Rica, he putt it together in Colombia and master it in USA, it had quite a good distribution. But for this one we wanted to work on our own, to see how does it goes, you know we are tired of working with little companies, that keep all the money.

	Pic courtesy of: Mantra "This record is some sort of a vengeance for all the things that happened to us in the past, for example we worked for two records with a Mexican record company “Denver”, we recorded for them “Un mundo decadente” and “Planeta Odio” both at the same time, but when the whole job was finished they never fulfill their part of the deal, they just robed us"

CR: How does it feel to be in a band of over 16 years of existence?
Roberto Pana: I feel very proud of the band, of everything we have achieved, tried and dare to do in all this years, we have had the courage to do things no other band in this country has done, and is really a shame because I see great bands with incredible talent like Decembers Cold Winter, Alastor or Acero, bands that I will personally would like to see out there, going to other places where maybe they will be appreciated.
I’m very satisfied by everything this band has done, the tours, the albums and the great amount of experiences that we have had all over this years, even the bad experiences have made us a better band ¡Total satisfaction my man!, of course when I began in metal I dreamed that maybe one day I will be riding in a limo, living in a five stars hotel (laughs)

CR: What do you miss the most of the beginning?
Roberto Pana: Uhmmm, good question, it will have to be the feeling of having no limits but my imagination, I mean back then I though we could reach the stars, but now and not in a bitter tune, I know that there are things we could never achieve.
Now I know my own limits, I know exactly where do I began and were do I end, the time of becoming a multi mega superstar is gone now, I know we can never be a phenomenon like Kiss, and sell millions and millions of albums, that time has passed and the market this days is saturated with bands like Mantra, the competition between many talents is very hard this days, and the ones that make it is because they have something to offer to the market.
I have seen amazing bands that never make it out of the underground scene, but I’m very pleased with what the band has done and the places that we have reached with our music, is so cool to see someone in another city, another country wearing one of our shirts.

CR: What part of that are you happy to have left behind?
Roberto Pana: To be afraid of making mistakes, at the beginning I was so afraid of screwing things up in stage, but now days I don’t think about that, I get up there with a better sense of calm and professionalism.

CR: How was it to play with Anthrax?
Roberto Pana: Oh, very good, but to be completely honest with you, we enjoyed way more to play with Kreator, those guys sat with us, talked to us, we had a good time together, they even gave me some tips on the drums, on the contrary the Anthrax guys were very pretentious, they placed a wall between our dressing room and theirs, quite annoying behavior, after that I wasn’t very interested in meeting them.

CR: Do you think that this behavior that you just described from the guys of Anthrax has something to do with the fact that they are from the USA and the other ones are European; do you think that there are a lot of cultural differences in the metal scene between those to concepts, U.S.A and Europe?
Roberto Pana: I think so, yeah, because those two bands Anthrax and Kreator have almost the same amount of time of existence, but you can tell that the Germans (Kreator) are way more polite than the Anthrax guys. If you actually look at it a little deeper, you will find out that the Anthrax guys came from a band or had a band called SOD, which was a totally racist and fascist band, but when they are asked about this, they try to deny it, but you can easily see were they are coming from. I wasn’t sure of this but now that I know Scott Ian, I can see were all the criticism came from, they were very pretentious on and off stage.

CR: Why do you think this behavior or difference of behavior between European and USA bands?
Roberto Pana: I thinks is because Kreator in this case, they have nothing to prove they just came to Costa Rica to play and to have a good time, you have to communicate with the audience, be at the same level as they, never to look down on them. But even if I didn’t have a good experience with the Anthrax guys, I have to admit that they are amazing musicians.

CR: How many concerts do you guys have planned for this year?
Roberto Pana: Well right now we are going full throttle, in October we have 5 gigs, in November another 5 gigs, in December we have to go to Puerto Rico, in January we are in El Diablo Fest touring all though Central America and we go to Mexico in March.

CR: Mantra have had a lot of musicians coming and going, your line up is not what I can say stable, don’t you think this has affected the projection the band could have?
Roberto Pana: No, not really, I think that with every new band member Mantra just grows and transforms but always in a good way.

	Pic courtesy of: Mantra "We enjoyed way more to play with Kreator, those guys sat with us, talked to us, we had a good time together, they even gave me some tips on the drums, on the contrary the Anthrax guys were very pretentious"

CR: Which Mantra album is your favorite, and which one would you recommend to someone who wants to listen to you for the first time?
Roberto Pana: It depends really, but to me Autonemesis is the best record that we have, and to someone that wants to listen to us for the first time it will be Creature.

CR: I really like From a decadent World, what can you tell me of this album?
Roberto Pana: Funny story, we recorded that album when we were very naive in the music business, the producer of that record said to us that he had worked with Running Wild and Scorpions (maybe mopping the floors) he put me to record my drums in just an awful setting, that’s why  the whole album sounds like a video game special effect. The whole process of that recording was a real shame, we had some good material but it just came out wrong in the studio, if I could I will go back and recorded someplace else….ironically, many people have said the same to me, that they like it a lot.

CR: Who writes what? And who does what?
Roberto Pana: Ok, in the writing and composition of the songs I have a lot to say, in the writing of the lyrics to, I know is kind of weird to have a drummer in the middle of every composition work, but there I’m. Right now Adrián Aguilera and I are working in writing the songs and Jefferson is making the lyrics.

CR: With what band World you like to go on tour right now?
Roberto Pana: Right now…Arch Enemy or Dimmu Borgir, I got another name but I forgot… a lot of bands believe me.

CR: What is Mantra's future in Costa Rica?
Roberto Pana: I really don’t know, I just hope that with our new album the rock fans will listen to us, and I hope we get to be placed in the national radio stations a lot more.

CR: What do you think of the whole Mp3 trading scenario?
Roberto Pana: I believe that music is art, and I really don’t think that a true artist writes music with money on their mind, they write music because they love to do so; I’m a very strong supporter of piracy.

CR: Well Roberto thank you very much for the time, hope everything goes as plan for Mantra
Roberto Pana: Thank you for the opportunity