Process of Guilt | Interview with Hugo Santos

Inspired by the failures of mankind PROCESS OF GUILT have created the most accomplished and raging album of their career. Proud of the new effort and determined to make 2012 their biggest year yet, guitarist and vocalist Hugo Santos tells all to Scratch the Surface.

It’s been three years since your last album “Erosion”, how does it feel to have “Fæmin” finally out? 

We're really glad to finally have a new album out, but it's important to state that we didn't spent the last three years making it. We only started writing what would become «Fæmin» in the beginning of 2011 and it was a hard working process, since we basically started from scratch, but that gave us the opportunity to compose a strong and concise album from start to finish. Given the experience provided by our last releases, «Fæmin» is, the album that took us less time since we entered the studio until the moment it was released. It was also our most concise experience regarding production. We only took about one or two months for all the recording, mixing and mastering, somewhere between last September and October. Nevertheless, it's always a good and positive feeling to have the record out. 

«Fæmin» has been out for almost a month now, how has the response been from fans and critics? 

So far, the feedback has been great, considering the response we are getting from fans and media. It's been stated as a kind of "departure" from our previous work and somehow we agree with this, since we really feel like we have upgraded our vision towards our own music with this release. I reckon that it's not an easy record to get into, nor are the feelings that we're trying to express through «Fæmin». But, I believe that once the listeners really get into what we're trying to convey they will see this effort as a step forward for us. 

Can you tell me what the title means and what it represents to you? 

We look at «Fæmin» – or famine – through the lens of starvation, scarcity, representing the maximum state of decay of the human being. It represents also the ultimate level in which the human being can’t ensure his own subsistence, the failure of mankind as a whole, even our own personal failure. We use music to express and deal with our own feelings, anxieties, anger and concerns, what we conceive as our personal vision of what surrounds us, kind of a “personal catharsis”. With «Fæmin» we tried to express those same feelings while adopting the title's definition as the main theme running throughout the album. 

Read full interview here.

Luca Niero