Tantric Inspired by Visiting Troops in Korea

Moved by stories of the Iraq war, Tantric frontman Hugo Ferreira cried frequently when visiting the troops in Korea.

"We did a 10-day tour in Korea and it was really fun," Ferreira said during an interview with Noisecreep. "A lot of those guys had just gotten back from Iraq; some of them were going. I look forward to doing the Middle East, too. Hopefully that opportunity comes up. It was a really great experience and kind of life changing, actually, because you just have a whole different level of respect and appreciation. You can't really understand it until you're there. They're great people. I cried, like, every other day."

That experience inspired the title track from Tantric's forthcoming album, 'Mind Control,' due in stores August 4. A former Detroit-area resident who lives in Louisville, Ky., Ferreira said he named the Brett Hestla-produced record such because the song and the video "sets up the color of this record."

"This record is a lot darker than anything we have ever done," Ferreira said of the music. "Basically, I wrote the song about the media kind of controlling people's opinions and thoughts and stuff like that. Just from being on the side of the viewer of me watching television and seeing the news and flying out to Korea and talking with troops out there and getting their take on it and being completely different. That's what the song was about. The song, even musically, and with the video we already shot, it sets up the whole tone of the record. I thought it would be a cool name. Plus there's so much cool artwork that you can go on tangents with that."

The album was written piecemeal, as the band members live in different parts of the United States. Tantric, formed from the ashes of platinum acoustic rock band Days of the New, includes Joe Pessia (guitars), Erik Leonhardt (bass and vocals), Marcus Ratzenboeck (violin) and Richie Monica (drums).

"I write all the lyrics and, as far as the songwriting process goes, some of the songs I wrote by myself," said Ferreira, whose band begins its world tour in July. "This record, I feel, was more collaborative. Even though none of us were in the same city, it was all like via e-mail. Basically Joe would send me a guitar riff on the e-mail and I would dump it into my home studio and kind of slice it up and put it together, and maybe add a chorus. It was put together like a puzzle. But with the instrumentation, I think that the guys, in my mind, really stepped up to the plate and gave me a lot of great stuff to work with. I never really wrote a record like this. But, to me, I think it's the best one we've ever done. It was crazy because it was really effortless. It's great."