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| I have heard this band and what they are doing is something very special, great muscianship, wonderful female vox, and strong gothic atmosphere, this band proves Bandung metal is a varied scene indeed |
My interview with Dadi, Eful and Jati of VICTORIAN (Ujung Berung, Bandung symphonic metal, female vox)
By Kieran James
Email Interview, 8 January 2012
Kieran James: First tell us the band history, like when you start and who are the members?
Victorian: Victorian formed in Bandung Indonesia on 1 January 2008, after each of its personnel decided to leave the band and form Victorian. With male vocalist as their first year concept, Victorian tried to build their existence as an acknowledged band by performing in some events held by some community in Bandung. In the second year, some members decided to quit the band and the remaining member’s college activity had caused Victorian’s dead faint from 2009 until the beginning of the year 2010. In the middle of 2010, Victorian rebuilt their existence as an intact band with female vocalist as their new concept. With the existence of a different character, their concept underwent some changes that made their songs realized.
Current Members: Agus Jati – Drums (2008 – present), Dadi – Guitars (2008 – present), Eful – Bass / Growl (2008 – present).
Live Members: Puspallia – Vocals, Teni – Vocals, Emon – Drums (a person that will [switch with] Jati’s position if he can’t [play]).
Studio Members: Puspallia – Vocals, Dice – Keyboards.
KJ: I heard your songs, it is very interesting, I'm an old school metal fan, I would call your style dark power-metal with death and clean female vox. Your music is very atmospheric and powerful. What style do you call it?
V: Actually, we don’t play power metal. Music that we play is symphonic gothic metal/symphonic metal. Yes, we admit that gothic has a lot of variation/subgenres, but we only play gothic genre with classical music, soprano/semi seriosa vocal in it, sometimes with middle tempo such as our first single, “Beginning of Sorrow” and sometimes with fast tempo and mix with power metal style such as our second single “Weak”.
KJ: How is progress for your demo or album?
V: We have released two “free to be shared” demo singles while working on some recordings for other songs. In the near future we’re planning on releasing an EP.
KJ: Why you like to play this type of music?
V: We like a lot of music genres such as rock, classic rock, modern metal, old-school metal, and we also like classical music, pop, etc. We like passionate songs but we also like those which are dark, gloomy, romantic, atmospheric, etc. And we think the symphonic and gothic metal are genres that have wide ranges which can represent themes that we like.
KJ: I’m very interested to hear the answer to this question, what are your main music influences?
V: For us, playing gothic music doesn’t mean that we should be inspired by other gothic bands. We just try to [induce] effect by giving everything to our music. All genres are our influences. But the biggest influence is classical music particularly in baroque era such as Antonio Vivaldi, Bach, etc, and also romanticism era such as Beethoven, Liszt, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, etc. Beside that, symphonic power metal/symphonic gothic metal such as Rhapsody of Fire, Epica, Moi Dix Mois, etc, also affected us. We also like movie soundtrack songs such as OST.Angel and Demon, Pirate and the Carribean, etc, and also game soundtrack such as Final Fantasy, Castlevania, etc.
KJ: I know Bandung is huge Death Metal City with Jasad and Bleeding Corpse and Turbidity and Jihad and many great bands. However, some Yogya musicians say their scene is more diverse due to bands such as Cranial etc. Do you see yourself as part of the Bandung death scene and do you hope to make the scene more diverse?
V: Yes, definitely Bandung has so many death metal bands. We try to give something different so that Bandung has different kind of scene and we hope we can be accepted in every kind of metal scene.
KJ: What are your goals and plans for the band?
V: Our target is for having a lot of albums, and we hope that we can have a tour concert in every part of the world ..LOL *hahaha
KJ: What jobs do you have outside of metal?
V: Our job besides playing music..hmmm..We do businesses such as mobile top-up seller, a bank worker and also a university student.
KJ: Are you into power-metal at all? I love Mystic Prophecy, HammerFall, Helloween, Gamma Ray, Ronnie Dio RIP era Rainbow and Sabbath, etc. Was dark power-metal an influence lyrically and/or musically?
V: In terms of music, we have a lot of affections [for] power metal bands such as Rhapsody of Fire, Derdian, Fairyland, Kamelot, etc.
KJ: What are your lyrics about and do you have an interest in Victorian England? I'm a student of Jack the Ripper murders [Whitechapel, East London, 1888 during Queen Victoria's reign]. If you want to do a Ripper concept album I can help.
V: In terms of lyrics, they dont have any connection with Victorian England. In our lyrics, we lift up themes such as religions, sorrow, sadness, romanticism, etc. But we are planning to try to make songs arrangements from classical music composer such as Schubert, as many of those compositions were addressed to Queen Victoria [KJ: unlike the Sex Pistols who addressed themselves to Queen Elizabeth hehehe]. We hope so.
KJ: One last question: Sometmes I ask questions not for my personal interest [embarrassed look], what is the female vocalist name and is she single?
V: Her name is Puspa. And she is single.
