Interview by Geno McGahee
Desoluna is a goth-metal band from Sweden that has been gaining a lot of ground and earning quite a fan base with their unique sound. With dark and melodic music, the music has an edge and a smoothness to it that has been attracting the crowds.
Scared Stiff had the chance to sit down with the band and discuss their music and what they have in store for us…
GM: Can you introduce yourself to the public? How would you describe your band, your style, your message?
Nadia: I am the main vocalist and co-founder of Desoluna. Besides me, the band consists of Patrick on guitar, backing vocals and founding member and Olle, our drummer.
Patrick: Our style is early 90s gothic/doom metal. Doom and gloom, melody and heaviness, rather than fast songs. If you play slower the music actually become much heavier than if you play fast! But we have real fast parts as well, were especially Olle has to fight real hard on his drums! The main vocals of Nadia are not the typical operatic, but more midrange rock that is unusual for our style. Sometimes she also sings high though. My vocals parts are growl, strong thrash or deep bass. Desoluna has one main message: Just when you lost hope, it can even be worse! But without hope you can give up, that is the last thing you should sacrifice. I hope our songs will give some form of relief to people who have hard times in life.
GM: What got you into music?
Nadia:I have always had an interest in music but I never really thought too much of it until I was 10 years old. I sang in the local church choir for children when I was about 7-8 years old and in the school choir as well. It was just something that grew more and more. It was a neat way to escape the everyday boredom and general feeling of alienation and loneliness I felt at the time. That and books. I was more or less aloof as a teenager and pretty much got bullied at school and my life at home was crap so I needed an outlet for everything that was boiling inside so I started playing guitar and writing lyrics. I tried the violin and piano as well.
Olle: After being in a fight as a 8 year old my music teacher dragged me into a room with drums. After that I was hooked. Got my first drumset that Christmas.
Patrick: When I was about 14 in the early 90s my classmates all listened to rock, grunge, progressive metal and gothic metal. So I got early into Paradise Lost, Metallica and Sepultura for example, borrowing cassette tapes and CDs from my mates that I copied on cassette of course, cause we couldn’t afford a CD player. Many of the guys in the class played electric guitar, that seemed like a lot of fun so I started playing as well, though I didn’t practice frequently until several years later so I was not among the “musicians” in the class, I was just decent in the subject music. But I’m sure most of these “guitar players” don’t play anymore today.
GM: What musicians/bands were your inspirations?
Nadia: Freddy Mercury! And Silvio Rodriguez, mostly for his lyrics. Linda Perry, Janis Joplin, Drain Sth, Bonnie Tyler and Skunk Anansies have all taught me about singing with originality. I got inspired by all of them.
Olle: For me Alice Cooper, Lok, and Michael Jackson was definitely the biggest influences.
Patrick: As a kid I started to record tapes of sounds and radio shows, but I wasn’t into music at all. The first rock band I listened to in the early 90s was Guns N Roses, but when I heard Metallica, and their then new, “black album” for the first time I was blown away after a few listens. Then I copied cassette tapes of Iron Maiden, Megadeth and Pink Floyd for example. And around ´93 I got into Paradise Lost’s masterpiece Icon, which later got me into Sisters of Mercy and other goth music. I borrowed tablature books from the library and learned many Metallica and Megadeth songs on guitar. But yes, as most other guitar players I started with folk songs on acoustic guitar, like Blowing in the wind and Amazing Grace, later to continue with House of the rising sun and then into metal.
GM: Talk about your latest album. What should the public expect?
Nadia: To feel with us. To share our pain and pleasure
Olle: As little as possible. Or anything. Be vigilant
Patrick: Pure darkness and doom. The recording process was really a long-lasting pain so we can promise the suffering you can hear is real! And it is embraced by a lot of melody, cause without melody music becomes boring to listen to. Except for that, be surprised! The album, our EP, is called “Rejection of Rejoice” and there are just a few copies left. You can buy it directly from the band, just pm us on facebook. Visit our website: desoluna.com.
GM: What has been the best experience you’ve had being in the business?
Nadia: Ha, didn´t know we are actually in some business. Maybe shady ones perhaps?
Olle: Last gig we had in Halmstad someone threw a rubber-dildo up on stage. After we had played our last song I played a drumsolo with it
Patrick: The gig in Halmstad together with Lamashtu some years ago was really great, a lot of people showed up.
GM: What has been the worst experience you’ve had?
Nadia: All the empty talk by empty people
Olle: Alcohol free gigs
Patrick: The recording of our new EP with a completely crazy producer and several serious technical setbacks made the recording process really slow…
It has also happened that my equipment (pedals and cables mostly) stopped working in the middle of a live show, that is really annoying. But it didn’t happen since I bought more expensive cables.
GM: With the changing mediums in the distribution of music, how difficult is it to make a living in the business?
Olle: It´s easy as long as you are in no way dependent on money.
Nadia: Well, we sure haven´t made any money out of this or we wouldn´t have day jobs. But the means to distribute the music are a bit more democratic. In the sense that anyone can put up their work in most streaming sites and get people to listen to it. It proves that you don´t always need a big record company behind you and music is generally way more accessible to everybody. Generally, when you are a underground band like us, it´s more of a financial loss than anything else since you pay way more than you earn. So you really need to have passion for this.
Patrick: Don’t even try! Just play on the free time because it is fun, and if you put a lot of energy and time, tour a lot and have loads of luck you might be able to survive, if you have some other incomes as well. If you have fun doing it the chances to success might increase a lot!
GM: Any final thoughts?
Don´t get lost in the mist or you´ll meet us.
Olle: My final Thoughts are most likely going to something like “Whats the worst thing that can happen?”.
Patrick: No, this is the end. So don’t miss our new EP, Rejection of Rejoice!
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LEARN MORE ABOUT THE BAND – CLICK HERE
