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Violent Divine interview in Mundo Rock
Q: What's the meaning of Violent Divine?
A: Everything that we ever wanted in a band; Our favourite music, our favourite songs and the best friends making it all come true. Literally it is a name that can mean everything - a contradiction in itself that the divine could be violent, even though of course the divine - as in history of religion from time to time can be rather violent... or it's simply a game with words.
Q: How will you define as a singer? Which are your main influences?
A: The singer in the band should be the ultimate show-off and present the main attitude of the band. Not necessarily the one with the best vocal skills, even though that might be preferred of course. I have so many different influences like Jonny Rotten of The Sex Pistols, Don Henley of The Eagles, Scott Weiland of STP/Velvet Revolver, Shirley Manson of Garbage, James Dean Bradfield of The Manic Street Preachers... I could go on forever.
Q: How was the process of the recording of VD's debut album? Since every member likes very differents kinds of music, how will you agree to make that great album?
A: This band exist on a fundamental ground of our love for heavy metal and hard rock music. The only musical difference is that we like different bands from different sub-genres. I think it's the mix of all those influences that we bring into the songs and the band that becomes Violent Divine. Music is a very vital form of expression and genres mix every day which I think is good. Lots of rock bands use beat loops, computerized music or symphony orchestras. There are basically no rules. We recorded the album in 8 days so you could say that we never had any doubts about where we were heading musically.
Q: Did you like the debut album? What's your favorite song and why?
A: We don´t like the album, we LOVE the album! This is the album we always wanted to buy. It is the greatest hits in influences from our personal record collection, the summary of nearly 3 decades of rock and roll attitude.
If I have to pick one I'd pick the opening song "Let´s go" because it sort of kickstarts the album and the video we made for the song is a KILLER!!
Q: Why did you choose Chavis Records?
A: We had quite a few offers from various labels from Europe and the US but we choose Chavis mostly for their genuine passion for the genre and of course that they were able to make us an offer we couldn't refuse. All that in the middle of christmas time of 2005.
Q: For some reason, Sweden has become in a paradise of hard and heavy, everyday born many good new bands, what's the reason of that?
A: The hard climate must be one of the major reasons. It's cold and dark most of the year so people stay indoors making music and rehearsing. I guess we had lots of hard rock bands doin great world wide over the years. When Europe hit big in the states in the 80´s, that meant a lot to our native rock scene. Bands like Treat, 220 volt were suddenly at the top of the charts. Today, bands like Backyard Babies, Hellacopters, Clawfinger to mention a few, are all selling a huge amount of albums world wide and many new bands are standing in line to follow in their footsteps.
Q: What do you think of internet? It's a good way of promo for bands like yours?
A: Thanks to internet we've been able to promote Violent Divine all over the planet while we still can keep the integrity of an independant band. I'd say that without the Internet we'd still be rehearsing in a garage and nobody would ever have heard of Violent Divine.
Q: Best Tour Bus Or Road Story?
A: Violent Divine on tour is always a disaster in traffic jams, not finding directions in places we never been. We are a bunch of males that in a very male fashion refuse to consult maps or GPS, so we constantly go in the wrong direction of one-way-streets and break lots of traffic laws while yelling "sorry". Lots of nerve-wrecking fun.
Q: What are the bands you are being on tour with? Which are the band you want to tour with?
A: We have been fortunate to share the stage with lots of bands with great rock and roll attitude. I think rock bands in general is like a big family. We all support each other. It´d be fun to tour with Motley Crue since they seem to know how to party, but I guess most rock bands could go on that wish list, Motorhead, Kiss, Velvet Revolver...
Q: Can you tell us any funny story happened onstage/backstage?
A: Catching the band backstage just before going on stage is an odd experience. We are very different in how we build up steam to go on stage. Mike likes to have a quiet minute in solitude while Klaus yells at the top of his lungs. Q plays a lot on his guitar, while Gus wanders around doing all kind of crazy things. It's like "are you a band or what?" After the show it's a different thing. Everyone is totally energized by the performance, shouting and running around. People think we're mad as hell.
Q: Are you planning to play in LatinoAmerica?
A: We are alway prepared to get up and get out there to do our rock'n roll duty and we'd definately love to tour Latin America, specially this time of the year when we have all this snow and you have all the sun and pretty grrls. Violent Divine is currently touring Scandinavia and will continue to do so for a couple of months but there are plans of shipping the band to the US and from there if might just be possible to go down south. Let's keep our fingers crossed.
Q: What's next for VD?
A: We try to keep busy. The scandinavian tour is moving us throughout the neighbourhood and we do a lot of interviews for radio, TV and magazines. We'll also make a sort of homecoming show in our home town which I know will turn out to be a great party with lots of friends. The album was recently released in Japan which means that we might be making plans for a longer trip. Whatever we do, we want to keep bringing our Violent Divine gospel to the world.
Author: Diego Ramirez - MundoRock.org
The spanish version of the interview at Mundo Rock
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