Metal Bulletin Zine #162 Washington state, U.S. January 13, 2019 (no.2 in Jan.) www.metalbulletin.blogspot.com www.twitter.com/MetalBulletinZn www.facebook.com/The-Metal-Bulletin-paper-zine-238441519609213/ special issue dedicated to DRACENA (Sweden)

issues of this zine are available online at: www.fuglymaniacs.com

interview: Dracena

This is an interview with Dracena, extreme metal from Sweden that began in

1994. The interview has been done in segments. The person answering the

interview is Mia, who is the creative force behind Dracena. The objective is to

do an extensive interview that covers the past and present of Dracena. First,

here is a review of Dracena.

REVIEW

Dracena’s latest album Cursed to the Night (2017), which could be described

as fast and melodic black thrash with a solid production, will, I hope, impress

any metal supporter that wants, above all, headbanging songs. Comprised of

eight songs, and clocking in just under 40 minutes, Dracena’s mastermind Mia

Larsson apparently is just as impatient as anyone else, and she decided that

the album must, absolutely must, be on point, must waste no time, get to the

headbanging metal quickly, and when the song is finished, end it, and move

on. There is no weirdo experimentation, no spoken-word passages, no ambient

meditation segments, no big political declarations about the environment or

politicians or whatever; there is one minute of quiet intro, and then it’s off to the

races until the end, and then there are thirty seconds of outro, and it’s all over,

and it’s time play it again.

Dracena is traditional extreme metal with the songwriting spirit of traditional

heavy metal and thrash, along the lines of fast and headbanging black thrash.

By the same token, if you already know that traditional heavy metal, classic-

style thrash and traditional black metal are genres that you enjoy, then

Dracena will be of interest if you’d like to hear a combination of these elements

together as a coherent sound aimed straight at everyone into loud and proud

metal music.

The riffs are based on ideas about what headbanging metal the Dracena way

should be, which is an already established sound due to the fact that it was

more than 20 years ago that Dracena started in Sweden. Many things have

changed since the old days, people have come and gone, times of inactivity,

but along the way the identity consolidated around an emphasis on speed,

high energy and fast melody. If you are new to Dracena, but you are looking

for an album that can draw you in as a participant, not a spectator, then

consider this work. What does this mean, participant, not spectator? Dracena is

not here to try to fool you and make you supposedly marvel at the so-called

amazing talent. It’s not talent, like some sort of gift from nature. It’s sweat, skill

and hard work. You, too, can learn to play metal like this, as long as you have

this stubborn singlemindedness of purpose to do it for years and years. The

difference is that Dracena has been sharpening the tools of the trade for a long

time and the execution of the ideas is very good. It takes time to arrive at this

sound and do it well. Dracena’s sound did not just show up out of the blue.

You can understand this music. You can hear the riffs, the drums and the

vocals. You can do air guitar or real guitar to the solos. There is no mystery here:

hard work in the art of the mighty metal riff. You can dedicate your attention to

the album knowing that Mia and friends (Jocke on drums and Unleashed’s Fred

on solos) understand people who listen to metal to bang their heads.

INTERVIEW

First of all, where online can people hear the new album Cursed to the Night? Is

there a way to hear the complete recording at this point?

Cursed to the Night as well as Dracena’s other two albums is available in full

version on most of the digital services such as Spotify, iTunes, Amazon Music,

Deezer and Pandora. Some of the earlier demos can be found at YouTube.

Now, what about getting a copy of the cd?

The older albums and merchandise can be ordered from

http://dracena.tictail.com/

All the albums as well as the limited ed. cassette for Cursed to the Night can be

ordered from our current label Infernö Records https://www.inferno-records.net

There is also a limited ed. on cassette of our album Ravenous Bloodlust recently

released by Unholy Fire Records - http://www.unholyfire-records.com/

Who is the personnel on the album?

The studio line up for Cursed to the Night is me on vocals, rhythm guitars and

bass, Jocke on drums and Fredrik Folkare (Unleashed, Firespawn, Dead

Kosmonaut) on lead guitars. We also have a guest appearance on vocals for

one of the tracks from Ola Malmström (Sorcery).

The album sounds good to the ear and it sounds professional. Where did you

record it? How has the experience of learning to record your albums been for

you?

I am very pleased with the sound and production of Cursed to the Night.

Everyone involved has done a great job and given a personal touch to the

album Cursed to the Night was recorded in three different studios: All drums

was recorded and played by Jocke at MediEvil Studios (Uppsala) where the

additional vocals on “The Shadow of What Once Was” was also recorded lead

solos and melodies was recorded and played by Fredrik Folkare at Chrome

Studios (Stockholm). Rhythm guitars, bass and vocals was recorded by Pontus

”Punchy” Ekwall at Studio Cave (Fagersta) and he also mixed and mastered

the whole album.

This far I have used different studios for each album. When I choose a studio I

look at sound, recommendations and location. I listen to earlier recordings from

selected studios to evaluate if it will fit the sound I am looking for and ask friends

if they can recommend a studio and if the studio technician is cool to work

with. After I’ve chosen a studio I present a selection of references of what kind

of sound I’ll expect to hear in the finished production.

To me it’s important that once we’re in the studio, everyone involved in the

recording will get along well with each other to be able to produce the best

possible version of the album, to be creative and to make suggestions to

enhance the songs and to have a good time.

On the album you play rhythm guitars, bass and did vocals. When did you pick

up the bass and decided to take care of the bass responsibilities for your

recordings? When you play bass what type of rhythms or tones or sounds are

looking for?

I started to play the bass out of necessity for the first album, Infernal Damnation,

simply because I had no bass player at the time. I usually only practise the bass

before I go to the studio, 4-6 months of rehearsal, as guitar is my main

instrument.

My main goal with the bass is to make a depth in the song and differ the bass

notes from the guitar riffs, because just following the guitar makes a very thin

sound experience.

You have been playing guitar for a long

time. What is the first instrument that you

practiced? Were you a child or a bit older, like

in adolescence, when you began playing

an instrument? For guitar, do you remember

what or who inspired you to play guitar?

The first instrument I played seriously was the

violin, I guess I was about 8 years old. After

that I had a small synthesizer for a couple of

years and I bought my first guitar at 13. I think

the reason I switched to guitar was because I was already into heavy metal but

also because we recently obtained cable TV and a bunch of cool late night

shows like Headbanger’s Ball and The Power Hour/Raw Power. I probably had a

collective inspiration source from all my favourite bands to pick up that guitar

and start to write my own songs.

What kind of music did your parents play in the house when you were a child?

Being Swedish, did your parents like ABBA, Europe or Heavy Load?!

There was a wide diversity of music at home when I grew up, everything from

ABBA, Elvis, The Sweet and Rolling Stones to Creedence Clearwater Revival,

Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton. 70’s disco and 80’s pop on the radio and my

friends listened to black rock or punk or metal.

When you were a teenager what

was happening in music that

interested you in particular?

Were you around for the

explosion of Swedish extreme

metal in the late 80s and early

1990s?

In the early 80’s some of the first

metal videos I recall that really

made an impression was Kiss’

Heaven’s on Fire, Twisted Sister’s

We’re not gonna take it and

Queen’s I want to Break Free. I

was really fascinated both by the bands images and their music.

In school we used to tape trade and record vinyl albums to cassette from each

other and I got hold of a cassette recording of WASP - Animal Fuck like a Beast.

From there it went on with all the bands around at the time. I used to buy

English and American rock magazines and make special orders at the local

vinyl store to import the latest albums of bands I’ve seen on the TV rock shows.

In the early 90’s I lived in Gothenburg and became more familiar with the

extreme metal scene around at the time, mostly through friends in the

Gothenburg scene like Swordmaster, Decameron, Sacramentum, Dissection,

Lord Belial, etc.

When it comes to music, metal is the genre which is closest to my soul,

something that will make it bleed and crave to create my own songs. The

metal bands that will always live on in my eternity are the bands from the 70’s

and 80’s, which had a huge impact on my evilution and has been with me for

most of my life.

Staying in the 80s for a minute, did you listen to the complete albums by Kiss,

Twisted Sister and WASP and other bands after you watched those famous

videos? Were your friends excited about this music at the time or were you

pretty much alone getting into it?

Me and my friends used to listen to all the great bands of the time, there was

always someone who had purchased the latest album which could be

recorded on cassette and traded, weather it was the whole album or a best of

tape of a collection. In my school there were a few metal heads in different

classes, but we used to get together during breaks and hang out and talk

about the bands and albums, what was new and trade cassettes, VHS and

posters and stuff.

What did your parents think about it?! I mean, WASP, and stuff, you know?! They

must have thought you were going off the deep end!

As I can remember my parents took it pretty well and didn’t have any

particular problem either with my choice of music or my choice of clothing and

hair style. My room was covered in posters and pictures from different bands

and idols and at one time I even painted a huge portrait of one of my favourite

bands right on the wall with water colours. That was not too popular at first, I

recall. But they have always been very supportive to my interest although it

turned out to be quite extreme.

Is the 1980s your favorite era of Kiss? Have you gone back to listen to the earlier

Twisted Sister albums? Of course, WASP had a great run of albums in the 80s,

too, right? How do you feel about those old albums now?!

Actually, I am more a fan of the 70’s and early 80s Kiss albums, up to the

Creatures of the Night album and also some of their solo albums and spawn off

bands. I still listen mostly to anything recorded pre-90s, whatever the genre,

simply because that’s the kind of metal I love the most! Then there are some of

those bands still active today which have made truly amazing recordings in the

last decades and survived with the torch held high. The WASP 80s album

releases are each a favourite, different from each other and yet held together

by that unique sound like so many of the other great 80s bands used to have,

like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Accept etc.

So what happens after those bands? Did you become interested in thrash at all?

Where does your interest in metal music take you after bands like Twisted

Sister?

In the mid-80s my best friend used to listen to Kreator, Metallica, Anthrax and

Megadeth, but I was more interested in Mötley Crüe, Ozzy and Alice Cooper

before I got into thrash and speed and later on introduced to the early black

metal scene.

When did you hear that some students from school are starting to form bands?

Did any friends show you their demos at the time, inspired by the big successful

metal of the time, like Judas Priest?

In the city where I grew up the local scene was not big and the bands did not

play heavy metal but more hardcore, punk or rock.

When did you hear that there were demo bands in Stockholm? Is anyone you

know getting those Stockholm demos at the time, getting those cassette tapes?

It wasn’t until I moved to Gothenburg in the beginning of the 90s that I got

more connected to the underground scene, simply because most of my

friends’ bands were still unsigned. I didn’t have a lot of contact with any

Stockholm-based band except for occasional meetings at mutual friend’s

parties.

So, as you go from being a fan of metal music, excited by WASP, and later, by

the crop of quality bands in Gothenburg, like Sacramentum and Swordmaster,

at a time when Dissection is also getting international attention, what are you

thinking then? What do you? Are you thinking: Hey, I need to start a band, too!

Do you have a plan?

The idea of forming a band and specifically with all girls, (if possible), surfaced

in 1993-1994, when almost all of our male friends got signed and started to

release their first or second albums on major labels. Which they played loud

and proud at every party. I already rehearsed with some girls since a few years

back but that “band” was more a thing to get together and play an instrument

than any serious attempt to launch a metal band. So we made a few line-up

changes and began to write our own songs.

Later, how do you start finding friends who want to form a band? Where do you

find friends for a band? At school? in the neighborhood? Is it difficult to find the

right people for a band?

I asked female friends at parties if they had an interest in playing in a band, but

it took some time to form a lasting line-up, mainly because most of them had

never played an instrument. The greatest challenge was to learn how to play.

Luckily, we shared rehearsal room with some other bands and had access to a

good back line, so it wasn’t necessary to buy a lot of equipment in the

beginning. After we finally had settled for a line-up we started to write the

material for the first demo.

By the way, do you know what you want your music to sound like at this time?

Or, are you mostly just interested in making some noise with some friends, but

there’s no style in mind that you are aiming for?

We all definitely wanted to play metal, extreme metal. We rehearsed as often

as we could, not necessarily the whole band, sometimes just me and the

drummer, or whomever was available. There was a good mix of different

genres between us and we each had different favourite bands we got our

influences from. All of the members contributed with material for the songs and

that’s probably why it gave the early demos such a unique sound.

Was Dracena your first band or were you in other bands early on? Were you in

other not-so-serious garage bands early on?

Dracena was the first band constellation we had a name on, before Dracena it

was mostly just a get together and play whatever cover was interesting, or sit

home and play alone.

How did you decide on the name Dracena? At the time, did you record any of

those early sessions? Do you have tapes of those early sessions?

At first we had a lot of different names, most of them already taken, and finally

we settled for Dracena - which originates from the Greek word Drakaina,

meaning She-dragon. Dragons are my favourite creature so it was just perfect.

I still have all the rehearsal recordings on cassette, some promo material we

recorded on porta studio and a bunch of live shows on VHS.

Then in 1997 there is the first Dracena demo! Where did you record it? It must

have been exciting to have the demo out for people to hear?

1997 we decided it was time to record the first demo. Three songs and a cover

of Venom’s “In League with Satan” were chosen and we booked a studio in a

town north of Gothenburg which was frequently used by the Swedish west

coast underground metal bands, Studio Lobster.

At this demo all the instruments were recorded live and then we added the

vocals on a second track and we also had backing vocals from Peter of

Dissection and Terror from Sacramentum. It was pressed in a limited edition of

100 copies on cassette, very exciting to, at last, have a real demo recording!

Do you remember the reaction in your city? Were you playing house parties at

this time? Were you playing shows in the city, like at bars at this time?

As I recall it, most friends and fans thought it was cool that there was a band

with an all-girl line-up playing some kind of metal. There was also a lot of

attention from zines and even the bigger magazines which gave us a lot of

support already early on. Every show we played the place was always packed

with people. We had several gigs in Gothenburg and the surrounding cities, in

Germany and also at the (in-)famous 2 Heavy 4 You festival in Falkenberg,

where Root and Deströyer 666 made their first gigs in Sweden and Nifelheim

had their first gig ever.

I’ve never played any house party, except for a local MC Club, if that counts?

Usually the show was a metal club or a bar with a scene and we supported

bands like Lord Belial, Siebenbürgen, Ancient, Agathodaimon and

Sacramentum.

Previously we discussed the 2017 album Cursed to the Night, and looked back

at the 1980s and also we began looking into the 1990s, leading into the Demo

’97 recording.

Before we continue to 1997 and after, can you help us understand how the idea

of an all-female line-up came up?

The idea to seriously form a female metal band took shape during a party.

Almost all our friends played in bands from the Gothenburg scene and during

this evening, while we listened to their albums, me and some friends thought it

would be a cool thing to start a band of our own with only girls. It was quite

easy to start up since I already played with some other female friends and we

also rented a rehearsal room. We shared the room with a few other bands, for

example Sacramentum and Swordmaster and therefore we had a complete

back-line available to use with drum set and amplifier.

So, we just went to the rehearsal room, everybody chose what instrument they

were interested to handle and we started to play covers and write our own

material. At this time we had no band name and we never decided to play

any specific kind of genre, but because we all listened to heavy, black, thrash

and death metal we ended up playing a more extreme kind of metal.

All members during the years have been close friends and the band was

basically an extra activity for us to hang out and have fun and play and create

the metal we loved to listen too. Dracena would probably have continued to

be all female if we had had the chance to find a good enough female

drummer which fit with the band and style.

Of course, nowadays Dracena is not an all-female entity. Now that you are

older, and that you have lots of experience with the complete process of music,

from writing to recording, from money matters and the music business, how has

your thinking changed/ matured about Dracena about whether you work with

men or women?

Most of the music industry (not only in metal) is dominated by men, labels,

music stores, management, studios etc., which makes it difficult to not work with

men. If there was a 50/50 choice for me to work with a man or a woman I

would go for the most competent person in every case. In my opinion, gender

has no important role in music, it’s all about talent, dedication and being able

to cooperate with other egos. Playing the extreme genres of metal is a level

you’ll never reach without sacrificing a lot of social and family time. As any art

form, it demands a certain dedication and hours of practise and rehearsing, to

be able to play with speed, technique and tightness/rhythm.

I would love to have an all-female band, but I think it would be difficult to form

such a line-up, even today there’s still so many more guys than girls playing

metal that it would be easier to find a male musician who would suit the

demands.

In your own experience, what has happened that Dracena had ended up as a

solo project with friends helping out with drumming and solos?

After the permanent line-up broke up in 2002 I haven’t felt that I needed a full

band to be able to write and record. The possibility to afford to buy and build a

studio and record at home made it easier to become a one-person band. I

can record all instruments myself and rehearse them one at a time at home

with head phones and re-write and develop the songs anytime I feel like it.

When I engage other musicians I can share the songs online and we can work

from our own homes as well as sit in a rehearsal room. On the other hand,

when, sometimes, the progress of the material slows down and the ideas dry

out it is nice to have other persons helping out with the writing and adding their

touch to the songs as well. I do not dictate the way my studio musicians should

play their drums or guitar solos, just indicate a direction and let them work their

magic, which has worked out excellent this far.

Have you ever wondered about what has motivated you to continue while

other people stopped?

Metal is my life and to be able to create my own music and lyrics and albums is

just awesome! It’s much like writing a book or painting a picture and when it’s

finished it doesn’t matter if anyone likes it or not, it’s something I have created

and given my soul to.

Luckily, I have fans who appreciates my work and gives me great feedback

which keeps me on track when things get heavy.

I think it’s sad when great musicians/bands can’t make a living on their art.

Even when they are on big tours and signed to large labels they don’t seem to

make the money they deserve. Being forced to have a job on the side is killing

creativity, and a society without art and music is a dead place to live in. Buying

music and merch through legal channels ensures your favourite bands to

survive.

Going back to the times of the demo, can you tell us more about the 1997

demo?

In 1997 we’ve had the longest lasting line-up so far and with great anticipation

we booked a studio to record three of our original songs and the Venom cover.

The track list and line-up is:

1.Desire

2.Dark River of My Soul

3.Warlord

4.In league with Satan

MiA - guitar & vocals

Emma - guitar

Camilla - bass

Karin - drums

We chose to record a cover because when Dracena played live we always

had a Venom cover on the set list, usually “Countess Bathory” but we thought

”In league with Satan” fit better on this demo. The title wasn’t very original,

Demo ’97, and the only official release has been a limited edition cassette tape

of 100 copies. The demo sold out quickly and we started to get reviews and

interviews in zines like Slayer Mag and Swedish Close Up and soon earned a

reputation in the underground scene.

What happened with the line-up of the demo after the demo was recorded?

Camilla and Karin (Deathwitch) decided to leave the band sometime after the

first demo was recorded, as I recall they moved away from Gothenburg. We

already knew Asa and she started to handle the bass almost immediately but

we had trouble finding a female drummer who played our kind of metal. For a

year or so we had Terror (Sacramentum/Runemagick/Necrocurse) as a session

drummer during rehearsals and gigs and he also plays on the Demonic Women

demo from 1999.

Who was the line-up for 1999’s Demonic Women. By the way, this demo shows a

tighter, much more black metal sound. It has good melodies. Do you

remember who is playing some keyboards on this demo? Where was this demo

recorded? In your opinion, how had your vocal style changed from the first

demo to the second one? What about your guitar playing from the first to the

second demo?

We still didn’t have a permanent drummer in 1999 so the line-up was me

(vocals/guitar), Emma (guitar) and Asa (bass) and we had help from Terror to

play the drums on the Demonic Women demo. Terror also played the few

keyboard melodies.

This demo was recorded at Andy

La Rocque’s studio Los Angered

as we wanted a professional

studio where we could get a

good metal sound and we knew

that Andy would be great working

with as well. We had a great time

recording this and it was a really

cool experience!

Musically we had developed a lot since our first demo and also starting to

shape the Dracena-sound. The material was better, we all have influences from

different genres and our favourite bands spans from Black Sabbath and WASP

to Bathory and Morbid Angel, which makes a very interesting mix for Dracena’s

material, a mix I have tried to keep when I write new material. In preparation for

the studio, since we had only 2 days for recording and mixing, we rehearsed

several times a week which of course made us better musicians as well as

developed and sharpened my vocals.

Then in 2001, there was Labyrinth of Darkness. How you feel about this demo

now?

In 2001 we finally had a permanent drummer, Daniel ”Mojjo” Moilanen

(Heavydeath, Runemagick, Katatonia) and we went to the studio for a third

demo.

This is a demo with potential, but I

am not completely

satisfied with this release. The

material went a little bit away

from the thrash direction which I

wanted to go towards.

The recording was in a home studio

and the production sound is a bit blurry and muffled and I would have loved to

make a re-mix, but sadly I never received the original files of the recording. We

had a lot of technical problems during the recording and the vocals was

recorded in a friend’s bedroom behind a mattress with no effects in the feed

back to my head phones, which made me sing a bit darker and growlier than

usual. Anyway, the songs are still good and a lot more melodic than previous

demos.

Things seem to be going well for Dracena in the 1990s. Three demos: 1997, 1999

and 2001. Yet the debut full-length album Infernal Damnation does not come

out until 2006? In addition, now it is just you, Mia, and a session drummer,

correct? There were about five years of silence. Did you think about ending

Dracena when all the members were gone?

There has never been any plans to end Dracena, not even after the split with

the other members. Since we already had released three demos I kept on

writing material with the plan to finally record a full-length. For a while I had a

few new members on the way, but I later decided to go on my own with the

recording and release the album independently. Infernal Damnation was

recorded in 2004 but wasn’t released until 2006 as it took some time for me to

get everything in order with finances, the sound mixing, the cover and layouts,

and to find a place to press the album as well as learning all the technicalities

with file formats etc for the CD-master, booklet and so on.

I set up my own home studio and learned to program drums and record all

string instruments on my computer. This is the first time I actually practised how

to play the bass which was a fun experience. Mojjo came back as session

drummer and we used two different studios for this recording, Hellbound Studios

for all the instruments and Brutaliator Studios for the vocals. Beside the Infernal

Damnation album we also recorded a WASP cover, Animal – F*** like a Beast,

which was released in 2004 by Codiac Records (DK) on a WASP tribute album,

Shock Rock Hellions. All the guitar solos were played by Chris Loud.

Do you remember if there was a moment when you decided that Dracena

would continue? Did you think about a project like Bathory in which it was

essentially a solo project by Quorthon?

I can’t say that I have ever had any conscious thoughts about ending the

band at all, even if there’s been idle periods those are mostly because I have

been busy with my job and haven’t had the time to be creative. This is also one

of the main reasons to why I am the only member of the band - it would have

been unfair to engage other full-time members when I can’t give my full

attention to Dracena, Being the only member gives me the freedom to chose

when I feel like putting together the next album and it works just fine for me to

have my session musicians whenever it’s necessary… and it’s kinda cool to be a

female version of Quorthon.

Then album Infernal Damnation was released in 2006. That was more than 10

years since the beginning of the band. Looking back on it, how frustrating was it

that it took more ten years to release a proper album? When you were doing

the demos, were there record companies interested in releasing your music?

Sure, it was frustrating to have to wait for so long before the release of our

debut album as Dracena had worked so hard for many years. We wrote and

recorded demos, played live and promoted the band all the time in zines and

everywhere we went. After each release we sent out promo packages to

labels, press and gig organisers, making Dracena a well-known name in the

underground scene.

We did receive offers from labels but none of them appealed to us. I guess we

were pretty picky and we always tried to negotiate the terms a bit too much

which mostly cooled off the interest from the label. Perhaps if we had been

signed early in the days the Dracena career would have developed different,

but we didn’t want to sign just any contract in desperation to get our recorded

work out to the audience.

So what happened after the album was released? At that point, were you

frustrated and decided to take a break from music?

After the release of Infernal Damnation I decided that I needed a better-paid

job to be able to support myself to record and release my music. For the next 4-

5 years I worked hard with extremely long working days and I also worked on

weekends and holidays. Meanwhile, I didn’t have a lot of time to write or to be

creative although I kept writing material which I recorded at home and I also

made a few attempts to put together another full length, but I wasn’t satisfied

enough with the tracks to book a professional studio.

Yet in 2014 Dracena returned with the EP Ravenous Bloodlust. What motivated

you to resurrect Dracena?

In 2012 things finally slowed down at work and I had so much material that I

decided it was about time to sit down and try to re-write the best of the best of

my new riffs and record at least one decent mini CD. So I slaughtered all my

darlings and in another 5-6 months I had re-written 4 really great tracks which I

felt would make an awesome mini album. After I had finished the material all I

needed was to find a good studio and a good session drummer. One evening

while I was thinking about a possible drummer an old friend of mine (who just

happens to be a drummer) popped up on the chat with a link to his latest

recording. I asked if he was interested in doing the session drums for my album,

which he accepted.

The choice of studio was easy as I am very pleased with the sound of our

second demo, Demonic Women and therefore I booked a few days at Andy

La Rocque’s Sonic Train Studios.

In 2017 there was the album Cursed to the Night. How do you feel at this point

about making music and having Dracena be a solo project? Do you enjoy

being able to do whatever you want and not having to deal with “band

meetings” and band drama and discussions? You get to be your own boss!

I am quite content about being the only member in the band, I can do

whatever I want, whenever I want to, and I have no obligations to anyone but

myself. But there are a lot of advantages to be working with a group of people

and share a unique dynamic and the fusion of different minds. If the

constellation is of a positive nature it will lead to the band’s progression and

evolution, adding all the small details and variations to the music which takes it

to a higher level.

Is it stressful, though? Having to do so much by yourself?! If you want something

done, you basically have to do it yourself?

Yes, I write all the instrumental and lyrical material, create the album concept

with layout and graphical designs, handle the website and social media as well

as having a full-time job - and beside that there’s all the usual things that needs

to be taken care of in life. While I am having an active album ongoing I

estimate it takes 1,5-2 years from start until the album is released and then

another 6 months for the usual aftermath with interviews and so on. It can be

stressful occasionally to find all the time necessary to keep things moving and

meeting the deadlines with studios, photo sessions, interviews, correspondence,

etc. Racing toward a studio deadline and feeling the material isn’t good

enough or finished is horrible, knowing that if I don’t have everything ready at

the booked date it could be a huge delay before I am able to get another

date to record the missing parts, but it will also be expensive to have to pay for

more days of recording.

Has Dracena played live recently? How do you feel about that? Have there

been offers to play live? What would have to happen in order for Dracena to

play live?

The last show we played was in 2014 in Münster Germany. After the release of

Ravenous Bloodlust we supported some friend’s (Savagery (DE)), album release

party. I do love to play live, but there’s a lot of time and work to rehearse for a

live show as I play both the guitar and do the vocals as well. To prepare to play

live is time consuming and since there is no steady line-up right now I chose not

to play any single events.

Another aspect is also the cost to play - travel, vehicles, hotels, food and so on

for the whole band. As a support band there is not much payment from the

ticket sales and if the merchandise don’t sell every show will be expensive for

the band.

We’ve had offers for gigs but mostly “pay to play-gigs” to join a bigger band as

support. At the time it was too much money for me to pay but I would definitely

invest in a show or tour if I had the musicians and we were well prepared and if

it would benefit Dracena in the future.

What is next for Dracena? Do

you have more music that

you would like to record? Do

you know when there will be

new music?

I already have 4-5 “skeleton”

tracks which I am rehearsing

and working with, although

right now I am considering

myself to be in-between-

albums-idle and I don’t feel

any pressure to start working

actively on another release

for some time.

In 2017 there was Cursed to the Night. It is now 2018, almost 2019. Has there

been enough of a good response to the album that you think that you would

like to make another one?

There’s been a great response to Cursed to the Night, but even if it hadn’t

been I would still keep writing new riffs and when I feel that I have enough new

material, I’ll probably start sketching on the next album.

facebook.com/Dracena.SE/

THE END

— metal programs in Washington (Pacific Times) Excuse All the Blood (Olympia, WA): Friday night 10pm-1am www.kaosradio.org Metal Shop (Seattle, WA): Saturday 10pm-3am KISW 99.9fm www.kisw.com — This zine is also available at: www.issuu.com/metalbulletinzine www.scribd.com/user/93425308/Metal-Bulletin-Zine