DRACENA

This interview with Mia Larsson of the Swedish death metal band Dracena was done through e-mail in April/May 2001.

Hello, how are you?
Hail Vincent!!! Everything's just fine here.

Could you please give us a short history of your band?
Dracena was formed in '94, with an all female line-up. In '97 we recorded a demo, just to make a material recording of the earlier songs. Our second demo was planned to be recorded in '98, but due to line-up changes and some other problems it got delayed til spring '99. After that we've been writing material and dealed with labels and zines and had yet some more line-up troubles. Now things are finally solved and we are ready to thrash!!! Beware!!!

You are unfortunately rather unknown to the world outside of Sweden. What can the listener expect from your music?
Our music is hard to describe, we've tried to, but the best description is pure Metal, haha. I've been told we play in an interesting way, so the listener can expect to get some new great music to headbang to!

In 1999 you recorded your promo cd Demonic Women. How has the response been to it? Have you had any offers from labels yet?
The response from press and fans have been incredible positive!!! Since we're a cross between different kinds of Metal and have a lot of old influences, most people like our musicŠ no matter what they listen to. The labels have been interested too, and we've had a few offers,but none that interested us particulary much. Now we have a 7" release deal on US label realms of Darkness, and also a 7" release of "Demonic Women" on swedish label Near Dark Productions.

What is the band doing at the moment and what are your plans for the future?
There are now plans to do a new demorecording as soon as possible, we sure have the material! Then we will send it around to labels and give Dracena a good promotion! Things coming up in the near future is some compilations we will appear on, some smaller gigs here in Sweden and the 7"s.

How do you feel about playing live? Have you done many shows so far?
Due to line-up changes there haven't been too many liveshows, but when we play we have a great response. We love to play live, and we will definetly try to get more gigs now in the future.

What do you think about the metal scene in Sweden? Are there any new bands you think should be mentioned?
There's a huge scene in Sweden, especially here in Gothenburg. Bands pop up like mushrooms after rain, haha. Hmm any new bandsŠ well, I am a fan of old music, so I'll leave that question open, hehe.

Do any of the band members have some kind of musical training or are you all selftaught?
The only one in the band right now that have any kind of musical training is our drummer, Mojjo. The rest of us are purely self tought.

Do any of you play in other bands besides Dracena? I know that Emma also plays in Runemagick.
Emma plays the bass in Runemagick and Mojjo the drums in Runemagick and Mindsnare. I have a new project going on besides Dracena, but it's still in the cradle, so not much to say about it. We'll see what will happen. Otherwise I played the guitar on Deathwitch debut album "Triumphant Devastation" ('96) and Åsa made a guestappearance at Vassago's "Knight's from Hell".

What do you do when not playing music?
*** hmm, you mean work or fun???***

What do you think about mp3's and Internet as a way of promoting music?
I think it's a nice channel to get stuff promoted. I just don't like it when people are downloading or copying cd's without paying the band, because that is where we lose the income we need to keep our music alive. All bands need to buy equipment, need to promote, make merchandise and most important music! I find such behaviour very unsupportive!!!

Your top five bands ever?
GWAH!!! How am I supposed to, haha! I love so many bands, it's impossible to make such a list, it varies from day to day depending on what mood I am in. Let's see, ehh WASP is one of my absolute favorites. Then it's too hard to chose. But I can say that my favourite music is 80's heavy metal and thrash, some 70's bands are nice too.

Any final words you would like to tell the world?
Remember only death is real.

Links of interest:

Dracena