| Interview by Burt Wolf with D'aven, keyboardist of Demimonde. Interview done in December 2002. |
PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELF & WHAT YOU DO IN THE BAND?
My nickname is D'aven & I play keyboards. I am 25 years old, I enriched the line up of DEMIMONDE when I
was 19 & as for the piano, I started to play it at the age of 6. Nowadays, I work as a journalist in the biggest
Czech Metal magazine & study in the university. Is it satisfying as the basic info?
I'M A NEW FAN OF DEMIMONDE, SO COULD YOU PLEASE GIVE SOME OF THE HISTORY OF
THE BAND & HOW YOU GOT TOGETHER?
DEMIMONDE existed in Prague since 1996 when it was found. People from this line up weren't in some other
bands before starting DEMIMONDE. We were all very young (16-19 years old) when creating it & this was our
first musical experience in the Metal scene, our first band. We met by chance. Some members were friends
(drummer Bizzaro, bass guitarist Afagddu, singer/guitarist Jaacob) before starting the band, they new some other
guys who were able to play some instruments (the solo guitarist Ankhabuth & D'aven on keyboards), so they
asked them to join & the band with the basic line up was complete... One year later, our fantastic female singer
Tanyya joined & this was the last element, which we needed. All these people was absolutely crazy, with crazy
ideas, different musical tastes & with a strong wish to compose & record something uncommon &
unbelievable-the music, which wasn't yet done in the Czech Republic. We wanted to penetrate into some
avantgarde or experimental areas of music & try to find our own path. DEMIMONDE wanted to become one of
the most original acts in the Czech scene & this was our fuel, which pushed us to work together. To make
something new. We knew that every member is so twisted, that he will like to follow this musical path & also
everyone was able to compose & express his own crazy ideas & then include them into the music of
DEMIMONDE... DEMIMONDE with another members wouldn't be DEMIMONDE... The mentioned six
people core of DEMIMONDE was stable all the time. The first album "THE WARRIOR'S POETS" (1997) was
recorded also with the help of Kashtan (guitar & another male vocals, beside Jaacob), but Kashtan left the band
shortly after... And right then the "MUTANT STAR" era started. To be more precise, we recorded in the
beginning of the 2000 year, so we spent 3 years by composing the whole thing & then some 3 weeks non stop to
record it. In the middle of the year 2000 a deal was offered to us to sign, so "MUTANT STAR" was released by
the Czech label EPIDEMIE RECORDS in the end of the same year. Our band did split a half of year later then
(spring 2001)... It is all concerning our history.
WHAT DOES DEMIMONDE MEAN & WHY WAS IT CHOSEN FOR THE BANDS NAME?
"MUTANT STAR" album is some kind of conceptual artistic expression in the large sense & it starts right by our
name, that's the basic for understanding our concept, because the word DEMIMONDE is extremely important in
this aspect... The texts, music, graphic design & all our presentation are connected with the DEMIMONDE
concept. DEMIMONDE is our world (if you translate this word from French language, it means "Half-World" or
metaphorically "Underworld"), it is our parallel dimension of reality (Halfreality)-through which we express
ourselves... (But also note, that the other meaning & translation of DEMIMONDE is the dark side of society with
some prostitutes, thieves, etc...) Anyway, we are really very satisfied by the choice of the name of our band, the
word DEMIMONDE has a very strange, attractive, exotic & erotic sound, haha. Surely it is not a cliché & it
doesn't sound like 99% of the Metal bands. It is interesting that the bassist Afagddu, who doesn't speak French,
invented this band name. Me, as the only francophone in the band, appreciated a lot this idea & pushed this word
to become an official band name.
YOU HAVE QUITE AN ORIGINAL STYLE & SOUND? HOW WOULD YOU BEST DESCRIBE IT?
Thanx a lot for your appreciation. Oh, really a hard question! Generally I use three ways how to approach the
music of DEMIMONDE with help of words: 1) Kozmik Postmodern Art (this is the official style description
invented by a discussion inside the band...not a bad one, don't you think?) 2) AAA Metal (triple-A means
Avantgarde Atmospherical Art...btw, in the economical terminology, it is used for the best quality rating, if I am
not mistaken, haha) 3) If you prefer the larger description, something like an article encyclopedia, I can propose
you this one: "Postmodern Techno(logic) trip from Metal to trance, psychedelic escape from our world to the
half world, forward thinking connections of contradictions...
WHY THE DECISION TO HAVE SO MANY BAND MEMBERS TO FORM THE BAND?
As for the number of members - no it is not true, that we are nine! Hahaha! We are six in the band & almost
always we were six. The promo flier is a little bit confusing with the nine photos...haha. Another proof of our
schizophrenia & madness. After the recording of the second material "MUTANT STAR" (2000), Science the
second guitarist & Channah, the second keyboardist, joined the band. These two new players didn't bring
something new or special into the music of DEMIMONDE, the reason, why they were attached to the line up,
was mainly our wish to try to reach the same sound during the live shows as in the studio version of our music.
Because there were too much guitar & keyboard lines recorded in the studio, these new players (who arrived
after the recording) helped us to play it all live... Unfortunately, it wasn't OK. Both new players were really good
& skilled, but nine persons in the line up, it was too much for the sound technicians during the gigs, so the result
was only chaos... Of course, the communications in the band & during the rehearsal was chaotic too... (So after
all, the right DEMIMONDE line up consists always of the six basic members, during all the time of our
existence...) Of course, I must mention also Stalker.Cz (amongst the "attached members"), he was something
like "stage sample operator", helping us during the live shows with the programmed parts... And of course he is
also our graphic designer, who invented the whole visual side of DEMIMONDE - he created the layout for the
album, the digipak version, the CD-Rom track... Back to the nine piece line up. In the beginning it seemed like a
good decision to transform DEMIMONDE into some small orchestra, but in the end, we found, that this is not a
right way & it is in the contrary worse than if we play in less numerous line up. The listeners told us, that on
stage DEMIMONDE is playing something completely different sounding than the CD.
HOW DO YOU FEEL THE BAND HAS PROGRESSED FROM YOUR ALBUM "THE WARRIOR'S
POETS" TO YOUR CD "MUTANT STAR"?
It is a progress of millions light years. It is almost impossible to compare "THE WARRIOR'S POETS" with
"MUTANT STAR", a lot of people says, that both albums look like if it was done by two different bands... "THE
WARRIOR'S POETS" album was composed during the first year of existence. I call it "faster Atmospherical
gothic/doom stuff with death & black touches". Regarding the average recordings coming from the Czech Doom
scene, it sounded as a quite original music, I mean... Of course there are lots of mistakes in this recording F. ex.
the sound quality. It was our first studio experience, we recorded it in some few days (four or five?), although it
is 43 minutes of well arranged, complex music. You can find there seven compositions with well varied
atmospheres & tunes... We did spread some 1500-2000 copies & it was also licensed in Romania. After all, I
think it was a very successful start of career & this album has lots of fans until today. We also learned a lot from
our (studio) mistakes, so that's the reason why "MUTANT STAR" has quite better production, although it was
once again produced only by ourselves...
HOW DID YOUR DEAL WITH EPIDEMIE RECORDS COME ABOUT? HOW HAS IT BEEN WORKING
WITH THEM?
The deal came about absolutely by chance! We didn't think about the Czech labels when searching for someone
who will release our stuff, but one day our drummer went to some gig & met the label manager of EPIDEMIE.
This manager told him that he would like to listen to DEMIMONDE. He didn't know the "MUTANT STAR"
material, but liked "THE WARRIOR'S POETS" & a lot of people told him, that "MUTANT STAR" is much better,
a "need to release". The boss of EPIDEMIE is very open minded & still searching for something strange to
release. This was the reason why "MUTANT STAR" did fit perfectly in his plans. We brought the recording a
few days later to him, listened to it together & he was so fascinated that he offered us immediately a deal. As for
the co-operation - it is more difficult to comment it, it isn't as easy to say if we are completely satisfied or not.
First of all, we were very disappointed that we didn't get any interest or almost reactions from the side of some
west European Metal labels, because in our opinion the material of "MUTANT STAR" has much more quality &
originality inside than the majority of the standard Metal CD's production from the majority of the labels. I was
mainly disappointed by the indifference of some concrete labels, which are known by their support to the
avantgarde & experimental Metal bands... But that's the life & we are happy, that almost thanx to the EPIDEMIE
RECORDS, this album had a chance to be released & to appear in the Cd recorders of the listeners all over the
world. On the other hand, EPIDEMIE is a small underground label with limited possibilities. I think they are
doing well according to their possibilities, but regarding the distribution & sales it could be better, although our
sales are OK if we compare it to the majority of the bands from the Czech Republic... As far as I know,
EPIDEMIE have some interesting contacts & distribution through the labels in the USA, France, Italy, Poland,
Mexico... to mention some of the countries, but of course we penetrated also in some more exotic countries all
over the world, in Asia or South America. As for the sales-EPIDEMIE released 500 limited digipaks (almost sold
out) & 2000 CDs in normal jewel case edition. The label manager told me, that cca. 60-70 percents of
DEMIMONDE are sold out now. Maybe it seems as a low result, but note that the small labels have really limited
possibilities & access, the second thing is that our music is for the minority listener, very open minded &
forward thinking. If I compare it with the sales of the majority Czech bands, we are little bit above average, even
not worse regarding our sales than the bands who play some more accessible music here. I must admit, that the
majority of our CDs is sold in foreign lands always, the Czech listeners are more conservative & Metal music is
not so popular here generally. As for the promotion, it was good, the label printed some 500 promo CDs plus info
fliers about us, we got excellent reviews world wide & I answered lots of interviews. The most of them for
Polish mags & zines, even more than for the Czech press...hahaha. And what I appreciate the most is the
co-operation with EPIDEMIE RECORDS? The digipak edition of "MUTANT STAR" - it is the best thing that
they could do! Thanx them a lot! We are proud to present the first digipak Metal album in the Czech Republic. In
the very expensive extravagant & attractive form regarding the level of graphic design. Of course, the CD-Rom
track is also very cool idea (proposed by EPIDEMIE REC.) some bonus for every DEMIMONDE fan! It was
done mainly because we wanted to prepare the complete CD-Rom in the really luxurious way, with every
possible information about the band. This all helps really a lot to the fans & mainly to the journalists. When they
want a photo for the article, interview, they can browse our CD-Rom track & choose from a big range of
photos... Also there is a full bio in both languages, English & Czech, useful for every journalist. As for MP3, it is
a great idea to put there a full version of our first album "THE WARRIOR'S POETS" so the fans & reviews can
listen to our old material & compare, how big step forward we did with the "MUTANT STAR" regarding the
style change, the developing of composition, the sound quality, etc... As for the graphic design of CD-Rom, this
is the same concept & style as the layout of front cover image, booklet & digipak...
My nickname is D'aven & I play keyboards. I am 25 years old, I enriched the line up of DEMIMONDE when I
was 19 & as for the piano, I started to play it at the age of 6. Nowadays, I work as a journalist in the biggest
Czech Metal magazine & study in the university. Is it satisfying as the basic info?
I'M A NEW FAN OF DEMIMONDE, SO COULD YOU PLEASE GIVE SOME OF THE HISTORY OF
THE BAND & HOW YOU GOT TOGETHER?
DEMIMONDE existed in Prague since 1996 when it was found. People from this line up weren't in some other
bands before starting DEMIMONDE. We were all very young (16-19 years old) when creating it & this was our
first musical experience in the Metal scene, our first band. We met by chance. Some members were friends
(drummer Bizzaro, bass guitarist Afagddu, singer/guitarist Jaacob) before starting the band, they new some other
guys who were able to play some instruments (the solo guitarist Ankhabuth & D'aven on keyboards), so they
asked them to join & the band with the basic line up was complete... One year later, our fantastic female singer
Tanyya joined & this was the last element, which we needed. All these people was absolutely crazy, with crazy
ideas, different musical tastes & with a strong wish to compose & record something uncommon &
unbelievable-the music, which wasn't yet done in the Czech Republic. We wanted to penetrate into some
avantgarde or experimental areas of music & try to find our own path. DEMIMONDE wanted to become one of
the most original acts in the Czech scene & this was our fuel, which pushed us to work together. To make
something new. We knew that every member is so twisted, that he will like to follow this musical path & also
everyone was able to compose & express his own crazy ideas & then include them into the music of
DEMIMONDE... DEMIMONDE with another members wouldn't be DEMIMONDE... The mentioned six
people core of DEMIMONDE was stable all the time. The first album "THE WARRIOR'S POETS" (1997) was
recorded also with the help of Kashtan (guitar & another male vocals, beside Jaacob), but Kashtan left the band
shortly after... And right then the "MUTANT STAR" era started. To be more precise, we recorded in the
beginning of the 2000 year, so we spent 3 years by composing the whole thing & then some 3 weeks non stop to
record it. In the middle of the year 2000 a deal was offered to us to sign, so "MUTANT STAR" was released by
the Czech label EPIDEMIE RECORDS in the end of the same year. Our band did split a half of year later then
(spring 2001)... It is all concerning our history.
WHAT DOES DEMIMONDE MEAN & WHY WAS IT CHOSEN FOR THE BANDS NAME?
"MUTANT STAR" album is some kind of conceptual artistic expression in the large sense & it starts right by our
name, that's the basic for understanding our concept, because the word DEMIMONDE is extremely important in
this aspect... The texts, music, graphic design & all our presentation are connected with the DEMIMONDE
concept. DEMIMONDE is our world (if you translate this word from French language, it means "Half-World" or
metaphorically "Underworld"), it is our parallel dimension of reality (Halfreality)-through which we express
ourselves... (But also note, that the other meaning & translation of DEMIMONDE is the dark side of society with
some prostitutes, thieves, etc...) Anyway, we are really very satisfied by the choice of the name of our band, the
word DEMIMONDE has a very strange, attractive, exotic & erotic sound, haha. Surely it is not a cliché & it
doesn't sound like 99% of the Metal bands. It is interesting that the bassist Afagddu, who doesn't speak French,
invented this band name. Me, as the only francophone in the band, appreciated a lot this idea & pushed this word
to become an official band name.
YOU HAVE QUITE AN ORIGINAL STYLE & SOUND? HOW WOULD YOU BEST DESCRIBE IT?
Thanx a lot for your appreciation. Oh, really a hard question! Generally I use three ways how to approach the
music of DEMIMONDE with help of words: 1) Kozmik Postmodern Art (this is the official style description
invented by a discussion inside the band...not a bad one, don't you think?) 2) AAA Metal (triple-A means
Avantgarde Atmospherical Art...btw, in the economical terminology, it is used for the best quality rating, if I am
not mistaken, haha) 3) If you prefer the larger description, something like an article encyclopedia, I can propose
you this one: "Postmodern Techno(logic) trip from Metal to trance, psychedelic escape from our world to the
half world, forward thinking connections of contradictions...
WHY THE DECISION TO HAVE SO MANY BAND MEMBERS TO FORM THE BAND?
As for the number of members - no it is not true, that we are nine! Hahaha! We are six in the band & almost
always we were six. The promo flier is a little bit confusing with the nine photos...haha. Another proof of our
schizophrenia & madness. After the recording of the second material "MUTANT STAR" (2000), Science the
second guitarist & Channah, the second keyboardist, joined the band. These two new players didn't bring
something new or special into the music of DEMIMONDE, the reason, why they were attached to the line up,
was mainly our wish to try to reach the same sound during the live shows as in the studio version of our music.
Because there were too much guitar & keyboard lines recorded in the studio, these new players (who arrived
after the recording) helped us to play it all live... Unfortunately, it wasn't OK. Both new players were really good
& skilled, but nine persons in the line up, it was too much for the sound technicians during the gigs, so the result
was only chaos... Of course, the communications in the band & during the rehearsal was chaotic too... (So after
all, the right DEMIMONDE line up consists always of the six basic members, during all the time of our
existence...) Of course, I must mention also Stalker.Cz (amongst the "attached members"), he was something
like "stage sample operator", helping us during the live shows with the programmed parts... And of course he is
also our graphic designer, who invented the whole visual side of DEMIMONDE - he created the layout for the
album, the digipak version, the CD-Rom track... Back to the nine piece line up. In the beginning it seemed like a
good decision to transform DEMIMONDE into some small orchestra, but in the end, we found, that this is not a
right way & it is in the contrary worse than if we play in less numerous line up. The listeners told us, that on
stage DEMIMONDE is playing something completely different sounding than the CD.
HOW DO YOU FEEL THE BAND HAS PROGRESSED FROM YOUR ALBUM "THE WARRIOR'S
POETS" TO YOUR CD "MUTANT STAR"?
It is a progress of millions light years. It is almost impossible to compare "THE WARRIOR'S POETS" with
"MUTANT STAR", a lot of people says, that both albums look like if it was done by two different bands... "THE
WARRIOR'S POETS" album was composed during the first year of existence. I call it "faster Atmospherical
gothic/doom stuff with death & black touches". Regarding the average recordings coming from the Czech Doom
scene, it sounded as a quite original music, I mean... Of course there are lots of mistakes in this recording F. ex.
the sound quality. It was our first studio experience, we recorded it in some few days (four or five?), although it
is 43 minutes of well arranged, complex music. You can find there seven compositions with well varied
atmospheres & tunes... We did spread some 1500-2000 copies & it was also licensed in Romania. After all, I
think it was a very successful start of career & this album has lots of fans until today. We also learned a lot from
our (studio) mistakes, so that's the reason why "MUTANT STAR" has quite better production, although it was
once again produced only by ourselves...
HOW DID YOUR DEAL WITH EPIDEMIE RECORDS COME ABOUT? HOW HAS IT BEEN WORKING
WITH THEM?
The deal came about absolutely by chance! We didn't think about the Czech labels when searching for someone
who will release our stuff, but one day our drummer went to some gig & met the label manager of EPIDEMIE.
This manager told him that he would like to listen to DEMIMONDE. He didn't know the "MUTANT STAR"
material, but liked "THE WARRIOR'S POETS" & a lot of people told him, that "MUTANT STAR" is much better,
a "need to release". The boss of EPIDEMIE is very open minded & still searching for something strange to
release. This was the reason why "MUTANT STAR" did fit perfectly in his plans. We brought the recording a
few days later to him, listened to it together & he was so fascinated that he offered us immediately a deal. As for
the co-operation - it is more difficult to comment it, it isn't as easy to say if we are completely satisfied or not.
First of all, we were very disappointed that we didn't get any interest or almost reactions from the side of some
west European Metal labels, because in our opinion the material of "MUTANT STAR" has much more quality &
originality inside than the majority of the standard Metal CD's production from the majority of the labels. I was
mainly disappointed by the indifference of some concrete labels, which are known by their support to the
avantgarde & experimental Metal bands... But that's the life & we are happy, that almost thanx to the EPIDEMIE
RECORDS, this album had a chance to be released & to appear in the Cd recorders of the listeners all over the
world. On the other hand, EPIDEMIE is a small underground label with limited possibilities. I think they are
doing well according to their possibilities, but regarding the distribution & sales it could be better, although our
sales are OK if we compare it to the majority of the bands from the Czech Republic... As far as I know,
EPIDEMIE have some interesting contacts & distribution through the labels in the USA, France, Italy, Poland,
Mexico... to mention some of the countries, but of course we penetrated also in some more exotic countries all
over the world, in Asia or South America. As for the sales-EPIDEMIE released 500 limited digipaks (almost sold
out) & 2000 CDs in normal jewel case edition. The label manager told me, that cca. 60-70 percents of
DEMIMONDE are sold out now. Maybe it seems as a low result, but note that the small labels have really limited
possibilities & access, the second thing is that our music is for the minority listener, very open minded &
forward thinking. If I compare it with the sales of the majority Czech bands, we are little bit above average, even
not worse regarding our sales than the bands who play some more accessible music here. I must admit, that the
majority of our CDs is sold in foreign lands always, the Czech listeners are more conservative & Metal music is
not so popular here generally. As for the promotion, it was good, the label printed some 500 promo CDs plus info
fliers about us, we got excellent reviews world wide & I answered lots of interviews. The most of them for
Polish mags & zines, even more than for the Czech press...hahaha. And what I appreciate the most is the
co-operation with EPIDEMIE RECORDS? The digipak edition of "MUTANT STAR" - it is the best thing that
they could do! Thanx them a lot! We are proud to present the first digipak Metal album in the Czech Republic. In
the very expensive extravagant & attractive form regarding the level of graphic design. Of course, the CD-Rom
track is also very cool idea (proposed by EPIDEMIE REC.) some bonus for every DEMIMONDE fan! It was
done mainly because we wanted to prepare the complete CD-Rom in the really luxurious way, with every
possible information about the band. This all helps really a lot to the fans & mainly to the journalists. When they
want a photo for the article, interview, they can browse our CD-Rom track & choose from a big range of
photos... Also there is a full bio in both languages, English & Czech, useful for every journalist. As for MP3, it is
a great idea to put there a full version of our first album "THE WARRIOR'S POETS" so the fans & reviews can
listen to our old material & compare, how big step forward we did with the "MUTANT STAR" regarding the
style change, the developing of composition, the sound quality, etc... As for the graphic design of CD-Rom, this
is the same concept & style as the layout of front cover image, booklet & digipak...
COULD YOU TELL A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE CD ARTWORK FOR "MUTANT STAR"?
You can see there the mutant or cyborg (or cyborg-devil, if you want...haha), darkness & the technical &
industrial atmosphere of some factory (I guess these are the iron works in Ostrava, the most metallurgic &
industrial town in Czech Rep.) It is all chaotic & penetrating together, confused. When you listen to our music &
watch the album cover, I think you must see, that it is a great picture to illustrate the DEMIMONDE's music, an
exact visual expression of the feelings from our tracks... Note that you the lyrics, music, graphic design & all our
presentation must be taken as one monolith. It is all connected with the DEMIMONDE concept. As I said yet,
DEMIMONDE is our world ("Half-World"), our reality. "MUTANT STAR" lies inside this Demimondial parallel
reality. It is something strange, full of unreal creatures, mutants, like we are, & like our mutated music is. You
can call it "an artistic deformation of reality", which is a good characteristic for DEMIMONDE too... It is also a
metaphor for our real life & the real world, because here we have also lots of mutants & everything becomes to
be more & more crazy in our planet... Madness, world being faster & more chaotic, this is the confusion that I
mentioned yet-the confusion of the postmodern world, where we live & which we reflect, by the lyrics, music,
design...of DEMIMONDE. Do you feel these emotions & reflections in our artwork? Our music is a soundtrack
for today's world...but also for any other... And the design concept is an illustration for this soundtrack...
WHAT IS SOME OF THE LYRICAL CONTENT OF YOUR SONGS?
Lyrics are done by our bassist Afagddu & it's a little problem with the whole thing. We don't understand them at
all & we suppose that even their author doesn't understand to his own writings... It is something emotional,
intuitive & irrational, same as the music of DEMIMONDE, where we also don't understand the result, so the
only thing that I can say is that both lyrics & music fit perfectly together. It has the same atmosphere-call it as
you want: magic, postmodern, dark, humoristic, fascinating, surreal, erotic, satanic (in some little bit different
meaning than the majority of the bands do, but we don't know, how to describe this difference)... He refuses all
the questions concerning the interpretation of the lyrics, he would like to give the chance to the reader, & maybe
someone will finally understand it... As for me, I don't need their exact interpretation. It is ok, if you read them
only when listening to the music, & it must cause some mood or feeling inside you. That's all. The words which
perfectly fits into the music, but no one knows why... And that's the whole concept of the lyrics, who are linked
by the same atmosphere, way of thinking etc., same as the others forms (music, design, communications...) of
our artistic presentation...
I ONLY HAVE YOUR "MUTANT STAR" ALBUM, DO YOU HAVE ANOTHER ALBUM AFTER THAT
OR IS THERE ONE IN THE WORKS?
No, this is the last one. As I said when presenting our history, we have two recordings: "MS" & "TWP" (the
second one is also placed in the form of mp3-full version-in the CD-Rom track of "MS", so the disc contains our
complete opus; 1.5 hour of DEMIMONDE). The thread material is not in the works, we sleep now as a band,
we have not one simple idea & we don't meet each other. But it doesn't mean, that the comeback is not possible
& that we don't know how to continue. We spoke about it few times after the split & we have some basic ideas,
how the evolution of the DEMIMONDE music could continue. I am sure we will surprise you once again. Haha.
THAT ALBUM WAS RELEASED A LITTLE WHILE AGO, BUT HOW WELL WAS IT PERCEIVED BY
THE UNDERGROUND SCENE?
The "MUTANT STAR" was actually released 2 years ago (22th of November 2000...11-22-00, do you see the
magic of numbers?), so we gathered a bunch of reactions until now... Since now, honestly, I don't know about
any bad review or response. Usually we receive 95/100, 6/6 or 9/10 points...hahaha... You know, DEMIMONDE
probably will never be some band for the masses, we are too much avantgarde & for the specific listeners. But
those who were caught & charmed by our music, those who understood it, became very devoted & committed
to "MUTANT STAR"... Mainly the journalist appreciate it, because when they must review tens of hundreds of
recordings, almost everything sounds similar & they are happy when receiving something different, which steps
out from the average & offer some kick to the ass to stereotypes... (I know it very well, as I work as a journalist
too...haha) As I read the reviews, I think that there emerged a closed & well selected ring of the intellectual
journalists & fans, for whom the album has the cult status, while the rest of the listeners, who prefer the easier
music, don't accept it & search for something other... That's the life & that's what we expected. Anyway, we
didn't compose it with the idea to be loved by everyone. First of all, the music must be loved by ourselves, that's
the only criterion for us. We are not searching for a quantity of fans, we prefer the quality...hahaha. I think (and
hope) that "MUTANT STAR" received more attention than the previous album. Usually the people tells that "MS"
is more mature, more original & interesting than "TWP", but I know also about the "more conservative" fans of
DEMIMONDE, who still prefer "THE WARRIOR'S POETS" music... When I read the reactions of journalists, I
think sometimes that our style could be best described as "journalists metal" or "music for the press". Haha.
THE CZECH REPUBLIC SEEMS TO HAVE A REALLY GOOD SCENE. WHO ARE SOME OF THE
BETTER BANDS, LABELS, ZINES, ETC...?
I don't agree with you so much, I don't think that our scene is generally so strong, as some people says, but it is
true that we can offer to the world some few excellent & surprising bands... First of all, Czech Republic=
country of sick & brrrrrutal Death/Grind. Some of them are technically perfect with fine ideas & musicianship. I
can suggest for example LANIENA MENTIS, INTERVALLE BIZZARE, ALIENATION MENTAL or
IMPERIAL FOETICIDE. But the majority of the bands playing this genre here are a little bit boring &
stereotypical. Also here (mainly in the eastern part of the country) is a home of sleepy Doom Metal. I don't like
the stereotypes & the way how so many bands here play (and copy) the slow Doom or the brutal Death/Grind,
so I am glad to play in DEMIMONDE, a band that doesn't sound like a Czech band. (haha) To play a really
original & worthy music, without copying anyone other, was our main focus when creating the band. Yes, it is
true, that some of the Czech bands offer some strange & unique atmosphere. But this is really a minority; believe
me. The rest play a very standard & monotonous music. I hope we reached just with our first material the
category of the more original & different bands, out of the Czech average; this was always our primary goal.
And the second material "MUTANT STAR" was mentioned in tons of reviews as "one of the most creative,
experimental & innovative stuff coming from the Czech scene". Me, personally, i am not really happy when
DEMIMONDE is compared with the Czech scene, because in my opinion there were always only around 10
original & worth bands here, in time when we recorded both our materials. Haha. I can suggest some few bands
from here, who are out of stereotypes, namely FORGOTTEN SILENCE (Jazz-Thrash-Death-Doom fusion),
CONTRASTIC (elektro-Grind-HC-Alternative), LIVORES MORTIS (cold dark Atmospherical Metal), THE
RAYS OF THE SUN (Alternative Doom), VUVR (technical Jazz Death Artrock) etc. These are some fine
examples of the few Czech bands that i really like & appreciate... We don't have any big Metal label here, but
some smaller who release sometimes some interesting stuff (REDBALCK PROD., SHINDY PROD.,
EPIDEMIE REC., OBSCENE PROD., etc.)
HOW WOULD YOU COMPARE THE CZECH REPUBLIC MUSIC SCENE TO THE SCENE HERE IN
THE U.S.?
It seems that we have a lot in common. Lots of musicians here adore (and copy) bands like MORBID ANGEL,
IMMOLATION, CANNIBAL CORPSE, etc... On the other hand, we are part of the European scene, & that
means, that the big part of the Czech Metal scene is focused in playing some more melodic & Atmospherical
genres of Metal. As i know yet, the majority of the U.S. listeners don't know, that something like Gothic/Doom,
atmo-Black, Avantgarde Metal & similar genres can exist. They know usually only Death Metal bands or
Nu-Metal bands & they are not able to imagine that here, in Europe, the Metal music sounds differently. When
my friend studied in USA, he offered to listen to DEMIMONDE to some of his American friends & they were
absolutely confused... They told him that is for the first time they listen to the similar music, they called it "Opera
Metal" & asked how is it possible to play such music...haha.
HAS DEMIMONDE PLAYED OUT A LOT? WHAT IS A DEMIMONDE LIVE SHOW LIKE? I'M SURE
IT'S QUITE INTERESTING!
No, you are not right. DEMIMONDE playing live was (except one or two shows) totally uninteresting! Haha. Of
course, it would be nice, if we could use the special clothes, stage design, lightning, projection, performers, etc.
during the shows. The answer why we don't have it is simple-money. Just only for our first live presentation of
the "MUTANT STAR" (release party in Prague's Rock Cafe), we used a good backing projection & had some
nice lights. That's all. After all, DEMIMONDE live is only probably a boring show where tons of people staying
on stage try to present live something which is almost impossible to present live... Because our live line-up
consisted of nine people, our band was called "Chinese metro". Haha. Generally the live presentation of our music
is a "sad chapter" of our existence. During the whole career of DEMIMONDE (more than five years), we played
only 10 live shows!!! The reasons are very difficult. F.ex. the size of the stages in the clubs, because the
"live-line-up" of DEMIMONDE consisted two guitars, bass, drums, two keyboards, two vocalists, one guy with
samples... And not only that the stages were small for us, but also it was a sound chaos. The majority of our live
presentations were chaotic regarding the sound, so the people, who didn't know our studio album, also didn't
recognize, what we try to play...(haha). Another reason is that such styles as Death/Grind or standard Doom are
really very popular here, as I said yet in another answer, & the people (mainly outside the big cities) is very
conservative, so we are too much experimental for some of them... I think generally DEMIMONDE is very
much supported by a part of Czech fans, but it is only because our studio albums, not the concerts, because we
were not able to transpose our music from the album to the stage. But on the other hand we had every time lots
of people in the clubs, because we were playing only once or twice a year, so they looked forward to see us, we
were rare for them (of course, I was always very sad when the result turned into the same, because of the sound
or because of the laziness of the band)... my best memories are from the gig, which happened in the release day
of "MUTANT STAR" (22.11.2000) in one of the best clubs in Prague, where more than 300 people went,
enjoyed it & created a great atmosphere. We had a positive feedback from them. Also I think we had fortunately
a good & clear sound (thanx to my friend who knows every one of our tones & who did care about it
exclusively this evening)... Another good gig was in the summer festival Nuclear Storm 1999, where more than
1000 people listened to our music... For the moment, we are not an existing band since the spring 2001, so we
can't play any gig or tour. If some comeback of us will appear, we will be very careful about playing live. One
possibility is to become only the studio project, second possibility is to plat strictly with headphones, with the
artificial beat running all the time under the live instruments...we will see.
ANYTHING WEIRD OR BIZARRE EVER HAPPEN AT ONE OF YOUR SHOWS?
Every one of our shows was weird or bizarre, haha. The strangest story happened when we arrived to the town
with a club with an extremely small stage. The boys from our band entered the club, looked at the stage, told,
"we will not play here" & left the town. Me with the drummer Bizzaro, we stayed there & tried to explain to the
organisers the whole thing. We wanted to play, but the rest of the band was against & it resulted in some very
angry situations inside the band, it was really disagreeable & we two felt like dumbs when trying to express to
the people in the club that we are sorry for this... Another story: guys smoked marijuana before leaving the
rehearsal room for another show. They had a THC in their heads, so they easily forgot to put inside the car the
suitcase with all the cables, effects, keyboard sound module... It resulted in another disputation when arriving to
the club. They need to ask another musicians for their equipment. I played to some "children keyboards" offered
to us from some fan, which lived near the club. Haha. Now it sounds funny, but when it happened, it was every
time a shame. As you see, DEMIMONDE was a bedlam combined with purgatory! I will tell some few words
about this atmosphere & climate inside the band in the next answer. But i must tell you, that without this people
& atmosphere, DEMIMONDE never would be DEMIMONDE & our music wouldn't be so weird!
WITH SO MANY PEOPLE IN THE BAND, DO YOU GUYS EVER BUTT HEADS ON ANYTHING?
Once again, we are six, but believe me, it is terrible even in this number of members. Haha. Regarding the
cooperation in the band during the process of creation: This was a complete psycho. We are totally psycho & we
make the psycho music. That's all. Each of the individuals in DEMIMONDE stands out of normality & all six
people together make the twisted mix six times amplified. Of course it is even impossible to know us one another
too much, we are too complicated & able to surprise every time. Also we don't communicate together much,
mainly during the last few years after the split of DEMIMONDE. But also during the "normal" existence of the
band, we didn't talk too much together. We are very different people, with different interests, focuses, hobbies,
occupying... Simply said, we had almost nothing common, only our band & the world of DEMIMONDE (our
own personal half world) connected to it... So how it all looked like? When being together in the rehearsal &
composing the new music (but also when only speaking together, sitting in the pub or so on...) DEMIMONDE
reminds a war, brothel, bedlam, pigsty or time bomb...permanent attacks, ultimatums & splits of the band were
our normal every day life, without this, we couldn't be as creative. The whole DEMIMONDE is one serious
misunderstanding...hahaha. If someone sees us working (for example the sound engineers during the recording
process), they think usually, that we run out from the madhouse & after the recording, some gentlemen in the
white clothes will arrive, catch us, put us in a car with the bars & return us to the psycho hospital... Generally it
is an amazing fact that the album was successfully finished, especially if you know that it was recorded by the
people, who had permanent disputes, argues, controversies, absolutely different opinions about all... (often I had
a fear, that we will never record it...haha). And also recorded by people, who doesn't listen to the Metal music
now & where the majority of members are Techno freaks, etc...
WHO WRITES MOST OF THE MUSIC IN THE BAND OR IS IT A WHOLE BAND THING?
Exactly-a whole band thing! Everyone contributes to the creative process, there is no one called the "main
composer". Maybe the most ideas come from the solo guitarist Ankhabuth, then the bassist Afagddu & me. In
the second half of the next question, I describe little bit the background of our creative process... The way of
connecting the most possible amount of the moods & feelings of the electronic music with the all possible moods
taken from the different Metal genres (plus maybe some touch of classical music & of course ethno-orient) was
one of the basic focuses for us! Our goal was to record an album with the Metal weight & heaviness (heavy
guitars, raw riffs, blasting drums...) together with synthetic bizarreness & space mood, this all with the most
complex aspect possible. Trance, drum "n" bass, Trip-Hop or ambient are our favorite genres & some of the
members are really into nowadays they are much more into this kind of music than into the Metal music, so
that's the reason, why the combination of all these genres with Metal sounds very organic in our arrangements...
As for the oriental feeling, this is caused mainly by the lead guitarist whose roots are in Syria. Again about the
creative process - if concerns the vocals, it runs in the independent line when composing. The vocals are
completely arranged only by Tanyya & Jaacob & they didn't do it during the rehearsals, they brought their ideas
just tot he studio & when their time slot during the recording session started, they came to their microphones &
the rest of the band had the first possibility to hear the Demimondial vocals. They did it in an absolutely fantastic
way, we didn't expect it! It enriched a lot our music & moved it in some higher level. Such variety of ideas &
expression, everything perfectly fitting in the instrumental side of DEMIMONDE. To sum it up: The abstract
shape of the DEMIMONDE music is of course the consequence of the absolutely different taste of each
member. One likes Metal, the second one hates it, one likes Jazz, Blues, Techno, Classical music or Pop, but
always there is someone, who doesn't like a concrete segment of music. The result of this tension is, that
everyone tries to put a piece of himself into the final shape, the process is quite chaotic & anarchistic. Just also
during the recording sessions in the studio, everyone arranges his instrument (or voice) himself, everyone uses
the momentary ideas & the others are then surprised what's present there. We never knew, what we play, the
first time when we heard the DEMIMONDE music was after the arrival from studio. We put the CD into the CD
recorder & with a lot of surprise we listened to it & told us: "Hey what's this, what's up, what does it mean, this
music?"
WHAT DO THE MEMBERS OF THE BAND DO WHEN NOT DOING ANY WORK FOR THE BAND?
DEMIMONDE was something like a typical student's band in the past times, but as we are not really in contact
nowadays (since the split), I am not sure what's up with the rest of our members. Some of us probably still
study. Me, (except for the work with the Metal Magazine) I completed the journalism degree in the Charles
University (Prague) & now continue with the Czech language studies, which are also my deep interest! The best
way how to spend my time is to be with my girlfriend & to make love, of course! Haha. If i am alone, I prefer to
read something good & listen to something good... Afagddu, the bass player, studies the theory of informations
in the same university, etc. As for the others hobbies, Ankhabuth & Afagddu are fully involved into the Dance
music, they play live sets in some Techno parties... the singer Jaacob loves to travel, so after the split of
DEMIMONDE, he spent a lot of time in Ireland, Canada, etc... The drummer Bizzaro works in General Electric
capitol bank, played with the well known Death Metal band GODLESS TRUTH after the split of
DEMIMONDE& now he is fully concerned by the INCREDIBLE PRESCIENCE technical Metal project with the
guitarist Science (session member of DEMIMONDE). Bizzaro is also one of the heads of the server
www.marastjakcyp.org, something like a tabloid webzine concerning the Metal music, but for some people,
marastjakcyp is more like a lifestyle... Tanyya lives a normal life & has her normal job in Allianz insurance
company. She also sings now in the band formed by former members of FORGOTTEN SILENCE & LOVE
HISTORY, but she looks forward very much to return to DEMIMONDE after it's comeback ( as me & as the
majority of Demigods, as I hope). Btw, Tanyya & Bizzaro are lovers, yet for some five years & for the extern
observer, their relationship is really very interesting & crazy, haha.
ARE YOU INTO ANY OTHER STYLES OF MUSIC BESIDES WHAT YOU PLAY? WHO ARE SOME
OF THE BANDS YOUR CURRENTLY INTO?
My most favorite scene is the Norwegian avantgarde. Bands like SOLEFALD, RAM-ZET, ARCTURUS, ATROX,
THE 3RD AND THE MORTAL, TACTILE GEMMA, GREEN CARNATION, MADDER MORTEM, BEYOND
DAWN, SOURCE OF TIDE, EMPEROR, DODHEIMSGARD or the last album of MAYHEM... I think Norway
offers generally the strongest scene in the world. I am not a fan of the early 90's movement in this country & I
never listened to such bands like DARKTHRONE, early MAYHEM or BURZUM. Maybe it is because the ideas
of these bands were more important than the music itself, but me, I prefer the musical/artistic side of the
creation. I am really happy that the majority of the former Black Metal musicians & bands formed (or
transformed) now lots of bands & projects into new forms, something like post Metal or avantgarde Metal. This
means that i take the nowadays Norwegian musical movement like the leading force of the most progressive
ideas in the whole scene. If you count, that Norway has only 4.5 millions of people & such a big amount of the
famous, well known & worth bands, it is a fantastic phenomenon. Czech Republic has almost 10.5 millions of
people & how many of our bands are worth & well known? Of course I listen also to the bands from another
countries, but always I prefer those with innovative & avantgarde elements inside. My most preferred ones are
the French MISANTHROPE, the Latvian NEGLECTED FIELDS, the Polish LUX OCCULTA, SIRRAH &
MOONLIGHT, the Greek CHAOSTAR, the Austrian DORNENREICH, the Italian SADIST, the Dutch
PESTILENCE or ORPHANAGE, the Spanish ASGAROTH, the Swiss SAMAEL, etc. As for others styles, I like
very much the dark ambient/industrial scene, the projects like IN SLAUGHTER NATIVES, RAISON D'ETRE or
DEUTCH NEPAL... When being younger, I didn't listen to Metal music (and I didn't even know it), I listened
mainly the dark electronic music (ranging from DEPECHE MODE to FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY). And when
being a child, listened only to classical music. Unfortunately I am not really into American Metal scene, it is very
far from my taste. The exceptions that I respect are early NILE, IMMOLATION, then also of course the
technical/atmospherical ones like NOCTURNUS, ATHEIST or early SCHOLOMANCE... Short comment about
the rest of the band. I told you yet, that the rest of the members (except me and the drummer Bizzaro) is no
more into the Metal scene, some of them listen to Techno, Trance & others dance styles (I must tell that I also
like to listen to psy-trance sometimes, or to some quality Pop...Haha), some others like a Jazz stuff, Classical
music etc... We are a hard to describe listeners, open to everything possible...
DO YOU REMEMBER WHERE YOU WERE & WHAT YOU WERE DOING WHEN YOU FIRST HEARD
ABOUT THE ATTACKS ON THE U.S. ON 9-11-01? WHAT WAS THE REACTION LIKE THERE IN
CZECH REPUBLIC? ANY COMMENTS ON THIS TRAGEDY?
I remember it absolutely exactly! I was in the office of SPARK magazine (for which I write) & did a phone
interview with Danny Cavanagh from ANATHEMA. Danny was in a total shock, when he called me & informed
me about current news from TV. He was my first source of informations, because I didn't follow the radio
neither internet news in the office this day, I didn't know anything before his call. When Danny called me, first of
all I didn't understand him what's up. Just then it was clear. I offered him to cancel the interview, but he didn't
agree & told me that he can speak with me, although his eyes were still fixed to the falling towers in his TV. He
repeated all the time: "Hey man, after this interview go & switch on your news, you will not believe this!" I met
Danny few months later when ANATHEMA played their gig in Prague & he remembered very well this
interview... I think this was a strong event that it is impossible to express any comment or feeling by simple
words... I thought for example if it is possible to imagine any adequate punishment for the people who prepared
these attacks...but the result is, that I cannot imagine something adequate. Prison, electric chair...nothing. It will
not return the lives of thousands of the innocent people, it will not eliminate the danger of similar attacks...
Anyway, just now we had here, in Prague, the NATO summit where all the presidents arrived & I must tell you
that I felt little bit a fear (of terrorist), when sitting in the metro & going through Prague these days. Fortunately
nothing bad happened, we had here a total mobilisation of the army & police, so everything was ok.
I'M OUT OF QUESTIONS, JUST WANTED TO THANK YOU FOR ANSWERING THIS INTERVIEW.
THE REST OF THE SPACE IS FOR YOU TO ADD WHAT EVER YOU FEEL NEEDS TO BE HEARD?
For sure, I would like to thank you for the support & place, also I would like to send DEMIMONDial greetings
from the Czech Republic to all fans in your country. I send our greetings mainly to those, who love to listen to
bands, which are trying to push the borders of music, to jump across them, to bring something new..."MUTANT
STAR" is waiting for you, be welcome! All the best & good luck! & now he is fully concerned by the
INCREDIBLE PRESCIENCE technical Metal project with the guitarist Science (session member of
DEMIMONDE). Bizzaro is also one of the heads of the server www.marastjakcyp.org, something like a tabloid
webzine concerning the Metal music, but for some people, marastjakcyp is more like a lifestyle... Tanyya lives a
normal life & has her normal job in Allianz insurance company. She also sings now in the band formed by former
members of FORGOTTEN SILENCE & LOVE HISTORY, but she looks forward very much to return to
DEMIMONDE after it's comeback ( as me & as the majority of Demigods, as I hope). Btw, Tanyya & Bizzaro
are lovers, yet for some five years & for the extern observer, their relationship is really very interesting & crazy,
haha.
You can see there the mutant or cyborg (or cyborg-devil, if you want...haha), darkness & the technical &
industrial atmosphere of some factory (I guess these are the iron works in Ostrava, the most metallurgic &
industrial town in Czech Rep.) It is all chaotic & penetrating together, confused. When you listen to our music &
watch the album cover, I think you must see, that it is a great picture to illustrate the DEMIMONDE's music, an
exact visual expression of the feelings from our tracks... Note that you the lyrics, music, graphic design & all our
presentation must be taken as one monolith. It is all connected with the DEMIMONDE concept. As I said yet,
DEMIMONDE is our world ("Half-World"), our reality. "MUTANT STAR" lies inside this Demimondial parallel
reality. It is something strange, full of unreal creatures, mutants, like we are, & like our mutated music is. You
can call it "an artistic deformation of reality", which is a good characteristic for DEMIMONDE too... It is also a
metaphor for our real life & the real world, because here we have also lots of mutants & everything becomes to
be more & more crazy in our planet... Madness, world being faster & more chaotic, this is the confusion that I
mentioned yet-the confusion of the postmodern world, where we live & which we reflect, by the lyrics, music,
design...of DEMIMONDE. Do you feel these emotions & reflections in our artwork? Our music is a soundtrack
for today's world...but also for any other... And the design concept is an illustration for this soundtrack...
WHAT IS SOME OF THE LYRICAL CONTENT OF YOUR SONGS?
Lyrics are done by our bassist Afagddu & it's a little problem with the whole thing. We don't understand them at
all & we suppose that even their author doesn't understand to his own writings... It is something emotional,
intuitive & irrational, same as the music of DEMIMONDE, where we also don't understand the result, so the
only thing that I can say is that both lyrics & music fit perfectly together. It has the same atmosphere-call it as
you want: magic, postmodern, dark, humoristic, fascinating, surreal, erotic, satanic (in some little bit different
meaning than the majority of the bands do, but we don't know, how to describe this difference)... He refuses all
the questions concerning the interpretation of the lyrics, he would like to give the chance to the reader, & maybe
someone will finally understand it... As for me, I don't need their exact interpretation. It is ok, if you read them
only when listening to the music, & it must cause some mood or feeling inside you. That's all. The words which
perfectly fits into the music, but no one knows why... And that's the whole concept of the lyrics, who are linked
by the same atmosphere, way of thinking etc., same as the others forms (music, design, communications...) of
our artistic presentation...
I ONLY HAVE YOUR "MUTANT STAR" ALBUM, DO YOU HAVE ANOTHER ALBUM AFTER THAT
OR IS THERE ONE IN THE WORKS?
No, this is the last one. As I said when presenting our history, we have two recordings: "MS" & "TWP" (the
second one is also placed in the form of mp3-full version-in the CD-Rom track of "MS", so the disc contains our
complete opus; 1.5 hour of DEMIMONDE). The thread material is not in the works, we sleep now as a band,
we have not one simple idea & we don't meet each other. But it doesn't mean, that the comeback is not possible
& that we don't know how to continue. We spoke about it few times after the split & we have some basic ideas,
how the evolution of the DEMIMONDE music could continue. I am sure we will surprise you once again. Haha.
THAT ALBUM WAS RELEASED A LITTLE WHILE AGO, BUT HOW WELL WAS IT PERCEIVED BY
THE UNDERGROUND SCENE?
The "MUTANT STAR" was actually released 2 years ago (22th of November 2000...11-22-00, do you see the
magic of numbers?), so we gathered a bunch of reactions until now... Since now, honestly, I don't know about
any bad review or response. Usually we receive 95/100, 6/6 or 9/10 points...hahaha... You know, DEMIMONDE
probably will never be some band for the masses, we are too much avantgarde & for the specific listeners. But
those who were caught & charmed by our music, those who understood it, became very devoted & committed
to "MUTANT STAR"... Mainly the journalist appreciate it, because when they must review tens of hundreds of
recordings, almost everything sounds similar & they are happy when receiving something different, which steps
out from the average & offer some kick to the ass to stereotypes... (I know it very well, as I work as a journalist
too...haha) As I read the reviews, I think that there emerged a closed & well selected ring of the intellectual
journalists & fans, for whom the album has the cult status, while the rest of the listeners, who prefer the easier
music, don't accept it & search for something other... That's the life & that's what we expected. Anyway, we
didn't compose it with the idea to be loved by everyone. First of all, the music must be loved by ourselves, that's
the only criterion for us. We are not searching for a quantity of fans, we prefer the quality...hahaha. I think (and
hope) that "MUTANT STAR" received more attention than the previous album. Usually the people tells that "MS"
is more mature, more original & interesting than "TWP", but I know also about the "more conservative" fans of
DEMIMONDE, who still prefer "THE WARRIOR'S POETS" music... When I read the reactions of journalists, I
think sometimes that our style could be best described as "journalists metal" or "music for the press". Haha.
THE CZECH REPUBLIC SEEMS TO HAVE A REALLY GOOD SCENE. WHO ARE SOME OF THE
BETTER BANDS, LABELS, ZINES, ETC...?
I don't agree with you so much, I don't think that our scene is generally so strong, as some people says, but it is
true that we can offer to the world some few excellent & surprising bands... First of all, Czech Republic=
country of sick & brrrrrutal Death/Grind. Some of them are technically perfect with fine ideas & musicianship. I
can suggest for example LANIENA MENTIS, INTERVALLE BIZZARE, ALIENATION MENTAL or
IMPERIAL FOETICIDE. But the majority of the bands playing this genre here are a little bit boring &
stereotypical. Also here (mainly in the eastern part of the country) is a home of sleepy Doom Metal. I don't like
the stereotypes & the way how so many bands here play (and copy) the slow Doom or the brutal Death/Grind,
so I am glad to play in DEMIMONDE, a band that doesn't sound like a Czech band. (haha) To play a really
original & worthy music, without copying anyone other, was our main focus when creating the band. Yes, it is
true, that some of the Czech bands offer some strange & unique atmosphere. But this is really a minority; believe
me. The rest play a very standard & monotonous music. I hope we reached just with our first material the
category of the more original & different bands, out of the Czech average; this was always our primary goal.
And the second material "MUTANT STAR" was mentioned in tons of reviews as "one of the most creative,
experimental & innovative stuff coming from the Czech scene". Me, personally, i am not really happy when
DEMIMONDE is compared with the Czech scene, because in my opinion there were always only around 10
original & worth bands here, in time when we recorded both our materials. Haha. I can suggest some few bands
from here, who are out of stereotypes, namely FORGOTTEN SILENCE (Jazz-Thrash-Death-Doom fusion),
CONTRASTIC (elektro-Grind-HC-Alternative), LIVORES MORTIS (cold dark Atmospherical Metal), THE
RAYS OF THE SUN (Alternative Doom), VUVR (technical Jazz Death Artrock) etc. These are some fine
examples of the few Czech bands that i really like & appreciate... We don't have any big Metal label here, but
some smaller who release sometimes some interesting stuff (REDBALCK PROD., SHINDY PROD.,
EPIDEMIE REC., OBSCENE PROD., etc.)
HOW WOULD YOU COMPARE THE CZECH REPUBLIC MUSIC SCENE TO THE SCENE HERE IN
THE U.S.?
It seems that we have a lot in common. Lots of musicians here adore (and copy) bands like MORBID ANGEL,
IMMOLATION, CANNIBAL CORPSE, etc... On the other hand, we are part of the European scene, & that
means, that the big part of the Czech Metal scene is focused in playing some more melodic & Atmospherical
genres of Metal. As i know yet, the majority of the U.S. listeners don't know, that something like Gothic/Doom,
atmo-Black, Avantgarde Metal & similar genres can exist. They know usually only Death Metal bands or
Nu-Metal bands & they are not able to imagine that here, in Europe, the Metal music sounds differently. When
my friend studied in USA, he offered to listen to DEMIMONDE to some of his American friends & they were
absolutely confused... They told him that is for the first time they listen to the similar music, they called it "Opera
Metal" & asked how is it possible to play such music...haha.
HAS DEMIMONDE PLAYED OUT A LOT? WHAT IS A DEMIMONDE LIVE SHOW LIKE? I'M SURE
IT'S QUITE INTERESTING!
No, you are not right. DEMIMONDE playing live was (except one or two shows) totally uninteresting! Haha. Of
course, it would be nice, if we could use the special clothes, stage design, lightning, projection, performers, etc.
during the shows. The answer why we don't have it is simple-money. Just only for our first live presentation of
the "MUTANT STAR" (release party in Prague's Rock Cafe), we used a good backing projection & had some
nice lights. That's all. After all, DEMIMONDE live is only probably a boring show where tons of people staying
on stage try to present live something which is almost impossible to present live... Because our live line-up
consisted of nine people, our band was called "Chinese metro". Haha. Generally the live presentation of our music
is a "sad chapter" of our existence. During the whole career of DEMIMONDE (more than five years), we played
only 10 live shows!!! The reasons are very difficult. F.ex. the size of the stages in the clubs, because the
"live-line-up" of DEMIMONDE consisted two guitars, bass, drums, two keyboards, two vocalists, one guy with
samples... And not only that the stages were small for us, but also it was a sound chaos. The majority of our live
presentations were chaotic regarding the sound, so the people, who didn't know our studio album, also didn't
recognize, what we try to play...(haha). Another reason is that such styles as Death/Grind or standard Doom are
really very popular here, as I said yet in another answer, & the people (mainly outside the big cities) is very
conservative, so we are too much experimental for some of them... I think generally DEMIMONDE is very
much supported by a part of Czech fans, but it is only because our studio albums, not the concerts, because we
were not able to transpose our music from the album to the stage. But on the other hand we had every time lots
of people in the clubs, because we were playing only once or twice a year, so they looked forward to see us, we
were rare for them (of course, I was always very sad when the result turned into the same, because of the sound
or because of the laziness of the band)... my best memories are from the gig, which happened in the release day
of "MUTANT STAR" (22.11.2000) in one of the best clubs in Prague, where more than 300 people went,
enjoyed it & created a great atmosphere. We had a positive feedback from them. Also I think we had fortunately
a good & clear sound (thanx to my friend who knows every one of our tones & who did care about it
exclusively this evening)... Another good gig was in the summer festival Nuclear Storm 1999, where more than
1000 people listened to our music... For the moment, we are not an existing band since the spring 2001, so we
can't play any gig or tour. If some comeback of us will appear, we will be very careful about playing live. One
possibility is to become only the studio project, second possibility is to plat strictly with headphones, with the
artificial beat running all the time under the live instruments...we will see.
ANYTHING WEIRD OR BIZARRE EVER HAPPEN AT ONE OF YOUR SHOWS?
Every one of our shows was weird or bizarre, haha. The strangest story happened when we arrived to the town
with a club with an extremely small stage. The boys from our band entered the club, looked at the stage, told,
"we will not play here" & left the town. Me with the drummer Bizzaro, we stayed there & tried to explain to the
organisers the whole thing. We wanted to play, but the rest of the band was against & it resulted in some very
angry situations inside the band, it was really disagreeable & we two felt like dumbs when trying to express to
the people in the club that we are sorry for this... Another story: guys smoked marijuana before leaving the
rehearsal room for another show. They had a THC in their heads, so they easily forgot to put inside the car the
suitcase with all the cables, effects, keyboard sound module... It resulted in another disputation when arriving to
the club. They need to ask another musicians for their equipment. I played to some "children keyboards" offered
to us from some fan, which lived near the club. Haha. Now it sounds funny, but when it happened, it was every
time a shame. As you see, DEMIMONDE was a bedlam combined with purgatory! I will tell some few words
about this atmosphere & climate inside the band in the next answer. But i must tell you, that without this people
& atmosphere, DEMIMONDE never would be DEMIMONDE & our music wouldn't be so weird!
WITH SO MANY PEOPLE IN THE BAND, DO YOU GUYS EVER BUTT HEADS ON ANYTHING?
Once again, we are six, but believe me, it is terrible even in this number of members. Haha. Regarding the
cooperation in the band during the process of creation: This was a complete psycho. We are totally psycho & we
make the psycho music. That's all. Each of the individuals in DEMIMONDE stands out of normality & all six
people together make the twisted mix six times amplified. Of course it is even impossible to know us one another
too much, we are too complicated & able to surprise every time. Also we don't communicate together much,
mainly during the last few years after the split of DEMIMONDE. But also during the "normal" existence of the
band, we didn't talk too much together. We are very different people, with different interests, focuses, hobbies,
occupying... Simply said, we had almost nothing common, only our band & the world of DEMIMONDE (our
own personal half world) connected to it... So how it all looked like? When being together in the rehearsal &
composing the new music (but also when only speaking together, sitting in the pub or so on...) DEMIMONDE
reminds a war, brothel, bedlam, pigsty or time bomb...permanent attacks, ultimatums & splits of the band were
our normal every day life, without this, we couldn't be as creative. The whole DEMIMONDE is one serious
misunderstanding...hahaha. If someone sees us working (for example the sound engineers during the recording
process), they think usually, that we run out from the madhouse & after the recording, some gentlemen in the
white clothes will arrive, catch us, put us in a car with the bars & return us to the psycho hospital... Generally it
is an amazing fact that the album was successfully finished, especially if you know that it was recorded by the
people, who had permanent disputes, argues, controversies, absolutely different opinions about all... (often I had
a fear, that we will never record it...haha). And also recorded by people, who doesn't listen to the Metal music
now & where the majority of members are Techno freaks, etc...
WHO WRITES MOST OF THE MUSIC IN THE BAND OR IS IT A WHOLE BAND THING?
Exactly-a whole band thing! Everyone contributes to the creative process, there is no one called the "main
composer". Maybe the most ideas come from the solo guitarist Ankhabuth, then the bassist Afagddu & me. In
the second half of the next question, I describe little bit the background of our creative process... The way of
connecting the most possible amount of the moods & feelings of the electronic music with the all possible moods
taken from the different Metal genres (plus maybe some touch of classical music & of course ethno-orient) was
one of the basic focuses for us! Our goal was to record an album with the Metal weight & heaviness (heavy
guitars, raw riffs, blasting drums...) together with synthetic bizarreness & space mood, this all with the most
complex aspect possible. Trance, drum "n" bass, Trip-Hop or ambient are our favorite genres & some of the
members are really into nowadays they are much more into this kind of music than into the Metal music, so
that's the reason, why the combination of all these genres with Metal sounds very organic in our arrangements...
As for the oriental feeling, this is caused mainly by the lead guitarist whose roots are in Syria. Again about the
creative process - if concerns the vocals, it runs in the independent line when composing. The vocals are
completely arranged only by Tanyya & Jaacob & they didn't do it during the rehearsals, they brought their ideas
just tot he studio & when their time slot during the recording session started, they came to their microphones &
the rest of the band had the first possibility to hear the Demimondial vocals. They did it in an absolutely fantastic
way, we didn't expect it! It enriched a lot our music & moved it in some higher level. Such variety of ideas &
expression, everything perfectly fitting in the instrumental side of DEMIMONDE. To sum it up: The abstract
shape of the DEMIMONDE music is of course the consequence of the absolutely different taste of each
member. One likes Metal, the second one hates it, one likes Jazz, Blues, Techno, Classical music or Pop, but
always there is someone, who doesn't like a concrete segment of music. The result of this tension is, that
everyone tries to put a piece of himself into the final shape, the process is quite chaotic & anarchistic. Just also
during the recording sessions in the studio, everyone arranges his instrument (or voice) himself, everyone uses
the momentary ideas & the others are then surprised what's present there. We never knew, what we play, the
first time when we heard the DEMIMONDE music was after the arrival from studio. We put the CD into the CD
recorder & with a lot of surprise we listened to it & told us: "Hey what's this, what's up, what does it mean, this
music?"
WHAT DO THE MEMBERS OF THE BAND DO WHEN NOT DOING ANY WORK FOR THE BAND?
DEMIMONDE was something like a typical student's band in the past times, but as we are not really in contact
nowadays (since the split), I am not sure what's up with the rest of our members. Some of us probably still
study. Me, (except for the work with the Metal Magazine) I completed the journalism degree in the Charles
University (Prague) & now continue with the Czech language studies, which are also my deep interest! The best
way how to spend my time is to be with my girlfriend & to make love, of course! Haha. If i am alone, I prefer to
read something good & listen to something good... Afagddu, the bass player, studies the theory of informations
in the same university, etc. As for the others hobbies, Ankhabuth & Afagddu are fully involved into the Dance
music, they play live sets in some Techno parties... the singer Jaacob loves to travel, so after the split of
DEMIMONDE, he spent a lot of time in Ireland, Canada, etc... The drummer Bizzaro works in General Electric
capitol bank, played with the well known Death Metal band GODLESS TRUTH after the split of
DEMIMONDE& now he is fully concerned by the INCREDIBLE PRESCIENCE technical Metal project with the
guitarist Science (session member of DEMIMONDE). Bizzaro is also one of the heads of the server
www.marastjakcyp.org, something like a tabloid webzine concerning the Metal music, but for some people,
marastjakcyp is more like a lifestyle... Tanyya lives a normal life & has her normal job in Allianz insurance
company. She also sings now in the band formed by former members of FORGOTTEN SILENCE & LOVE
HISTORY, but she looks forward very much to return to DEMIMONDE after it's comeback ( as me & as the
majority of Demigods, as I hope). Btw, Tanyya & Bizzaro are lovers, yet for some five years & for the extern
observer, their relationship is really very interesting & crazy, haha.
ARE YOU INTO ANY OTHER STYLES OF MUSIC BESIDES WHAT YOU PLAY? WHO ARE SOME
OF THE BANDS YOUR CURRENTLY INTO?
My most favorite scene is the Norwegian avantgarde. Bands like SOLEFALD, RAM-ZET, ARCTURUS, ATROX,
THE 3RD AND THE MORTAL, TACTILE GEMMA, GREEN CARNATION, MADDER MORTEM, BEYOND
DAWN, SOURCE OF TIDE, EMPEROR, DODHEIMSGARD or the last album of MAYHEM... I think Norway
offers generally the strongest scene in the world. I am not a fan of the early 90's movement in this country & I
never listened to such bands like DARKTHRONE, early MAYHEM or BURZUM. Maybe it is because the ideas
of these bands were more important than the music itself, but me, I prefer the musical/artistic side of the
creation. I am really happy that the majority of the former Black Metal musicians & bands formed (or
transformed) now lots of bands & projects into new forms, something like post Metal or avantgarde Metal. This
means that i take the nowadays Norwegian musical movement like the leading force of the most progressive
ideas in the whole scene. If you count, that Norway has only 4.5 millions of people & such a big amount of the
famous, well known & worth bands, it is a fantastic phenomenon. Czech Republic has almost 10.5 millions of
people & how many of our bands are worth & well known? Of course I listen also to the bands from another
countries, but always I prefer those with innovative & avantgarde elements inside. My most preferred ones are
the French MISANTHROPE, the Latvian NEGLECTED FIELDS, the Polish LUX OCCULTA, SIRRAH &
MOONLIGHT, the Greek CHAOSTAR, the Austrian DORNENREICH, the Italian SADIST, the Dutch
PESTILENCE or ORPHANAGE, the Spanish ASGAROTH, the Swiss SAMAEL, etc. As for others styles, I like
very much the dark ambient/industrial scene, the projects like IN SLAUGHTER NATIVES, RAISON D'ETRE or
DEUTCH NEPAL... When being younger, I didn't listen to Metal music (and I didn't even know it), I listened
mainly the dark electronic music (ranging from DEPECHE MODE to FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY). And when
being a child, listened only to classical music. Unfortunately I am not really into American Metal scene, it is very
far from my taste. The exceptions that I respect are early NILE, IMMOLATION, then also of course the
technical/atmospherical ones like NOCTURNUS, ATHEIST or early SCHOLOMANCE... Short comment about
the rest of the band. I told you yet, that the rest of the members (except me and the drummer Bizzaro) is no
more into the Metal scene, some of them listen to Techno, Trance & others dance styles (I must tell that I also
like to listen to psy-trance sometimes, or to some quality Pop...Haha), some others like a Jazz stuff, Classical
music etc... We are a hard to describe listeners, open to everything possible...
DO YOU REMEMBER WHERE YOU WERE & WHAT YOU WERE DOING WHEN YOU FIRST HEARD
ABOUT THE ATTACKS ON THE U.S. ON 9-11-01? WHAT WAS THE REACTION LIKE THERE IN
CZECH REPUBLIC? ANY COMMENTS ON THIS TRAGEDY?
I remember it absolutely exactly! I was in the office of SPARK magazine (for which I write) & did a phone
interview with Danny Cavanagh from ANATHEMA. Danny was in a total shock, when he called me & informed
me about current news from TV. He was my first source of informations, because I didn't follow the radio
neither internet news in the office this day, I didn't know anything before his call. When Danny called me, first of
all I didn't understand him what's up. Just then it was clear. I offered him to cancel the interview, but he didn't
agree & told me that he can speak with me, although his eyes were still fixed to the falling towers in his TV. He
repeated all the time: "Hey man, after this interview go & switch on your news, you will not believe this!" I met
Danny few months later when ANATHEMA played their gig in Prague & he remembered very well this
interview... I think this was a strong event that it is impossible to express any comment or feeling by simple
words... I thought for example if it is possible to imagine any adequate punishment for the people who prepared
these attacks...but the result is, that I cannot imagine something adequate. Prison, electric chair...nothing. It will
not return the lives of thousands of the innocent people, it will not eliminate the danger of similar attacks...
Anyway, just now we had here, in Prague, the NATO summit where all the presidents arrived & I must tell you
that I felt little bit a fear (of terrorist), when sitting in the metro & going through Prague these days. Fortunately
nothing bad happened, we had here a total mobilisation of the army & police, so everything was ok.
I'M OUT OF QUESTIONS, JUST WANTED TO THANK YOU FOR ANSWERING THIS INTERVIEW.
THE REST OF THE SPACE IS FOR YOU TO ADD WHAT EVER YOU FEEL NEEDS TO BE HEARD?
For sure, I would like to thank you for the support & place, also I would like to send DEMIMONDial greetings
from the Czech Republic to all fans in your country. I send our greetings mainly to those, who love to listen to
bands, which are trying to push the borders of music, to jump across them, to bring something new..."MUTANT
STAR" is waiting for you, be welcome! All the best & good luck! & now he is fully concerned by the
INCREDIBLE PRESCIENCE technical Metal project with the guitarist Science (session member of
DEMIMONDE). Bizzaro is also one of the heads of the server www.marastjakcyp.org, something like a tabloid
webzine concerning the Metal music, but for some people, marastjakcyp is more like a lifestyle... Tanyya lives a
normal life & has her normal job in Allianz insurance company. She also sings now in the band formed by former
members of FORGOTTEN SILENCE & LOVE HISTORY, but she looks forward very much to return to
DEMIMONDE after it's comeback ( as me & as the majority of Demigods, as I hope). Btw, Tanyya & Bizzaro
are lovers, yet for some five years & for the extern observer, their relationship is really very interesting & crazy,
haha.
