Saturday, January 5, 2019

Exclusive Interview with Remy, vocalist of Dante's Theory


For those who are late to read on their review last month, on this lovely new year I'm back again with my special guest, Remy the talented vocalist from Dante's Theory for some nice virtually sipping hot tea online interview. Before that, don't forget to get yourself uncover with the article hatched about the band by clicking on this link 

1. How are you guys, please introduce yourself.

Hi, we are doing great, Remy here (vocals). The past 2 years (2017 & 2018) has been good thus far, we are looking forward to 2019.

2.You guys are well known in your country, Singapore. For the people from other countries, can you introduce and describe your band?

The band consist of 4 members, we play extreme metal / death metal, the band has played live shows with very known both local and overseas bands, within Singapore and overseas. Our music and lyric focuses more on specific topic for each albums and ep. Our music influences are vast too, we listen to all genres as we firmly believe music is universal and it transcend all barriers.

3. What gets you guys excited about music?

Well to me honestly music is just one of the channels in which the band and I share our views on certain topic. It is also an outlet for us to focus our collective energy and collaborated ideas. Besides music we are also involve in other aspect of creativity, for example arts. Be it fine arts or contemporary art forms.

4. Can you all explain what the band’s name means to you all and why it was chosen to represent your style of music?

The band name comes from the book called Divine Comedy, by a 14th century poet named Dante Alighieri. It’s a book to describe Dante’s journey to hell. The music is composed with in-depth lyrics are pretty dark at times, we believe it’s suitable to describe us and our music.

5. Previously the band was known as Pyro, why changed the name to Dante’s Theory?

The band existed back late mid 90’s Pyro, which consisted of past members which are not active in the music scene anymore, I decided to change the band’s name as our focus in terms of writing music and lyrics defers from the previous band’s identity.

6. In what ways would you consider your latest single “Amut” to be niche / different from the prior ones?

Amut has a raw old school death metal to it, with some elements of slam / groove. The main objective was to have songs both sang in English and our native tongue, Bahasa Malay. That was what sets it apart from our other ep / album.


7. What’s the band’s song writing process like? 

Usually how our music process works is, we have some band / music references which we listen to, also the specific topic in which we would like to focus on. Our main guitarist will work our riffs in which our vocalist and drummer will have a say on how to structure the whole song. Ultimately it’s a collaborative effort, which also includes our recording sound producer which helps us to get that unique sound we are aiming for.


8. You guys have been active since the 90’s, what is the legacy of Dante’s Theory to you?

That's a tough one, well I guess, our legacy is the impact our our music which we share with our friends and fans which we met and make during our lives shows and promos. To me personally, when we are gone one day, I would just like our friends and fans remembered that we contributed to the music scene as best as we can in our own way.


9. Since your debut, can you describe the MOST EPIC performance that you have experienced? 

The lasted show which we played in Singapore with Thy Art Is Murder Asia Tour 2018 was pretty epic. To me every show is different, every show is epic, even with 30 people or 3 thousand audiences. It’s how the band connects with the audiences that makes it epic.


10. How did the members initially find each other?

The island is pretty small, everyone knows everyone here, and well I guess we just had the same focus and drive that made us combined forces to be a single unit. 


11. What draws you all as individuals to want to make Progressive Death metal music as your genre?

We do not actually categorize ourselves, its just we sound more to progressive now than back 5 years ago.


12. Would you care to list some of your favorite 2018/2019 music releases?

Wow, to many, I would just list a few, Decapitated- Blood Mantra, Dying Fetus - Wrong One To Fuck With, Implore - Subjugate and also Integrity - Howling For The Nightmare Shall Consume.


13. What keeps you all passionate about making new music?

Basically it’s our main outlet to channel all these energy we have, it’s also a great way for us to share our passion to everyone who loves music / metal in general.


14. I enjoyed listening to your both of your latest singles and they sound epic. Can you discuss the writing and recording process for this song?

Thank you. It took us about 2 weeks to finalize the main riffs and also the structure of the songs, there wasn’t much debating or changing it much as we are know exactly what sound we are trying to project out and we focused more on that that making it too prefect.


15. How would you compare the current/upcoming to past materials?

I would say it more fast paced than our previous albums, other than the dual language in some of the songs, it’s more energy driven I would say, plus grooves.


16. What goals do you all have for Dante’s Theory for the rest of 2018/2019? Any 2019 plans in the works being considered? 

We are planning to release a new album in 2019, sometime mid 2019. We also plan to have more shows around Asia region.


17. Whereas a lot of bands that play music like yours go raw and murky, explain your feelings and rationale behind the “clean” and tight sounding production you guys has always had?

We moving forward, we grew up in the 90’s, we would just like to have something which we composed to be more audible in another say 10 years, which still sounds fresh I hope.


18. Who do you all consider to be major influences on you all as musicians?

I guess it would be our love one, our parents and our peers. We do not have a specific band which we idolize, we are have a vast liking to a lot of pioneer bands both locally and overseas.


19. How did the members of Dante’s Theory come to be involved with making music? Is anyone in the band formally trained as a musician or taken years of lessons?

Yes two of us are from Yamaha music school, the rest of us are self taught. We are all music lovers to begin with, especially metal, so instead of just listening to metal, we also form a group to do our own style. Or at least we try to.


20. What are some of your all favorite non-metal genres/styles/bands/group?

Dubstep, Classical music, reggae, etc, nothing specific, we listen to everything, which keeps our mind working when we are writing new songs, we do not constraint ourselves to just 1 specific genre.


21. What jobs or things are you all involved with outside of Dante’s Theory?

Non, we are only in Dante’s Theory as we have better focus and concentration to complete 1 thing at a time.


22. Name the countries that you guys wished for performing/touring?

I would say Japan and perhaps Europe.


23. Any other upcoming events or things worth mentioning to all your fans out there?

We may have a mini tour in Indonesia and Malaysia, but it’s still in the discussion phase for now.


24. If you have any final thoughts or things you’d like to say, go for it?

We really enjoy ourselves writing music and also being able to share it with everyone who digs metal, we hope to meet all of you soon when we come next to your location! Also watch out for our next album in 2019! 


I hope you guys enjoy this, take care, be safe and thanks for reading!

Again, don't forget to have a read on the review I've written for the band here


This blog belongs to Amirah Y a.k.a Kak Long Wayer