Goth, doom, heavy metallers DESOLUNA have a couple of releases under their belts, with more content that should see a release at some point in time. At this time, the band are on a hiatus trying out other stuff, such as projects and what not. The band goes on further to discuss this matter and this band as a whole.
1. Please tell us about the history of your band and its members.
Well it started around 2009 or 2010 when Patrick started Desoluna as his own recording project.
His former band Clapatria had recently split up and needed some sort of outlet for his creativity and started recording songs at home that became the foundation for Desoluna. But it took another three of four years before it actually became a band when he and I (Nadia) met at a local pub in 2013. At the time, I was looking for musicians who wanted to start a band with me. My only experience at that point was writing and performing acoustic music and tried to either build up or join a couple of bands here and there but that ended in nothing pretty quickly. Once me and Patrick started talking, we discovered that we were trying to achieve the same thing; I was looking for band members, he wanted singers to lay down vocals for his songs. At the time, he wanted to do some sort of Ayreon-thing but obviously, fate wanted different ;). Shortly after, Patrick dragged along his former bass player from Clapatria, Robin, who was also an essential part as the band was taking its form and colour, so to speak, before he quit and was later on replaced by Micael Levin. Both of them had a very distinctive style as Robins “specialty” was within doom metal ( he played with another band at the same time, Stonegriff, a heavily Black Sabbath and Krux-influenced band) while Micael came from a punk rock background. He sang ( or screamed to be precise) in a band back at the 80´s called Snobbslakt who were very active in the local scene in Helsingborg. He quit the band as well as he moved to Spain. Olle, our drummer, has mostly played in a couple of local bands in his hometown Halmstad before he joined us. He was more or less pulled in to our band as we had a couple of livegigs ahead of us and the poor guy only had two weeks to learn our songs. But he nailed it and he has stayed with us ever since. His former band, Inställt, has actually come back to life again wich I think is awesome!
2. What’s the origin of the band’s name?
Our band name has various meanings. The first reason is that it´s taken from the name of Patricks first band, Desolate. They were active around between 1997 and 2004 and some of the songs that we have used later on (both when it comes to our first demo and the EP we recently released) were written at that time. So it is safe to say that Patrick is and has always been the creative force of this band. He has written all of our songs. He even put the word “Lun” in the name as a reference to his last name, Lundberg. But then there is another layer in the name. If you break up the name itself, De So Luna, it basically sounds like De Sol y Luna wich means Of Sun and Moon in spanish.
3. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?
Well, the core of the band, me and Patrick, live in Malmö and Olle is based in Halmstad. I can´t really say that much of the scene of the latter one (Well....they do have Arch Enemy, a very uninteresting band if you ask me) but the scene in Malmö used to be very flourishing once. Very small but growing and with full of potential. I remember about 9-10 years ago when you could go out at nights and there were several clubs and pubs that offered local bands and talents a chance to show off themselves. Every other person you spoke to played in at least one band (mostly hard rock and metal). I wrote music articles for a webzine and the University magazine at that time so I put an extra effort in keeping track of what was going on. All of that is vanishing, one by one and most people that put an effort to keep this scene alive pretty much gets tired of it after a few years. Sweden is suffering under what we call Klubbdöden (“Death of all clubs”). A lot of clubs and arenas, both here in Malmö as the rest of the country, has been forced to close down or struggled to maintain above the surface due to different reasons. It just breaks my heart to witness. However, the punk and hardcore scene is staying strong. My husband-to-be, Johan, is kicking it with his punkband Helvetet ("Hell" in Swedish). They are going to perform their first gig October 12th, which I pretty much look forward to!
Massdistraction, a thrash metal band, released a demo and a first album that were absolutely great and I still beat myself up for not going to their shows when I had the chance! That just sucks! From what I heard, their shows were awesome as fuck and I would have loved to see my boyfriend in action back when he was their singer and their other singer as well, Mikkjal. Both of whom were great singers in their respective right. At the moment there are two bands you should keep an eye out for; Liar Thief Bandit and Grand Harvest.
The latter one just performed their first two shows at Plan B in Malmö. Sadly I missed out on both but I know for a fact that the vocals are killing all competition within the death metal scene. And the music is just plain awesome. LTB is this band you want to listen to if you´re just looking for a good time and just oozes with sweat and rock´n´roll. And Vet Hut! I don´t know if they are local but hell they are good! Lastly, To be honest, Clapatria had really good songs too and would have been a great band if only they had the knowledge and resources to make the band grow. Me and Clara from that band has recorded a couple of songs as well. Occasionally, we get together and play a few tunes.
4. How would you describe your style?
Doom metal with gothic rock influences is the most accurate label. Heavy and melodic.
5. What have you released so far and what can someone expect from your works?
We released our first album, "Fortitude", in October 2015. In July this year, our EP, "Rejection of Rejoice", was released. We did a demo before that as well. There was this journalist who once described our music as "wearing clogs out of concrete, that´s how depressive it is" or something similar. Of course she meant it in a negative sense but what she didn't realize is that we took it as a compliment. That anyone could be so deeply affected by our music and take it this way was just hilarious. So you have it pretty much there!
6. Do you have any new music in the works?
We just released this EP that took forever to make. We have a couple of songs that we wrote together during the first year that we want to record at some point.
7. How about playing shows and touring, have anything planned out?
We don´t have any shows planned right now, partly because we don´t have a bass player at the moment. During the recording of the EP, we went through a lot of conflicts and setbacks. We recorded the songs the first time in a studio in Halmstad in 2016 with this guy who completely ripped us off and basically behaved in a very manipulative way. So we had to do it all over again which really drained the energy out of all of us. So we decided to take a break and try out other stuff. It´s like in a relationship when you just have to be apart for a short while in order to find each other again.
8. What plans do you have for the future as a band?
As I mentioned above, we´re on a hiatus right now and trying out other stuff. I was briefly in another band called Queens of Borderline but that didn't really work out for me. Olle is drumming in other bands and Patrick just recently became a father so he is focused on his newborn son at the moment. But the plan is at some point record the songs that are just waiting to be developed. If we are lucky, we might find a bass player, and start paying live again, haha!
9. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
It´s not really hard to find us. We are of course on YouTube, Facebook, Spotify and some other channels I just don´t remember at the moment. If you want to buy a copy of Rejection of Rejoice, just send us a pm through Facebook. I know CDBaby has five copies of Fortitude so you can buy the album through that website.
10. What is it you’d like a listener to remember the most when hearing your music for the first time?
Tough question...Just don´t think so much. Just feel it. And remember that even in the darkest of times there is always a ray of light.
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