#Tardigrade Inferno #avant-garde metal #alternative metal #dark cabaret #Russian #music video
Tardigrade Inferno is a young band, but already established in its niche. The team itself positions itself as a "metal big top" and focuses not only on music and funny lyrics, but also on appearance. While the band is on its first Russian tour, we got in touch with the musicians to get a little more information about their plans for the near future, new albums and personal philosophy.
Let's talk about personal branding. Do you have a personal brand, do you feel responsible for being a public figure? How do you position yourself to the public?
Yes, there is something similar. There is an image of some kind of leading circus or a teller of scary stories to children, and there is just us as people, and we maneuver somewhere in the middle so that there is both theatricality and sincerity. That is, on the one hand, we have an image with a certain amount of mystery that we protect, on the other hand, we are open to communication with fans.
Do you have some kind of self-censorship, so to speak?
No. That is, we discuss what and how to post and what to write, but this is more editing than self-censorship. We do not have some terrible undercover secrets that we hush up, there are no taboo topics that we really want to say something about but we are afraid that they will not understand us. There were no places in the songs that we would cut so as not to fall under someone's knife.
Do you get compared to other popular bands with female vocals? Do these comparisons offend you?
Of course they compare. We can't remember anything bad. If it was, then it is most likely a matter of taste. The very fact of comparison is not offensive.
Due to the fact that you don’t have a frontman, but a frontwoman, so to speak, there were no such stories when people told you “here is a woman’s place in the kitchen, where you climbed onto the stage”, “a girl should be cute, how can you be in such kind of speaking." Have you come across any stereotypes?
It slips in personal conversations, but very rarely, only if the person is not involved in this. It's a matter of life choice when it comes to a woman's career as a metal vocalist. There are career women; they are condemned by those people for whom such a lifestyle is unacceptable. Our circle of contacts is such that such questions and claims do not arise. Such reasoning is probably characteristic of the people who do not come into contact with such types of art, so our contacts end at the stage of “what kind of freaks are these anyway?” Although recently in VK Sasha was asked to explain a hairstyle.
Are you generally offended by comparisons with Western colleagues?
Offended - never. We may be perplexed when they say about us “you just took a bandname and licked everything like a carbon paper”, but it’s strange to be offended by this, and indeed to react in any way. And when they just compare, there is no negative at all. Even within the band we don't fully agree on who our music is more like.
Is it possible to say that you are trying to convey the serious through a joke in your work?
Partly. The song must first of all work on an emotional level, and if the lyrics are just 100 percent humorous jokes, then it will not be as effective as adding tragic notes or some idea. That is, all this is not based on the desire to say something important, but on the desire to write a good song. And if there is nothing in the song except the surface layer, then it is felt. And it turns out that "to convey something serious" is not an end in itself, but a practical necessity. Of course, not all of our songs are about something other than the immediate plot of the text (at least consciously), but without a periodic feeling that there is something behind the song, it seems to me that listening to music gets boring.
Do you have any strange fans or stories associated with them? Your colleagues often tell stories about fans who stalk them, give strange gifts, and compulsively write comments and letters on social networks.
You know, we have quite a lot of "weird" fans in a good way, which is quite logical, since we ourselves are strange, like our music. Often people come to our concerts in cool strange costumes. We haven't accumulated any stories yet, but now we are skating our first tour, getting to know the fans. There are guys who go to our concerts in different cities. They give us gifts. We were presented with drawings, paintings, last year one artist presented a large painting of Dasha. We still have not found a place on the repbaza where to hang it, but we will definitely hang it, we really like it. Once, guys from Tula came to our concert, brought a gingerbread, but the guards took it away and ate it. In social networks, some fans quite often write to Dasha, but so far there has not been any obsessive persecution.
Isn't it scary to be a musician in Russia?
It's scary to be in Russia. Being a musician in Russia is just as scary as being a musician in another country. Show business will chew you up and spit you out if you don't try, like any other business.
Translated from: http://metalkings.org/interviews/257
