interview with Dominanz
Have any of you played in other bands? We all have played in other bands Roy was playing in Taake for a period way back, Marius was playing as a live bassist in Audrey horne and some other bands,I was playing in Thygrief . The only one of us playing in other bands for the moment is Luis he is also guitarist for Gravdal.
How is it that you started playing music? I started playing in a band in my teens. Back then the biggest inspiration source for me was Death/trash metal bands like Sepultura Morbid angel etc.Many of my friends also started playing instruments so it became quite natural to me. I always had a thing for the rhythm section in the band so therefore i became a drummer.
What are your names? / Who plays what? Roy Mathiesen : bass and vocals Luis F Vilchez Cara : guitar and vocals Marius Løbø Fimland : guitar Frode Gaustad : Drums
Where are you from? We are from Bergen in the west of Norway
Have you had other previous members? Jørn Tunsberg was playing guitar on the two previous albums. Bjørn Nese was playing keyboards in the band in our beginning. Fran Ramirez was playing guitar and doing some vocals in the band for a short period after the second album.
Did you make music even when you were young? I am the drummer in the band i do not compose music but i have been playing drums since i was a teenager.
What year did the band form? 2008/2009
What's your style of genre? Extreme metal
What inspires you? I can find inspiration in music,art,movies,religion and sometimes in things that happens in our society.
How often and where do you reherse? We share a rehersal room with our good friends Hades almighty in Bergen close to where we live. it varies on the situation how often we are on rehersal together.When we work on new material or are planning a tour it can be two three days per week or more . The rest of the time we mostly work on our one.
How have you developed since you started with the music? I think you will always find different things that inspires you during the years and of course you develop yourself as a musician.For Dominanz i think we have been darker and more complex from the first to the second one.And i think that trend continues for the third one.
Do you have other interests of work outside the band? All of us are working full time beside the band.
Are you looking for a booking agency, and what are your thoughts about that? We are signed at L'alchimie agency that does a good job for us, but we can never get enough help with booking concerts.
Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts about that? We are not signed at any label at the moment and have not decided how to release our coming album. So yes we are looking for a label that could suit what we are doing.
Who does the composing and writes the lyrics? On the previous albums Roy and Jørn did the composing and Roy has been writing the lyrics with exception of a few songs that our good friend v'gandr from Helheim has been writing for us. On the material we are working on at the moment Roy and Luis are doing the composing and Roy are writing the lyrics.
Do you start with the music or the lyrics? It varies but most of the songs has been made before the lyrics.
Have you done any covers live? In general it is not often that we do cover songs but we have played Samaels baphomets throne live a few times.
What language do you sing in? English
What are the least and most people to attend one of your gigs? I dont have any numbers for that.But the most important thing for us is to do a just as good show if there is a big crowd or a few people.
What ages are most of your concert attendants? I think you will find people in all ages in our shows as in most metal concerts i do not think that our music appeals to a particular group.
Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary? We try to vary as much as possible it is always nice to be able to present something new. And at the same time i think it is important to play what people know and expects .
Do you have a regular place you play live often? We do not play very often in the same places but i think the place we have played the most must be Garage in Bergen.
What was your first gig like? Our first gig was in a small club in our hometown. We did not have much expectations but we had a lot of fun and it worked quite well i think.
What was your latest gig? We had a mini tour 3 shows in Italy and 1 in Switzerland this October.
Have you had to cancel a gig? Not this far,and that is something that i really hope we will avoid in the future as well.
Where have you played live this year? This year Italy and Switzerland
Where do you plan to gig the comming year? We have nothing booked this far at the moment we are finishing our coming album and will start playing live as soon as that is released.
When did you start to sell merchandise, and what do you have for sale? I think we started printing our first T shirts after the first album.And now we have diferent things for sale as you can find on our facebook page.
Where can people buy your merchandise? You can find it on our facebook page or contact our management Lalchimie agency.
What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records now a days? I think that the physical format has been going down for many years now which of course makes it harder for artists to earn money.I do not see the point in downloading music these days when you have such easy access to very cheap streaming services that at least gives a small part back to the artists as well.
How do you think the music industry have changed because of this? I think the biggest change has been that most of the money bands earn is from touring and selling merchandise. without a big name i think it is a bit harder to make it now then it was some years ago.
What do you think of my work? I think it is great that people like you spread the name of our band.And it is always nice when people find interest in what we are doing. A little research would be helpful.
How do you think and know that this interview will help you in the music business? Only the future can tell.
Do you have any role models or idols? I dont have any role models or idols but i find inspiration in a lot of of great musicians and artists i am always looking for something new.
Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today? I think it is always easier to develop a relationship to something that you have known for a long time.And i also think that bands that has been there since the genre was young might have some more personality.On the other hand sometimes it can be easier to seek inspiration from something that is far from your own genre.
What have been your biggest obstacles? I do not see that we have had any serious obstacles i think finding the right people to work with for booking promoting and all things that do not go straight to making and playing music has often been our biggest challenge .
What advice would you give other bands or artists? All i can say is,Do exactly what you want and develop something unique .
How do you get psyched for a gig? Usually i only need a bit of time by myself to go through things in my head and get in the right modus for playing.
Do you have any new material? We are at the moment finalizing our third album that hopefully will come during the next year.
What are your web sites? https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=dominanz http://dominanz.no/ https://dominanz.bandcamp.com/
How can people reach you? The easiest way to get in touch with us is facebook
What are your plans for the future? Our first priority is to finish and release our album and after that we will start booking live shows.