Robex Lundgren virkblogg.

Where are you from? Well, we are Vandroya, a Brazilian heavy metal band from a small town called Bariri, countryside of São Paulo state, southeastern Brazil.

What is your name?/Who plays what? We are Daísa Munhoz (vocals), Marco Lambert (guitar), Rodolfo Pagotto (guitar), Giovanni Perlati (bass) and Otávio Nuñez (drums).
Who started Vandroya? It all started in 2001, with Daísa, Marco and Rodolfo, original members of our today’s line up and, André Botton, bass player, Kamila, keyboards, and Marcelo, drums.
What was the plan when you started the band? As lots of other bands they were kids trying to play their favorite songs from their favorite bands. In Vandroya's case, Helloween and Iron Maiden and other classics. After a while, with everyone’s technical and musical development, Vandroya got some projection in central state area, started composing and, in 2005, we released our first EP, Within Shadows. That’s when we started taking things more seriously.
How did you meet? How today’s line up met is a cool story, with lots of coincidences. There were Daísa, Marco, Rodolfo, Kamila and Andre, from the original line-up; Denis Ciani was the drummer back in 2006. At that time, Giovanni and Otávio had a band called Beowolf with some friends in Jaú, a bigger town, 30 km away from Bariri. André left the band and then, Denis, who was a friend of Giovanni, called him to join the team. Since Giovanni knew Otávio, as well as Denis, when Denis left, both of them thought on me to be the drummer. So, that’s how we met and got together, but afterwards, the band’s been through some changes till we got all together again. We had great musicians and friends in the line up such as Tozzi in the bass, Daniel Manso guitar player, who also composed Change the Tide when we was with us, Danilo Ariosi, great guitar player too. They were all from Bauru, a big city in our area. The second time we all got together, between December 2010 and January 2011, Marco, Daísa and Rodolfo were in Soulspell, a project from a friend Heleno Vale, who really encouraged them to at least record all the material Vandroya had in its 10 years. That’s how we got this line up, recorded One and so on.

What made you start with just "Progressive power metal"? We have a large range of influences in our songs. Despite of not being engaged with any kind of label, the term the press is referring to us (Prog Power) is, perhaps, the one that fits best in what we are doing at the moment. Not because we decided to play this kind of gender but because most of our influences come from bands also labeled as such. We just try to stay open minded about it.

What does "Vandroya" means? Vandroya means nothing specifically. It was a suggestion from a friend of ours, back in our early years. There's a character in Avantasia who is called Vandroy, he probably thought about that when he came with the idea. We just loved the way it sounded.

Who writes the songs? Who does the music? In One, basically Daísa wrote the lyrics and Marco did the songwriting. They had a crystal clear idea of how the album should sound like and everybody was engaged in make that happen. We were not disappointed. But new ideas come from everyone. The whole band was engaged during the process. Giovanni and Rodolfo participated in some songwriting, with some main ideas, themes and solos, and Otávio had his part on lyrics and songwriting as well.

What do you sell for merchandise? Right now we chose to stick with the albums. We’ve sent some copies abroad for people who want the Brazilian version signed copy. For those interested, just send an e-mail to [email protected].

Who has the best humor? Although the band vibe is pretty good as a whole, we would say Rodolfo has the best mood. Apparently there is no hard time with this guy around!

What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs? What are your songs about? Lyricwise, One is mostly personal. Daísa wrote most of the lyrics inspired by her own life and by dreams. But there are other themes. The Last Free land is history based, and Anthem (for the Sun) is mythological.

Have you released any album or single? What are they called so, and what years they were released Yes. We have one EP, Within Shadows, 2005; and one album, One, 2013.

Have you done any music videos? Yes! We have Why Should we Say Goodbye (www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9pXKIYhTCM) and the acoustic version of No Oblivion for Eternity (/www.youtube.com/watch?v=Akiw-yAioX4).

When did you decide to focus on the music? What do you do besides the band and the music? Well, as we got mature music wise, it was natural that things started get more serious. I believe the decision to make our first EP, Within Shadows, happen would be the first concrete sign of this process. Daísa, Marco and Rodolfo are musicians and dedicate most of their time on it. Giovanni and Otávio work with marketing and communications. As a band, we are very focused in this dream we share together and that’s what brought us so far.

How has your music evolved since you began playing music together? I would say it evolved from power and melodic metal, the styles Vandroya started playing as a cover band in its early years, to what we have now, what media called prog power metal. I believe the best of our music you can listen to right now is in our debut album. It is the result of years playing and getting more mature musically. Some songs have 5 years or more since we starting writing its first notes, some of them were finished right before we started recording. As individuals, we surely had some kind of music taste evolving. It is 10 years of band after all, which also drove our identity to what we have right now.

What are your dreams with the band? What is your goal with your music? I believe it is a common dream, and goal to be able to record more albums and play around the world. That is actually what we love the most as a band: to be together and play.

What has been your biggest challenge as a band? In general, being a metal band in Brazil is not a piece of cake.  It demands a lot of work, passion, patience and money, besides the right contacts and opportunities.  It is not a formula, but you have to gather all this attributes to have a chance to succeed. We believe it is pretty much like this worldwide, but here heavy metal is still underground. Anyway, we love what we do; we are working hard on it and pretty motivated!

What are places you can play in Brazil? Where is most common that you play? There are some metal clubs and bars we can play. Course once you get bigger, you can get the chance to play in big festivals or open for a bigger band. We are working to get in most places we can. We usually play on clubs and small festivals. Pretty fun stuff!

What record do you work with? In Brazil, Voice Music; Europe and USA, Inner Wound; Japan, Spiritual Beast.

What song are you known for brass? We would say “The Last Free Land” and “Why Should we say Goodbye”.

What is a song "The Last Free Land" about? It’s about fighting oppression. Most of our lyrics have metaphors to illustrate the messages. Some of them with mythical or historical themes. The Last Free Land has both.

What are your two big favorite songs you done? Damn. That’s a tricky one; it is like choosing one of our children (lol). We would say Anthem (for the Sun) is pretty special for us in this sense.

How important are your fans? Well, they are crucial. After you release an album and show yourself to the world, we believe we pretty much feed from their energy. It is about transmitting our passion for heavy metal and receiving theirs in exchange, which boost us to continue working hard, playing in gigs and composing.

Besides your music style you play what do you like the music still enjoy listening to? Well, a little bit of everything, from classical metal bands to classical music, folk, rock and roll, hard rock, blues, jazz. I mean, we are pretty eclectic!

What drives a band that is not very well known and live on it to continue to play? Passion for the music they play.

How do you up for a gig? What is your pre-show ritual? We usually get together to chill, and right before the gig, we wish each other a great show. Pretty simple, but essential.

What is your outlook on the record industry today? It is a foggy scenario. Internet has given independent artists the chance to be out worldwide in relatively low cost. At the same time, the structure a label gives you to be out there is very important, sometimes critical. We wouldn’t have our work in Europe or have so many interviews if we haven’t signed with Inner Wound. It is a good example of how records can help bands to overcome some limits. So, despite of being possible to be on your own, hardworking to make things happen, labels can help you out with some shortcuts.

How would you describe your sound in one sentence? Prog Power with Brazilian spice!

What is the first step to a new song? Usually, ideas are written and then shared with the rest of the band. We rarely jam before we have a good idea of the song. That is usually what we do when we get a whole idea written and then we are able to test it alive and see its actual qualities and where it should be improved. Might sound weird, but that’s the way that works best for us.

What are your web pages?

Website - http://vandroya.com/

Facebook - www.facebook.com/Vandroya

Official YouTube Channel - http://www.youtube.com/user/vandroyaofficial

Official Music Video "Why Should we Say Goodbye" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9pXKIYhTCM

Vandroya's One at Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/One-Vandroya/dp/B00ALYEGFK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383139539&sr=8-1&keywords=vandroya

Within Shadows - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7MBI-pwslQ

No Oblivion for Eternity - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsxQJluEp1A

Anthem (for the Sun) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLSNeUxvSno

The Last Free Land - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfEfkJvf3xU

What are your plans for the future? Now we are working in our second album and hope to play more and more gigs.

What advice would you give to other bands? Well, we feel like we are just in the beginning of a hopefully long and fun journey. But, if there’s an advice for those about to metal is: keep going and don’t give up what you want. Hard work makes things happen.

Something to add? We want to thank you very much for this interview and greet all the Swedish metalheads! We are grateful for all the positive response and support we’ve been receiving so far from fans, co-workers, family and media. We hope we meet soon on tour! Keep rocking guys and keep in touch with our latest news liking us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/Vandroya)!