interview with Dark Messiah

Have any of you played in other bands? Our guitarist Lawrence Reimer has played in White Trash Heavy MNetal and Morbid Symphony.

How is it that you started playing music? We've always loved music and have been playing it for about as long as we remember. 

What are your names? / Who plays what? / How old are you? Dark Messiah is Stephen Chubaty on vocals, 32, Jonathan Hayward plays lead/rhythm guitar, 28, Lawrence Reimer plays lead/rhythm guitar, 28, Robert Schau bangs the drums, 19 and Lagg Walker plucks the bass, 28.

Have you had other previous members? We've had a previous guitarist, bassist and drummer.

Did you make music even when you were young?  We've all been writing music since at least our early teens. Some of us even longer.

Where are you from? We're from Winnipeg. Manitoba, Canada.

What year did the band form? The band got together and started making music in the summer of 2015.

What's your style of genre? We're a Groove/Thrash type of heavy metal.

What inspires you? The desire to make our own music and share it with the world.

How often and where do you reherse? We jam about 2-3 times a week at a rehearsal space we have in the city.

How have you developed since you started with the music? Each member adds their own style and creativity to each song. That stle and creativity grows and makes the music better everytime we play.

Do you have other interests of work outside the band? Not really. We eat, breathe and live for heavy metal.

Are you looking for a booking agency, and what are your thoughts around that? We aren't necessarily looking for a booking agency, but when we're approached by anyone with a service to offer we take a look and see what they have to say. At the moment we book our own shows and run the band business ourselves.

Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that? We are always willing to take offers and discuss options with record labels. It's not a must have in our eyes though. If we can succeed in running the business aspect of the band ourselves than that's just as good and sometimes better than being attached to a label.

What made you decide to make this music? It's in our blood. We feel the need to do it.

What are your songs about? Each song is a story all it's own. You'll have to listen to them to find out.

Who does the composing and writes the lyrics? We all cooperate and correspond with each other when composing the instrumental parts of each song. Stephen mostly writes his own lyrics but sometimes we all contribute some as well.

Do you start with the music or the lyrics? Sometimes we put lyrics overtop of melodies and sometimes it's vice versa.

Do you compose in a certain inviroment? We can never control when inspiration hits us.

Have you done any covers live? We've played Metallica's The Four Horsemen at a decent chunk of our live shows. We used to do Pantera's Walk when we first started out but now we have more original songs so we stopped playing that one.

What language do you sing in? English.

What are the least and most people to attend one of your gigs? The least amount of fans we've had at a show was about 20 and the most we've had was about 70-80. All the shows we've played have been bars in Winnipeg minus one outdoor show we did in the summertime.

What ages are most of your concert attendants? Probably early to mid twenties but we do have people of all ages attending our gigs.

Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary? We always try to fit in as many of our original songs into a set as possible. The order varies from time to time. Right now we have 7 original songs that we play live. As time goes by and more music gets written, our setlist will vary alot more often.

Do you have a regular place you play live often? We try to play different venues so more fans can check out our shows. We've played The Windsor and The Garrick a few times tho.

What was your first gig like? We played our first gig at an iconic Winnipeg metal bar called the Zoo 9 days before it closed. It was a fun and great show but it was also kind of bittersweet because we knew it was one of the last times we'd see and be in the place.

What was your latest gig? Our latest gig was on Nov. 25th 2016 at the Garrick Hotel in Winnipeg.

Have you had to cancel a gig? We've never cancelled a show. 

Where have you played live this year? We've played The Pyramid, the Windsor, The Kings, The Garrick and Wild Planet in 2016. All in Winnipeg.

Where do you plan to gig the comming year? We're aiming to play some festivals and tour around parts of Canada in the summer of 2017.

When did you start to sell merchandise, and what do you have for sale? Right now we have the digital version of our debut E.P available online with physical copies available Jan. 20th. Shortly after that we will have other various pieces of merchandise available.

Where can people buy your merchandise? You can check out our website www.darkmessiahmetal.com for links to where you can purchase our music and soon other merchandise.

What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records now a days? It's an inevitable reality. Musicians just have to accept the fact and adapt and find other ways to support themselves.

How do you think the music industry have changed because of this? Well music is more accessible to people around the world but it forces musicians to rely more on ticket and merchandise sales compared to album sales. It makes a musicians job alot harder, especially the ones just starting out.

What do you think of my work? It's always great to see people spreading the word of metal. ¥m/

How do you think and know that this interview will help you in the music business? It will help fans know more about us on a personal level which is always a good thing.

Do you have any role models or idols? Too many heavy metal legends to name.

Why do you think that they exist? Because they spent years of dedication perfecting their craft and style and never gave up.

Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today? You always have to take note of what others have done in the past. Every musician has been influenced by musicians that have come before them. But they should always be looking for ways to do things as uniquely as possible too.

What have been your biggest obstacles? We've gone through a few linup changes in the year and a bit we've been around. Sometimes it was hard to keep things running smoothly with this happening but we've always managed to do so in whatever means necessary.

What advice would you give other bands or artists? Always play music that is true to your heart. Practice as hard and as much as you can, get out there and give it everything you have.

How do you get psyched for a gig? We're always excited for a show. The adrenaline just seems to naturally flow whenever a gig is approaching.

Do you have any new material? Our self titled debut E.P has recently been released online.

What are your web sites? As mentioned previously www.darkmessiahmetal.com, We're also on Facebook www.facebook.com/DarkMessiahWpg/, Twitter www.twitter.com/DarkMessiah204, Instagram www.instagram.com/darkmessiahmetal/ Reverbnation www.reverbnation.com/darkmessiah8 and Bandcamp www.darkmessiah2.bandcamp.com/releases just to name a few.

How can people reach you? You can reach us at our email address: [email protected]

What are your plans for the future? Make more music, film some music videos, get merchandise and play as many places for as many fans as possible.

Do you have something to add? Thanks for the interview, and thank you to our covenant of fans! We love you all and could not do this without you!

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