1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?
Drought is an entity born in 2015 from the ashes of an older hardcore band, Curse this ocean. The only thing that changed is my entrance as singer and player of some noise/industrial texture that you can find inside our music.
2.Recently you have released an ep, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording?
“Rudra Bhakti” borns from a kind of “melting pot” about our different tastes in music but departs, of course, from our common interest in extreme metal, expecially black metal. We can describe the sound of our music as “experimental black metal”, but I would say that the experimentation is more recognizable in the structure of the songs than the sound. We tried to sound heavy and brutal through the deconstruction of a usual song, creating different “weaving” of riffs, patterns, walls of sound and trying to avoid the usual steps of a song's creation, in order to obtain a whirlwind sound
3.On the ep the lyrics deal a lot with yoga, tantra and eastern mysticism,can you tell us a little bit about your interest in this topic?
I developed the concept starting from my personal interest for both conceptual and practical side of eastern spiritual trainings, like Tantra meditation, yoga, hinduism and so on. I tried to convert the contents of spiritual practice and texts like Vijnanabhairava and Bhagavat Gita into a “dark” perspective. What I want to obtain basically is to unleash the big force chained by some spiritual practice into the music played with some of my closest friends. So the spiritual side of the concept can develop itself through the deep human relationship that bind us and the relentless force of the extreme music, which is our main common passion.
4.On the press release Nietzsche was mentioned as a part of the concept, how do you feel his philosophy which is more on the Western and somewhat atheistic side correspond with the philosophies and mysticism of the east?
Nietzsche is a kind of “translator” of the concept of Bodhisattva into something more “western-sided”. The atheism of Nietzsche was a kind of rationalistic structure, let's say, developed in comparison of the turbulence of “romantic” bourgeois irrationalism, the divergence between “dionysian and apollonian”. I always saw something really pragmatically “spiritual” in the nietzscheist ubermensch, something that could be really close to the tantric “reunification” between subject and object and done in the same way: destroying ignorance, and it's the concept of the “elevation” that we develop in our music and in our lyrics, but under a darker perspective. I have to say however that I did not properly thought about philosophy when I wrote my lyrics.
We would also clarify that, as well as the prussian philosopher and philologist, we don't have ANYTHING to do with any right-winged political tendency.
5.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Drought'?
We wanted a short and strong name, and we liked the apocalyptic concept hidden beneath the word Drought. Plus we take a great inspiration from the black metal band Deathspell Omega and the name of its last EP inspired us.
6.According to the press release the band is international and I tried to look up to see which countries the band members are from and found nothing, in what parts of the worlds do the band members live in?
The bass player has been living in London since years, I just moved to Berlin for a period but I live in our homeland, Sardinia, as well as the other three guys.
7.Are there any plans to expand into live shows during the future?
We will certainly build up a promotional tour for Rudra Bhakti, but it's too early to say exacly when.
8.The ep was released on Avantgarde Music, are you happy with the support they have given you so far?
Roberto is doing a great job and always took care about our ideas and our personal contributions to the packaging and graphic line.
9.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of black metal?
It's too early to talk about that, because the EP isn't out yet. But I can say we're receiving positive messages and comments from all over the world
10.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
Drought rises up from our deep friendship and our common will to play black metal putting inside the cauldron everything we can find interesting. These two drivers will somehow bring us somewhere, but it's a bit hard to say exactly where so far. We are working on the new album since the start of the year, let's see what we'll sort out.
11.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
Everybody of us comes from slightly different backgrounds. For what concerns me, I can surely say that drone and industrial music have a big influence on my contribution in the building of riffs and noise patterns. My shouts are more influenced by black metal, expecially both Dead and Attila of Mayhem, of course in different ways, Mikko Aspa of Clandestine Blaze / Deathspell Omega (also for his power electronics project) and first things of Dissection, Watain and Funeral Mist. The old school so called “orthodox” black metal is somehow really influencial for me. Then the whole cascadian stuff, as well as the norwegian old school is a great model for all of us. I also take big influence from old crust/hardcore punk, as well as from some new-school reality, like Cursed or Trap Them, expecially for what concerns the bashing attitude and way to sing.
I personally totally worship canadian Blasphemy and some of the stuff deriving from their stuff, like some things of the new “cavernous black metal” scene like Antediluvian, Wrathprayer or some stuff of Swarth, just to name few.
12.What are some of your non musical interests?
Reading, writing, psychedelics, yoga practicism and other few. I personally focus lot of my life into music.
13.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
Thank you for the kind interest in our band. Om.
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