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| | Los Angeles
is a wasteland as far as the black metal scene goes but that is about to change.
Sothis have finally unleashed on us their four track demo and it must be heard.
I recently had a chance to talk to Dross of Sothis about their past and future
and get his feelings on the moment.
Jeffrey Easton interviewing Dross of Sothis!
Jeff: What bands were the members of Sothis actively involved with Prior to
Sothis forming?
Dross: None of us were in any bands worthy of mentioning. I know that seems a
bit odd that some fairly decent performances would be coming from musicians that
you have never heard of or who are not from any previous bands worth mentioning.
I can sum up the entire situation by saying that you’d think it would be easy
to find at least a few like-minded musicians in Los Angeles but the truth is
that it takes an enormous amount of patience, endurance and effort to form a
band that has the potential to actually be signed to a decent label. We all
would rather have never played at all than play in a half-ass, typical band with
no future whatsoever. I can tell you that Sothis was personally my last attempt
at forming a band and that is one of the reasons I’ve busted my ass helping to
form this band.
Jeff: How did Sothis Come together?
Dross: Sothis came together through four and a half years of hard work and a lot
of patience. We began by placing classified ads in several local papers. We ran
ads every week for about three or four years. We also posted flyers at various
record and music stores as well as placed ads in magazines, passed out flyers at
shows and even ran a commercial on LA Metal TV. We spoke with countless numbers
of people, met with a lot fewer and played with even less. We wanted to find
musicians with talent, transportation, jobs, image, pro equipment, the right
influences and the same long and short-term goals as us. In addition to those
things it was also very important to us that we be able to be close friends with
the person as well. It is very hard to find all of those things in one person.
Jeff: What are your major influences for what you are doing now?
Dross: I think our major influence right now is the pressure we are putting on
ourselves as we write new material. We are hoping that we will be able to secure
a decent record deal this year and are therefore writing material for that
release. We obviously want to release a CD that has better songs than the demo
does and we want to be able to take everything to the next level.
Jeff: You have a very pro demo available, explain why you went so far with the
digipak packaging when so many other bands do not.
Dross: We went above and beyond the norm because we are seeking to establish a
precedent. We are seeking to go above and beyond what is expected of a band at
whatever particular juncture of our career we are in. We want Sothis to be
subconsciously synonymous with exceptional quality. We’ve paid special
attention to all of the details. Releasing the demo in digipak format was a
conscious decision that was made in order to stay consistent with the quality of
the production you hear on the disk itself.
Jeff: The design for the demo is very art based, who designed the packaging and
is he/she available to do other bands?
Dross: Our vocalist Drogoth is responsible for the demo artwork as well as all
of our graphics. He is an animator in the gaming industry so he is quite good
with computer graphics. He also paints and so forth, so his talents as an artist
transcend both onto the computer and the microphone. We are quite lucky to have
him in our ranks. I suppose if the time and the money are right, Drogoth would
consider doing work for other bands or their label. You can contact Drogoth or
any other member of the band for that matter by e-mailing them. All of our
e-mail addresses can be found on our website.
Jeff: There are four songs for the demo, why just four and do you have other
tracks ready for a full length?
Dross: The demo was primarily created in order for us to use for label
submissions. We felt that four songs would be a sufficient demonstration of what
Sothis and its members are capable of achieving with both a limited budget and
limited resources. We do have additional songs ready for a full length. We are
working hard to make sure that people who like the demo will love the debut.
Jeff: The four tracks are phenomenal, very well written orchestrations. Who is
responsible for the song writing and what inspired the songs?
Dross: Thank you very much for the compliment on the songs. The answer to that
question is that everyone in the band is responsible for each of the songs on
the demo. We all contributed to every song on the CD. I’ll tell you this
though, we have no formula, but we do have a goal. The goal is to write the best
songs that we can write and whether it takes two or all six members to get there
really isn’t important to us. As for the inspiration behind the songs, that is
hard to say. I suppose the things we listen to inspire us as well as our or
desire to play music that is challenging for us to execute. If you are looking
for a list of Black Metal bands that I feel have influences us the most I’d
have to list Emperor, Immortal, Tartaros, Old Man’s Child, Satyricon, Dimmu,
The Kovenant, …and Oceans, and Limbonic Art.
Jeff: I notice very heavy layers of keyboards. Do you think that the keys have
over taken black metal and what is there place in the framework of the music.
Dross: I absolutely do not believe that keys have taken over Black Metal. The
place of keyboards in any particular band would be up to the particular band
and/or their producer. Keyboards can take all types of different rolls. For some
bands they will just add a little ambience and may be hardly noticeable. In
other bands they can be the primary instruments. The answer to your question
regarding the keyboards' place in music is that they have the ability to take
any and all rolls that they are asked to take with the right artists behind
them.
Jeff: How long did it take you to put together the music contained on your demo
and were there any problems during the course of recording.
Dross: Some of the songs on the CD are pretty old and others are relatively new.
In general I’d say it takes us a month or so to write each song. We add
certain small details as time rolls on. All of the songs that are on the demo
were recorded in advance so that we can work out details prior to entering a
studio. We did encounter some problems while recording the demo. We were able to
overcome all of the problems that came our way. I’m sure that the problems we
faced are commonly encountered when working with a limited budget.
Jeff: On Reflections Of Old, you have clean vox accenting the leads, how do you
think your fans will react to this?
Dross: I would assume that most of our fans will either like the clean vocals or
will feel indifferent about them. I don’t know whether we’ll be doing any
songs with clean vocals soon. We don’t really have any plans for them right
now but I think that we’d all be up for having some good guest clean vocals.
For instance it would be great to have Ishaan (Emperor, Peccatum) do some clean
vocals for us if he were willing.
Jeff: You guys have been promising a live show for awhile for your fans, what is
the progress on this happening?
Jeff: That situation is very frustrating for us, to tell you the truth. The
current Southern California Black and Death Metal scene resides in the bars and
not the clubs. That is the heart of the problem that we are having. We have a
lot of gear and there are six members. We require a 12’ x 20’ stage to even
begin to function. If you want to see a good show, then we'd need a 16’ x
25’ stage. We are not interested in playing on the floor of a bar under a
ceiling fan.
Jeff: You have done live showcases for promoters/industry people, how did that
go?
Dross: It went pretty good to tell you the truth. We came out with two really
good reviews, some new contacts and a lot of positive feedback from fans, press,
promoters and friends. Our main goal was to really give the promoters a glimpse
of what to expect from us on stage. We wanted to make sure that we get placed
properly and that they understand what we are about. It also gave them an
understanding with regards to the amount of space that we require, having six
members and all of our gear.
Jeff: You have inked a deal with the Japanese label World Chaos (Which has some
amazing releases already) for distribution of the demo. How did this deal come
about and do you have anything else lined up world wide for your demo’s
release?
Dross: I am a friend with Mike the owner of Black Plague Records and he
suggested that I contact them about distributing the CD in Japan. I sent World
Chaos an e-mail introducing both Sothis and myself to them. World Chaos
expressed interest in reviewing our material so we mailed them a press kit. Once
they heard the disc they decided to carry the CD. It was that simple to tell you
the truth. We also struck a distribution deal with Azermedoth Records for Mexico
this week and we are very happy about that. We are working on several other
territories as well so hopefully we’ll have more announcements soon.
Jeff: The Southern California scene is not exactly the hotbed for black metal in
America. How do you think you will do once you hit the scene with live shows? Dross:
I’m assuming that we are going to do pretty well. We’ve paid special
attention to making sure that we put on a good live show and I think that we
have some strong songs as well. We’ve also been very fortunate to be able to
crossover between the hardcore underground fans and the more casual fans of
Black Metal.
Jeff: What are your thoughts on the So.Cal scene in general?
Dross: I think that Southern California has a pretty good scene. I’ve had the
privilege of having met several touring Metal artists who have told me that
Southern California is always one of the best places to play in the States.
Anyone who goes to shows here in Southern California has seen the bands move
from the smaller clubs to the bigger clubs as well as theatres. That tells me
that the scene is growing. The underground scene in Southern California is also
doing pretty well. There are a lot of bands with potential brewing in the
underground and there are many people that are involved in making things happen.
We have several underground promoters and a couple of local Metal magazines.
Hopefully we’ll see some of the underground bands here begin to make there way
to national and international recognition.
Jeff: What do you think you are bringing to Black Metal that is not there yet?
Dross: I think we are just a different mixture of pre-existing ideas. We were
never really trying to re-invent the wheel so to speak. Our concept from the
beginning was to put out certain content that existed in the mid to late
nineties era Black Metal with a really modern polished production. I think as
time has rolled on we are seeking to establish our own identity as well. We have
some tricks up our sleeves for our full-length and we are hoping to bring a few
new things to the table that has yet to be seen.
Jeff: What do you see in the future for Black Metal?
Dross: I think we are going to see bands like Watain, Behexen, 1349 and Tsjuder
continue to grow. I also think we will eventually see the revival and reunion of
Emperor and Immortal. I can tell you this though; above all, it is my hope that
Sothis will be a substantial part of it.
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