Of all the different music genres, the gothic-related and gothic-influenced genres shouldn’t probably exist in Indonesia. Because, let’s face it – no gothic castles and no foggy cemeteries. However! You would be really surprised that gothic metal is alive and thriving there – and today we have a proof of that, as we speaking to the guys (and a girl) from Death Harmony!
Hello, guys (and girl), and thanks for your time for doing this interview! How are you doing in this new year of 2022?
Alhamdulillah, as for 2022, so far we are doing great.
First of all… why the name “Death Harmony”? I know there’s a Balinese brutal death metal band with the same name… have you been ever mistaken for them? And for those not familiar with Indonesian geography, where are you from?
When we started the formation of the band, we all like death metal, and creating a new project withing the gothic metal genre, we’ve named it “Death Harmony” – “Death” because our love for death metal music and “Harmony”, from the meaning of the word. And yes, we’ve just recently learned about the “Death Harmony” from Bali.
We are from the mountainous city of Wonosobo, located in Central Java, Indonesia.
What can you tell us about the beginnings of Death Harmony? What musical influences can you mention which have brought you to the gothic metal genre?
The beginning of the band goes back to 2011, when we used to get together in the “”Undergrind Merch” store, and we’ve started chatting about the doing a new gothic metal project. Actually, there are many genres of music that influence our band, one of them being gothic metal.
Some gothic metal bands have female singers, some have not. Was always your intention to have a female vocalist? And talking about the line-up – what’s the current line-up? Did you have any change of members?
We have a female vocalist from the very beginning. Of course, we have experienced several line-up changes, the current line-up is:
Owie – Bass
Amir – Guitar
Seetyaji – Guitar
Adhit – Drum
Arfin – Keyboard
Rosy – Vocal
I am always curious about the very beginnings of bands’ history, so – obviously – I will ask you as well… how hard was it to start a band? What do you consider a biggest obstacle to overcome in your musical career?
In the beginning the biggest problem was to find a vocalist, the biggest obstacle in playing in a band is time, as each member has busy activities outside the band.
Have you had any previous musical experience prior to starting Death Harmony?
Yes, before forming Death Harmony, some members have played in death metal bands, that fact reflects on one of our songs – “Kunfayakun” – with a little death metal vibe.
Let’s talk about your music now… I am aware of some of your songs from Youtube, do you also have any official releases people can look up and check?
We’re planning to release an official album, for now we are featured on a few compilations.
As your lyrics are in the Indonesian language, obviously, we, Westerners, don’t have a clue about them. What are you dealing with in them, what lyrical themes do you cover?
Our songs tells of the power and journey of the human life.
Death Harmony and live performances… do you perform live, and how many gigs have you attended so far? Any particularly memorable performance you can share a memory of?
Yes, we perform live, and usually all these gigs are memorable, because it’s an experience for us, however, one which is the most memorable was when we lived in one city (Tangerang), we are assisted by friends from the Death Metal band from Bandung. and Jakarta when we had a problem with our equipment, and were assisted by the sound man.
I’d say, I see people covering your songs, so your position on the Indonesian music scene, at least on the local level, must be pretty strong… and talking about the local scene – what other bands from your local area would you recommend for the readers of this interview to check?
We’d recommend our friend’s band from Wonosobo called “NECROVOMIT” (https://www.instagram.com/nekrovomitterror/), they play death/thrash metal.
Do you have any new material in making? When can we expect any new release to be released?
Yes, we already have material for a new single we are still working on, hopefully it will be released as soon as possible.
For those interested – any merchandise your fans can buy? If so, where?
We’ve made several T-Shirts with limited stock, we usually sell them by pre-order and through our friends’ stores, however, for now we have none available.
And coming to the end of this interview – any final message to our readers?
Greetings and don’t forget to feel grateful.
