Crimson Moon: How did the band get started?
Lee: Founding members Lee and Lachlan initially decided to start a recording band, and we found we were listening to a lot of bands and they might have a very cool section on their album which would have a keyboard part or guest female vocal section and if we were to go and see these bands play live, quite often those elements that first drew us to those bands weren’t present in the live performance, which we found disappointing. So we decided to write some songs that would incorporate these elements throughout the duration of the entire song and not just an intro or prelude etc. After we had released our first album titled ‘Myriad’, we decided to go from recording project to live band.
Crimson Moon: What kind of music do you play?
Lee: Doom/Gothic Metal
Crimson Moon: How has the band response been?
Lee: The response to Lycanthia is growing day by day, in March this year our album was released by Hypnotic Dirge Records and we have more people attending our shows recently, which is great.
Crimson Moon: Where did the band name come from?
Lee: Lycanthia is the title of a book written by Tanith Lee
Crimson Moon: Introduce the band members
Lee Tassaker – Bass & Vocals
Vanessa Black – Violin & Vocals
Megan Tassaker – Keyboard & Vocals
Mathew Newton – Guitar
Stephen Mikulic – Guitar
Lachlan Donaldson – Drums
Crimson Moon: Who writes the music? Lyrics?
Lee: Every member is active in the writing of music and most of us contribute to lyrics or themes.
Crimson Moon: And where do the lyric ideas come from?
Lee: A great deal of the lyric themes are about feelings of anger and depression, often associated with being repressed by the powers that be. Also there are various fantasy related themes as well.
Crimson Moon: How many albums/CD’s have you released?
Lee: Self Titled demo
Myriad
Inferno (single)
Within The Walls
Oligarchy
Plus various tracks have been featured on many compilation albums
Crimson Moon: Tell me about some the songs on the latest CD?
Lee: We believe this is a collection of our greatest songs so far. A great deal of time and energy has been spent on getting these songs just right. We had Oligarchy mastered by Jens Bogren at Fascination Street Studios (Opeth, Katatonia)
Crimson Moon: Do you have any side projects?
Lee: Mat also play guitar for Bleakwood (black metal), Megan plays in Avrigus (Symphonic Doom) and has recently done guest vocals for Ekove Efrits (Experimental/Ambient/Black Metal), both Vanessa and myself have done guest work for Avrigus, and I play Bass in Cruciform (Death-Doom).
Crimson Moon: Who are some of your musical influences?
Lee: My Dying Bride, Iron Maiden, Anathema, Primordial, Bolt Thrower, to name few of many…
Crimson Moon: Which current bands?
Lee: Draconian, Swallow The Sun, Saturnus.
Crimson Moon: What is the band like when you play live?
Lee: We all work extremely well together on stage, everything locks in and we all feel confident with each other.
Crimson Moon: What was the best band you played with?
Lee: The best band we have played with to date was our most recent gig with Eluveitie when they toured Australia.
Crimson Moon: Have you guys ever played in another country?
Lee: No we have not played in another country but we have various dates booked for USA this October.
Crimson Moon: How big of crowd shows up at shows usually?
Lee: For local gigs, roughly 100 people, which is quite standard for Australia. but when get to play festivals or international support, we can have hundreds or even over 1000 attend.
Crimson Moon: How is the crowd response when you play?
Lee: We have been received very well lately, with a great deal of audience interaction, which has made it a lot of fun for us.
Crimson Moon: What is the scene like over in your country?
Lee: Especially for our sub-genre of metal, quite small. There seems to be quite a few bands popping up in recent years that would be more fitting on a bill with Lycanthia, which is great. For many years beforehand, although we are great fans of other styles of metal, we would have to play black metal or death metal gigs just to play live.
Contact them at:
https://www.facebook.com/LycanthiaOfficial?ref=ts&fref=ts
