Warganism: Arthropod Metal
What have centipedes of all things to do with metal? Only Warganism from Romania can explain this to you. After a long and changeful career the band now wants to make it with their new album also outside of the Romanian borders. With so dominant Dracula genes there´s nothing that could stop them…
Hey, how are you?
Hi, nice to hear from you again. Warganism is alive and kicking for more than 13 years now and we hope to do the same for the next 13.
Your latest record “Centipede” wowed our reviewer. Good work! Tell us a little bit more about the songs! How does the song writing work in general.
We are very happy that we received a good review in your magazine. The songs have, as you already noticed, a wide range of “flavors”, different styles and lyrics, different influences blended in our music.
We usually do the song writing together. It´s true that some of us, especially Marian and Ioachim in the last period, come with ideas, but then we usually develop them increasing their appeal. The lyrics are being written by Sorin and Ioachim and they cover philosophic but also down to earth themes.
Is it more difficult to express yourself in a language that is not your native tongue?
We always had our lyrics in English. That´s not a big bother because we learned the language at a very early age and it´s very easy for us to express our feelings in English. We think that it´s a more attractive language for rock´n´roll music .
The songs are quite heavy but at the same time also very accessible, was that intended? What kind of crowd do you want to reach?
We started this band thirteen years ago under a different name (Dies Irae) and with different purposes. We were playing black metal, straight and a bit melodic. Time passed and our personalities changed in some ways so now we have other writing ideas. We listen to all kinds of music and it´s normal to have a yearning of reflecting our diversity of favourite bands in our own songs. I guess we reach a slightly different crowd than 13 years ago, that´s correct, but the old fans still like our music.
The song “Envy” stands out most with its clean vocals and campfire feeling, how did you come up with this song?
Marian wrote this song a while ago and we had enough time to “chew” it before we reached the final version. It´s a very special song for us and it was meant to appear on the Centipede album due to its strange ambiance. We want to shoot a video for this song in the next few months.
The song was already played in Romania on mainstream radio stations.
Why is it so different from the others, do you think it´s a good representation of the band/album?
We have on every album a song that´s rather special, different, you may call it as you like. For us it´s a good representation of the band, it means that we can be open minded and not bogged down by a very linear style.
You were/are also shooting a video? How will it look like?
The video we want to shoot is for the song Envy and we have some ideas so far, but the final product will be released in a few months and we don´t know yet how it will look.
“Centipede” is the name of the record, any reason for choosing that creature? Is it the band´s mascot? Any connection to the songs?
Centipede was set as the name of this record because it stands as a symbol for the new diversity that you can find in our style, in our songs. The many feet of a centipede reveal the multitude of ideas that dominate our creations.
The album was released on Taine Records which has only a few bands signed. What or who is behind the label?
Taine Records is the label of the band Taine, one of the oldest metal bands in Romania. They helped us record this album in their studio and they also helped with the mastering that was done in New York by Chris Mackensen. We have very good relations with them. They also participated as guest players on this album, doing some vocals and all of the keyboards.
The band started already in 1995 as a black metal band, then there was an electro period and now your back to metal again, do you think you have found your niche now or can we expect some more changes in the future?
The electro period was represented by our side project, Phobia. That project was a very short “escape” from the metal music, that happened mostly because the departure for 5 years of our drummer, Victor, to the United States. The project remains a part of our history, it doesn´t live anymore. Later some other people collaborated with us but the core of the band remained the same and we reformed as we initially were at the end of 2005. Yes, you can always expect changes, a dynamic band usually develops new ideas.
What was the reason to change styles and also the name of the band?
The name of the band changed from Dies Irae to Warganism because we found, through the years, that there are many bands in the world with the same name. We cannot come to international attention by keeping that name. We found this new name and that doesn´t mean that the important part of our music style has changed.
The band recently opened for Sepultura in Bucharest, how was it?
We were very glad to be chosen as an opening act for Sepultura. The live show was huge and many of our fans were very pleased to see us again after sometime and to hear the new material from the Centipede album. You can find some videos and photos from this show at this link, on our Romanian based blog.
The plan, of course, is to break it big with Warganism now, which also means a lot more touring also outside of Romania. How do you think you will manage with being away from your families – many of you are married and have kids?
Don´t forget to mention the working careers:) Yes, some of us have kids, some have kids on the way and 4 of us are married. It´s true that the main possibility to promote your music is to tour heavily and that´s why we are looking now at plans for the next tour around Europe. As soon as we establish some dates, we will forward them to you as well.
Any worries about the “temptations” on the road?
No worries. We usually take 2 or 3 shows for different week-ends so basically we are not away for that long.
Are there any ludicrous touring stories? What was the worst thing that happened during/before/after a show?
This kind of stories comes from our past, when we were a young band touring Romania, finding different kinds of audio engineers at halls around the country, most of them ridiculous and unadapted for metal music. There are plenty stories and we had our fun, ten years ago I guess. Nowadays, things are more settled and you don´t have those surprises, everything is better.
Romanian bands are not so well known, apart from you, do you have some insider tips of great Romanian metal bands?
There are a few very good bands here. I can mention Avatar and Taine, as the best metal bands for me in Romania.
How´s the scene over there, anyway? What´s the most popular genre generally?
Generally, as being one of the so called latin countries, Romania listens to a lot of bad music, as oriental and that kind of shit. Mostly pop, techno or even worse genres take the big crowds. Still, there are many people that listen to metal and can fill a stadium at an Iron Maiden show.
Can you make a living on (metal) music in Romania? What are your day jobs?
It´s impossible to make a living on metal music here. On other kinds of music, more likely. We have, all of us, day jobs. Radu has a cartography company, Sorin and Marian work in a television station, Ioachim owns an editing and video graphics company and Victor works as a financial consultant.
Regarding your “Dracula” ancestry, do you think it´s in your genes to play metal? 😉
Haha! Never thought about that, anyway we consider that story a good subject for B movies (excepting the Nosferatu work of art).
Thank you for your time and good luck with the album.
Many thanks! Everyone in Europe and in Finland can visit our websites at www.warganism.ro and www.myspace.com/warganismband and check out our videos, music and soon to come gigs.
Photos: Warganism
