Interview by Robert Brady
Intro by Miriam C.
The last power progressive metal sensation comes from Brazil and it’s called Vandroya and they are fronted by the majestic force (and vocals) of Daisa Munhoz. Although their debut album “One” was released at the beginning of the 2013 onto Inner Wound Recordings, we totally release that they deserve a bigger space then a review and so here served a nice and interesting interview.
Daísa welcome to Femme Metal Webzine it is a pleasure having you here. Thank you for your time. Vandroya is a very unique name for a band. Can you explain how the band settled on the name Vandroya?
It’s my pleasure, thank you very much for this opportunity. There isn’t a special story behind the band’s name, actually. We started as a cover band and we rehearsed in the garage of our guitarist Rodolfo Pagotto and many people frequented these rehearsals, to drink beer, listen to heavy metal. So, we were turning news in our region and invitations for small presentations began to appear and we didn’t have a band name. A friend of ours, Andre Deutern, suggested this name during a rehearsal and we adopted it, cause we thought it was a strong name.
Before you recorded Vandroya‘s debut “One” you were apart of the Rock/Metal Opera Soulspell and had a major role on it. For those who are not aware of Soulspell, how did you become apart of the project ?I met Heleno Vale, Soulspell creator, when he joined a band of some friends of mine and he already knew Vandroya’s work. We were part of the same scene here in our region, and we used to perform in the same concert halls and festivals. Years later he begun the recordings of the first Soulspell album and invited me to be part of it. So I’m on board since then, and now we are already working on Soulspell Act IV. I’m very grateful to Heleno, he is a genius and helped me a lot in many ways.
Speaking of the Rock/Metal Opera format, if Tobias Sammet of Avantasia or Arjen Anthony Luccassen of Ayreon were to give you that call would you participate on any of their projects if given the time away from your home band Vandroya ?Of course I would. If Arjen asks me I would say a big yes! I’m a huge fan of him and his works touch me in many forms. He is a genius and who is this person that doesn’t want to work with a genius like him?
Although Vandroya have been together since 2001 and you would later come into the band. How were you discovered by the band? Were you friends of the band for a while or did they spot you in another band and decided you were the one they wanted ?I actually am in the band since the beginning, since 2001, and I never left. We were just friends that decided to form a heavy metal band just to have fun on weekends with no pretensions at all. It turns out that one day we felt able to create our songs and here we are with a good album on our hands and a lot of plans for the future.
Brazil has had a rich tradition of great power metal starting with Angra with all the way back in the mid to late 1980’s and later in the 1990’s to early 2000’s with bands like your peers Shadowside with your metal contemporary Dani Nolden. With that said were any of these bands a influence on you and are there any other influences that inspired you to get into metal?I never was a huge fan of Angra, although it is indeed an influence to Vandroya and Brazilian headbangers are very proud of their achievements. As you said, Brazil has amazing heavy metal bands, and good ones don’t stop emerging lately. But when it comes to my influences all that I can say is that I have a lot of them, from different styles, and I could spend hours talking about it. However, I was very influenced by German bands, and Michael Kiske was one of those responsible for leading me into the heavy metal world.
Many singers have had some formal training whether it be a school of training, personal one on one mentoring or they come from a family of musicians. Can you describe your training and development as a vocalist ?I never took singing lessons, actually. I started singing when I was a child, 9 years old, and at 14 I had a band that played many concerts, which gave me a lot of experience early on, and I grew up listening to a good variety of musical styles, because my parents are also musicians (and I learned a lot with them; my parents are amazing singers), so the house was always full of musicians of different styles, rehearsals almost every day: that was crazy, but that craziness taught me a lot. I watched and learned a lot. I took some piano lessons, but I never in fact had singing lessons.
Not actually. What remained were ideas and pieces, but not whole songs. They are snippets that may appear in our next album, if we lapidate the ideas and trim the edges.
Female and Male, who have been your strongest influences both as a vocalist and as a musician?Both, actually. I was influenced by many male singers, and on top of my list lies Robert Plant. But I grew up listening to a lot of amazing women singers.I was born in the 80’s and at that time radio used to play singers and bands like Bonnie Tyler, Pat Benatar, Roxette, Cyndy Lauper, Kim Carnes, the amazing Tina Turner and my heroin Ann Wilson, from Heart. When I was 13 years old I met Janis Joplin voice and everything changed; she really rocked my world. Then Doro and Wendy O. completed the scene and I actually started to search for more female singers and I discovered a lot of amazing and brave warriors that faced this male-dominated market and won it. You know what? I just realized I know so many female singers I could write a book about their careers!
If Vandroya could tour with any band and play any metal festival who would the band be and what festivals would you like to eventually play to grow as a live touring act ?This is hard to answer, because we do have a lot of idols that we dream about touring with, so I cannot name one. But I personally would love to be part of a festival only formed by female fronted metal bands. I think it would be amazing.
What has been the reaction of your fans with your debut “One” and the reaction of the crowds with the live performances?It’s been amazing so far, with a lot of good surprises every day, messages from all over the world. In our concerts, people have been incredible, singing our songs out loud, supporting us in every way. We couldn’t be happier.
Some progressive power metal bands have eventually been inspired to write and record a concept album that are sometimes based on history and sometimes based on fantasy for example Avantasia, Helloween‘s “Keeper of The Seven Keys part # 1” and # 2 and Rhapsody Of Fire, later on in Vandroya‘s career could there possibly be a conceptual or a themed album ?That’s totally possible to happen. I just don’t know if it’s going to happen right now, with our second album, or if we’re going to wait a little more. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, actually, because there’s a story that happened here in Brazil that I really want to tell and share with the whole world. It’s a story that just doesn’t leave my mind and I’m researching a lot about it. It could totally inspire us to write a conceptual album.
We are at the end here and once again I want to thank you for your time, what can we expect from Vandroya as far as a tour, and the continued promotion of your debut album “One”? Share anything that you can.We just released our first video clip and this was something that we really wanted to do, so we are very glad we did it. Furthermore, we are already working on our second album and trying to play for as many people as possible. I’d like to thank all our fans and friends for their amazing support: they are really helping us a lot to go on. I’d also like to invite you guys to “like” our facebook page (www.facebook.com/Vandroya). Thank you very much for this opportunity to talk about this album, it means a lot to me!
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