Interview with The Tears of Ozymandias by Tzina Dovve (DJ Lady Davinia)
The Tears Of Ozymandias…A brand new goth act to emerge on the scene from Munich Germany… Newcomers talk to Absolution NYC about their debut album and give an insight on what they are all about… The Tears Of Ozymandias… By Tzina Dovve ( DJ Lady Davinia )…
Tzina: The Tears Of Ozymandias are a new band to emerge on the goth/dark scene in 2018. How did this band come to life and who are its members?
The band was formed by Benjamin K. on drums and bass and Benjamin H. on guitars, vocals & synthesizers. We had been playing music together for many years and after the end of our previous project, it was about time to start something new, so we took the opportunity to go into this direction, which is something we had been thinking about for some time. However, everything sounded quite different at first. We did not start this band with lots of musical blueprints in mind, so we couldn’t help but wait and see where the journey took us in the end. When thinking about playing live it became obvious that an additional musician would be a great idea, since we would be kind of pitiful to look at, if someone would ever allow us to enter a stage. It was a nice coincidence that Marcus, who mixed our album, also plays the guitar. After the mixing process he felt like a band member already, so it was quite logical to get him on board. We have been a three-piece ever since.
Tzina: What is the story behind your band’s name? What prompted you to baptize your band with such a dark poetic title? Can you elaborate..
Let’s just say, that the favourite poem of one band member is ‘Ozymandias’ by Shelley. Naturally, its theme felt kind of fitting for the message we had in mind so we just went along with that inspiration, gave it our own little twist and here we are… There might have been an answer that could make it look way more artistic and deep, but that would be overly exaggerated at best or some narcissistic ramblings at worst, so we keep to the rather boring truth.
Tzina: Your music is quintessentially dark yet very touching..almost like dark poetry.. Who is the main songwriter behind these melodic creations? How is a Tears Of Ozymandias song born? Where do you get your inspiration to write such music from and what are your main musical influences?
First of all: Thanks a lot for your kind words. It would not be quite right to name a main songwriter. Practically speaking, most ideas are developed by one person, but the songs would never turn out the way they do without the efforts of the whole band. As such, there is not THE approach to write music for us. We wait for inspiration, wherever it may come from and work on it until the songs feel right. Sometimes things take shape pretty fast, sometimes it is a rather long process. In the end all that counts is that the music captures what we have in mind. If anyone else likes it that’s a whole other story though, and we try not to think about that too much.
Summing up our musical influences would be quite hard, since we like a lot of genres. Of course, there are the usual suspects one would suspect, but also different things, from Punk to Black Metal. Almost anything can be an influence, after all.
Tzina: As l understand you just released your self-titled debut album last month on Van Records with limited hand-numbered copies both on CD and black and white vinyl.. What feedback has this received so far by the music press and goth music fans around the globe so far?
That’s absolutely correct. On top of that you can buy our album on Bandcamp and stream it on the usual platforms. There has been no big amount of press coverage yet as it will probably take some time til the album finds its way to the reviewers,djs etc..etc.. We cannot be bothered to google our own band all the time, since reviews would not really change the way we see our own stuff so there’s a possibility that we are late to our own party. However, and that’s a lot more important, we have gotten loads of positive feedback from listeners from places all over the map. We also found that this is not only limited to goth- fans. We were never quite sure who exactly might listen to our album in the end, so that’s a much appreciated surprise.
Tzina: How content are you as a band with the outcome of this album and what does it represent to you.. What is this album all about?
We are very happy with the outcome. Frankly speaking, we did not really think about the reaction other people might have, if there is something like a target audience or if we actually fit in anywhere, so we were able to focus on the songs we wanted to write. It could be described of our way of dealing with the ways of the world and the things we keep musing about. The album is about the failures we constantly look at and failures of our own. Maybe you could describe it as much as our look outside the window as our long unpleasant look into the mirror. It is hard to ignore the afflictions Kali Yuga brings about.
Tzina: As newcomers on the goth/dark scene do you have any plans for a music video for any tracks from this album? How important is the visual side of a band to you?
We already did two music videos. You can watch the videos for „Zero Point“ and „683280 Hours“ on YouTube. To us, the visual representation is an integral part of what we try to convey. We want to give listeners something that complements the music so the artwork has to be a continuation of the music and extend the bleak outlook through images and brutalist treatment in videos and layout.
Tzina: Do The Tears Of Ozymandias have any upcoming live shows planned for the near future now that the world is slowly re-opening? Can we expect to see the band on stage soon?
Not at the moment. Given the circumstances, we decided to focus on writing and recording music first. But you can definitely expect to see us on stage at some point. Hopefully that time will not be too far away.
Tzina: As a new band yourselves how do you view the goth/dark/alternative scene today? Do you believe there is some sort of goth revival happening at the moment? Do you follow the scene and are there any new bands you admire?
This is a hard one, seeing how fragmented the goth scene actually is in terms of different styles, genres and directions. The word goth has such a widespread definition by now that it has almost lost its meaning. If it ever had one true meaning for everyone, that is. But all things considered, there are a lot of things going on that could definitely be described as a revival of some kind. It has yet to be seen if it manages to have a meaningful impact on today’s world. As always in life, it is a mixed bag. There are a lot of great bands we adore, since they manage to bring the genre up to speed with our time and have something to say. There are also a lot of bands who just repeat what we already know from the past. And everything in between. Time will tell where we fit into that spectrum. There are a lot of great people in the goth scene and we are thankful for the many of those we have met. There are also a lot of not that great people. People always are people, it does not appeal to us to generalise too much, even in terms of subculture. In the end similarities between people mostly occur on the surface level, if you break it down to scenes. The way you dress or the music you like is a good starting point, but does not define how comfortable you feel around certain people. As bleak as that may sound, that’s a good thing in our opinion, since it does not bind us to any imaginary rules or expectations and we tend to be shut-ins so what do we know …
Tzina: The past two years of the pandemic have been a tremendous struggle for music venues and artists in general, especially musicians.. How did lockdowns and restrictions affect you as a new and upcoming band?
To be perfectly honest, we weren’t that affected as a band. As we mentioned before, we put our focus on songwriting and recording and probably would not have played live up until now even if there had been no pandemic. We all have day-jobs that luckily weren’t affected by the pandemic, so we do not really have to do anything in terms of music to survive.
Tzina: What are your views on the virtual world? Do you believe that this will be still a major part of bands existence around the world to help promote their music?
The internet could be a major force for good and in certain circumstances it is but as it goes with most things more often than not, it is used to further differences because hate pays more than community.
Regarding the use of the internet for our band, of course it is a tremendous opportunity to easily reach people from all around the world, which would have been impossible just some decades ago. On the flipside it’s ridiculous that platforms like facebook can make you pay ad infinitum if you want to keep on reaching the same followers that have already liked your page.
Tzina: What are your ambitions for The Tears Of Ozymandias? How would you like to see the band in some years time?
Our main ambition is to do what we want to do. It has some kind of therapeutic quality for us, thus we are glad if we can write and play music we like. Everything else is optional. It might sound odd, but it is particularly liberating to be aware of the fact, that making music will not help us to elude oblivion in the end. At any rate, success does not define us as human beings and the subconscious urge to leave something that lasts is bound to fail anyway so we are alright with anything that lies ahead.
Tzina: Anything else you would like to share with your fans? What can they expect from The Tears Of Ozymandias in the near future?
We would like to thank our fans (in case they are out there somewhere). You can definitely expect more music from us in the future and, of course, some shows. We will have to figure out everything else as we go. And thank you for your time and effort. We appreciate the opportunity very much.
