Vûlom metal bend iz Kaštela. Za Solin Live, gitarist Sandro Radan će nam reći o bendu, koncertima i glazbenoj sceni u Hrvatskoj

| lip. 12, 2022

Vûlom je metal bend iz Kaštela. Za Solin Live, gitarist Sandro Radan će nam reći o bendu, koncertima i glazbenoj sceni u Hrvatskoj

1. Za početak, možete nam reći o bendu, kako se formirao, kako ste se našli? Koji su bendovi, kao i glazbeni stilovi utjecali na Vas?

Kao neki datum osnutka benda naveo bih 13. veljače 2018…. Mislim, to je dan kada je stvoren naš grupni razgovor “soon – to – be” benda na WhatsAppu, ali mi to vidimo kao dan kada je Vûlom osnovan. U par dana okupili smo sve članove, dobili prve ideje za ime i logo. Konačno smo se odlučili za Vûlom – riječ preuzetu iz Dragonspeecha franšize The Elder Scroll koja u prijevodu znači “mrak, tama” i mislili smo da je cool igra riječi, jer smo htjeli svirati neku vrstu doom metala.

Kad smo već kod žanra, nismo se željeli ograničavati tradicionalnim “granicama” podžanrova jer su pozadine u glazbi svih članova bile potpuno različite (od klasične glazbe i jazza do najzabačenijih kutaka black metala). Stoga smo nastojali stvoriti svoj jedinstven i prepoznatljiv stil, u čemu smo, po mom mišljenju, i uspjeli. Kada nas ipak netko pita da objasnimo svoj glazbu, kažemo da sviramo “atmospheric melodic blackened death/doom metal”, a kao glavne i najveće utjecaje bismo naveli Saturnus, October Tide, Dawn of Solace, Hamferð… za koje bih rekao da su nam stilski najbliži.

Ideja o bendu kuhala se godinama prije, budući da se neki od nas poznaju po 10+ godina, ali smo 2018. konačno uspjeli osnovati funkcionalan bend. Vûlom smo osnovali ja (Sandro – ritam gitara) i moj prijatelj Jan (lead gitara) dok je ispijao kavu u lokalnom kafiću u kojem je naš budući vokal radio kao konobar. Nažalost, svi ostali članovi su se promijenili par puta u ove 4 godine. I konačno, prošle godine sam se zbog posla preselio u Zagreb, a naš vokal je odlučio potražiti sreću u Njemačkoj i mislili smo da je to kraj Vûlom. Ali budući da smo tako naporno radili, odlučili smo pokušati zadržati Vûlom na životu.

Trenutna situacija je da ovih dana u Zagrebu skupljam nove članove kako bih nastavio stvaralaštvo Vûloma. U međuvremenu je nastalo još dosta pjesama koje su zasada isključivo demo verzije – čisto iz razloga jer nisam ništa sam htio izdavati.

2. Izdali ste prvi dugosvirajući album Walls Of Agony 2019. koji je dobro prihvaćen od strane publike i kritike. Molim Vas recite nam više o tome.

Cijeli proces snimanja albuma je, u biti, priča koja u svim našim članovima pobuđuje određenu dozu nostalgije, ali i radosti. Naime, cijeli album je snimljen i produciran “u kućnoj radinosti”. Imali smo dva mikrofona (Shure SM57 i neki kondenzatorski mikrofon, za koji ni sam ne znam koje je marke), jeftini audio interface, besplatnu verziju Reapera (DAW za koji smo se odlučili i na kojem smo se naučili raditi), hrpa besplatnih plugina i jedno kvalitetno gitarsko lampaško pojačalo na kojem su sve naše gitare snimljene. Ja sam bio zadužen za proces snimanja, postavljanje opreme i praćenje cijele stvari, dok je Jan radio svo miksanje i mastering. Sve u svemu, bilo je to zabavno iskustvo, ali i naporan rad. Sve što smo znali o snimanju, miksanju i masteringu došlo je s interneta, raznih YouTube tutoriala i webzinea. Album, ovakav kakav je sada, daleko je od savršenog i svjesni smo toga, ali on jest i uvijek će biti naš “love – child”. Za njega nas veže puno lijepih uspomena.

Ne mogu Vam točno reći koliko je dugo trajalo snimanje jer, čim bismo smislili pjesmu, snimili bismo je za nekoliko dana. Naravno, sve pjesme su prošle kroz niz editanja pojedinih dijelova pjesme.

Na kraju je album objavljen 30. prosinca 2019. na našem YouTube kanalu i, što je najsmješnije, nitko od nas nije religiozno čekao pred računalom dok se album uploadao, već smo ga postavili da se uploada, dok smo mi odlučili proslaviti objavljivanje albuma i otišli na omanji koncert u lokalnom metal klubu.

Gledajući iz današnje perspektive, vjerojatno bismo promijenili mnogo stvari u vezi s tim, ali u to vrijeme bio je tako ispunjavajući osjećaj stvoriti nešto što biste mogli nazvati svojim, nešto u čemu bi drugi ljudi iz cijelog svijeta možda uživali.

3. Što se tiče koncerta, kakvi su vaši dojmovi? Kakva je po Vašem mišljenju, glazbena scena u Hrvatskoj? Pošto dolazite iz Splita, da li smatrate da li on ima potencijala za lokalnu scenu?

Iskreno, imamo jako podijeljeno mišljenje o koncertima i, metal sceni općenito u Dalmaciji i Hrvatskoj.

Svi mi znamo da postoji toliko bendova, toliko talenta, toliko potencijala za kvalitetnom glazbom na našim područjima, no kao glavni problem bih naveo ne postojanje nekakvih platformi i kanala za promocije i poticanje bendova na rad. Ogromna većina bendova i ljudi koji se bave glazbom su manje – više prepušteni samima sebi bez velikih mogućnosti pomicanja sa mrtve točke.

Naravno, uvijek se zalažem za to da bi autorska glazba trebala bit užitak i emocija pretočena u taktove uz koje će publika pjevati, urlati, headbangati ili uletjeti u šutku. I to bih naveo kao jedan od najljepših i najispunjavajućih osjećaja u mom životu (zasada) – taj prizor s bine, dok izvodiš svoje pjesme za hrpu poznatih i nepoznatih ljudi i vidiš da uživaju u tome što im predstavljaš, poslije te zaustave samo da ti reću kako su pjesme, riffovi i melodije odlični. Mislim da svaki glazbenik (barem mi amaterski) živi za taj osjećaj.

Imali smo prilike odraditi nekoliko svirki: dva puta smo svirali u lokalnom metal klubu “Eks” – prvi put s prijateljima iz The Countess (Sinj) sa samo nekoliko pjesama koje smo do tada uspjeli smisliti, a drugi put promovirajući naš album nakon izlaska. Uspjeli smo se promovirati u sklopu festivala St@rt. Dva puta smo bili pozvani na KRV (Kaštelanske Rock Večeri), no zbog pandemije Covid19 festival je odgođen na neodređeno vrijeme.

Pošto je situacija trenutno takva da radim na buđenju Vûloma iz kratkog zimskog sna, nadam se da ću imati priliku čim prije se vratiti na binu i prezentirati našu glazbu.

Ovime, želio bih se vratiti na postojanje mogućnosti izvedbe ovakve “nepopularne” glazbe u Hrvatskoj. Ne kažem da prostora za gaže i mogućnosti uopće ne postoje – naravno da postoje, ali osobno mislim da ih je premalo, pogotovo u usporedbi sa zatupljenosti ostalih vrsta glazbe.

Potencijal je tu, talent je tu, ali nedostaje onaj mali potisak prema naprijed. Na sreću, po društvenim mrežama sve više i više vidim grupa namijenjenih promociji malih lokalnih bendova i pomoći oko pronalaska članova, opreme i prostora i, za razliku od bilo koje druge zastupljene subkulture, vidim da smo mi, “metalci”, najsrdačniji, puni podrške i razumijevanja. Znamo da nas nije previše, ali dok se držimo skupa mislim da je sve izvedivo.

4.Uz Vûlom , da li imate nekakve projekte, bendove sa strane?

Kao i svi glazbenici (amaterski ili profesionalni), uvijek imamo osjećaj da se u potpunosti nismo uspjeli izraziti unutar jednog benda/projekta pa pokrenemo nekakav side projekt.

Ja osobno imam toliko pjesama koje su snimljene tokom prethodnih nekoliko godina u najrazličitijim mogućim stilovima (oko 200 – 250 GB glazbe). U planu mi je početi objavljivati pod imenom Aokigahara, koji bi trebao biti nekakav atmospheric black metal projekt. Uz to, za opuštanje volim raditi čak i lofi hip hop i već sam objavio nekoliko beatova pod imenom Nihil.

Bivši vokal Vûloma Robert Zelić i ja, pošto se već poznajemo nekih 10 – 15 godina, ne možemo zamisliti život, a da zajedno ne pokušajemo stvarati glazbu. Iz tog razloga imamo nekoliko pjesama i ideja koje još nisu ugledale svjetlo dana, ali imamo želje da uspijemo nešto objaviti.

Volio bih i shout outati black metal projekt bivšeg gitarista i producenta Jana Karlovića – Inhuman Torment. Pod tim imenom je izdano nekoliko EPova koji glavnu inspiraciju vuku od bendova poput Mgla, Uada, Numenorean… (treći val black metala), i na kojima se pojavljuje vokal našeg bivšeg bubnjara (koji je sada u Njemačkoj) Vjeke Dražina. Jan se ujedno bavi i elektronskom glazbom pod pseudonimom shyguy i isproducirao je hip hop album “Sranja i prolivi” još jednog našeg bivšeg bubnjara Duje Šarana (pseudonim na “Sranja i prolivi” – Žorž Bakljava).

Vjeko Dražin u planu toliko pjesama za svoj vlastiti projekt kojeg želi pokrenuti kada malo ustali život u Njemačkoj.

5.Za kraj, koji su vam budući planovi, projekti? Što bi ste poručili našim čitateljima?

Konačno, planovi za budućnost, kao što sam već naglasio, su vezani uz reanimaciju Vûloma s full lineupom i mogućnosti live svirki, stvaranje novih pjesama, izdavanje novog albuma (jednog lijepog i sunčanog dana) i po mogućnosti nekoliko spotova (music videa). Netom prije nego nas je eto život razdvojio u planu je bilo snimanje spota za jednu od pjesama koja još nigdje nije objavljena, ali smo je na St@rtu izveli live i nadam se da bi se to možda moglo nanovo realizirati.

Ono što bih volio poručiti svima koji ovo pročitaju – održavajte dijete u sebi na životu i nemojte nikada odustati od svojih snova i glazbe jer to su neke stvari koje vas definiraju. Oni će biti vaš trag u ovom svijetu.

Puno Vam hvala,

Sandro Radan

1. To begin with, can you tell us about the band, how it was formed, how did you find yourself? What bands as well as musical styles have influenced you?

As a founding date of the band, I would mention February 13, 2018 …. I mean, that was the day when our group chat “soon – to – be” was created on WhatsApp, but we see it as the day when Vûlom was founded. In a couple of days we gathered all the members, got the first ideas for the name and logo. We finally opted for Vûlom – a word taken from the Dragonspeech franchise The Elder Scroll which translates to “darkness, darkness” and we thought it was a cool play on words because we wanted to play some kind of doom metal.

Speaking of genres, we didn’t want to limit ourselves to the traditional “boundaries” of subgenres because the backgrounds in the music of all the members were completely different (from classical music and jazz to the most remote corners of black metal). Therefore, we tried to create our own unique and recognizable style, in which, in my opinion, we succeeded. When someone asks us to explain our music, we say that we play “atmospheric melodic blackened death / doom metal”, and as the main and biggest influences we would mention Saturn, October Tide, Dawn of Solace, Hamferð … which I would say are stylistically closest to us.

The idea for the band was brewing years before, as some of us have known each other for 10+ years, but in 2018 we finally managed to form a functional band. Vulom was founded by me (Sandro – rhythm guitar) and my friend Jan (lead guitar) while drinking coffee in a local cafe where our future vocalist worked as a waiter. Unfortunately, all the other members have changed a couple of times in these 4 years. And finally, last year I moved to Zagreb for work, and our vocal decided to look for happiness in Germany and we thought it was the end of Vûlom. But since we worked so hard, we decided to try to keep Vulom alive.

The current situation is that these days I am gathering new members in Zagreb in order to continue Vjulom’s work. In the meantime, a lot of songs have been created that are currently only demo versions – purely because I didn’t want to release anything myself.

2. You released the first long-playing album Walls Of Agony 2019, which was well received by audiences and critics. Please tell us more about it.

The whole process of recording the album is, in essence, a story that arouses a certain dose of nostalgia and joy in all our members. Namely, the whole album was recorded and produced “at home”. We had two microphones (Shure SM57 and some condenser microphone, for which I don’t even know which brand), a cheap audio interface, a free version of Reaper (DAW that we decided on and learned to work on), a bunch of free plugins and one quality guitar lamp amp on which all our guitars were recorded. I was in charge of the recording process, setting up the equipment and monitoring the whole thing, while Jan did all the mixing and mastering. All in all, it was a fun experience, but also hard work. Everything we knew about recording, mixing and mastering came from the internet, various YouTube tutorials and webzines. The album, as it is now, is far from perfect and we are aware of that, but it is and will always be our “love – child”. We have many fond memories of him.

I can’t tell you exactly how long the recording took because because as soon as we came up with the song, we would record it in a few days. Of course, all the songs went through a series of edits of individual parts of the song.

Eventually the album was released on December 30, 2019 on our YouTube channel and, most ridiculously, none of us religiously waited in front of the computer while the album was uploading, but we set it up to upload while we decided to celebrate the album release and left at a small concert at a local metal club.

Looking at it from today’s perspective, we would probably change a lot of things about it, but at the time it was such a fulfilling feeling to create something you could call your own, something other people from all over the world might enjoy.

3. As for the concert, what are your impressions? In your opinion, what is the music scene like in Croatia? Since you come from Split, do you think it has potential for the local scene?

Honestly, we have a very divided opinion about concerts and the metal scene in general in Dalmatia and Croatia.

We all know that there are so many bands, so much talent, so much potential for quality music in our areas, but as the main problem I would mention the lack of any platforms and channels to promote and encourage bands to work. The vast majority of bands and people who make music are less – more left to themselves without much opportunity to move from the deadlock.

Of course, I always advocate that original music should be a pleasure and emotion transformed into beats with which the audience will sing, shout, headbang or run in silence. And I would cite that as one of the most beautiful and fulfilling feelings of my life (so far) – that scene from the stage, as you perform your songs for a bunch of famous and unknown people and see that they enjoy what you present to them, then they stop just to tell you how great the songs, riffs and melodies are. I think every musician (at least to me an amateur) lives for that feeling.

We had the opportunity to do a few gigs: we played twice at the local metal club “Eks” – the first time with friends from The Countess (Sinj) with only a few songs we managed to come up with, and the second time promoting our album after the release. We managed to promote ourselves as part of the St @ rt festival. We were twice invited to KRV (Kaštela Rock Evenings), but due to the Covid19 pandemic, the festival was postponed indefinitely.

Since the situation at the moment is such that I am working on waking up Vulom from a short hibernation, I hope that I will have the opportunity to return to the stage as soon as possible and present our music.With this, I would like to return to the possibility of performing such “unpopular” music in Croatia. I’m not saying that there is no room for gigs and opportunities at all – of course there are, but I personally think there are too few of them, especially compared to the dullness of other types of music.

5. Among the Vûlom, do you have any projects, bands on the side?

Like all musicians (amateur or professional), we always have the feeling that we have not been able to fully express ourselves within one band / project, so we start a side project.

I personally have so many songs that have been recorded over the past few years in a variety of possible styles (around 200 – 250 GB of music). My plan is to start publishing under the name Aokigahara, which should be some kind of atmospheric black metal project. In addition, for relaxation I like to do even lofi hip hop and I have already released a few beats called Nihil.

Former Vjuloma vocalist Robert Zelic and I, since we have known each other for some 10-15 years, cannot imagine life without trying to create music together. For this reason, we have a few songs and ideas that have not yet seen the light of day, but we have a desire to be able to publish something.

I would also like to shout out the black metal project of former guitarist and producer Jan Karlović – Inhuman Torment. Several EPs have been released under this name, drawing their main inspiration from bands such as Mgla, Uada, Numenorean … (third wave of black metal), and featuring the vocals of our former drummer (now in Germany) Vjeko Dražin. Jan is also involved in electronic music under the pseudonym shyguy and produced the hip hop album “Shit and Diarrhea” by another of our former drummers Duje Saran (pseudonym on “Shit and Diarrhea” – George Bakljava).

Vjeko Dražin plans so many songs for his own project that he wants to start when life in Germany gets a little tired.

6. Finally, what are your future plans, projects? What would you say to our readers?

Finally, plans for the future, as I have already pointed out, are related to the resuscitation of Vûlom with full lineup and live music opportunities, creation of new songs, release of a new album (one beautiful and sunny day) and possibly several music videos.

Just before life separated us, the plan was to record a video for one of the songs that has not been published anywhere yet, but we performed it live on St @ rt and I hope that it could be realized again.

What I would like to say to everyone who reads this – keep your child alive and never give up on your dreams and music because these are some of the things that define you. They will be your clue in this world.

Thank you very much,

Sandro Radan

YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCI3Fykc6hBEnqyCXFbhi9dw

Bandcamp:https://vulom.bandcamp.com/

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/vulom.band

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/vulom_band

Soundcloud:https://soundcloud.com/vulom2018