www.facebook.com/shardanametal
From: Italy
Sounds like: Black Metal
1. How did you get started with music and how did you develop your sound? Who thought of the name "Shardana" and is there any meaning behind it?
The name Shardana came from a Fabrizio and Daniele idea to form a band with Folk, Thrash, and Black Metal influences. Shardana is the name of one of the "sea people" of the Mediterranean Sea in Europe that lived between 1350 and 1100 BC. They were pirates, mercenaries (at the court of the Pharaoh Ramesses III) and related to Sardinia, our island. We thought that the name would fit properly with the sound we were creating and our first eponymous EP in 2010 represents exactly what we wanted to do. After that, we gradually abandoned folk tunes to embrace a more darker sound, steering to what we call "Epic Black Metal", and that's what we're doing today.
2. What do you want people to take away from your music?
We hope people just enjoy our music and our lyrics. Take our songs like stories, sometimes are linked together (as our little concept inside our last record, "Milli Annos"), sometimes are a one shot journey. Sometimes we took insipirations by books, movies, historical events and personal experiences. Our lyrics are not just in English, but also in our native language, the Sardinian, that we especially use when we're talking about historical stuff.
3. How would you describe your sound to the average listener?
As we said before, simple as that - Epic Black Metal.
4. Who are three bands you’d like to tour with?
I'm glad you asked just for three bands, it would be a long list otherwise! Primordial, Ulcerate, Gojira
5. How has Covid affected what you do?
Very much, because we had to publish our last record during that time. But we were a bit lucky too, cause we managed to play some live shows between a lockdown and another. The band never stop to work and had the proper time to write the next album.
6. What’s your take on the current state of Black Metal?
We think it's pretty alive, there are so many cool bands around that are pure Black Metal (like Mgla) and they're reaching the top, and some of the old school bands that started it all that are still here publishing new music (you can debate if they're still true or not, but that's another story!)
7. What's the current music scene like there in Italy?
We are located in one of the main island of Italy, Sardinia, that has a very different music scene from the mainland, cause there are only two way to reach Italy and the rest of Europe: by ship or airplane. So it's very hard for "official" bands to come here and play, and very expensive for underground Italian bands, and for us too if you want to travel for a planned tour that someone else can do just by renting a van. On the other hand, we have in Sardinian a very valid Metal, Stoner and Hardcore scene, because even there are not so many venues, there is always a place to play on stage. Big fishes are not in our pond, so...
8. What’s your take on the royalties that streaming services pay out to artists?
It's good to give the chance to let your music available so easily worldwide, but all these services must grant more royalties. It's not fair, if you also consider that a band have to pay to some third-party service just to ask if can be enlisted in playlists to gather a little more, crumb by crumb. That's very depressing.
9. What’s next for Shardana?
We're almost closing the preproduction of our new record, so we'll start to contact labels very soon for a new deal. Meanwhile, we're planning some live shows in Italy. Be ready!
10. Any shoutouts?
We're very grateful to our friends and our Sardinian Metal/Stoner/HC/Punk community. Thanks to all bands and the people involved, is a good time to play and share the music we all love.
