Their Myspace reads "Heavy, doomy riffs in the tradition of doom, apocalypse, in universal space and time with undertones of the Cthulhu mythos and other dark themes, fact and fiction entwined", yes indeed!! Yidhra have been one of the highlights of 2009, a new band with a brand new demo/EP available through Black Eye Media and in 2010 things can only get better. This band gets my vote for best "new" band of the year, while the band plays a style done many times before, they have a freshness about them that cant be denied. Here is a interview with Dave from the band. Doom On!
Hello, thanks for the chance to do this interview. Why don't we start with the dude's in the band and their musical background.
Dave K. ~ guitar/ bk. vocals. Ted Venemann ~ vocals. Tom Harris~ bass. Craig Bradford ~ drums.
Lets talk doom, what is about doom metal that attracted you to the style?
The heaviness, it's spooky and the tempo...slow and low, much heavier than fast stuff and since i'm such an old fucker it's just easier to play slow!!!! hahahaha
I have always thought of doom metal has to be the ultimate underdog in the metal scene and that gives it a certain mystique. Do you think doom metal would have the same appeal if it went mainstream?
I'm sure it would be watered down crap.....it's remained in the underground for more than 20 yrs. right? I mean the scene has grown, but compared to more 'popular' metal it's still in the underground.
The demo/EP is now available, can you tell the readers about it?The EP / demo was recorded out of sheer necessity...we need something for people to hear us, get gigs, the usual band stuff. and of course, in the recording process you want it to turn out as well as possible so it works in the band's favor.
Black Eye Media has signed up the band, how did that come about?
Black Eye Media was already a 'myspace friend' so once the songs had been posted i started just randomly sending messages to people / other bands who i thought might like it. so that's what i did with B.E.M. and within a week of the songs being posted, they hit us up about working together and so far it's been pretty damn cool!!!
How has the live shows been for the band and what kind of response has the band been getting?
The live response has been great. No one has thrown shit at us, no shouts of 'you suck!!' and ted puts on a good show, he's a great front man...active and captivating.
What about the name "Yidhra", who came up the idea for the name?
The way Yidhra came to be, i was playing in 'crowned by fire' as second lead, I've been friends with john (the singer) for more than 10yrs but for some unknown reason i got booted but john told me he knew this dude who wanted to start a doom band. So i met this guy, grant story, he played guitar too and sang...long story short things looked like it could work out. I came up with some riffs, gave him some lyrics and we started the search for bass and drums. Oh, grant being a big h.p. lovecraft fan came across the name Yidhra, basically it means the queen of witches, the witch of all witches...hence the song 'witchqueen'. Anyway, after long search for drummers we settled on this dude Johnny Tsunami and got Tom on bass. After 5 rehearsals we did our first gig. The live video on our myspace site is from that 1st show. Unfortunately Johnny had to quit, he had to move to Texas for work and this happened within 2 days of that 1st show. 2 weeks later we found Bradley James Dio (who is on the ep.), so we made plans for regular scheduled rehearsals. Within 2 more weeks Grant got in a horrible car accident and became paralyzed from the neck down, really fucked up!! So everything was put on hold. I kinda didn't know what to do...keep it going? change the name? what? so tom and i talked, decided to keep it going and keep the name...i have known Ted for more than 20yrs and had been in another band with him, well aware of his capabilities. So i hit him up, at least stand in as vocalist til we found a permanent guy. Things went well, he was having fun and decided to join as a 'band member'. We did bunch of shows, good response...so far so good, though we did loose Bradley on drums after the recording. He had to leave due to family issues, fortunately Craig became available, we (Ted and I) had jammed with Craig before so we hit him up. and it worked out too...we've had about 4 or 5 rehearsals with him and it sounds great. A great addition, very powerful!!
What songs are in your live set apart from the songs on the EP?This is kinda funny...with all the crazy drama, everyone's weird schedule the writing process has been very slow. I write all the 'music' and i play or try to play my guitar every day, so i come up with shit all the time but i don't like overloading myself if we can't work on the ideas as a band, to get to the point we only have 5 or 6 songs, hahahaha...the 4 on the ep., 1 more that wasn't recorded and 1 that i'm kinda re-working. hahahahaha....and ideas for at least 3 or 4 more. and since most gigs set time is about a half hour, 4 to 5 songs is plenty.
The band has a pretty much traditional doom metal style, who does Yidhra rate as being the main influences?
Honestly, i grew up playing punk rock in the early 80's. When the whole British new wave of heavy metal hit, bands like Motorhead and Venom fitted right in. Discovered Metallica on a late night radio show coming home from a Dead Kennedys gig, found bands like Celtic Frost, Slayer, you know...shit just started crossing over and blending together. Seeing Saint Vitus with Black Flag in the early days doom was just another part of the 'heavy' shit....so to me there really wasn't a separation of genres. As time has gone on and the development of bands i think the categorizing of 'types' has become more apparent, but that's just my opinion. So when it comes to DOOM and what i'm writing i just draw on my natural abilities and what i would like to hear...heavy dark simple catchy stuff. Some people may be put off by the words 'simple' and 'catchy', but i truly believe you must have SONGS!!! You can be the heaviest evil-ist shit but if put together in a crappy way it's gonna be crap!!! Just cuz some dude can shred the fuck out of a solo or play a million notes a second doesn't mean he can write a cohesive song. Again that's just my opinion and how i approach playing guitar.
Is there any plans for a full length album in 2010?
Sure, we hope to!!
In the time the band has been together, what has the been the highlight so far?
We had the chance to record a song with Bill Metoyer. He recorded all the early metal blade stuff, the first 3 Slayer albums, all the early Trouble, Armored saint, just a ton of stuff!! We recorded 'conquest of nova' with him...it's the 4th song on the ep and of course doing this interview means things have been picking up lately...ever since we got the ep done which has been the last 3 or 4 months.
Do you want the give the readers the info on how to get a copy of the EP?
Well, they can contact us on myspace, www.myspace.com/yidhra and we will be putting up paypal soon, they can go through Black Eye Media also. I'm sure at some point we'll be on itunes. Just do a friend request on myspace and everyone will be updated as things progress...shit, they can even reach us through Earthdog Promotions, right?
Yes they can indeed, what is the doom scene like in Los Angeles at the moment, i heard recently its pretty dead which i found a bit surprising.The music scene in general sucks in L.A, very few places to play but the people who we have come across that are involved in the scene, the bands, the hardcore fans have been great!!! We do the best we can with what is available to us.
The band has had some airplay on internet radio in the US. Has there been any airplay in overseas countries?
We've sent a couple discs overseas so we'll see what happens, we would love to go play some festivals of course!! Hell yeah...fingers crossed!!
Any plans for Christmas and New Years celebrations?
I'm sure each of us will spend time with our families.
OK thanks again for the interview, any final words?
Spread the word of YIDHRA!!! DOOM!!! We all hope you dig it, we appreciate the fans, we appreciate all the help and kind words!!! thanks ~ Dave K. ~ Yidhra
Interviewed by Ed
December 2009