1. Hello my friend, pleasure to have you on Rotten Pages ´zine. How are you doing today? Let us set the scene first. Where do we find you right now? Please describe your surroundings.
Hi. We are excited to be here on your zine. We are Strja from northen Italy, in particulary from Veneto. We are a black metal band formed in 2022. The band's members are: Sior Sloto (vocals), Brasa (guitar) and Baìl (bass). We were born and still live in Pianura Padana (River Pò' Valley), one of the most modern and industrialized areas of Italy; immersed in in a harsh climate (cold and wet in winter, hot and muggy in summer) but rich in History, traditions and folklore (often forgotten and undervalued).
2. If you look back at the band from the time you started to where you are at now how would you like to describe that journey?
We come from other bands that play genres very diferent from black metal. We chose BM for an expressive need. Since the begin we try to envolve our music in a very specific direction. We realesed our first EP in 2023 and two more song for the split album “voces antiqui sanguines” that will be realeased on october 31st, 2024.
3. Strja is basically a trio- Was this intended or it just happened to not find more members for the band? And how do you guys get along with each other?
We are a trio for choise. We don't need more members. We're great friends in ordinary life.
One day, talking about music, the idea to forming a black metal band was born. It was a shared choise between the three of us, without anyone else.
4. First of all I must congratulate you for debut EP. Of course I wonder if you are satisfied with it and if you reached the desired goal regarding writing and production?
Thank you so much. We are very happy about this. We are proud of our work. We never play BM before but we think that EP captures what we were one year ago: a band who want to include external influences in a BM structure. Even the sound is not like usual lo-fi BM productions, but something more modern.
5. Everyone has their own ideas on what black metal means so I was interested in your opinion what does black metal stand for?
BM, for us, is a type of music that can take you in the depths of yourself. It has something cathartic and put you in front of a your real image, as in a mirror. There's no genre else that can be so evocative and scary at the same time. For us it's a means of looking inside our soul.
6. How do you guys inside the band divide the compositional work? What are the important components of STRJA music and lyrics?
Every song is written by Baìl or Brasa from the start to the end on simple recording program. While the music is writtten on guitar pro or similar tools, Sior Sloto works to the lyrics. The drum parts is the last to be proccessed, before studio recordings.
7. What rules and canons do you follow when writing music? How much is this process free and artistic? Or maybe a more technical and academic approach prevails?
The approach is totally free. We don't spend a lot of timein rehearsal room jamming to find some riff or chorus...we trust in each other. Everyone can compose a song following their own feelings. At the end we always find the balance.
8. What’s the band’s ideology? Is it connected with some philosophy or something?
We don't like the word “ideology”. All we want is to spread feelings and emotions. We can do this through our band concept: if you want to look for your deepest part, you have to face your past. project Strja is a musical journey back to the past of our land, veneto's plain. We tell the ancient folklore of peasant culture, made up of religion, history, legend, superstition. So we chose to use the local dialect for our lyrics.
9. Italy has so much music to offer, though sometimes it seems like its metal gets overshadowed by some other parts of Europe. What are some other Italian bands you’d recommend our readers check out?
Italy is a womb for great bands. Unfortunally often underrated. We can suggest you three extreme bands: Forgotten tomb, Spite extreme wing, Vertebra atlantis. But there are so many bands in each subgenre that should be mentioned.
10. Could you give us a little insight into the metal-scene in Venice? Are there many bands that play metal, and especially black metal? And how are gig-possibilities et cetera?
We come from Veneto's plain not exactly from Venice. Currently in Veneto the underground metal and rock scene is alive, more then few years ago. In recent years several black metal bands have formed. The negative things is the avarage age of the band's members, but recently we've seen some young boys and girls at the live shows, it is a sign of hope because people were less interested in the played music, but after the pandemic period several clubs arose.
11. Internet brought an overpopulation of extreme metal bands and recordings. Did this affect the quality of the scene?
We think that internet and social networks are Ways to share your music to many people all over the world. In the past talented bands couldn't emerge due to the difficultes of producing and spreading their works. Apparently it's easier now but the risk is of disappearing in an ocean of proposals. A band now has to work, not only on the quality of the music, but also on the image and the concept. It's, even, very important have strong relationships with the music business people and fans.
12. What do you think is the major difference between first-wave Norwegian black metal and the current crop of worldwide “BM”?
We think that the old wave of norwegian. BM was the reaction of nordic young people against the socie ty, maybe like punk inUK in 70's. It was strong, impulsive, furious in evrey aspect: music, lyrics, image, themes covered. The flaw was, probably, naivety and the closed mindedness. The next waves are connected to the first above all for the main elements of the music and for the themes but more open minded and willing to contaminations with other genres and cultures.
13. What do you do other than the band, for fun/work and do you like being in Italy?
We can't answer this personal question. We've chose anonimity. In Strja concept we are just spirits timeless that take the listeners from this world to the past, like in a time/dimension machine. For the second part of the question we can talking about it. We think that Italy could be the best place in the world to live but there are a few reasons (especially economic and political) making this possibility not happen. It's a long discussion. One interview doesn't be enough.
14. Let’s finish this interview by looking into the future. What would you like your band to be known for?
Now we want to promote our music, especially our last work. We are talking about the split album “voces antiqui sanguinis” done with fellow bands: Kre^u, Ticinum and Vrim, great black metal bands that have in common the particularity of having lyrics in own regional languages. We want to thank Sulphur zine (a very interesting zine focused on BM) for this opportunitity. Then we want to realese our first full-length album as soon as possible and share our journey in the depths of the history and soul with our listeners.
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