Introduced by Monk
Swedish melodic power metallers Rexoria are about to release their third album, ‘Imperial Dawn’, so we thought we would catch up with the band – vocalist Frida Ohlin, guitarist/bassist Jonas Gustavsson, second guitarist Cristofer Svensson and drummer Martin Gustavsson.
With the beginning always being a very good place to start, I first asked the quartet how they came together as a unit:
Frida, Jonas and Martin has been playing together for some years in different constellations before Rexoria. We got to a point where we wanted to create a totally new band and play another kind of music. We wanted to have one more guitar player and found Cristofer on social medias, he was all in for our plans and we became friends very fast.
Rexoria is a melodic heavy/power metal band. Our main ingredient is the melody we have in our songs, both the melody of the vocals, but also for the guitars and the keyboard. And the music is full of energy and high tempo songs.
It can be kind of hard to tell a genre nowadays though! There is many new sub genres for sure, bands even create there own genre sometimes. We try to keep things simple, but in our own way to try to be remembered by the listener 🙂
What individual and collective influences do you draw on for your sound?
All of us in Rexoria have influences of hard rock and metal in general. We like kind of the same style of metal but it can be a bit different sometimes. For example, Cristofer and Jonas really digs heavy bands like Amon Amarth, Dark Funeral and Arch Enemy. Martin and Frida like it too, but often prefers a bit softer style. This mix of styles and influences is good for making Rexoria songs!
You’re just about to release a new album. Can you tell us a bit about it?
The album is stuffed with pure melodic energy and is not recommended for a relaxing session! The album is for everyone who likes melodic metal – that’s just how it is!
Jonas and Frida have put a ton of energy into writing the songs, and we really hope the album will turn out good to people. We are happy with the result and hope you all will have the same feeling for it.
Are there any particular lyrical themes/personal issues you are addressing in the song(s)?
Frida here, who writes most of the lyrics. I do not mostly involve personal issues or events in the songs.
I write what I believe fits well with the music and the style of the song. But of course, there is no doubt that my personal life and experience as has an impact on what I’m writing about. But mostly, I want to write lyrics that gives people a sense of strength and power, but also thing they can relate to in their ordinary personal life. Problems that can accrue during a lifetime – like losing someone you love, but don’t feel that you can let go of. That is something I have written about in the song ‘Devious Desire’.
Are there any particular issues/subjects that are important to you that you like/wish to address in your material?
From Jonas’ point of view, who is writing most of the musical parts, is important to mediate music with lots of energy and nice guitar riffs. The solos for me is important that I want them to be melodic but still have them dynamic, so they are mixed between slow and sometimes a bit faster.
For Frida’s point of view, who is writing the songs together with Jonas, is to find a balance between the heaviness in the music and the more soft and catchy melodies in the vocals. That is what we believe is the strength in Rexoria!
How important is social media in getting your music out there? Do you think it is useful for bands like yourself who maybe don’t have that big “corporate machine” behind them and dominating traditional media outlets?
It’s very crucial to use social medias as your main platform. The bands needs to be where the fans is, that’s just how it is today. If the bands don’t adapt to it, they will have much less attention. But of course it’s harder in the beginning of your musical journey to make your way through all the content that is getting published every day. But we have a solid fan base following us on our social medias, and helps us the spread the word about the band!
Is it more important than, say, streaming outlets especially given the fact that the financial returns for streaming can mean a band doing a lot of work for relatively little reward – i.e. you earn very small percentage returns, with the services themselves taking large chunks of your potential income. Is it worth the effort, or is it a fact of the business that you just have to accept?
I believe there is two sides of this subject. Of course all bands wants to earn money on their music, but most bands are not in the business for doing so but wants to spread the music as much as possible. Then the streaming service is a great tool (and actually a must in today’s music industry). This puts the bands in a situation where we need to choose between publicity or money (But how much money do you earn without publicity?) It’s such a complex subject but this is the reality if you want to be a part of the music world.
Do you think that things like social media platforms, streaming services, etc., have made it easier for fans to discover new bands, or has it led to an even more competitive marketplace in which you need that vital USP in order to get attention?
It’s easy to find great new bands right now by using social medias etc. There is so much bands out there but yes, it’s getting more and more important to have a unique selling point. This puts pressure on the artists to make sure they will attract attention in every single way to get streams and clicks. It’s not good enough to only have great music, everything around needs to be appealing as well.
Even though life has returned back to normality (for the meantime anyway), do you think the option of things such as lives streams, which really took off during the lock downs of 2020 and 2021, will continue to be used by bands, especially to reach into territories where they may not be able to play,or afford to go to?
I think those years opened up our minds for different kind of publicity for sure. If this thing will continue with live streams it’s hard to say. Maybe it will continue but not that intense as in 2020-2021. Anyway it’s a very smart way to spread your music and to have live shows for people all over world.
So, what is next for the band? What is the plan for, say, the 2023 in terms of getting out there and bringing your music to new and expanding audiences?
Our album ‘Imperial Dawn’ will be released next week. Hopefully we will have many shows after this release. We can’t wait to play the new songs live.
OK, now a bit of fun, and a couple of quickfire “out there” questions to give us a wee bit of an insight into your personalities:
- Ice cream: vanilla or strawberry? Vanilla!
- Gravy or curry sauce on your chips? Curry!
- Salted or sweet popcorn? Salted!
- Buckfast or Iron Bru? Buckfast seems just lovely!
- Smarties or M&Ms? Smarties!
- And the big one: pineapple on pizza? NO! Pineapple is good but never on a pizza!
Final question: now that live gigs are fully up and running again, we’ll give you your choice of any three other bands (signed or otherwise) you would choose to play with on a bill and where would that gig be?
Iron Maiden at the Ullevi Stadium, Sweden, Sabaton at the Avicii Arena in Stockholm and Powerwolf at the Nissan Stadium, Japan.
- ‘Imperial Dawn’ is released this coming Friday (3 February). Check back tomorrow for our review.
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