Strident

An epic South African power metal band. Yes. That they are.

Headbang Today  ferociously swung its hooligan hoop, casted it around this musical demon’s whiplashed neck and then roped ‘em in for an interview with South Africa’s loudest site… Ladies and gentlemen, we bring you STRIDENT!

Strident are: Deon van Heerden – Vocals and Lead Guitar; George van der Riet – Rhythm Guitar and Sex God; Niell Schoeman – Lead and Rhythm guitar; Piet Delport – Bass and Backing Vocals; Christian Burgess – Drums of Doom; Daniel Volgraff – Keyboards and groupie handler.

Interview by: South African metal’s savior… Scream

Headbang Today: Hell, we haven’t done an interview since MotherFUDD!  Which leaves me feeling a bit… rusty? Behold! ‘Strident stands as South Africa’s defender of true steel, willing to live and die for their brand of heavy metal, in all its cheesy glory’

Or so you say. SA’s defender of true steel, I agree, but ‘cheesy’ glory?  During our informal conversation not too long ago, you told us tales about how you were off to conquer Ramfest… Do tell us more! How did that go down?

Strident: Ramfest was one of those experiences that will go down in Strident’s history for sure, not just the gig itself which was mind-numbingly epic, but the whole vibe around the Metal4Africa stage was blazing 24/7, you could really see and hear the effort and passion put into it by Patrick and the boys. Standing backstage and hearing our name being chanted by the rowdiest crowd we’ve ever had was quite an experience. Also there was some groupie action which is always a sign of a good show.

Headbang Today:  Now, despite the fact that you are conquering ‘on all fronts’, I see that the band as a whole are influenced by gods such as Manowar and Iron Maiden. It’s possible (but unlikely) that one of these band members mated with one of your parents back in the day and thus, resulted in the birth of demigods… aka the members of Strident! Who are your individual musical influences?

Strident: Anyone who revels in the sheer bombast of epic, guitar-driven music. Queen, Manowar, Dio, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Blind Guardian, Kamelot and the like – bands with a keen sense of the theatrical, and the balls to do something different.

Headbang Today:  We vowed to make 2010 the biggest year for Headbang Today and the bands involved, but lately we’ve been caught doing all sorts of random shit that really has had nothing to do with anything important at all… (Except for our Underground Kings tournament, of course.) You, on the other hand, have been gigging here and there (Stages Of Brutality), with some dudes called Bile Of Man and Ridarre Av Koden… At least you’re a tad more productive than what we are. What’s next on the cards for Strident?

Strident: Well, we have the Bludjinn Metal Festival at Muzone coming up the 29^th of May, and then we’re going to do this little thing called recording an album in June/July. We’re also awaiting the completion of our music video which will quite literally re-arrange people’s faces with its sheer audacity. It will hopefully be done in time for our album release for a double-sucker punch of awesomeness applied directly to the face.

Headbang Today:  What does your brief, interest-revealing list of ‘Battles, Odin, Metal and Epic Things’ exactly consist out of? Elaborate!

Strident: Well, you see, we love all things bombastic and outlandish in nature – which is why we play Power Metal – and there are few things more epic and bombastic than battles, Odin and Metal. In other words, our lyrical interests encompass legendary tales of bravery, our love for metal and its ever-lasting legacy, the spirit to fight for what you believe in and just generally awesome things like zombies and pirates. We run the full gamut in that regard. There are too many damn emos walking around feeling sorry for themselves; for us, music is about passion, about feeling like you’re standing on top of a mountain, and if you can’t make people smile, you should become a stock-broker.

Headbang Today:  Enlighten us of Strident’s stances towards the following groups:

• Self praising rappers
• Self enriching record labels
• The elderly
• Your neighbors’ minimal tolerance for metal music

Strident: Self praising rappers: “Taylor, I’m really happy for you, and I’m gonna let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time.”

Self enriching record labels: Well if they’re self enriching they don’t need artists now do they? So screw ‘em.

The elderly: There are a surprising amount of awesome old people, a bulk of them being musicians from the 60’s onwards, and Christopher Lee definitely taking the Most Epic and Badass Old Person Ever crown. Piet’s mother has been to pretty much every Strident show ever, and doesn’t blink twice in a moshpit. The elderly were young and riding motorcycles when Metal was born, so respect.

Neighbours: Aside from the occassional police summons and cranky asshole, we’re on tentatively good terms with them. The “baby-eater” shirts we wear don’t hurt, I suppose.

Headbang Today: When can we expect a full length album from Strident?

Strident: September, Odin willing. We’ve already written around half of the second one, so we’re aiming to get the sophomore one out in mid-2011. The fans have been very patient, and it will be rewarded.

Headbang Today: For those that have not heard or seen Strident on stage before, tell them a bit about your on-stage antics and what they can expect.

Strident: We give our all for every show – if the energy isn’t there, what’s the point? It has to be entertaining – it is a show, after all. I think the performative element is lost on a lot of bands. If you’re just going to stand staring at your instrument people might as well put on their ipods and dance in front of the mirror. We have a bit of choreography in the sense that we try and rock the fuck out in unison and get the feeling of the song across. We also had a sword that we would hand out to trusted fans in the first row at the start of a show – that is until it got stolen at ROAR recently (where else?) We have the crowd sing along to parts, and mostly they sing along on their own which is pretty awesome. We’re not averse to throwing in the occasional cheesy joke, either. It’s all a part of making the fans feel like a part of the show and getting that feeling of brotherhood and community going.

Headbang Today: So, you will be celebrating your two year anniversary at Bludjinn, A venue which undoubtedly has one of the biggest stages in South Africa – For bands! I’m sure a lot has happened in the past two years. Tell us about your best and worst gig so far… We dig crazy stories!

Strident: Well now, we haven’t really had any bad gigs per se; interesting ones, yes. We did a show last winter in a barn in Milnerton during the most apocalyptic storm ever. Our old drummer, Marcel, wrote his car off on the way to the gig, but he still rocked up and played: that’s metal. Our first gig was, naturally, our least polished. We had the most un-metal front man ever (who was given his pink slip around 20 seconds after the last chord), and then there was the infamous “George vs Guitar” incident which we quickly turned into a literal joke before it became an embarrassing one, and that’s all you’ll hear about it.  Our show in PE recently was also quite a memorable one, the people there are seriously hungry for real metal. They all knew the words and were singing along – power of the internet, eh? Ramfest was probably our most debauched show, plus we had the best sound ever, first proper moshpit at a Strident show (power metal, remember), people getting punched in the face, people getting naked in front of the stage, underwear thrown on stage, plus a german lass who *really* liked our um,  stuff, ahem.

Headbang Today: We now approach the end of this interview, and we hope you have enjoyed it as I certainly have. So we now unleash our final question! If Strident were an animal, what animal would it be and why?

Strident: A 6-headed Tiger-Bear-Shark-Dragon hybrid that breathes acid fire and feeds on the blood of emos. Because that’s just fucking badass. Also, we hate emos.

SO DO WE!