Vantasma is a Neo-Prog band from Indonesia. Their only album so far has got some raving reviews here in ProgArchives. The band is very much alive and in the process of coming up with a new album and a DVD. I got in touch with the band for their story.
Instead of Q & A, I let the band give their story as it is without my interference.
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Well, this written
interview from Progarchive is the first one that we have obtained ,
which naturally makes us feel honoured. Regarding the question of
by which bands we were influenced, it is not a simple question to
answer since we have been listening, watching and reading the
articles of many bands. However, according to the progrock
community’s opinion, Vantasma were influenced (heavily) by Yes,
Marillion, Genesis, Flower Kings, and perhaps some other bands. We
of course do not mind at all to that matter since our dream is just
to compose and play our songs and release them in an album without
any intention to follow the style of one of the famous bands. We are
happy that our album has been released and could be contributing to
the heritage of progrock music in Indonesia as well as in other side
of the world.
To run such a
progressive rock band in Indonesia is not an easy matter, prog rock
music is not selling that much in Indonesia in comparison with that
of pop music which we can say is booming industry in Indonesia.
Therefore we must have dedicated member of the band who really love
music. Skill is also another crucial prerequisite that must be
possessed by the member to be able to perform such a lengthy and
delicate music.
We like to inform that all the member of Vantasma
are university graduate and have their own professions , in other
word, each members at the moment do not depend their daily life on
playing music. To perform progressive music we may choose various
events such as Prognite held by yhe Indonesia Progressive Society
regularly, band festivals, big events like International Exhibition
held in Jakarta, etc. Luckily, we have our own music studio at home
where we could exercise and also record our music. Saving time and
energy as well because we do all the things after work or at week
end.
We choose the name
of Vantasma which means “devil”. We wish to express that actually
we have devil in each of our heart, mind, soul that we have to
conquer and clean it tu pursue a more harmonious life. Our first
album has been released in 2006, the concept of the album is to
remind all of us regarding the necessity to save the environment,
remembering that our life is not ours, reminding life after death,
etc.
The first album is reflecting our wish and our pray to the
almighty. Our music is also a composition of our sadness, anger and
happiness when witnessing what has been happening in the world. Our
little world and the bigger one. We have tried to pour those feeling
in a harmony by playing instruments with sounds which we felt could
represent our feeling and combined with the vocal expressing the
lyrics.
We think we are not
in a position to compare with music of other band and we leave it to
the listener and more relevant party to do it.
Five years have been
passed, we also have been busy with each of our job, but we are glad
to inform that we are starting to record our second album with the
similar concept but in a more symphonic nuanse, we are also ready to
release our DVD of our life performance at Prognite in Jakarta.
Last but not least, one of our dream is to perform our music in
Europe wherever it is. Thank you.
Thank you to Vantasma for this interview
Their PA Profile is here and their homepage's here
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Vantasma
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