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Desdemonia is a band from Luxembourg, a small country in Europe. Since 1994, the group follows the same old school death metal and we have the opportunity to talk with David Wagner, guitarrist, that told us a lot about the beginnings, why he started to play guitar on the band and the metal scene in Luxembourg.
GroundCast: Could you tell us a bit of the band’s history?
Desdemonia was founded in 1994 by guitarist Marc Dosser and drummer Tom Michels, who met in high-school, as they were the only ones wearing band shirts. After jamming together for a while the line-up was completed by Stefano de Angelis on the guitars and vocals and Marc’s brother Tom on the bass guitar. Our first show took place in 1996 in Luxembourg City’s well known “Den Atelier”. After the release of our first album “Same” in 1998, Stefano left the band and was replaced by guitarist Oli Scheeck. Marc’s brother Tom took over the vocals and we quickly started to write new material for the follow-up “Paralyzed”, which was released in 2001; the third album “Existence” came out in 2010. In 2013, our guitar player Oli left the band due to personal reasons and was replaced by me, who had been a fan of the band ever since our first album came out. Over all those years, we didn’t just write albums but also toured a lot throughout Europe and shared the stage with a lot of cool bands like Soilwork, Dying Fetus, Hail of Bullets, Sinister, Krisiun, just to mention a few.
GroundCast: What are your influences?
It’s actually pretty hard to tell since everything that you’re listening to (and you like, obviously), influences you in one way or another and has its impact on your own songwriting. However, it has never been our goal to sound like another band that we like, which we managed pretty well so far, I think 😉 Our fans sometimes think that we do sound a bit like Bolt Thrower, Dissection, Cryptopsy or even Amon Amarth..
GroundCast: The last release came in 2010 (Existence), when will a new album see the daylight?
We recorded our newest album during spring 2017. None other than legendary Swedish producer Fredrik Nordström (At the Gates, Arch Enemy, In Flames…) mixed and mastered the album in July. It’s called “Anguish” and will be released worldwide on 23rd March 2018 by Mighty Music. The first single “Endless Fight” was already published on 12th of January 2018..
GroundCast: I never heard any band from Luxembourg and being honest I am really curious about how is the metal scene in your country?
The metal scene in Luxembourg is actually relatively big and pretty lively, considering the size of the country. We have around 30 active metal bands right now and there are concerts almost every week, both on weekends and weekdays; mostly in small clubs and pubs. It’s much different nowadays than when we started out. We were one of the first bands in Luxembourg to bring this kind of music to the people. And today we’re the longest existing metal band in Luxembourg
GroundCast: How is the composition process of the band?
We’re a band that works at home very much. Our other guitar player Marc & I, we record every idea at home; sometimes Marc also tries to come up with drum beats that fit his riffs as well. Like most bands we use dropbox to share the stuff that we record at home, so the other band members can listen to the stuff and come up with ideas for the songs as well. At our rehearsal, we only rarely jam but try to work on the songs that were “invented” at home; so we try stuff out and see what works and what doesn’t. So the basics of our songs are often created at home, while the whole band puts the pieces of the puzzle together at our rehearsals.
GroundCast: The band exists since 1994 what is considered in my opinion really impressive to any band and except for the original guitarist, you remained playing together, can you talk about of what changed in you and in the band in these more than 20 years on the road?
When Tom M. and Marc started the band in 1994, they knew each other from school. As metal and especially extreme metal was not so popular at that time and just a bunch of people were listening to it, they quickly met up.
Marc’s brother, Tom D., joined shortly thereafter. So from the beginning on, the band was more than just friends, it became kind of a family affair. So, fighting like brothers but also taking care and respecting one another has always been an essential part. This might be one of the reasons for the longevity of DESDEMONIA.
As you can imagine, every member grew as a person during those 20 years. Some followed their studies, others started jobs. And then most of us founded own families and got children. All those changes were not always easy to deal with, because we had to adapt our pace to the new situations.
Most important was always not to push members away, but to adjust the band to the needs of everyone. This and the fact, that we all accepted small hiatuses, helped us to realize the significant role the band plays in everyone’s life. So, the slow and considerate building of the band helped to create a solid foundation.
Musically, the main focus was always to play and write stuff that we liked. That was rooted in the 
music we grew up with but it evolved with new influences from every musician.
Unlike many other bands from that era, we never changed our music to suit new trends. This made it much more difficult for us during periods like the end of the 90s, beginning of 2000. The musical landscape in metal had changed so drastically that you were suddenly called “old-school” if you kept on doing your thing. Telling someone you played “metal” was not fashionable anymore.
Fortunately, around 2005, we got rewarded for sticking to our convictions. At that time, metal was surfacing again in all sorts of forms, to a point that even songs that were 10 years old, felt super modern for new and younger fans. From that point on, we knew, that following your own musical path, is the only way.
GroundCast: Do you know any band from Brazil and have you had some invitation to play there?
Well, everybody knows the bands that the Cavalera brothers are involved in, so yeah, we know Sepultura, Soulfly and Cavalera Conspiracy, but we also know one or two other bands, like Krisiun, for example. While we have never been invited to play in Brazil, we organized a show for Krisiun here in Luxembourg back in 1998, when they did their first tour in Europe. I wouldn’t say that I know them personally, but I’ve met Andreas of Sepultura an Igor Cavalera at the Wacken festival in Germany once, we talked a bit and I gave them our album.
GroundCast: What are the plans to Desdemonia?
Our main goal has always been and will always be to play as many gigs as possible. In order to be able to get booked more, we decided to give our newest album the best sound possible. That’s why Fredrik Nordström ended up mixing and mastering our album. We also wanted to get more exposure and a better distribution, so we signed a deal with Scandinavia’s premier metal and rock label Mighty Music. We hope that with the perfect sound, a good label and a lot of effort, we will be able to get more gigs outside of Luxembourg
GroundCast: We are in the internet era where you can find most of the releases online. Even countries like Germany that are strict with this isn’t safe of downloaders. We also have services like Spotify, what is your opinion about it?
I think depend on what level you’re making music i can be good or bad. For bands like us, who are not really known outside of their own country, streaming services and social media can help you broaden your audience, because it’s just so easy to distribute your music online. So we’re thankful that our newest album will be available on all online platforms and that people, who wouldn’t have the possibility to listen to us if there weren’t any streaming services, will be able to discover us. On the other hand, bands that are making a living out of selling their music and playing gigs, I can imagine that streaming services are probably damaging their income, because they’re so cheap or even free, like youtube for instance..
GroundCast: Now the space is yours to say something to our readers.
Thanks a lot for this interview! I hope you like our new album and spread the word that we will rock your socks off! 🙂
Related Links
http://desdemonia.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/desdemoniaband
http://www.desdemonia.net/
http://www.youtube.com/user/desdemoniaband