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Wazzara is an interesting band from Switzerland who play something in between post-metal and occult doom. We here had the immense pleasure of chatting with Barbara Brawand about music, women in genres beyond operatic in metal and many other things.
For us is a honor to interview you.
Thank you, I feel honored as well!
Could you tell us a bit about your history in music? When and why did you decide to make music?
I always found pleasure in composing, back then as a kid when sitting by the piano and later when joining my first band as a singer in my teens. Music has always been a central feature in my family – both my parents are musicians, so it was not an active decision but very natural to me to make music as well. Now being older I realize that this truly is a great gift.
For a strange coincidence, I’ve known your work in the Caladmor, when I listened to more “gothish” metal bands. Now you’re in a band with a different purpose of music. How did you decided the approach of your music?
I am glad you heard of Caladmor! In my former band we first composed together and later most of the compositions were created by drummer/male vocalist Maede. So already when still being in the band I started with wazzara to have a project where I can compose my own songs with a more dark/ambient vibe to it and more black metal influences, as this was always a mixture that fascinated me. When blackgaze became bigger I had the idea of starting a project in this genre for the first time.
What does it mean “Wazzara”? It sounds weird, strong, and I like it.
Thank you! Wazzara means “the waterborn” and stems from Old High German – a language that was spoken in early medieval times in today’s region of Germany, Switzerland and Austria. I can get very nerdy when it comes to old languages and as wazzara was my solo project, I wanted its name to be connected to my personal interests and influences. So, besides languages the name reflects my connection to the element water that has always intrigued me.
How do you describe your musical genre? You describe as a “moongaze” and I can figure a lot of influences from shoegaze, post-metal, heavy metal, traditional doom metal, black metal and a bit of death metal.
I think you already described it very well – for me personally I find it difficult to put my own music into a certain genre. So, I just named it “moongaze” to refer to the blackgaze approach in it, but also to ridicule the whole thing about genres a bit. Don’t get me wrong – I think genres are very important to kind of sort different music for the listeners, but as soon as it becomes a discourse in which only an illustrious circle of listeners knows what belongs to which genre, the whole thing is very tiring. At the end of the day, it always should be about the music itself, no matter how it is labelled.
What influences you? As artist, as person, as musician…
For my music it is mostly the bad times in life that influence me – I use music and lyrics to process things that weigh on me. As a person, I always look up for the beautiful things surrounding me – lovely people with good hearts, animals, or a beautiful misty morning, a magical light shining through the window etc. I need beautiful beings and things around me to keep me going.
There are a lot of good metal bands with women in vocal playing doomish music, as Jess and the Ancient Ones, Year of the Goat, Year of the Cobra, Lucifer, Witchcraft, Luciferian Light Orchestra… and I really like to see a lot of bands without “overusing of female lyrical voice” if you understand me. Do you like some of them? What do you think about women playing in different genres of metal instead just “lyrical / operatic” metal-whatever?
I think I totally understand what you mean. Of course, this is all about personal taste. When it comes to myself, I am always am happy to hear female vocals being “natural” and not in a high-pitched range in terms of voices sounding affected (I don’t like it when men do it, either). Therefore, I also love to see how they have become more important and more spread in metal over the past years. When I was in my teens, there weren’t that many women in metal not singing opera-style – or I just didn’t know them. There was The Gathering with Anneke, I love both still today, and a bit later there was Floor Janssen and of course Angela Gossow doing harsh vocals. All great musicians!
Could you describe your process of composition / creation? What are the subjects you like most to write about?
I like to work allegorical, taking strong images, mostly nature-inspired ones, and use them to express my feelings or to process certain experiences. After all, there is always something very personal hidden in my lyrics. This is important to me, otherwise it wouldn’t be very authentical and this is what I always aim for.
How is the metal scene in Switzerland? I know a lot of very good bands from there, as Samael, Eluveitie, the classic Celtic Frost and Coroner, Darkspace, Lunatica and others and I think you must have a very vivid scene.
Yes, we are blessed with those awesome bands and there are a lot more very talented musicians and hundreds of genius underground bands. Switzerland is very small, so it’s easy to visit gigs in different towns and to connect with each other.
It’s a kind of question I always ask for female musicians and feel free if you don’t wanna answer. I know there’s a lot of discrimination and sexism in music scene in every genre and metal is not a exception. Did you face any kind of discrimination or sexism in all of these years as a woman? I follow a lot of female musicians and they are constantly aimed by body shaming, people saying that they are only a beauty face and all the crappy and shit comment about their real skills.
First of all, I thank you for asking this question. I think it is an important one and it’s good to see that finally these issues are addressed in nowadays’ discourses.
I did and do face sexism and discrimination as a woman in everyday life, but never did so as a musician luckily. But I know enough stories from other women in music where it has been different. I think a lot is changing now with more and more women being seen in metal bands and also in other genres that were dominated by men earlier; but the most important thing is that people’s minds – and I hereby not only talk about men’s minds – are changing and that we learn to critically reflect the role models we were raised up with.
What are the plans for the future?
We now focus on playing live and I already started to collect some new ideas for a further album. It’s unfortunately too early to tell you more about it, as the most of it is still in my mind but not on paper/record. So, I don’t know yet myself where the wave will take us next. 😊
Groundcast is a Brazilian music blog and, for sure, I always ask about bands from here. Do you know / like any Brazilian bands, in any genre?
Yes, Brazil is full of great and talented bands! I am very sorry for stating the obvious here, but I do like Sepultura a lot. Their raw sound with a natural vibe to it is still unique to this very day. Also, I enjoy Krisiun and Avec Tristesse a lot. I unfortunately never was lucky enough to travel to Brazil, but I’d love to go there one day and get to know your music scene.
I need to thank you for this interview and it is your space to let a message to our readers. Let’s go!
Thank YOU very much for taking the time for asking me these interesting questions. It was an honor and we deeply appreciate your support!
To all the readers: Thank you for taking the time to read through this. If you like, check out our songs “Mænic” and “Obsidian Skies” and our new album CYCLES which was released on October 31, 2021. Thank you very much. Love, Barbara
Related Links
https://www.facebook.com/wazzaraofficial