by Anabel DFlux
– Sr. Photojournalist —
Zeistencroix is a Metal band from Los Angeles. ZX was founded by Orlando Draven (Vocals-Guitar and songwriter) and formed by him and Santi Rivillas (Drums). The unique sound produced by ZX involves powerful guitar riffs, odd-time-syncopated drums and heavy use of electronic sounds are part of their musical identity. Senior journalist Anabel DFlux had the pleasure of picking the minds of Orlando and Santi, and get to the bottom of what comprises their musical identity, future plans for Zeistencroix, and a very exciting (and ambitious) upcoming music video.
Hardrock Haven: Hey there! Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me today, how are you?
Orlando Draven: Great thanks a lot for this opportunity
Santi: Excited for our show in San Francisco in a couple of hours. We just saw the venue and Winters’ crowd is ready to see us live!
Hardrock Haven: Tell me about Zeistencroix. How was the name conceptualized? How did you all meet?
OD: The name came about because at the time I was looking for something unique and different and the best way was mixing elements of 3 languages into one word that sounded cool and puzzling at the same time. I meet Santi through my wife at her work, we set a rehearsal and everything clicked
Santi: We made up the word and to us, it means a deep awakening. The individual awakening of every human being throughout the rhythm of our music. Orlando was actively looking for a permanent drummer for the band in June 2017 and his wife, Yamileth works for the same company as I do. When she found out that I play the drums, she introduced me to Orlando and the rest is history. The chemistry is there and the love for music is mutual.
Hardrock Haven: Let us chat about the most important element, the music. How would you describe Zeistencroix’s sound to people?
OD: I think it’s a mixture of a lot of elements; Rock, Punk, Industrial, Electronica, even Jazz and Folkloric music, I like to call it Post-Industrial-Noir cause it’s dark, it has a slow pacing, and it creates suspense but on the other hand also it’s heavy, fast and destructive so it’s really hard to tell that’s why we struggle to fit in any genre.
Santi: We Love to explore polyrhythms and to mix those polyrhythmic patterns with different sound textures such as electronic sounds, voices, and raw sound layers. If you can truly hear our music, you will notice hidden gems to be found. Our main intention is to innovate and to come up with fresh material with a touch of creative artwork and we are convinced this genre facilitates this type of experiments.
Hardrock Haven: What gravitated you towards this genre?
OD: I started to listen to rock at about 11 yo and the band that opened the gate was Queen, then I discovered Guns n Roses, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Ozzy, and then Manson, NIN, Rammstein and Depeche Mode and I think that sealed the deal.
Hardrock Haven: I hear you have some new music coming up. Can you tell me about the production? The writing process?
OD: Yes we’re gonna do a little bit more tours and I think by Fall we should be entering the studio with the amazing Alex Crescioni to make a proper album, we have a lot of songs to sort, depending on what route we’re going to take which we’re still deciding, what I can say thou is that this new album it’s more puzzling cause the rhythm patterns that we have are groundbreaking so to speak.
Santi: As artists, we have to reflect the times we are living in and we are lucky to be living in an era where AI, singularity, cybernetics and all those crazy concepts/technologies are finally emerging. We take all these concepts and we use them as inspiration for our lyrics and music and those are the main ingredients of our upcoming production.
Hardrock Haven: What can fans expect from a Zeistencroix live show?
OD: Absolute destruction! We’re a pretty heavy band live, I’m a little bit aggressive when we play, also we play with video in sync with the songs, we have some disturbing video imagery that works with the music, but ultimately you can expect to be entertained regardless of if you like the band or not I’m pretty sure nobody will be indifferent.
Santi: Our fans can be sure that they will experience a well-rounded show that mixes music and visual arts. We are disciplined and we believe practice makes a huge difference in our craft and that’s very important for us. At the end of the day, is all about the connection between our music and our fans.
Hardrock Haven: Any music video plans in the near future?
OD: Yes! We’re working on a very scifi futuristic video for our song “Valley Of Death,” we’re gonna film it by the end of May and it’s a very ambitious production, this time we’re focusing all our efforts in showcase an artistic vision instead of do the classic music video, we’re working with this amazing talented people director Aitor Zaldua from Massive Square and Curime Batliner (great artist and architect) and we’re envisioning in a Hollywood way how Singularity would take place and it’s been a total pleasure even in the pre production stage.
Santi: We are currently working on a video for our song, “Valley of Death.” For this video, we are exploring new technologies and we are also teaming up with a well known LA-based artist. The video will be launching in June and we are very excited about it because we believe is going to be something special for the band.
Hardrock Haven: What is your outlook on the music industry today?
OD: It has changed a lot and at the same time it hasn’t, and we can sit and discuss for a long time how it works or it doesn’t for artist etc etc, but if Rock history has shown us time and time and again is that we as bands (Rock, Alternative, Metal, etc.) had never ever been welcomed in this industry, they endure us but they don’t like us, the only reason we existed since the 60’s and continue to exist now (even when they’ve been trying to kill Rock music since the 90´s) is because of the fans, Rock and Punk Rock are the profitable undesirables that had been spawn, again and again, each time against the establishment, music industry, and society, and always had and will have a voice on every different sub genres, so with that said I don’t get the lack of hunger and the feeling of entitlement of some bands these days, they’re not giving us anything (no record deals, good treatment, respect etc) we take it, we make it, we snatch it from the claws of the untalented soulless, and then we reign as always. The way we do it is with music, with art, with balls, not crying, fighting doing what you do best regardless of this music industry thing.
Hardrock Haven: What are your goals with this project?
OD: Honestly the real important goal with all this is for us and me, to be satisfied, that I can look back with pride and think we did this and we’re fucking amazing, that we did the best we could at that time and feel really happy with the end result regardless of what anyone else thinks, because in the end if your art doesn’t satisfy you then you’re in the wrong path.
Hardrock Haven: Any words for your fans before we conclude this interview?
OD: Thanks for your support, and move your fat ass to shows not only ours but in general, you’re never gonna be a real bad ass and get to experience life plentiful sitting in a computer watching youtube.
Hardrock Haven: Thank you!
Connect with Zeistencroix here:
http://www.zeistencroix.com/
https://www.facebook.com/zeistencroix/
http://www.twitter.com/zeistencroix
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-xAslYIdwPTDVlnnHF_88A
http://www.instagram.com/zeistencroix
https://open.spotify.com/album/65g1WsNU94L4gMIkBPbhyf
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/gemini-ep/id1297151929
