DIVA SATÁNICA
TALKING ABOUT UPCOMING TOUR, NEW BAND AND MORE
We recently had the amazing opportunity of meeting one and only Diva Satánica when NYNE joined her new band "How We End " to cover the Behind The Scenes for their debut music video "My Fighting Heart".
Of course we had to ask her some of our most burning questions about her exciting new career-chapter, touring and her trademark growling!
For those who are not familiar with you and your work, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
DS: Sure! My name is Rocío Vázquez (aka Diva Satánica), and I've been an extreme metal vocalist since 2013 when I joined my very first band BLOODHUNTER. I was the first growler in participate in the Spanish Edition of the TV Show "The Voice" in 2017 and I did many collabs with other artists and projects like Kamelot, Holy Moses, Crisix or Mägo de Oz. Recently I joined How We End as the screaming paella (as the guys call me haha) in the project.
What inspired you to make music your career?
DS: I always loved music and I had a deep passion for writing stories since I was a little child, so both things combined converged finally into being in a band. Being on stage is my favorite place in the world, but especially the feeling of connecting with others, even if you never met before, that's the power of music.
Who would you most like to collaborate with?
DS: I love many different artists from many different music genres... and I'm very grateful that I had the chance to already collaborate with some of my heroes like Sabina classen from Holy Moses, who was one of the first women in singing in the extreme metal scene. But for sure Courtney LaPlante from Spiritbox, Larissa Stupar from Venom Prison or Tatiana Shmayluk would be some examples of my dreams to fullfill.
You are currently working with "Bloodhunter" and just released the first single with "How We End". From your point of view, do you feel like the bands are similar in any way?
DS: Absolutely not and that's why I love to work on both. I love the extreme metal side as a way to unleash the beast with BLOODHUNTER, but I like to be involved in other music endeavors too that has nothing to do with that. It's great to try to learn something new from other artists and push yourself to do something different so you can get out of your comfort zone.
We heard that the first time you met the rest of "How We End" in person was when you guys traveled to Germany for the music video shoot of the new single "My Fighting Heart". How did that go?
DS: Exactly! It's amazing how technology and social medias has change the whole game: now you don't need to travel to have a meeting or to start working with someone new and that helps a lot to be able to work in many things at the same time, it saves a. lot of time that you can invest in what is really important. We've been talking since 2020 between some of us and it felt great to be able to talk face to face for the first time, it really allows you to know people much better than through a screen.
"How We End" members are all from different countries and backgrounds... if you had to give them the "ultimate Spain experience" in one day, where would you take them?
DS: Despite of being such a small country we have 17 different regions that have their own particular culture, food and even language! You can go to the beach or to the mountains in the same day. But for sure, I would take them to the city center in Madrid and to my hometown (A Coruña), which is called the land of the witches.
"Bloodhunter" is hitting the road again in May, it was teased on the band's social media that fans can see you perform "Knowledge Was The Price" with some new elements on stage, can you tell us what fans can expect or is it going to be a surprise?
DS: With BLOODHUNTER we always try to think about a whole experience, not only being playing our set and that's it. For example for the previous album we had some guests on stage using the same characters from our videoclips (the bloody nun from "Dying Sun", the masked woman from "All These Souls Shall Serve...Forever!"...). For these upcoming shows we invested more in creating a much more mysterious atmosphere on stage using new lights, fog, risers... We love horror movies from the 70-80s, so there's always some intro that we used in our albums, in this case for the song "Medea's Guidance" we were inspired by the movie "Suspiria" and we added a fragment of one of the most powerful scenes (I strongly recommend you to watch it, both the original one from Dario Argento or the new one with Dakota Johnson as the main character). But for any show we just take it as a special occasion depending on the circumstances of the venue, so let's see what we can do for the next ones!
You talked about growling before in previous interviews and mentioned that it took you about two years to learn it. How did you start, though? What or who was your inspiration and what would you recommend for anyone wanting to learn how to growl like you?
DS: Actually I should say that it took me almost 2 studio albums to understand what I
was doing technically and I'm still learning about it. I always wanted to be involved in the music industry and I tried from different approaches: I tried to learn to play guitar (and I failed xD), I tried to sing clean and I gave up, I started writing for many music magazines and webzines so I had the chance to write a lot of album reviews and live reports from shows that I had to attend and that allowed me to discover new bands and singers with different techniques. In the middle of all of that, our guitar player and founder member in BLOODHUNTER, Dani Arcos, asked me to write some lyrics for his project because he knew that I loved to write and to read about philosophy and occultism, then he invited me to join one of their rehearsals and that's how I joined the band. I wish I could found someone tot each me at that time so I could afford some time haha but at that time there were not too many tutorials on YouTube and I couldn't find any teacher so it was only me and my desperation in the rehearsal room for maaaany months ahahah. If I had to recommend anything that would be to study clean singing first, because it will allow you to understand much better which kind of structures do you need to use to don't harm yourself, it's not mandatory of course, but you need someone experienced that can guide you so you don't commit the same mistakes that we commit in the beginning and you end up with a lot of sore throats....
What has been your biggest career highlight so far? Can you give us your Top 3?
DS: I'd never thought about this before, wow! Hmmm I don't know probably being able to sing in all the BLOODHUNTER albums it's a great challenge because every time it gets more and more difficult technically, but that have allowed me to develop my own skills too and that's great. Of course working with other artists as I mentioned before or playing in some great festivals and touring around the world has been the best.
If you could change anything about the music industry, what would it be?
DS: The people! hahaha I mean, not everyone for sure but I feel like during the last years people are more interested in selling a good image (in terms of pretending to look very successful even if you can't pay the bills), they seem to be obsessed abut social medias and that makes very difficult to separate between what is actually true or not. I miss the honesty of the old days, nowadays we have to learn to deal with social medias, graphic design, production and a lot of stuff that makes impossible to focus on the most important thing. MUSIC.
This year already started off with a "bang" for you career wise and it looks like your calendar is quite full! What are you most looking forward to for the rest of 2023?
DS: Well, I lost my mum in the beginning of this year so for me this year started in the worst possible possible way, but that means that she will be watching me from somewhere to make sure that from now on, everything can go only better, and I'll try to make her feel proud of me, so I'm more than ready to face any new challenge that comes up in the future!
Click below to see our gallery from the Behind The Scenes of How We End's music video for "My Fighting Heart"
and our gallery from the Behind The Scenes from How We End's social media content creation.
Check out Bloodhunter's single "A Twist Of Fate To Come"
Check out How We End's debut single "My Fighting Heart"
buy tickets here!
