Text Interview

ChthoniC's goal is to use their music to bring ancient history and mythology into the modern era, especially the tragic history and myths of Taiwan. They are hitting their goal following a successful tour in 2009. ChthoniC were voted the number 2 Best Band of 2009 and Doris Thunder Tears is the number 2 best bassist of 2009 as voted by Terrorizer readers. She kindly gave up some time to answer questions for Angel Of Metal.

Q	Please give a brief history of the band?
A	“The band formed at the end of 1995. Freddy, the vocalist, who is also the former leader of the band, is the only original member. Me and guitarist Jesse joined in 2000, and Dani (drummer) and CJ (keyboards) joined in 2005. So far, we have released five full-length albums, and from the fourth album onwards, we started to reach out to Western countries. We were involved with Ozzfest in 2007, we’ve played at Wacken Open Air, and we’ve undertaken three European tours and two North American tours…”
Q	The name ChthoniC means implications of the underworld. The band name seems to be a recurring theme in your songs. Do you intend to explore this further in the future?
A	“Actually, the stories behind each of our albums are connected to the concept of the underworld, and with the latest album, ‘Mirror Of Retribution’, we brought into play the philosophy of ‘Oriental Hell’; the main character is a young medium who is forced to intrude into Hell to steal the Book Of Life And Death. Most of our stories are based on true history or mythology, with particular reference to tragedy or heroic history. So that’s why it was a natural thing to bring the concept of the underworld into our music.”
Q	You've been described as fitting into a number of metal sub genres. How would you personally describe the band's sound?
A	“Some people have chosen to place us in the ‘black metal’ frame, but the fact is we’re just NOT a ‘black metal’ outfit pure an’ simple. We don’t have strong ties to Christian culture and we don’t really deal with the concept of Satan – what we have is a strong philosophy of life and death as it occurs within oriental mythology. So I would choose to define our band as ‘Taiwanese Metal’”J
Q	Please explain the significance behind your stage make-up.
A	“Our face-paint connects ancient history and the modern world, and we alter it depending on the concept of the album in question. For our latest album, ‘Mirror Of Retribution’, we used some ‘curse words’ in red on our faces because the main character has been cursed by the Ghost King due to offending the rule of reincarnation. For our previous album, ‘Seediq Bale’, we used elements of traditional aboriginal face-paint, so as you can see, the visual side of what we do is shifting all of the time.”
Q	My good friends, Abgott, supported you last year. Were you familiar with their work beforehand and do you check out your supports before touring?
A	“We knew about the band before we played with them, yes, but we didn’t know the members personally. However, they turned out to be really nice guys. We always check our support bands or tour-mates out from their websites before we play together, it helps us know more about the situation we will be dealing with.”
Q	Who does your artwork and does the band have any input?
A	“We will come up with the main concepts and ideas, and we’ll make a very rough and crappy drawing on a piece of paper.J Then we’ll pass our ideas to the artwork designer – he’s an art teacher in junior high school and he used to be one of our fans. He’s known us for a long time so he can grab the meaning we want to express every quickly.”
Q	"Mirror of Retribution" was released in August, 2009 through Spinefarm Records UK. How has the band’s sound progressed from “Seediq Bale” to “Mirror Of Retribution”?
A	“Well, ‘Mirror Of Retribution’ relates to the scenario of Hell, so it has a more brutal, fierce sound overall, as well as more emotions to do with struggling and self-torture.”
Q	What are some of the lyrical themes on this CD?
A	“We are always interested in Eastern myth and history. We have described some scenes from Hell on our former albums, but this time we wanted to make an album that is totally connected to the Taiwanese legend of Hell. However, it's not interesting to just tell people what Hell looks like, so we put the biggest tragedy in Taiwanese history as the background – which is the massacre that happened on February 28th 1947, when the Chinese army occupied Taiwan, stealing properties and killing over 100,000 Taiwanese citizens. “Many Taiwanese people stood up to the Chinese army, but they were either killed or arrested. The last heroic battle took place in the middle of the country, in front of a temple call ‘Sing Ling Temple’ (this means The Temple That Arouses The Spirit And The Soul). In the end, only 40 people remained to face over 1000 Chinese soldiers. “We created a story based on this real slice of history, and we also created the main character ‘Tsing-guan’, who is the medium (psychic) in the temple; he tried to use his ability to go to Hell, stealing the Book Of Life And Death and killing the tyrant of the Chinese army. “He passed through many scary Hells one by one, until he was found by the army of Hell…”
Q	Is it difficult to find good Taiwanese metal producers, as I can think of none?
A	“It used to be hard, yes, but now the metal scene is getting bigger, so I’m sure more metal engineers & producers will start to appear on the scene.”
Q	What have you learnt from being a member of ChthoniC?
A	“To be brave & confident, and not to be afraid to fail. Everything is the gift of life.”
Q	What do you think about attitudes towards women in extreme metal?
A	“I think you have to show who you are and what you have, your unique characteristics. You have to establish your own style just as quickly as other people label you.”
Q	What do you think of girls in metal today and is there anyone in particular you look up to?
A		“There are more and more girls starting to play metal music, and of course it’s easier for them to draw interest & attention. Some men are afraid of this, and they will put them into a ‘frame’, so those girls won’t be so much of a threat. I think that girls should use the attention they command to show every angle of themselves. I don’t see too many examples of that now, but I hope to see more in the future… “As to a particular person I look up to, I think the Dalai Lama is the one I respect the most. Even though he is not an artist, his thoughts and behaviour are very inspirational to me.”
Q	What did you study at university and if you were not in music, what would be your alternative career choice?
A	“I studied Public Administration in university, but it was a mistake – originally, I had planned to study archaeology. To be honest, the only class that really interested me was International Politics…. And if I wasn’t involved with music, I think I would be a kindergarten teacher (which was my part-time job at university), or perhaps I would take a post-graduate course in archaeology.”
Q	Do you enjoy photo-shoots and modelling?
A	“Yes, that’s really interesting. I enjoy everything that has happened to me. Not too many people get to have that kind of experience, and I think it’s a great memory in my life.”

Q	What's next for the band?
A	“We’ll focus on more tours and join more festivals this year, and we’ll release a new single in a few month’s time.”

To check out more on ChthoniC at www.myspace.com/chthonictw I'd like to thank Doris for taking the time out to do this interview and look forward to ChthoniC's return to the UK.