Interview with Invictus
1. Tell us something about Invictus, when was the band formed, what the name itself represents, what music style do you play?
We began with work in 2009., it’s actually a much older project but it hasn’t seen the light of the day until now. I say "project" because our main focus was to find the most suitable media for expressing our thoughts and stance, our bitterness at the society we live in. Of course, being musicians, the most logical choice was creating music, primarily targeting younger population but with a clear message and content. The name itself, which we borrowed from the Latin language (those who don’t know what Invictus means should look it up in dictionary) maybe explains best the basic sense of this "project" and that means we have been most decisive in making our idea work, despite all the hardships, crowning it with the album release. It also sends out a message that we’re not here for just few songs and to then to disappear – Invictus will go on and we will strive to release as many songs and CD’s as we can. Regarding the music style, it would be best to judge it yourself, I would say it’s a mix of metal and punk, a sort of crossover, but I have to mention however, that we changed our play and singing style and gained on quality I believe. You can listen to one of these new songs if you visit our official web page
http://www.creativitymovement.org/invictus/mp3
2. Have you released any albums yet and what are your plans for the future?
As I already said, we recorded our first album in 2011. under the name "Triumph of the will". We’re pretty satisfied with it, even though we decided to change certain things in our play style and especially our singing for the sake of gaining on quality. Also, we got a new drummer who brought a certain refreshment and quality. We plan to release the new album, which is already in preparation, latest in 2013. 3. Why did you choose music as the media for expressing your stances? That’s simple, we’re musicians deep down and that was the logical way. Also, I have to say the big part and motivation for creating music was the fact that there are almost no such themed bands in Croatia.
Personally, I always felt it that was strange, especially when you compare the situation with other Central and Eastern countries that came out of Communism.
4. What do you think of the future of such bands in Croatia?
That’s a hard question, I don’t even notice such bands over here. I know of Wolfenhords, a Croatian NSBM band that exudes quality and I’m glad that we have such a quality band of NSBM genre. I think they released 4 albums already and even though I didn’t like the first two, the last two are phenomenal. Apart from them I know only of Strong Survive, they recorded something on that compilation and that’s it. In Croatia, nothing else exists, at least none that I know of. Now, what is the future of such bands? It’s all individual, Wolfenhords have four albums and there is a lot of time for Invictus, all in all it all depends on us. The real question is how people are going to receive our music and all of us. I’m not sure, we’ll see.
5. Have you ever thought about such aggressive music turning people away from your message?
Maybe it will turn away some, everything’s possible. Yes, our music is relatively aggressive but that is simply our style, if we tried to play rockabilly we would probably sound horrible, haha. We’re trying to affect people who are into such or similar music style, I would love to have more such bands in Croatia, but unfortunately, such bands don’t exist and that’s not our fault. Today’s world is aggressive, aggression is being done to our people and our race even though most people are unaware – our music is just an answer to that aggression. Regarding the lyrics, you won’t find any calls to violence or anything similar. Compared to mumbo-jumbo lyrics of negroes rapping about killing Whites, drugs and prostitution – our songs are children’s lullaby.
6. As far as I managed to understand, one of the songs on the new album is called "Hate Edge"? Does that mean you’re also a SxE band?
Yes, the song is about such a theme but we’re not a Straight Edge band. Using that song we wanted to emphasize the harm of all the vices that plague our people, from drugs and alcohol to cigarettes. And they poison us in many ways, it’s a subject reserved for a whole new discussion. We respect people who live a life free of all those poisons which kill our race, physically and spiritually, but I emphasize, to not be misunderstood, we’re not a SxE band. Personally, I often drink wine or beer when in company so I most certainly can’t consider myself a Straight edge.
7. Are you satisfied with sale of the first CD?
Honestly, no. I would have a lot to say about various shops and distro’s which are focused only on making money instead of helping young bands. Also, I’m disappointed in our Croats who would much rather download the album instead of paying 50 kunas for an original CD of local band. Imagine this, one guy, knowing I’m part of the band asks me "where can I download the cd", I answered "nowhere, but you could buy it", of course the answer never came, haha.
8. Do you think that modern music gained more influence than the written word?
Yes and no. Namely, written word always has impact which music and movies can’t have but it’s the music which attracts the masses. Let’s present it this way, music is a great instrument for approaching people, for gaining interest, however, without written word there is no serious progress. Our enemies intentionally dumb people down, they want to pound in the feeling that it’s good to be mediocre and conforming and they will entertain us with cheap propaganda via music, yellow press and movies, via propaganda that’s very easily uncovered if only all those people would be willing to read few right books. But it’s the conformist feeling and lethargy that keeps people away from the books, away from information.
9. Reviewing the current situation in our society, do you think Croatia is on the path of Western countries, towards moral decadence and failure of value system?
That’s quite obvious, but what’s especially worrying is that lethargy and conformism are already for some time prevailing over here. Practically, a fair amount of people don’t even care what’s being done to the society they live in, that’s the main problem. The biggest possible undertaking, and the only one, is to change how those people think.
10. What is your stance on Creativity?
Absolutely positive. We always say that we’re a Creativity band, that’s the idea which deeply inspires and leads us, be it in song composing or in private life. Personally, I think that Creativity is the only idea offering complete salvation to the problem in Europe and other White lands. This project, releasing of CD’s and other things that will follow, maybe none of that would be if we weren’t inspired by by such a strong idea like Creativity. One of my acquaintances once said "if they kill all of us and there is only one Creativity book left, available for someone to read it, Creativity would again sprout from the ashes". That’s how strong this idea is.
11. There are many bands today, in non-English speaking territories, that sing in English. In your opinion, should people cherish their own language and create music using it or should they prefer to sing in English and thus attract wider masses?
Singing in your own language is of extreme significance. However, I must admit that it’s much harder to write songs in Croatian than in English, but at the same time, the song sounds much better in Croatian. English is much more fluent and simpler than Croatian, because of easier grammar perhaps, but good song written in Croatian can be "music for the soul". Approximately, the third of the songs are written in Croatian and the rest in English because we’re not focused only on Croatian public, we want to reach as many people we can.
Interview by TCM Europe
Originally published in IMPERIUM
The Creativity Movement online Magazine
http://www.creativitymovement.org/invictus/discography