Interview with William Smith (Piano & Lead Vocals) from H.M.A.S. Vendetta

Below is an interview that I had with the founder of H.M.A.S. Vendetta about the music industry side of the band.

What do you think are the most important things that bands must do nowadays to achieve fame and success as far as being an artist goes?

Well… Come up with a good artwork.
Get a strong understanding of the style of music and the instruments so that you can write the best songs you can possibly write.
Bands must also work hard, grab every opportunities that they get and not be picky about the opportunities that come to them.
Record a good demo, and make it available free if you’re starting new.
Be sociable and network around by going to gigs and conferences. Don’t forget that it is extremely important to be nice with people around. I know it’s a bit of a cliché, but in the music industry, bad news spread quickly and before you know it you might not know what hit you in the end.
They must understand that everything is show biz. You have to be able to sell your band or your ‘brand’ as a package. If you don’t realise about this and you don’t acknowledge this, then just quit.

Has H.M.A.S. Vendetta been executing those points?

I think we’ve achieved them well.
We need some t-shirts and we need more merchandise. Currently we only have posters and they are a bit tricky because fans find them hard carrying big roll-up posters home.
Other than that I reckon we have done fairly well on the other aspects that I mentioned earlier.

Could you explain the music industry model that you and the band as a whole have adopted in pursuing your musical success?

I think we just wanna play and ummm… We wanna make money from playing shows. We have built a strong online presence, as everything nowadays is pretty much DIY. We have to proof that people like our band. We also have to create a ‘vibe’ so that people talk about us. And we do that by playing a lot and keeping our online presence such as Facebook and Twitter active. Other things are all secondary.

What’s the one thing that the band had done in the past that eventually placed them in the position that they are in right now?

We managed to capture the fans’ imagination. It’s the one brilliant idea that I had of writing the Australiana theme. It took me 15 years to come up with the whole image and idea. Really good ideas are very rare. And I reckon the idea and concept that we have now is genius. Anyone who has been involved with the band has loved it. And once again it comes down to having good art and writing songs for years until you have a brilliant idea. It all comes down to the core- to capture the imagination of the fans.

If there is one important event that will change the course of this band heavily, what do you think that event will be and why?

The Iron maiden support slot. Earning a great support slot would be huge for us. I can imagine that there will be a massive overnight demand if we managed to open for Iron Maiden. (Click here to support H.M.A.S. Vendetta in opening for Iron Maiden)

Well thanks a lot for your time and patience Will!

No worries mate.

Radio interview with Will & Ozz from H.M.A.S. Vendetta

“We’re currently looking for a guitar player. Boganheart was recorded with a guitar and we reckon it sounds kick-arse. We wanna go back to that old tradition.” – Ozz

Will & Ozz Radio Interview by kosasih90

There you go folks! Contact William Smith at hmasvendetta@gmail.com or apply at www.facebook.com/hmasvendetta to audition for the guitar slot in the band.

Rock On,
Austen ‘Ozz’ Kosasih

Rare Live Footage of H.M.A.S. Vendetta

Hey World,

Attached below is a rare footage of H.M.A.S. Vendetta live at Noise Bar during the ANZAC day. I just received the video from one of the fan and he recorded this with his mobile phone. So please excuse me for the rather poor recording.

Oh and I almost forgot to mention that each of us in the band has our own dress code on stage. William Smith (Piano & Lead Vocals) dressed up as one of the ship captain sent from Great Britain to Australia during the first batch, Zach Johnston (Violin) dressed up as one of the Australian government royalty during the early settlement, Ozz Kosasih (Bass) dressed up as a bush ranger and Rory O’Donnell dressed up as one of the convicts sent to Australia from Great Britain.

The culture that H.M.A.S. Vendetta identify with.

Hello again World,

After finishing my blog post about my Melodic Power Metal band H.M.A.S. Vendetta (www.facebook.com/hmasvendetta) last night, I figured that I want to share more about the culture that we’re identified with and how I fit in and blend in with the culture.

H.M.A.S. Vendetta as you know writes songs about the history and the culture of Australia. The way I see it is that H.M.A.S. Vendetta is a highly patriotic band. I however, I am not an Australian. I am an international student from Jakarta, Indonesia. The reason why I came to Melbourne was because this was the place where I wanted to start my music career. I have always wanted to be a musician, a rock star. It has always been my passion and music is the element that drives me in my everyday life. However never in a million years, would I imagine being in a bogan band.

It was late October last year that I left my previous band “Bachelor Kisses” and ended up being in H.M.A.S. Vendetta. The band was looking for a bass player and they placed flyers around Brunswick. I happened to spot one of them and contacted them for an audition. Eventually I was the chosen one to fill in the slot of playing bass for H.M.A.S. Vendetta. I have never listened to Power Metal nor Battle Metal before I joined the band. I would have never guessed that my playing style would complement the band greatly. What’s more odd was that I would have never imagined myself playing in a band singing about the glories of Australia and of being a bogan!

Due to our patriotic lyrics and our attitudes of glorifying being a bogan in our hit single “Boganheart”, I think that it is a bit of a no-brainer for people to guess that the types of crowd that we play in front of are the rough, suburban, VB-loaded bogans with the Southern Star tattoo on their body. But truthfully, none of us really hang out with a lot of the suburban bogans. Will, Zach and Rory are normal Australian citizens who go to work by day and often come back home to their respective missus by night. However it is IMPORTANT to keep in mind that that does not mean that the songs that we write are ‘fake’ or that we are doing it for the sake of being unique. We do believe in the country and when we say that we are proud bogans, that means we really are. Just like what the lyrics for “Boganheart” says: “I am the one they call Boganheart, born to be lord of the bogan. Forever known as the Boganheart, my spirit cannot be broken!”

In this band I am the main person in charge when it comes to organising gigs. And because I am a university student- I tend to subconsciously book university event gigs such as welcome party for university students and university battle of the bands. As a result we end up playing in front of more university students than we do in front of bogans. The point is, the type of crowd that we usually play in front of determines a part of the band’s culture. The activities and the topics that we talk about after every gigs with the punters partly determine the sort of culture that we adhere to.

However I have to say that university students are not the major factor that forms the band’s culture. It is the rock scene in Melbourne that shapes the band’s culture. We organise gigs featuring other rock bands while in return they might give us gigs too in the future. And that idea of returning the favour to one another in support is the main culture that we stand up for. In the past we have played with numerous bands such as Winterstorm, Barbarion, Bogan Nation, Elm Street, Siren’s Gate, Pretty Suicide and Demonhead just to name a few. Sharing the stage with other bands help build good relationship with other bands while maintaining that strong connection with one another. The music industry is a tough industry and I don’t think that a band could survive by not building connections around and maintaining that positive relationship.

H.M.A.S. Vendetta has only been gigging around the Melbourne rock scene again for the past one year after a year of recording with the previous line-up. Therefore I must admit that we have not yet built a solid fan base to determine the type of following that we have. It is a good idea however if we start targeting the sports crowd. Who knows the sports crowd would develop the type of culture that the band adheres to.

Rock On,
Austen ‘Ozz’ Kosasih

Live at Cherry Bar 16/10/2010

H.M.A.S. Vendetta (WHO ARE THEY??!!)

Hello World,

I haven’t been posting anything up, as I have been extremely busy with my band H.M.A.S. Vendetta. So I decided that I want to dedicate this post in describing about my band.

H.M.A.S. Vendetta was founded by current singer/pianist William James Smith back in early 2007. Will was born in Brisbane Australia and later moved to London in 2006. It was on Halloween day in the year 2006 that he attended Lordi’s concert. Will was completely blown away by all the insane European Battle Metal madness and had the sudden idea to start a similar project involving the history of Australia and involving the stories of the ANZAC, the lighthorsemen and the diggers. At the same time also feeling homesick, he decided to return to Australia and left London for good.

H.M.A.S. Vendetta has had numerous different lineups before the current line up was completed. Australia’s acoustic metal violinist virtuoso Zach Johnston and Rory O’Donnell who was also the drummer for the Melodic Death Metal band Berserkerfox joined the band in mid 2009. Bass player Ozz Kosasih from Indonesia then completed the lineup on November 2009.

H.M.A.S. Vendetta is a band that describes themselves as Melodic Power Metal. They have influences taken from bands which range from Power Metal all the way to European Classical composers such as DragonForce, Manowar, Iron Maiden, Lordi, Queen, Beethoven and Tchaikovsky.

Musical styles from bands such as Dragonforce (www.myspace.com/dragonforce) and Sonata Arctica (www.myspace.com/sonataarctica) are widely known as Power Metal because they incorporate extremely fast tempo along with melodic vocal melodies that was sung in an operatic manner. Power Metal music is deemed to be extremely fast because it’s usually played in 16th note alongside with fast tempo such as 150-170bpm. The songs “Boganheart” and “Digger” by H.M.A.S. Vendetta are great examples of Power Metal.

Keeping the Power Metal element in mind, H.M.A.S. Vendetta also incorporates a lot of Baroque elements, as Will and Zach were both classically trained musicians. The Baroque influences made the band sounds a lot more melodic than most other Power Metal bands. The violin, piano and bass also play a lot of melodies that often harmonises with the vocals. The influences from classical composers Tchaikovsky could be heard from the songs “The Lighthorsemen” and most of all from “Tommy’s Last Waltz”.

However not all of H.M.A.S. Vendetta’s songs can be classified as pure Power Metal. Some of their songs such as “ANZAC”, “My Country” and “The Lighthorsemen” incorporate a more Battle Metal feel taken from bands such as Iron Maiden (www.myspace.com/ironmaiden), Manowar (www.myspace.com/manowarofficial) and Lordi (www.myspace.com/lordi). Battle Metal is a term used when a band incorporates the feeling of going on a battle or war through their music. Bands which take on the genre of Battle Metal is usually very theatrical in the way they physically dress, the words and descriptions chosen for the lyrics and also the musical approach of it. The “gallop” which is a rhythmic pattern that imitates the feel of a galloping horse is often used to enhance the feeling of waging a war. The context of the war in Battle Metal differs from bands to bands. Some bands such as Manowar and Barbarion (www.myspace.com/barbarionoz) write war tales based on complete fiction about the battles which happened mostly during the middle age involving barbarians and primitive men as their main characters. However H.M.A.S. Vendetta writes battle tales on the events of World War I taking the side of the Australian army known back then as ANZAC. Songs such as “ANZAC” and “Monash” is an account based on true historical events- telling tales about the victories, defeats and the glories of the war.

To hear the might H.M.A.S. Vendetta for yourself please visit www.facebook.com/hmasvendetta.

Rock On,
Ozz