Camlann
Vinyl Godfrey: Bass/Vocals
Bayu Tri: Guitar
Fauzan Pratama: Synth
Like the band name itself, the music of Camlann calls back to a time that feels more like myth than fact. The nostalgic interests in early post-punk has created a black and white vignette that those who were there for its founding long for again and those who weren’t even born yet strive to re-create. Camlann is also a reminder for those of us well into adulthood on what it’s like to discover a musical sound while in the confusing throes of adolescence. Grabbing on to the angst of ‘Catcher in the Rye’ and a gloomy dreamworld crafted by bands like Joy Division or The Cure, the band mixes all of this up and adds a touch of 60’s surf pop to it.
Arriving to the goth-o-sphere from Jakarta, Indonesia, the teenage trio delivers on haunting post-punk rhythms and vocals. Immediately hooked on their sound, I had to find out more about them. How do relatively young teens, from a corner of the world that seems so far removed from the stereotypical images associated with modern Goth & Post-punk music, fit into the grander music scene? Reaching out to Camlann through Instagram for an interview, it was easy to see that a passion for darker music & visuals is truly part of the global conscious collective.
You’ve developed a really unique sound combining post punk and 60’s surf. Considering your ages, where and when did you all learn to play?
We've been playing our own musical instruments since we're still in elementary school, but it was around 2019 when we all got into goth music. Some of us took music courses, and some are self-taught. To know the origin of the goth obsession we all have, our Co-Producer, Arachne, have something to say, "It was unintentional, in early 2017, our bassist/singer, Vinyl Godfrey, discovered Joy Division and The Smiths. Since then, she developed an obsession towards Post-Punk music. Until around late 2018, Godfrey got developed a heavy interest towards the whole goth subculture and its music and started to change her look to be more gothic. Around that time, she also started to release some covers online. Her jangle guitar playing that reminds you of Johnny Marr from The Smiths attracts the attention of the other founding fathers of Camlann. In early 2019, Camlann was formed. The original lineup was A-be on Vocal, Vinyl Godfrey on guitar, FX Bim Bim on synth, and Abel Pramudito on drum. There's also Zan as their producer. Unfortunately, a few weeks after the release of our 1st EP, "The Arrival", Camlann almost broke up. The reason is, all the members decided to leave the band leaving Godfrey and Zan alone. Around September 2019, Godfrey tried to reach me, Bayu, and Fauzan to join the band. So, we said yes, since we have the quite same interest in music. Me, Bayu, and Fauzan has always been more into the shoegaze and indie direction to be honest. But we're starting to develop an obsession with Goth music too these days.", our first EP blurs between Post Punk and 60's surf, it was made like that because the previous members are mostly into surf rock and classic rock. But Godfrey wanted to add a dark sound in it too, so they mixed those two genres into one. But if you think that we'll keep the good old post punk mixed with surf rock sound on our next stuffs, you're wrong. We've decided to blend Dark Post Punk with Shoegaze this time. The lineup changes also the main factors why we've decided to change our sound too. Expect a more Ethereal gloomy sound to come.
How are your families responding to your path into darker music and recording music in general?
Our families are supportive towards our musical path, especially Godfrey's father who's very supportive towards Camlann and even built a home studio on Godfrey's house for us to practice every Friday and Saturday.
What was the inspiration to form a band and record professionally?
We just really want to form a post punk/darkwave since a long time and show our own music to the world, we happened to be in the same middle school at that time, so in early 2019 the previous members of Camlann alongside with the remaining member, Vinyl Godfrey, formed Camlann. Around April 2019, the previous line up decided to make the EP that became our debut EP, "The Arrival". It was released in 4th of August 2019.
Am I correct that the name refers to the story of King Arthur’s final battle at Camlann? Are you all fans of mythology?
Yes, it's true, it comes from the Battle of Camlann. And yes, all the founders of Camlann is a fan of the mythology. That's the reason why they named the band Camlann anyway. But, if you ask the current members about it, we're not really a huge fan of the mythology itself, but we're quite interested with the mythology.
What artists in the goth and post punk scene would you say have influenced you the most?
Joy Division really influenced us especially on the lyrics and arrangement. Peter Hook's bass playing really influenced us too. Besides Joy Division, we're also very influenced by New Order, The Smiths, Sisters of Mercy, The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Lebanon Hanover, Black Marble, and Drab Majesty. One of us is actually Drab Majesty obsessed haha!
Is there a big alternative scene in Jakarta and how are you typically introduced to new music and fashion? Are there many opportunities for you to see bands perform live?
Not really, there IS an alternative scene in here, but not really big. We got introduced to the music and the fashion actually by Godfrey herself in 2019, and she said that she got hooked up with goth subculture a year ago when she accidentally listened to Joy Division and The Smiths in her phone, since then, she got obsessed by the goth music and subculture. She was a massive classic rock fan since the age of 11 because of her father (her father is a massive classic rock fan), but finally she realized that She was born for the Goth music, not Classic Rock, haha! And actually, yes. We have a huge opportunity to watch alternative bands both from outside our country or inside our country! There are a lot of great alternative musicians we have watched.
Let’s talk about your creative process. What’s that like? Do you compose the music first or the lyrics?
The lyrics are usually written by Zan and Godfrey. Usually, Zan and Godfrey would write the lyrics first and then they will show us the lyrics and we'll discuss and compose the song together in our home studio. Lyrics comes first, melody comes second.
Your music is very self-aware of its feelings. How much of your personal experiences goes into your writing?
Most of the lyrics are written by Zan and Godfrey. Zan was the writer and the composer behind "Possessive and Possessed", and it was just inspired by a story of an obsessive secret admirer. While Godfrey herself got diagnosed with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) by her doctor at the age of 12 and has been dealing with it since then. The obsession towards perfect score at school really made her soul oppressed. She told us that it's not like "I want to get a good score" it’s more like "A+ is my religion, and if I fail i'll kill myself". She has been dealing with OCD with the help of her own psychiatrist and doctor for 3 years now.
You currently have 4 tracks out (5 if you count what’s on YouTube). What’s next for the band? Can we expect a full-length album?
We're currently working on a full-length album that hopefully will be released in 2020. We'll be releasing a single from that album this December too.
Where can people see you perform live in Jakarta?
We're currently planning for not to accept any live performances in 2019 because we're very focused into making the album. But we're planning to perform on some gigs in 2020, for your question, "where can you see us", we still don't really know exactly where. But maybe we'll perform around South Jakarta because there are more musical venues there.
You can find Camlann through the following outlets:
Bandcamp: https://camlannmusic.bandcamp.com/
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/75H2oktYYDNA7rIi24DhzZ/about
YoutTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOr_gG8lsQS_2fa2Gl9N1og