We caught up with Lavondyss to talk about how the band formed and came up with their name, future touring plans and much more.

Hello and thank you for taking time out to do this interview.
Hello! And thank YOU!

First of all can you give us a brief history of the band for the people who have never heard of you?
Lavondyss began in a scummy rock club called “Club DNA” in Rugby Warwickshire. We tore it to pieces one night at our first show together and we’re trying to keep momentum.
We’re a LIVE band.
That’s the only way to really find out who Lavondyss is.

What are your influences and whom would you say contributed to your current musical style?
Sikth, Protest The Hero, The Fall of Troy, The Mars Volta, Alexisonfire, Devil Sold His Soul. We do feel though that if we thought we were sounding too much like any band we would change what we were writing, we’re passionate about originality and finding a unique progressive/hardcore sound that maintains an epic-universal feel? For now… We are interested in working within classical/jazz/video-game/film composition/Grindcore/pop/Electronic/Blues.

How did you come up with the band name of Lavondyss?
This is a frequent question so thank you for the opportunity to tell all of your audience. Lavondyss is a mythology book, the synopsis reads as follows: ”Lavondyss is the realm of all imagination, a place both beautiful and deadly” We really wanted a name that was one word, and to become the definition of it, so we hope one day when people ask what Lavondyss means, we’ll be able to just say “Us.”

What was it like writing and recording your latest EP 'Nibiru'?
Writing it was a rather intense, fast process. We’ve only had one song (“A Giant Warned Me”) that ever took us more than one band practice to write. We finished the last song the day before entering the studio and the guitar solo for “Interval at a Ghost Show” was written at the cottage we were staying in the day prior to recording it. When we first played “A Giant Warned Me” all the way from start to finish perfectly for the first time, the CD was yet un-named, I turned to Sam and said, “It sounds like the end of the fucking world.” After that we discovered the Nibiru 2012 conspiracy and formulated the concept around that.

'Nibiru' was produced by Johnny Renshaw from Devil Sold His Soul, what was it like working with him on the EP?
It was pretty amazing, He’s a brilliant producer, and Devil Sold His Soul are a sick band, it was an honour. And Robbie (his dog) is a comedy genious.

The EP was recorded in Tetbury, Gloucestershire, what did you get up to in the area apart from your daily trips to Tesco?
We were staying in a small cottage that was haunted by a ghost the locals named “Bert”. The cottage had no freezer or hot water, but it was a massive wooden deck out the back where we could drink or whatever and enjoy the view. It was kind of surreal. We miss that cottage very much…

You have not long released 'Nibiru' are you happy with the response the EP has been getting so far?
The reviews have all been amazing so far and we’re really grateful for that. We’ve had so many bewildering messages and comments from kids with their thoughts on the album or concept, it’s been a great album to connect with our audience. We are well aware that a lot of people will write us off as “Hardcore” and at the end of the day hardcore/metal is not for everyone, However a lot of extreme-metal fans would probably find ‘Nibiru’ far too light for them and class us as “emo”, but that only shows their ignorance. More than anything we hope it will encourage fans and haters alike to come out and see us perform live before really making up their minds.

What is your favourite track from 'Nibiru'?
“00:00” That may seem strange; I love playing this song live at the end of our show... We don’t do it all the time but when we do it’s an incredible feeling. It’s because, to me, it’s there almost as a message to say, “Anything could happen next.” We could go in any direction.

Who came up with the designs and final ideas for the artwork on 'Nibiru'?
We found two amazing artists www.toptwostudios.com and first introduced them to the concept, and then we let them go and discover planet-x/Nibiru for themselves and let them give us their idea. We’re not designers, but we gave them our ideas and explained about the bands desire to be light-hearted and still destructive. We really didn’t want to restrict their creativity too much and when they showed us the artwork it was perfect first time.

Now 'Nibiru' is released do you have any plans on making a video for any of the tracks from the EP?
We have just finished shooting our video for “…Meanwhile… Back on Earth”. Originally we had written a kind of half-animated mini-epic for “A Giant Warned Me”. However, we were told that it wouldn’t be possible such an early stage. So we came up with the concept for “…Meanwhile…” as almost a synopsis of the original concept paralleled with some surreal half/animated performing parts. The animator is Chris Hilton (Sumotv) www.chrisshiltondesign.com. We haven’t seen it yet but we have all the faith in the world in Chris, he is a ridiculously talented man.

How did the recording process of 'Nibiru' differ from the recording process of your debut EP 'Available For Children's Parties'?
Well we had a lot more time for this EP, also we didn’t have to re-record it ourselves. Also I think we felt a responsibility to the label and everybody else that’s supported us very strongly. It definitely helped us push for a better record.

You are now signed to A Wolf At Your Door Records, how have they been treating you and are you fans of other bands on the label?
We are… Wolfie have been very kind to us and understand us better than we had hoped from a label. Actually, We are all big Deaf Havana fans! We’re looking forward to getting on a stage with them again.

You are doing a small tour in September with We Are Fiction, how did the tour come about and are there any shows you are looking forward to more than others?
We Are Fiction are one of the nicest bands we have ever had the privilege of meeting. We are beyond excited about this tour. Every date is going to be sick and the Peterborough Met Lounge show is already nearly sold out.

What do you have planned once your September tour finishes?
Perpetual live shows until we die. We are very excited about beginning writing again.

What can someone who has never seen you live before expect from your live shows?
We are an extremely high-energy band, and it’s the bodies that push our energy back at us from the front of the stage that make all the difference. So if you come and stand at the front you will of course get a much more personal involved performance than if nobody is there to be entertained. We have gone insane playing for 5 people in tiny pubs, but it’s obvious we’re playing for ourselves. We much prefer playing to audiences that want to be entertained and show it.

Do you prefer being on the road touring or in the studio recording?
We would live on the road if we could, and we’re trying to get to that point, but recording is an amazing experience and pushes you to be a better musician just as much.

If you could play with any band past or present, who would it be and why?
We were all gutted when Sikth split because they were a strong influence of ours we’d really hoped to be able to share a stage with them. There are so many bands that would be a dream come true to play with.

What is the most memorable gig you have played so far and why?
When we played T4, on that mobileact show. We knew they were looking for an indie-band, and we were invited by Princess TV (T4 promo) to come and perform. So basically we spent the whole time taking the absolute piss and swearing and writing Alex Zane love letters. Zane then came backstage to interview us, so we packed as many filthy sexual innuendo’s as we could, then finally we performed for three judges.
Jo Wiley: “Your singer’s cute, do you have words?”
Alex James: “Do any of you have a cock piercing?”
Calvin Harris: “I don’t know anything about your music…”
Simon Gavin: “I like drummers who twirl their sticks… like this!”
And then the head of A&R for Universal Records span some air-sticks like Lee.
When we saw the show we pissed ourselves because they only showed about 10 seconds of us, turns out everything we said was a breach of our contract with Channel 4.

You have been invited down to the Kerrang studio to perform an acoustic set, how did this come about and what tracks will you be playing? (we found out recently that it won’t be live… Gutted Heh.)
We were driving back from a show about 2am and heard a Kerrang Presenter talking about Nibiru (planet-x not our album). So we sent them a message telling them our album was about that and just talking about the concept, a few days later we got a message from Alex Baker telling us he loved the album and wanted us down for an acoustic show.
We can’t wait for the opportunity to show the more gentle level to our music, with a little help from the impossibly talented Beth Tysall.
We will be playing “For Future Reference” and “A Giant Warned Me”.

What do you think of the current state of the music scene?
We don’t.

Where do you hope to see Lavondyss in 5 years time?
Asleep in our van.

Okay, one final random question; if you had a choice, what animal would you be out of a Zebra and a Giraffe?
Giraffes eat red.

Thanks for your time, is there a message you would like to give to your fans reading this?
We hope you enjoy the show.

Interview By Trigger