(Today we present Comrade Aleks‘ interview of Tania Duarte, vocalist of the Peruvian heavy doom band Titania, whose debut album The Maverick was released on CD this past spring.)
Most die-hard doom metal fans will name two bands if we ask about Peruvian doom metal: Reino Ermitaño and Kranium. The first one was a traditional doom band with a lady on vocals, and the second one is a band with a huge history and only two albums in their discography.
Kranium (founded in 1986) released their second album Uma Tullu in 2020, so it’s okay, we know that they’re more or less active. But Reino Ermitaño… they haven’t released anything since 2014, and it seems that the band is no more.
Honestly, I almost missed it, but two years ago both bands gave birth to Titania, a traditional doom band that includes members from Kranium and Reino Ermitaño: Mito Espíritu (bass), Eloy Arturo (guitars), Tania Duarte (vocals), and Manuel Lozano (drums). Their first album The Maverick was released in late 2022, but the CD-edition was released only in 2023.
Tania Duarte gladly accepted our request and answered about the band’s current occupation.
Hi Tania! How are you? What’s new on Titania’s side?
Hello Aleksey. Thank you for the interview. We just released our first CD called The Maverick.
Really? But the album was released digitally in December 2022. I was sure that you released a CD back then as well!
No, the physical edition came out in April 2023.
Tania, your name is tightly associated with Reino Ermitaño, one of the more authentic Peruvian doom metal bands. Its disappearance was so sudden and no news came from its side for years. What happened?
The band made a pause due to the pandemic and I decided to keep on with my personal music projects I was doing in parallel to the band and which Eloy had accepted to collaborate with.
Did he just ask if you want to sing some mix of heavy and doom metal?
We started making all kinds of music: ethnic, black, hindu, ’70s. and started playing some heavier rhythms and decided to make them into songs for a more serious project.
How did it happen that you started to collaborate with two veterans of the Peruvian underground scene, Eloy Arturo and Mito Espíritu of Kranium?
Eloy is an old friend and guitar player in Reino Ermitaño, he teaches guitar lessons to me, and we started composing different style songs until we decided to make doom songs and started creating the album. If we were to create a band we needed a bass player and a drummer, so we called another old friend and band colleague of Eloy: Mito Espiritu. Renato Bar had always wanted to play doom with Eloy and seemed pleased with the idea to accompany us on drums.
Why don’t you play guitar in Titania?
I compose on my guitar and actually plan to play it live later on.
Renato Bar was Titania’s drummer, but he quit the band not long ago. How do you plan to solve this problem? Do you already have a new drummer?
Yes, Renato is back again. He had been busy with other bands, touring, etc., but he’s back now and ready to play gigs and giving the band lots of support.
Reino Ermitaño was known for your projection of mystical powers born of local traditions and female energies, and Titania is named after the Queen of the fairies from Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Does it mean that you keep on following the same creative way as before?
Yes, I have the same mystical, witchy, esoteric, existential, feminine, shamanistic, earthy topics in my lyrics since this is who I am and what I am fully into. Definitely the name Titania relates to the realm of fairies and 4th dimensional creatures that live in and protect nature and to mythical magical stories of fantasy, but also of awareness of the destruction of Gaia and what we are now sowing: plagues, disease, pollution and social chaos.
Do you forewarn or just tell about these things in your songs? What’s your primary motivation when you write and perform these lyrics?
I hope to poetically create some awareness and focus more on the solution than the problems as many metal bands do. I believe we have lost connection and our roots to Earth because of alienatión, stupidization, robotization and simple ego.
How do you share your duties in the band? Are you responsible strictly for lyrics and vocals, as Eloy Arturo and Mito Espíritu are occupied only with songwriting? Do they take part in shaping the songs’ spiritual concept?
In this record I was in charge of all the lyrics and Eloy composed the music in all the songs. Mito and Renato contributed with arrangements and the record has other instruments played by guest musicians. So far, they are ok with the lyrics, which this time were made in English. Our next record could have Spanish or other languages in the lyrics, since I think rock is freedom to doom what thou wilt.
Yes, exactly what I wanted to ask you – what was your first encounter with doom metal? How did you find it more suitable for your self-expression?
Since I started listening to rock as a child I was attracted to the heaviness in bands like AC/DC, Kiss, Scorpions, etc., and later as a teenager I developed a taste for darker doomer bands like Sabbath and started my quest through metal, preferring heavy rhythms and dark lyrics over faster genres.
Do you have front-women or front-men who influenced your manner of singing?
I have always been a fan of Robert Plant, Nina Hagen, and heavy female singers like Pat Benatar, Rock Goddess, Joan Jett, etc.
You also mentioned guest musicians, and I didn’t find any information if there was any. Can you tell about them?
We had Andean wind instruments played by Checho-Enrique Calbanapon Mendoza and keyboards played by Christian Melendez from Kranium.
Both Kranium and Reino Ermitaño are well-known names among doom-followers in Peru and beyond. Why did it end that you released the debut album The Maverick on your own?
Because it’s a personal musical project that Eloy accompanied me with that later (after pandemic) became a band. It is something new I had always wanted to do and has nothing to do with those bands.
What about the album’s distribution outside Peru?
So far it’s being done the traditional way. If a label is interested in distributing Europe, USA, and others, it would be great!!!
In which conditions did you record this material? How long did it take in the end?
It took quite a long time from composition during the pandemic: me and Eloy, to rehearsing with drummer Yamazato who helped us record demos of the songs, to adjusting the drawing concept with Julio Chimey, having our logo designed by Alvaro Portales, to getting together with Mito and Renato, practicing the songs, recording at Dragon Studio, later mixing and mastering with Sandro Garcia, working the booklet with Leo Bonilla, the designer, and finally pressing the CDs.
I would like to bring attention to the fact that many of these people collaborated with the band for free. It has been kind of a DIY project in this sense and I feel very thankful towards all of them.
Which songs were most difficult to finish?
I would say they all came out easily and naturally and none was more difficult than others.
The Maverick has a strong traditional doom and heavy metal vibe with some shades of good old hard rock. Did you limit yourself when you composed these songs?
Not at all, but I think we can go deeper into achieving a more personal style in the next records.
How often did you play live with Titania? Is it important for you nowadays to perform your songs live?
We have played four concerts so far. It is important to show this heavy music live since it is there that you can feel the heaviness and doom and it is performing that you transmit a message, a position in art and life.
I think that the last Peruvian band I interviewed was El Abismo and it was Daniel Roncagliolo, ex-Kranium singer who answered my questions. It was during the pandemic. How did it change the situation with gigs’ organization in your area?
There were none until little by little things and places started opening and we presented the band in that moment at a bar still with masks on till we had a few beers. Ha ha.
Thanks for the interview Tania! Good luck with promoting Titania, hope we’ll talk soon!
Thank you very much for this interview Aleksey. Its been a pleasure. Keep up the wild doom spirit!!