Interview With Victoria Mazze

The Divine Madness is a Goth Metal band in California that adds a Pink Floyd-ish feel to their music. I had the honor of interviewing their vocalist, Victoria Mazze (via e-mail like all my interviews). And before certain female readers of my blog make their remarks (you know who you are): I did behave myself! Honest! (Well, mostly...)

The Divine Madness has an "Alice in Wonderland" thing going on. How did you come up with that idea?

We’ve always loved fairytales but there was something about the white rabbit…for us, it is one’s imagination; as a child it is enormous and then through life you seek to recapture it, when you finally do, you see it for what it is, sweet, small, delicate, and something that you have to protect. That is how the idea for the video came about…

After watching the music video for "Closer", I have to admit that I'll never be able to think of the Queen of Hearts the same way ever again.

(laughing) Yes, we gave the Queen of Hearts a makeover. She became the nemesis; the alter-ego; bathing in a bath of ash, wilting flowers, and candles floating aimlessly. A tortured soul that takes her aggression out on imagination.

What makes your concert performances stand out?

Well, each show is different. Sometimes we perform with the whole band and then other times we just do an acoustic show. I think at the rock performances people really respond to how massive, full and seductive the band is; we have a lot of intensity and everyone in the band is a top notch performer. Some people have said that it reminds them of seeing No Doubt before they were famous. The acoustic show is great because it really gives me a chance to connect and really showcase the colors of each story and to hear the songs in a different way.

Have you heard of the Podsafe Music Network, and if so, have you thought about a couple songs on it?

Hell ya. It is great. We actually do have some music up there and podcasters regularly play our stuff.

What's your favorite SF, Fantasy, and Horror books/movies? And have any of them influenced the band any (other than Alice in Wonderland obviously)?

We love anything with imagination that creates its own world; Anne Rice novels, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Guillermo Del Toro, Star Wars, Mary Shelley, Willow, Michael Crichton, Star Trek, Tim Burton, Bram Stoker, Alfred Hitchcock, Baz Luhrmann, Peter Chung, Pedro Almodovar, the list goes on.

What's down the rabbit-hole in the near future?

Hehehe…wouldn’t you like to know! Well, I can only say that we will make the journey as gentle and painless as possible. We are working on our new album, another video and are also going to descend on Texas for a cable show TV appearance in Dallas and South-by-Southwest in Austin . After that, we’ll see what the future brings us.