Infected Brain

Present yourself to the audience

I'm Kelly, vocalist and keyboards for Temujin. This is my first 'serious' band, and I'm enjoying every minute of it.

Hi, I'm Karl, I play the rest of the instruments in the band – guitars, bass, and drums. We also have some guest musicians play with us at various times – Sham and Buddy both contributed guitar solos to the CD.

The name “Temujin”...why?

'Temujin' is the tribal birth name of the Mongol warlord Genghis Khan. We chose Temujin because we thought it had the right 'feel' for what we are doing.

Who composes? How is that held between you?

We both write music and lyrics, but Kelly is more focused on the lyrics normally, and I spend more time on the music. Each song is different, though.

What music style do you prefer personally and what are your influences?

I guess I have more of a metal background – my earlier bands were definitely metal based. But I enjoy a wide range of music, so long as it has energy and power. Definitely enjoy older bands like Motorhead, really like Rammstein, Disturbed are great (especially live) and Sirenia and Within Temptation are among the bands I've gotten into recently.

I love bands like Bad Religion and Foo Fighters, as well as some of the great female fronted bands like Evanescence and Nightwish.

What's your opinion about the actual rock-metal scene at your place?

Australia has a great tradition support for 'underground' musical genres like metal and punk, but very little support in the mainstream industry. Gothic metal is not well know here – Evanescence is about as close as it gets. Gigs are hard to find, as many venues prefer 'safe' acts that can be more easily sold to the public.

Generally, what is the reaction of the public at the time of your concerts?

The focus for us so far has been writing and recording. It's hard to establish much of a following in Australia through live performances, so we set out to establish ourselves through our debut CD, and try to create a following outside of Australia. Live gigs are on the horizon in the near future.

What is your best live memory? And why?

My earlier band did many (many) gigs across Australia, and there were a few great ones mixed in. We were know as a 'live' band, and the crowd responses were always wild.

What would be the festival of your dreams? (With you playing in it of course!)

The Female Metal Voices Fest is certainly something we'd love to be a part of. Hard to get there from Australia ... but we'll be making every effort to achieve it!

In studio...what was atmosphere?...etc...

Recording can be hard work! We tend to write most of a song, record what we have, then rewrite and record until we get the song 'done'. Than can involve a lot of work, and even end up with a lot of things being thrown away. We recorded 15 songs for the CD, then cut two of them only a month or so before sending the CD off for duplication. The final result is worth it, and it's very satisfying to hear it all come together. But it can be a bit of a grind sometimes.

What do you expect from the future?

We have two immediate goals – to end the year with some live gigs, and to start recording again. We have plenty of new material in various stages of development, and we'd like to get some of it down as soon as we can.

A little further down the road, we want to make it to Europe. The Gothic Metal scene seems so strong at the moment, and we'd love to be able to be a part of it.

What is your motto in life?

“Refuse to Be Denied” - Basically, when you know you're doing is right, don't allow yourself to be distracted. Stake a claim for the kind of life that you want, and don't let people bring you down.

Is there something you'd like to say to the audience?

Keep listening. We love what we do, and the feedback so far is telling us that we are on the right track. “1000 Tears” is just the beginning ... Refuse to be Denied!
TEMUJIN