5 Min Origin Stories with Victoria K

You'll never be able to tell me that we have enough kinds of metal in this world. Victoria K bring us the fantastic Symphonic Metal.

What's really hard to believe is that there was a time when metal and the symphony where wholly disconnected.

Randy Rhoads changed all of that by melding the classical guitar with the metal and the world is better off for it.

Check them out. They're on the up and up.

In the mean time, let's find out what makes Victoria K what she is.

1. Is there an event you can point to you that made you say, wow, that's the instrument I want to play? Not like guitar or drums, but the reason why you play the model you do?

The instruments I play are the viola and piano and I sing. I first started singing at my dance school when I was very young,  but Hearing Amy Lee singing My Immortal really changed my musical direction.

She is a huge influence on why I create the music I do.  The microphone I use is the Audix OM7 and I use that mic because of the incredible clarity and quality of sound it produces at high levels of gain, without any feedback. 

2. How do you write a song?

I usually write the lyrics to a song first.  The story, and the meaning behind a song, is very important to me. 

I use a lot of metaphors and find great inspiration from poetry and stories by writers such as H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe.

3. How many concept records do you own? Could you ever write one?

I have quite a few records, but my favourite would have to be ‘Endless Forms Most Beautiful’ by Nightwish. 

My current album conceptualizes the ‘Human Condition’ and details the deepest darkest parts of our thoughts and feelings. 

So, I guess in that sense it could be considered a concept album.

4. Who's influence is most evident in your music? The least?

Bands like Nightwish, Kamelot, Evanescence, Within Temptation and Lacuna Coil have really influenced the music on this album. 

I think there are touches of Eluveitie but they are not as prominent, I think it helps that Michalina Malisz plays the Hurdy Gurdy on Shroud of Solitude, which provides some folk elements to the music. 

5. Which one of your songs is the one you’re the most proud of?

I am proud of all my songs but the song I’m most proud of would probably be Surreal. 

I really love the chord progressions and dissonance within the melody. It’s a little dark and brooding, a bit Tim Burton I guess.

6. Sum up your latest record for us.

The whole album is about human understanding and feeling. 

It details how each persons’ spirit is as complex as everyone else’s even though we may not realize it. 

So, I guess it’s when you are struck by a moment of sonder, as you explore your own humanity, and finally realize we are all just characters in other peoples’ stories.