Lahannya's Diary

mROCKfest, Poland, 31 July 2009

2009-10-12T01:38:00.006+01:00

I've been meaning to write a few words about our long trip into the heart of Poland, where we played mROCKfest on 31 July. Unfortunately one thing or another always seemed more important and now it's been ages since it actually happened! However, I'd still quite like to share a few photos and anecdotes with you...

The trip from Karlsruhe - home of Lutz and Mathilda - to the Polish border past Berlin was relatively uneventful, the real adventure started once we'd passed the German-Polish border. The roads themselves weren't as bad as we had been made to believe but the traffic was worse. We took the main road that goes from Germany through Warsaw to Russia, which just has a single lane in each direction and is packed with lorry after lorry. There was, however, a fairly generous hard shoulder for the slower vehicles, like ourselves, so the centre of the road could be used for some rather dangerous overtaking maneuvers by both lanes.

Even major roads seemed to go through a town every few miles which meant constantly braking and speeding up, lots of traffic lights and traffic jams, a constant stop and go. Mathilda, our trusty 36 year old tourbus, didn't like it. Not one bit. She soon decided that she'd had enough and refused to go any further. Standing by the roadside with only 300km to go - which on Polish roads would take us about 10 hours - we were seriously worried... Luckily, after much finger-crossing, a thorough examination and some TLC from Lutz and the Polish equivalent of the AA Mathilda could be persuaded to have another go. Phew!

We spent the night parked up at a petrol station and headed off to Ostroda fairly early the next morning, where it turned out that none of the organisers were at the venue despite the fact that it was load-in time. When finally someone turned up they couldn't speak any English so we just obediently parked up where we were shown and waited for further instructions.

Load-in started 2 hours later and since by this time neither the PA nor lights were set up we kind of figured out that everything was running late. Our soundcheck time came and went, the PA and lights were still not set up. The doors opened and we still hadn't soundchecked. However, we were assured by the promoter that "you know what it's like, festivals always run late", so there obviously was no need to worry, was there? Hmmm...

Well, we used to the time to enjoy the sunshine, check emails, enjoy the gorgeous dinner the promoter had organised, buy insect repellent (an interesting game of charades with a pharmacist who did not speak anything other than Polish) and, in my case, do vocal warm-ups. Around 8pm I think we finally soundchecked, a mere 6 hours late, and about 2 hours after the doors opened. The crowd was incredibly appreciative and we got a huge round of applause at the end of our soundcheck - which was very odd!

None of the organisers seemed to be worried about the delays and so none of the bands were asked to shorten their soundcheck or set. Although I really enjoyed the melancholy Slavic lament of Negradonna and the Emilie Autumn-esque Vic Anselmo we got more and more worried that people wouldn't stay to wait for us to go on.

When around 2 am we finally went on stage, we were positively surprised and ended up playing to an amazing crowd that was up for partying all night! Playing in such a great location and to such an enthusiastic audience made up for all the waiting around and we had an absolute blast on stage. We played several songs from the new album for the very first time, including "Sick and Tired" and "Burn", which are definitely amongst my new live favourites. It was great to see how well they went down!

By the time we got off stage the promoter had already gone home as had anybody else who knew the address to where our tourbus was parked up! With a very small Polish vocabulary and no address it was a bit tricky to make our way there... However, the lovely Kris, who works behind the bar there, sorted it all out for us and around 4.30am we and our equipment were finally safely back at our overnight spot. What a night, but despite being incredibly tired we had to have a celebratory drink or two ourselves before going to sleep!

The next day we took it easy, explored the city and practised our newly emerging Polish language skills. In the evening we headed over to the castle again for the second day of mROCKfest. We met Thomas Rainer of L'Ame Immortelle who despite our best intentions decided to ply us and several of his band and crew with cocktails all night. He seemed to have had a similarly exciting journey to get to Ostroda - but that's his story to tell...

On the way back we took the slow route along the coast - the first few days off I've had all year - before starting the long way back to Karlsruhe to unload and carry on the studio work on our new album Defiance... So have I learnt anything from the whole experience? Probably not as I would do it all over again :)

Thanks to the promoters for inviting us to come and play our first Polish and festival headline show ever and for everyone who came to the show and partied with us! Hope to see you again at some point!!

Lahannya live @ Wave-Gotik-Treffen, Leipzig - Germany

2009-07-15T21:26:00.005+01:00

With the band and Lemmy safely on board, we set off on Friday afternoon, around 2pm, with our first stop being Sainsbury supermarket to stock up on supplies for the English-breakfast-press-album-pre-listen event we had organised for Sunday morning in Leipzig. Half an hour later, stockpiled with eggs, bacon, sausages, baked beans, tomatoes, hash browns, toast and various flavours of crisps, beers and ciders, we joined the slow-moving Friday afternoon traffic to get out of London and head towards Dover...

The next stop was the ferry, which we cheekily used for a picnic in the sun accompanied by a chilled bottle of rose. Then the long drive from the French coast to eastern Germany awaited us, with an overnight stop just after passing the Belgium-Germany border. The drive, however, was never boring because this time we had a free-flying budgie exploring the bus, which kept us entertained throughout the journey! We reached Leipzig fairly late on Saturday evening, picked up our passes and parking permits and headed to the Agrahalle to park up for the night, get some dinner and catch up with friends.

On Sunday morning we headed to the spot the WGT organisers had suggested we use for the breakfast-press-album-pre-listen session. Upon arriving we quickly realised that there were no parking spaces whatsoever and busloads of tourists were being shown around by tour guides armed with conspicuous umbrellas. After searching the backstreets we eventually found a small strip of green with a parking spot directly in front of it and decided to try our luck there.

By this time we had just found out that our PR agent had broken her leg the night before, spent the night in hospital and would not be able to join us to welcome the journalists and photographers who said they'd come. On her way from the hospital to her hotel she also left her mobile phone in the taxi so we had no more way of contacting her to get the expected guests' phone numbers and tell them about the new location. This required a slight change of plan and we phoned Jason, who runs our UK street team, to come and help us by escorting the guests from the agreed meeting place to where we actually had parked up.

However, beforehand Lutz, Belle and myself had to head off in different directions to procure some items that we needed, no easy feat on a Sunday in Germany where pretty much every shop is shut. We got some paper plates and wooden cutlery from the WGT medieval market, but sending Belle off to get some crushed ice proved to be the wrong choice: he went missing for the best part of the event, leaving at 11.30am and returning - without ice - more than two hours later!

At 12 noon on the spot the first journalists started turning up, catching us only half prepared! But luckily everyone was absolutely lovely and chilled and so the whole listening session, interview and breakfast went smoothly and it was actually a lot of fun for everyone involved. So much so, that we realised only just in time that we had to pack up and rush back to the Agrahalle so Lutz would be there in time for his performance with Umbra et Imago. Back at the Agrahalle then Lutz went off to find the rest of his other band, while I finally sat down to relax and have a late breakfast myself. In the evening, Dave and myself armed ourselves with Caipirinhas and watched the Umbra et Imago and ASP shows, while Belle was lying in a Bloody Mary induced coma in the bus.

And then it was already Monday morning and time to head over to the Parkbuehne. There we met up with Stiefel, our sound engineer, Ronny, our stage tech, and Janina and Candy who were looking after our merch stall. Stiefel and Ronny we had originally met on the ASP tour and Janina and Candy I knew from DJing for the globalnoisemovement collective, which they're a part of.

It was an absolutely stunning and scorchingly hot day and my worry that our first time on an open air stage it would pour down with rain luckily turned out to be unfounded. At ten to four it was time and we headed out on the stage and the reception we got was absolutely incredible. There were so many familiar faces from the ASP tour, last year's Nocturnal Culture Night and a large number of UK fans, which meant that lots of people could sing along to our songs. With hindsight, a long sleeved latex and PVC outfit might not have been the wisest choice when performing mid afternoon in the sun, but by the time I came to realise that it was far too late to do something about it!

We only had time to play six songs: Silent Victim and Doors from Shotgun Reality, our first album, Welcome to the Underground and Inside the Machine from our Welcome to the Underground EP and two brand new songs - Dying Inside and Our War - which will be on our second album, Defiance, which is coming out this autumn.

After the show I wanted to go the merch stall, but as soon as I emerged from backstage I found myself facing an unexpected 20 metre long queue of people wanting autographs and photos! After 10 minutes of signing CDs and cards in the blistering sun, however, I just had to head for the shade of the merch area. Soon Lutz, Belle and Dave joined me and we stayed there signing CDs, posters, flyers and bodyparts, posing for pictures and catching up with fans and friends we'd not seen in a while. What an absolutely amazing day! One day like this every now and again makes all the hard work very worthwhile indeed!

After Nosferatu played and it started raining cats and dogs we headed off into the centre of Leipzig where I was booked to DJ at Gothic magazine's end-of-WGT party at the Darkflower. We were treated to free drinks all night and I played an hour of hard electro and industrial, which was great fun since I don't DJ regularly anymore. After catching up with some more friends - Martin from Gothic magazine, Udo and Anke from the Zeche Carl amongst others - and losing Belle again either to a mirror or a gorgeous female we finally went back to Mathilda around 5am and fell asleep within minutes...

Photos were taken by either Lahannya (no 2, 6, 7), Lutz (1, 3, 4, 9, 10), Dana (5) and Ritual Art (8). More photos can be seen in the gallery on the Lahannya Web site at www.lahannya.com/gallery.

Lahannya UK Tour May 2009: Manchester

2009-07-14T23:04:00.002+01:00

It already seems ages ago as so much has happened since, but our tour diary wouldn't be complete without an account of the Manchester show and the Wave-Gotik-Treffen in Germany. But first things first, so let's start with Manchester.

Since we didn't get much of a chance to spend much time with Dyonisis during the Birmingham show, we decided that our two bands would meet up on a truck stop just outside Manchester and catch up over a barbeque.

We arrived at Satan's Hollow in Manchester just after 4pm, which should have given all of us plenty of time to set up and soundcheck before 7pm, when the doors were supposed to open. However, when we turned up it turned out that the venue got a new PA on the day of our show, which was still in bits and pieces when we turned up! When it was still in bits and pieces two hours later I have to admit I was beginning to get a bit nervous but no one at the venue seemed in the slight bit stressed. I soon realised that everyone was so chilled because for some strange reason the staff had been told that the doors were opening at 8pm, not 7pm! So I spent the next half hour trying to hurry everyone along and apologising profusely to the crowd that began to gather outside the venue. Luckily it was a sunny day and everyone was still in a good mood by the time the doors finally opened half an hour late!

Despite all the setting up shenanigans I have to say that Satan's Hollow is a fabulous venue, especially for a club night. There was an old gnarly tree decorated in subtle fairy lights adorning one alcove surrounded by iron bars, there was a huge Satan's face on one of the walls and the stage / dancefloor was a slightly raised circle surrounded by an iron railing in the middle of the room.

Like Birmingham we had a great line-up at Satan's Hollow with Dyonisis and Screams of Cold Winter, who both played great sets. Then it was our turn to step into the round and even though the shape of the stage felt very odd and Lutz had to fight with a rather uncooperative bass string, it was a great show because of the enthusiasm of everyone there! After socialising at the end of the show for a bit it was far too soon time to pack up and head south again to change some equipment, pick up Lemmy my budgie and start our journey to Leipzig.

This, by the way, was our first UK tour without getting a single parking ticket! No mean feat with the length of our bus and the stern traffic wardens we've encountered in the past...

Lahannya UK Tour May 2009: Stockton to London...

2009-06-17T12:07:00.006+01:00

On day 2 of our UK tour we were meant to play as part of the Persecution club night in Stockton-on-Tees. We already knew that we might have to complement the equipment at the venue and bring our own cables but since we had been assured that the venue had a decent PA and 16 channel mixing desk we weren't too worried. When we arrived, on a day of glorious sunshine I might add, we were told that they counted the channels again and it was unfortunately only a 12 channel desk. Oh well, we thought, less than ideal, but still doable - after all, we even once managed to play on a 6-channel desk at Hoko 10 in Newcastle, although that was an experience we'd rather not repeat! When Alan, our sound engineer, took a look at the desk, however, it turned out that they counted every single hole where someone could potentially plug something into the desk and that it really was only a 4 channel desk, which meant we did have a problem on our hands...

In the face of the situation Ferg, the owner of the venue and a really lovely chap, proceeded to make several phone calls, then grabbed Alan and off they went on a hunt for bits and pieces to assemble a PA that would allow us to play that night. They returned less than an hour later with exactly that! Although it was still less than ideal and the PA wiring required soldering, complemented with pieces from Alan's equipment we finally had a working PA! (I say we, but it really was Alan who saved the day!)

After the soundcheck we went backstage, which was pretty much the whole upstairs floor. One of the rooms was so amazing that we all wanted to move in straight away: about 10 meters long, maybe 4 meters wide and about 4 meters high with half the walls covered with 3 meter high windows - probably 7 or 8 of them! - and a beautiful opulent bar tucked in one of the corners. This is where we took Dave "Chippy" Chipchase from Bishop FM who came to interview us and review the show. He was a really great guy and we really enjoyed the questions he asked us...

A little while later we got called downstairs where the guys from Midian had prepared a delicious dinner, I think it was pork roast with chips and salad, absolutely perfect for how we felt after a very long day (well, Belle being a vegetarian felt a little less excited about the roast but very grateful indeed for the chips and salad ;) and since it was a late gig starting around 11pm it really hit the spot.

The gig itself went down really well. We had a good crowd of not just alternative people that usually come to the Persecution night but also a few locals that saw the posters and got curious... I think we played a fairly long set, about 50 minutes, but those were over far too quickly! After the show we got to meet many old and newly won fans and sign a few autographs - amongst the "items" proferred to sign were the first pair of breasts, of which I signed the right one and Lutz the left. Dave and Belle only got their names on the upper arms! The Persecution crowd was very friendly, welcoming, fun and very unpretentious. They seem to really appreciate it when bands include Stockton on their tour schedule. A big thank you goes out to Ferg, Paul and Lisa, the entire staff of Midian and everyone who came to see us!

Next up was TJ's in Newport, Wales, so a fair drive, which meant we had to leave Stockton the same night. We stopped at a truck stop near Sheffield (I think...) where we had a well-deserved full English breakfast and arrived in Newport around 3.30pm on the Saturday to glorious sunshine. We found a parking spot directly outside TJ's, setting up was very relaxed, but Alan had a tough time getting the sound set up right as there were reverberations bouncing all around the venue! But eventually even that was done and we had a takeout from a local kebab shop for dinner.

While we were eating inside the bus, the venue opened its doors and the outside of our tourbus was suddenly crowded with people drinking, smoking, chatting and watching the occasional fire artist perform on the pavement. It was definitely a little odd, but many things were just a little odd that night, everything was just a little bit different to how we expected it. For example, the face painter asking me to make an announcement that people could get their faces painted next to the stage (which I of course dutifully made!) or the two girls that danced a tailor-made Macarena style dance to Bleed For Me during the show or the chap who walked in an hour after we came off stage and bought a CD and t-shirt from us without ever having heard of us!

And finally - the oddest thing of all - in the general unloading and soundchecking business I had accidentally left my laptop in its backpack next to a pillar on the dancefloor throughout the entire event, but it was still happily sitting there at the end of the night, with no beer spillage, waiting to be picked up by me. All's well that ends well and so I went to sleep with a big smile on my face on the drive towards London. A big shoutout goes to Sean and Gaz from Fab'n'Kinky who invited us to play, promoted the show so enthusiastically and looked after us on the day!

We stopped in a truckstop near Swindon for the night, but with it being a Sunday it wasn't open in the morning for us to get breakfast or use their facilities. Therefore the nearby Sainsbury supermarket had to do and we probably caused some funny glances with several rough and unusual looking types all dressed in black turning up at 9am on a Sunday morning! We also had a little panic moment when we accidentally left Mathilda's petrol cap at a service station between Newport and London, but luck was with us once again and the wonderful Alex who was coming to our gig roughly along the same route managed to find the service station and bring it to the London gig! Again, a massive thank you is in order - we love you Alex! And while I'm doing the thank-yous, one must definitely go to Jason H, who on very short notice looked after our merch stall, and Mike Exley, who is doing our PR and did an outstanding job with this tour!

Our London gig at the Water Rats was unfortunately quite stressful, mostly because the promoter who we had arranged the show with was not actually there and not everything that had been agreed had been communicated correctly to the venue. Luckily Rob and Craig who were working that night were very supportive and so in the end we managed to get most of the details sorted to everyone's satisfaction. The promoter had put on a ridiculous number of bands - six in total - most of which had very little in common with each other and whose fans were unlikely to appreciate the other bands.

The band I enjoyed the most were Silent Descent, a 7-piece that are fusing metal and trance elements, arriving at a sound that is very much their own. I'd definitely recommend you check them out if you get the chance. Before we went on we had a very chilled interview in a rather hot tourbus with Elena Francis from metal-discovery.com, which was very enjoyable.

Once back at the venue it was fabulous to bump into so many fans we've known for years and to see so many familiar faces in the audience. We also got to meet a few new fans, some of whom had travelled a fairly long way to see us! It felt to me like we played the best gig of the tour, as everything seemed to perfectly fall into place once we stood on stage, the on-stage sound was great and we had such great enthusiastic response! We absolutely loved it and it was the perfect ending to the first part of our tour!

More on our Manchester show, the trip to Leipzig, our performance at the Wave-Gotik-Treffen and other shenanigans soon.

If you're reading this on our Facebook page you can't unfortunately see all the pictures. Better take a look at www.lahannya.com/diary instead, which is also where all blog entries get published first!

All photos on this page are taken by Lahannya apart from 1 - taken by Lutz with Chippy's camera and 6 - taken by Bayerberg.

Lahannya UK Tour May 2009: The Beginning...

2009-06-13T07:55:00.010+01:00

I've been meaning to write this blog for a few weeks now - shame on me that I've only got around to it a few weeks after the actual tour! But better late than never or so they say...

The first trip on any UK itinerary is getting our trusty tour bus Mathilda, our equipment and our bass player Lutz across the Channel into the UK, and this time also myself and Lemmy - my budgie - as we'd been in Lutz' studio to work on the new material and on Mathilda as her MOT inspection was approaching rapidly...

I'll write a separate blog at some point about the trials and tribulations of travelling with a pet bird between the UK and the mainland, but suffice to say they don't make it easy for you! Luckily we discovered that Lemmy much prefers to travel with us in the tourbus than to stay at someone else's house or boarding at her vet's, especially now that she gets to fly free most of the time.

With all the work necessary on Mathilda - yes, I was actually lying underneath her on a couple of occasions for several hours applying anti-corrosion protection - and Lutz' having to also rehearse with Umbra et Imago for their Wave Gotik Treffen performance we ended up leaving late and in a rush. That's of course never a good thing when you need to have the right gear with you for a whole tour, the Wave Gotik Treffen, a press album pre-listening session and a few days in a specialist workshop for old Mercedes buses to get your MOT. And sure enough, we'd forgotten some vital things which we ended up reacquiring on the way or had to ask friends to bring to WGT.

We started the actual tour off with a rehearsal at Farm Factory Studios in Welwyn Garden City to make sure that all the new songs of the set were fresh in our minds. The rehearsal studio was great, the staff friendly but our rehearsal next to disastrous! Somehow nothing seemed to want to work properly. But maybe we just needed to get all the shit and bad luck out in one session so it wouldn't happen on tour. That's at least what we were all hoping...

At this point it's probably worth mentioning who "we" actually were. There were obviously Lutz and myself as we'd come over from Germany together (Lemmy was being looked after by some friends - thanks Sheila & Steve, what would I do without you?!), Belle of course, but unfortunately Chris couldn't join us on this tour. Luckily we found Alien Dave, who Belle used to play with in Killing Miranda a few years back, and for the first time we were travelling with our own sound engineer - Alan - who was a great find and much more than a sound engineer, more like wizard and a serious Jelly Baby addict.

On Thursday 21 May then we arrived at our first venue: Eddie's Rock Club in Birmingham. It was supposed to be The Flapper but they phoned us a couple of weeks before the show to tell us they had a double-booking for that night; apparently some event that was happening annually on 21 May and they forgot about it until a reminder came up in their diary a couple of weeks beforehand. It sounded like a very flaky excuse to me but neither pleading nor complaining changed the fact that we were without a venue I had decided to get on with it and find an alternative one instead of moping. Colin from Eddie's was an absolute lifesaver and offered us Eddie's at short notice and really supported us in promoting the show. I cannot recommend working with him enough!

So, we arrived at Eddie's where luckily things were going much much better than at the rehearsal the night before and since we'd arrived with plenty of time to spare setting up was, for a change, quite relaxing. Around 5pm the other bands arrived, first Dyonisis who we've played quite a few shows with by now - the first ones being with Emilie Autumn in July 2007 - and then Tin Omen, who we didn't know personally at all but came recommended by Ted from The Dark Rooms in Wolverhampton.

Doors opened on time at 7pm with Ted spinning music that fit the theme of the night - many female-fronted goth, rock and industrial bands. He'd also provide the musical entertainment in between and after the bands.

Tin Omen were on first at 7.30pm. I had heard their music on Myspace, but I have to say it doesn't do them any justice, they are so much better live - not because they're bad recordings, not at all, but first of all the audio quality on Myspace is just not the best and secondly if you have a charismatic frontperson with a great voice live in front of you, it's just unbeatable. And Kelly Omen is definitely such a frontwoman.

Next up were Dyonisis, who I once again enjoyed immensely. They've come so far - as have we probably - since we first played together. Nel and Lou's voices have gained so much confidence now and their interplay is very hypnotic. It always reminds me of my Drowning EP and some tracks on Shotgun Reality where I played a lot with intertwining melodies and harmonies. Dyonisis have really made that their trademark feature and it works really well live. Nel always turns into a completely different person on stage - I think she really lives every song and often forgets that there is a world around her and an audience...

And last, but hopefully not least, it was our turn! We started the set off with Welcome To The Underground, because it's the perfect song to start a show with! Just like Doors is the perfect song to finish on... In between we played the faster tracks from Shotgun Reality, Inside The Machine and No Tomorrow from Welcome To The Underground and four brand new tracks: Our War - which we'd played already live on our last tour, Interference, Brave New World and Dying Inside. It's funny how different songs seem to work better at certain shows than others, well in Birmingham the faster and more metal-sounding numbers went down best I thought: Inside The Machine, Interference, Dying Inside, Our War and Doors I seem to remember were the ones that got more applause than the others, but then again you got a different perspective when you're on stage... Either way, we had a great time, Dave fit into the band as if he'd always been playing with us and from the feedback I got Alan did a killer sound!

Afterwards we got some time to spent with the people who came to see us, some old fans, which are slowly starting to become friends already, some new fans that found out about us on Facebook, from friends or because we're playing Metal Female Voices later this year and some people that have been talking to us online for ages but never got a chance to see us live before (Hello Mr Dave Raveheart!)... It was also great to spend some time with Dyonisis and Tin Omen, although this time it was Kelly Omen who was rather tipsy from the backstage red wine and kept telling me she loved me, rather than Nel who is usually the first to announce her undying love to someone, usually Lou!

Shortly after midnight when everyone had left, all our gear was safely packed away and we'd said our good-byes to Colin, we withdrew into Mathilda for a quiet end-of-day glass of wine before heading into our respective bunks for some well-earned sleep!

More about our adventures in Stockton, Newport, London, Manchester, on the way to Leipzig, Leipzig and at the end of the world where Mathilda got MOT in the next few days...

More photos from our UK tour can be found in the Gallery on www.lahannya.com and soon after also on Myspace.

Lots of love,
Lahannya
xx

All photos by myself apart from: 1 - Tourbus: Lutz; 7 - Lahannya on stage: by Dyonisis; 8 - Lahannya on stage: by M Kessel

New Lahannya Live Video on YouTube

2009-03-13T10:10:00.016Z

Missed us live? Or want to see us again? We've finally managed to do something with the footage taken from our last show with ASP on 9 April 2008 at the X-tra Club in Zurich: Courtesy of Paranoid Android Films you can relive - or see for the first time - our performance of Inside The Machine. Unfortunately we did not have the technical set-up with us to also capture the live audio, but there is always a next time, right?

Enjoy!

Keep your fingers crossed and Andy from Paranoid Android Films may edit another video from the Zurich show for us...

If you want to enjoy some of the other work Andy has done, you can check it out here:

www.youtube.com/user/eds209
www.myspace.com/paranoidandroidfilmsuk

Jesus on Extasy cancel April tour in Germany

2009-03-06T20:14:00.002Z

I am very sorry to have to announce that we will not be playing any dates in Germany this April as Jesus on Extasy just announced the cancellation of their tour. Unfortunately as support band this decision was completely beyond our control and on such short notice we are unable to make other arrangements to play live during these dates. You can read the official Jesus on Extasy statement here.

We will be putting this unexpected free time to good use and work on material for the new album instead. We're also beginning to make plans for a Germany tour in October or November - with a new album in hand and lots of new songs!

Hope to see you soon, lots of love,
Lahannya
x

We're playing this year's Wave-Gotik-Treffen!

2009-02-15T12:00:00.000Z

We will be playing this year's Wave-Gotik-Treffen in Leipzig Germany!

For those of you who have not heard of it, the Wave-Gotik-Treffen or WGT is a 4-day festival that celebrates dark alternative culture with many live shows, film showings, exhibitions, art performances, readings, club nights and shopping.

We'll be performing at the open air amphitheatre called Parkbuehne, one of the most beautiful locations in the middle of a large park, on Monday 1st June at 3.30pm.

For more information, check out the WGT Web site:
www.wave-gotik-treffen.de

If you're going, make sure you come and see us on the Monday! As always we'll be coming out a short while after our show to the merch area to meet as many of you as possible.

Take care,
Lahannya
xx

Lahannya YouTube Channel

2009-02-15T11:59:00.002Z

We've gone social network crazy and now got ourselves a brand-spanking-new YouTube channel! So far, there's only one video up there, a photo collage from live shows and photoshoots courtesy of Martin Black from Art-in-Black.de, but we promise to be good and start making and uploading more video material soon!

You can view and subscribe to our YouTube channel here:
www.youtube.com/Lahannya

Germany Tour this April

2009-01-26T10:43:00.006Z

We got our first confirmed tour dates for 2009! From 1st until 5th April we will be accompanying Jesus on Extasy in Germany. We also started to plan our next UK dates and will be announcing more live shows over the coming weeks - so keep checking back or sign up to our newsletter at www.lahannya.com/mailinglist.

Here is the list of confirmed tour dates for 2009:

01 April 09: Frankfurt, Nachtleben [D]
02 April 09: Nürnberg, Hirsch [D]
03 April 09: München, Backstage/Werk [D]
04 April 09: Weinheim, Cafe Central [D]
05 April 09: Ludwigsburg, Rockfabrik/Club 2 [D]

Lots of love,
Lahannya
x

Seasons Greetings...

2008-12-21T13:00:00.002Z

Seasons greetings and best wishes for a fabulous year 2009!

We are busy writing the story and songs for our new album Defiance, which will be released in May 2009. We've also got one festival performance next year already confirmed (but are still sworn to secrecy...) and are in the process of organising our next tour dates. So watch out for more news in January 2009!

Much love,
Lahannya
xx

New Shop Online!

2008-11-28T12:37:00.003Z

If you've not been able to catch us on tour, you can now get most merch items online from our Web site at www.lahannya.com/shop.

Apart from all our CD releases you can now also order the engraved USB stick with MP3s and screen backgrounds for PC, mobile and PDA, the gorgeous poster designed by comic artist David Bircham and a large variety of t-shirts, tops and even hotpants!

Lots of love,
Lahannya
x

Back from tour...

2008-11-14T12:50:00.003Z

Our most recent UK tour was pretty eventful with plenty of excitement thrown in between the long drives that took the us up and down the country. We had some fantastic shows but unfortunately also a real low point in Blackpool when we had to cancel a show for the first time ever. Chris suddenly came down with a nasty bout of stomach flu about an hour before we were due to go on stage and there was absolutely no way he could play. We were totally gutted we could not play in front of such a great crowd but we hope to reschedule a Blackpool show for another time!

On another occasion we turned up at a venue just to find out that the stage had gone missing as it had been “lent out” to someone who had not returned it in time for the show. The mind boggles as to how large it would have been, had it actually been there! And there was of course the obligatory tour bus breakdown on the M1 – after all if you drive a 35 year old tour bus some part or other has to come loose in the middle of the motorway or else it wouldn’t be a historic vehicle, right? Right!

But on the other hand, we also had some absolutely amazing nights, with my favourite probably being Sheffield because it was as perfect an evening as it could be: a great promoter, a fantastic support band, a lovely and enthusiastic crowd, a fabulous aftershow party and – most importantly – what felt to us like one of our best performances ever!

I would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who came to one of our shows. It means a lot to us and we appreciate your continued support more than we can say. So – thanks a million! Another massive thanks also goes to the promoters who put us on, the people who helped publicise the show and the great bands who played alongside us.

We've uploaded some photos from the last tour into our gallery in case you want to take a look, along with pictures from the September dates in Germany.

We'll soon be starting with the planning of our live dates for 2009. If you want us to play in your city, let us know by demanding us via the Eventful widget we've put up on our Myspace and Facebook pages. If enough of you ask us to play in a particular city, we'll try our darndest to make it there!

Lots of love and see you soon!
Lahannya
x

LAHANNYA featured in Dark Spy (Germany)

2008-10-03T12:16:00.003+01:00

The current issue of German goth-fetish magazine Dark Spy not only has a 2-page feature article on us, but also published a photograph from the recent shoot I did with Martin Black from Art-in-Black as centrefold poster. It is also the first time we got a photo insert on the cover. As you can imagine, we're chuffed to bits!

Mathilde vs The Countess

2008-09-24T20:53:00.006+01:00

I don't know if you're aware of the introduction of low emission zones for vehicles in cities throughout Europe. I wasn't until about six months ago. Unfortunately, it turns out that our beloved tour bus - The Countess, a converted mobile bank (yes, you read correctly, she is a former mobile financial institution!) - was no longer allowed into London from July 2008, and she's equally barred from entering the German cities Berlin, Stuttgart, Munich, Bochum and many more...

In the UK at least you are able to retrofit your vehicle, but in Germany any retrofitting - even if it results in the vehicle passing the emissions test - is not officially accepted, so you still aren't able to enter any low emission zones. That left us with two options: buy a much newer and obviously more expensive bus (that kind of seems to be the real motivation behind at least the German low emission zones) or buy a much much older one, that is even worse in terms of emissions, but as a historic vehicle is excluded from the new regulations and can stink as much as it likes...

We decided on the latter option and started looking... I had absolutely no idea how many online forums are dedicated to old buses and lorries until we did! Unfortunately, because everyone was affected by the new regulations equally the prices for the kind of bus we needed shot through the roof... At the same time the price for buses like our Countess - perfect in every way but no longer wanted in inner cities - dropped big time. But we kept looking...

...and eventually, in a very specialist hippy forum we found an ad for a little old bus at a price we could just about afford. Lutz travelled up to Berlin to take a look and while it wasn't exactly love at first sight, we thought it was worth a go - despite the brown and orange butterfly wallpaper on the inside of the driver's door and the flowery wallpaper in the driver's cab. Luckily, however, Mathilde already had 6 beds, a bathroom and a kitchen unit and so we just just had to give her a little tender loving care rather than a whole new makeover! Mathilde turned out to be a beautiful and cosy old lady and we were very happy when she took us safe and sound to all destinations of our mini tour of Germany in September.

While we love Mathilde we really wish we could also keep the Countess. She's been agreat companion for many years and we'd hate to give her away for a pittance to someone who might not really appreciate her. I keep crossing my fingers that we find a way to keep them both...

X-tra-X photoshoot for new catalogue

2008-08-03T09:56:00.010+01:00

Yours truly has recently done a photoshoot with X-tra-X owner Monaco and I'm now introducing the latest X-tra-X designs in the new catalogue. Here's a little sneak preview of the results, more are in the Gallery on our Web site and obviously also in the new X-tra-X catalogue...

Facebook, here we come...

2008-07-25T19:06:00.004+01:00

Since Facebook seems to have become the new Myspace we've finally caved in and got ourselves a Facebook page. I've no idea how many of you are on Facebook, but if you happen to be, feel free to "become a fan"... You'll find the page here:

www.facebook.com/pages/Lahannya/17677552327

Touring, touring and more touring....

2008-07-21T21:58:00.003+01:00

These last three months I've done more touring than ever before and despite all the stress and hard work it's definitely what I want to do every for the rest of my life. Naturally, being stuck in small spaces with the same people every day, and especially people who are very unique and have their quirks means tempers do flare occasionally - it's no surprise really when you actually drive the tour bus, run the merch stall, load and unload the gear as well as perform and soundcheck every night. But still, I'd jump at the chance to do it again!

Our touring started off on 7 March in Newcastle. We didn't really know what to expect, but we'd been warned that most of the time the bands at Legends have less than 10 people in the audience. When we had a really enthusiastic audience of about 100 people, some of which could sing along to almost every single one of our songs, we were over the moon! What a fabulous start to our spring tour!

After Newcastle we played two UK shows with one of Germany's top goth-rock bands: ASP. We returned to the same venues we already played with Emilie Autumn 9 months earlier, so it almost felt like coming home and boy, do we love the food at the Corporation in Sheffield! The first two shows with ASP gave us a little taste of things to come... a large number of their fanclub had travelled to the UK to support their favourite band on their first UK shows. Their presence and enthusiasm has been very noticeable at every show we've played with ASP and we consider ourselves very very lucky indeed that they embraced us in the way they did. Their support and appreciation at every show was wonderful and really made us feel welcome.

Next came the German, Austrian and Swiss dates. Now that was something else: every single night was a homeplay for ASP and it was amazing to be a part of that. I couldn't possibly talk about every single show now - I'd be writing away all night - but while every show was great in its own way and carries its own particular memories, I have to say that there were definitely a few shows that did stand out for me and Magdeburg probably stands out the most of those. The reception we got there was just mind-blowing and will remain hard to top...

After the ASP tour we all returned to our everyday lives for a while. Well, kinda anyway. I wouldn't say that the following 6 weeks ressembled anything close to my everyday life, but that's another story. I actually went on tour again, but this time not in the limelight, but in the background of another, much more famous, recording artist. But more I won't divulge... :)

Anyway, June approached quickly and the next UK tour dates were approaching rapidly. 2 1/2 weeks before our first show in Leeds I got word that Chris, our guitarist was in a coma in hospital and the doctors weren't sure whether he'd pull through or not. I almost couldn't believe my ears, it seemed so surreal. Luckily after a couple of days the doctors were a lot more positive, but we were told that it would take some time for him to recover. With the UK dates looming we took the decision to ask Sascha Dannenberger to learn the songs, so we wouldn't have to cancel any shows. We knew we'd have only one rehearsal together as a band before the Leeds show, so naturally I was quite nervous as to how this would work out, but I needn't have worried. Sascha was amazing and had not just learned the songs inside out, but also added his own little touches to them. And so the Leeds show was a complete success. Also, Paul - the promoter - had been advertising it heavily in the preceding weeks, so we had a great turnout on the night.

Chris recovered faster than we could have possibly hoped for and so he was able to join us for the remaining tour dates in Weston-super-Mare, Newcastle and London, where again we met some wonderful fans, promoters and other bands!

So now it's all over for a couple of months. Actually, by now it's only another 6 weeks before we next hit the stage. And I can't wait. We'll be back in Germany for 3 very different shows: one in a tiny little club near Lutz' studio in Karlsruhe, the second takes us back to the Matrix in Bochum - which seems to have become the spiritual home of ASP and may very well become ours as well - and then we're off to Sachsen for our first festival performance as a band: the Nocturnal Culture Night III. And one month after that we'll be back on the road in the UK.

No rest for the wicked as they say and I've been so very, very wicked...

Touring with Moon Kana and recording a new EP

2007-12-24T14:48:00.000Z

Dear all,

We've just finished most of the recording for our new EP and I've finally managed to hide away for 5 minutes to write this little update.

The shows we played with Moon Kana were fabulous. We didn't really know what to expect beforehand as we only knew of her what's up on her Web site and myspace. She turned out to be an extremely charming young Japanese lady who is quite shy off stage but turns into a veritable whirlwind in front of an audience. Her French live band - Guillaume, Christophe and Marco - are very good musicians as well as great fun to hang around with as were the rest of her entourage, her European manager Renaud, her producer Yamamoto and her assistant and merchandiser Mayumi.

Kana inspires an incredible amount of enthusiasm from her fans, a bit like we already witnessed when touring with Emilie Autumn, and many of Kana's fans had been in touch with us via myspace beforehand and knew our songs. While the show in London was relatively subdued in comparison, the audiences in France were totally up for a party and already lining up outside the venue by the time we arrived at 3pm. We could hardly believe the enthusiasm we were greeted with when we entered the stage, throughout the show and later on when people asked us for autographs and photos at the merch stand.

We definitely had a great time and hope to come back to France again very soon. And we will definitely be back in the Underworld in March 2008!

At this point I'd also like to express a huge thank you to everyone at the Underworld London (Jon, Brian, Sploote, Peter...), the Maroquinerie Paris (Vince, Stephane, the nice man who did such beautiful lighting - sorry I forgot your name!) and La Laiterie in Strasbourg (Christian, Serge, Fabrice, Bertrand and again the nice man who did equally beautiful lighting whose name I never knew..) as well as Renaud from JV Store for taking us on tour with Kana.

After the tour we went straight away into the studio to start recording our new EP. It was the first time that Belle and Chris were there with us and over the last 4 days we've managed to put down all the drums and guitars for all tracks on the new EP. We'll all be going home for Christmas now, then I'll be back in the studio at the end of December to put down all the vocals and Lutz will record the bass. January will be spent with mixing and mastering so that we can take the new EP on tour with us in March.

But now it's time to get ready to go out and have some fun after all this time locked away in the studio....

Have a great weekend and hopefully see you very soon!

Much love,

Lahannya

PS: If you were at any of the shows and got some photos please post your links on my myspace blog or email the best ones to info(at)lahannya(dot)com

Collaboration with ASP!

2007-11-03T16:40:00.000Z

We were really honoured when German goth-rock stars ASP asked us to reinterpret one of their Requiembryo album tracks for their new EP.

It was very challenging to be given such a beautiful track that already works perfectly as it is and therefore we decided that we could only go for a different feel altogether. Once we found the right beat it all fell into place and we're really happy with the result. And ASP like it as well so it's now available on their EP "Nie Mehr", which you can get from their merchandising stalls on tour or through their online shop.

Tracklisting:
Nie Mehr! (Single-Version)
Sara
Wolfsspuren (Ein Requiembryo-Fragment)
Me (Video-Version)
Nevermore (Lahannya-Interpretation von Nie Mehr)
Mercy (Suicide Commando-Interpretation)
How far would you go (Live auf dem Amphi-Festival 2007)
Werben (Live auf dem Amphi-Festival 2007)
Frieden im Land
Sage nein!

www.TheTalesOfAsp.com

Move Live Dates with Moon -kana-

2007-11-02T15:30:00.000Z

We had some more live dates confirmed with quirky j-rock artist Moon -kana- as headliner. We'll be playing the following shows together:

12 December: Underworld - London (UK)
16 December: La Maroquinerie - Paris (France)
18 December: La Laiterie - Strasbourg (France)

For the London show we have managed to arrange a special (limited) 2-for-1 ticket offer for our fans. This ticket offer can only be obtained from the Resurrection Music shop at 228 Camden High Street (rear basement), Camden Town, London. Tickets are £20 + £2 booking fee, but instead of 1 you'll be able to get 2 tickets for this price! Just ask at the counter.

Hope to see you at one of the shows!

Lahannya

Tour with Autumn Cancelled

2007-10-13T18:18:00.000+01:00

Due to serious health problems of singer Nienke de Jong, Autumn had to cancel the October tour we were going to do together starting 17 October.

We are very disappointed that we won't be playing in Germany this year, but there is nothing we can do at such short notice. We're very sorry about any inconvenience and disappointment this has caused you. Tickets are, of course, being refunded - please contact the venue or place where you bought them.

Thanks for all your support - we hope to see you soon anyway!

Live in London on 12 December!

2007-10-07T16:22:00.000+01:00

It's confirmed: we'll be playing the London Underworld on 12 December!

And what's more, there'll be a limited 2 for the price of 1 ticket offer for our fans as the normal ticket price is pretty high at £20 + booking fee/postage. We're in the process of sorting out how you'll be able to get access to this offer and will first announce details on our mailing list. If you're not on it already, you can sign up to it here: http://www.lahannya.com/mailinglist

Headlining will be Moon -kana-, a quirky Japanese j-rock artist, who is playing in the UK for the first time. Her music is probably going to polarise, but she is most definitely very unusual and worth experiencing. Those of you who know us from the Emilie Autumn shows are probably going to love Kana. Here's the link to my favourite video of hers - it'll give you an idea of what you're in for: Kana - Kuuchuu Buranko

I'd like to express a huge thank you to all of you who have been writing to us asking us to play again soon. It means a hell of a lot and it's the reason why we are doing this show. Thanks also to the Underworld and Jvstore, France, for inviting us to play.

Have a great rest of the weekend!
Much love,
Lahannya

Slimelight Setlists: 15 September and 6 October 2007

2007-10-07T16:20:00.000+01:00

15 September 2004:

Middle Floor: 11pm – 12 midnight
Umbra et Imago – Sweet Gwendolyne
Killing Ophelia – No One But Me
The Birthday Massacre – Happy Birthday
Lacuna Coil – Our Truth
David Draiman – Forsaken
NIN – Closer
Snake River Conspiracy – Lovesong
Einstürzende Neubauten – Haus der Lüge
Rammstein – Heirate Mich
Dimmu Borgir – The Serpent Offering
Rob Zombie – Dragula
Emilie Autumn – Liar (Manic Depressive Mix by Asp)

Middle Floor: 1.30 – 2.30am
Angelspit – 100%
Panzer AG – Paper Angels
Marilyn Manson – This is the New Shit
Kidneythieves – Zerospace
KMFDM – Skurk
FLA – Millennium
Ministry – NOW
Deathstars – Blitzkrieg
Rammstein – Engel
Snake River Conspiracy – Vulcan
System of a Down – Chop Suey
Rage Against The Machine – Killing in the Name of
Prodigy – Smack My Bitch Up

Industek Floor: 3 – 4am
Xotox – Ewig
Twinkle – Tu As Perdu
Isis Signum – Technique
Emusae – Seygot (Family Version)
The Horrorist – Can You Hear the Sound?
Insekt – Pest Control
Mono No Aware – Lepa
Haujobb – The Noise Institute (1994 Mix by Iszoloscope)
Combichrist – History of Madness
Sulphuric Saliva – Anger
Pneumatic Detach – Domination (Terrorfakt Mix)
Iszoloscope – The Sum of us All
Winterkälte – Yes 2 Wind
Pow[d]erpussy – Cryogenic Pussylover
Synth-Etik - Replika

6 October 2007

Middle Floor: 11pm – 12 midnight
Kidneythieves – Crazy
The Birthday Massacre – Red Star
KMFDM – Jihad
Emilie Autumn – Liar (ASP Remix)
Rammstein – Engel
I:scintilla – Havestar
Rob Zombie – More Human than Human
Pain – Walking on Glass
Celldweller – Switchback
Kidneythieves – Zerospace
Dope Stars Inc – Bang Your Head
Snake River Conspiracy – Vulcan
Marilyn Manson – The Beautiful People
System of a Down – Chop Suey
Within Temptation – Mother Earth
The Prodigy – Firestarter
Angelspit – 100%

Middle Floor: 3 – 4 am
Rammstein – Ich Will
NIN – Head Like a Hole
Pop Will Eat Itself – Ich bin ein Ausländer (Die Krupps mix)
Snake River Conspiracy – How Soon is Now?
Oomph! – Menschsein
Rob Zombie – Feel So Numb
Beastie Boys – Fight for Your Right to Party (I know it's not even remotely goth, but can't we have a bit of fun? :)
Within Temptation – Stand My Ground
Nightwish – Nemo
Ministry – NWO
Deathstars – Blitzkrieg
FLA – Millennium
Sulpher – Problem
Das Ich – Gottes Tod
Depeche Model – Enjoy the Silence

Industek Floor: 4.30 – 5.30am
PAL – Gelöbnis
Xotox – Ewig
Feindflug – Truppenschau
Twinkle – Tu As Perdu
The Horrorist – Can You Hear That Sound?
Stahlfrequenz – Fist Nightmare
This Morn' Omina – N=FP
Haujobb – The Noise Institute (Iszoloscope mix)
Mono No Aware – Sema
Kate Mosh – Kate Mosh
The People's Republic of Europe – Kraft durch Krieg
HHH – Knallschallmaschine
Pneumatic Detach – Domination (Terrorfakt mix)
Dulce Liquido – Humid Dreams

Lahannya in the UK press!

2007-09-07T16:08:00.000+01:00

Lahannya is covered in quite a few magazines this spring / summer - here's a list of you want to check them out:

Metal Hammer (issue date: late August 2007)
Terrorizer (issue date: 19 July 2007) - on the covermount CD
Rock Sound (issue date: mid July 2007)
Alternative (current issue)
Kaleidoscope (current issue)

A big thank you to all the magazines above for their support!