Stephanie Jewell sat down with VANTA, a melodic death metal band who were recording their music video at Vision Studios on Saturday, ahead of playing the Stormrider Heavy Metal Festival next weekend. VANTA are comprised of Aaron Searle (vocals and bass), Ferdinand Handojo (drums), Jesse Venus (guitar and vocals), and Thien Huynh (guitar).
Steph: Tell me about yourselves?
Jesse: You’re here with Jesse,
Ferdi: Ferdi,
Aaron: and Aaron,
Thien: and Thien
Ferdi: and we are from Vanta.
Steph: How did you guys come to be, tell me about VANTA’s early days to now.
Ferdi: We started just before Covid actually, in 2019, and not knowing that Covid was going to happen, so when we got locked in, it kind of made us just focus on writing music and things like that. Despite having the itch to go out and play a gig, because some of us were from previous bands, we were at that point in life where we were like ‘I just want to do this again’. So fast forward to the end of Covid which was what, like 2022? We finally got our EP recorded which is ‘Gravemind’ which is available on Spotify and all across our socials. Feel free to check it out and after that, we just went hard, gigging around the scene. In 2023, it was our first gig. I remember that night was at Lynott’s Lounge in Northbridge, and it was with Dining With Sinners, is that right?
Jesse: Yeah, Dining With Sinners, they were the headliner.
Ferdi: We had a good time. We didn’t know at the time who to reach out to or whatever but a friend of ours was like head on down so we did that and got a gig there. Then a couple of weeks later, we got asked to do Hornography and so we did that. After that there was a charity gig at Convenients, when it was around at the time.
Jesse: We had a good time there, that was the Gig For Gwen fundraiser gig.
Ferdi: After that we just had some more shows and just got more connected with some people around the scene, especially Stu from Silent Knight. He has been a lad, he has been a bro to every band in the scene, I would say. He just looks after everybody and that’s the way it should be in the scene and we should just help out each other. But to answer the question, sorry I went on a bit of a tangent, we have been around since 2019 and still running and ever evolving as well.
Steph: Tell me more about the origins of VANTA
Ferdi: Aaron and I go way back, from another band actually, and then I took a break from music for a bit. When I went back into music I picked up drums, we were already mates and we just went ‘hey, lets start a new band.’ We happened that way.
Aaron: After I heard Ferdi left our old band Remission, I was still in Remission but after a certain amount of time I had left as well. We were coming back from a Japan tour to do two shows, and then I left Remission. And then since Ferdi was on his own, I let him just have his own time, freelance a bit and see what he wanted to do. And he gave me time to see what was going on after my departure of Remission. We were like, well we have been in bands before, we know each other, we are good mates so we may as well do the whole thing again! We know all the band from previously too, still have the contacts and everything so lets do it all again.
Steph: What was your writing process, having gotten together just before Covid, and how has it evolved over your time together?
Ferdi: We embrace technology. We use Dropbox, we use GarageBand. We were just sending each other files and lyrics and these guys, Thien and Jesse, would be like ‘I got a riff’ and would send it through. Actually, during Covid, Jesse wasn’t in yet, we had another friend Ivan. But Ivan had to relocate post Covid, so Jesse came on board. But more or less it is like that, it is just sharing files, adding onto each other’s stems.
Steph: Speaking of doing things together, how did you come to be involved with Stormrider?
Jesse: That’s a good question
Ferdi: That is a really good question!
Thien: We played that gig at Amps a few months ago, that was a bit super short notice when Stu asked us then!
Stu (who just happened to be sitting nearby): Do you want to know the real answer to this story? So at the Stormrider Festival last year, these guys showed up and they said ‘I’m going to send you some demos’ and then they followed through on that and sent some real tracks. I thought ‘woah, these guys show up AND they do what they say they are going to do, that’s nice’ and then they filled in at the show at Amplifier a few months ago. Amplifier asked me to put a show together at one weeks’ notice back at the end of February. These guys said yes and then everything has just run off from there. I thought these guys should definitely be doing more stuff and everything’s been great since then. They are professional, well put together and know what they are doing so that’s why they are here.
Steph: High praise from Stu! Speaking of festivals, if you could have any 5 bands play your dream festival lineup, who would you pick?
Jesse: All of our tastes are different, like extremely different. I would say Prince, but I don’t think anyone else would say Prince!
Ferdi: That’s a hard one – I am going to throw a band out there and its not a band from the west, it’s a throwback to my Indonesian heritage. Because the Indonesian metal community is booming. If you don’t know, you have got to check it out. I would invite Deadsquad, they are a huge death metal band from Jakarta, Indonesia and they have done Europe, Japan, and pretty much across Asia and East Europe. They are pretty up there, I would say. I think they need some love from down under! And that’s who I would put on.
Aaron: Off the top of my head at the moment and representing it anyway right here (wearing the T shirt), Beyond Creation from Canada. But there are so many bands, like its just everyone is always going through a phase of what they are listening to at that moment is what their most responsive answer is going to be.
Thien: I do love my Trivium and Sylosis but right now I am really into The Shadow of Intent, I would love to get those guys over.
Steph: That sounds like a diverse but awesome lineup! What would you say are some of VANTA’s highlights?
Jesse: I would say this upcoming show is probably going to be our biggest highlight, considering that you have interstate acts coming as well. That is going to give us a good trajectory of how we are going to move forward as a band. Just being a part of the Stormrider Festival is hopefully going to push VANTA to the next thing and hopefully get the opportunity to join more festivals in the future.
Ferdi: And we get to play for our heroes too, playing for Orpheus Omega and Hybrid Nightmares
Steph: My next question was going to be who are you most looking forward to seeing on the Stormrider lineup, but I think you might have just answered that?
Ferdi: That’s tough, everyone is really good!
Jesse: I would say all of them!
Ferdi: I will be there for two nights, and I just want to soak it in and embrace the sonic love!
A very big sonic love thank you to VANTA and Stu from Stormrider Touring. Be sure to get along to Stormrider Heavy Metal Festival, happening Friday 23rd and Saturday 24th August 2024 at Amplifier over both nights, celebrating Stormrider’s 10 year anniversary. You can catch VANTA playing on the Stormrider stage on the Saturday night. Tickets available here.
You can follow VANTA: @VantaMetalOfficial| Spotify | YouTube | TikTok | Apple Music | Facebook | Website
Photos: Supplied by band
