XITAN. The one-man HELLDUSTRIAL project.
What made you get into metal and eventually start/join a band?
I got into Metal when i met an ex-girlfriend in my 20’s. The only music close to Metal listened to at that time was Queen and The Offspring. However, after my she lent me some tapes by Rammstein, Guano Apes and H.I.M I never looked back. During my 20’s I joined quite a lot of bands, mostly Classic Rock whilst also Djing at local Metal Clubs.
How was your very first live appearance?
My first Live appearance as XITAN, was simply amazing. I was supporting the band Covenant, and I put up quite a show, which the crowd really enjoyed. I of course performed many times in the past with my ex bands, including a performance with Chris Boldendhal from Grave Digger at Wacken Open Air 2011. And so I built up lots of experience and confidence on stage which led me to the flawless first Live performance as XITAN.
What about your latest release? The main idea and what’s different about it?
My latest release was a Cover track from the Band GHOST entitled Square Hammer. In truth I gave this track the usual XITAN treatment turning an Occult Rock Song into Electronic Metal a style my fans have dubbed as HELLDUSTRIAL, just like my previous original releases.
Where do you see yourself/band 5 years from now?
I don’t like the question where do you see yourself, I rather prefer, where do I want to be? I want to have at least 2 releases under my belt, hope to Tour in the EU and the US. The real dream is to quite my day job and dedicate my life to Music.
I don’t really believe it is possible to be honest, but the dream is strong and working hard for it. In truth I never believed I would even make this far, with 3 single releases, 2 lyric videos, 13K fans on Facebook and growing, around 150 x 5 star reviews and comments on FB from real actual fans, soon reaching 10K on IG, working towards 1K subs on YouTube, performing before Covenant, selling my own merch. All this in under 1 year, whilst being an Indie Artist, using my own money to fund this project. So in the end, I might not believe about making it, but I sure will work my ass off for it to happen.
Are you more popular in your city/country or abroad?
I am much more popular abroad.
What do you think of today’s music industry?
What can I say, today it’s much easier and cheaper to make music, but because of this it’s much harder to stand out. It’s much harder to get signed with a good label, but to be honest I don’t really see the worth in getting signed anyways.
But I am always hearing lots of bands saying that there is no money in this, so is this really an industry? I have made very few money off streaming, merch and digital sales, does not even start to pay off the money spent of this project. But I keep on hoping and working to make it. In the end I did this project for myself, because it was always my dream to have a music project of my own.
Anything else you want to say
Just a very very big Thank you to my fans and all the people, who have supported me, including family, DJ’s who spin my tracks, and journalists who help spread the word.
