[Translated] Carmilla: Story of a Band

[billm99uk]

So I was doing loitering around on the internet a few days ago, vaguely doing some research into various 'ladies metal bands' circa 2000 or so and came across Carmilla, a late '80's band I hadn't heard of before. A little searching then found me the Facebook page of Yoshino Kizakura, Guitarist and songwriter for the band (and still doing both today). And she's done a potted history of the band on her blog in 2011 in word and video upload that I thought some people here might like to see here

So, life in an '80's Japanese ladies metal band. Take it away, Yoshino-san:



2011.09.13

CARMILLA LIVE

Theme: Band Member’s talk

Category: Music

My guitar work was poor, but since I’m singing my own praises for the composition… (laughs)

I did all the composition work in my former ladies’ band CARMILLA～

Even so, regarding the song melodies, there were also parts that I sometimes left out, giving instructions and writing only the chorus. There were various ways of doing it, e.g. regarding the drums sometimes I just said "give it this sort of feeling~” and left it to others. Perhaps I would leave the bass line out.

When I was doing such cool things at Carmilla, I went to see other bands as well, but there were few bands where you could say “Really cool songs!”, right?

For these songs, it would be really regrettable to leave them like this, so for this reason I finally uploaded them to YouTube, so this will serve as an announcement of their unveiling ~ ~

Well it was a so-called "Heavy Metal" band, (I said it that way on purpose, but the words "Heavy Metal" were disliked by all the principals, weren't they? "Metal" is the correct abbreviation ~ (LOL)) and in the early days we were strongly influenced by Iron Maiden, but in the second half of the band's life, we gradually moved towards more of a Thrash style.

In order to understand such a difference, I think we need to introduce the band from the early days ~ ~

It’s mainly from our live show at the Kagurazaka (Tokyo) venue "EXPLOSION".

"Nightmare" is the song I wrote at the very beginning. But I didn’t like the melody as sung.
So later when we got back together, I rewrote the song’s melody in Japanese.



I want to make this song ↓ slower tempo and unrefined.



More of an Iron Maiden instrumental song (LOL):



In the first generation Carmilla, it's a secret (LOL) but there was also a time when we were painted white and it was a 'satanic band'. Oops ~ I didn’t want those days to be heard of!

This sort of song:


In the early days, we often used this song as the last in the live shows ~ ~
in the intro riffs and such I really like my own work. (LOL)



It’s Thrash from this point. Errr…please listen from 3 minutes 36 seconds ~ (LOL)



To tell the truth, this song below was actually when we went on Ikaten (TV show) and it’s played perfectly~ ~
It’s from a demo tape created in December 1988.



For the story behind the title of the song, please read this book by Tatsuhiko Shibusawa:


【Free Shipping】The Wickedest Woman in the World
Price: 510 yen (tax included, separate shipping fee)

Demo tape B side, here:



This is my second favourite self-written song:



This is my favorite amongst the songs I’ve written. I came up with the whole song melody:



I think this song was completed just before our bassist left:


Then, the song after the bassist left. So the bass is different.
I think that the band broke up before a live performance of the new song that hadn’t yet a title.
It’s a practice recording in the studio, but since it’s well recorded and it’s a cool song, I decided to upload it as it was too good to be buried:



Because the vocalist cannot be contacted, I have used her photos without permission. I’m very sorry.
We went on TV (Cool Band Heaven) in the Victor's ladies band feature video and the video of "666" was also on YouTube and that was okay, OK?
Please contact me if it’s inconvenient. I’d be happy if you want to contact me anyway ~ ~

* Since it was a full moon yesterday (it was a harvest moon!), I tried to treat the huge rose quartz that my friend gave me to the moonlight, but I forgot to finish, so now it has raging sunburn (; _;)
& Yesterday before taking a bath, I put my bras and silks in the dryer and then went to the bathroom, forgot about them and they were all dried up and wrinkly this morning _ | ¯ | ○
I'm told if you like it please click "like"!

Best Regards (LOL)