MARAKANDA
Biography
Marakanda was founded by myself (Giovanni Pagliarulo) together
with Jigal Fichtner (Bass) and Benjamin Piltz (Drums) in the summer of 1998.
After I left my band called Hora Suprema (Gothic Doom-Metal), I met an old friend
Benjamin, we were together in a band, both guitarists, in our first band...
the name changed a few times... and he told me that he wanted to play drums...
so I invited him to come with me for a Jam-Session... It didn't take much time
so the first songs have been written and I called my friend Jigal (who played
guitar with me in Hora Suprema for a few time) and he came in with his bass
guitar... Yes it is right - MARAKANDA was founded by three guitarists!!! And
two of them changed their instruments... Jigal, a drummer Daniel and me had
a few Jam-Sessions before, from winter 1997 to July 1998 but we got a break...
so we restarted in August - September '98 with the new line-up. With Jigal we
completed the songs and a few new songs (like "97end" from the CD
"Spaces"). So in November we started to record the tracks and in April
'99 we released our first CD "Stonefly" ... it was not as professional
like "Spaces" now... but it "rocked" very good...
But like nearly everything in life... things changed!!! And
so it came that after some musical discussions... I had to decide with whom
of them to go on with the band... but it was not possible to go on with both
of them... so I took a difficult decision and called my friend Jigal to tell
him that I had to go on with Benjamin... so he left... but we are still really
good friends and we are still in contact... now he is a great fan of us (thank
you Jigal !!!). But it was very difficult to find a new bass-player... so it
took many time... in the early summer of 2000?? (I have to ask him... I'm not
really sure...) we met Ian Barker, an english man... I knew him before but never
had great contact to. He came in... he liked our songs so we started with him
a new era.... I wrote many new songs but one day I asked him if he would be
pleased to write some lyrics for us... his first reaction was: "me?...
why me?"... I told him: "well, you are from England and I guess you
are destinated to write some lyrics for us!" From that day he started to
write and he wrote many many nice lyrics... he just couldn't stop... hahahaha...
and I have to tell you - I am very proud to sing his lyrics... because I can
really find myself in them... they are fantastic!
We started to record some new songs at the end of 2001... these
recordings have never been finished (from that time the songs "IF"
and "Lost" have found place on our cd "Spaces")... 'cause
in January 2002 our complete rehearsal room with all our instruments, tapes
and and and... everything burnt out!!!! It was the blackest day of our life...
you can immagine.
So it took a long break to restart... but in that time Ian
and me decided to go on without Benjamin... because of musical and personal
conflicts... and during the summer of 2002 we tried out some new drummers and
new rehearsal rooms! We found Michael Hodapp and so we started our reherasals
in January the 1st, 2003... we wrote some new songs and after a few concerts
we decided to record a pre-demo... we went to the studio of an old friend of
mine in November 2004, where we recorded five new and four elder tracks... and
the result is "SPACES"... we are very proud of... and during the last
year we got many very positive reviews about our CD and also about our live
concerts...
Now it’s 2006... time marches on.... we have some more new
songs and we still are writing new ones... I’m sure that our next CD will be
also great and much better than the songs we wrote in the last year... Now we
are looking forward, what the future will bring... and the only thing that matters
is... that we can go on writing songs, playing them live and record a new CD...
maybe at the end of this year!
Giovanni Pagliarulo - MARAKANDA
Contacts:
e-mail: giovanni.pag@t-online.de
e-mail : info@marakanda-web.info
www.marakanda-web.info
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