Kremena Nikolova is the lead vocalist of Symphonic Metal band, Bendida. The Bulgarian band was formed back 2008 and has since delivered Metal music with a fantasy theme.
We had the pleasure to chat with Kremena and ask her about her music as well as her thoughts on other matters. You might first want to check out Bendida’s latest album, ‘First of the Heroes’, released in 2020.
Interview
Hello Kremena! How are you and the other bands of Bendida doing?
Hi, we are fine, thanks, but we miss the stage-emotions a lot.
Don’t we all miss concerts! First, let me say, I have checked your band’s new album ‘First of the Heroes’ since you contacted me and I fell in love with the whole concept and music! But for our readers who haven’t got the chance to experience your music yet, how would you introduce Bendida?
Thank you! Bendida is a Fantasy Metal Band from Bulgaria / Sofia. We combine female and male vocals with hard metal sound, powerful drums, beautiful melodic orchestrations and choirs. Our lyrics are often based on Fantasy, Fiction and Mythology and we often use the rhythmic influenced by the traditional Bulgarian folklore. Together we create the sound and the Fantasy World of Bendida: Kremena Nikolova – lead vocals, choirs Vinnie Atanasov – guitars, vocals, compositions, arrangements, lyrics, orchestrations, programming Alexander Panayotov – bass Viara Grancharova – viola da gamba Velislav Kazakov – drums Bisera Dimitrova – violin Ralica Georgieva – keyboards, vocals Plamen Dimitrov – french horn
Your album was released in March last year. How do you feel about the reception it got so far from the fans and media?
We got wonderful media reviews and lovely feedback from our fans all over the world even if we had mainly online promotion and just a few live concerts during the past difficult year 2020.
In order to get to know you better, and also get our readers excited for your new album, how about we play a game? I’ll give you a certain task in a certain scenario and you have to pick one song from ‘First of the Heroes’ to do the task. Ready?
Well, I see this won’t be just a regular interview! ☺ Sound exciting, OK!
Which song from ‘First of the Heroes’ would you use to help a friend going through hard times?
I would use the first song from the album called “Enter the sanctuary” because this song is a kind invitation for the dear listeners to enter the sanctuary and to enter Bendida’s Fantasy world as well. In this moment everybody should leave all their worries and problems behind because this is our whole idea, to give a dream-space to everyone, a place to escape reality.
Which song from ‘First of the Heroes’ would you use to introduce someone to your band’s music?
And the winner is…”Enter the Sanctuary” again! ☺ It’s a song that we use as intro before each of our live performances. “ Bendida, Bendida, Praise our Goddess…” She is the Goddess of the Moon – the Mighty Goddess of the ancient Thrace.
This song is on fire today! Which song from ‘First of the Heroes’ would you use to resist an alien-attack on Earth where the aliens have one weakness, that is songs with very high notes in vocals?
This will be “Music of the Spheres” for sure! If the poor aliens have some problems with the high notes, this song will cause them serious troubles ☺
If all songs in ‘First of the Heroes’ turned into human beings, which one would be your best friend?
This will probably be the main character from Hunt the Hunter! We don’t know his name but he loves Nature and Animals, he hates every freak that kills and destroys all the beauty on this Planet. He is searching for revenge and justice, so am I!
If all songs in ‘First of the Heroes’ turned into movies, which one would be a blockbuster?
“Vampires’ Ball” for sure!
An archeologist in the year 3031 discovers a working hard copy of ‘First of the Heroes’. After being able to play it, which song do you think would impress the future archeologist most?
“History of the World” – the song made of six parts that describe different periods from the long hard road of Humans’ civilization and development.
Thank you for playing, Kremena! Have you ever been treated in a sexist way? How would you face sexism and what advice would you give to young people who face any kind of discrimination?
I’m sure that everybody meets different kind of discrimination in his/her/its life for sure. We cannot change this fact, we can’t change people’s thinking, it would be too exhausting for us, and we would waste so much energy for arguing and proving somebody that we are right, he is not …I would give an advice to the young people…if they don’t feel much appreciated wherever they are, don’t ever stop searching for the right people, friends, study, job, community, partner. Don’t waste your time trying to prove your value to people who don’t deserve it, find people that will respect you for who you are! There’s always another choice!
Really good advice! What is your most treasured music memory from when you were growing up?
I was a kind of weird and little bit anti-social kid ☺ and the music (of course metal) was a lovely reason to find friends as weird as me. I used to visit one of my best friends then almost every week and he was sharing some metal albums with me. I heard so many wonderful metal bands for very first time thanks to this friend of mine and it was a real music adventure. By the way, years later we are still friends and this lovely person is responsible for the cool sound, mix and mastering of our two official albums, special thanks to Vladimir Bochev!
That’s a great story. Thank you for the interview Kremena! It has been a pleasure!
Thank you too for these interesting questions and thanks for supporting the Female metal bands! Take care!
