Photo courtesy of Violenta
Violenta
Violenta
Violenta is an up-and-coming hard rock band based out of Milwaukee. Combining elements of alternative metalcore and hard rock, they have been carving out a reputation for themselves between their ongoing tour and recent musical releases. Recently, their frontman, Alexander Seldenbach-Elizondo, sat down for an interview prior to the start of the band’s ongoing tour.
When asked about his own musical origins, Elizondo responded, “My mom enrolled me in piano classes when I was four years old, so music has been a part of my life since I can remember. There was a lot of ear training that went into that, so it was a mixture of piano and vocal lessons and then that just continued and actually expanded into my adulthood. So, I started taking guitar and drum lessons and I was in the school band where I played the saxophone. You know, music has just been a part of my life the entire time and, as I got older, I started forming my own bands and now I’m in this band named Violenta and we got some big things coming up so, I think music will always be a part of my life and it’s exciting. I’m at an exciting point right now.”
Describing the music stylings of Violenta, Elizondo said, “So, the official genre is alternative metalcore. It’s also known as baddiecore, which I did not come up with, but that is something that has been said. It’s more like Bad Omens. That’s another group that we sound like or Dayseeker. That’s another group we sound like. So, it’s more of a melodic metal with the occasional aggressive screams, but it’s mostly singing.”
Bad Omens
On the topic of who he would describe as influences on Violenta’s sound, Elizondo said, “I guess right now I would say Bad Omens or Dayseekers. It took me a while to get my voice to be able to sing like that and perform and create that tone. So, I’m naturally more of a melodic singer with a full voice. When I sing like that, I’m manufacturing the sound. It’s not country. I don’t have that sound, but it’s the fullness of country. I don’t have the twang though. I like going to karaoke. I can sing a lot of different types of music. It’s kind of like a party trick of mine.”
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On Violenta’s lineup, Elizondo responded, “We have Shane Madsen on the drums. He’s the oldest out of all of us. He has the most stage experience because he’s older than us, but also because he’s the only one of us who’s done at-length touring. We have Luke Veranth on guitar and I met Luke when I was going to school at UWM. We met in choir class actually and we just teamed up at that point and we haven’t stopped since. We have Matt Chia on bass. He’s actually here on a visa right now. He’s from Malaysia so, he’ll be with us for the first few shows of the tour, but after that he won’t be able to continue on the tour because of the way things are. And then we have myself on vocals.
Violenta is currently on tour with stops in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Cadillac and Flint, Michigan, Green Bay, Wisconsin, Western Illinois and Eastern Iowa and Texas. The tour will also see them take the stage with Afroman.
