Hello, hello, hello! Welcome to Krakatoa’s THIRD EVER exclusive interview! Maskenko as always played magnificently on our stage at Krakatoa. These guys were Fantastic at Punk Fest. Krakatoa had the privilege to catch up with the lovely Masenko band prior lockdown at our Eruption shows, they were so fantastic to chat with!
Masenko: “He’s here! Typical! Always one!” *Laughs
Krakatoa: “No worries! We’re all good? So, first of all, introduce yourselves and your band.”
T: “So, we’re Masenko, the bassist is Jack…”
C: “… I’m Chera, I play rhythm guitar.”
T: “I’m Tony and I’m the drummer and more or less lead singer.”
B: “I’m Bensi and I play lead guitar.”
Krakatoa: “Nice! That’s interesting, having the lead singer and the drummer in the same role.”
T: “Well, funnily enough, we started off with me as the bassist!”
J: “And me as the drummer.”
Krakatoa: “Oh, okay!”
*Laughs
T: “I have been playing the drums for a lot longer and to a degree more classically trained through sheet music and… I think we just thought he was a much better base player than I was.”
J: “Yeah and we were also switching around in the middle of songs… and decided to stick to a structure.”
T: “And I had done the whole singing and drumming thing before.”
J: “And it just worked from there…!”
Krakatoa: “Out of interest, what inspired your band to be as it is? How did you guys come together?”
T: “Funny you should say this, my mum and Chera’s mum are friends. Two Filipino ladies, we’re “halfs” and it’s just like most mums, especially in Filipino culture “Oh! Your kid should play with my kid!!”, so me and Chera were messaging each other trying to arrange a jam together -never did- but we did so Bensi, my childhood friend was invited.”
B: “We’re honorary Filipinos!!”
*Laughs!
T: “So I was like “Do you wanna come along and meet my mum’s friends daughter? We’re gonna have a jam.” Me and Bensi played together since school. So, we did that and became three people and were missing a drummer, and Jack…”
J: “We’ve known each other like for a good long time now.”
T: “… So I called him up and we played covers for a long time, then started playing original stuff, just going into the archives, played like each other’s songs and went with the flow from there.”
Krakatoa: “Nice!”
T: “And here we are.”
J: “One thing I would say about us is that we’re close friends; more tightly close than band members. We just have that vibe together, not just musically.”
Krakatoa: “That’s great though, isn’t it? Because you get that creative collaboration.”
B: “Exactly! When it comes to playing on stage and to having that presence, I wouldn’t say showmanship but along those lines –CHEMISTRY!”
T: “We learn as we go! We’re still learning.”
Krakatoa: “How long have you guys been together?”
: “Four/five years!”
: “Three and a bit…”
: “Well, we’ve all done something together at some point.”
: “Three or four years then!”
Krakatoa: “How would you describe your band’s music style? Or what musical styles or icons do you relate to and why?”
: “I think we had trouble defining ourselves for a long time.”
: “It often felt like we were three different bands.”
: “Rock and alternative?”
: “We’re rock and alternative!”
: “Though when we first played at Krakatoa, we got the reject genre. We didn’t know what this was, like “What even is that?””
: “We just write songs and bring them to each other and just adapt to how we want to feel musically.”
: “What do you like about Krakatoa and why?”
: “Well, its sound system and production team are amazing to work with, we get feedback… the communication between the band and the sound team are top-notch!”
Krakatoa: “That is really good feedback! We’ve never had anyone talk about our sound team in such a way. They shall be absolutely delighted!”
Krakatoa: “That’s great! Thank you very much for your time!”
Chera: “Thank you!”
Check them out via their link tree!!!
https://linktr.ee/masenko?fbclid=IwAR3wUYd1N6zsbCuq9S0gUBDsErJeRoK2Xj-_5Aocuc2V48O9vj4ZJAfvIBk