Let’s say there’s a new band out on the horizon of modern metal music that doesn’t identify as just a ‘project’ or another ‘supergroup’, let’s say there is a new band that joins forces to embrace years of experience to show the world their passion for heavy music – checking out HOW WE END is a must.
Featuring Jen Majura (Ex-Evanescence) on guitar and Diva Satanica (Ex-Nervosa) on vocals, How We End promises to be an exciting new chapter.
Rounding out the group are Jake E (Cyhra, Ex-Amaranthe) on vocals, Tom Naumann (Primal Fear) on guitar, Mitch Kunz (bass) and Adde Larsson (drums).
Our excitement level was off the charts when we heard about this new band. We were fans of each member and their other respective bands for we knew we were in for something very special. They dropped their first single and video on us for their song entitled “My Fighting Heart” and it’s a banger! It’s a massive sound comprised of different styles including crossover metal, Jen’s death growls in combination with catchy clean hook lines from her and Jake and heavy headbanger guitar riffs. Plus, it’s a pretty damn cool video! It wasn’t long before the band dropped another new song and video on us for “Levitate.” Fresh musical content plus a fan friendly and active social media presence has helped grow the band’s following. We had a talk with vocalist Diva Satanica as the band was promoting it crowd funder for a new video for their song “Does Anybody Give.” Perks for that included everything from autographs from the band to actually appearing in the music video. (As we live with this article, the band has exceeded their goal fro this crowd funded project, so kudos to the fans of How We End!). We had the chance to sit down with vocalist Diva Satanica to get the lowdown on how the band started, if there is an album in the future and even who her first celebrity crush was! She and I had very busy schedules plus I am in the U.S. and she is in Madrid, Spain. I do appreciate her kindness and patience in making this happen.
Every super hero and villain has an origin and no band is different minus getting bitten by radioactive spiders and secret government experiments. So, what’s the origin of How We End?
Diva Satanica/How We End: Everything started during the pandemic situation when Tom Naumann (Guitars – Primal Fear) and Mitch Kunz (Bass) reached me out on Facebook because they had some songs that they wrote together and they wanted to know if I would be interested in recordinga some vocal lines for them. As the songs were more than great I immediately said yes, and then Jake E (Vocals – Cyhra) got into the game writing amazing melodic vocal lines for the songs and he brought his drummer Adde with him (who has been doing some replacements for Cyhra’s drummer Alex Landenburg from Kamelot). Last but not least, the gorgeous Jen Majura (ex-Evanescence) stepped in as the new guitar player and well… that was quite something because Jen never joined a band again since she left Evanescence. So you can imagine how honored we are to have her in the project.
Band names can have a story attached to them while others are just a name picked randomly out of a hat. What about How We End?
That was another thing… haha. We had no clue which name to choose and we started doing these brainstormings in order to find something cool. So Tom just came with the idea of “How it ends” but it was already caught. So we changed it to the closest version that was “How We End” as a way to remember how life just gathered all these musicians from very different backgrounds all together.
So if the band formed during Covid and you were all connected virally, when was it before all of you physically in the same room together?
Our first time face to face all together was last February during the filming sessions for our very first videoclip of the first single called “My Fighting Heart,” which was also the first song that we wrote together. Some of them already knew each other because Adde and Jake had worked together and Tom and Mitch went to Sweden to work on the songs with Jake in the past months. Also Jen and Tom and Tom and Mitch has been friends since almost forever.
What was it like shooting the video for “My Fighting Heart”?
It was very weird because we felt that we knew each other for ages, everything was happening so smoothly that it was strange haha. Specially for some of us who have dealt with bad experiences in other projects, it was very interesting. Also for me it was a huge honor because I’ve been following their careers since I started to love metal. It was a very special and unique experience.
I love all of the extra clips that the band puts online for the fans. A lot of bands don’t take the time to do that kind of stuff? Who came up with that idea?
Jen The Machine!!!! HAHAHA She’s an amazing, super hardworking and very talented girl of course. She writes all the storylines for the videoclips and as you can see they are all brilliant! It’s important to show to the fans all the work that happens behind the scenes because sometimes people don’t have an idea of how hard you have to work just to film a video. And it’s good to share with them real experiences because we are human beings too.
For the upcoming video “Does Anybody Give,” you did a crowdfunder/Indiegogo campaign. The perks that you could get for donating were pretty amazing! You smashed it and reached your goal! Were you the least bit worried at the beginning doing something like that? Who came up with the things you could get? How did it feel smashing your goal?
It was my very first time doing this and I must confess that I never believed that we could make it because in my country it is very difficult that people invest their money in something that they didn’t see yet (even if they have perks). Luckily, Jen has a huge amount of lovely people that has helped us A LOT and we are very grateful for having the chance to share with them this great experience of being part of the video. It’s not only giving the money to the band, it’s about creating something all together as a team. And of course once again, Jen is responsible for creating that campaign with all the perks.
Is the band just doing singles or is there an EP/album somewhere down the road?
We wrote between 8-10 songs so far, and we were thinking about the next steps because we didn’t want to sign a deal with a record label yet. We wanted to try to promote it ourselves, but of course we want to release an album after releasing some singles to see people’s reaction. So let’s see, can’t wait to know what do you think about the other songs!
Is there anything else coming up on your radar that you’d like to mention? Videos? Live dates?
Our next videoclip “Does Anybody Give,” will be out mid July and our very first show will take place at Rockharz festival in Germany next week!
Last question is called Three For The Road where we ask three, fun, not your average questions. Do you remember who your first celebrity crush was?
That’s a bit embarrassing but here I go hahaha. When I was a teenager I had a picture of Travis Fimmel (the main role character in the Tv Show Vikings), when he was modeling for Calvin Klein hahahahaha.
Do you have any useless talents?
A LOT hahaha! I NEED to have the shampoo, the shower gel and everything with the tags looking at me in the shower so everything is at the right place… I hang the clothes to dry by choosing the colors so they match like in the chromatic circle… I’m a mess hahahaha!
If music was over today and you had to go into professional wrestling, what would your wrestling name be?
I guess this is even more embarrassing but when I was a kid I dreamt to be like Xena The Warrior Princess, so maybe something like Empress of The Universe hahahahahahahah!
I’m Music Magazine Owner/Editor Johnny Price
