Dulcinea: Facing fear with music and art

I recently attended Dulcinea’s debut album launch at the Rhino Terrace in Johor Bahru. The remarkable exhibition, left me feeling an excited curiosity, about the potential this band is yet to unleash. The new album is distinctly dissimilar from Asian bands I’ve heard, because of an integration of a vivid artistic stimulus with musical topics revolving fear. Eager to discover more about the marvelous art music fusion, I set out to interview the mastermind behind the birth of Dulcinea’s entity.

Founding member Shine Matthew Thomas (aka Matt), is the lead singer songwriter and guitarist. He has been playing in rock bands right from his high school days. He was a member of grunge band Neve, which made an album in 1997, hard rock band Awkward Orange and various other bands performing multiple gigs. Jason Ng is the keyboardist, sound engineer and programmer for Dulcinea. Current drummer Mohammed Rashid has been playing with Matt for more than 5 years in numerous projects. Guitarist Paul Yong was recruited from an advertisement from an online music forum.

The name Dulcinea, was chosen after reading a book called Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes. The protagonist embarks on a series of adventures in his pursuit of his idea of the most beautiful girl in the world. Although just a figment of his imagination, the hunt turns into an expression of hopeless love and devotion to find this metaphorical character. “Music is our search for something beautiful and our way of understanding this life,” exclaims Matt.

The fruits of Dulcinea’s labor are an 8 track theme album, The Politics of Fear. The album was self-produced, self-financed and took 10 months to make. It is structured such that it starts off with an individual going through a difficult personal struggle. At the end of the journey, the person has a cleansing moment of clarity that the blood, sweat and tears related to his endeavors, were not in vain. He realizes that every trial and tribulation is an opportunity to become a better human being and that he won’t fall, even if the world tries to drag him down. “The album is not about conquering fear, but facing up to it and emotions like regret that come along with it,” explains Matt.

Songwriting contains various thought provoking notions that encourage intellectual stimulation. The album title is derived from a song named Mercury Rising, which is about the detrimental implications of conforming to a government’s expectations. “When you have governments that exert control, on how you live and what you say, it deprives you of thinking for yourself.” Authorities that adopt a divide and conquer policy seem to crave power at the expense of keeping people dumb and afraid. They tend to implement concrete guidelines for their citizens. “When you have well defined instructions that you have to think along, you can’t evolve or grow.” The various concepts discussed throughout the album are supported by industrial rock music.

Darkness Falls is the opening track of the album which is an excellent masterpiece. It addresses the conflicting complexity that arises out of departing from a relationship that one is intimately attached to. This song draws from an eclectic range of musical influences like Skinny Puppy, Porcupine Tree, Meshuggah, Kyuss and Mastodon. The result is a monumental progressive track containing addictive riffs, odd timing signatures, electro tribal beats, head bang groovy heavy metal and a beautiful acoustic section with a poignant psychedelic solo. The song is a breath of fresh air from conventional compositions containing a verse, chorus and verse format. On the first listen, parts of it might seem haphazard and unusual. But upon my second listening, a wave of realization hit me on how the arrangement, lyrics and music are actually quite brilliant.

Artwork that accompanies this album is another enticing element about this band. The band works with 2 artists, Sushi K?n and Nicon Beh from Singapore and Penang respectively. They design and photograph pictures relating to the songs. Matt, who is also the art director, has a background in multimedia art. The incorporation of art into music appears to be a natural choice of his intimate bond with both mediums. “I combine a visual stimulus with a musical one because it’s a package for me. I don’t know whether it’s art in the shadow of music or music in the shadow of art.”

Ratexia is a song that has its own gothic image mixing textures of blood red with streaks of light and patches of darkness. It was conceived while listening to the song. “When I make music, I see colors, words and things that don’t necessarily make sense, but fit the mood of the song in a way that I am able to relate to. That’s how the images and words of Ratexia were constructed,” describes Matt. The charismatic colors and tone of the dark Dulcinea image is a representation of the overall encapsulation of the feel of the album. There is also some fantastic photography work that injects vibrant personality to the music. The impressive assortment of art coincides aptly with the divine album plan.

Live shows are expected to be an engaging spectacle. A 3D cartoon video was created for the song Among the Living, an ambiguous Malaysian toy story of sorts. Projectors are going to be used to screen the video and a collection of images for each of the other songs. “While making the album, I envisioned illustrations that would be used to add value to the experience of the live show. I wanted to portray a unique universe of art and sound,” exclaims Matt. Such techniques have been used famously to overwhelming effect by bands like Pink Floyd. Rashid also informed me of how “the band is not going to focus on the electronic side of the album but concentrate more towards the progressive rock side of the music.” Along with showcasing tracks from the album, the band intends to play at least 2 unreleased songs for their live gigs, indicating what’s to come in the second album.

One way that musicians sustain their musical ambitions, is finding an inimitable voice developed by experimenting widely. The blend of art and music is in itself a rare valuable ingredient of Dulcinea. They evolved from a side project to a gifted organism capable of communicating through crying guitars and ominous portraits. Such selections were perfectly suitable for an album surrounding the chaotic sentiment of fear. The diverse extraction of ingenious components makes me certain that their next project will be drastically different, as the quest for beauty continuously redefines itself.

At the moment, promotional methods are word of mouth and playing live. Dulcinea works with groups such as the Singapore Dark Alternative Movement and I-Band Malaysia. If you want a taste of what Dulcinea’s all about, you can check out their music at www.myspace.com/dulcineatheband. At the site, you can download some of their music for free or book them for a live gig.