About Vajra

New York-based dark rock mavens Vajra (pronounced "vahj-rah") have returned. The long silence between debut self-produced cult album Pleroma (2012) and the group's inspiring and mind-bending new EP 'Irkalla' - both featuring powerhouse session drummer and long-time friend Blake Fleming (ex-Mars Volta) - was the product of a rigorous touring schedule and a complex confluence of unexpected dark events that paralyzed vocalist/visionary Annamaria Pinna's songwriting output.

Pinna and core bandmates, guitarist Dave Sussman (formerly of industrial metal pioneers Bile and the early New York incarnation of Criss Angel's Angeldust) and drummer Jimmy DeMarco (Soultone Cymbals Artist) conjure music from a diverse panoply of threads. Indeed, the creation process for 'Irkalla' pushed forward in the darkest shadows and the most brilliant of lights.

"We are travelers who go outside the bounds of a sense-based perception to catch a musical or lyrical idea and then translate it to the material realm. When we get out of our own ways, we are translators or conduits for energies that move through us. Honoring what comes through is important for us. Musically, lyrically, and visually we explore what we are driven to explore, and we release what we decide to release when the time is right," offers Pinna. "It's mainly instinct. We usually release on auspicious days. For 'Irkalla', each release also was released on a day that was a derivative of three in terms of numerology. For Pleroma, it was the summer solstice. "

Pinna's complex puzzle of lyrics, music, and themes are always in constant kaleidoscopic motion. While some pieces of Vajra's musical picture come together with relative ease, others take time to marshal into place. The push and pull of the process isn't nested in time per se. The songwriting (and overall aesthetic) comes together through surreptitious cosmic provenance and sheer artistic will. An album, like 'Irkalla' for instance, isn't merely the sum of its parts. To wit, Vajra recently released videos for "Maya," "Crown or Crucify," "Sever the Tie," “Wavering” and "Wind," which were internally-written, shot, produced and edited by Pinna and Sussman and was co-shot with DeMarco. The videos operate as separate story puzzle pieces to the larger short film of 'Irkalla''s whole. The video for “Maya” was awarded nine Official Selections awards at the Cannes International Cinema Festival 2021, the New York Independent Cinema Awards 2021, the Montreal Independent Film Festival 2021, the 2021 ARFF Paris, Venice Shorts 2021, Chicago Indie Film Awards, the Kalakari Film Festival, Boston Independent Film Awards 2021, Berlin International Art Film Festival 2022.

"Things shift and move throughout the album depending on the song and each moment within the song," Pinna reveals. "More concretely, we attempt to weave a tapestry of melodic rock with dark ambient experimental interludes. Perhaps the music and lyrics of 'Irkalla' reflect an esoteric space to explore the dark night of our souls. What is important is that the music may provide a portal to go on a journey. The journey will be different for each individual. My musical heroes have done this for me."

At its core, Vajra can be called dark rock, but the spectrum isn't always pinned to the tinges of the abyss. "The influences are varied," affirms Pinna. "Living in different places like Mumbai, Tuscany, NOLA, San Francisco and New York color my experience. Dad was a monk before he met my mom, and his spirituality has infused the way I perceive my experience. I've studied yoga, meditation, dance, composition at Julliard and law, and I have this condition called Synesthesia, which affects how I process music. Nature, life, art, Tarkovsky, von Trier, Kubrick, Lynch, philosophers and consciousness astronauts (e.g., Terence McKenna, Alan Watts, Baba Ram Das, Joseph Campbell, etc.), mysticism, the occult, history, dance and politics are influences. Musically, it's a lot of everything including Tool, A Perfect Circle, Om, Classical Hindustani, Alice In Chains, Duran Duran, Black Sabbath, Deftones, soul music, The Mars Volta, etc."

Conceptually, 'Irkalla' is the first part of a trilogy exploring the various levels of consciousness. Not the medical definition, but rather the philosophical (Eastern and Western) and esoteric. The use of the Sumerian word, "'Irkalla'," which is a mythological Underworld of sorts for which there's no return, is both metaphorical and literal. The trials and tribulations Pinna experienced while writing 'Irkalla' appeared overlapping and ceaseless. Her own personal Hell. Similarly, the lyricist wanted to also venture into the lowest level of consciousness as this theme slithered throughout the album's six snake-like songs. The metaphoric association to the ancient Underworld also plays out in the bonus tracks on 'Irkalla', where Vajra deconstruct their influences and spirit animals into a three-part music ritual dedicated to the Shadow Queen (her Sumerian name is Ereshkigal and her Greek counterpart is Hekate).

"'Irkalla' focuses on the lowest level of consciousness," Pinna says. "It is the base, material, selfish, ego aspects of ourselves (i.e., the ego-driven, lie, cheat, steal, aspects of the self). It is the place that we must shine a light and acknowledge before we move to the next levels of awareness. Also, I'm obsessed with the Sumerian history right now. I was contemplating Goddess energy, and when and what prompted what I see as an imbalance between the masculine and feminine energies. I was wondering what it really meant to have a God and why it was considered, by some, a 'He.' I'm also fascinated by what is behind the concepts of heaven and hell."

'Irkalla' was produced by New York native Daniel 'Sahaj' Ticotin (Ra, Mötley Crüe). Pinna was introduced to Ticotin in 2018 after both were on different spiritual missions while in India. The twosome hit it off as former expats and with similar interests in music. The majority of the sessions were captured in Los Angeles, with keyboards and some harmony vocals being put to proverbial tape at Pinna's home studio in New York. The drums were also tracked in upstate New York at a different studio by session drummer Blake Fleming. Based on his impressive work for the non-album single, "The Mirror," Vajra again hired two-time Grammy winning studio ace Camilo Silva F. Between Ticotin's sage experience as producer/mixer and Silva's deft mastering job, 'Irkalla', with all its hidden caves and spectacular peaks, sounds positively explosive.

For sure, Vajra have the future pegged to today with the launch of riveting music videos and the broadcast of their striking Tas Limur (Volto, Tool) designed cover art. It's from here that the adventurous outfit will continue to unfurl angels and demons, light and dark, as they prowl into the future on new indie Thunder Cult Records.

By Chris Dick