Oceans Cry are out to put their mark on the music world going up against the odds by following what is from within than from following the gold.   Female musicians playing metal music in Southern Europe where metal is scarce and to have female musicians a rarity.  Ocean's Cry began its existence in Croatia in 2009 as a regular 4 piece unit and made a lineup change to two members—Anna and Masha. "It all started almost accidentally, when a song was written in a garage jam session, said Masha. The idea developed, and soon there was an all-female band playing covers of rock and metal songs. We began writing our own songs later that same year."  By 2010, band members changed, the only constant being Anna and Masha, until the final decision to start fresh as a duo. They worked great together, and they performed live for the first time with session musicians. Ocean's Cry played few more local smaller events, when, in 2011, they were offered a record deal, under condition to change style of music, which they politely declined. The original idea changed into a project to encourage bands to stay true to themselves and to make music that conveys emotion instead of the impression of glamorous life of rock 'n' roll. Drawing inspiration from great symphonic metal bands, the focus turned to songwriting. Currently they are working on their first album, inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy, devided into three segments, as the book. Even though they want to be diverse, their style could be described as a mixture of symphonic metal and gothic rock.

 

"We started this band  4 years ago with a four member line up, and we labeled ourselves as power metal. We kept changing the line up constantly, due to the members' other engagements. It was very stressful, so we decided to do this on  our own. Along the way, we met a lot of interesting people who are always happy to do live performances with us.  It has deffinitely affected our sound, but we like to think that our music matured with us. We have turned more to gothic metal since we're on  our own. Sometimes it's difficult to hve great chemistry on  stage with someone you don't play with on a regular basis, but it's definitely fun. We write both music and lyrics since the very beginning, so we think the sound has changed more because we've changed too, than  because of the change in the line up."

 

Masha and Anna began working together and formed a musical bond when they were young. "When we were kids, we became best friends because we liked music nobody else liked, so it was only a matter of time before we started playing together. We used to play guitar and sing  with friends, and people started noticing that we're good at it. We decided to give it a shot, and we got a lot of positive comments.  We started this band out of  curiosity that later turned  into love for music."

 

"Writing music or lyrics comes naturally. Sure, sometimes it’s inspired by something good or bad that happens to you, but it’s mostly just in the spur of a moment. You can’t really explain it, but you just feel it, and you have to sit down and write it down. It’s often triggered by something we hear, see or feel in that moment."

 

Oceans Cry is working on a five song demo.  They have kept a busy schedule as in addition to music they are going to studies with one in law school and the other in medical school..

 

 There aren’t many girls in metal scene here, so most of metal musician admire us and consider us brave. We’re very well accepted.

 

We’d say out biggest obstacle is that Southern Europe doesn’t really appreciate metal or rock music anymore. We’ve been disappointed by professionals who told us that music doesn’t really matter unless it sells well. It’s childish to believe it matters in this world, but our faith is restored when we hear someone humming our song or stopping us on the streets and telling us we’re an inspiration.

 

What makes us different from  the others is mostly our attitude towards this business.  Many artists dream of signing a huge record deal and bathing in money. It’s unrealistic. It might be we’re still young and naïve, and we still think that music changes people, but we keep telling ourselves it’s better than greed. Just the fact that we have this ability to sit down and have fun writing music means the world to us.

 

OC play a style of symphonic power metal .  Well, if you put our music in this “mathematical” equation that determines genre we’d be classified as gothic metal. And we mostly agree. But we have a feeling our writing is not consistent with one genre, so we could be classified as anything from hard rock to power metal.

 

The ladies draw strength when they get strange looks from those peering at them because they are two women playing heavy powered rock music.  Some people see this as a cry for attention. We’ve been called names , especially after you perform on an event where you have to get on stage and play metal right after a DJ has played 500 songs from his USB flash drive. It’s ridiculous sometimes. At first such comments hurt us, but now we ignore them. There are people who like you, and there are people who don’t. it’s just that the people who don’t sometimes can’t deal with it.

 

 

Also going against the grain, OC is playing in a style that does not get solid support with a strong music scene.  Metal music isn’t popular here. Sometimes people who never heard us live say we can’t really play, just because we’re girls. There aren’t many girls in this scene. Some bands have a female singer, more for aesthetic purposes than anything else. To be honest, we’ve met only one rock band from our county that has an all-girl line up. It’s hard being a girl in this scene, but at the same time, it attracts more attention. So, sometimes, male artist say we’re not bad. For girls, of course.