Greetings Sharon, what´s up with Derketa? how´s the band doing?
Greetings. Right now im just finishing up some of the newer material so that we can go into the studio by the end of this year to record our first full length LP called “In Death We Meet”. The band seems to be coming along fine, im really happy with this lineup; it’s a lot of fun. Distance is a problem because I live 2 – 2-1/2 hours away from Heather and Jim so we cant get together to practice much. 

Why have you remained so quiet all these years? how come Derketa have released so few recordings in 10 years?
I just needed a break from it all. Once the original lineup broke up, it was hard to find others to work with so I got discouraged and gave it up for a while. After not being in for a few years I realized that I really missed writing and recording so I decided to give it another go. As far as the recordings, after the breakup in 1991 I didn’t get back into it until 1997 but still didn’t have a steady lineup so I didn’t have anyone to record with. Once I hooked up with my current drummer Jim in 1999, we try and record as much as we can. Its just time and money really that prevents more recordings. Hopefully in the future that will change. Derketa is a constant presence in my life now so I have the desire to write more songs and to get them recorded.

Many people think Derketa became myhtic, what can you tell us? 
No Derketa didn’t become Mythic. What happened was Terri (my original drummer) and I weren’t getting along anymore. When I confided with Mary that we needed to find a new drummer, she told Terri so they conspired to form a band to screw over Derketa. Dana, their guitarist/vocalist was suppose to join Derketa as the second guitarist but when she moved up here, Terri told her to write some songs so they can form their own band. Since Derketa already had a following, they used Derketa’s name to get themselves known so people thought that it was the same band. Since I didn’t put out any recordings at that time, it was easy for people to assume that Derketa was now this band. At the time I really didn’t care so I didn’t do anything about it. But it does really bother me that people think that I was a part of that band.

Mythic was´nt too prolific in recordings, either is this something that happens with every band you´ve played with?
Well I never played in Mythic and had nothing to do with them. The same thing happened with Mythic as it happened with Derketa as far as their breakup. Dana and Terri weren’t getting along so Dana went on to form Demonic Christ with new members. They weren’t together very long to put out too many releases. 

Why do you leave Mythic?
Again, I was never in that band and was not into their music.

Back to Derketa, who´s playing drums? is he(Or she) a steady member or just a studio musician?
Jim Sadist from NunSlaughter is my drummer. He is an actual member. Heather is my bassist.

I belive your last recordings were for a tribute for someone called mad max. What can you tell us about those songs?
Yes, it was just one song that I wrote for him called “Your Rotting Flesh”. Master from Bestial Mockery emailed me and asked if I would go on the comp CD that he was putting out in his memory.

Who else is on this compilation? who was Mad Max? someone close to the band?
The other bands on this are: Beer Vomit, Bestial Mockery, Decayed, Destruktor, Lust, Martire, ONI, Ouroboros, Portal, Sons of Satan, Stargazer, Suicidal Winds, Teutonic, Throneum, Unholy Archangel, Unholy Massacre and Worship. Mad Max had a distro/zine out called “Impaler of Trendies” and also was in the bands Lust and Worship. He was a friend through emails, we would email a lot actually back and forth during the days, almost like chatting. He was one of the first people in the underground that came across my email address and started emailing me and we became instant friends. He was going to put out the next Derketa release on his label. But he was a bit fucked in the head, moved to Canada to get out of France for a while, then got really drunk one night and jumped off a bridge and killed himself. He was highly suicidal so everyone knew that it was going to happen eventually. Since I had promised Max the next Derketa release, I felt that I should honor that and go onto the tribute CD for him. So I wrote a song that was more on the doom side since Max really liked that kind of music. One note regarding that tribute CD, the track listing got fucked up and Derketa and Destruktor got switched. That has been corrected but some might have the original release of it so “Your Rotting Flesh” is actually track #5. But the song is cut off in the beginning and skips on this CD so it doesn’t sound the greatest. The song is uploaded onto mp3.com so people can hear it there.

Many of us are waiting for the upcoming release of your cd with Necroharmonic, why do you choose "Godess of death" as the title' ? Tell us about the songs in it? any previous unreleased stuff?
Jim came up with the title; Derketa was the goddess of death so since it’s a collection of our material up until 2000, we just decided to name it the meaning of Derketa. This recording has the ’89 rehearsal, The Unholy Ground demo, the Premature Burial 7” from Seraphic Decay, the Begotten Son 7” and an unreleased song called “lost in sorrow”. 

Let´s go back in time, Wich was your first metal album?which female musician influenced you into starting your own band?
My first metal album was Black Sabbath’s Greatest hits that my aunt gave me when I was 10 years old. Theres quite a few female musicians that played some sort of an influence on me, like Joan Jett, Dora from Warlock, Lita Ford even. But my main influence that got me into wanting to start a band, or be in a band, was bands like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Ozzy, etc….

How did you family react when you decided to form a band and became part of the underground death metal scene? 
They thought it was silly and wanted me to be into a “nicer” type of music scene but that’s what I was into. They pretty much left me alone about it. I think they thought it was only a phase of some sort.

What do they think now of your life style'
Theyre so used to it that its not even an issue anymore. I don’t get lectures or comments about it in a negative way. They’ve pretty much mellowed out over the years.

Do you think the metal enviroment is ruled exclusively by men? why?
Yes, the metal scene is definitely dominated by men. I guess a lot of girls are afraid to venture out of the norm. Ive always been a “tom boy” so its not a strange environment for me to be in. Its just what im into.

Has the fact of being a female band, been an advantage or a drawback for Derketa? 
Both actually. Some guys want to check Derketa out because they know there are girls in it so that is something that stands us out from the majority of the bands out there. But in the same sense its also negative because there are others that don’t give Derketa the respect as they do with male bands. Gender should have nothing to do with music. Everyone is an individual so music shouldn’t be looked upon or judged by a band members’ gender. With Derketa, I write all of the songs and I don’t think you can tell a female is behind the core of the band. Morbid is morbid, male or female.

When listening to derketa i find slow heavy doom segments. are you into this kind of music? 
Yes I love doom. Im just into more moody music with aggression and I think doom gives death metal a nice atmosphere.

You´ve known the undergound scene for a long time now, do you think internet has affected the scene in a positive, or negative way ? 
Positive for sure, its so much easier for bands to get info out to others in a quick manner. It would have been nice to have this back when we all were starting out instead of spending so much money in postage and writing out letters. It was very time consuming and contact with people in other countries was very hard to keep up. Now if you need to get a hold of someone, you just send them an email and they get it instantly. The only way that I can see it as negative is that more people will come across this stuff then it wont be so underground.

Who designs your website ? what´s the band input to the site? 
I design the website. Its not the greatest, just done up in Front Page, but it was easy to do and we needed to get with the times. I pretty much will tell the other members when I make an update to see if they have any inputs or changes.

Your 7" plit ep with Nunslaughter made people aware of Derketa again, why did you decide to re-record the song "crypts of darkness", instead of recording new songs? 
Crypts of Darkness is a new song. We recorded it in 1999 and it was released on Dileria Outfitters and then Ordealis wanted to press it onto a picture disc which just came out in February of this year.

Besides the release for Necroharmonic, have you thought about releasing a full lenght album in the near future?
Yes, we’ll be going into the studio soon to record “In Death we Meet” which will be about 7 songs. The only song that will be re-recorded on that is “Your Rotting Flesh” because the original recording of that was done on an old 4track and I used a local studio drummer to get it recorded in time for Masters release. The production is awful and the vocal levels are too muddy. So I want to record it again so that it sounds better and with the actual lineup. 

Final words, any special message for your fans in Latin america?
Yes, thanks for sending this interview and for your support. Check out the website for updates on the band as I keep that updated regularly. www.derketa.com. Morbid wishes………..