Sasha's Extreme

Sasha Braganca plays keyboards for an emerging Death Metal band in Melbourne

Sasha Braganca's variety is her beauty. She brings in melody to Orpheus, a band that thrives on extreme riffs and growls. Of Goan descent, Sasha began her music career playing saxophone for a jazz band, but for now she has embarked on a journey into the world of melodic death metal. Orpheus recently played at a gig in Richmond for new emerging bands and has been selected for the semi-finals of this event.

The band itself comprises five people. “There’s Milky on bass, Matt on drums, Chris on guitar/vocals, Joao on guitars, and me on the keys. The band is a radical bunch of people. We are all completely comfortable with each other, so it’s awesome working together. They are like family to me.”

It was Metallica that introduced her to metal and it was her love of Chidren of Bodom, that she shared with her band member Chris, which got Orpheus started. Sasha and Chris got talking at a local gig and then Chris organized for a few others to join them and Orpheus was formed.

Why Orpheus? “Orpheus is a Greek mythical figure, who was held in high respect for his musical and poetry abilities. He had the ability to charm any human or creature with his talent.”

Lead singer and guitarist Chris is pleased with the way things have worked out with Sasha. “She challenges me as a musician! As we play harmony solos and so on it means I have to play tighter than ever in order to play perfectly in sync with her, not only that she writes brilliant stuff! She’s a very gifted musician.”

One of the appealing things about Melbourne is that everyone knows at least one person who plays in a band. And Sasha, who grew up in Reservoir, says as much: “If I didn’t live in Melbourne I wouldn’t be where I am today…Melbourne has a lot to offer you just have to find it.”

Sasha has come a long way since she discovered Metallica at 13. “Metallica is more thrash metal but it opened up a lot for me. I got into Children of Bodom and other bands. Later on my friend’s brother gave me a few In Flames albums, which opened a lot to the melodic death metal genre. So I guess it all went with the flow. Since being in the band, Joao our guitarist has introduced me to a lot of excellent metal bands as well. With Death Metal there is so many subgenres that can branch out (melodic, progressive, etc) but it’s an insane genre to play and explore.”

Sasha is not particularly bothered by the niche nature of the genre she plays in and is willing to experiment. “We’ll appeal to metalheads, all lovers of metal and heavy/melodic music! We don’t strap ourselves to a small genre of metal, we play fast, we play slow, we play brutal and we play melodic!”

However, before her foray into metal, her music was on a different plane altogether. She picked up the saxophone in high school to play with a few jazz bands. And its something she obviously enjoyed. “It was fun to play with other people, and bands. Piano was more of a solo instrument for me in High school. So it’s helped in the sense of playing in a group and working within a group.”

Outside of smoky (well, not anymore) bars, she has another life on the side. She is a student of design which she admits is “pretty cool” but says that music is still “up there”. “I’d like to be a professional musician someday. At the moment I’m just exploring genres, practicing, writing, recording, performing in bands, and of course Orpheus,” says Sasha who lists street art, writing, subcultures, psychology, myths, surrealism, tattooing, and my dog, Jasper under other interests.

Check out Orpheus on www.myspace.com/orpheusmetaloz