Konqistador

Konqistador deliver a hybrid of electro-world-fusion delving in Eastern European industrialism, Baltic and Black Sea folklore, time honored Middle Eastern history. Their sound is delivered through ancient rhythms, ethereal and emotive guitars and adventurously explorative vocals presented in English, French, Spanish, Romanian, Turkish, Arabic and Russian. Members of the band are avid archivists as originally recorded field recordings discovered from their travels around the world, richly influence their music.
The band formed in 2005 when songwriters R.R. Tiessen and L.R. Graham took a break from their project '72Blues', an electro gospel blues band based in Melbourne, Australia. They recruited music colleague D. Andruchow to commence writing for the new project. D. Andruchow was based in Detroit, Michigan but used Melbourne as the home base for the band.
Konqistador's debut album started to take shape as the band honed in on their unique sound that fused electro-rock with world music influences. The band commenced recording at Metropolis Studios in Melbourne with producer Dan Rejmer and recorded 9 songs for their 2005 release Courage Riot. The album was self-produced and presented in five languages including; English, French, Turkish, Spanish and German. Courage Riot explored themes of vendettas, revenge, honor, dignity and self discipline. The album was distributed through indie labels Warthog Records and Shock Records in Australia and New Zealand.
The band toured the album extensively throughout 2005-06 across Australia, Canada, USA and Europe and started to work on a strong reputation for their avant-garde live performance fusing music, visuals, multi-languages and found sounds from their travels around the world.
R.R. and L.R. devoted the majority of 2007 to traveling internationally and archiving exclusive audio sound-scapes, interviews, and spoken word to build the foundation for their next recording project. The band moved towards an industrial-electro sound with eastern influences from the Balkan region, Middle East and Central Asia.
Upon return to Australia in 2008, Konqistador recruited Melbourne based collaborator Hugh Crosthwaite to commence the writing and recording of the band's second EP release Electriker. The short play EP showcased three new songs; Dead Dead Down, Electriker and Static Prosthetic and three remixes from Sydney, Australia based musicologist INfest8. The Electriker release was delivered in several languages including: Czech, English, Latin and German.
The band toured the album throughout 2008 and early 2009 with industry showcases at CMJ Music Marathon, NXNE Music and Film Festival, Popkomm and Canadian Music Week. While on a break from touring in the winter of 2009, the band reunited in Detroit to conceptualize new songs for their third release titled Suada. Album recording commenced in January 2009 with a collection of archived material from around the world including; traditional Afghanistan folk music, turn of the century 'Turkish Karagoz' (shadow puppet music) and Romanian gypsy rhythms. Suada is a reflection and symbol of Konqistador's inspiration from the east and the ancient tales that were discovered while archiving.
The band is now based in Istanbul, Turkey and Detroit, Michigan USA and Suada is due for release this 2010.
Members
* L.R. Graham - vocals
* R.R. Tiessen - drums, percussion, producer
* D. Andruchow - bass guitar, vocals, guitar, synthesiser, producer
* H. Crosthwaite - bass guitar, guitar, synthesiser, percussion, orchestral arrangements, co-producer

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