Metal Music Interviews

Interview Interrogation at Bloodstock Open Air - Vampyra

20/9/2026

Darkness swept the fields of Catton Hall with the sounds of squeaky horns bellowing at each moving step, blood curdled as the clown brought his horror tricks to spook the living daylights of fellow Bloodstock folk, the unmistakable smell of burning leather descended on the summer air, and a whispery breeze came from the deepest bowls of hell, alas Kent's Vampyra were alive.

Here is a quartet full of camaraderie, eloquence and practical jokes, that even the likes of Sweden's Avatar could stand in awe if they so caught the live performance by Vampyra. It was just so that we dissected and disembowelled the plague bearers of Vampyra through the interrogation, but alas they were left with their souls intact, suffice to say they recovered well....

Being interrogated was Boingo the Clown, the Gut Rumbler of Vampira, Ingrid Orlock, Skin Basher of Vampira, Madame Hex, the Screaming Banshee for Vampira and Count Venom II, the Wire Shredder for Vampira.

Here is the transcript of their fateful questioning.

"Kent is the Garden of England, but Medway's the skip.
So we're gonna bring the skip."

For those who have not heard of Vampyra, please give us the backstory of the band?

Ingrid Orlok:-

"The backstory is, we got kicked out of hell quite a while ago, and it was the right in the middle of COVID, and we got bored, so we thought, "Oh, let's, let's start a band." Let's cause some chaos."

You bring together horror punk and metal together, are you into literature and films in the horror genre and do they play a part in your influences?

Madame Hex:-

"I am massively into horror literature. My favourite book so far is, 'Incidents Around the House'. There's also... I really like 'Come Closer'. At the minute, I'm reading 'Mr. Magic', which is all about a kids TV show that's gone a bit weird and creepy. I love that sort of stuff."

Boingo:-

"Oh, well, I mean, as you can probably tell by my interesting choice of attire... [Count Venom II points out that the interview is audio only, so Boingo cannot be seen].

Well, for those who can't see me, I am dressed as a clown, inspired by the likes of course, Pennywise, The Joker, Killer Klowns from 'Outer Space', and my personal favourite, Art the Clown, AKA 'Terrifier'. But I'm also massively into Stephen King, specifically 'The Shining', one of my favourite horror stories of all time. And just in general, I love the halloween season, so being in this band is sort of like getting to live halloween every day. So it's like a dream come true."

Count Venom II:-

"Before joining this band, I wasn't really into anything horror, like horror crazy. But yeah, my leather jacket, as you say, that I wear when I play live, that was inspired by Alice Cooper and stuff like that."

Ingrid Orlok:-

"Sorry, what was the question? [question re-asked] Oh, yeah, absolutely. I've read 'Phantom of the Opera' in the original French language, which doesn't sound that impressive, because I grew up in France. But yeah, it's a great book. I went through a proper, like, horror phase where 'The Phantom of the Opera' was my favourite. My favourite silent film is 'Phantom of the Opera'. I've never watched the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical or movie. I've got no interest. I just take one look at it, and it's like, and I'm like, "ugh, I'm just gonna go listen to Pink Floyd to wash the taste out," you know?

I don't know. I just love the clichés and everything, the movies. I've read Frankenstein. I've read the original Dracula, Bram Stoker. That's probably the biggest book I've ever read, actually, Dracula. It's so freaking big, and it's like 400 pages."

You all are in your own unique attire. You've all got your own personas on stage as well. Can you tell us your character's backstories?

Count Venom II:-

"Ah, well, you're the first person to actually ask that, so thank you very much. People always ask the same, "So how did you get together?" and, "Oh, how would you describe your music?" Thank you for asking about our backstories, who we actually are. Because everybody wants to know about the music, the band, but they don't ever wanna know about us.

And that's why we we moved to Kent because, I know that it's quite a big county and we got fed up living in hell.

Ingrid Orlok:-

"Anyway, I guess I start first... since I've got the gun pointed at me. I'm Ingrid Orlok, skin basher of Vampyra. I am half vampire on my mother's side and half zombie on my father's side, and the fact that I was procreated is quite a feat, because although zombies tend to be quite stiff. They tend to break off quite easily... their parts. So, it's quite a feat that I'm here, actually. Sometimes I feel like being something else.

It depends where the makeup takes me. Sometimes I can be a puppet, you know, depending. Uh, I don't know what I'm saying, actually. What am I saying? What am I saying? I... no, see, see, we're not used to people asking us who we are, and we're like, "Yeah, actually, that's a good thought. Who are we? I don't know" "

"All I know is I spend so much time looking after this band, because I am basically the butler of the band. And I don't have time to think of myself. I'm, like, too busy thinking about my dependents.

And here we are, at Bloodstock Open Air. The term 'open air', conjures up some nice feelings of freedom and being able to breathe. 'Cause if you live anywhere near London, you're like, "yeah, that we don't know what open air is." "

Boingo:-

"I am Boingo the clown, the gut rumbler of Vampyra. I used to be a well-loved, popular, respectable clown for the Medway Circus before a terrible tragedy occurred, which we do not speak of. And then, in my most desperate hour, Madame Hex found me and took me in as her pet clown, uh, jester, if you will. [claiming Madame Hex 'needed some entertainment around' and that 'she also practices her magic and experiments on me]. I'm basically Madame Hex's bitch."

Madame Hex:-

"I am Madame Hex, the screaming banshee for Vampyra. And how I came to be in the band is, I'm actually from the fifth circle of hell, otherwise known as the HR department. I was sent on a mission to go and... because a lot of band members kept going missing with Vampyra, and we weren't sure why, so I was sent to go investigate, and then they ended up kidnapping me as well. And she, Ingrid captured me as the singer, so that's why I'm here. [Count Venom II interjects and asks 'was it actually the fifth circle of hell? 'Cause I thought it was the ninth', before adding 'See, that's the problem with hell, It's so badly signposted']

And this is how this one [points towards Count Venom II] came into the band, we actually used to have Count Venom I in our band. But he went missing on real suspicious circumstances. We're not too sure where he is at the minute. Boingo might have eaten him. We don't know. But he pretty much jumped at the opportunity to replace his twin brother. That's why they look exactly alike."

You won Kent Metal to the masses Kent, given it’s scene is very strong, how challenging was the competition?

Madame Hex:-

"The final was absolutely stacked with amazing bands. And with Metal to the Masses, we weren't even planning on doing it. It's only 'cause another band dropped out and couldn't do it anymore, we got asked. But, um- [Count Venom II interjects with 'that's the story we're sticking to. They dropped out']

Colloquially, Kent is referred to as the Garden of England. So will you be bringing the black roses to Kent?

Madame Hex:-

"I always say, because it's Medway, um, Kent is the Garden of England, but Medway's the skip. So we're gonna bring the skip."

"When we're not performing, we try to blend into human society
by trying to be as boring as possible"

Musically, you sound like as if Siouxsie and the Banshees, Sex Pistols, and The Cure and Lacuna Coil produced offspring. Is that a fair assessment of your style?

Ingrid Orlok:-

"Well, I don't actually know much about The Cure and Lacuna Coil. So I can't really comment on that, but I'll take your word for it. [Madame Hex adds - 'Probably, yeah. We sound like music.']"

In which case, we'll flip the script. Musically, who are your influences?

Count Venom II:-

"Well, I watched Wednesday 13. The others, they were lazy and tired. So they all went back, they all went to bed because they're pussies. Lightweights. They can't handle a metal festival. But they're good, they're decent musicians. That's, that's why I keep them around."

Would Vampyra ever create a mini movie involving yourselves?

Madame Hex:-

"I think he might mean our human alter egos, 'cause that's who we've played before. For some reason, people think this is a character. No, no, no, we've got human alter egos. You know, I have to go to Morrison's to do shopping at some point.

Ingrid Orlok:-

"We do blend into... when we're not performing, we try to blend into human society by trying to be as boring as possible. So that would not make an exciting movie ever, I'm afraid. But if we appear as ourselves, that's another story all together. Um, sorry, what was the question? If there was a movie?"

Count Venom II:-

"A mini movie. Just a day in the life of Vampyra, I guess."

Madame Hex:-

"Yeah, that's it. That's a really good idea actually. Yeah. [Boingo adds 'I think it would be cool, If we got the right actors and actresses].

Ingrid Orlok:-

"A millennia in the life of Vampyra. That's what we ought to call it that. A millennia."

Considering we're halfway through the year, what plans do you have for the rest of 2026, going into 2027? What are you scheming?

Boingo:-

"[at the time of the interview a busy month in August]. We're not just playing Kent, we are trying to branch out further. So we've got gigs in Brighton, we've got gigs in, where else? London. We just want bigger and better. Just keep going, get ourselves out there as much as possible. We'll be hopefully raising money to release an EP.

'Cause we've got songs we've played live but we've never recorded, so we wanna get that done and get some studio time in."

Count Venom II:-

"And once we got all that out of the way, probably write some more songs, much to this dismay of... I don't know why I say that. I keep saying that, but I think people actually like us, so. We're trying to create chaos."

[Count Venom II + Madame Hex turned the banter level up beyond level 13 at this point]

"We're trying to create chaos [CV II]. Why do you like that? [MH] It's very disheartening [CV II]. You humans are weird [MH]. I spent the past two days crying in my tent because people kept coming up to us saying, "I'm really looking forward to seeing you guys". And I'm like, "No, you're not supposed to." [CV II] You're not supposed to like us. [MH]

Boingo:-

"To quote The Doors, "People are strange".

Madame Hex:-

"That's the inspiration of 'I Don't Wanna Be Human', it's like, we took one look at the people when we got to earth, and we're like, "Jesus, I'm glad I'm not like that."

https://www.facebook.com/p/Vampyra-100082807840648/

"Kent is the Garden of England, but Medway's the skip. So we're gonna bring the skip."

"When we're not performing, we try to blend into human society by trying to be as boring as possible"​

"The Zambian metal scene is pretty underground. We conjured it here, in 2013 ha ha. There was a Zamrock movement in the 70's, but that was mostly made up of psychedelic and acid rock sounds."

"A great social and musical influence had the fall of the Romanian communist party and the transition to democracy. "

"Like Michiganders do, by getting piss drunk. We are making it through this pandemic by pure spite (laughs)."

"Music is a universal language and there is nothing I love more than seeing people (everywhere) coming together to celebrate music and life.""

"We love Appalachian music... it's a big part of Kentucky’s culture and heritage."

"Our aim is to get attention around the world... we have like not more than a thousand fans of heavy metal / rock in Vanuatu."

﻿© 2011-2026 Global Metal Apocalypse﻿​​

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"Kent is the Garden of England, but Medway's the skip.
So we're gonna bring the skip."

"When we're not performing, we try to blend into human society
by trying to be as boring as possible"

© 2011-2026 Global Metal Apocalypse