Who are Forgotten Legion?
Motivational Muses Exclusive Feature | by Anastasia Logan
Pushing personal and musical boundaries, Forgotten Legion is a metal band based in Los Angeles, California that combine personal influences with styles from progressive and thrash to construct a sound unique to the new wave of American metal.
Formed in 2014 by guitarists Sergio Javier and Eddie Solana, who met attending the Musicians Institute in Hollywood, California. After playing shows with other bands and a short hiatus, they began the hunt to complete the lineup and hit the ground running with creating music. Sergio was reunited with drummer, Silvestre Rojas during a party that both bands happened to be playing. Through Silvestre they were introduced to vocalist, SirDwight Tashibish, who officially joined in the summer of 2016. The line up was not complete until they recruited bassist, Justin Ellis, who ended the search for the fifth and final member.
Discovering the name was the work of Sergio, who happens to love history, when he stumbled upon a fascinating historical event depicted in a book by Ben Kane.
"When I was trying to figure out a name for the band, I was just looking up like crazy, crazy historical events that happened and the Forgotten Legion is actually a Roman army, that disappeared. And they only found the head of their commander in like this open field with like no signs of a battle or anything. So, they just disappeared, and I thought it was cool."
After consulting with the rest of the band there was an immediate consensus and Forgotten Legion was born.
In 2019, they released their first single entitled, "Swarm." While this is currently the only single released, they are constantly working on writing and recording new music. "Swarm" was originally a fully instrumental piece. Creating lyrics proved to be challenging, but that did not deter vocalist SirDwight from accepting the challenge. The combination of the original instrumentals with lyrics contributed from SirDwight gives "Swarm" numerous levels of intensity and intrigue. Showing the music world that they are not messing around when it comes to creating a place within the American metal scene.
Regarding new music they have a couple projects in the works. They have recently concluded the mixing process of one of their upcoming EPs which "Swarm" is a single. But they have not stopped there. Also, under construction is a second EP and a standalone single entitled "Kintsugi" which features a guest vocalist and a twist setting it apart from other songs they have created. Guitarist Sergio Javier shared about the thought process with the creation of this upcoming single.
"We kind of wanted to flip roles a little bit where she screams most of the time and SirDwight kind of sings. Because when they see her, they’ll always think, oh she is going to sing all pretty, but nah. She is going to be like the beast and SirDwight is going to be like the elegant one."
Drummer, Silvestre Rojas elaborated further on the decisions to have a female guest vocalist on the upcoming single.
"We got her because she is a growler as well and she loves bands like Archenemy and stuff like that. Like you know, female-fronted like death metal and we saw that as an opportunity and let’s create something interesting and it really doesn’t sound like any of our other songs. It’s just its own entity."
Numerous songs under construction have stuck out as personal favorites. Whether seen as a personal challenge to see how many rifts that correspond could be fit into a two and a half minute song. To a creative process that was inspiring in every step from writing to production. Every song is valued and purposeful. Silvestre explains the importance that these songs hold within the band.
"We love all of our songs because we don’t settle. We don’t really like just writing fillers. We don’t really believe in that and we always want to give our 100%. We wouldn’t want to write and record something that we wouldn’t like to perform live. We like to change our set list just to give every song that we have an opportunity. Because they are our creations and of course we are proud of them."
On the topic of shows, Forgotten Legion plays around California. At the end of August, they played with SKINLAB when they were touring to celebrate their 25th anniversary. Definitely a show they would not soon forget. Keep tabs on Forgotten Legion to find out when a show is coming up!
Getting down to business and realizing that creating music was a serious desire for all involved in this group was one of many achievements Forgotten Legion has reached in their career. Having the ability to get their music out to the masses and knowing it had an impact on someone who listened to it was also a very gratifying experience. Breaking out and being more than just a local band is the main goal for this group. They know it will take time and dedication but they have already spent countless hours creating their art and have no plans to stop anytime soon. In other words, they want to rule the world, while making a living doing what they love.
Music has a way to help people find out something about themselves that they never realized or maybe have just forgotten with time. For Sergio and Silvestre this ideology has been proven through their experiences in the music world. Through music, Sergio has acquired a new perspective of the world around him and found a source of self-expression.
"It’s opened up my perspective to certain things. And has made me a little more open-minded. Through music I found a lot of things that like were wrong with me personally. I discovered emotions that I thought I had gotten rid of but were still there. Either like sad, or happy or angry or whatever. But like, there were still there and there were either things I had to correct to be better or like just a happy reminder. I found emotion. And within that I learned how to love myself and express myself better."
Silvestre has discovered a sense of being transported through playing music. Allowing him to stay in a positive mindset and always ending a show or rehearsal on a positive note.
"Music takes me places where I cannot really find on my own. And preforming is just the next level. We go through stuff but when we are playing together it doesn’t matter it’s just a rehearsal, we always give it our everything. By the end of the rehearsal we will be feeling better and then after we play a show you won’t see us angry it doesn’t matter what happened."
Standards ensure that only the best of the best shared with the world. Having high standards can be a blessing and a curse. In the case of Forgotten Legion, their standard has become the number one challenge in balancing the needs of their music with the demands of their everyday lives. Meetings this balance requires that they stay on top of the game. Ensuring that rehearsals are strictly for getting everything perfect musically and division of work within the band is even to prevent all responsibility falling on a single individual. Having the members spread out has also introduced a new set of challenges but in the end, their determination and love for creating music has prevailed and they show no signs of allowing challenges to discourage them from their end goal.
The time has come for some fun facts about the amazing individuals that construct Forgotten Legion. Starting with the group as a whole, every single member of this band attended the same exact school. I really cannot make this stuff up! They all graduated from the Musician's Institute in Hollywood. Making them music nerds and serious music theory geniuses which has proven to be quite helpful in the creative process.
Focusing on individuals, both Sergio and other guitarist Eddie, have guitars that they made themselves. With their own bare hands! Pretty impressive if I do say so myself. Sergio is also a huge nerd when it comes to anything music or video game related. Silvestre is pretty into meditation, which helps with the feeling of being connected with the other members, resulting in some great musical breakthroughs.
Forgotten Legion understand a thing or two about not being afraid to go against the grain. Their passion for music is going to propel them within the industry and they have a lot to contribute to the new wave of American metal. All I can say is hold on tight because Forgotten Legion is going to blow everyone away.
Advice from Forgotten Legion
"Love yourself."
"Music wise. Patience. Because even when you’re learning how to play music some people think they are going to be rock stars right away."
"You never know what’s going to come next. But believe in what you do."
-Sergio Javier
"For music I would say, Good things take time. Good things come to those who wait. With people with followings, it’s not just about the social media numbers it’s all about the real people who are going to support you. For bands for artists that’s the key, patience. Because if you don’t have patience, you’re just hitting a wall."
"Don’t let people tell you what would be best in their perspective for what you are doing. "
-Silvestre Rojas
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