Few bands can say their creative spark ignited inside a double-decker bus, but Doneil’s story is as unconventional as their music. From crafting raw, unapologetic rock tracks in a self-built studio on wheels to immersing themselves in Sri Lankan culture, their approach is fuelled by a relentless need for artistic freedom. In this interview, they open up about the industry pressures that tested their direction, their refusal to dilute their sound to meet trends, and the personal experiences that shape their lyrics. As they prepare for their next album, Doneil remain committed to making music for those who crave something real—no autotune, no compromise, just the spirit of rock in its purest form.
Doneil, welcome to A&R Factory! Your story is as unconventional as your music, and we’re excited to explore the experiences that have shaped your sound and ethos. Your music carries echoes of legendary bands like Queen, U2, and AC/DC, yet it never feels like an imitation. How do you strike a balance between honouring your influences and forging your own identity?
It’s a great honour for us that our music could have echoes of these legendary bands because for us they are a model of good music, in fact, in live performances, we sing some songs of them as well. About our identity, we don’t make any effort in this direction, we only play and sing what we like, and we have been playing for years, in different bands, styles, projects…, each one of these experiences shapes us personally and musically, creating this identity.
Few bands can say that their story began inside a double-decker bus. How did that unconventional living and recording space impact your creative process and approach to making music?
Our life on the bus was wonderful! We think it was the best time of our lives. We bought a conventional double-decker bus, and we took out all the seats, tables, WC,… everything inside! and we built the home studio of our dreams: cover all inside with wood, big kitchen (we like good meals as well), our bed was manufacture by us too, with woods, making the wardrobes under the bed, … and a lot of particular things we were making and publishing in our social networks. This time we felt free, out of the conventional strict rules of the society, living in a camp, and sharing time with the other people who lived there too, as a family. So, as we felt free, we could compose whatever we wanted, and our home was not only comfortable, it was isolated too (climate and sound), we could make noise, nobody heard us.
You spent two years in Sri Lanka, which must have been an intense contrast to your life in Spain. Did the cultural and musical influences from that time find their way into your songwriting?
In Sri Lanka we didn’t live as tourists, not in tourist areas either, we lived and worked as the rest of Sri Lankan people, in a very common neighborhood. So yes! We experienced a lot of cultural contrasts, some of them we considered better than here, even people were more friendly and helpful, but sometimes we missed lots of things and attitudes of our country.
About music they live in other planet, there aren’t concerts of the most famous bands or singers of the world, most of them didn’t know Shakira or Lady Gaga, they are very keen on their traditional music, and yes, their traditional music is very happy, and we danced some of them in parties, but we didn’t like completely. There we not only play rock, we play different styles, the most they wanted from us was we sang in Spanish (boleros, latin music…), and we composed “La noche nos llama” and “Vamonos” for their “tropical” influence, we even collaborated with a local group on a song “Sigiriya”. So we came back to start our new project “Pure Rock”, because we understood this is our real style.
As a couple who have shared both life and music for nearly two decades, do you ever find that personal experiences shape the way you collaborate creatively?
Oh yes!! If we are annoyed with each other, it’s impossible to create anything, if we are happy or inspired by creating, then everything flows easily. In fact, as a couple it’s easier to work together, because we know each other deeply. When we work with other musicians, we need more patience to transmit the idea properly. Sometimes this is like one was in the mind of the other, we think the same, and when one tells the idea, the other answers: Oh yes!, I was thinking the same! And even one complements the other, because Sonia makes lyrics and the melody for the voice, while Xavier composes all instrumental parts. But on the other hand, confidence is a thread too, you know!
Many independent artists struggle with balancing artistic freedom and industry expectations. How do you approach self-promotion and engagement with listeners while staying true to your music?
This is one of the most difficult challenges, and the differences between how we understand our music and what the industry wants, made our ideas and direction crumble too often. We round and round about our style, if we update our rock style as current, or continue making our 80’s rock, if we processed the voice or not, and else… Many people are music judges and everybody thinks they know more than us about what we have to do, even the first label company we worked with asked us to do Reggaeton, and we left the company.
Finally, we are convinced that there are lots of people who make current music, and we prefer to find the people who like the same as us, honest pure rock!
Your lyrics carry a lot of emotion and depth. Are there particular themes you find yourselves returning to when writing songs, or does each project take you somewhere new?
Our lyrics talk about our lives, people who we know, and our ideas. For example:
– Shining everywhere describes what Sonia thinks about Xavier and her admiration
– Planet calls you, is a hymn to yell at people for Environmental protection
– The strength of weakness is an ode for the admiration we feel for some friends of ours, women who suffered abuse by their husbands and now they begin again for the love to their children
– Georgia was something special, a family from Georgia who came to Spain for the International Protection Program, and we were astonished to know all their desire to live, after all the wounds and threats lived in the past.
Now we are working on a song called “Despertar” where we explain the need to wake up as a society and fight for our rights, because the Power is controlling our lives.
The music industry has evolved rapidly over the past two decades, especially for independent artists. What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced, and how have you adapted?
First, we have had to learn a lot about the Music Industry nowadays, and we need to continue studying because we have a lot of gaps to fill in. For example, Xavier has studied about producing music (mix, master…), he has 4 fully mastered tracks: Sonia was studying playlists, platforms, social networking… We didn’t know anything about it, and now we know a very little part of this yet.
The second challenge is to be faithful to our style and find the correct places and people to send our work, because most of the curators we found are keen on new styles so they don’t understand our music, especially Sonia’s voice, which is very criticised for them (not processed with Autotune). And even some playlists that place our songs are very different to our style, our music is not made for the current crowded audience, our music is made for the awake, free souls with rebel rock hearts; where are they? We want to find them. But, if you don’t have anyone with good knowledge about the music industry behind you, you spend, and often waste, time trying to do this promotion.
With new material in the works, what can listeners expect from your upcoming songs? Are there any new directions or surprises that you’re excited to explore?
Pure Rock! We want to close our songs released so far on an album called “Bus” and start the new one: “Pure Rock” with new songs like “Despertar” (we already mentioned), “El tren de la vida” (song that makes a parallelism between life and a train trip), “You and I” (love song) and many more, all of them pure rock, some in English and others in Spanish.
If you could go back to the moment you met at that musicians’ association in 2005, what advice would you give yourselves about the road ahead in music and in life?
Carpe Diem! Live your life deeply, make your dreams come true and don’t let other people decide for you. if you make a mistake, don’t worry, you will learn a lot from this, wake up and shake your dust off! This is the cost of the university of life.
Discover Doneil’s discography on Spotify and connect with the band on Facebook and Instagram.
Interview by Amelia Vandergast
