James Shearman: London Wallin'

“Noise is all around us for all of our lives, but it will always take a particular mindset, attitude and approach to sound to begin viewing those 'noises' as suitable for music or sound art.”

Photo by Adam Reid

London’s young noise hero James Shearman has been carving his name firmly into the underground consciousness since bursting onto the scene in 2013 with the mammoth 80+ minutes long ‘My Personal Noise Virus’ to becoming the curator at HNW net label which has seen releases from HNW Heavyweights such as: Vomir, The Rita, See Through Buildings, Dosis Letalis, Natural Actors, Sumbru and KIRA.

With enough solo projects and indie labels to make even Shane Embury’s jaw hit the floor, his two primary music endeavours currently are: the self styled dream sludge / drone gaze outfit ‘Echoes throughout the caverns of Leytonstone” and ‘A Raja’s Mesh Men’ which utilises elements of harsh noise, HNW, and power electronics to name a few. 

ARMM has appeared on many platforms including Vanity Pill (who released the ARMM self titled cassette) the Swedish tape label Hatets Dok, and the prestigious Minneapolis label Altar of Waste. Amongst all this, James secured himself a spot at Tempting Failure, a noise & performance art festival taking place at multiple venues across London.

Listen below for James’ release in the ongoing ‘Blue Velvet’ series, a string of beautifully packaged extra long HNW releases by various artists co-ordinated by label owner Cory Strand.

I caught up with James to learn more about his musical beginnings, his love of painting and his thoughts on the EU referendum…

Editors note: This interview was conducted prior to the Brexit and James’ performance at TF2016. 

DMD: Growing up, what music influenced you and stayed with you the most?

JS: My mother and my father have had a large and lasting impact on my musical taste. My mum would play me a lot of artists I still really enjoy to this day, people like Boards of Canada, Massive Attack, Lamb and Kate Bush. My dad would play me people like Jimi Hendrix, the Sex Pistols and PiL, Nirvana and Jeff Buckley. It was a good vibrant mix of music and of course it joined up and built upon the many other ways music would reach my young ears. 

When I was about 12 years old my South African uncle was staying with us at my mum's place and he introduced me to Slipknot's self-titled album, he burned me some CDR's of albums by System of a Down, Ministry, Placebo, Sublime, Nine Inch Nails, etc. At around that point I was probably opened up to a lot more 'teenager' sounds and got completely sucked into it all. 

Those CD's did stay with me a long time, but you wouldn't really hear any influence from those groups in my work today. It's interesting, music I love the most is generally loved for being some distant and cherished piece of nostalgia- capable of bringing back the most unsuspected emotions and taking me back to another time - it is less-so to do with what really inspires and influences me to make my own music, as the two are not mutually exclusive at all really.

DMD: Where and how did you first hear about Noise?

JS:  I think I first heard about 'Noise', as a subgenre term, on either Soundcloud or Last.fm. I began using both as a result of the burgeoning desire of all modern teenagers to procreate cross-platform social media identities. 

Something you could very well say would later come back to echo itself, if not indirectly fuel elements, in my 'noise identity' (I am of course referring to the popular habit in Noise of one artist having multiple aliases, often a seemingly ridiculous amount).

I've written about my inception to Noise before and tried to mark the exact moment - I gave finding the artist Mutant Ape on Last.fm as the moment - although in hindsight I'm sure that was essentially a period of finding lots of similar artists like him at the time, and his standing out because of how un-tasteful and offensive it seemed to me at the time, and the large disparancy between what I felt as I first experienced it and how I later felt returning with a better frame of reference. 

I don't think you can really credit any one moment as your catalyst into Noise. In the womb, sound is muffled by a body you're within, and suddenly at birth the world is opened up to your ear canals and the rush and flood of noise begins and never lets up. 

Waterfalls, high force gale winds, being on an aeroplane, being in a car on a motorway, walking past a construction site, the whir of insects at night in an expanse of forest, a downpour of torrential rain - noise is all around us for all of our lives but it will always take a particular mindset, attitude and approach to sound to begin viewing those 'noises' as suitable for music or sound art.

DMD: Did you ever play any 'normal' music in bands? Also tell us the epic talez of ‘A Raja's Mesh Men' and ‘Echoes..Leytonstone’…

JS: I began taking lessons in guitar when I was around 12, I did those for a few years with very limited success but still messed around in some school bands, often just transferring what I knew to bass playing. Then I gave up the lessons and took a bit of a hiatus from it all. 

Later on, I began teaching myself with some classic, cliché Guitar for Dummies, etc. style books, one was a nice one on blues guitar inherited from my dad. It got to the point pretty quickly though where I figured I knew enough chords, I'd taught myself enough 'technical skill' (barely any) and now had to focus on treating the instrument as less something that needed to be learned and more something which needed to be experimented with. 

I would like to think you can receive that attitude a lot as a listener with the work I do with the Echoes...Leytonstone project. 

I was briefly in a band called H00VES playing guitar and we played a mixture of noise rock and grunge, we had a whole ton of jams and stuff but only played two shows and both were pretty weird to be honest - I mean, the very first was more a weird, experimental jam than any of the more 'normal band' stuff we occasionally tried to go for in jams, and the second was just a bit under-prepared I guess (although some people said they enjoyed it).

I also even way-way-way more briefly joined by these two lovely Norwegian dudes in their band Methbreath playing bass in one jam/rehearsal and one gig before they ended up leaving my hometown, London- for theirs in Norway. 

There might be some other 'normal band' stuff I'm forgetting but it's not ever something I've been particularly eager towards, I've always been a lot more invested in my self-directed stuff - and there's been an increasing momentum for the various forms that takes to get more and more experimental as time passes. 

Speaking of self-directed stuff, I did an [attempted] post-rock(ish) project called Overground as well, and this began before any of the projects I've already mentioned. 

(https://soundcloud.com/hellstoneoverground)

As for the epic talez of A Raja's Mesh Men and Echoes...Leytonstone. Well, they really are epics you know, this is going to be a long read. Echoes...Leytonstone (fully titled Echoes throughout the caverns of Leytonstone) began first, and essentially began as I started borrowing my dad's Boss ME50 guitar pedal and experimenting with its long delay and cave-like reverb - at the exact same time I was listening to a lot of Nadja (Aidan Baker & Leah Buckareff) and it suddenly dawned me I could pay some appropriate homage to them and their sound with some of the results of this experimenting I was doing.

I was also listening to a bunch of black metal bands and this along with my various pursuits in creative writing and my attraction to aspects of the post-rock genre, and its silly/long titles, all converged to form the genesis of this moniker.

 A little while into this project I discovered the sustain function on this pedal generated a white noise signal, and that white noise could be distorted and turned into a blinding noise which could then further shift and change with the other modulation FX - this is how the first incarnation of ARMM was born, which was called Self-sustaining Cells. 

I'd called it this because I wanted it to be loosely based around the idea of existentialism; extremophile and microscopic life-forms, and the likelihood that the entire existence of humanity will be just a small grain of sand in the timeline of the world and all of its inhabitants. 

After some time using this name, my dad referred jokingly to this noise project once as Self-defeating Soundwaves, and a few months later I decided I wanted to stop doing 'serious noise' and name myself after what was essentially a disparaging joke. I stuck with that name for a while and played a bit, I even supported Svartvit (the amazing Dutch titan of noise, who is a touring-machine, it was a show I got him to play in London while he was on tour). 

Eventually I got quite a lot of people saying they hated the name and I decided to give in and pander to my audience - I decided to use something which seemed equally inane and insignificant to me but hilariously could still come across as "serious-sounding" to all those caught unawares. 

A Raja's Mesh Men is an anagram of my full name, James Shearman, which I decided upon after glancing over a full list of it's anagrams on an online anagram generator.

The URL to the bandcamp page is Enema Smash Jar, another anagram of my name. (also at one time the name of the ARMM bandcamp's "full name" was Shaman Jam Seer). Many people have told me they had imagined it was in reference to something classical, probably of Indian origin, and this was slightly my deceptive intention - to create this kind of illusion of reference. 

Now I'm beginning to focus on an album series for ARMM which re-imagines these imaginary reference points into a finite form, an actual ongoing piece/body of literature crafted by myself and accompanied by noise to serve as the definitive source of this 'fictional reference'. 

The first piece in this series was the album 'Ugrak' which was released as part of the HNW Tape Swap 2016, co-ordinated by James at Vagary Records, and accompanied by a veritable horde of unimaginably high calibre HNW artists.

 I am astounded and eternally grateful to be working with such great people, both on this swap and elsewhere in the past (a brief shout-out to an amazing friend and artist, Liam McGeorge, of Tsuun, formerly Distorted Souls Within A Corrupt Vision, who was the very first artist I ever made a split release with, and who I have worked with so much and always enjoyed every second of it, and who has contributed an immense amount to the international/internet noise community).

Photo by Naddy Sane

DMD: How did you get into doing live noise shows? Do you just improvise or do you have a setlist pre-planned-? Also, how much have they changed since you started performing a few years ago?

JS: I got into doing live shows for bands before I started even doing noise, and once I began doing noise it took me a while to actually curtail my shows into this realm but it eventually happened - last year it culminated full-force and I had a monthly noise night running in North London from March - August. I got into doing live shows because I knew a lot of friends in bands, and many had a very DIY ethic, and I was brought up around an amazing community of squatter artists living at the now-demolished 491 Gallery of Leytonstone. 

The place is a legend, I won't go into much of the history as I could type for hours and hours on it. There are plenty of resources out there for people who want to learn about it - one of London's longest running squats and incredibly artistic and community-positive social hub. 

Most of my live sets as Echoes...Leytonstone and ARMM began entirely as improvisations - eventually for ARMM I would outline what gear I would use and what I would vaguely do, and for Echoes...Leytonstone I began having specific chords/riffs I'd use and vague ideas of where they might go. 

Since then things have changed only slightly. I do some collaborative work, two duos, one with my good friend Charlie Wheatley called Prolonged Version and the other with my girlfriend Rosie King called The Portable Prison - both are noise projects and both have always been pretty much entirely improvised. 

ARMM is beginning to go the way of always being meticulously planned, or at least having some base concept it works outwardly from - this is all being thrust into motion mostly for the fact I've been accepted onto a local performance arts festival called Tempting Failure - while I am programmed as my own name (something I have done before for site-specific sound art installations and exhibitions), the initial idea was to do a very ARMM-type noise set for it. The initial idea grew into about ten other ideas and each of those has mutated and then been cut up into some kind of hideous Raja'stein Monster. 

I'm really looking forward to how I deal with having such a complex idea of what I'm doing and how it should be, and following a plan/rehearsal with a noise set to this extent for the first time.

DMD: Do you have any pre-show rituals?

JS: I don't have any set ones, no. I conduct plenty of pre-show rituals - drinking water so my throat feels okay and 'braced' if I know I'll be screaming later, drinking a lot of alcohol if I know I don't have to worry about precision and I'm doing some kind of silly, chaotic improvised mess which will not at all suffer for it, talking with people before the set as I would before anyone elses' - trying to maintain a sense of normalcy I suppose. I can sometimes get attacked by nerves but it has become something I have to deal with a lot less as I perform more, and more frequently too.

Photo by Hazel Brown

DMD: Any releases (noise or otherwise) this year that really blew you away?

JS: I always find it really hard to organise releases in my head in terms of the year they came out because I'm constantly discovering new music and, more often than not, there are current releases but they are interspersed with releases from all over the place, many from outside of this decade.

I can say without a doubt that the new collaborative album from Full of Hell and The Body did blow me away, and I know that came out this year. But as for noise releases, Brent Gunn (formerly GRVD) just whacked up a ton of new stuff on his bandcamp and I loved all of it immensely - I'm really, really happy and excited to be working with him on a split release. 

Brent also pointed me towards the new stuff Methlab Explosion is making - his new albums this year have all been killer, what he does with the sound pallette he operates within is exactly what I want from that "subgenre" (I suppose I'm talking about noisecore? but it's more than that, there is a further distilling, which is escaping definition - which is a good thing, there shouldn't be an easy umbrella term for any and every sound, because sounds and our experiences with them just don't work like that).

Maybe this sounds like a shameless plug but I have immensely enjoyed all of the new albums on the Harsh Noise Wall netlabel to come out this year - I'm the curator, but of course, I'm doing this because I want to find and hear great wall-noise releases and showcase them, and this year has seen some really great artists step up to be involved and I'm eternally grateful. 

Also, I just checked and Happy Being Sad by Charlotte Braun came out this year - and this is truly one of my favourite wall-noise works of all time - and as for noise releases from this year blowing me away - half of the label's output falls into that category! It's called GERÄUSCHMANUFAKTUR, and another highlight from this year from it would definitely have to be Alocasia Garden's album Mask of Light. 

Reece who does that project is someone I consider to be a close friend, even though we have not really known eachother that long nor realistically spent much time hanging out, he's had me down to Folkestone, his hometown, to play two of his shows for his label, Vanity Pill, as ARMM. I also did my first ever physical release as an eponymous ARMM c40 on his label. I have really, really enjoyed myself both times and I am always looking for new ways to foster and support his work with both AG and VP, as both are magnificent feats and deserve much more recognition than they currently attract.

I could reel off shout-outs to noise friends for a while I think, it's best to say that in the world of noise, a year is a very long time - you need a smaller frame. But honestly, I've begun to let go of favouritism all together, so many people are doing such great things, it becomes very hard to really hone in on "what I like best" - even making it down to a handful!

DMD: How did you become the curator at HNW netlabel?

JS: I had been collaborating and splitting with the founder of the HNW netlabel, Luke (Social Drift), for some time. As of September 2014, and the Uitgeschakeld and DSWACV releases, I came on board to help run the label by finding new submissions. As of June 2015, Luke asked me if I would like to continue with the netlabel on my own, and I gratefully accepted - and have updated the layout and begun to more actively seek submissions as the sole person at the helm. 

My main focus has been to diversify the roster as well I could - and to begin trying to be a bit more singular in an aesthetic vision (although, there is already lots of room for movement and little limitation in terms of 'fitting in visually' due to the disparate nature of previous artworks). 

At the time I'd always knew I wanted to begin curating a netlabel of my own sometime, and so it was nice to be offered to take over with one which I was already involved with and see it grow and blossom into something entirely new as a result of my own work and efforts - and the gracious help of those who I looked to to help build it into what it is today. 

I'm currently compiling the 100th release which will be a LARGE compilation - I have above 60 submissions in already, and waiting on a number from people who have told me they are in process - I may be extending the deadline so that we can reach 100 submissions, I feel the delay will probably be worth it in the long-run.

DMD: What are your thoughts on the refugee crisis and how did you vote in the EU Referendum?

JS: I voted to remain in the EU. I haven't read enough resources of information about the vote, but at the same time, I feel when decisions like these rest upon this kind of 'democratic process' of a voting system, suddenly the "two battling campaigns" become the only viable resource offered to people, and often both campaigns are just made up of various media-sanctioned pieces of propaganda.

I mean, I love propaganda, there's a poster of Donald Trump making out with Boris Johnson which is part of the Remain campaign and I love it. 

I took A Level History at college and one of my favourite parts was analysing political cartoons. But what I'm saying is, even if I had the time and inclination to seek out [actually-useful] information to guide my opinion on the matter, I'd probably have to sift through so much deceptive bullshit first - it not only infuriates me but it fills me with a lethargy toward the whole thing (and yeah, I know that was the whole malicious intention of the dastardly Lizard Rulers of the Illuminati when they crafted the campaigns to begin with). 

As for the refugee crisis, once again, I feel that I only really know what I know from unreliable sources, but I feel firm in my opinion that "the UK has not done enough to help refugees during this crisis". I'm not about to write an essay explaining why I think that, but there it is! My own personal thoughts on the refugee crisis are muddled and mostly overly anxious towards the whole thing. It fills me with an irreparable dread and sparks some flint under the kindling of misanthropy which rests somewhere deep inside of me, perhaps deep inside of us all, besides our humanitarianism.

DMD: Let’s talk about your career as an artist and painter. What is your ethos as a painter? What painters inspire you? Do you see making art as just a separate entity from the music?

JS: I certainly don't view these things as careers - I've always been making visual art, since I was a small child I would draw. I can't escape the notion of it being a labour of love, it's too ensnared in my personality in such a way it would be crass to "sell myself" by trying to seek a career path out of it. But it's interesting, I have thought about it. 

I try to exhibit when I can, but often feel I shouldn't even try and go for something if I don't think I'll be able to respond to a brief or theme well, because I often feel very modest and perfectionist about past endeavours and artistic responses I've made. 

I love symbolist painting - I looked at a lot of symbolist painters and paintings during my time doing Fine Art at A level. Isle of the Dead, the best-known painting by Arnold Böcklin, is one of my favourite paintings. I have a transcription of the painting and a black and white photocopy of the same transcription up in my room by my bedside, it's nice to wake up to. My ethos as a painter is hard to figure out - I feel like if I had one I would be constantly letting it down, constantly changing my mind. 

I do feel that everyone should paint, everyone should try to see if it will be something they enjoy, and if they do enjoy it they should really try and keep at it in terms of finding the time. 

Some people really, really love baths - but a busy lifestyle leads them to not having one for months and months on end, even a year or more, and I feel like analogously, many painters behave the same way - many who would and could be truly great if they just gave themselves some more time. In many ways, this whole labour of love idea - that I am essentially being very hobbyist with my visual art and can't foresee much 'career' future in it beyond pipe dreams - probably overlaps a little into my music and my noise and sound art especially.

On different days you might ask me this I will differ greatly though - some I will be very set on some day being able to live off some of it (maybe the music, maybe the visual side, maybe artistic practise like performance or sound in a more 'art world' setting), others I will be much more inclined to view it all pessimistically.

DMD: What gear do you use for recording?

JS: I mostly use the gear to hand, that can and often does change. Very recently I was given a digital sampler rack by my dad as an early christmas present since he'll be out of the country come December. I haven't started experimenting with it yet and finding ways to use it in my set-up but I'm sure it'll become a nice addition. 

I mostly use old headphones as microphones and use the feedback from them pitch-shifted with Boss ME50 for most of my wall noise and general harsh noise making. But I also have a contact mic and have only really recently begun to delve further in to the many potentials and possibilities there are for me in using that. My mixer is just a cheap piece of junk - an old four channel Behringer, it does the job, and in spite of numerous bumps and breaks it still works fine which is nice.

DMD: Can you tell me the 5 movies that made you who you are?

JS: The five movies that have made me who I am? Can a movie really make you who you are? I really loathe making lists like this, but I think I can manage it: 

Vertigo by Alfred Hitchcock has had a profound impact on me. There's also La Jetée by Chris Marker. Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa is of course in this list. Waking Life by Richard Linklater has had a really lasting impact as well. And what else? Bugsy Malone perhaps?

DMD: Can you give me your 10 desert island disks?

JS: It’s very hard to come to terms with the idea and prospect of this for me lately - there was a time where I could reel this off with complete ease, a very different time for me mentally and musically indeed - now I spend so much time finding and hunting down new music and artists to digest. 

The concept of favouritism and the resultant attachment you feel for particular albums and releases is becoming very strange to me more and more with each day - but I'll give it a shot as I seemed to fair well with the film one. 

In no order:

1. A Winged Victory for the Sullen - S/T

2. Bohren & Der Club of Gore - Midnight Radio

3. William Basinski - A Red Score In Tile

4. Tim Hecker - Ravedeath 1972

5. Alocasia Garden - Visitor

6. Boards of Canada - Geogaddi

7. Cremation Lily - Fluids Of October

8. Lamb - What Sound

9. Burial - Untrue

10. Kate Bush - Hounds of Love

DMD: How many tapes/physical releases have you released in your noise career?

JS: Woah there, let's not call it a noise career! I haven't produced too many really. I'm not sure I'm even really keeping count. My very first physical release was graciously bestowed upon me by Reece of Vanity Pill Records. Based in Folkestone, Reece is responsible for some amazing projects (Alocasia Garden, Flesh Prison, Penetration Colony, Cancer Man) and his label has done some really, really amazing work, I highly recommend them. That was A Raja's Mesh Men's self-titled album - dubbed to a c40. Since then, I've had a noise wall split release on the Black Tape Series by DeathSex Electronics with the US-based HNW artist Big Hole. 

DeathSex is run by James who also does some really great HNW as The Judas Cradle, Cherry Blossoms at Night, etc. More recently I took ARMM in a very ambient direction - with lots of influence from people like Cremation Lily and Reece's Alocasia Garden project - on the Swedish label Hatets Dok run by Tomas - that label is also out of this world in terms of artistic output. 

All of these people I've mentioned so far put so much work in, it really puts many to shame, including myself. 

Which brings me on to my split release with Willowbrook which I put out myself on a venture of my own - This Is A Noise Label - I'd been meaning to start a DIY label for ages before I settled on TIANL, but I still settled too early - what kept me away from it was that I was sure I'd be too lethargic and not productive enough, and exactly that has ended up happening. It's a big shame, but I know eventually, financial and social situations will shift and I'll end up having a lot of time and resources for it and really be able to pick the ball up running.  

There's probably tons I can't recall too - for instance, it escaped my memory for a while but my drone project Echoes...Leytonstone appears on a release on Invisible City Records - a remix I have done of a people-eaters track and a people-eaters remix of one of mine, to close the album "the only thing left to fear". 

Alistair who does the people-eaters project is someone whose sounds I have been solemnly contemplating and digesting eagerly for years and years, being one of the first experimental things for me to ever find when I first began looking on Soundcloud! 

So yeah, I'm sure there's a few I'm forgetting. There's a physical release of the first proper Prolonged Version album on The Junkyard Procession, a label by this great guy Karl from Leeds. Still probably a few I'm forgetting - it's nothing big though, all mostly super-small runs, or large runs that many are leftover from still!

DMD: Considering the existence of your Drone Noise Wall project Gumble, you must love simspons-wave am I right?

JS: Interesting you should ask me that - I would say I like simpsons-wave, I'm not sure about love. It definitely hasn't been given enough time to grow, or even breathe, as an idea, let alone a sub-genre, yet. 

I'm happy it's come to exist, but at the same time it does seem to exist for many people as a meme, or worse, as a simple fad. I'm weary of people viewing it as such, lauding it as such. I really liked the Simpsons as a child, and I have a lot of nostalgia for a lot of the classic Simpsons moments. 

I tried to pay homage to this with my one-off Simpsons-themed wall noise release "Roasting On An Open Fire" by the project Gumble, in a similar way to how I try to pay homage to my childhood memories and nostalgia for Pokémon with my ongoing wall noise project Kamex. 

I seemed to realise directly after making Gumble that certain people feel certain topics and subjects are too silly for noise - I find this really weird, one of the first people to really inspire true awe as a noise-maker for me was Tim Drage, also known as Cementimental, and some of the sets I saw him perform at my earliest attendances of noise shows. Tim was often costumed, if he wasn't he had this long hair swinging about all the over place, he'd often flip his pedals off the stage after a set, he'd be making the most harsh and visceral sounding mess of noise, jumping between pedals and their settings frantically - it was really a spectacle to behold and something about it was so un-serious, so fun! 

So, coming from this background - this fear in noise of being silly, or this idea that certain topics and subjects which are too 'fluffy' or not 'transgressive' enough to fit well with noise - it just doesn't really make a lot of sense for me, but I can respect where they're coming from - I mean, if I can imagine well an outsider to noise's perspective inwards, I'd hope I should be able to imagine well an insider's differing perspective. But it can be hard - there are a lot of complete assholes in the international noise community, and a whole bunch of not ~complete ones~ but just plain ignorant people who would probably be nice people if they just took a bit more time on their education and their personality. But every scene probably has to deal with stuff like this - every society does, it seems.

DMD: Will there be a follow up to Echoes…Leytonstone (live at Bell Culture) released this year?

JS: The live show I did performing as Echoes...Leytonstone in a local church was part of a closing event to an exhibition and residency which involved another opening event of live performance and some film screening events as well - all by the amazing artist in residence Ilia Rogatchevski, who also later invited me on to his radio show with Resonance Extra, "Come On, Come Down" to perform some live minimal drones using loose jack leads, and to talk a bit about my music and sound art and just have some general late-night radio banter.

(listen here: https://www.mixcloud.com/resonanceextra/come-on-come-down-james-shearman-31st-january-2016/ ) 

The show I did for the end of his residency, Bell Culture, was a response to being asked to play - it was my first time playing in a church. I don't have any intention to 'follow up' the set in any way - but I can foresee ways in which the second (if it comes?) time I play a church with this project would end up taking the shape of a follow up. 

DMD: Is there anything else we need to look out for under the Shearman moniker this year?

JS: Well, there surely is - there's tons! I'm always doing tons! I can't help myself. I've been doing this collaborative duo project with my partner Rosie King, The Portable Prison. We're about to begin stepping that up from a simple pedal noise duo to an actual performance art vehicle - submitting proposals for various events and stuff. 

It's exciting but also perhaps a bit too ambitious, who knows. I've also begun this 'vapornoise' (if you want to call it that, I'm not sure that I do) netlabel called SSN Technologies. I’ve been getting some submissions in, in spite of it mostly being my own work still. One of the main ideas beginning it was having somewhere to create alias after alias and for most of it to be kind of anonymous, for most people to not know it's all/mostly me - of course now I'm saying that in an interview it can hardly remain so - but it probably will for some, right? You never know who's out here. Lurking on the web. Nor do you know what they have and haven't seen! What they do and don't know. 

I like thinking about that most before going ahead with a project idea or idea for a label or whatever. I've also recently begun this project called 'Dog Milk', also with Rosie, which began as an artist alias and is now a bandcamp page for several different 'incarnations' - some soloist variants of my own, but some further collaborations which aren't just me or Rosie, or further ones which are but with different and new set ups, and maybe even some day some soloist variants of friends and others...

Related Links:

HNW Netlabel

https://enemasmashjar.bandcamp.com

https://lucanidae.bandcamp.com/

Echoes Throughout The Caverns of Leytonstone

https://vanitypilltapes.bandcamp.com/

http://hatetsdok.bigcartel.com/

https://thisisanoiselabel.bandcamp.com/

https://thejunkyardprocession.bandcamp.com/

https://invisiblecityrecords.bandcamp.com/

https://ssntech.bandcamp.com/

http://deathsexelectronics.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.temptingfailure.com/

https://dogmilk.bandcamp.com/

https://garbagemenpukingnetlabel.bandcamp.com

https://fuckyrbodyup.bandcamp.com/

http://altarofwasterecords.blogspot.com/

Want more HNW related readings? 

Click here for an interview with Ben Rehling of See Through Buildings  

Click here for an interview with Vincent Ceraso of KIRA

Click here  for an interview with Nemanja Nikolić of Dosis Letalis

Tomhet: EP & Album Review

Alberta, Western Canada is probably most famous for being home to the award-winning band Nickelback, but just down the road in the small town of High River lurks Tomhet.

Operating under the alias Xaphan, his music couldn’t embody a more polar opposite to the chart topping millennia rockers. 

Since forming in 2004, his one man Black Metal project Tomhet (Swedish for emptiness) has assembled a small cult  following through releasing demos, splits, and albums adding up to roughly 26 releases.

Throughout his career, Xaphan has pitted steel sharp black metal riffing against ambient minimalist synths, in the process widely exploring the styles of both Atmospheric and Depressive Suicidal Black Metal. Determined to not be stuck in the Black Metal box, his more recent efforts have seen him dabbling in Post Industrial music and Dark Electronica (both ‘Caliginous’ releases and the 2014 online EP ‘Anchorazor’).

Sometimes, his decision to dip his toe in new musical pools can draw a dividing line between his listeners. Tomhet’s last release ‘Of A Dying Star’ which was performed only on synthesisers (a concept first explored on ‘Celestial Tranquility’ back in 2009) brought him as much flack as it did praise. But despite the quality of those releases, I for one am relieved to hail the return of the axes to Tomhet’s sound.

Extinction in Time-Lapse review

The 10th Tomhet EP kicks off with a brief yet foreboding passage simply dubbed ‘Intro’ and explodes into the second track, lead by a catchy guitar riff (reminiscent of 90’s era Darkthrone) played over relentless rapid fire blasting drums draped in anguished screams. It then switches to a more sinister chord progression before returning to the main riff once again. It doesn’t stick around too long though and is replaced by a soaring lead line amongst the tornado blasting that fades into a final exhaled breath of distortion.

Third track ‘Blind To Our Demise’ serves as the EP’s mini epic, pummelling programmed drums give way to slow drifting guitar chords that mirror winter fog. A quick drum count  cues up a melody that demands you at least think about putting a noose around your neck even just for a second, soon it all spirals into a dissonant inferno and we are left with nothing but the beautiful noise it leaves behind.

The EP closer ‘This Failing Species’ contains a looped keyboard pattern which evolves into a choir of sorrow while drums pulse beneath like beating hearts, the ensemble builds up to a climax of despair before expiring, leaving a mournful atmosphere long after the music has stopped. 

Overall, ‘Extinction in Time-Lapse’ is a short but solid release that kept my intrigue throughout and had a good balance of the Black Metal and Ambient forces at play. Check it out!

8.5/10

Nightmares in Damask Review

It is difficult to sum up Nightmares in Damask in one word. Depression is of course the obvious word choice but even that doesn’t begin to describe half of it. Put simply, this album doesn’t represent a world where the birds sing joyously come sunrise. 12 years since the project began and the drum machine has been ditched, making Nightmares the first Tomhet release to feature 100% live drums. 

It is also more guitar and vocally driven, leaving the Ambient sections for the bookend tracks.

After a grainy, wind-ridden intro, ‘My Coffin in Her Arms’ saunters in on slightly slower blasts than we’ve come to expect from Tomhet. Taking the speed down a few gears to a crawling pace which sets the tone for the majority of the record, guitar triads bleed like freshly slashed wrists before another round of frantic blasting erupts (this time sounding like the kit is about to fall apart) then disappears into a whisper of amplifier noise. 

On ‘The Heavens Were Soaked In Kerosene’ arpeggiated guitar lines rain down heavily (which make me recall Austere) while grating vocals circle overhead like vultures over a battlefield, both eventually building up into a tormented frenzy. ‘Pit Of Loneliness’ begins with an overspill of feedback into Xaphan’s cries of despair, commanded by one of my favourite riffs on the album which unfortunately doesn’t stick around long enough for me to enjoy it.

‘Through A Tidal Wave Of Panic’ is the album’s angst-ridden centerpiece and certainly lives up to it’s name. Mixing together gentle swaying sections with bursts of medium speed drum blasts, for this track perhaps envision yourself having a calm walk through snow covered forests before some unspeakable terror has seized you and the walk now turns to a fearful sprint. 

Both tracks ‘Calcified, Docile And Confused’ & ‘In Darkness I Hear Their Screams’ uphold the albums’ generally unyielding misanthropic suicidal feelings. While on ‘Clawing Beneath My Sealed Grave’ the vocals bubble away menacingly and the returning guitar triads are saturated in a state of desperate urgency.

This is the first Tomhet record (to my knowledge at least) scattered with much shorter songs than he is normally known for. Upon first listen, their place in the tracklist felt questionable, but after a few spins these short interludes separate the longer tracks well. Since the pace of the album is considerably slow, they add a much needed energy boost and will keep the speed demons content for now.

‘Raining Napalm Molotovs' features a scream that sounds like Xaphan is falling down a well, meanwhile ‘Crucified and Pissed Upon’ & ’Their Shadow Kingdom Ablaze’ both feel like they are about to derail any second, arriving with a clatter of guitar and drums caught up in a Tasmanian devil like blur, both are gone in the blink of an eye.

With a strong sense of dread, ‘The Sky As An Ocean…We drown’ the album’s longest track sticks the keys in the ignition of the hearse and leads a gloomy procession while Xaphan howls in pain. Presumably during all this grey skies send down a mighty storm and the world weeps eternally, powerful stuff. On closing track ‘Exit Us’ droning blackened ambient synthesisers transport us to the very depths of his sprawling cavernous abyss. 

It is heavily apparent that either Xaphan’s drumming still needs to catch up to the drum machine but that still remains to be seen if that is his final goal. I am sure most fans will find it in their blackened hearts to forgive him, either way the addition of live drums certainly will play a large dictating role in how the next release will sound. At times I felt I was missing some cleaner guitar parts which I personally feel could have added more dynamics to the album’s overall aesthetic, but nothing’s perfect. 

I wouldn’t be surprised that come next release another sonic change will have occurred Seeing how often Xaphan has been noted to switch musical paths. As much as I found a lot to love about this full length I would definitely be lying if I considered this to be Tomhet’s strongest work yet considering the quality and diverse material he has released before it. It certainly remains a transitional statement of a record marking a re-birth of the Tomhet sound.

But if you like your Black Metal steak cathartically raw, there can be no doubts in my mind that Nightmares in Damask will satisfy your (Transylvanian) hunger. 

8/10 

Visit Tomhet’s official bandcamp here

A limited number of cassettes for Extinction in Time-Lapse and Nightmares in Damask are available from Californian label Grey Matter Productions get ‘em while they’re hot!

Also keep those tired eyes peeled for a Tomhet CD release planned with Italian Black Metal label war against yourself

Steven Beaumont: Lone Wanderer

From the sub-zero temperatures of Québec hails Steven Beaumont, the head honcho behind Paracelsian Productions, Metzger Dark Ambient and Kondensator. With Metzger, Steven constructs darkened guitar drones that carry away the listener’s mind on an unruffled cloud. Regularly posting his MDA studio experiments onto Youtube showing Beaumont surrounded by a wall of amplifiers and the floor strewn with enough pedals to open his own store! Still in it’s formative stages, side project Kondensator allows Beaumont to put down the guitar for a while and stretch his synth-scape legs to take you on more of an ambient, beat-driven ride.

The debut MDA album ‘Neo Romantic Synthesised Era’ dropped last March, and I definitely recommend it if you want to wash away any negative energy clinging to your soul. Like slowly gliding through the darkest of tunnels only to emerge smoothly into the sunlight. Listen Below:

DMD: What artists/bands had a major influence on you growing up and what bands influence you today?

Steven Beaumont: The first bands I listened to were Judas Priest and Iron Maiden when I was 16. But one of my main influences since 10 years has been Meads of Asphodel, who are one of my favorite bands of all time. Nowadays, the bands influencing me on the Prog Metal side of things are: Periphery & Animals as Leaders and on the Ambient/Industrial side my influences are: Kammarheit, Raison d'Etre, Brighter Death Now & Beyond Sensory Experience.

DMD: What music/bands were you playing in before you ended up making dark ambient/drone and experimental synth-scapes?

SB: I was playing Metal before but never had a band or anything, I wanted to start my own one man prog metal band but I've decided to go 100% into ambient experimental stuff.

DMD: How long have you been playing in your projects Metzger and Kondensator?

SB: I Started Metzger Dark Ambient in 2013, but only since 2015 the music has been made using Guitar experimentation. I started Kondensator almost a month ago on the first of June 2016.

DMD: Walk us through your studio recording set up from when you started to now.

SB: When I started I only had my audio interface and at that time I was carrying my desktop computer to the rehearsal room I was sharing with another Band. Now I have my own rehearsal room for myself which I use as my recording studio. I got a new audio interface, and a laptop computer which stays there now, also now I have 2 vintage mixing consoles one from the 70's and one from the 80's. At the moment I own 9 microphones.

DMD: What was the first pedal you ever got? & What are your favourite pedals to use out of your enormous collection?

SB: Back in the day, my first pedal was the Boss Metalzone. Some pedals I had almost 10 years ago I wish I had never sold, for example the Budda Zenman (Tube Overdrive). My favorite pedal is the Superego which is the most important one of my collection. I really like my Line 6 FM4, that one was a game changer for me. But probably the pedal which really pushed my sounds to another level is my Eventide Mod Factor, there is nothing that compares to this thing.

DMD: How did you come by the names Metzger and Kondensator and what do they mean to you?

SB: For Metzger I took from a character from Fallout 2, who basically was an evil character and I had the idea for the logo with the inverted cross and everything. I also found out that “Metzger” means Butcher in german, all these reasons lead to me choosing this name. Kondensator is the name of a Soviet weapon from WW2, I thought it would sound cool, so I decided to use that as my name for this new project, I had other ideas but I will keep them for future projects.

DMD: What is the concept behind your debut album with Metzger: Neo Romantic Synthesised Era?

SB: I used this concept for a song back in early 2015 just before I made the transition to the Experimental Guitar stuff, to make music with Synthesizers and to be inspired from pictures from the Romantic Era. I took this concept back later when I was able to make the sounds I really wanted to make with the Guitar stuff, so for my first album I've gone back to this concept, actually most of my albums will be based around this concept.

DMD: Apart from music, where else do you get your inspiration?

SB: My main inspirations before were the first 3 Fallout games, I was really inspired by the whole universe of this game.

Steven's wall of amplifiers and pedal hoard

DMD: Are there any releases on Paracelsian Productions we should look out for in the future?

SB: Next month (in July) I should be releasing 2 split albums with Slave Existence & Agura Matra, they were on the first compilation from my Label. That should be interesting! There's compilation #2 in August featuring a lot of new people, I should be making another split album scheduled for around September or October with ZUMAIA. 

DMD: Which 10 Albums would you take to a Desert island?

SB: Animals as Leaders – Animals as Leaders

If these trees could talk – Red Forest

Volumes - Via

Nili Brosh – A Matter of Perception

Modern Day Babylon - Ocean

Periphery - Periphery

Polyphia - Renaissance

CHON – Newborn Sun

The Contortionist – Language

Intervals – The Shape of Colour

DMD: What is the music scene in Quebec like? Have you played live much with your projects?

SB: The music scene is alive here, there are so many shows. The Metal scene here is probably one of the strongest, at least compared to other genres. As for the music I play, it is very small but still there was maybe between 20 and 30 people at my first show, maybe it will grow bigger in the next few years, it’s not mainstream by any means but I think more and more people are getting into it. I have only played live once with my Metzger project, and I played a set specifically thought out for that show. I want to play more shows, hopefully I will get more opportunities. I would probably also play live with my other Project Kondensator.

DMD: Tell us about all the amplifiers you use for Metzger.

SB: I use many Tube Amplifiers from many brands, Tube amps seem to provide the sounds I am looking for and also by changing the tubes I can tweak the tones to my specifications. I use hybrid Bass amps for my Sub Octave tones for Bass Guitar, I recently started using Bass Guitar through Guitar heads too. All of my speaker cabinets have been upgraded with Pro Audio speakers chosen spec wise to fit the cabs they are in, they handle lower frequencies better, for the kind of sounds I make this is very important. They also tend to sound dark which is a good thing for me obviously, sometimes the Amplifiers tend to sound very bright so I use a darker sounding cabinet.

DMD: How long has Paracelsian Productions been active and how did it get the name?

SB: Paracelsian Productions is registered in Quebec city officially since December 2015, the first physical release was in January 2016, which was my first cassette EP. The name Paracelsian comes from Paracelsus who was an Alchemist from the 1500's, I read about him and was very inspired, 

I felt I could relate to his story in a way. I live by his motto “Alterius non sit qui suus esse potest” “Let no man belong to another who can belong to himself.” 

DMD: Do you find it hard to juggle having 2 projects and being the head of a music label?

SB: Not really, I usually record a batch of material for Metzger and then in between these recording sessions I have enough time to work on Kondensator stuff, that was mostly why I've decided to start this project right now. As for the label, I'm the only one artist on it for now, online sales of CDs are non-existent for now and I'm planning the releases months in advance. It would be best for me to play more shows to promote stuff from the label, maybe even start booking shows, but that is a lot of work too.

DMD: What synthesizers/software do you use for Kondensator?

SB: For Kondensator I use only real instruments, for now I am using an old Synth from the 90's called the “Orbit 9090 V2 The Dance Planet” by Emu Systems a company which doesn't exist anymore. I also use the Rhythm Wolf from Akai as my Drum Machine.

DMD: Anybody you want to give a shout out to?

SB: I wanna give a shout out to Janine Fortin, it's because of her I got to play my first show, I really like her music as well, you should definitely check it out. To Studio Sonum, without them I would never have been able to make these projects come true, so check out Marc the owner’s band: La Corriveau. Finally, my 2 favorite local music stores, I have made a few friends from each store, who really helped me even though they didn't always knew how to in my quest for experimental guitar sounds, but without their advice I would probably not be where I am today. Thanks to all the people from Musique Gagne et Freres & Denis Musique. 

Metzger official site

Paracelsian Productions official site

Sunshine Girl: The Silver Garden

Since the latter half of 2015, Kyle Trujillo has been wandering the labyrinthian fields of experimentality. After a string of self releases for his project ‘Sunshine Girl’ he elected to keep an experi-mindset but to sever his ties to the prolonged sound maps of old in favour of shorter, more focused material, whose songs reveal a greater intensity to the listener. Last March’s EP “Breathe Through Machines” demonstrated this new rebirth and the full album release of: “Everything is Real/Everything is not Real” (which came out in May on Splitting Sounds Records) took it even further. 

I caught up with the eighteen year old North American to pick his brains on cinema, literature and talk of another major change on the near horizon.…
Watch his music video for latest single ‘Observation’ (share on blogger button)

DMD: First off, how did you get the name Sunshine Girl?
Kyle Trujillo: Sunshine Girl comes from the song by Faust, "It's a Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl”.

DMD: How was the recent show? Do you have more of them planned for the future? Was that your very first SG show?
KT: The show didn't end up happening due to a booking error. I don't have anything else planned for the near future, but there's always time for that to change. I have performed as Sunshine Girl a couple times before, but this would have been the first that was more than a single song. High school performances. There will be another show sometime. I'll find one eventually.

DMD: What is the Orange County California music scene like? (for experimental music too)
KT: I'm not involved with much in the real world, though I heard recently there is a small noise scene working in this area.

DMD: Have you always lived in California?
KT: I was born in Texas, but have lived in California since I was very young.

DMD: What were the last couple of albums you listened to that really had an impact on you?
KT: I’ve been listening to a lot of Death Grips for the last couple months, so i think that's probably the most important records in my head right now. Especially The Powers That B and No Love Deep Web

DMD: Great stuff, I’m very late to the DG party only recently hearing Exmilitary, what an amazing time for music!
KT: Absolutely. I started there too. It's thrilling to consider what might come next.

DMD: Growing up, what music really inspired you to grab an instrument and start making a racket?
KT: I really don't know how I turned into such a freak with my music taste. I remember a little bit of Sonic Youth about two years ago and hearing the name Frank Zappa and then I leap forward to what I have now. I played trombone in elementary school then got a guitar in eighth grade. It all went downhill from there, though it started off mellow enough.

DMD: Since your first batch of releases how would you say the sound of SG has evolved over that period of time? Was there a turning point in your approach on a certain release?
KT: I think I've had three real points musically. The first was on the track ‘Two and a Half Rabbits’ from Three Tusks. This was the first time I used Audacity to really pick apart a recording and mangle it into something else entirely. After that there was a large change in ethos starting with Breathe Through Machines. That was when I began to build each track as a complex piece of its own, rather than a succinct splinter of the whole. I used the technique of recording an improvisation session then completely rebuilding it with Audacity into something new.

Of the three changes this is likely the most important as I believe it has absolutely changed the power and quality of my work. Before this album I could expect to finish a track in under two hours, sometimes closer to one. Starting here, every track needs upwards of five hours before I feel the idea is realizing itself, and sometimes it can take several days of work to finish the concept. There is a third stage of my work arranging itself at the moment as I move toward a series of dense and succinct tracks built around complex, evolving rhythms and the inclusion of central melodies or melodic themes.

DMD: Do you consider SG a ‘noise’ project? Also what are your feeling on using noise?
KT: I couldn't call Sunshine Girl a noise project or anything in particular. It's always just been my whims and interests. Whatever I can get to sound good in my ear. I use noise sometimes, but I'm not really interested in adhering to any idea for too long.

DMD: What other sorts of bands have you played in the past?
KT: As for previous bands, nothing substantial. I covered Paranoid by Black Sabbath at a talent show once but the whole experience and performance are just frustrating to think about afterward. Aside from that I've only performed alone or with others taking direction on my own compositions.

DMD: What are your current favourite Movies and Books? (as many as you want to list and why you like them)
KT: The Triplets of Belleville and The Royal Tenenbaums for my movies. I Watched them recently and both ended up in my top five. The first really impressed me with it’s extensive use of pantomime and detailed imagery to relate clear and strong emotions. The Royal Tenenbaums fascinated me because its story-telling reminds me of Hemmingway, where every character has an iceberg of thoughts and emotion to hide behind the actions and expressions shown. There is a real depth to them which only appears when reading between the lines of what is displayed. 

My top 5 movies: 

2001: A Space Odyssey

Taxi Driver, 

The Royal Tenembaums, 

Black Swan, 

The Triplets of Belleville. 

I’d recommend them each a million times.

The last two books I read were The Enormous Room by E. E. Cummings and Amerika by Franz Kafka. E. E. Cummings' prose is absolutely gorgeous, though the story is slow as hell. I enjoyed Amerika even though it doesn't hold a strong resemblance to his other works. I learned about halfway through that it is, in fact, an unfinished first novel. Neither are quite favorites, but both interesting.
That list goes (in any order): Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce, The Stranger by Albert Camus, On the Road by Jack Kerouac, Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs and Siddhartha by Herman Hesse.

DMD: Do you ever think about writing a book?
KT: Absolutely. I'm practicing it with short stories at the moment. I tried to rewrite Naked Lunch last summer. Actually I just tried to steal the concept of a perfectly incomprehensible novel. It's a mess, nearly 700 pages in 52 days. The trouble is there is a story in there somewhere. In between pages filled only with typos and punctuation marks.

DMD: Do you plan on releasing your Albums/EPs physically?
KT: I’m going to release some physical copies eventually. I just need to get to the point where they might actually sell.

DMD: What (physical) formats are your personal preference?
KT: I suppose Vinyl with CD in close second. I haven't received my audiophile badge yet so I couldn't say which sounds nicer. It's really a toss up because though the album sleeve is roomier, a nice little cd booklet can be a powerful thing.

DMD: I read somewhere that Vinyl is apparently the biggest seller right now…maybe because its a large piece of collectable art.
KT: Always good to stick close with the powers of trendiness...That's something that edged vinyl over as well. CDs aren't old enough to be retro so they just seem like relics.

DMD: What are your 10 Desert Island Disks?
KT: Big Black - Songs About Fucking

Can - Tago Mago
Death Grips - The Powers That B
Deftones - Saturday Night Wrist
Faust - Faust
Radiohead - Kid A
Slint - Spiderland
The Mothers of Invention - Uncle Meat
Throbbing Gristle - D.O.A.
Tool - Ænima

DMD: Do you work as a Train Engineer?
KT: I suppose that, in the truest sense, I do not work as a train engineer. I do have a vinyl record filled with the sounds of steam engines, so that might be close enough.

DMD: What is your current recording set-up?
KT: I record either into my laptop or cellphone. A lot of my recent work is made entirely from short, abstracted voice samples so I haven't found myself trapped in by the meager gear quite yet, but I know it's coming of course.

DMD: What are your thoughts on the music industry in 2016? In your view Is paying for music almost a thing of the past?
KT: As for the music industry, I'm too new at this point to make any informed observations. It's possible the industry is in a state of transition due internet sharing, or this might be the state it resolved to. I've never interacted with the music industry in a meaningful way, so it's hard to provide any clear thought on the matter. 

Another twenty years might not be enough to catch what's really happening as the future is built from the minds of everyone involved. It's always too soon to be sure, but this is way too soon, at least from my perspective. I'll have to pay attention and get back to you on that when I'm 30 or something….I’m gathering information, on this and other subjects always.

DMD: What can you compare from Everything is real / Everything is not real to your latest work?
KT: I’m actually working on a stylistic change, somewhat major. Everything is real / Everything is not real was constructed entirely from improvised guitar pieces cut up in Audacity and reassembled into various styles…..I’m playing with more electronic styles and melody to an extent. My recent single is an idea of what is cooking, but I'm shaking it up with every track I make. 

That's the idea of experimentalism, huh? I'm still learning how to do everything. For the time being I'm going to make more music but release less so whatever is heard is the best and whatever is released can be promoted and worked with for a longer time. Singles for now, and exploration. I'm working on a split EP for the summer. I'm going to try playing with music videos too, given that greater chance to focus.

Social Media:

Soundcloud here

Facebook here

Twitter here

Necromimesis: Progressive Melancholia

What does it mean to be heavy? 

One good example I can think of is drone metal colossus act Sunn O))) who seem to be doing a fine job of re-defining the term, with their infamous stage shows packed with stacks upon stacks of amplifiers deafening and delighting punters around the world. 

But being heavy in an emotional sense can be much harder to pull off, because it is something that has to come from within the very soul of the artist, not their amplifier settings.

His first demos were Doom and Black Metal exercises of despair, but his most recent release ‘Empty’ was where Iran’s Saeed Nasiry dropped the harsh vocals and distortion soaked guitar, thus turning his solo project ‘Necromimesis’ in a more progressive direction. 

You can read more of my thoughts on the EP at the bottom of this interview.

DMD: Your last EP came out 3 years ago, is there going to be a new album/EP coming out soon?

Saeed Nasiry: Well, right now I’m not “producing” any music. I’m spending my free time studying music theory in order to become able to compose better music in the future. But I’ll start producing the next album as soon as I can trust my abilities.

DMD: In Empty there are 3 parts: Black, Dark and Grey. Is there a special meaning behind these?

SN: Yes, it does have a meaning. I divided that album into three parts or movements and labeled each of them according to its mood and theme, in order to demonstrate the change that is happening in the mood and style of my music.

DMD:  Growing up, what artists & bands influenced and inspired you the most?

SN: The first artists to impress me were great Metal bands. I enjoyed almost all of the subgenres of Metal music. I can name early Anathema, early Katatonia, My Dying Bride, and Saturnus as the bands that influenced my first demo albums which were categorized as Funeral Doom Metal.

As my taste in music expanded, so did the range of artists and musicians that inspired me here’s a short list of musicians currently inspiring me: Radiohead, Björk, Ben Frost, Archive, Nine Inch Nails, Clint Mansell, A Perfect Circle, Depeche Mode, Marilyn Manson, Opeth, Unkle, Massive Attack.

DMD: Are you a self taught musician and producer?

SN: Kind of. I learned the basics of playing electric guitar from a bad teacher. Apart from that, I learned everything else from books/ebooks and online tutorials/courses. I don’t know if you could call that self-taught as I’ve had many teachers, I just haven’t met them in person.

DMD: What equipment and instruments do you use to play music and record?

SN: I bought a used electric guitar 8 years ago, that was my only physical instrument until recently when I started playing Setar (a traditional Iranian instrument) too. 

Everything else you hear in my music is software. I’ve done the composing, recording, mixing and mastering in my laptop. And I’ve also used my MP3 Player to record my voice when singing.

DMD: What is your day job?

SN: I’m a university student, studying Psychology.

DMD: Has studying Psychology inspired you to write your music/lyrics? 

SN: Well, it has surely affected the way I look at things a lot. But it hasn’t had a direct influence on my music as far as I can tell. 

DMD: How is the music scene in Iran? Are there any artists/bands you want to mention?

SN: Iran has a lot of great talents in music, but due to some religious/political issues and censorship, most of the musicians here are working without the support of a recording company, without the opportunity for performing live shows and making money using their music. So most of the talents aren’t becoming actualized, and the ones that do aren’t being heard.

Some great Iranian musicians are:

Ahoora (Indie/Experimental Rock)

Emerna (Atmospheric Black Metal)

Ekove Efrits (Ambient/Depressive Black Metal)

Explode (Progressive Metal with Thrash elements)

Mordab (Progressive Death Metal)

DMD:  What does ‘Necromimesis’ mean?

SN: Necromimesis is a very rare psychological disorder in which a person believes he or she is dead and cannot move.

DMD: Does your environment have an affect on your music/lyrics?

SN: Of course, it does. Songs like “Sodomarium” or “In Praise of People”, or “They Will Kill Us” from the earlier demo album are some kind of reaction to my environment and social situation. Other songs are related to specific persons, thoughts or situations.

DMD:  Name 10 albums you would take to a desert island.

SN: It’s really hard to choose only 10.

But:

1. A Natural Disaster (Anathema)

2. In Rainbows (Radiohead)

3. Thirteenth Step (A Perfect Circle)

4. Playing the Angel (Depeche Mode)

5. Night is the New Day (Katatonia)

6. The Fragile (Nine Inch Nails)

7. Symbolic (Death)

8. Homogenic (Björk)

9. Lights (Archive)

10. Empty (Necromimesis) (In case I meet someone in the island and need to show off)

DMD:  Is the bleak, moody atmosphere you create within your music intentional?

SN: Yes, I really enjoy dark, cold, depressive distressing moody atmosphere in music. 

Not as much as I used to, but still, it’s the easiest atmosphere for me to create in music.

DMD: For the next record, do you plan on going back to the harsher vocals like on Ashk?

SN: I’m not sure. I just know that I’m going to work with a wide range of styles for the future albums. And surely if I feel that a song needs harsh sounds and vocals, I’ll use them. I know that shifting to very different styles all the time, probably wouldn’t get you a lasting fan base, but I can’t help it.

DMD:  As well as your musical influences, what movies/books/art inspired you? 

SN: Film soundtracks have always inspired me, and becoming a composer for films is one of the goals I want to reach in the future. There’s a melody at the end of the track “Resurrection of Doom” that I wrote based on a melody I heard in the film “Eyes Wide Shut”. I was under the influence of that film at that time. David Lynch’s films (and their soundtracks) also have influenced me a lot. There’s a track called “Irréversible” on my latest album which I named after a film with the same name. 

DMD: If you could re-write the soundtrack to a film, what film would it be? 

SN: The Silence of the Lambs. Not because its original soundtrack isn’t good enough. It’s a masterpiece. I praise Howard Shore’s works. But I like that film’s atmosphere so much that I’d choose it as the first film to write a personal soundtrack for. 

DMD:  What software on your laptop do you use to produce your music and what do you use to get your drum sound?

SN: I’ve used Steinberg Cubase DAW for the production, and Toontrack’s products for some of the drum sounds. 

DMD:  If you could collaborate with any artist or producer, who would it be and why? 

SN: Björk. Because she’s a genius. 

DMD: In the future, would you want to make Necromimesis into a band with more members? or would you prefer to keep it as a solo project with occasional guest musician appearances?

SN: No, I’m not planning to form a band, at least not for the time being. Because I don’t think I’m very good at team work, and well, there are no live shows to need a band for performing them.

My thoughts on Empty: track by track

The fact that the EP has 3 movements named after the dark end of the colour spectrum should be your very first clue that you are not about to hear a release full of ‘Don’t worry, let’s be happy and enjoy life’ songs. Instead you are in for more of a melancholy  experience. 

Opening track ‘Sodomarium’ [Part I - Black] sets the stage on a sinister note. A giant vapour of dark energy drifts in, engulfing the area like someone letting slip bad news. Not far behind, weaving lines of keyboard sit atop mesmeric drums while Saeed’s murmers “There’s a lot of sick around us, there’s a lot of people” in his best Trent Reznor impression. On ‘In Praise of People’ [Part I - Black ] the drums switch to more of a marching beat, and the previously mentioned ivory lines attain more of a rounded quality. The chorus features a vocal melody that is reminiscent of Roger Waters’ voice from ‘The Wall’ album which also includes some well placed harmonies. Out of nowhere the track then takes an unexpected turn where it suddenly flies off into the void!

Irreversible [Part II - Dark ] begins with chords lurking like dark shadows, and it is here where Hedieh Mehman-navazan’s guest vocals make their appearance, offering a softer texture to the dimly lit ambience. But it is on my favourite track ‘Wasted’ where the sorrow-filled atmosphere hits fever pitch. The lead Piano switches to a melodic line made seemingly from tears. If this was a movie soundtrack, it would certainly be the scene where the leading actor discovers the death of their most beloved friend/family member. Amongst the turmoil, Saeed gravely proclaims “it’s not fair.” Like a match being blown out, the track fades away.  

The short intermission of ‘without you its so empty’ as the name suggests, makes a good intro to ‘What the Hell is Going On’ [Part III - Grey] which is one of SN’s many nods to his Funeral Doom roots, a swinging drum pattern loops like a manic depressive stuck in a vicious cycle, while organ sounds weep in the background. Just when you think it’s all over, the chords dripping with effects that appear courtesy of Delaram Sadeghzadeh fall like spring rain on ‘Nothing’ [Part III - Grey]. 

A reflective end to a soul wrenching and highly emotional piece of work.

It is remarkable that Saeed has only used voice, piano/keyboard and drums to produce an EP of such good audio quality. At times I admit the drums can feel robotic, but they are programmed well enough to lead the song rather than weigh it down.

The EP’s first few tracks have a healthy amount of Alternative/Industrial leanings, while fans of DSBM/Funeral Doom will find something to appreciate here despite the lack of overdriven guitar. The small amount of instrumentation certainly produces enough gloom to put an entire nation into mourning.

To conclude, ‘Empty’ is some very well executed baby steps into a gradual genre cross over, laying some mighty strong foundations for a full length album. 

Well worth a listen for fans of: Agalloch, Esoteric, Nocturnal Depression, Steven Wilson and Ulver. 

8.5/10

You can buy and listen to all of Necromimesis’ music here

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