This one-man project from Malta already heavily impressed me a couple of years ago when I was just putting together the farewell print issue of VOICES FROM THE DARKSIDE. Right around that time I got my hands on a demo entitled "Shadows Eve" which – despite its rather poor sound quality – featured a very unique mixture of bombastic, orchestral classical music in combination with raw and furious Black Metal. I was so blown away by its musical brilliance, that I not only ended up praising the tape like crazy, I furthermore interviewed main man Sauron for the same issue. The result: APOTHEOSIS not only got a lot of international attention, Sauron even got signed by Norway’s Nocturnal Art Productions. But as all that already took place about five years ago and nothing really happened anymore ever since I already figured that APOTHEOSIS was history for one reason or another. Luckily I was proven wrong with the release of "Farthest From The Sun", Sauron’s long awaited first full length which recently saw the light of day (for further details on it, check out our review section). Time for us to hook up with the man once more in order to get all the news from Malta’s finest first hand…
Greetings Sauron – it’s been quite a while since we last heard from APOTHEOSIS… Even though you did release a promo tape back in 1997 (which was only meant for interested labels) your one and only official demo “Shadows Eve” already dates back to 1995. So, how does it feel to be back after all?
"Hail to the mighty “Voices…” and thanks again for your interest. Yep, it’s been quite some time since I was interested in the Metal scene. I left it off, working on it and listening to it, in around ‘99 coz it just was getting too off the mark for what I wanted to appreciate and feel part of, and gave it a few years to mature in some new direction. Generally speaking, the scene didn’t seem to have changed much, but there are a few new elements that should give some fresh air to it. They’re still at an early stage but I’m certain there will be a great change coming soon. As far as my recent release is concerned, I was only eager to hear what the people thought of it, nothing more. It never felt like ‘being back’, right now I feel very detached from anything that happens in the world, or anything to feel being a part of."
Do you think that the “Shadows Eve” demo left its mark within the underground in such a big way (back then when it originally got released) that a lot of people will still remember APOTHEOSIS seven years later?
"I really really doubt that! Hehe… no, probably this demo is totally unknown, and Apotheosis are totally unknown, but I see that as a really good thing. Apart from you, Samoth and a few friends of mine, probably no one knows what this project is, but this is not about being known or getting a name in music, or being remembered… it’s about that moment you write music and that moment someone else listens to it, the rest is just confusion."
How many copies got spread around officially of it, by the way?
"Officially? I have no idea! I can’t remember… something like 300 copies? I’m not sure…I don’t even have my own copy of the demo, with the ‘…/?00’ or whatever was written on it, I lost it somewhere. And the 4-track mastertape got eaten up my mould and mushrooms… so much for the demo! Hehe. I think a friend of mine has it on CDR, but it’s not like I’m ever gonna listen to it, or would want anybody to listen to it."
Is it true that only five copies of the “Promo ‘97” were sent out? Why didn’t you spread the tape after you signed with N.A.P. in order to keep the interest in APOTHEOSIS going?
"Absolutely! No more than 5 copies…I sent you a copy for sure, as soon as I finished it, but no other than those 5 tapes has it from my part. I found out later that some people have managed to get a copy (of a copy?) of the promo from somewhere, and its fascinating to see how it managed to get through even though I tried to keep it very restricted. Releasing a demo is like creating and releasing a new life-form in the eco-system to see where it will evolve to. I wanted to keep the demo restricted because it contained material which would have definitely been on the first album…not the same recordings, but the basic songs. I wanted people to hear the songs properly, with well produced sound, so I made sure no extra tapes were running around to ruin the effect the songs would have on the debut album. As for interest, primarily the only guy’s interest I want in this project is my own. If I’m interested in this project, then the entire universe is. The rest hardly matters. If I’m sure of what I’m doing then I’m sure the music will satisfy the label. As I said, it’s not about me, or some stupid name people will forget eventually, it’s about contributing to music, that’s all. The moment you start thinking that the music is representing yourself or any ‘glory’ that might have, you’re fucked! The inspiration will leave you, and so the will to search for it. There is no real inspiration in the collective memories of a single human shell… it dies out just like any worthless human ego, but music is immortal – it was there before organic life itself, and will always be there. It’s a personal experience, and doesn’t involve the approval of anyone or anything but your own mind and your ethereal sense of beauty."
In your info is being mentioned that all of the five labels that received the promo offered you a contract… What kind of feeling was that for you? Would you mind telling us the names of the other companies and why you particularly decided to go for the offer of Nocturnal Art Productions in the end?
"The feeling was that of recognition, and flattery of course. When I’d seen the plan had worked 100% something clicked in my head and I knew I was on the right track, sort of. No I won’t say the names of the labels that offered me a contract, for the respect of the labels, and the project. It’s irrelevant since I picked NAP. All I’m gonna say that one of the labels, who was very strong at that time, offered me the resources to put up a full band and tour, and it seemed like a very good idea at the time. But I soon found out that all the big bands on the roster weren’t happy with what the label was doing with them. Sure, they were being exposed, and had a ‘name’, but they practically lost all the rights to their music, and were being legally fucked over by the label. They were simply a marketable product, being used, tied down by legal bullshit which, in the end, harm the substantial productivity of the artist. NAP was a label whose musically centred ethics and principles inspired trust, so to speak. I have full respect for NAP, and I knew they’d never try to crucify you to a record contract, like most general label mentality is."
You finally signed with them for two albums in 1998, but ever since then, there was basically silence and I’m still not quite sure about the reasons… Didn’t you have any new material written, besides the demo- and promo-songs at the time?
"I was still writing Apotheosis material, much more on the experimental side, and I was doing various forms of other music, for my own learning. My life was and is centred on personal music, with much experimentation through sound and production, and I’m still up to it today. Contributing to music requires a lot of learning, and experiencing, and when finally you have something worthwhile sharing, you release a demo. I have a ton of material (not only for Apotheosis) which I’ll never release, because it was either only a step to ‘the real thing’ or being an irrelevant contribution to the ‘big picture’."
Did it really take you one and a half years, just to finish composing the material that ended up on “Farthest From The Sun”? I mean, ’The Maimed God’ (which was originally written back in 1995 already) and ‘Raise The Dragon Banner’ both already existed in rough versions (on the promo tape), so what actually caused this long period of writing?
“’Kingdom’ alone took a whole year to write, and it’s a real pity a bulk of the keyboard work got lost in the final mix. That song has so many notes and it took ages to write. To maybe give you a rough idea the midi file (with no audio tracks or samples) alone was 1.3Mb large. The whole process in Apotheosis takes a lot of time. Not to brag about it, but it’s not easy to go through the whole drum-tracks, listen to every note in context and simulate plausible mistakes made by the virtual drummer at the right time, to give the track a more human feel! These sort of details go quite unnoticed when you listen to the album but, in the long run, are very important to the overall feel. I never force songwriting. It’s essential that the piece you’re on never bores a hole in your brain, and end up compromising by finishing it off as quickly as you can. If what you hear isn’t satisfying you 100% and you ignore that factor, you’ll have a ghost haunting you about it for the rest of your life. When you start a song out of true inspiration, you know what you have to do, and you have to be totally true to it and finish it the way you perceive it. We are only channelling forces here, to contain them in audio form, and one must be faithful to their calling. The as for the other 2 songs which were on the promo, they had to be refurbished 100%, especially ‘The Maimed God’. The guitar recording of for the whole album also took a very long time. I’m not a good guitarist at all but wanted everything as closely as possible to the way I perceived it, regardless of my human skill. What I really learned through this process is that when you finish writing a song, you mustn’t postpone by a lot of time till you ‘can it’ in a studio, or else the real buzz would be lost. The true enjoyment is during creative process of songwriting. Soon enough the exiting effect of the song leaves you, and the moment of focus is lost. It takes a while till you get back in that frame of mind, where the recording would truly be the completion of the songs you so meticulously created. The songwriting took a long time, and I enjoyed every moment of it. If you’re not enjoying something then it’s not worth doing at all. The whole point of this project is to create, and that’s where all the fun lies also. I cannot understand the point of view of many bands, whose priorities lie in being featured here or there, and being in catalogues, and just being someone talked about. Who cares about that shit when you can’t tell if you are satisfied with your own music until someone else says so?"
But it took you another very long time to enter the studio, to finally record those four tracks. What were the reasons for this new delay again?
"I had some shit to take care of, like studies, job and other mundane shit which are driving the whole world mad, but no one dares admit. I had neither time, facilities, nor any will-power to complete this thing. I went away from Metal in ’99 to get into different music just to breathe fresh air. There comes a time in your life when you feel that every world event is happening to fuck up your life, and for a long time I felt like that. Especially after I finished my cursed studies and finally got some time to do this fucking album, when I got posted for work miles away from any recording facilities or even civilisation. Then there was that studio… there isn’t much of a choice here in this stupid country for anything at all, and I had an agreement with a studio which kept promising to fit me in, when they couldn’t but still wanted to maintain a ‘customer’. I fucking hate these idiotic maltese mentalities: they want to maintain their own illusion of social-business-ego status, but they won’t admit what heap of bullshit they all are in reality, and should stick to what they can do, not with what they can say. I asked another studio, Temple, later, and they could work with me totally. But the bottom line is, everything takes time and good conditions, especially music, and I will give it ALL the time and space it requires, no matter what."
How did Nocturnal Art react on all this? I mean, have they been pissed in one way or another that it took you this long to finally deliver your first product?
"Well, they were pissed, and it’s totally understandable! Even I was pissed about the situation, and was pissed at myself. But NAP was very patient with me, and I thank them for being so and hope they think it was worthwhile investing in my stuff. I remember sending e-mails back and forth to them and explaining the situation, hoping they didn’t think I was a slacker or was just bullshitting on and on. I mean NAP are really the ones I owe everything to, because they accepted to publish my music, and took my word for it, even though I was totally unknown, had no rep or previous album releases. They based their trust only on the promo, and seeing it from a label’s point of view, it means a lot!"
How long and where have you been in the studio for the recordings?
"4 weeks, more or less. It was spread out over a longer time than that since I was going in and out, and back home with my stuff to do details which would have taken too much time in the studio, and wouldn’t leave much left for the important stuff I couldn’t handle at home. The studio was a great experience, and I’ve seen first hand what the process in pro studios involved in the recording, editing and mixing was all about. The studio guys were very helpful and understanding, but still, you’re working on a schedule, with a set budget and you’re working with other people, and I find that rather compromising. Again, it’s just the way I perceive things, that’s all. Sometimes I find too much distraction in details."
I was very surprised that you basically seem to consider your “Shadows Eve” demo as “crap” nowadays… Is it mainly because of the poor recording quality or are you also not satisfied with your writing in general on those tracks?
"Yes, definitely, the sound is what mainly makes it crap! I know the demo material had good ideas, otherwise there wouldn’t have been any purpose for it. People got their first impression the demo from its sound and were very irritated by that factor. The sounds were also very crude, coz of my very limited sound sources and recording facilities, but the melodies, song structures, atmosphere etc. were very valid, and I believed some people could perceive the ideas before the actual sounds. I admit it must have taken an effort to look beyond the vast abyss of hiss and hum on that old tape, but it happened in many cases."
So, was it completely out of the question for you to re-work one of those tracks for your debut album?
"Not for the debut, but I’m actually thinking about re-working a demo song! I was asked about this a few times, especially for ‘Rite Of Eternal Revelation’. Some people really love the idea behind that track and want to see it done properly. I still don’t know if I’m gonna do it or not, but for sure I’ll rework the intro, for myself mostly. I don’t know if any re-works are for official release, not sure if there’ll be a place for them in the next album, but for sure I’ll send you anything I re-work from the demo!"
What really impressed me are those little secrets that finally got revealed recently about the origin of “Shadows Eve”… I personally never knew back then, that you didn’t even use any “real instruments” at all for the creation of it… So, I was wondering whether it was still the same equipment that you had when you started out in 1993 or if you already used other things to write and record “Shadows Eve”… (to give our readers a clue what I’m talking about here – your info mentions the following: “Armed with only an Amiga computer, 8 bit sound, only 4 voice polyphonic and 1megabyte of ram, an old 4 track, a cheap reverb box and a microphone…”)
"Yep, “Shadows Eve” was written and recorded with the above-mentioned arsenal of junk. The Amiga was the source of all the sounds, no real guitars, or anything, just 4 contemporary mono 8-bit 19.9 Khz max samples, on MED 3.2 tracker, a public domain program. I ran the computer through the reverb box and played around the signal amount when recording it to the 4-track on 2 channels, and used the other 2 for vox and backing vox / sfx, and used the reverb box in the mixdown. The tapedeck I mastered the stuff on was the shittiest, though. Fucking crap sound… there was a horrible loud monitor noise throughout the demo, which really fucked everything up. I borrowed an ancient graphic equaliser to master it (which fucked up the sound even more) and used a guitar for a bad solo on side 2, but that’s it. The “guitar riffs“ were all constructed from single guitar sounds from here and there pieced together which, most of the time, took two channels on the software tracker while the other two were occupied by the drum sound and bass or keyboard samples. Sometimes I had to mix drumsounds together do that they’d fit on one channel and sometimes the bass sound had to drop out to give space for the synth / orch samples. The Amiga’s 4 channels were panned in pairs hard left and right, so no stereo separation was really possible. It was fucking frustrating to have 2 ‘guitars’ playing, a bass and a mono drumkit, and no more space to put a keyboard riff on top. But it was real fun back then. I’d record tapes of weird shit for hours."
When did you finally start using real instruments and was it more convincing or difficult to write at the time?
"I loved working with more space! When I got the synth I could track down much more in midi notes together with the 4 voice-computer, use proper stereo panning, real synth-sounds with decent effects… and of course I always wanted to use a real guitar! I finally had enough gear to write without all that limitation. The real guitar was tricky… it wasn’t like a computer, where you could quietly explain what you need and it’ll do it for you… this required skill! As for writing the music, the synth offered a much wider possibility to compose, and I could finally use ideas that involved more than 4 contemporary sounds. But basically composing always happened in my head, even for guitar. I first think up the right riff and then try to figure it out on a guitar. That’s how I learned how to sort of play it."
It seems that your love for Quorthon and BATHORY is still the same as back in your demo days as you once again mention him as inspiration in the thanx list of your album… But with all respect towards his past glories, I don’t really discover any quality in his newer releases at all anymore. Did you personally still enjoy albums like “Destroyer Of Worlds”, “Octagon” or “Requiem”?
"Yeah I love Bathory’s music. All the albums, apart from the three you mentioned, have always captured my imagination completely. I had to mention BATHORY on the thanks list, my life wouldn’t have been as interesting if it wasn’t for them. I admire Quorthon even for being (for most of the time) a one-man band and approach he had to Metal, like his efforts with sound to mask drum-machines, something which I also try to do. And what incredible albums he did! As for "Requiem", when I got over the ‘holy shit this is a new Bathory album and it’s not groundbreaking, or even original at all’ shock, which lasted for a few months, I liked it. I liked some of "Octagon" even though I didn’t like the ‘modern’ elements on that album, but it’s really fucking heavy. “Destroyer Of Worlds” is a completely different story… it fucking sucks! The sound is crap, the mixing is horrible, with dry vocals all up front, and the low bassey guitars in the background. The songwriting is not great either. Maybe a song or two would have been good with a decent production, but the whole album is totally ruined. A very disappointing album, but I didn’t lose respect for his past achievements. After all I am only devoted to that great music, not to what channelled it."
What really surprised me a lot was the choice of a cover tune, that you released on your promo tape… ‘Burst Command ‘Til War’ by SODOM wasn’t exactly something I would’ve expected from you. So, how did this unusual choice come about?
"It was basically the ‘song of the week’ (always playing either on the stereo or in my head), when I finished the other two songs, so I just decided to do it. I was listening to a lot of old Thrash back then, always blasting KREATOR, SODOM, DESTRUCTION, POSSESSED and SLAYER albums. I just wanted to do a 3 minute messy blast of Metal, and to yell angrily in a German accent into a microphone about nuclear war and total destruction. I know my version was crap, but it was pure hellish fun to record. You can feel the great impact Thrash on my songwriting had on some parts the album. I fucking love 80’s Thrash."
I was also very much surprised to read this little line inside your demo: “Fuck You goes out to PANTERA, DEICIDE and all their fans (you bunch of posers and wankers)…” Would you like to comment that? Do you still see things like this these days?
"First off, this is only my personal opinion, and should be regarded as nothing more. Let me begin by apologising to DEICIDE and all their fans. I had hated DEICIDE for a long time back then, coz they were sort of the symbol of Death Metal over exposure. I had second thoughts about DEICIDE as time went by, and acknowledged their importance. So again my apologies for DEICIDE and all their fans. As for Pantera, I still think they’re total shit! I hated Pantera, hate them still, and always will. Pantera were the predecessors to Korn, and the other similar bands of that era, which in turn made nu-m*tal. Pantera were responsible for actually bringing Hardcore and Hiphop ‘slam’ vibes into Metal, and I don’t care whose respecting them nowadays. I’ve heard worse bands than them in that crossover bullshit, but still think Pantera are responsible for most of it, they suck and they can go to hell! I really have no clue why such great figureheads in the real music kiss Phil Anselmo’s arse, and I can’t imagine why in the world they took part in Eibon. Eibon is some of the worst garbage in third rate Black Metal I’ve ever heard! I can’t believe it’s actually done seriously! People really like that shit? Is it a joke or are they just putting up with an overgrown brat’s requests, just coz he has the money? Why in the world are they putting up with that shit, to look cool with the mainstream or for pussy? Fuck Pantera…"
To get back to your album – it may sound stupid, but the first thing I noticed was that you stopped using corpse paint… Why? Didn’t you feel comfortable with it anymore? Have you actually ever seen APOTHEOSIS connected to the Black Metal scene in any way?
"Corpse paint was messy, and kept getting on my t-shirt, hehe. No actually I just thought I wouldn’t use it anymore since I wasn’t trying to do a Black Metal project. In the beginning, I wanted Apotheosis to be a Black Metal project, but for this album, I thought that Black Metal was only one of the elements. I couldn’t picture it as being a Black Metal album, nor I had any ambition of being under that wing anymore. The album didn’t have that dark aura, but more on the epic vibe, so corpse paint was inappropriate. It’s not a question of being comfortable with it. It depends on what the album reflects. Besides, I think corpse paint has been used and abused in the last 5 years, and it’s now giving the wrong message. It was a symbol of war, misanthropy, and rebellion, and then it became a symbol of sheep."
How did you end up with your pseudonym “Sauron” back then and do you still feel it represents your personality these days in the same way?
"Absolutely! I feel closer and closer to things I named, given direction and infused with energy, ultimately creating the pattern of reality which is the path to spiritual growth. Some things you do out of impulse and apparently have no logical reason for, but eventually you learn that there had been logic involved in any of these choices, only the fire of impulse would have eclipsed the pattern. The choice for the pseudonym of course is the result of my total fascination of the ‘Lord of the Rings’ saga. When I first chose this name, 9 years ago, the name only suggested an opposing outlook to life and a love for all that is feared and denied by others, a perfect Black Metal archetype. The creature who with such power commands all dark forces at will, and strives for the victory of void and destruction. Like Black Metal, he needs not explain his actions, for he is already considered evil and damned, and thus can roam and do his will freely. This is very true in music, for we must channel, forge and precipitate without restrictions, in order to fulfil our task in delivering the inspiration, which we were so generously granted. In order to continue our search for revelation, we must be true to our impulses and natural principles, and not be conditioned by illusions created and imposed on us through various indoctrination and media by the human collective mind to protect itself from the unknown. No one can fail to notice the decadence in communication within the human world, where a human not only fails to communicate with others, but fails to communicate with him or herself. The same with music: people want to understand it but talk about it, when the only way to learn is to try it out for yourself. It doesn’t matter if you never release it, the fact that you experienced something new through such a magickal medium as music is the only true purpose. TOOL once said, “talking about music is like dancing about architecture”, and there’s no better way to put. What a brilliant band. People want to communicate, it is genetically coded within, but people are afraid of the outcome of communication, so they divert their energies from their ultimate goal into evolutionary fragments and loops which distracts that energy. They condition themselves to a standard known as ‘cool’, stick to that script and never fall into ‘dangerous grounds’, which in fact is where true communication happens. This approach to communication doesn’t breed diversity, and is bound to extinction, for that is the natural law. They don’t want to grow, they just want to reassure themselves they’re alive and stick to the norm, so they won’t be mocked and persecuted by peers. They become nothing more than another one of the blind mass. What the fuck was I talking about? Oh yeah, the name… Sauron, as the archetype, is already asserted as an outcast, ‘uncool’ and inappropriate within society, so automatically is free to express the spirit, nature and being (and thus grow) without anyone’s consent. For me, it is not just a stage name, but a magickal name. It reflects perfectly my lifestyle, and I’m not talking about gathering orcs to crush the christians, or rule the world with cruelty and bloodshed. It is the cause which is the driving force, not some finite survival tasks for acceptance which only asserts I’m alive. I know I’m alive, and I know what I am. Today I feel totally alone, and wouldn’t have it otherwise. In my own orb of light, where I experiment with existence to learn, and so can clearly judge the information I receive through words and actions from others, and decide what to keep and reject with my own mind. Sorry if I side-tracked on this question…"
Who came up with the cover concept and would you mind telling us a little bit more about what it’s supposed to represent for you?
"I drew a sketch for the cover in ’97, which in principle contained the design of the cover. This was back in the days of my pagan / wiccan outlook, where I looked at the two ultimate complimentary forces as the Goddess / Priestess and the Horned God / Great Dragon. They search for each other and look upon each other for completion. In the wiccan principle, the Goddess is immortal, and represents the land, the mother and all that is infinite, where as the God is the mortal questor, is reborn every year and is the active force (the flame). On the cover, the dragon is the land spirit, the immortal and infinite, while the Priestess is a human mortal, the questess, and holds the active flame. There is contrast between the mortal beauty and the immortal beast, yet the harmony between them makes the forces of the sky and the sea act upon each other in creation. The sea is the source of all life, and the sky is the infinite inspiration where life must grow to."
Over here we don’t get to hear too much about what’s going on in the underground of Malta, so is there still any kind of scene, with new hopeful bands, magazines, labels or whatever, worth being mentioned?
"Hah, over here we don’t get to hear much about it either! I don’t follow it or anything, it just isn’t worth it. We had a good ‘zine once here, MALEFICA. The good stable bands I know about, who’ve lasted throughout the years are BEHEADED, who play brutal Death, and have been acclaimed by many popular mags, Forsaken (Doom) my fave local band, and ARCHAEAN HARMONY, who started out as avant-garde Black, and allowed their sound to mature. The rest are obsolete bands who come and go over a year, born out of a silly trend, and rightfully die soon enough. Apart from those three bands here, I think the maltese scene is a heap of garbage. All these petty acts want to do is show off how cool they are coz they’re in a band, as it’s some big fucking deal! They don’t last, coz they’re not doing it for the music, but to feed their little pathetic egos. Like anything practised here in Malta, there’s a great deal of envy, competition and infamy between the bands, ridiculous in thinking that music is about an invisible race with others. The outcome of this pathetic outlook is evident and undeniable in local music. By competing amongst themselves they produce strict musical standards, move only by these standards, and never try anything new. As a result, local standards of music (compared to world-wide) are very VERY poor. These people have perverted principles, and they consume themselves quickly. I absolutely never felt part of this scene, or ever will. Fuck the maltese mentality of mediocrity."
Have you already started working on your second album? Feel free to tell us some little details already about possible new APOTHEOSIS tracks and how they might sound, compared to the material on “Farthest From The Sun”
"I’ve started fucking around with new stuff… nothing I’d call a song, but I’ve managed to create the atmosphere I was looking for with this new approach. There’s A LOT of work to be done yet, till I can start on proper songs, but it has a general direction. The new album will surely be totally different from this one. The epic element will be dropped drastically, and a more sombre atmosphere will haunt throughout. I’ve noticed that in today’s Metal scene, the sound of early 90’s Black Metal is forgotten. I want to get back to it, and through a different approach, give it something new. But similarly to the current one, I don’t think the next one will be essentially considered a ‘Black Metal’ album, because that would restrict my approach from the start. Most conventional keyboards will be dropped, and use more ambient sounds than symphonic stuff, and I will try to use a variety of guitar sounds which wont be restricted to an album context. It is a tradition in Metal to keep the same rhythm guitar sound throughout the whole album, which has its effect of course, but I’ll try to keep away from that. Perhaps some songs will be shorter than the ones I’m used to write, but essentially, the album’s feel would be more of an ambient dark atmosphere, than that of an epic Metal band. But for SURE it won’t be electronic-based, as I had planned before, but would use some of the approach of electronic music while avoiding electronic sounds… not sure if you got me there. I’m still not sure of what’s going to happen, and I’m as curious to see what the new album will sound like."
Will we have to wait on your next release for so long once more or have you finally found a more steady solution after all?
"Hehe, I know, my perception of time sucks, but it won’t take as long before I get something new done. Maybe I did find a more steady solution after all, I’m not sure about it, for I don’t force things to fit in, but merely direct forces that act on things and wait for them to fall into place. All I know is that I’ll record, mix and produce everything right here at home, to make sure everything is EXACTLY as it should be. And once I get a pace going, I won’t repeat the same mistake and lose the momentum."
Anything else you’d like to add here?
"Yeah! Throw away your mobile phones, they’re nothing but mind-controlling devices to number you and brand you and mark your position on this planet, by standards set by the ones who pull the strings. Torch your cars, ditch your jobs and your habits, leave your homes and walk till you reach wisdom. Meditate and reflect not on the ways of others, or on your ego, which is nothing but a reflection of their illusions, but on your God-self, your blueprint and your nature, be honest with it and you’ll be truly inspired. Awake Human! Things could be much better than what they are now, and you know it. Why be a slave to petty traditions and trends when you are born master of the elements? Create, not for your finite life, but for the universe. Ok, enough words which everyone will probably ignore and dismiss. Thanks a million for this interview. It’s been great talking about the demo and the past, something I don’t usually get a chance to do. All Hail VOICES FROM THE DARKSIDE!"
Frank Stöver