Welcome! Thank you for having accessed this interview and congratulations on the work published last year ("Pred Dverima Noći"). To begin with, I would like to ask you to give us a chronology of your journey with Bròn and how have you admired its evolution?
Bròn was started in 2014, shortly after I discovered I
was being forced to leave Scotland. The first album "Fògradh" was
written during this time and was completed just before I left. After that I
spent a year in Zlaté Moravce, Slovakia, where I wrote and recorded the "Ànrach"
album. That album chronicles the journey all the way from New Zealand, where
I’m originally from, to Scotland and then to Serbia, where I was preparing to
move during the recording process. Once I had moved to Belgrade, I recorded "Зарђала
Круна", which was inspired by the wilds of Eastern Serbia.
However, I was living in a huge sprawling metropolis, on a scale which I hadn’t experienced previously, so I recorded a number of down-tempo electronic releases to explore and make sense of life in an urban setting (these were the White City series and Decay). The inspiration for this proved to be in limited supply, so having achieved what I wanted with that sound, I returned to the atmospheric black metal sound of the early days and drew on the wildness of nature for inspiration again. In between, there were two more releases – Ruins, which is a strange kind of electronic, folkish ambient music and Where the Leaden Dawn Meets Iron Shores, which was rooted in black metal. I have no desire to return to the electronic soundscapes and Bròn’s wandering has stopped, both musically and physically, now settled in Serbia and in the black metal genre.
The album was released very close to the end of the year - December 11th. Was this due to your will, or can we "blame" the pandemic reality we are going through?
This wasn’t planned as such, it just happened to be a nice coincidence that it was released during the winter months. It was just a matter of everything being finalised and ready to go at that time.
How was it to compose an album, immersed in a pandemic, in an almost unreality? Was it a source of inspiration or were you already working on it even before it happened?
The album was actually written and recorded long before the pandemic. After that it just took some time to make label arrangements, finalise the artwork and get mixes and masters done. However, once the pandemic hit and I had more free time on my hands, I created and finished a huge amount of music for other projects. I don’t think it was direct inspiration, but it certainly gave me much more time to work on things without interruption.
All your work in Bròn is immersed in majestic atmospheres, which intersect with the viscerality of Black Metal. What is your source of inspiration?
Most of my inspiration for Bròn comes from long hikes in the wilderness. These journeys usually involve a lot of changing moods, weather conditions and landscapes, which is reflected in the range of sounds and atmospheres in Bròn’s music.
Along with Bròn you are present in a series of other bands / projects (Note: "Barshasketh" was an excellent surprise, by the way). How can you coordinate when it comes to creating? Or does it end up being something of the moment, when you let yourself go in one direction, and do you understand that it fits this or that sound reality?
It is a very natural process. I never sit down and decide to write something for a particular band. Usually I pick up an instrument and start playing and an idea or riff will stick with me. I instinctively know which band it suits and then I just open myself up to it and let it flow. I’ve never thought about it much, but I guess it all depends on my mood at that time. One thing of note though is that the moods usually work in the reverse of what you might expect. For example, Nadsvest and Belliciste, which are much more primitive and aggressive, usually manifest when I’m quite calm and balanced. Some of my more relaxed and quiet music is made while I’m stressed, angry or just generally not in a good frame of mind. I can’t quite explain that either.
I can assume that, more or less atmospheric that your sound is, you see yourself in the Black Metal genre. What is your perspective / opinion about it, today?
Correct, although Bròn deviates into other
soundscapes, it’s foundation is firmly rooted in black metal and the vast
majority of my other projects also fall into the black metal category.
As for my opinion of black metal today, I would say the one word that stands out is mediocrity. The thing that strikes me about today’s scene is this saturation of bands that are technically proficient, well-produced, well-packaged and very image-conscious, but are simultaneously unspeakably fucking dull and totally devoid of any conviction or belief. There is so little substance or passion in it. On one side you have bands who see it as an image and nothing more, and on the inverse you have bands lamenting this and doing everything they can to go against it, which in my opinion is the exact same thing. They are still driven by external forces. For my part, I try my best to ignore it and continue to do what I’ve always done.
Returning to an already asked question: we have Bròn, we have Barshasketh and we have Belliciste, this just to mention 3 names. The 3 are quite different, I dare say. Each one has a vision / perspective of Black Metal. Already knowing, in a way, the answer: would you ever be able to express yourself through only one of them?
No definitely not. Each new band that I’ve started is almost always due to the fact that I wrote material which didn’t seem to fit any of my existing projects. Barshasketh was the first band to emerge in this way. I had no plans to start a project or do anything with the material, but I had just discovered black metal and the songs that would become the first demo just appeared. A few years later, I wrote some rawer, more Finnish sounding material that didn’t suit Barshasketh, so that evolved into Bellicsite. The same goes for Bròn after that. There was no intention to start something new, but the extended ambient sections and heavy use of synths, as well as the lyrical themes, didn’t suit any of my other bands.
From New Zealand to Scotland, and now Serbia. How have these "changes" shaped you as a musician, and as a person? These are apparently quite different realities...
This is actually a very difficult question to answer. It has undoubtedly had an effect on me personally, however I can’t say in which ways specifically, as over the 11 years I’ve been away from New Zealand, I suppose I’ve just grown naturally. I really cannot even begin to imagine how I’d be if I’d never left my country of origin, but I can say that the path I’ve take and the experiences I’ve had have 100% shaped the person I am today.
Musically, I don’t think I would be anywhere near the level I am at today, as the various people I’ve met and have made music with in Europe have had a huge influence on me, especially my band mates in Barshasketh, who always push me to be a better musician as I have to do my best to keep up with their incredible skills.
How did you live - and live - this pandemic? How did it affect you, from the point of view of creation?
As stated previously, during the early stages when
Serbia was in a complete lockdown, there was a torrent of creativity and I
wrote and recorded a huge amount of material, something like 5 or 6 albums for
various bands. This was because I could work on music for twelve hours straight
without usual everyday obligations like work hanging over me.
Things are now quasi-normal here (although the plague continues), so I’m interrupted by work and other mundane tasks, but I’ve still managed to maintain the momentum to some degree and I continue to find time everyday to work on music. I’m also taking more opportunities to explore the wilds of Serbia, which in turn is providing me with more inspiration.
Are there any plans for the future, for any of the bands you're involved in, or are you going to risk another creation.
I’m involved in fifteen separate projects currently, so there are countless things in the works at the moment. Because of this I’m trying to stay away from any new projects at the moment, but who knows if that’ll remain the case. As of now, the next Bròn album has been written and is being demoed and there is new material finished or in the works with Barshasketh, Belliciste, Nadsvest, Sluagh, Hard Times, Dunkelheit and Diablerie as well as debut releases for a few other projects.
Thank you very much, for my part, for the opportunity. We hope that in the near future there will be more music and that we can admire your work and, who knows, speak again. Greetings from Portugal.
Many
thanks for the interview!
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