Sunday, January 18, 2009

interview with skogg owner of hypnotic dirge rec.&vocals,all instruments for ancient tundra

INTERVIEW WITH SKOGG OWNER OF HYPNOTIC DIRGE RECORDS AND VOCALIST,ALL INSTRUMENTS FOR ANCIENT TUNDRA,DONE BY PATRICK



1.hello skog how is your new year starting out? please tell the readers a little about yourself.
Well hello. The new year is going fine. A bit hectic at the moment trying to find time for everything going on, but I like to stay busy. Hmm my name is nick skog, I have a project entitled 'Ancient Tundra' and I am now also running Hypnotic Dirge Records.

2.at what age did you become interested in playing/creating music? what were the first instruments you learned to play?
I've been playing music since the age of three when I was forced into taking piano lessons, I had created 'songs' in my early days as well, but it was not until 2005 or 2006 that I began to start writing something at least somewhat similar to what I am doing nowadays. I just began writing keyboard melodies in the vein of old cradle of filth , nightwish and dare I say, even marilyn manson at the time. Mostly it started from a friend and I, wanting to start up a 'band' sort of in between old-cradle and gothic metal type stuff. It was/is called 'A Dark Fantasy' and it is still up on myspace actually at www.myspace.com/adarkfantasy but nothing too much really came out of it. We wrote a lot of songs and did a lot of demo recordings but never really took anythin to the next step...sadly enough as I do still like most of the material and would one day like to record it profesionally. Keyboards remain the only instrument I can play well. I can get by playing minimalist stuff on guitar but that is it.

3.when did you decide to start ancient tundra? how did you come up with the name? doe it have a special meaning. for the readers who have never heard ancient tundra how would you describe the bands music?
I started Ancient Tundra in January of 2007...so it is the two-year anniversary right about now actually! To be honest, it has been a while now and I don't remember exactly how I came up with the name. Obviously this would take away from the theory that it has a special meaning. Either that or I just have a really bad memory! As for describing the music, how about the readers that have not heard Ancient Tundra before go onto the myspace page and discover for themselves! hehe ... Well, simply put I would describe it as Dark Ambient but with a hint of neo-classical, film-scores, and blackmetal/doom. Also within are both clean and harsh vocals, even a guest vocal spot from japanese lyricist 'Kenji Siratori' Defidently not a straight dark ambient project as a lot of the purists have already let me know, but others have seemed to enjoy it and I don't feel I should hole myself into one genre anyway. It is better to push the envelope, experiment, and try to find an individual sound.

4.the music on the new cd "requiems of a world lost" is very well written.how long did it take to create/write the tracks for this release? do you have a personal favorite track?
Thank you for the compliment. Umm If I remember correctly, I began the writing process around the fall of 2007 and kept on writing until about April or May 2008... It all came at different stages though. Unfortunetely I do not have the time away from other responsibilities like the 'famous bands and artists' to just drop everything else and set aside 2 or 3 months to write a new album. I would work on it whenever I could, and try to keep things progressing. Luckily it worked out alright and it was released in November 2008, pretty much exactly one year after the debut, which is what I wanted! My favourite track , defidently would have to be 'The Natural Landscape of December' but I also really like The Feeble Sickness and Depressive Rot, Et Demain Apporte Pas De Esperer, and Across the Valley , Wherein Nature Speaks.

5.how has the response been from the underground press/fans?
So far, everything has been very positive. Better than I suspected. All the reviews I have gotten have been positive...however there was a comment from the vilenoise.com review that they thought I added too much new-age influence into the music on certain tracks...they named 'The Natural Landscape of December' as an example, which is funny actually because that is my favourite Ancient Tundra track thus far. Like I said, I want to experiment and would rather be known for doing something different rather than being 'an other dark ambient project' The 'fans'(so to speak) so far that have contacted me after buying the CD, has all had good things to say about it as well, but who knows about the ones that did not let me know their thoughts. haha

6.have you had much time to begin work on the follow-up release? do you have to be in a certain mood or anything to create such dark,haunting music?
I have had no time whatsoever. Things are crazy at the moment. The good news however is that I already have the next release written and recorded (That was done between July-September 2008), and I honeslty say this is my best material yet. I have showed the music to Immundus as well and he has agreed with me. It is going to be a split release, but I am not sure when exactly it will be out. This time around I am going to get the CD profesionally mastered at Cyclic law Studios! At the moment I am working on the artwork/design for the release, taking photography and putting concepts together. Depraved Designs will be doing the editing and designing the booklet with my help in order to make things as profesional and complete as possible. So far , just from the initial stages, it looks like it is going to come out beautifully! It is going to be an 8 page booklet filled with winter landscapes, and imagery and the CD itself will be on Pro-CD this time around. In order to make everything perfect and to get funds together for this,(not to mention the other project getting his side ready) I don't foresee this being released until August or September, but either way that is only a 10 month separation from the last release!

I do have to be in a certain mood for sure. Sometimes I am inspired, sometimes I am not, it is pretty simple regarding this. I am ussally pretty inspired though. Especially these past few weeks or so when the temparature up here in Canada has gone all the way to -50 celcius with the wind chill.

7.is ancient tundra the only band/project you are currently working on?if no please tell us of your other projects.
Let's just put it this way. It is the only project of mine that is relevent. There are/were about 3 or 4 other things going on, but other than a possible revival of the 'A Dark Fantasy' project with a friend of mine, that is really the only thing worth mentioning. I have other stuff recorded as well in a symphonic black metal type of vein but I do not have a name for the project yet, so that might come up in the future once I have more time on my hands. We will see how things go...

Besides I am busy enough as it is with Ancient Tundra and Hypnotic Dirge Records

8.if you had the chance to work with any musicans past or present who would you like to work with?
Number one by far would be Tuomas Holopainen from Nightwish, He is my idol as far as playing keys go, and I have always been influenced by his style of composing, (obviously not in Ancient Tundra though...) Others would include Fenriz(Darkthrone), Northaunt, Svartsinn, Symbiosis, Immundus, Mort(Exiled from Light) and also perhaps even with members of Cradle of filth, and dimmu borgir for the talent aspect, Ville Valo from HIM, angela gossow...some of the more obscure atirsts from the Depressive Black Metal scene. etc. etc. There are tons of artists I would love to work with in many different styles and genres.

9.besides the band you also own/run hypnotic dirge records.when did you first start the label? do you currently do it by yourself or do you have help with various parts of the label.
I first started getting everything planned out and in order to begin around the end of September/beginning of October 2008 and officially opened it October 20th,2008. There was only a few distro items at that point, and it was not until November 24th that the first two HDR releases were finally released! At first there was me and a friend running the lable , but after about a week, he decided he wanted out, because it was too much work for him and cost him too much money. Ha! There was 1/100th of the work at that point on a daily basis as there is now so I find it kind of pathetic that it was too much for him within the first week. So now I run all aspects of HDR by myself, I put in anywhere from 4-8 hours a day on it, but I have lots of collegues and allies within the scene that are very helpful and it is always nice to talk/discuss things with them.

10.please tell the readers a little about each of your releases.do you have any upcoming releases the readers should know to watch out for?
Well, our first two official releases came out on November 24th. Ancient Tundra's newest release(which I've talked enough about) and Winds of Sorrow's debut album. Winds of Sorrow is a side project from Mort who's main project is the amazing Exiled From Light (which has just recently signed to HDR by the way!) The Winds of Sorrow material has been described as a unique mixture of older Dimmu Borgir with a hint of Katatonia and Xasthur. I personally find it to be a very well-written album and so far, all of the reviewers have agreed as well, so the general concensus on that is defidently positive. As I write this to you right now, we have now also released the third HDR official album which is Echoes of Silence's latest. As far as upcoming releases, we have Astral Luminous- Lunaric Tide, and Neige et Noirceur - Demo V coming up on February 27th and March 6th respectively. These are in my opinion, probably the best HDR items yet! they are both amazing releases and some of my favourite ambient/depressive black metal releases in quite some time. The Astral Luminous release for example has some really beautiful and inspiring artwork as well. I would defidently recommend anyone who has not heard of these two great projects to look them up and hear what their music has to offer. ( www.myspace.com/astralluminous www.myspace.com/neigeetnoirceur )

11.if any bands are reading this what styles of metal/music do you release? do you only carry ambient/experimental in the distro or do you carry all styles of metal?
What I want on the lable is something thoughtful, innovative, inteligent and/or depressive. As far as genres go, I am fairly open-minded. It doesn''t neccesarily have to be depressive black metal or ambient music, and it doesn't have to be 'dark' either, but what I am not realy interested in is the typical evil or satanic black metal, not because I can not appeciate it, but simply because it does not fit into what the lable stands for. In the distro, some of these 'policies' lighten up a little bit , generally I still go by the same guidelines, but there are a couple items on there that do not represent at all what HDR is about. However, If someone happens to stumple across the website and finds these albums they were looking for and decides to buy them, then I am glad I could do them a service. That is why it is distribution rather than an HDR official album which comes only from HDR roster artists and is financed 100% from HDR.

12.what do you feel is the easiest part of doing a label? what would you say is the hardest part?
The easiest part is the good contacts and friendships you make and the appeciation from people who know and understand what you are trying to do. The hardest part is everything else and the constant workload that comes with it. It is all worth it in the end though, nomatter how much money it costs and how much time it takes up...If I am releasing albums that I like and feel is a work of art and at the same time helping out fellow musicians and friends get their music to those who want it, then I get a certain satisfaction from that. There are some amazing albums coming up from amazing people and artists that need to be available to the listeners of our genre.

13.in your opinon what is the best and worst thing about the underground? and what does the term "metal underground" mean to you.
The best thing is that only in the underground will music/films/artwork /etc. be judged upon by the quality of the material rather than dollar value or sales. People help each other out in the underground. Underground musicians and lables are not going to making money from their work, so you know that they are sincere about what they are doing and are not just looking to get rich. You know they are passionate and there is generally not as much worry about 'fake people' This goes to all my friends, and fellow musicians/lables. Also to all the people running zines, doing radio shows, doing promotions, photographers, etc. People are all helping each other out and it is a wonderful thing to see, really. Most of these people are not looking for payments, or maybe they just want a copy of a CD that they do artwork for, for example. I have had offers from some offering to make an HDR website and everything (This was E. from EEE Recordings - great guy and great lable!)

The worst thing about the underground I would say is that while we are not in it for the money, we are also constrained sometimes by the fact that we do not have the money we need to truly bring our artistic visions to life and sometimes are forced to 'tone things down' just because we can't do fulfill our intentions - financially.

14.well skogg thank you for taking the time to fill out this interview.good luck with your band,and label in the future.do you have any final words for the readers?

Thank You for the interview. It's appeciated at this end as well. Be on the lookout for news from HDR and Ancient Tundra. I have some exiting things planned for the future, so keep posted, and for anyone that has any questions/comments, please get in touch.

'Wherein Beauty Lies in Depression'

to contact hypnotic dirge records

http://www.myspace.com/hypnoticdirgerecords

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