Thursday, February 18, 2010

Striborg Interview


1. Can you update us on what is going on with Striborg these days?
I have released not too long ago a split CD with Claustrophobia from China on my own label ltd 500 copies.
Other new releases have been the Defuntos/Striborg 7” and the “Southwest Passage” album as well as a very limited 3LP box set entitled “Roaming the misanthropic forests” containing an A2 poster and T-shirt.
Claustrophobia is one of my favourite bands at the moment.
I have just completed recording of a track for a split with Drakonhail from France who are amazing!
This is to be released as a limited edition LP via D.U.K.E. in France and CD via Asgard musik in Tasmania.
Now I am spending time composing/recording and then releasing my new album “This Suffocating Existence”.
Then the rest of the year I will be very busy working on split releases with: Leichenstatte/Fornicatus/Original sin, Tundra, Belzebuth (Outstanding BM band from mainland Australia!) & Moloch.
I have just finished filming for a 3-part documentary on one-man black metal bands: Xasthur/Leviathan/Striborg.
This will be watch able on VBS TV, film festival, and theatres and subsequently on DVD later.
This has captured the “creative process” of the artists as well as “Opening them up”.
I’m sure there will be some mixed reactions from the fans and critics!

2. I know the name Striborg comes from Slavic Mythology and your name Sin Naana comes from the Necronomicon what is your interest in both of these areas?
2.I have no interest in these areas; these names were taken from an uncomprehensive book on old gods and demons.
Given the chance I would rename especially the band name.
I changed my band name and pseudonym in 1997 to this.
The name Sin-nanna has really become something personal now though, the Babylonian god of the moon.
Striborg is the Slavonic god of winter and at the time I thought this to be a perfect symbiosis of both their meanings and their representation of the new direction I was approaching.
Of course many new directions have occurred now so the names are not so fitting.

3. I know that you have played in other bands as well, do you have any current projects, if so , who are thy and what styles of music do they play?
3.I am currently not performing in any other projects at the moment.

4. How would you describe the lyrical content of the music?
4.Obscure, emotional, hateful, misanthropic, cynical, depressive, surreal, nightmarish, nature inspired, ghostly and cathartic.

5. How would you describe the musical progress over the years and what direction do you see the music heading into on future releases?
5.Striborg has slowed down a lot over the years but has been depressive for a long time now.
I think the future will solid ate what I have and am currently performing: slow and ghostly depressive ambient black metal.

6. How would you compare being solo to working with other people in bands?
6.Bliss…although the recording process is very stressful, but at least other people does not impair my artistic vision.
Performing with other members sometimes creates a perfect symbiosis and can create a kind of magic, that “buzz” you get when everything is well rehearsed and tight.

7. What are some of the bands or music styles that inspired you to become a musician?
7.Well that would be going back to the mid/late eighties.
I was only a drummer back then for a death/black/doom metal band.
Drummers who inspired me were “Reed St. Mark” of CELTIC FROST, “Witchhunter” of SODOM, “Jan Lindh” of CANDLEMASS & “Mitch Harris” of NAPALM DEATH.
Later “Fenris” of DARKTHRONE and “Nick Mason” of PINK FLOYD.
However in the early nineties bands who inspired Kathaaria (as it was named back then) were: DARKTHRONE, GORGOROTH, BATHORY, BURZUM & BEHEMOTH.
Later, ILDARN & DARKNESS ENSHROUD.
By the turn of the millennium I was more inspired my slower and depressive black metal bands such as MANES & STRID.
Later, I SHALT BECOME & SHINING.
However I like to think that from say 2003 onwards I am not really inspired by another bands so directly anymore with the exception of XASTHUR who which I thought was similar to my own works in the first place.
Striborg has become unique and original with the only influencing albums being the proceeding album that I have recorded.

8. What are some bands or music styles that you are listening to nowadays?
8.Forget mentioning BM bands! I listen to a lot of Ambient BM & DSBM as well as other styles of music such as brutal Death Metal ala Mortician & Carnivorous Vagina etc… a lot of Ambient & Industrial music too.
Pure Black Ambient stuff like: (old) Claustrophobia, Enemite & IHVHLXXII.
Dark wave and gothic stuff like: Joy Division, Lycia, Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees & The Cure etc…
Old electronic gods like: Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire & Tangerine Dream.
Also some psychedelic folk & pop/rock music from the 60’s & 70’s like: Third Ear Band, The Pentangle, Forest, Pink Floyd/Syd Barrett, Audience & Jethro Tull etc…

9. Does Occultism or paganism play any role in the music?
9.No not really, only stuff that fascinates me like anything to do with the Paranormal/Supernatural: Ghosts, Kirlian Photography, Telepathy, Telekinesis, Astral Travel, Psychic abilities, Residual energy, Orbs, mists and light anomalies etc…

10. What are some other interests that you have outside of music?
10.I have a huge interest in the Paranormal as stated in the previous answer, I am always reading fact and fiction on the subject as well as watching documentaries like “Most Haunted”.
I am a massive fan of Horror movies: Asian horror films, Classic ghost stories, Silent horror films, Hammer/Amicus horror, Euro horror, Giallos, Erotic Vampire films ala Jess Franco & Jean Rollin, Video nasties, Zombie & Cannibal flicks, extreme gore.
Pretty much everything when it comes to horror movies.
Having said that, David Lynch’s series “Twin Peak” or any of his feature films are more important to me than any horror movie.
In my daily life I run an Ebay store simply called FINSTERNIS PRODUCTIONS and go for a run in the forest a couple of times a week as well as wandering through the wilderness.

11. How has the feedback been so far to Striborg's musical style?
11.Like it has always been, a love it or hate it affair…

12. Any final words or thoughts of wisdom?
12.Not really, just to say: try and keep contact with (sub) humans to a bear minimum and then life may be halfway bearable to exist…

Bandcamp
Facebook
Myspace

1 comment: