1. Greetings to Sweden! First of all, we are very happy that we have got the opportunity to interview Waning, because even though I was trying so hard I could not find any interview with you. How are doing? How is the winter in Sweden? Cold and freezing or just a lot of mud everywhere you look like here in Czech?

Greetings! Even though we wished for a cold and freezing winter, it is, as usual, mostly rain and mud, yes. Luckily, I don’t care much of weather, so things are more or less pretty darn ordinary.

2. "Population Control" is a brilliant record not even in my eyes. It is filled with genial compositions, technique and a perfect sound. What else we can expect from a group of musicians with a rich musical past, heh. So how are you composing the songs? Are you working as a group or everyone puts his little individual piece? Do you dispute sometimes during composing or recording? Is there someone who is more dominant?

Thanks for the comments. Our composition procedure is quite straight forward; I (Anders, guitars) compose most of the music at home as raw structures and records them. Then we bring it together as a band in the rehearsal, where all members put their own touch on the material. Any ideas or radical changes that might show up during a rehearsal follow me back home, where I re-record according to the changes.

3. The style that has been used on the debut you released is very sophisticated and intelligent. It reflects not only the musical arts but also well-dose exaggeration. But I am not so sure if I can call this „experimental black metal“. By this name, I imagine something a little bit different. How do you see this?

There are many zines that have labelled us “experimental black metal”. Even though I don’t have any strong opinion on the labelling subject, calling our music “experimental” might give a slight wrong impression. We do incorporate several influences in our material, and we are definitely not limiting our scope to one set of rules. Those influences which do not strictly belong to the typical black metal sound are probably what are getting labelled as “experimental”.

Calling Waning for a black metal band is fairly correct, but any listener with at least half a dozen brain cells will quickly identify our musical concept as wider than the average “Frosty moonlight upon my satanic/depressive/hateful/supreme soul”-band. But today more and more people demand a clear label and often also some clear influences before even giving the music a chance, a selective equation that leaves allot of bands unwontedly in different „pockets“. And while this may help the mass that has no brain activity for them, it could sometimes be a bit annoying to the band itself. As we in Waning also have been labelled under the flourishing „suicidal/depressive“ that is as ever so radiant today, its both musically, visually and foremost lyrically miles away from what Waning is. It can be deceiving and it can also build up expectations that, if it doesn't live up to it, sometimes can make it even worse.

Is Waning experimental? No. Are we outside the norm of traditional black metal? Yes, most definitely. And being different always comes with an entourage of opinions and people pointing fingers.

4. Do you think that in these times it is important to mix in your music some aspects that would separate your music from other bands? I personally feel deep aversion for some nowadays bands which are trying to sound like bands from the nineties. They do it even though that people will usually just choose to listen to the old ones. This is another thing which makes Waning different for me. You create music that fits to the time we live in. I can feel machines and industry, and I love this smell, hehe..

We don’t reason along the terms of distancing ourselves to other bands. We have a strong musical idea, which drives us forward. That idea is wide in its scope and does not limit our music to only one genre/style etc. It is of great importance that the idea is our own and that we will continue to develop it within our own creative ability – we take little to no interest in what others think we sound like, or, even worse, what we should sound like.

And, yes, we are certainly aiming for a modern sound which does not escape the reality but capture the misery of contemporary human lives. That is the essence of our concept (idea), both with regards to how we sound as well as our lyrics, visuals etc.


5. When we talk about the sound, where did you record „Population Control“? Many bands use more than one studio to make the sound more alive and surprising. The aim is to avoid the record to loose it’s shine during the years. But I do not think that it is always good, because too many combinations in something can bring unneeded harm… Is it an important component for you, to make the sound accordant with the guitar riffs?

Yes, our sound is equally important as the compositions themselves; our aim is to fill the listener with a cold feel of the modern society free of emotions and free of spirit, based on what we observe in our daily lives. The tools at our disposal are: the tones, the compositions, the lyrics, the visuals and, of course, the sound; all have to be taken into account to create a coherent concept.

We have recorded, mixed and mastered everything by ourselves, and for several reasons. Ignoring the vast costs of entering a real studio, keeping the whole process in our own hands give us total control and freedom and lets us forge a suiting sound to our compositions. But it sure is a learning process, which we will get better at.

6. The booklet of "Population Control" really got my attention. I have noticed that in your lyrics is you focus more about psychology rather than about darkness and death. Do you think you could explain a little bit what’s your debut CD about and what made you choose the theme of it? I ask, because I believe that the meaning of lyrics is really interesting for the readers as well as for the listeners.

When it came to the visual style of ”Population Control” it was rather crucial that both the cover and booklet suited the music and the lyrical themes as well as being simplistic and not over the top, not to mention it had to look inviting too. We want our music to be accompanied by great art and visuals that actually say something more than just a random picture that doesn't represent the band as a whole. We want every part of Waning to go hand in hand with each other, music, lyrics and visuals. And since the lyrics and music reflect our observations of human relations and the human psyche, the cover and booklet had to be something we thought was coherent with that line. So we used as simple methods as we could and deemed functional, making the cover and booklet consist of Rorschach imagery usually used by psychiatrists to evaluate their patients and cripple the lyrics to just a few lines each was both visually compelling and really something we thought was strikingly similar to the theme of the record. And having the luxury of making these images from scratch by ourselves we gain even more control over our universal idea that is Waning.

The lyrics is far from the usual ”darkness death and suicide” theme going on in the majority of the black metal scene today. It’s nothing that any of us feel we can contribute to and certainly nothing we want to stain our music with. There is an abundance of experts on death and religious themes in bands today so us doing another lyric to be put on an ever growing pile is not in our interest. On ”Population Control”, the lyrics range from the reflections of human intervention to questioning the actions of everyday man as a whole. With that said though, we are not a political band and we do not try to change peoples perception, we are more like a pan optic eye reflecting the view in front of us. And having hysterical humans running around consuming without a thought, living without a reason, our inspiration is seemingly endless. To dig far into the human mind and the machinery that makes it do as it does is an interesting, compelling and very rewarding subject to write about.

7. Year 2009 is just at its begginning, do you think you could collaborate a little bit on what we can expect from Waning in the upcoming months? It’s probably a bit too soon to ask about your future projects, but I believe, that band with such big potential is surely planning something already. So how is it?

Sometime during this year we will probably release a split record. All details are not set yet, but we are composing new material which will take our music further along our path. We will share more details on that as soon as they will be available.

On the 10th of April, we will have our live debut as a support to Negura Bunget in Göteborg.

8. Besides Waning you play in many other projects. It indicates that you are quite experienced musicians. So I assume that a live performance is not a problem for you. How is it going with concerts with Waning? Is there still time left for other projects, for example Obitus? Is there a possibility to see you playing in the middle Europe?

We have all been involved in several different projects letting us building up some experience over the years. But neither of us has played in bands which have frequently toured or released records, so that experience is sure limited.

As stated above, Waning will debut on stage on the 10th of April. But we will surely seek more opportunities to play live; all our music is created with that in mind – we would not record anything which we could not perform as a band on a live stage.

Even if Waning takes up the majority of my creative time currently, there will be time to create new material for Obitus as well, no doubt. And that will happen sometime during 2009.


9. Maybe a little presumptuous question, but belongs to my favourite, even though not often asked. What is your opinion on light drugs, hallucinogens and other matters? If any of you has a positive relationship, do you create some music affected by using them?

Drugs don’t have any particular role in Waning (excluding alcohol, obviously…). What we do outside of Waning does not concern the band. So, naturally, we don’t have any stance on drugs – people make of their lives what they see fit, which, most commonly, equals nothing.

10. Let’s have a little bit philosophy now…. Are you that kind of people that choose in life the way of compromises? If we talk about it with regard to your music – not white, not black, but rather grey? Do you think it is positive to be radical in one way or another?

I’m pragmatic; any measures necessary to reach your goals, radical or not. Reality is always a compromise, however, or different “Shades of Grey”.

There is nothing inherently positive of being radical. Radical is only a measure of the gap between your goal and your starting point; the bigger the gap, the more radical methods necessary to reach them. Compromising for the right reasons might be strategically good; compromising as a sign of weakness or lack of faith in your undertakings is reprehensible.

Waning is radical in the sense that we chose our own way, even though its as cliché as it gets, making a stance against the beaten track that a lot of bands take today and forging your own regardless of what others may think is radical in the sense that there is a bigger risk and that there is more effort to reach your goal. As we are not bound to any dogmatic way of conduct but rather a common idea of what we want to achieve and reach, we can make music, lyrics and visuals unbound to the stereotypical way that black metal usually portrays.

11. You come from famous city Göteborg. How are you influenced by this well known Göteborg scene? I am happy about you are not influenced by this so much and so you did not go that „bad“ way, hah… Is there still working some kind of local underground where the band member meets and debate?

There are no influences from the “Gothenburg sound” whatsoever in what we do. I think it’s safe to say that the Göteborg scene in the terms of an active underground is since long dead. At least I’m not aware of any (and I don’t care much either).

12. And with the previous question I would end our interview, thank you for your very attractive debut and I hope that the next steps of Waning will be no less great.

Thanks for well-written questions! We will continue to develop and evolve our concept, no doubt of that.