1. Hi man. Three year have passed since our last interview. That’s quite a long time I guess. Anything interesting happened to you since 2007?

Yes, lot's has happened since 2007! hahaha, recorded a few records, toured a bunch, etc. It's been a busy few years to say the least.

2. Let’s move on to NACHTMYSTIUM… During those last years you have changed quite significantly. We can say that none of those three album sound same. How listeners can understand this progression? I mean what can you say about it as a leading person of NACHTMYSTIUM?

I'm not really sure about how listeners understand this progression, nor do I really care, I just hope that people that come across the records enjoy them...that's all I can ask. The progression is quite natural for us, and for anyone who's followed us over the last five years or so, none of these progressions in our sound / style should come as any surprise.

3. If I’m correct you decided to record a trilogy. What made you to do such thing? That every album represents something else, different music, themes etc. Is it something you had on you mind for a long time?

It's actually just a two-part series (Black Meddle Pt. I and Black Meddle Pt. II) The idea of the two records is based off of a central lyrical theme dealing with all things rock and roll. Sex, drugs and music. All three of these things tend to dominate the minds and lives of people involved in Nachtmystium, and that is what the themes of the records deal with. Mostly the negative side effects of these things. This isn't something I've had in mind for a long time necessarily, just since we started working on "Assassins: Black Meddle Pt. I". Now that "Addicts: Black Meddle Pt. II" is completed, we'll go back to just making individual records that are not connected as part of a series.

4. You released EP “Doomsday Derelicts” last year where you presented your more aggressive and metal sound. What made you to record this EP? Were those songs composed deliberately for the EP or they were old songs you wanted to release?

The "Doomsday Derelicts" EP was simply a post-tour EP recorded with the touring line up for Nachtmystium in 2008. It featured Zack Simmons (Goatwhore) and Jon Necromancer (ex-Usurper), both of whom are very into old school metal (as am I and Jeff Wilson), and we decided that in the wake of our insane first European tour (with was complete debauchery on and off stage, from beginning to end) that we needed to come home and make a total metal EP in honor of our time on the road together. This EP was not ideological or a part of the "Black Meddle" series at all. It was simply a 'hail' to our metal roots, being inspired by bands like Autopsy, Blasphemy, early Slayer, Bathory, etc.

5. But now to the most important thing – Addicts: Black Meddle Pt. 2 - Can you say which bands and things have influenced you most during composing? (We’ll get to some deeper enquiry later) I would say that the new album is more guitar-based than before, which is something I really like!

I'd actually completely disagree on it being more 'guitar based'. The album was actually written with drums and bass in mind first, which was a new way of writing for us. The bands that influenced this album the most are as follows: Ministry, Queens of the Stone Age, Killing Joke, Joy Division and Editors. All bands that have very little to do with metal music, but all bands that I've been listening to a lot as of recently.


6. “Addicts” is without doubt the most psychedelic album of NACHTMYSTIUM so far. Some samples or whole songs are evoking conditions of an addict who enjoys the best part of drug ecstasy. Drugs nowadays are not very kindly accepted topic but they’re among us, so what are your experiences? Were drugs (soft or hard ones) any inspiration for your new songs? :)

Again, I disagree...we were trying to not re-make "Assassins", and intentionally left a lot of the things that made that album 'psychedelic' sounding out of this record. If you'll notice, there is, for example, a lot less Moog synthesizers. These sounds have been replaced with more of an 80's new wave-style of synthesizer tones and guitar riffs. As for the drugs, drugs are a huge part of my life. I'm not a junkie or anything like that, I think becoming a junkie loser is a choice that someone who uses drugs can make. I prefer to use drugs as a means of escaping my own mind and looking at life temporarily through different eyes, so to speak. I really like to use them while being creative and making music or lyrics. They help me look at my own work more objectively, which is an important thing for any artist to do I think. Not to say everyone should use drugs as a means to do this, but it happens to be the best method for me. The use of drugs in my life certainly had a huge impact on the music and the lyrical content of this album, however.

7. Though I have promotional copy from the label I didn’t read lyrics very closely. However I know that lyrics play almost as important role in NACHTMYSTIUM as music itself. It’s definitely an advantage that you’re able to adjust music to the actual lyrics. Could you please elaborate about the story of “Addicts”? I do not know if it a conceptual album but it would be great if you could tell us about actual lyrics, ideas, hidden meanings…

Basically, the album is about sex, drugs and rock and roll. My whole life as a child, I had a dream of being a professional musician, traveling the world and enjoying all the spoils of being a 'rock and roll guy'. Well, now I'm here and do just that. With all the great aspects of doing this for a living, there is also a very dark side to this fantasy-come-to-life. The dynamics of your personal relationships completely change. It can be extremely challenging to have a 'normal' relationship with a girlfriend, for example. The drug use that comes with being on the road all the time can catch up with you and become quite a nightmare if you allow it to, which from time to time, I have. So, all this being said, "Addicts" is very much about my personal addiction to women, drugs and music...the three elements that make up the rock and roll lifestyle. There is a very dark side to this reality that one may not expect to find amidst all the glamorous things that can come with it, and this record is about that dark side of this lifestyle.

8. There are several interesting guests on the new album. How did you arrange these collaborations? Were you the one who asked them to come or it just happened? Is there a collaboration you value the most?

I specifically picked out the people who are on this record, for sure. Will Lindsay and Jef Whitehead (aka Wrest) are two of my closest friends in my personal life, and as you probably know, Wrest and I are involved in the Twilight project together. So, it was quite easy to get these guys involved for the record. The reason I chose to invite them to the session is because I felt that they were the musicians available to me that understood my goals with this album the best, and also both have a healthy respect for my "fuck you" attitude towards the black metal community and the cliches that come with it. So, it was quite easy to make this collaboration happen both socially and musically.

9. I really like one thing and that’s sound. Nowadays, 50% of bands which are trying to sound modern end up as boring non-dynamic sterile crap. But you decided to step towards a rawer sounding which perfectly underlines atmosphere of the album. Do you have any guaranteed “formula” to make the perfect sound or you tend to experiment?

There is no formula, per se. The formula is to be fucking certain that I'm making an album that doesn't sound like everything else and that I never shy away from something that is inspiring me as a means to keep my records 'more metal'. Sanford Parker as an engineer and co-producer (alongside our long time producer Chris Black) is the perfect formula on the recording side of things. Working with those two guys is a blessing, to say the least, as they both understand what I'm trying to create and help me bring it to life.


10. The new album has really a stunning artwork. And you changed your logo again. Can we say that you don’t mind such changes if the painter’s concept is good? What should the artwork represent and who is the author?

That piece of artwork is actually a photograph, not a painting. Thats a sculpture of the model's head (who appears in the layout), made from a plaster-cast mold. (they literally dumped her head in plaster and made a mold of it, then special effects artists added the 'skin', eyes, hair, etc. and then Jimmy Hubbard from Guitar World magazine photographed it) The artwork represents women, drugs and rock and roll...which is what the record is all about. Also - we did not 'change' our logo, we just used a different logo on the cover of the record. Our proper logo is still the same as it has always been.

11. You were on tour across Europe, so how was it? What were the highlights of the tour? I guess it certainly wasn’t the poor attendance in Prague, haha.

Europe was great. Some cities were better than others, and Prague was definitely a bit of a disappointment, but whatever...it was also the middle of the week, so I can't expect everyone that wants to come out during the middle of the work week to be able to make it. The highlights for me were the festivals (Inferno Fest in Oslo and Roadburn Festival in Tilburg), but also Vilnius, Lithuania. Vilnius was, by far, the most exciting headlining Nachtmystium show we've ever played in another country. The crowd was insane and they really received us well. We also spent quite a bit of time after the show with many of the people who came out, and they were awesome to us. Very nice people and they LOVE to drink (which worked out well, as we love to drink too, heh heh) I'd love to go back there and play to them again at some point in the future.

12. Last question from me… What do you personally expect from NACHTMYSTIUM in upcoming years? Can we expect some radical change in your sounding? What would you like to achieve with NACHTMYSTIUM and under which conditions can you imagine the end of the band?

I'm not really sure. I really have no intentions of stopping the band at any point in the future...it's possible I'll work under the Nachtmystium name until the day I die. It's been my 'baby' since I was 17 years old and it has developed from a demo tape into something much bigger that has attracted the attention of people in every corner of the globe, so why stop now? As for the style / sound, I never know what the next Nachtmystium record will sound like, so I can't really answer that too specifically. But, what I can tell you is this: we will always do our best to make interesting records that are different than the previous one.

13. Ok man, that’s everything from me. I hope you didn’t consider time spent with this interview to be waste. And I have to say thanks for the great album I can’t stop myself from listening to it over and over again. Take care and see you later.

Thanks for the interview, cheers.