1. Greetings to VOID and thank you for the opportunity of making this exclusive interview. If I am not mistaken, it is the first for our country, right?
Greetings to you Dufaq, nice to meet you. First interview with your country. Yes. I think I spoke to some Italians, some Gemans, but no Czech. I like your country. Not when the riot police come over the hill but I wasn’t at that party that time (Czechtech circa 2005?). We are drinking Pivo.
2. VOID are quite an obscure and unknown band, definitely in our country. Therefore, I would like to introduce you to the Czech readers from the very beginnings in the year 1999. There have been quite a lot of fundamental black metal personas through the band so I would like to ask you if you could say a few sentences about the history of the band...? Yet I definitely do not mean the typical boring biography stuff. I guess you yourself would not like it, hehe.
Void is a channel through which many voices are transmitted.
First there was Kraken, which was crap. Then I heard Ved Buens Ende & Dodheimsgard and Mat and I decided to make better music. We did a demo with Czral, then two more just the pair of us. Then we made Posthuman… -- 8 years later, I made a new demo of Ego Tranquilizer over Carl-Michael’s drums from the first demo. I played it to Joe. We called Rob:
I knew after the first couple of minutes playing with Matt and Joe that we were at the start of a new adventure and new things would happen. At first with this new edition of the band the plan was for Matt and Rob to sing… however with bunch of technical songs to learn we were still learning the riffs when Joe introduced us to his friend Ben. Joe and Ben had known each other for years and played in many bands together so there was an urgent need to say something funny now.
Anyway, Ben fell in, he fell, so in love. But not with us. And away he was gone one mornin’.
And out from the hole fell a broken old soul, until one day…
3. You released the first demo in the year 2000, two more a year later and from these a few compositions appeared on the "Posthuman" album. Here I would like to stop for a moment and let you introduce the album from your point of view to those who do not know anything about it.
Wow. Dufaq, You’ve got all the faq.
Except these aren’t frequently asked questions at all.
Rob on Posthuman, not Joe, because he doesn’t like it:
Posthuman was a very important album for me because my thing was an obsession with electronic black metal. There was a social life, there were a few bands and it was like there was a scene.
But it didn’t happen.
Rob was himself a shining beacon in this scene with his band Concept. We were introduced by Hal from Interlock. Ed also played in both our bands, who is now married and the fuckin chief of live sound in London.
4. What was going on after the release of the album? Were there any live gigs, did you start working on a new material or did you put the band on ice?
There are a couple of riffs in there.
5. The current line-up of VOID is now different again. So, could you please say a few words about this transformation, as I guess it came hand in hand with the idea of the new album...?
As we learned the old songs it was natural to write new ones and it turned into a thing, before we grew something else ill and for whatever reason it took over and killed us.
To take a photograph or make a diary of ourselves at that time, to remember who we were.
We never bitched at each other or had some mad falling out but we made music, together, at the same time. Joe gave us a home. So we recorded everything that we knew how to play and then we got into the detail of what we were playing and it was pure. Pure evill
6. A few days ago, I received the promo and after the few listens, I have to say that it is a new face of VOID that is quite impossible to compare with the old one. This arises a question - is it the final shape of your style or will we be facing another transformation in a few years?
I’m transforming as I type. Voice of the wood green metal stokey punk black metal was once a hybrid. It eats itself whole. Thank you for listening.
7. The first thing that intrigued me was the cover done by your friend Mozibur Ullah. Could you please explain what the drawing should represent?
I don’t know what he’s on about mate. He’s always up in the middle of the night, grasping new formulas. He gave us his gold and flew away to Bangladesh. Now he’s back and I hear he’s riding my bike but I must catch up with him!
8. When taking into consideration how sophisticated the musical side of the album is, I would expect the album to have a really strong and subtle concept. What is it about, what result was your goal?
We hoped to end up taking lots of drugs – and we did, and we did, and we wanted to drown upside-down, but then we drowned the world out instead. We made evil things, not because we’re evil people, but we just like it, fuckin Luv that evil bitch.
9. On the new album, you used two compositions from your third demo. What was the reason for this return to the long-ago past?
It was the first demo that had two songs. It was the viral transfusion*
* We used all of Kvohst’s lyrics, he said it was cool and it sounded really good, taking us back to the tree of Zorlach.
The Tree of Zorlach
The Tree of Zolach, take us back!
10. In the beginning, the album tends to seem quite chaotic and difficult to listen to. The combination of the technical playing, the approach to the sound and the complex progressions can in the beginning confuse many listeners and seem to arise associations with bands like Ved Buens Ende and Virus, that create in simmillar spirit. However, it comes as no surprise as Czral participates in both. How do you view this fact?
His original drum patterns were the catalyst for restarting this band. We all were fans of his work before we knew of each others appreciation of it. Is this the German Translation? Sing for those Swans! You know what I mean?
11. Not long ago, your old vocalist left the band and was immedietly replaced by the new one. Yet I guess that Lowe is the one singing on the album. If it is so, how is Levi planning to deal with this fact in case of playing live?
The process of ‘keeping it real’ with the VOID’s direction was to listen to the album lots of times within several states of conciousness, adopting the style of the previous vocalist on this project! Then as a conduit, channelling the sickened, empty, blackened vibes. Then wrote what I needed! I truly love music that turns my brain into crap! So it was right down my alley! Long rain the VOID
12. Quite often, the story and the atmosphere of an album get mentioned, yet for example the message that the album bears is often being forgotten. Is it the same with "Void"?
There’s just a nasty underneath low dirt thing. The grime of society. Maybe that’s what it is about. Or whatever you find there. In the underneath low dirt thing.
13. The release is scheduled for January if everything works fine. So, what are your plans for the year 2011?
Fill the void again and again.
14. What do you actually expect from the new album? Do you aim for good critics, good foreign reception or are these things not important for you as you create the music just for your own pleasure, no matter the reactions?
We’re trying to record a new one now – we had a lot of fun though, that was the point.
To forget the other nonsense and focus in on something that lives in the present. Something that only lives if you give it life. To practice a nurturing instinct and discover what can emerge. But sometimes we must turn our backs on our children and let them have their own adventures – they can return to us when they need to.
‘Eastern wisdom, like a piston. Like a Poison that invades your mental System.’*
15. To end the interview in a bit more relaxed way, I would like to once again return to the past a bit. Seven years is quite a long time. Some of you play in different bands and projects, but that probably was not the main contens of your lives...Did you devote your time to your jobs? Families? Or absolutely different things? :-)
In 2005 I went to Brasil and met Wagner Antunes. We made the band EREGE, Plano A Plano B e varios planos la no studio do Cafeine do Marcio e Juliao. Algumas ainda tou Rolando. After we played with Keith in the Keith Mathew Wagner Band, now called LAMRAT and living again.
16. Most of the musicians taking the more experimental direction with their art tend to have quite interesting musical tastes. Please, reveal your favourite genres and artists to us. Do you attend live shows as well?
Yes, we’re all slags, we’re all in quite a few bands, you’ll see us in London shows. Shouts goin out for DEAD EXISTENCE, ASTROHENGE / The UNICORN PUB / NAKED CLAW PROMOTIONS, SLAUGHTERHOUSE PROMOTIONS, EL SCHLONG, SLABDRAGGER and the kebab incident, FLOWERS OF FLESH AND BLOOD are the hairiest hardcores around, The BARoN oF BRoMLEY! Beats all in a Royal Running Flush, when the poison just comes to the surface, like dew on the skin. @~@$£” Tomas Branwyn and ed’s wedding. Joe’s Death Metal band - CYTHRAUL are support for FLESH GOD APOCALYPSE on March 27th at the Purple Turtle, London. VOID are playing the day after tomorrow (16th Dec) at TUNELESS RECORDS’ at NAMBUCCA, on Holloway Road, London with Bin Raiders, FOFAB and Lamratlazit1st and we will play, god damn you! Play! You are not shopping bags. Rob has been playing drums with Greek neo folk band DAEMONIA NYMPH who have just come back from a Napoli show, they ate octopus and wanna play festivals so anybody, get on it. One, Two, Check it out. Actually the singer is vegetarian. EVERYONE MATTERS will be taking music into hospices, schools, prison and hospitals, all the places where people are deprived of art and need it the most. We will keep you informed about that.
17. Well, as the interview is starting to look more like an allegation, I rather thank you a lot for your time and answers. I wish VOID a lot of success with the new album and I hope to hear about you earlier than in another seven years!
Thank you Dufaq, please feel free to chat more. Are there any gigs or good bands there in Czech Republic? Are you in a band? Can we come and stay in your house?
Fucking Kill! going out to Metal.de for our first review. We ARE unusually usual, and connect huge ass, thank you. Please. Thank you. Stop.
Super stop.
