http://www.myspace.com/ruinsblackmetal
1. Tell us for those that are new Ruins give us a history of the project?
Dave and I met one another in 96. Our tastes can differ but we like all the same fundamentals like ac/dc and slayer. We listened to music together a lot and by the turn of the millennia I would say that Ruins existed as an idea. The ‘Black Metal’ thing came because of our shared interest in that realm, not just the music, but the occult in general. There was also a demo for us called ‘Atom and Time’. The demo was recorded in 2003 and issued as an mcd in 2004. Our debut ‘Spun Forth as Dark Nets’ was recorded through 2004 and released 2005. All of this music and still even now I have ideas that have dated back as far as 1996 even... this is loosely speaking... but true to a point. I am writing all the time, and sometimes little things may take a long time in evolving into a real foundation idea that a song may jump off. That’s the thing really... when an idea gets to a point that it just rolls, then out comes a song really fast. But leading to this; well I even have riffs just sorting themselves into songs finally now... that if I actually analyse the idea behind the riff, I can say the song began in 1997 haha! Ruins began as an idea between Dave and I around 99-2000, but we were both doing other things at the time, actually working towards getting the band together and having some jams did not happen until sometime in 2002. So writing really begins properly then, but writing is not linear for me. We took a long time with ‘Cauldron’. I am very pleased. It was a lot of work. I write, and then arrange with Dave, then record with Joe Haley, Dave’s brother as producer, he is engineering, mixing and even mastering this time. I think ‘cauldron’ follows ‘spun forth’ as it should, and likewise our new stuff is a reaction to where ‘cauldron’ leaves us. We are just a little further along our path. Our next album will be titled ‘Front the Final Foes’ and is due out mid-09.
2. your sound to my ears is Immortal meets Satyricon. Do you agree these are strong influences to the band?
I think Ruins crystallized as a plan whilst listening to ‘Battles in the North’ haha! That was an important album for Dave and I to share. We don’t always like all the same stuff but there are certain things where we just cross over. Immortal are always inspirational. So it is ‘Battles’ that reminds me of where we theoretically began as a band; though it is Satyricon’s ‘Rebel Extravaganza’ that reminds me very much of the time in which we were truly beginning musically, starting to play together quite often. We have always respected both bands. Probably the most significant band for me personally, since the very early 90’s and still today haha! is Dark Throne. They turned me onto not only the roots in Bathory and Celtic Frost but also were my gate to these others to follow like Immortal and Satyricon.
I am a huge fan of Celtic Frost, and they are a significant feature in the overall picture of Ruins, Bathory too. But the Celtic Frost thing has become much easier to identify since we were lucky enough to open for them when they came to Australia last year. What I mean by this is... people can only identify what they already know really.... there are much more obscure influences in Ruins music of course that hardly anyone would or could ever pick. But for example when we supported Satyricon, people can say oh Ruins sound like Satryicon. When we played with Immortal, people say oh they sound like Immortal. In analyzing anything by just comparing and contrasting you can only go with what you know I suppose. People who have never heard those bands would have no capacity to say that... they might say, Ruins sound like Killing Joke, or Slint, or the Melvins haha! I have heard all of these things too from people less acquainted with Black metal.
I attempt to gesture to the power that is there before ruins arrives; as did DarkThrone salute to Mayhem, Hellhammer/CelticFrost, Bathory. In many cases I think black metal stagnates where it does not embrace this depth... there are many bands that seemingly begin and end with the early 90’s Mayhem or Burzum, or DarkThrone, without really seeing where these bands fit in the whole scheme of things... I grew up with these bands and was always looking up to them for sure, but by this time I was playing guitar and trying to get bands happening... teenage years. ‘Under a Funeral Moon’ is when I am just getting to an age that I am playing guitar and thinking about bands....strong feelings. The vintage of celtic, slayer, bathory, this was something I always felt less peer to... it is before me and it is what hooked me... what captured me and spawned me! It is a double-edged sword... all that said and I think the other side of the coin is also tired... the retro black-thrash...proto-black-metal... so old-school and offended by the excesses of later 90’s black metal that they head so far back in direction they forget that ‘De Mysteriis’, ‘Det Som Engang Var’, and ‘Under a Funeral Moon’ ever happened. I don’t think either direction is a problem. I like bands on either side of this sword... to either extreme. But personally I have no real parameters. I don’t want limitations or rules I just know what I don’t like I suppose. I will experiment with what I do like. I would call Ruins a fence-sitter regarding this... though I feel more like I am wielding that double-edged sword actually. I guess in essence I have always just tried to highlight the features of the music that I like. But all of this is just talk and reason, when it comes to the will, and the intent etc., well it is not anyone else’s story but ours.
Musically speaking we have a strong base in what we do, paying proud tribute to many musical influences; but essentially we aspire to create our own world... other peoples music is a feature in this reality of course, but the overall aesthetic and feelings that come with Ruins experience are definitely unique, again on that other level... we channel primal feelings, these are not so unique... actually common in essence. I do not stop certain archetypes from coming through me, we are making the music that we want to hear simply through feeling what we seek to feel when we commune... this goes for my writing, working with Dave, producing, and of course the performance ritual.
I guess it may be hard to pick some of my influences and inspiration actually in the overall picture of Ruins, there is a lot there in only the most subtle ways. Other things come through much heavier. The actual core of the sound... we wear its influences very proudly. Honestly there is way too much to tell with regards to my listening habits though. . I am pushing forward, yet refining with careful attention given to the past and current masters, what qualities are inherent to the music that has hooked me over the years. This is a summary of one side of my approach, the only part I can get close to defining really. The other elements, features, and sequences involved in my creative process cannot really be explained or understood in rational terms short of saying it is instinctive... and boundless. Constant and exponential, everything, absolutely everything that I perceive, it is all influencing in one way or another, what I am or what I do. On this plane of feeling everything is linked, when inspiration is just at pinnacle... everything is just bridging to everything else, so the musical ideas are just always coming together for me.
3. How did you come to work with Moribund Cult?
It seems Cauldron has been released by many labels worldwide is there a reason for that ? There isn't one worldwide label ?
‘Cauldron’ took about a year to produce from beginning tracking until finished master (sep 06 – sep 07) We took a little longer than we may have needed if we had been trying to get it done in a hurry… but we felt no real need to rush; the process was happening alongside doing a few shows. Unfortunately ‘cauldron’ was then delayed by circumstances outside of our control. Long story short… we were expecting that the same label who released our debut ‘spun forth’ would issue ‘cauldron’ . It was set to go very early in 08. We really wanted it available by March 08 at latest because we had a national tour supporting Immortal on their first visit to Australia. This was obviously a big deal for us regarding larger audience sizes, a perfect album launch opportunity. Anyway as the tour drew near we had lost all contact from former label, they had been sent the production parts and we certainly expected that they would release the album although there was no contract between us. For one reason or another, they dropped the ball so to speak. We moved on it from this end just in time; the company that used to distribute our former labels product in this region of the world decided to lend a hand and manufacture on our behalf just for this region. So we had copies for our March tour, and we have had it available domestically here in Australia since then. After a couple of months of trying to straighten out the situation and find out exactly what was happening, we began trying to sort out other options. In the end we chose to work with debemur morti productions for Europe, mainly because they approached us with interest, not the other way around. Following this was the licensing agreement with moribund for the U.S. I want someone who is going to work for my band like I think they should… I want to be a primary concern for my label, and I want to be able to be behind that labels attitudes and decisions too. I do not want to feel compromised by anything around me, so I simply try to make that impossibility. Things certainly have potential to work well for us with moribund and debemur morti I think. It makes sense to me to work with someone who has taken an interest in what we do, rather than us have to push it on someone and sell ourselves. To say the least I am very pleased that debemur morti and moribund seem to be in agreement with me about anything discussed so far.
4. Is it hard being from Australia and getting notice on the world stage?
Well yes immediately we were looking globally with regard to Ruins, which is a strange thing to say considering we have not really left these shores yet. But yeah, internet certainly changed everything about all this music business. We have been embraced immediately by the Australian scene; embraced quite positively as being unique really… Tasmania really does set us apart from others in more ways than geographically haha! I am thankful for this.
We have done some Australian shows and a couple of New Zealand shows, but we are yet to tour Europe, U.S., or anywhere else for that matter. We hope to have a chance to do some touring in the years to come but it is quite difficult for us from here. If Australia is isolated and disconnected from the world then Tasmania is ten-fold. For me it is important to just focus on the music, but certainly I understand the importance of touring and I do have the desire to do so... but for us it is a matter of timing.
Now we are starting to get things happening through some more appropriate channels, it is relieving in a way... at least our stuff now has the potential to find an audience. But yes it is hard getting noticed anywhere in anyway, it is a totally flooded market really... bands are just a dime a dozen, and all want to sell their sorry souls without even the least coercion, so what can I say? It is totally easy for anyone to get their shit out there, but for the right people to find it and then work at getting others to take notice... of course this is a challenge. Strangely, the way it works in Australia, there is this cultural ‘cringe’ where really people only sit up and take notice if a band succeeds on some level internationally. If it is cool in New York, London, L.A., Rome, Paris, Prague, Berlin, Amsterdam, then it must be cool right? Like we can’t decide for ourselves? The other side of the coin to this cultural cringe is the ‘tall poppies’ issue; where if you get too successful or something people get jealous and want to cut you down however possible... this directly relates to the fact that half the audience in Australia is also fancying themselves as being the next big artist too. A large part of the crowd is made up of other musicians. This is the case in many scenes, not just metal. But I guess we are a small population and that is just how it is... if everyone is a struggling artist, then everyone is a potential critic haha! All I can say is it is not a particularly ‘elite’ attitude, to drag down anyone experiencing real success, yet not support anyone unless they are already experiencing some sort of cult approval haha! Fuck people hey. They’re the worst! Haha!
5. Is there a running theme for the CD " Cauldron"?
‘Cauldron’ is very ritualistic but it represents a variety of ideas depending on what view might be taken... depending on what questions one may have in mind they will find different answers, in this way it is like an oracle. But fundamentally it is a multi-layered representation of multi-faceted concepts. Possession is at its core. Divination, necromancy, sorcery, and demonology, to use the broadest of terms... It is a vessel, I have some personal meaning attached to this symbol of vessel, what might manifest within. And as our record label describes “Cauldron” is an embodiment of the very term ‘black metal’, I guess we are talking about the sound of the album as well as the themes, but a cauldron is a pretty good symbol, of what black metal actually is, or should be… black magic, satanic art, occult work, witchcraft, sorcery, demonology. My lyrics are pretty broad in scope. On one hand the words do little to get us any closer to the feeling that we set out to capture in the first place with the music. We can be dealing with what is actually completely intangible, however I codify many personally significant things within the scheme of it all.
I couldn’t tell you what the lyrics are ‘all’ about; basically that which is of metaphoric nature can be taken so many ways, and that is the plan. In the end I may not even remember sometimes what is really metaphor for what initially? Working up different views in congruence. There are messages in ‘Cauldron’ of a personal nature, but it can be taken in a more generalized way also, whatever the focus it is heavily allegorical either way. Intertwining views is a harmony, a balancing of views; ‘reason’ and ‘will’. I guess you could say that in my view of the world, I seek feelings that make for an empowered knowing. To a degree there are not words for this stuff, and I don’t mean to belittle my own efforts. I am very proud of the atmospheres the lyrics have helped me to create. I do not plan to identify certain personal meaning... and beyond that, with the more generalized scope on the themes, they are almost too many and varied to really discuss. It is ‘Black Metal’ so Satan has his way of course, but this is broad for me... the mysteries of Satan. I must say that ‘Death’ is perhaps what I truly worship, this Hades/Death element in an earlier Satan; in not the first Satan, but an early Satan. This is certainly an image I may identify. But Death is what to measure all things by, always ready to die, so death is always at side. This is a warrior’s view regardless of focusing any satanic view. After Satan hijacks Pan and such like, well bring on the romantic view Satan down the line a bit, this side, and the whole Luciferian idea. Sometimes the lyrics focus this side... the rebel, the archetype of the rebel! Evolution of ideas is very engrossing for me; and all sorts of shamanic secrets. We are also interested in things as diverse as Quantum Physics and Taoism amongst our Beyond Good and Evil.
The overall message is quite open to individual interpretation. The listener will always read their own meanings, if they give it any thought at all? Some songs are directed at describing certain events, so in some instances this translates as sounding personal to me, but it can always be taken in the more generalised view too. I like people to have room, for their own experiences to help orient their view of these ideas, and I am glad to work its meaning from either direction.
It is savage music, primal music, violent music, but sometimes soothing music. It is cathartic, in a way of speaking it is about destruction, but in another view it is the opposite of this, it is to fortify…. Ruins music is to strengthen, to harden. We cultivate a warriors perspective… sometimes this evolves into a sorcerers view, but primarily the way of warrior is fundamental.
It can be powerful to use ‘victim mentality’ to manipulate the listener like so much black metal does... but I think you have to really know where you stand with this to truly make it convincing. So much of this music ends up sounding pitiful and weak, rather than coming from a place of no pity, and being powerful. Ruins is a bid for power, we attempt to rid ourselves of weakness, sometimes the music is quite uplifting… this is the warriors pleasure at smashing that self-pity that the morose feelings bring… in a way our music is about describing that shift; studying that shift... this is the basis of what we are about, therefore dynamics play a big part in the music, in tempo, rhythms, and melodies... the dynamics to describe the different moods. Ruins come from a place of no pity, and we aspire to remain in that place, despite exploring different feelings and ideas. We are always in deaths vicinity.
Its music for the weak to die by and the strong to live by; I am really speaking more personally, internally that is how I feel about the music... what it does to me, what I am trying to do within myself. At the same time as inspiring my will; it is my will. I want it to strengthen, I seek personal power. It is savage music, sometimes vicious music, because I want it to harden people; or send them running. It is heavy and primal, strange but seductive. It is an attempt to describe the warrior’s view; that may lead to a sorcerers understanding of things. To describe the warriors view death is always at side. This is what Ruins are all about. In my view of things this is fundamentally what black metal is built upon, a satanic tradition also colours this; and we also identify these images as part of our black metal. The mysteries of Satan could be seen to be a key ingredient, but for me this is really just a way of talking about something that can be very near impossible to speak of. Satan can perhaps be seen as that spirit of rebellion that can enable desire for spiritual understanding at all, key to the gate even. The will to spiritual freedom... or empowerment, then it becomes a different issue, describing obsession, possession, and Satan describes so perfectly so much else, helps me describe the effects of what would otherwise have to remain occult-(hidden) experiences and workings. Again this is all only a way of talking. The landscapes of altered states of awareness, and of non-ordinary realities, these are indescribable realistically because reason and rationale is not boss, words really are just grunts and groans haha! I think my lyrics sometimes illustrate the obvious limitations of any language... yet hopefully also the incredible powers of. The music on the other hand is the escape from these parameters of description; only into another lot though....ha ha!
6. Do you feel Corpse paint is crucial in the presence of black metal or has Black metal moved past this in 21st century?
I know it is not crucial... however I enjoy using it when I do. We do or we don’t depending... of course in a sorcery context it is a prop, and maybe seen to be a juvenile unnecessary one in a certain view. To look from the view that belongs to ‘black metal’ however... I have to say so what, more power to us for using our props when we need to; there’s the black magic in black metal for you. We always cultivate what you could only call a ‘dark’ image... regardless of the level of theatrics that may or may not come with. We do what we need to do in the moment.
7. What is Ruins like live tell us what we would see on stage?
Really it is total catharsis for me in a condensed form... like making an album is over a year or years; it is catharsis in half an hour haha! The live set from ruins is a ritualized event certainly... I think this is important for black metal! We try not to forget that we certainly are just a rock band up there playing music, but also we want to present an engaging and entertaining event basically, we don’t get totally carried away with theatrics but that can be a part of it, set the correct scene to provoke the sort of feeling we are looking for personally, and the kind of interaction we are after with the audience. We do what is necessary...We definitely hope to make it to U.S. for shows sooner rather than later. We only began playing ‘live’ a short time ago really. Our first show was end of August ’06, so only just approaching 3 years. Immediately we have had great achievements with regard to this. Satyricon, Celtic Frost, Immortal.
It is quite difficult for us from here. For me it is important to just focus on the music, but certainly I understand the importance of touring and I do have the desire to do so... but for us it is a matter of timing.
8. Ruins would fit very well in video format for the music and feeling you have, do you have any videos upcoming?
I actually would like to make some videos, and have some ideas conceptually; but none as yet. I think we may manage to get something like that happening in the near future.
9. Your main site right now is myspace do you feel that is all a band needs in this day in age?
I will be honest I am hopeless with all of it. Regarding all of this... it is the best I can do to eventually get back to an email. I would like a website if I could get around to working on it with someone on something really good, tasteful. Myspace is something that I tried in place of website, it requires more of my time than I want to give haha! Hence, when facebook came along I just had to draw the line and say fuck no... No way, I just can’t be fucked. Maybe I will someday have more time for computers but I don’t know haha! in the meantime I must hire someone to sort out this web mess for me. We don’t deliberately cultivate an aura of mystique through this certain technique. It just happens to be the case that I am not interested in spending all my time on computers. What I need is my own personal I.T. slave. We are getting there.
10. Does Ruins have earlier official release or was it a demo project before Cauldron???
I guess I already answered this earlier, we have a re-issue of our debut ‘spun forth’ + demo ‘atom and time’ coming soon.
11. Does the earlier material sound very different from Cauldron?
‘Cauldron’ is basically just a little further along the path for us... that ‘Spun Forth’ began. We have tried to describe or even command, or invoke many different feelings and bring many different thoughts with what we have created over a couple of albums. We have evolved, yet refined our approach. In some ways our songs become deeper and more complex, yet at the same time they are a bit more powerful and direct.
12. Any closing thoughts place here?
Yes the vinyl edition of ‘Cauldron’ is on the way and we are very excited about this prospect, it will be the first Ruins on wax. I think we will also look at doing a 2cd & 2LP vinyl edition re-release of ‘Atom/Spun Forth’ also. This re-release should happen after ‘Front the Final Foes’ becomes available. So from June through till the end of 09 there should be quite a bit of activity regarding different releases. Really look forward to seeing Kriss’ art on the 12” format too, should make the best of his work for sure. Thanks for the interview!
