Vonulfsreich Interview

1.Can you give us an update on what has been going on with the band since the recording and release of the new ep?


A creative break, disbelief, getting rid of our cd's, desperation, spiritual peaks and even some new, spontaneous ideas for some new music. You will see, if those ideas are meant to be in the first place.


2.In February you had released a new ep, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording and also how does it differ from the stuff you have released in the past?


We planned nothing. The only direction we had beforehand was not to make another Sovereign Forest. Things just happened. It was such a strange creating process anyway.


3.On the recordings your lyrics have covered Occultism, Shamanism, Alchemy, Mysticism,  Misanthropy and Nature themes, can you tell us a little bit more about your interest in these topics?


Those are the ideas I live by/for. I write most of our lyrics so it's pretty natural for the lyrics to reflect the writer's mind.


4.In the last 2 years, the band has released 4 ep's, do you put a great amount of time and energy in writing and creating music?


Of course! It's fucking art. It's born of energy and creativity. However, the recording sessions have usually been quite easy for us. We must never have any sense of time when we work. I guess that's why so many professional musicians/producers rape themselves art-wise. ”Time is money”, as they say. Cracks me up every time.

Man should always be able to wait for his art to come to him, completely free from the chains of time and thoughts for MONEY while working. (What's that thing anyway?)

I think it's just fair to give the Work all the time it needs, in order to make things more genuine and less pretentious.


5.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Vonulfsreich'?


It's from a revelation of ”Vonülf” I had in the northern shamanic woods in 2012. That was the final sign saying I should really form a new band.


6.So far the band has never done any live shows, do you feel this gives your music more of a mysterious atmosphere?


Correct! Black metal bands playing live should be illegal.


7.Can you tell us a little bit more about No Fun House which also has been distributing your music?


Just a name of my D.I.Y. activities. It's far from a label/distro. Would be a nightmare to own one.


8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of black metal?


Generally good. I think most of our foreign ”fans” are from Slavonic countries like Russia and Ukraine, also Deutschland and Brazil perhaps. Not sure if this tells something about our music... No idea if there are more finnish people than foreigners who listen to Vonülfsrëich. Be that as it may, the number of these people must be quite small. I guess we're not cool enough for many metal-maniacs. I mean, we release cd-r's for hades' sake! (”Why do they do that?”, they would wail)
But those who really care about what we do are the kind of people I never knew existed on this planet. Mostly drunken witches.


9.All of the music has a very vintage 90's sound, do the band members have a lot of experience in playing in black metal bands?


Yes. Some underground stuff in the past, as usual. Is 90's vintage? As for me, I never tried too hard to get that musty and ”outdated” sound. Intentional retrofilia makes me sick. I guess our equipment just sucks hard enough. Always worshipped the metal sound from the 80's and early 90's though. Especially the old records of Bathory, Hellhammer and Venom for instance. Also the early 90's stuff recorded in Tico-Tico, Perkele and Grieghallen mean a lot to me as well. I'm more into reflecting inner personality through music though. Overall sound is merely a ”red drape” covering our ”black lodge”. I hope people get over the external things, aesthetics and associations and pay more attention on what our music feels like.


I'm usually quite happy about our overall sound. Things just happen, as if our music itself is consciously leading US towards IT. I never fully believed in magic, until we recorded Northern Shamanism.


10.When can we expect a full length album and also where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?


It would take a lot of time to build a full-length album. I'm about to head towards the heart of Mother Europe in couple of weeks, and that journey is gonna take a little while. We have some ideas for the full-length album but the time's not right for now. We're planning to record some new songs one of these days though. 4 tracks and lo-fi quality. Kind of regressive stuff but fuck it. We are no fans of linear dramatic timeline anyway. We never had any evolution going on. Not consciously at least. That level-up-individual-little-snowflake competition is for humans. Art is timeless. Things tend to change a lot but we will keep Vonülfsrëich sounding like Vonülfsrëich, a.k.a. the sum of three personalities, their views and musical perversions. And my idea of heavy metal.


11.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your newer music and also what are you listening to nowadays?


We are pretty much inspired by us now. Besides that, the most essential influences I get from the pioneers of metal and punk subgenres, rock and some experimental/minimalism/ambient styles as well. Just finished listening to the first PIL album. Now some Goatlord. Later Anti-Cimex...

I keep constantly finding new music styles and new bands/albums, but as for metal, I am fairly conservative. I know what metal is about, and I still get goosebumps from the classic records, so there's no drastic urge to find any new bands. Plus, I find metalheads and other über-hip scenester nerds rather disgusting and boring, so I have no interest to check out too many bands who mostly pay too much attention on their mirrors and apparently have some sort of 70's/80's live action role-playing game going on. It's 2015! Someone should make a massive, futuristic (still organic) science-fiction influenced heavy metal album. Or better yet, go beyond ”futuristic”. Make it a gateway drug! Or just a gateway. I would very much like that. (”Total Zeitgeist 2015” 4xLP)


12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?


Not really. Things will happen.

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