1: For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?
JS: Sure, We are Bourn Ultra, a Los Angeles, CA U.S.A. based Death/ Black Metal band. Bourn Ultra started as a one piece project on my old laptop. I wanted to record a demo but with real drums so I recruited a friend to help with the demo. Shorty after it was decided that we would also be a live band, some time later that the first drummer went onto another project and Morbus Shores came on board and we started writing what later became our full length “Aforetime Msaters”. We recruited Tom Sly on bass and we started playing shows and writing material for our current ep “Skull Throne Inheritor”. Through our music we call on cosmic, insidious, and blackened atmospheres to evoke the crawling chaos. We are influenced by bands such as Bathory, Immortal and others, we are admirers and also influenced by Lovecraftian lore. Our music is how we conjure.
2: Recently you have released a new ep, musically how does it differ from your previous full length and demo?
JS: It was always planned that each release would differ from each other and so we accomplished that I think. The Demo 2014 I believe was a proper introduction to the scene, it’s simple and raw, much like it’s lyrical content, it was bleak and forlorn. We followed up with a full length, 2018’s “Aforetime Masters”. This truly set us on the course that we are on, both musically and lyrically it disregards this viewable universe as understood by Earthen souls and emphasized our goal of conjuring thee supreme cosmic entity and powers forbidden. Also bleak and dark the songs contained we’re more mid-paced and thoroughly desolate and grim with a good ting of cold atmospheric dusting all procured from my Lovecraftian styled short stories. Though the full length was not a concept album it did have the running theme of forlorn desolation. The new ep how ever is a concept offering, “Skull Throne Inheritor” is a short story I wrote, again, in a Lovecraftian tone that tells of a lowborn who obtains the ultimate statis. First by being mistakenly mummified, made to slumber for countless eons then awakened and set on a cosmic journey to scale the Skull Throne. Transformed first to a shapeless form and then the tentacled one, the beast from beyond who unleashes great harm and torment upon his universe. Musically we incorporated a faster time signature and the compositions are more arduous. All that I mentioned sets “Skull Throne Inheritor” apart from the previous “Aforetime Masters” and the “Demo 2014”. We are currently writing our new album.
3: The band was formed in 2011 but waited until 2018 to release any music, can you tell us a little bit more about the earlier years?
JS: The early years were slow simply because the goal was to record a demo and lay the project to rest. So I didn’t see a reason to hurry too much. I also deal with other projects that take up my time. I publish Bulldozer Magazine, though now it’s mainly a Metal music news outlet online, back then it was a printed magazine that took up lots of my time. I also booked shows and concerts under the Iron Room Events moniker, we would set up shows, festivals and tours, again it took up my time not to mention my dreaded afliction called procrastination, it has followed me all my life and I think it will till my death.
When I brought in a drummer to help with live drums for the demo’s recording it was not a priority for either of us, we rehearsed when we could and as long as progress was being made I was ok with the pace. Though the demo was finished in 2014 it wasn’t released till 2018 because by that time, we were very much in band mode with Morbus Shores our current drummer and recording our full length. I thought an introduction to the scene was needed prior to the full length and so we released the 2014 demo the same year, 2018. before the full length.
4: A lot of your lyrics cover the writings of H.P Lovecraft and Cosmic Horror themes, can you tell us a little bit more about your interest in this topic?
JS: Metallica’s Ride the lighting was a recording I listened to plenty when I was a kid. I was one of those folks that sat around and memorized the lyrics to the songs of albums and so when The Call of Ktulu came on and there were no lyrics, it made me curios about what that instrumental was about so I searched and found out about H.P. Lovecraft, his writings and other writers who wrote in his style. I was captivated with the stories, they were so vivid and so left field from other fiction/science fiction that I was reading at the time that I decided I would immersed my self in that style of writing and at some point I started writing my own stories borrowing and building on stories from Lovecraft and writers influenced by Lovecraft.
My stories aren’t published they sit on my selfs on hand written manuscripts, I’ve only shown them to a few people because with the world now being at our finger tips via the internet and news television we have been desensitized. Cosmic horror pales in comparison to true worldly horrors and so most are not into it. There’s a community of folks who still read and write Lovecarftian style lore so there’s that at least. I decided that my short stories were going to be the lyrics to Bourn Ultra’s music and I am glad that they’ve at least seen the light of day in that form.
5: What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Bourn Ultra'?
JS: Ah, well… I once read an interview with Chris Reifert from Autopsy where they asked him what he thought of a certain band’s name. I can’t recall what band it was but it was out of the norm for a Death Metal band. He responded that he thought all the good band names were taken so people were giving their bands shit names or something to that affect I don’t recall the exact quote but I think he was right, all the good names are taken so we are left to make up weird band names at this point.
As for Bourn Ultra, It’s the title of one of my short stories, in the story a Bourn Ultra is a Great Cosmic Journey… I just went with it and hoped to beat it into peoples minds with our music. Once you get folks to associate a name to a sound you’ve made your band’s point and thus an off putting band name is not off putting anymore. We hope to do that….. I gave us that challenge, and it’s been rough let me tell you, haha….We don’t fit nicely in any genre exactly and the band name reflects that. Whether that turns out to be a good thing is yet to be determined.
6: Can you tell us a little bit more about the artwork that is presented on the ep cover?
JS: The cover for “Skull Throne Inheritor” is my graphic design reinterpretation of a bronze statuette rendering of a Greco-Egyptian piece of an octopus headed God with a human body named “The little God of the Coral Divers” according to the statuette’s description it is a God not well known in the Greek or Egyptian pantheon. It may have enjoyed only a short-lived period of veneration by a small minority of fisherfolk….. I loved the piece and thought to make it the cover buy rendering the Skull Throne with the tentacled God sitting upon it. It fits our narrative in that form and so I used it. We are thinking that maybe at some point a new pressing of the “Skull Throne Inheritor’ ep might contain an alternate cover but we will see.
7: Has the band done any live shows or open to the idea?
JS: Bourn Ultra is very much a live band since 2018. We have done many shows since our first one back then. Los Angeles does is not lack in shows, prior to all the pandemic shut downs there were up to 5/6 shows per weekend about half that on the week days. We’ve ventured into Mexico with great success, we have opened for what I consider great underground bands such as Sadistic Intent and The Chasm just to name two. Last year would have been our first proper mini-tour with the band Unholy Lust but due to the virus it was canceled. This year we’ve hit the same obstacles, as we were booking out of town gigs the shut down was once again initiated and thus put the breaks on this years outings as well. This year we’ve only been able to play two shows but we hope for the best as the year heads into fall.
8: According to the metal archives page you are signed to 'Quadrivium Productions' but the new ep was self released, are you going to work with this label on future releases?
JS: Metal Archives though mostly a good source for band research also has bad information. We’ve had to inquire for changes on our page several times. I wish they’d let the bands run their own pages at some point to provide the proper information to the masses… there, got that out of the way….. In the case of Quadrivium Productions how ever, that info is correct… We decided that the first few releases and merchandise would be under our own Imprint which is Quadrivium Production. Our three releases have been under QuadriviumProductions including our lasted ep “Skull Throne Inheritor”. For the next release we hope to be working with a proper label but if not we will continue to put our music out via our imprint Quadrivium Productions.
9: On a worldwide level how has the reaction been to your music by fans of black and death metal?
JS: Unfortunately for us we haven’t gotten that worldwide attention but those who have heard our music appreciate it. Some folks like it from the first listen some have to spin it a couple of times before they get it. It’s a tricky thing doing your band business “DIY” if you want to use the term. It’s not like before, now we’re literally competing with thousands of other underground bands trying to get media, label and promoter’s attention.
Now a days if you want to move your band forward and are not lucky enough to garner attention right off the bat you’re probably have to deal with PR folk, these folk with the “IN” with the media industry but for you to have their “IN” you have to shell out hundreds if not thousands of dollars to an industry that is there to make money from bands trying to get heard. If on your own you do manage to get a response from a say a magazine, attached to your response is usually a media kit with ad rates, scratch my back and I’ll scratch your’s is the intent. Business is business as they say but did you hear the music before you sent me your ad rates?!. A worldwide level reaction eludes us as of yet, perhaps it just means, try harder.
10: When can we expect a full length and also where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
JS: You can expect a full length in 2022. Hopefully we’ll start tracking this fall. As for the direction of the new material, we are going faster, still ominous and dark but faster. We don’t intend on recording the same album twice so look forward to something different from the 2018 “Aforetime Masters” or the 2021 “Skull Throne Inheritor”. We really liked working with Charles Elliot of Tastemaker Studios/Abysmal Dawn for the ep. I think if he has the time we will again have him track, mix and master the new recording. It’s tentatively title “The Envoidened Peculiar”
11: What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
JS: That’s a tough question for me so I’ll answer it as if it was directed to the whole band. We are influenced by a variety of metal sub genres but bands we all agree are definite influences for Bourn Ultra are Bathory and immortal. I don’t think being influenced means we have to out right sound like them because we don’t but they are the main musical influences.
My band members are definitely more open minded than I am when it comes to bands, I think they’d have a pretty diverse endless list of bands for you. I can say that my endless list would consist of Classic Rock, Classical Music, Heavy Metal, Thrash Metal, Hardcore and Cross Over, Death Metal, Black Metal, even some Experimental Industrial would be included.
Now a days I still listen to the same things I’ve listen to for over 30+ years. Sabbath and Maiden, Possessed and Suicidal Tendencies, Unleashed and Entombed, Dissection and Emperor, Destroyer 666 and Aura Noir… newer bands, fuck!..so many, seriously, the list would be endless.
12: Does Occultism pay any role on your music?
JS: I will answer this question as it pertains to Bourn Ultra. There are theorized practices that come into play within our music and ritualized supernatural conjurings. These supernatural forces are beyond mere Earth born human understandings, they are not for the novice diviner nor haphazard evoker, thus don’t try this at home. These practices are of unnatural beliefs and thus not for everyone or everything. Though Bourn Ultra has no official cause or beliefs it adheres to and though we at times assemble in dark corners of abandoned places, we speak not out right of our convictions nor of what goes on there if anything. If at anytime you were to see out of the corner of your eye a shadow or movement while playing our music immediately stop and begin the recording again. Not doing so might prove detrimental to your place in this space in this time.
13: Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
JS: Thank you for the interview. It’s actually our first, much appreciated.
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