Hyver Interview

 

1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?

Hie, i’m Hyver. I’ve been active in the past 20 years in various bands, bust most recently for 15 years mainly Hanternoz, Grylle and Véhémence. I am a guitarist and singer, but i also play a rather extended variety of medieval instruments including strings and air instruments. Recently, during the covid times, i found myself buying a small synthesizer and i tried a few sounds. Quickly enough i found myself composing dungeon synth, one of the earliest tunes being what i consider one of the most precious songs i ever wrote : i lost it, then found it back a few months ago and will feature it as interlude in one of my albums for the future. 

So now i was a synth guy. So i composed more songs for the Cercle du Chêne album, and then the demo EP (which was released earlier). But in the Cercle du Chêne, i did not want to do the guitar, because i wanted to fully express with a ton of synths without fearing next what to add with the guitar.

So i created Hyver, all simply after my pseudonym (means winter in an old writing). I composed a DS album, which i still like a lot except i should have recorded on cassette and it would have been more powerful. Then i recorded Noirceur Mystique d’Autrefois and i asked a friend to do the synths, as i wanted them to be extremely complex and the guitar work was already complicated. I guess i simply had not the level to record it.

Then i wrote my first EP where the synth and the guitar is from me in a more folk way, i guess i prefer when the synth is not too much charged. 

2.In the last year you have released 2 full lengths and an ep, musically how do they all differ from each other?

Sorcier Hibou is a pure DS album in an epic or cinematic way : so only synth and some nature samples. I also recorded and played another one like this , Sorcier Chaton, but i deleted all the tracks after the concert and i destroyed the remaining tapes. 

Noirceur Mystique d’Autrefois is more (on my side) focused on the guitar work, and then a huge load of synths were added. The lyrics focus on the decorum surrounding my discovery of black metal, when i grew from childhood to teenager.

The new EP Fonds de Terroir is more folky, i composed all synths and guitars at the same time for the first time, just as i did for the (many) coming other tracks. Lyrically it focuses on the black metal journeys through France, especially my road trips during the 2010-2014 years when through Auvergne. Very long and boring road through annoying landscape upon where i wish my specter will one day fly eternally and haunt the souls of the lonely drunk old peasants. 

3.In the last year the band has put out 3 releases, do you spend a great amount of time writing and creating music?

An immense time, but since the label takes me an even more huge lot of time, i simply decided to shorten my nights. So i wake up around 5am, then i do music before i go to work. I have 4 more Hyver albums all ready (only needing some patches on the vocals), but all is done, even the parts played by my mates, drums thanks to Summum and bass thanks to my friend Konstantin?

All in all, before my guitar, synth and computer, i don’t waste time searching too much : for most of the music has already been hummed / composed as for the main melody. The rest of rhythms guitars are made searching directly whilst playing.

4.All of the band members are also in other bands, what is it that you bring into the music of 'Hyver' that you have not been able to do with your other groups?

Something more personal, my own vision and fire in the lyrics and music. Also, i now mix fully the synth and guitar and can fully express this way without any bound. For example in my other bands i have to follow a certain path, and in Hyver i can decide whichever path is suitable for any of my albums. I think i needed to take my own name to achieve this pursuit of freedom, which i don’t even have in some of my personal projects.

5.A lot of your lyrics cover ancient stories in your homeland, can you tell us a little bit more about some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band has explored so far with the music?

In my other bands, especially Hanternoz, it might be yes. But in Hyver i explore my own vision compared to things related to black metal : the context of my discovery of black metal in my teenage time, for example. Or the context of travelling with a car and discovering the lonesome and forsaken countryside in the last EP.

So i’d say, my own perspective to the black metal related but remote themes.

6.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Hyver'/

It means winter. i was born during a very rude and difficult winter. Water had frozen in the pipes, one had to warm water on the stove to keep warm a baby. In this difficult context, i was born. In 2003 I wrote something about the Deadwinter, which is a term i found in Shakespeare as a child studying english in the sonnets. So i thought the winter dead was nice name in 2006, as Hyvermor with a strange medieval spelling to start Hanternoz. Then after some psychological accident i thought i no longer wanted to carry death but life. So i’m rather Hyver Vif now, but everybody knows me as Hyver.

7.Can you tell us a little bit more about the artwork that is presented on the ep cover?

it’s a painting i commissioned to my wife, Joanna Maeyens. i asked for a typical very boring village that is not even touristy, no nice castle, no nice medieval buildings. It’s a muddy landscape, no sea, not even a forest. It’s boring, people there will flee to a real job-providing area, or to the nearby city, some even made it to Paris. Most people there will work in farms, some retired people live there too, because their ancestors did too. It’s rainy there, quite a lot. not a nice weather, just boredom and long streams of farming landscape.

All that : is the fantasy i have. Not something real even it does exist, probably. This is something i imagine of the cover when i look at it.

8.Has the band done any live shows or open to the idea?

We are working on it. This will be something worth to see. I do not a lot of live appearance, but when i do, i have a lot of energy.

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

Excellent. Hyver has had a huge support from USA / Canada, and also from Europeans and Asians (China, Japan). People i think, like the link between synth and bm.

10.What is going on with some of the other bands or musical projects these days that some of the band members are a part of?

Tour d’Ivoire has released its debut with a nice response from the public. It features my music and the vocals by La Griesche who also painted for Hyver as aforementioned. Grylle is about to release its new album, so it will be quite something because the wait is important. I know KK has something brewing besides Passéisme, but maybe it’s not the time to talk of it. I don’t know as for Summum but i have kept him quite busy so, some Hyver i guess, then, eheheh.

11.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?

We will go forward and push forward the extremes ! As we can only do. 4 albums are ready (to 98% finished). I sincerely hope next one you will like!

12.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?

oh, i listen to a lot of stuff in black metal. Now i also listen to a lot of techno music and ambient, dungeon synth “medieval dark ambient”. 

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

Thanks a lot for your questions and your interest in my music! 

https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Hyver/3540540250