YHWH Interview

 

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

At the start, YHWH was supposed to be my one-woman band, a mere project among others. I still had unused songs from previous bands, some were rather old and I simply wanted to record them. I asked my brother Schem HaMephorash if he was interested to be a part of it. In order to lighten the workload, he later asked S.M. Goatritual if he was available to play guitars on our first EP "Tetragrammaton". We welcome anyone who wants to play with us, as long as they can put their egos aside: YHWH is something peaceful, we are quiet and discreet people and do not want to spend our time managing morons as we all did in the past. We play music for the love of music, nothing else: we do not contribute to gossips and do not want to be "brothers" with everyone, we leave that to Manowar.

2. In April you had released an ep, can you tell us a little bit more about the musical style that you went for on the recording?

I never planned to sound like this, or like that, in any band. YHWH is an extreme metal band influenced mostly by black and death metal, which is not a scoop... Despite of this, our soon to be recorded next EP will be more "rock'n'roll": I no longer recognize myself into what we proposed on "Tetragrammaton", even if "Burden of Flesh" is my favourite song on it.

3. What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band has explored so far with the music?

I wrote about lots of topics, which includes among others horror, astral projection, occultism... but what I do best is writing about hatred, misanthropy, depression, and the associated lexical field... which is a paradox because I am a very positive person, but as a human I cannot love unconditionally the whole time. Our next EP will feature, for example, a song about speciesism, which is to my eyes the root of all evil on this planet. Art is a good way to voice your opinion and influence people, I mean... positively. I am fed up with all these morons who spread inepsy, intolerance and violence. Because of a small amount of people, in a lot of places, the "scene" is not fun anymore and there is a lot of rivalry: they decree which music is good or not, you always have to think twice and put a filter on everything you say... fuck these clowns. If they call us "posers" or "gay" because we do not want to a part of this, we do not care: my music collection does not launch commercials between songs.

4. Both the band name and the ep title have a qabalistic tone, do any of the band members have any interest in the occult?

We are all interested by occultism, on different levels. Schem HaMephorash has a Ph.D. in religious sciences and theology. We collect occult works and grimoires since a long time, some members of our family are in contact with real occultists, and they do not wear bullet belts nor black metal shirts with pentagrams on it...

Actually, even our last name is the one of a demon: our grandmother told us that one of our ancestors was the child of a witch who had a sexual intercourse with that demon at a black mass. True or not, we will probably never know...

Occultism in Thailand is very interesting, I know personally an ajarn who owns a lot of amulets, he made me discover a lot of things about black magic as kuman thong, among others. Their mythology and folklore include many ghosts, spirits, and other fascinating creatures as krasue, for example.

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

Schem HaMephorash came with the idea. It is an original design inspired by goetia. There is not much to say about it.

6. The band members live in both Belgium and Thailand, what impact does this have on the musical style that you play?

It does not influence a lot of things actually: I do not try to sound "thai" when I compose songs. I was born as a Belgian citizen, but my heart belongs to Thailand. I came here, as Schem HaMephorash, because of muay thai at the start... Even if Asians are probably the worst animal abusers ever, Thailand is the place where I feel happy and free, but no place is perfect. The impact could be about lyrics, not about our musical style.

7. Can you tell us a little bit more about the masks the band members wear in the promo pics?

We want people to focus on the music instead of its members. Too many people judge the quality of a band only by its lineup. We played with "famous" musicians, here and there, and some of them are nothing but opportunists, expecting all the work being done by their "slaves": you can believe me, this is not always a privilege to play with some people... The masks allow everyone to be on the same level, no matter who you are and what you stand for.

8. Does the band have any interest in doing live shows?

Schem HaMephorash and myself are bored about tours and concerts. I would probably not play live, but who knows what future will bring to YHWH... If reactions are satisfying we could consider doing live shows. I teach muay thai here daily, this is my job, and we are always fully booked: until proven otherwise, it would be without me.

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

This is only the beginning, we are nowhere for now. I see lots of "likes" everywhere, but our Instagram account does not have a lot of followers. It is difficult to quantify our success worldwide, as we are still waiting for our EP to be released physically. To our eyes, digital means nothing. If I want to release digital only music, I can do it without a label. We are not so patient people and it is a bit "frustrating"... I guess we will see an improvement when "Tetragrammaton" will be available in record shops. I chose to start with something more "appealing", but I am pretty sure our second EP "Khatha" will be more appreciated.

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

The best way to look as idiots would be planning things that do not happen. I have to be "rid" of all these old songs at first through EPs, then we will consider doing an album which will be far superior to our current material. We still have songs for two more EPs and a split album.

It would be nice if YHWH becomes an important band, but if not I do not care: music is a lottery, you drown among thousands of bands. Some become famous for good reasons, some by chance, and some have brown lips because they lick asses... The most important is being happy, not famous. I personally know "famous" people, surrounded by hypocrites, you know... Most of them are depressed and deeply boring.

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?

I am a huge fan of Autopsy/Abscess, I listen to it almost everyday. Rush is probably my favourite band ever, they are in my opinion the perfect mix between technique and accessibility, and are the reason why I became a musician... Canada's finest, with Anvil! To name a few, I listen currently a lot to Carpathian Forest, Darkthrone, early Death, Hellhammer/Celtic Frost, Turbonegro, many swedish death metal bands as Bastard Priest, Carnage, Death Breath, Dismember, Nihilist, Nirvana 2002, ..., some older music as Armageddon, Black Widow, Boston, Cactus, Coven, Leaf Hound, High Tide, Jenghiz Khan, King Crimson, Roy Orbison, Sam Gopal, Scorpions, ... I am of course interested by lots of bands into the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, US heavy metal (Agent Steel, Brocas Helm, Chastain, Cirith Ungol, Détente, Dream Death, Griffin, Halloween, Leather Nun, Manilla Road, Medieval Steel, Metal Church, Omen, Pentagram, Riot, Savage Grace, Scepter, Sentinel Beast, Trouble, Warlord, ...), punk related music as Amebix, Antichrist Demoncore, Charles Bronson, Cro-Mags, Crumbsuckers, Despise You, Discharge, Dishammer, Disrupt, Doom, Extreme Noise Terror, Gorilla Biscuits, Hubble Bubble, Hirax, Infest, Judge, Killing Time, Kraut, Leeway, Minor Threat, Negative Approach, Plasmatics, Poison Idea, Repulsion, Sacrilege, Shelter, Siege, Spazz, early Voivod, Warzone, Youth of Today, Vatican Commandos, Verbal Abuse, ... I believe there is good in every style, I listen regularly to classical music, jazz, and some "oddities" as Abruptum, Diamanda Galás, Throbbing Gristle, even Cher... I could talk about music for hours.

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

Thanks a lot for this opportunity, wishing you all the best. Feel free to add us on Instagram and contact us by e-mail at thetrueyhwh@outlook.com