Wander Lust Interview

 

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

I started Wander Lust as a personal project that was initially meant to help me cope with the severe anxiety and depression stemming from a series of traumatic events. The agony, isolation, and a deeply unsettling reality, in the midst of the pandemic, was beginning to consume me and I made a choice to instead take the opportunity to transmute these feelings. I was able to do that by writing music.

Wander Lust then became about a transformative journey of self discovery, with the understanding that it would be a long and treacherous path. The only way to achieve a new paradigm would be by embracing the harsh and cold reality of the truth, so that I may transcend. 

2.In August you released your first full length, can you tell us a little bit more about the musical style that you went for on the recording?

My style of guitar playing takes inspiration from different forms of extreme metal such as death, thrash, black, melodic, doom, heavy metal and often balanced by the soothing sounds of folk/timeless acoustic instrumental stuff and even classical works by Chopin. My singing style is ethereal, haunting and eerie. When I sing, I like to imagine myself as a melancholy entity wandering the lost parts of the woods singing of mournful sorrows while bathing in the river under a waterfall. 

3.You refer to your music as being 'ethereal black metal', can you tell us a little bit more about this term?

I struggled to put a genre to the music that came out of this. I couldn’t really categorize it into a subgenre that already existed. I started calling it Melodic Blackgaze at first but it didn't feel quite right to me. Close to the day of the release I showed my music to a client of mine at work and she said to me “I am convinced you are an ethereal metal goddess!” and when she said that I knew that ethereal metal would have to be a way to describe it, but when I looked into it, ethereal metal was too broad. Being that a lot of my music’s core sound comes from the guitar melodies and it shares a main overall semblance to black metal through the gritty texture of the tremolo and it's mournful tragic essence that was where I came up with Ethereal Black Metal to describe it. It felt closest to home, but my music doesn’t fit into a neat package.

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

I use a lot of symbolism to describe lived experiences, exploring the psyche and the shadow self.

-Burning Wood is about becoming enlightened and finding the courage within to go forth on the destined path to self discovery. It's purpose was meant to be self empowering.

-Solace of a Dream is about making the realization that I had been unfulfilled and that I needed to let go of the people and situations that were hurting me and holding me back from finding my purpose.

-Spiders is about being lured into a trap and being emotionally cannibalized and sucked dry of every ounce of hope and joy until all that was left is a lifeless hopeless shell of a person.

-Call Me Crazy is about emotional and physical abuse and how it causes destruction on an epidemic level

-The Portal is about becoming so broken that seemingly the only escape is to give up and to wither away.

-Stuck in a Reverie is about being so heartbroken and beat down that it makes you angry.

-Fractals is an introspection and self reflection of the shadow and how these experiences led me to madness, but regaining my power by rediscovering my profound connection to nature and to the all.

-Darkness’s Wrath is me calling upon the power of the moon and asking for strength and guidance to escape this darkness

-and finally concluding the album with the haunting and ever present concept of death. Questioning an eternal loop or cycle and begging, imploring for answers.

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

I've always found that no matter what was ever going on in my life, wandering around isolated places has always brought me comfort. It became like a craving, I would lust for exploration and discovery. I am a wanderer, I have always known this moving fluidly through change and adapting easily to new environments. That is how I came up with the name.

6.Can you tell us a little bi more about the artwork that is presented on the new album cover?

The figure is me standing in the chaos of the ocean, The hand to the left of the image is connecting with the boundless energy of the moon and the hand to the right is meant to represent a connection to the wisdom derived from the element of water(because I am a water sign). The artwork was don't by Stan Ivan, for the main streaming and CD album cover. The second artwork was done by Dash of blood for the Cassettes and Vinyl artwork(two separate album covers both the same concept, different approach) the hooded figure represents the human experience the hand is piercing through the veil of reality and releasing the “fluid of knowledge” and sending the wisdom up to the universe for the collective unconscious.

7.Originally the band started out as a solo project, what was the decision behind expanding into a duo?

I met channeler when I was in the middle of mixing my DIY recording of Fractals which was going to be my second official single as a solo artist. I reached out to him asking for some advice on the mixing process, and he asked if I could send over a sample of the song, so I sent it over. “When I first saw Luna’s message, the first thought on my mind was ‘who is this girl?’ and then when she sent over the sample of Fractals and I first heard her sing I was just mesmerized.” said Channeler. At that point Channeler asked me if he could mix the song. After I heard the first mix for Fractals, I was in awe and seeing how well we worked together, I asked Channeler to join as a permanent member of Wander Lust and he accepted right away and that was that. After we released Fractals we went straight to recording the album.  

8.The new album was released on 'Portal Studios', can you tell us a little bit more about this label?

Portal Studios was created by Channeler to be a recording studio specifically for extreme metal and avant-garde variants of it. Originally intended on just being a recording studio- it eventually became an interest in everyone involved to expand it into a simple independent label for those who want to release their albums in a safe risk free environment without having to sign any rights away to their music that they poured hard work into. Having previously released a handful of other band’s Demo’s and EP’s, Portal Studios has sought out to always improve the quality of their recordings over the past 5 years and continues to do so. Solace of a Dream was the first official full length album released through Portal Studios. There are many albums in the process of finalization featuring bands like Ethos, Sahmaataha, Enshrouded, Declension and Spectre, that are projected to be released towards the end of 2025-Early 2026. There is soon to be a website for Portal Studios announced along with a series of services being announced such as recording, mixing, 4K professional live video and audio for band’s performances, studio music videos and a long list of other services but for now Portal Studios can be found at

 www.instagram.com/portalstudiosmetal

www.facebook.com/PortalStudiosMetal

www.youtube.com/@PortalStudiosMetal

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

Occult Black Metal Zine did a review on Wander Lust and gave the album an 8 out of 10, so far I have only heard people say good things about it. I am very thankful for that, I did prepare my mind in case there was negative feedback but so far only good reactions.

10.Where do you see the project heading into musically during the future?

I hope to grow our fan base. doing stuff on YouTube, we want to release another single soon, we are already working on the next album. We have plans for going live sometime in the next year. I would love to organize some forest shows, but I want to just take it as far as it can go.

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?

A bit of influence on my vocals must have come from my song obsessions with artists like Mazzy Star “Fade into You”, Cat Power “Werewolf”, a little bit of Amy Lee from my teen years, Bambi Baker “Derealization”, Elita “Introvert” even in small ways Serj Tankien plays a part with the harmonies, and romantic vintage Jazz vocals. Guitar influences are bands like Dissection, Satyricon, Death, Dio, Judas Priest, early Megadeth, Opeth(benighted), Sentenced “Hallucinations”, guitar players like Yngwie Malmsteen and Jason Becker, acoustic folk artist Valì, Agalloch, Lord Belial, Sacramentum, a little bit influence from, Spanish Classical too and Chopin.

Recently I been listening to a lot of Worm, Netherbird, Agalloch, King Woman, Darkher, Myrkur, Chelsea Wolf, Obscura, Wode, Beyond Creation and just sounds of rain, thunder, the ocean and the river and Ethos, Channelers band haha because it's amazing.

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

Check out Wander Lust on 

LInk IG  - https://www.instagram.com/wander.lust.band

Link FB - https://www.facebook.com/people/Wander-Lust-Ethereal-Black-Metal/61579742848560/

Link YT - https://www.youtube.com/@WanderLust-band

Official Website - https://www.wanderlustmetal.com/