Bothildir Interview

1. What is going on with Bothildir these days?
Bothildir I have put on hold for years because i was in college and earning my degree and during that time I was still writing music for it, so I dont like to give people's hopes up and tell them that I have stuff coming out soon but I have new songs that I have written and there pretty much in the same vein as the first album that I have put out and that is pretty much that, the problem is that I have been working with my 2 other bands alot for the past few years, I have new bands now that are coming out with a new album so even though I have been writing music for my solo project, I still keep putting it off because I have been devoting my time to my full time bands, but there is new music and it is going to be brutal.

2. What are the names of your 2 other bands?
One of them is called Shadar Logoth, that is a name that my bass player came up with from based on The Wheel Of Time books, I never read them but he really liked them and it is kind of like Mordor in Tolkien books, Shadar Logoth is like an evil place, My other band is called Infurum Bruo, 2 seperate words, I am currently in the works of making a website for that band and when I am done I will certainly email you the website so you can check out our stuff, we just finished recording a full-length and we are going to put it out very soon and then after that I will be focusing more on my solo project, but I do have 2 full time bands and I play drums in those bands

3. What are the musical styles of those 2 different bands?
Shadar Logoth is more extreme epic metal as I would call it, it has alot of black metal influences and some thrash metal, Infurum Brou is a straight forward black metal band, we are influenced by bands like Wolves In The Throne Room and Mayhem and stuff like that.

4. Can you tell us more about Bothildir?
That is pretty much straight up black metal, you can call it symphonic black metal because I use keyboards but I would just like to call it black metal, I am not really picky about genres.

5. According to your website you are completely sober, what impact does that have on your music and what is your opinion on the people in the scene that drink or do drugs?
I have been sober and I dont do drugs or drink and I am not afraid to tell people that and it has never been of a big concern to me, no one has really been giving me a hard time about it and the way that I see it that it is very extreme to avoid alcohol and drugs especially as a metal musician and we have guys running around claiming to be extreme but they are just like everybody else and getting drunk on Friday nights and I just dont do that and too me that is really being extreme, not that I am trying to be extreme, I just dont like to drink or do drugs, alot of people associated their music with outside influences like psychedelic influences such as drugs and or alcoholic fuel, to each your own, like for example that band on the radio Hell Yeah all they do is sing about drinking and that is their thing, so I feel that I throw it up there that I dont do that and it does not and it does not influence my music and my music still kicks ass, It is one way to encourage people to look at that and say that is pretty hardcore not to do that and maybe I will try it and not get trashed on Saturday night and wake up with vomit on my face, maybe instead I will write music, that is something that I have thought off and again that is not really a big issue with me but I have had people you know make immature remarks about it I suppose and you just ignore them because they are pretty much arrogant assholes if they do that.

6. What are some of the lyrical topics that Bothildir covers with their music?
I sing alot about nature, I have lived in New England my whole life, i was raised in the Mountain land scene of Vermont where I grew up hiking and , skiing and spending my time around lakes and alot of that has influenced my music over the years, I also sing about my general discontempt with the human race, that is a big theme in my music, i feel like that is a pretty big thing in general with black metal which tens to not like people and we tend to open about that and I am really that that much different and so alot of the themes revolve around corruption or just general hatred towards mankind.

7.What are some of your musical influences?
My number one is and I know it is kind of cliche but I look at Emperor and Cthtonic as my biggest influences and Emperor was the band that really got me into black metal and I always like Ishann's style and approach to music and listening to his interviews and stuff, he is a pretty laid back character and he stands out from the crowd, and his songwriting and guitar playing is probably the best that black metal will ever see and I would say that is my number one influence, I am also highly influenced by classical music, I went to school for music, I have a degree in musical performance and I play in an orchestra so I am very involved with the classical genre, I like to use keyboards and I like to incorporate strings and horns in whatever type of symphonic soundscapes that might enhance the metal and other than that almost any other type of black metal in general, I am influenced in some way like Hellhammer, Celtic Frost and all those guys to modern stuff like Aborym, Dimmu Borgir and that is pretty much everything, I soak it up.

8. Do you have an interest in Occult topics?
The guitar player in my band is somewhat involved with the occult stuff, the guitar player in Infurum Bruo and he sort of showed me more of that stuff, I have never dabbled in that stuff before, but as far as topics because I dont know much I dont sing about it, because I dont want to pretend that I know lot about the occult practices but you know it is funny because I have been up to like Salem, Massechesetts a bunch of times and there is alot of people out there, they are pretty much into the occult and these people are real witches and stuff and I have been around that but you know it is something that I am still opening my mind to and it is rather new to me, I am being introduced to through other musicians and these guys listen to stuff like Watain and you know and that stuff is like the real deal so and I dont want to pretend to be like them when I am not so right now I am just staying cool and learning what I can, someday it might be incorporated into my side project.

9. What is the meaning behind the name Bothildir?
It is pretty much a made up word, I made it up about 8 years ago when I was a teenager and I wanted to utilize the Norse stylings at the time and during that time I was really interested in Norse music and mythology and all that stuff and I found a word that in ancient Norse language that is not even used anymore and it think it was spilled similar to Bothilder and it was like Bothulder or something with a Uand I say that it meant some remedy for war and I thought that was cool and so i kind of changed the word around a little bit and made it my own, so I guess you can say that the meaning is that it is just a word that pays homage to the Norse way of things and life and the Norse mythology that has influenced by music from the beginning.

10. How have black metal fans worldwide react to your music?
Over the past 4 years there has been overwhelmingly positive, surprisingly, I have made only a real limited stash of my cd's, I have only printed about a hundred of them and there was also an edition with a bonus track and I sold out alot of the copies, i have gave alot of them out for free and I sold some of them in stores, the local record shops and everybody that heard it seems to enjoy it so in someway and I have some reviews on my Myspace which is my only website at the moment and all of the reviews where positive I think that other people where relieved to hear something different with th use of the keyboards I do not know but it could just be that the fact that I write the music that I feel and I try not to let external influences necessary dominate my music, it is eternally an extension of my own and so I think that people realize that when they listen and I think they realize that this is not music that is edited in anyway and it is all performed by me and I never use triggers or anything and so it still has a very raw feel to it and maybe that is something that people really appreciate and overall the fan reaction has been good, I dont think that I have very many fans but from the few that I have, it has been great.

11. What direction would you like to take the music into on future releases?
It is funny that you say that because I have been thinking alot of different directions , one direction that I wanted to go into was too incorporate more acoustic stuff into my metal rather than just using all electronic instruments, I would like to have more acoustic guitar mixed with some violins, cello that was one thing I have been dabbling with using 7 strings, I have a 7 string guitar that I have had for a number of years I have never actually used it on recordings I just have one and I thought what the fuck if a have a 7 string guitar I might as well use it, so that is one direction I may head into to write some songs using a 7 string guitar and it is hard to say how it will turn out but I think it will be pretty cool, Emperor's last album was all 7 string guitars and some people dont know that but I though that album was awesome and the 7 string guitars had a pretty brutal attack and whether some people call it black metal or not, whatever you want to call it, it is very spectacular music and so you know I have been thinking of incorporating some 7 string stuff and alot more clean singing is another thing you might hear in upcoming music, so that is some of the newer directions that I would like to take as far as music itself it is still going to be fast, extreme and it is going to come out good.

12. Have you ever thought of incorporating any other musicians in your project or are you going to keep it solo?
It has always been my project so I try to keep it that way but I like using guest musicians, I have some friends with one that has a project called Hallowed by Butchery he might do some quest vocals and I have some guitar players that might do some solos, usually on the drums, keyboards, guitars, riffs, and bass must of that stuff is done by me but I always like to collaborate with people. on my first album I had a guitar player do a solo that was pretty awesome and collaborating with other people so I would like to do a little bit more of that and have some other musicians that play, I dont want a bass player that play all of the bass riffs or anything like that but as far as guitar solos, maybe some guest vocals, stuff like that I am defiantly open to and incorporating.

13. Are you currently working with any record labels right now?
We dont know yet, my first album did not have any record label, I just made the first album by myself because I was very young when that album came out and I did not know what I was doing so I just printed all of the cd's by myself and payed for them by myself and everything, but know I have some more connections and I will be sending some demos out to alot of American labels and maybe some European labels and we will see who hits us up, but until we got a label, we are just going to release our music independently.

14. have you received any record label interest yet?
We have not sent out the demo for the full length for our new album yet but there are some local labels in Boston where I live that have shown a little bit of interest in what they have heard of our demo and we will see how that goes.

15. What are some of your interests outside of music?
I am a pretty normal guy I like to read alot of books and I like to play video games on PlayStation 3 and I spend time with my wife, I am married and just live by myself with my wife and we just live a very normal life, we both work, I like to teach music which is related to my music interests,, and I hike, bike and I ski up here in New England, I dont know if you ski in Colorado, that is real skiing but we have pretty good skiing out here too and I spend alot of time outdoors .

16. Do you have anything else that you want to say before we close the interview?
Thanks for calling me, I am glad that we finally got together and I know that we have been exchanging e-mails for months which you have been patient about it and put it up on your website, we are very excited about it and I am glad that after all these years have gone by since I have released an album that there are still people showing an interest in it and even if it is just one person, that gives me hope to continue on writing stuff , so thanks for contacting me and being patient with putting this together . And here is a download link for our album : http://www.megaupload.com/?d=KEJQOUOF