Terra Interview

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

Ryan: We formed last year when I convinced Luke to play drums for us because I'd got a gig for the band but no drummer, also Olly was in Australia so I forced him to come back which only gave us a month to prepare for said gig. Somehow it all went really well and we've managed to put together an album in this short space of time.

Olly: Me and Ryan have been trying to make music together for about a decade! From failed grind-core projects to many different iterations of a Black Metal band. After a hiatus of a couple of years Ryan got back in touch with me asking if I was willing to play bass for his new project. I agreed on the condition that he found a drummer willing to learn huge songs: Enter Luke. One month later we had a band!

2.You have a new album coming out, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording?

Ryan: It's pretty relentless, I kind of went at it taking aspects I liked of Drone and infused it with Black Metal. It wasn't something I'd heard done often so it was kind of a way to scratch an itch for me as I was craving something heavy yet with a hypnotic feel.

Olly: I would describe it as Atmospheric Black Metal. There are many dark elements but also plenty of more upbeat melodies by way of contrast.

3.I have seen the band being labeled as cascadian black metal and when i think of that term I think of bands from the Northwestern areas of the U.S and Canada, does the band embrace the term or is that something that the media has tagged you as?

Ryan: Whilst I can see why we get that as I am a fan of a lot of the bands from that scene, I wouldn't really say it's representative of who we are. Equally we get tagged as DSBM sometimes and I hate to admit we had to look up what that was.

Olly: I had never heard the term before people told me that's what I was playing. We are also described as DSBM a lot, having looking into the genre I can see where people are coming from with that one! But we have no specific sub-genre affiliation, we are just trying to make music that we enjoy.

Ryan: Yeah, I think Black metal might be as far as I'd be willing to go down the sub-genre rabbit hole. We just make music for ourselves and if other people like what we do then all the better.


4.What are some of the themes and images the band brings out with its musical style?

Ryan: I like to to be intentionally vague in terms of themes for the music, I leave that open to interpretation of the listener and let them let them form their own impression rather than imposing it on them.

Olly: The music is certainly open to interpretation. In my opinion it is rooted in nature however if someone else hears our music a different way, that's cool too.

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

Ryan: Terra is Latin for Earth, I've always lived out in the countryside and as such nature is all around and a constant source of inspiration so it seemed appropriate.


6.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?

Ryan: I think our favourite as a band was our first gig down in London supporting Sonance, we were the oddball band on that bill supporting a bunch of fantastic Doom bands, it was a great gig and somehow we went over really well with that crowd.

Olly: I would have to agree with Ryan about the Sonance show, the lineup was so solid it was quite intimidating to open the bill. Another favourite was supporting Old Corpse Road. Sidious were brought in as a replacement and totally smashed it. They were really cool to hang out with too, I hope our paths cross again sometime.

7.Do you have any touring or show plans once the new album is released?

Ryan: We've got a few things lined up but nothing major, we love playing live so we're always looking for shows to play.

Olly: Luke tends to look after this side of things, because he's much better at it than either of us. I certainly hope we get to play out loads more supporting this album.

8.The new album is coming out on Hibernacula, are you satisfied with the support they have given you so far?

Ryan: We're really appreciative for them to have taken us on board for our first album. We were approached by the owner after a gig, for him to take a chance on such a new band is really awesome of them.

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

Olly: The album hasn't been released yet so there aren't loads of reviews at the moment, however the early feedback we have received has been very positive.

Ryan: I've had some great feedback from people who aren't even into Black Metal so that's kind of interesting, we also get some great responses from people at shows which is always great to hear people are digging what we do.

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

Olly: We're already working on some new ideas and are hoping to spend more time working on new material together as a band. The only thing I can say for certain at this stage is it's sounding heavy as fuck!

Ryan: I'd not like to restrict where we might go and what we might do in the future by predicting it at this early stage, I'm sure it'll be heavy though.

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?

Ryan: I've a broad set of influences, a lot of the early black metal pioneers have influenced my writing of course; 'Hvis lyset tar oss' and 'Nattens madrigal' are particularly inspirational. I also find the modern American black metal scene is especially interesting these days. Outside of this I'm fairly open to what I listen to, if I like it I'll listen to it, I don't particularly stick to any specific genres. I like to think listening to a wide selection of music has a positive impact of the creative process as well.

Olly: Im a total fan of the classics as far as Black metal is concerned give me Mayhem, Darkthrone, Burzum, Emperor etc. and I'll be happy as a clam. Im also heavily into dark drum and bass, Hardcore and other extreme electronic styles. Guys like The Outside Agency, Switch Technique and Current Value influence my playing more then you would think.


12.What are some of your non musical interests?

Olly: That's a really good question, I mean I work in music and spend much of my spare time working on music. Computer games and getting hammered I suppose!

Ryan: I like to run, being out in the countryside and away from civilization for a while is particularly cathartic.

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

Olly: Clam

Ryan: Thanks for reading and checking us out.

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