1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the solo project?
Gathering Stones was born in 2014, as a reaction to another black metal project I was playing in at the time. The other band was very overwrought, overcomposed, and I craved something more authentic. The music developed slowly at first, as I was working overseas at the time, then playing in other bands. In 2018, I started to refine the huge collection of riffs I had written into the songs that compose A Pale Omen.
2.So far you have released one ep, can you tell us a little bit more about the musical style that you went for on the recording?
I consider A Pale Omen to be a demo rather than an EP. The songs found on this tape are part of a broader collection of 10 songs that will be released together as the first full album in the future. These first four tracks capture some of the drive and urgency that I felt at the inception of the project, the urge to play music with feeling that meant something to me personally, instead of just intellectually. The compositions were heartfelt and direct, I didn't aspire for them to be anything other than the riffs that came forth from the ether, and the images that those songs revealed in my mind.
3.All of the songs where recorded between 2019 and 2020 but you waited until this year to release any material, can you tell us a little bit more about the wait?
Everything happens in its own time, neither earlier or later than it was supposed to. The artwork was commissioned for this demo from an artist I hold in very high esteem. Channeling exactly the right piece to match the music required substantial reflection. Obviously, this process took time.
4.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects you have explored so far with the music?
The lyrics of A Pale Omen tell a tale of death and a descent into madness, of the worship of the morbid and grotesque, and the perfection of worship that can be found therein.
The broader lyrics join the fever dreams of imagined horrors with the real tragedies of the waking world around us.
Everything is death and dying. It is the only topic worthy of consideration. All else is just frivolities.
5.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Gathering Stones'?
To answer this question, I must follow in the tradition of the great modernist writers, as well as black metal artists who take their work seriously enough to show an appropriate amount of restraint. Some things are better left partially obscured. Eventually, the observant listener will be able to fill in the blanks.
6.Can you tell us a little bit more about the artwork that presented on the demo cover?
It was painted by the exceptional artist, Gabriel Hunt. The artwork as presented in the tape is composed of crops of the larger painting which sits before me as I write this. It is the embodiment of the fruitfulness of decay, of the life that lives in the midst of death.
7.With this project you record everything by yourself, are you open to working with other musicians or do you prefer to work solo?
I am open to working with others. There have been other members in the past, and there will likely be others again in the future. I live in a smaller city in the scorching desert. It is not an area which breeds many suitable black metal musicians. Still, I am hopeful that I will connect with the appropriate people eventually. Everything in its own time.
8.Currently you are unsigned, are you looking for a label or have received any interest?
Under the right circumstances, I am open to working with a label for Gathering Stones. I wanted to release this demo by myself at least. We'll see about the future.
I have worked with several different metal record labels in the past, and it always felt like a kind of prostitution, or at best, a denigration of the music. You offer yourself up to the great arbiters of taste and hope that they deign to release it for you. And what do you receive in return? 10% of the albums pressed, a small percentage of digital and merchandise sales? Small consolation. My experiences working with upstanding, "professional" record labels have been very mediocre. Everything was a business transaction. The passion was always lacking, and who can blame them? A black metal focused label with a small staff still puts out 10+ albums a year. How much of themselves can they put into each one?
Still, there are some labels run by true maniacs, true fanatics with whom I would be honoured to work one day.
9.Currently you are working on a full length, what can we expect musically once it is released?
The full-length will be more varied than the demo. It is 60-70% written at the moment, but I like to let things percolate and change over time. The songs from the demo will return, albeit in new and modified forms. The additional songs are both more savage and more introspective, incorporating more ambient and atmospheric elements.
10.Do you also have any experience playing in other bands or musical projects?
I played my first show ever 20 years ago this summer, as the vocalist of a death metal band. Since then, I have played in many other bands, all in the range of black, death and doom metal. Most fizzled out within a couple of years, but a couple endured, recording multiple albums and playing numerous shows.
I am currently playing in another 3 projects beyond Gathering Stones, either on guitar, drums, or vocals. As Gathering Stones is only me at this moment, it takes priority with my time, while the other projects come in brief creative spurts.
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?
This was actually a question that I considered while listening meticulously to the test tape for A Pale Omen. I sat in the dark listening to the tape, listening for any imperfections, trying to hear absolutely everything. This process made several associations with other music that I have already rattling around in my head. The first two Burzum albums, Les Légions Noires - Vlad Tepes and Mutiilation in particular, plus American savagery like Bone Awl, Ash Pool, Furdidurke, Cross Rot, and my countrymen in Akitsa.
The black metal side of things meets with my passion for 80s UK punk, Discharge, Amebix, Rudimentary Peni. I think Gathering Stones is what happens when my brain mixes up the punk stuff and the black metal stuff.
As for what I'm listening to these days, I've been on a big Profanatica kick. The Enemy of Virtue compilation is pure savagery. I recently stumbled onto A.S.K.E. and have been loving Occulted Death Stance in particular. There're always lots of classics spinning. I love old Anathema.
12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
Hail Occult Black Metal webzine. Thanks for your interest.
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