Nattfly Interview

 

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

Nattfly is my solo black metal project, based on distorted and clean violins. The debut album “Sånger för den kalla modern” (”Songs for the Cold Mother”) was released digitally 2023, but the idea for the album had been brewing for many years. To get the album re-released in tape format by War Productions feels like the end of a cycle, a physical honouring of the cold mother and a tangible ground to stand on as I prepare for new rituals.

2.So far you have released one full length, can you tell us a little bit more about the musical style that you went for on the recording?

Ever since the late 90s when I first encountered the sound of second wave Black Metal, I have had this vision of the fragile acoustic violin alone in a harsh world of heavy distortion. In “Sånger för den kalla modern” I experimented with layers of distorted violins, harsh vocals and classic black metal drum patterns to build that world. I wanted a forest, a wild sacred space for ritual and transformation. The clean violin brings vulnerability to that space, an openness to listen and receive.

3.On the album you also use a electric violin as a lead instrument on the album, what was the decision behind avoiding traditional metal instruments on the recording?

I use only acoustic violin. The distortion is added to the acoustic recordings in the DAW, usually simultaneously with the recording so I can monitor the effect just like with an electric guitar. I have an electric violin and made my first attempts to create the sound of Nattfly with it together with a physical distortion pedal many years ago, but the sound was not right. It sounded tinny and artificial, flat. The forest did not grow. When many years later, as technology had developed, I experimented with recording my violin through a microphone and distort it with a plugin it sounded chaotic and wild. Then I knew it was the right way to go. After that I have refined the sound with a microphone made for violin and by changing my style of playing to produce the right kind of depth and texture. 

It was not a decision to avoid traditional metal instruments. The decision was to find a way to express my inner world through black metal even though I don’t play guitar. Since those first encounters with black metal in the 90s I felt this flow of liberation, something that is touched and set free deep inside me. Nothing else has the same effect. There are emotional and spiritual layers in me that can only be expressed through black metal. 

I actually tried to teach myself to play guitar back in the day, but it took away practice time from my violin, so I had to make a choice. The violin has so many similarities to the guitar, it felt natural to me that many of the sounds produced by a guitar should also be possible to do with a violin. But it was difficult to accomplish, especially since the vision I had was so precise and needed that special texture. If guitar had been my instrument I would have made my debut album 25 years ago. But of course, it would have been different.

4.A lot of your lyrics cover animistic rituals, spiritual struggles and nightmares, can you tell us a little bit more about your interest in these topics?

Animism is the belief or the knowing of possible spiritual essence and agency in everything, the competence of detecting and communicating with these essences and the practice of seeking balanced relationships with spirited surroundings. 

My animism is more intuitive than intellectual. I feel the presence of other than human entities, the personhood of trees and rocks and waters, and it comes natural to me to strive for a respectful encounter. If a stream talks to me, I will try to listen. When I step on the ground I try to be mindful of the spirit I am treading on. With openness to recognize personhood in other than human entities there is the potential for relationship and communication, friendship or diplomacy. With this attitude, and some practices that tear down my defensive walls, I can be struck by awe of the world in all its complexity. This brings me to a longing to give myself over to the streams and winds and forests, be one with it all and dissolve these boundaries of individual humanness.

The lyrics of “Sånger för den kalla modern” are all spells or incantations used in rituals, or written after rituals as a way of processing and preserving the experience. It was a time of despair and longing, sensing the spirited world around me but finding myself enclosed in dense silence, isolated, rejected. The first three songs originate from desperate invocations to break through the veil. “Fullbordan” and “Ur hennes källa” (“Completion” and “From Her Source”) were written in the meditative otherworldly space after the cold mother received my sacrifices and opened her wisdom and embrace. The last two songs represent the end of the cycle. The isolation and silence returning after the veil has thickened again and the fear, the doubt, the cold loneliness.

The magic of “Sånger för den kalla modern” is that when I listen to it now, I am no longer in that place of silence and doubt. Pouring my honest spiritual struggles into the music transformed them into something that opened a path for me, a stability in the contact with my own spiritual essence and thus with the spirited surroundings as well. This is why the theme is spiritual struggles and not dogma or liturgy.

The nightmares are most present in the second song, “Marans Märke”(“Mark of the Mara”), since the Mara (the Nightmare Hag) is a frequent visitor by my bedside since childhood. The song is an attempt to appease her and form a less destructive relationship by inviting and accepting her presence in my life. Her influence and the nightmare theme will be deeper explored in my upcoming album.

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

Nattfly is a type of moth in Swedish. The type that flickers around in the summer nights, drawn to any light during its short life. In Swedish the word Nattfly sounds like “Night escape” or “Night flyer”. Those moths are the main diet of many types of spiders, insects and small animals. They tend to lie dead or dying on the ground, their wings already half decomposed as ants and maggots come to feed. To me the name represents the cycle of life and the meaning of death, the futile attempts to fly towards something better during a lifetime both short and endless. The fragile, broken moth wings resemble the fragile, broken sound of the acoustic violin, imperfectly played alone in a forest of blastbeats and distortion.

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

The cover art is made by Thaumaturge Artworks. It originates from a vision I had of Hel, the Norse goddess of the underworld. She always shows herself to me covered in dark veils and I need to walk and swim through cold underground rivers to reach her.

7.With this project you record everything by yourself but work with another musician in a different project, do you prefer to work solo?

I can only access my true creative flow, this wild and primal source that connects me to the flow of everything, when I am alone. To create alone without interruptions or additions by others is a life necessity. This solo project is how I survive, how I keep breathing. It is my ritual space and my offering, my sacrifice and my vessel for receiving. 

That being said, I get help from trusted friends with handling technology, mixing, designing drum patterns. My reluctance to let somebody into the process to help set my debut back several years, so asking for help is a lesson I have had to learn. Aside from Nattfly, when that need for unhindered creative flow in solitude is satisfied, I also enjoy cooperating with other musicians in other projects. 

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

Surprisingly positive. I have received comments from all over the world from people who have enjoyed and been touched by the particular sound of Nattfly.

9.Can you tell us a little bit more about your other project 'Kalmanvaki'?

It is a collaboration that is growing between Honka and me. I contribute with the violin, and he does everything else. Kalmanväki is rooted in Finnish nature and has a nerve of the pain and struggle of being human. Our raw creative flows come from different sources, yet when we come together, they blend to something else that maybe we both need.

10.Where do you see yourself heading into as a musician during the future?

I have already finished the recordings for the next Nattfly album, “Flocken” (the Flock). It has a different, more dissonant sound since the nightmarish theme required it. Hopefully it will be released during the coming months, but that is not within my control since the work that needs to be done to finish it is the drum patterns and mixing which I can’t do myself. 

I have just started to try out the right sound for the album to follow Flocken, and I have found that every album has its own soul. As a listener I sometimes wish that bands would stick to a sound that I enjoy but now as a musician I am starting to understand that this is not for the artist to decide by will. The sound shapes itself around the theme and emotion. It cannot be forced or molded into something else. I will need to evolve as a musician as I evolve spiritually and emotionally.

Nowadays I have contacts and could ask someone to fill in with guitar and bass, but by now I feel at home in my violin-based sound, so I have decided to not add anything. Instead, I am trying to deepen and broaden the sound with a second violin, stringed as a viola. I also hope to get help from a session drummer since real drums would make a big difference, especially for “Flocken”. But cooperation comes with the risk of hold ups and misunderstandings as well as a mix of intentions that can obscure the power of the ritual. We will see. 

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?

The sound of “Sånger för den kalla modern” was inspired by early Bathory, Darkthrone, Ulver, Blodsrit, Ondskapt… I have also always listened to folk music, both Swedish and other, and some of the rhythms and melodic patterns can be traced to the Swedish fiddler tradition. Classical music has always been important to me, especially the sonatas and partitas for solo violin and cello by Bach, the violin concertos of the romantic and modern eras and the works of some modern minimalists. 

In present day those above mentioned still last. I also listen to more modern styles of black metal and enjoy how the genre is still evolving. Of course, most new releases will not touch me at all but every year there are new gems to be found. Last year new releases by Gjendod and Udaad blew my mind. 

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

Thank you for taking the time to do this interview. The questions made me reflect and seek for answers on a deeper level.

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