1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?
We formed the band in fall of 2016 after 10 or more years of trying to find the time and motivation for it. We played in The Republic Of Desire from 97 to 2010 when I left the band due to personal reasons. We began planning to form a band together somewhere in the early 00's but found out that there wasn't time or need for it due to things with The Republic going so well.
2.So far you have released one ep, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording?
Aggresive and raw burst of hate. It's recorded 100% analog and mostly on one take, we had only two days booked at Astia Studios for recording, mixing and mastering it. So there simply wasn't time to do overdubs or retakes. All the drum, bass and guitar tracks were recorded simultaneously, then the second guitar and finally the vocals.
3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?
Lyrics for this EP were written and sung by Kylliäinen whit whom we've since parted ways. We had discussions about the lyrics and the subject matters, but ultimately he had the freedom to write what he wanted.
The four songs can be viewed as parts of a longer story in wich the main character is betrayed by his friends thus losing faith in mankind and humanity. He then tries to return to the world and to his fellow men wich he left behind but sees that it's become impposible due to reasons not in his control anymore. In isolation he then comes to an conclusion that he no more wants to be a part of this world nor mankind and chooses death by his own hand. But they were written as individual pieces.
4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Tyhja'?
Tyhjä translates to empty, void, nothing, blank etc. Wich can be viewed as the pure state of consciousness or the true infinite state of cosmos. Inspiration for the name arose from my long studies and experiements of Buddhist teachings and meditation, where silencing your inner voice with wich your ego speaks to you is crucial for one to exceed the limitations of ”normal” consciousness. It resonated with the other members, wich I believe have their own explanations and views of the word, so we kept it. It was also the first that we thought of and finally decided to keep it, there were a lot of alternatives to choose from in the end.
5.Can you tell us a little bit more about the logo, it looks like there are a few runes in it?
The logo has double-crosses in first, middle and last letters wich is the symbol for the hermetic maximum ”as above, so below”. The runes are Fehu and Ansuz Murkstave.
I had a vision of the three double-crosses, with the middle one being a double double-cross in my head very early on. It has its own meaning wich, once again, differs from person to person and because of that should be left to the viewer to figure out.
6.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?
Everyone of them has been great and a bit different. We like to keep as much of control in our own hands as possible, starting from the bands we share the stage with, lighting, props etc. So it depends a lot of the evening. Sometimes it's a whole show with smoke, intros, blood, lights, incense and so on. Sometimes it's just us giving everything we've got, not caring if our fingers bleed or teeth are broken.
7.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?
We've been asked to do some gigs with Kasvoton and Deadneck after the summer, wich we'll gladly do because they're great bands and good friends with us. After those it really depends on the gig and the venue, squats, shitholes, whatever. If we want and are able to do it we'll do it and work with whatever we can find to create somekind of atmophere. But it all depends on the overall ”feeling” of the evening, organizer, other bands, venue etc. If it doesn't feel right we wont do it, we have no need to do gigs whenever it's possible, we do them when it's appropriate for us or the other bands and venue.
8.Currently you are unsigned, are you looking for a label or have received any interest?
The nameless/. EP will be officaly released in co-operation with Void Wanderer and Goatlordth at the end of May as an limited edition digipack. We have the rights for the material and they keep whatever the income from the sales is. We printed some promotional copies of the EP to send to companies and to sell at gigs, however none of the companies we sended them have responded.
White Wolf from Italy was the first to contact us about the release, at that time we were still waiting responses from the companies that we had send the promo records. Goatlordth then asked to release it in Filippines and soon after Void Wanderer proposed to release it as their first release under their own label.
We turned down a lot of other offers because: Most of them wanted more money from us, on top of that wich we had allready spent on the studio and printing of the record. That's just not how it works in these modern days, releasing music by ourselves is so much easier than it was in the early 00s. How much I despise these modern times I can't deny the benefits of its fruits, one doesn't need a record company to release and sell their records anymore, ofcourse it helps a lot to have someone doing the business side for them though.
9.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of black metal and crust?
It's been suprisingly positive so far. We received some criticism about the lyrical subjects not including satanic elements and therefore expelling us from being Black Metal at all, wich I fully understand. It's been an eye opening experience to witness the exposure the EP had in such short time, bearing in mind the last time we released anything was the Tower with Republic Of Desire in 2008(?) and it was a lot longer proscess back then to get any feedback.
10.Are any of the other band members currently involved with any other bands or musical projects these days?
Our bass player Peuhkuri is busy with his main band Madred and some other groups he performs with. I'm doing some occasional gigs with noise/ambient group OK as KUOLT wich is my Noise project, TYHJÄ being the main band for me and Jarva.
11.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
Blacker and harder. We're focusing more on writing the songs as whole pieces, lyrical side being more in contact with the music and so on. The EP was written, recorded and released during the course of one year, during wich the band was formed. So it's an honest piece of work, us letting out all the hatred and disgust we had build up during the years. We're now crafting material for a full length, wich will be a more focused entirety.
12.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?
Black metal, past and present obviously, older Hardcore, Grincore etc. When 1349 released Liberation it had an huge impact. So did Tragedys Venegance and Mayhems Wolfslair abyss to name a few records.
Lately I've been listening to Grafvitnir, Theurgia, Iskra (wich was used as an reference to describe our music by one of our fans), Portal, Abigors latest, Schammasch, Nightbringer, Alkhlys and early WITTR.
13.What are some of your non musical interests?
Studying the occult and the esoteric teachings, mostly trough writings of Star Of Azazels Nefastos, who've had an huge impact on my views of Lucifer and the left hand path since I and Jarva met him in the early 00s. I strayed away from all of it somewhere in 2007 but in 2011 we were on the beach with my wife and children when some guy rode a jet ski trough the lake and handed me the Vasemman käden tie (left hand path) book by Nefastos and tried to convince us that in that book there's the love and the truth. And from that moment on I've been entering, or returning, deeper and deeper to the esoteric world, wich I'm convinced is true and the truth.
14.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
Know and respect your roots, grow to the full potential of thyself and don't be a fucking dick to others. Support the underground and the local scene. Use your time in this vessel wisly and preserve the land for future generations.
Ave Satan.
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