Interview with Attila Csihar

Here is an interview from Vice with Attila Csihar, who of course has laid down vocals for Tormentor, Mayhem, Aborym, and Sunn O))), among others. As regular AFITFOG readers will know, I am a big, big fan of Attila, and his stage performances. For me, he is Mayhem's best ever vocalist. Both times I saw them on the Ordo Ad Chao tour he took showmanship to new heights. Here's what Julien Morel at the French Vice office and Mr. Csihar spoke about...

Where do your costumes come from?
Attila Csihar: Most of the costumes I wear are actually designed by me or are collaborations. A lot of my masks were made by Nader Sadek in New York, and most of my clothes by my friend Mate Benyovszky in Budapest. The last costume I wore with Mayhem was actually a real priest’s funeral outfit. It was like 70 years old and was handmade by nuns. The costume was worn at hundreds, maybe thousands of funerals through the years. I bought it in a Christian store - it was kind of expensive, but it was worth it since it's really beautiful. Of course, I didn’t say why I was buying it. I had to lie and say I was working on a film. But I think the church lies to us too, so it’s alright.
Over the years you’ve worn a lot of costumes. How many do you have?
I've never counted. Making the costumes happen is a crazy amount of work. My live concept for the latest Mayhem record, Ordo Ad Chao, was to use different costumes and outfits for each show. It was an almost impossible task. I had to think about it all in advance and make a lot of plans and preparations for the daily shows. I really do like challenges so it was worth it, but I’m not doing it anymore.

Of all your costumes, which is your favourite?
Well, there were so many favourites. There was Dr. Pig - a scalped pig’s face I wore over my own face. It was a huge scandal in Sweden. The Mummy - that went with an onstage time machine. The Pimp was good, and the Slavetrader, I had a black guy on a leash for that. He was a bit worried when I tried to sell him during the show, but he was cool really - he knew it wasn’t a racist thing. People in Tel Aviv and Moscow really loved The Dictator, and there were others too: De Gaulle and Alien. I rose from an onstage coffin for Satan Klaus, and there was also Quasimodo.

The spookiest?
The Invisible Man.

 The most expensive?
Most expensive was maybe The Broken-Mirror Man, and the funeral priest costume.

The worst?
I like to challenge the audience, so the worst thing for me is going on stage with something that has been seen a million times before, like corpse paint. Actually, the first time I wore corpse paint was in 1987 with my band Tormentor. Alien Sex Fiend were using white make-up, so I started to wear a white base and put black make-up on top, around the eyes and the mouth. When Dead did a similar thing in the early 90s, he was the first to label that make-up technique "corpse paint". It was cool then.

I read somewhere that as a vegetarian you were grossed out by the dead pig’s face.
No, we were supposed to be forcing the public to look death in the face.

 What about the incredible frozen tree costume?
When Sunn O))) saw my costumes they were really impressed. For their tour, the concepts behind the costumes had to have a totally different meaning. The tree was about transformation. During the show, I gradually transform from a human into a plant.

What's the most money you've ever spent on a costume?
I would like to keep that secret, but some costumes were expensive. However, I think the idea behind them is much more important than the money.
Is it all about costumes with you, or do you like mainstream fashion. Do you do casual?
I do like fashion. For normal everyday wear, I like some of the Cyberdog clothes, but not everything they do.
Is there a costume you’d like to wear but which is just too expensive, or made out of something too rare, or is one that somebody has worn already?
Yes, of course. I talked to Banks Violette about making something that would make me look like I was performing in another dimension. I wanted to levitate in a huge, on-stage aquarium filled with liquid, wearing deep-diving gear. We planned to have strange or weird sea animals swimming around, like ink fishes, octopuses and horseshoe crabs, for instance. I wanted a spacesuit but they are extremely expensive. Huge crystals could be good too for appearing as a fossil. The ideas are endless, but the costumes have to have meaning. Recently people started to expect the costumes and my main philosophy in music and art is freedom. When I feel any force or pressure to do something, I move on to the next thing. The music is the most important part for me.

INTERVIEW JULIAN MOREL

Interview with Zhema Rodero of Vulcano

Back in March, when we were trying to get some stories together for the VICE Brazil Issue, I thought a feature on Brazil's golden age of metal would make an interesting feature. I contacted every legendary 80s Brazilian black/death/thrash band I could think of, with a view to some interviews. I got email addresses from the official sites, went through their official MySpaces, and even emailed a university in Belo Horizonte, as Sarcófago's Wagner Lamounier is a professor of economic science there. But it was all for shit. Either they didn't speak English, didn't get the email, or thought I was a waste of time. One dark hero, Vulcano's Zhema Rodero, did finally respond though, and I got as far as sending him a list of questions (back in April), but he disappeared again and never replied. Until last night. 

AFITFOG: Firstly, I'm interested in finding out Vulcano's origins. How did you guys all meet?
Zhema Rodero: Like all the bands rising (at the time), I studied in the same school together with Paulo Magrão (Vulcano's original guitarist) and we played some rock songs on guitar. Around '78/'79 we formed Astharot, and some years after, Vulcano. In the beginning we played a raw hard rock style, trying to do something like Motörhead, but our singer and equipment just weren't good enough to do that. In '84, the vocalist Angel joined the band, so we became more dirty and brutal with our Brazilian heavy metal.

How were you guys received by the Brazilian media and public?
In '83 we released our first record, a 7" single, and we were totally underground – nobody knew about us. In those times there were big Brazilian rock bands belonging to the massive record companies. Vulcano were a little band. In the end of 1983, a famous Brazilian reporter wrote a review about us in the Brazilian Dictionary of Rock, so Vulcano became more well known in the scene.

When you released Bloody Vengeance, it was pretty unique for its time. What were you guys influenced by?
I do not know exactly, but I venture to say that it was a combination of factors, between the style of play of Lauder (drummer), Flavio (guitarist), and my compositions. I have my way of writing songs, which is well embedded in the style of them.

Was there a big scene in Brazil in the mid '80s or was it underground? Were you, MX, Mutilator, Sarcófago, and Sepultura all friends?
Yeah! There was a strong scene here in Brazil, even though we were all underground. We were all friends because we were always playing together or watching other bands play festivals. Most bands of that time never did anything outside of Brazil. There are few who had a small reputation, Vulcano were one.

How did you feel about what happened to thrash metal towards the end of the '80s/early '90s?
I know that was a very important moment for the metal. Today, the metal is a style and will live forever in the history of music in the world. I’m proud to have participated at that time.

What did you make of the Norwegian black metal scene that hailed all those Brazilian bands as massive influences?
It's hard to explain, because when the Brazilian scene was born, the social politics imposed by government was very different. Here in Brazil we revolted against that situation so it was one of the reasons why we put more rage in our songs.

Where do you see the sound going from now?
I think the sound of Vulcano will become anachronistic because I don't like to put modern elements into the music that I do. I do a song primarily to please myself and I am an old guy, so my song will sound old. I would like to finish by saying that Vulcano are finishing their newest album and it's called Five Skulls And One Chalice. We are doing the mix, and if all goes well Cogumelo Records will release it next November.

Thank you for the opportunity to answer these interesting questions and keep banging !!!!!!!!

Indeed we shall and thank you Zhema.

Fried Chicken And Weed...

Here are a couple of book reviews I did for Vice magazine's most recent issue, The Technology Issue. I guess my expertise in the fields of weed and fried chicken made me an obvious candidate for reviewing books with such topics...


CHICKEN: LOW ART, HIGH CALORIE
Siaron Hughes
Mark Batty Publishers

This is yet another one of my forgotten stoned ideas come to fruition. I must be a virtual millionaire in stoned ideas. It is a book documenting fried-chicken shops in London and the US. I had heard about this book’s intention a number of years back but I was fairly certain it would lack all the classics. But, man, it has them all. It even has ChickPizz in there. And one I’d never even seen before, Hen Cottage. Hen Cottage? Really? “Hi, can I have two pieces of fried hen, please?” Just wrong. What’s with the names, though? I mean, they’re always referencing fried chicken’s spiritual home, America, hence Orlando Fried Chicken, Tennessee Fried Chicken and so on, but Kennedy Fried Chicken? In America I kind of understand, but here? Why would you go to a Kennedy Fired Chicken over, say, Finger Lickin’ Chicken? Anyways, the book focuses more on the graphic impact of the chicken shop, its logo, the menu, and the often suggestive slogans used: “dunk your dipper”, “taste me”, and, well, you get the idea. There are interviews with owners, the dude who designs the signage and even the guy who devises the menus, although there is one ingredient missing. I reckon this book could really have benefited from having a chicken rating section and price guide. There’s nothing about the actual chicken in it and although that might be the point, it’s really made me hungry for my local, Mighty Chicken in Hackney. Which, by the way, is not featured in the book, but offers some pretty heavy deals.


DANK: THE QUEST FOR THE VERY BEST MARIJUANA. A BREEDER’S TALE
Subcool
Quick American Archives

This is a book solely about weed and the quest for the ultimate bud, or “dank”. Wow, even saying that word leaves a really horrible taste in my mouth. The author even goes under the alias “Subcool”. I’m guessing he is using this to protect his identity, owing to the illegality of his profession, but he just come across sounding like a graphic designer who grafs snow in Germany for Banksy fans. There are 37 strains of weed in this book, all of which are products of his breeding and selection. He lists the families he’s bred them from, their sativa and indica count and even describes the flavours like the connoisseur he undoubtedly is. It may well be nicely shot and very informative if smoking bud is your thing, but the kind of guys who sell weed round my way couldn’t give a shit about growing weed “consciously”. In fact, the concept would probably be so alien to them you’d have to spend a fortnight explaining it to them. They just spray the stuff with glue and add crushed glass for weight and not give you 'dank'. It's really a bit frustrating as a weedhead to look at this book. All that amazing weed you're NEVER going to smoke. I guess this is how a paedophile feels at an under-12s football game in the summer. A great 'weed table' book though.

Don't forget my weekly music blog on viceland too...

Interview with Brent Hinds of Mastodon

Brent holding up a glass coaster that had a dotted design on that we concluded was “the story of the universe in the future”

I caught up with Brent Hinds, chief musical architect for Mastodon, for Vice magazine, in a conservatory in Warner’s offices last week. We talked about their new album, Joseph Merrick, mushrooms, touring with Slayer, weed, hating doing interviews and politics. Oh, and tits...

AFITFOG: Hey Brent, just like to ask you about the new album, Crack the er, shit, I totally forgot the name of it…
Brent Hinds: (Interrupting) Smoke crack and get higher than the sky.

Haha, yeah, I had a listen to it last night. It’s a lot more melodic than previous efforts I think.
It’s like the last song on all of our albums but a whole album full of last songs on all our albums.

They’re always my favourite songs, actually.
Yeah, yeah me too, I write all the last songs. We’re a democratic band but I end up writing more music because I play guitar more, because I play in more bands, I don’t just play in Mastodon. At the end of the album I always have something worked out to let them easy you know, not go out with a bang, let ‘em down slowly. I just wanted to do a whole album like that really.

All the last songs are about the Elephant Man, right?
Yeah, yeah, they’re all acoustic with clean electric in there too. Everything I write’s written on acoustic anyway. Remission had Elephant Man, Leviathan had Joseph Merrick; Pendulous Skin was on Blood Mountain, which was the disease that Joseph Merrick had that was like over-stimulated bone growth that made his skin like sag down all over his arm and shit.

Was that your idea to have Joseph Merrick references? Was it to do with the David Lynch movie?
Nah, when I first met Brann (Dailor, Mastodon’s drummer) we both showed up to band practice with a Elephant Man shirt on, he was like, 'You like the Elephant Man?' I was like, 'Fuck yeah, me too, let’s do some sort of tribute to the Elephant Man.' It made sense too because of Mastodon, you know, being a big elephant. If there’s an Elephant Man we should write songs about it. But yeah, the album is a lot more melodic, just a lot of me sitting around writing those kind of songs with an acoustic at my house. And then those guys wrote like a different album that was like super dooper, super dooper heavy and really fast and crazy – kinda borderline more fucked up than any death metal I’ve ever heard but I wasn’t ready. I dunno if I can play that kinda music anymore, like I dunno if I really wanna play like really, really, really extreme, heavy music anymore and I never really have wanted to do that. Even when I first got together with them they were with this band called Lethargy and they would let me hear some of that shit and I’d be like, 'Man, turn that down, I’m not into that stuff, I don’t play music like that.' I can play music like that. I don’t have to. I don’t want to. So they were like, 'That’s cool, what do you have?' and I had this album and I showed it to them and they were like, 'That’s awesome, let’s just do this album.'

So you pretty much wrote the whole album I guess. By the way, you’ve got your own colour Gibson haven’t you?
Yeah, Bill plays it too. Years and years ago, this guy in my town had a silverburst Gibson Flying V Standard with a white pickguard, but it was so old it had kind turned like black to silver to green you know, like kinda real creepy lookin’. I really liked it a lot so I was like, let me trade you that guitar, so we traded guitars. I traded him a Goldtop. So, I played that guitar for the first like three or four years Mastodon was together. Then it got stolen from me in Denmark, Odessa and he wouldn’t give me my Goldtop back. I was like, 'Fuck it, it’s shaped like a boomerang, it’ll be back.' Low and behold, on the last European tour I was just on with Slayer, some dude got in touch with me through our website and gave it back to me. It wasn’t his but he just saw it and his clairvoyant daughter was like, 'Daddy, this guitar has been stolen. I know it,' and started researching it and she was right. They got in touch with me and gave the guitar back. Fuckin’ awesome.

Woah, that doesn’t happen a lot does it?
Naw, it never happens.

Weird. How was touring with Slayer?
It’s cool, you know, we probably toured with Slayer like eight times? We went to Australia with ‘em, we went to Japan with ‘em, been to Europe with ‘em like four or five times, the US three times. They’re awesome, they’re amazing people, they’re great friends and an amazing band. Never get tired of seeing them.

They still sound pretty good live.
Fuck yeah.

Maybe better than 20 years ago.
I’m just like, 'Woah, what the fuck?'

I saw you guys when you toured Leviathan four or five years, I spoke to Bill (Kelliher, the rhythm guitarist) and he said you’d done mushrooms that night, which, I couldn’t believe.
I started playing music that way, I’m from Alabama, cow fields and mushrooms everywhere. I’d go pick like bags and bags of mushrooms and just eat them all the time and make music. This album’s kinda more of a tribute to that time in my life – really psychedelic, proggy-style music than just balls out heavy.

Will your sound develop more into that kind of music or was it just an homage to the 'psychedelic days'?
Yeah, it’s just exactly what you said, we already have our next album written and it’s nothing like that, super dooper dooper heavy. Hopefully we don’t have to wait for two years to release it – we wait two years between every album. It’s a cycle: tour the world for two years, come home, record. Hopefully we can just do a year on this thing, so we can just move on in general. Like I said, our next album is like heavier than anything I’ve ever heard in my life, borderline death metal basically. I’m just so tired of singing that vocally, it fucks my throat up. I smoke a ton of pot… I’d rather sing and it doesn’t hurt, you know?

The vocals are a lot cleaner than previously.
Yeah, that’s cool, it’s catchy, you know what I mean? A little upbeat and it’s kinda creepy. Creepy’s good.

How do you feel about touring? It takes a big chunk out of your year I guess?
God, you’re not kidding. I get separation anxiety from my family, I don’t really like to be gone for that long, I should be used to it by now because I’ve been on the road now for like nine years. It just fuckin’ sucks. I dunno, I like fuckin’ live shows, you know what I mean? But I hate doin’ soundchecks, I hate travelling on a bus, I hate flying, I hate doin’ interviews, you know what I mean? All that shit… Fuck! I could really care less about that but, the playing music live is awesome so I’ve just gotta remind myself I’m gonna do that again soon. This is like a promo tour, I call it a press vacation. Whenever I get anywhere I’m like, 'You guys get me a beer, I’m going back to my hotel room.' That’s all I ask for.

So when did you get this (facial) tattoo?
2005, April 16th.

Is it continuous?
Yeah, it’s on the side of my head.

That’s quite a big investment.
Nah, it was free, I carved a tiki for my friend’s tattoo shop. It’s a headdress for a tiki that you’d put outside your shop. I don’t have any room anywhere else.

How do you like England?
I like England. I’ve got a lot of friends over here. I hate the fucking sitting on the airplane to get here for 12 hours but I enjoy everyone here, I enjoy the crowds, I enjoy the pubs, I enjoy the beer, what little marijuana I can get…

So, how you think America is going to change with that new guy in charge?
Nahhh, I don’t think the Democrat will ever change. Maybe they will change it and make it a tolerant drug, I don’t think they can make it anymore illegal than it is.

What class is it out there?
Class D? Because mushrooms is class C, I would know because I got arrested for both.

You can still travel internationally? That’s alright, huh?
What do you mean can I still travel internationally??? I’m in England!?!

No, no, I mean you can travel internationally.
Oh right, yeah, it’s not a felony at all.

I’m fairly sure here, if you have it on your record you can’t go to America.
America just sucks all around, you know? For that kinda shit anyway. But Bush is out of office… It can’t get any worse.

You think the country is gonna get any worse?
It can’t get any worse! It has to… I can’t see how it couldn’t improve. It’s gonna take a long time to turn it around, they fucked our country up really, really good. It’s gonna take a long time to get out of debt, you know.

I think that’s it, I mean, we’ve covered pretty much everything: the new album, politics, touring…
Slayer… I have to do interviews now because this album is more viable than all the others and people are only finding out that I’m one of the main sources of the music in the band. They always thought it was Troy because he stands in the middle. I’ve always refused to do interviews, this is the first time I’ve ever done interviews in nine years because those assholes in the band let everyone know that I was writing all the music all along, well not all of it, but a lot of it. So now I’ve have to talk to everybody about it, goddamn it, I wish they hadn’t told anyone about it.

They could’ve taken the blame for it, get all the girls…
Yeah! Get all the girls, I don’t even care. I’ve never seen a hot girl at a Mastodon show anyways, you know what I mean?

Really?
If there was she was with her dickhead boyfriend.

That’s the thing about metal shows, you never get hot girls by themselves.
That’s the good thing about this album, it’s more melodic, kinda girl-orientated – a girl could listen to this album and like it a lot more than all the heavier albums we’ve done. We might get to see a lot more titties in the audience, you know… be good to see more females in the audience enjoying themselves.

Maybe you could have, in the next album sleeve, tour photos of tits from all over the world…
That’d be nice. That’s definitely something I’m looking forward to, the audience changing a little bit. Instead of seeing every dude in the audience looking like me and, you know, tattooed-up, long hair, fuckin’ leather jacket… Which is cool, dudes have to look like that if you’re into what you’re into. Man, I just want to see a bunch of hot chicks, I mean I’m the only single one in the band, so it’s like let’s get some ass, dude.

Have you got Irish or European heritage?
I wouldn’t know, man. Everyone says I’m Scottish or Irish, I must be if everyone says that all the time. I look just like Luke Kelly too, you know, so I’m just gonna say I’m Irish. Every time I go to Ireland they’re like, ‘What part of Ireland are you from?” and I’m like, “Birmingham, Alabama”.

Mastodon’s Crack the Skye, is out on March 24 on Reprise

Interview with Hoest of Taake

Here's an interview I did for the Vice blog recently with Hoest of Taake.

Me- There was an amazing live version of 'Voldtekt' on the Norsk Svart Metall compilation, along with your new record do you think that it represents some kind of third wave of black metal?
Hoest- I don’t think in terms of 'waves' or whatever. To me it just seems like one big continuous wave. I don’t think black metal should achieve anything either, except reminding people that Hell is right here on earth and that people can be demons if they just sell their souls to The Devil.

Right. So it’s all happening right here on Earth. If there was a black metal version of the bible you’ve been around pretty much since Genesis. How do you feel about what has happened to black metal since then?
Too many people got involved and then there were too many ideas on how to do things. The best bands were the first ones and most of them changed too quickly into meaningless nonsense. A lot of bands lost their focus and ideals and fucked up something we could have been very proud of. The glory days are long gone. But at least some bands are still on to something.

Who’s still making stuff that isn’t 'meaningless nonsense'?
Orcustus, Aura Noir, Urgehal, Nattefrost/Carpathian Forest, Deathcult, Secht, Dead to this World, Amok and Slavia.

Yourself, Natteforst and Darkthrone particularly have taken on a much punkier sound, atypical to most recent black metal. The latest Darkthrone basically sounds like Motorhead doing Exploited covers.
Taake has had such elements on each release, it is merely a coincidence that there is a bit more of them in the newest material. I always felt that the punk influence should be kept alive, as it is evident in the old black metal roots. Look at bands like Venom, Hellhammer, Bathory, Sodom and so on.

Yourself and Nattefrost in particular seem hell bent on pissing basically everyone off fairly indescriminently. You even stated that with the Nekro EP you'd hoped to lose fans. Erm, what’s up with that?
Black metal is a magnet for idiots and I’m embarrassed about being enjoyed by so many useless people who don’t really understand what Taake is about. I’d rather have an audience of quality than quantity. I have always felt that black metal should be something for a few especially interested people.

Do you think that the German public overreacted over the whole kerfuffle in Essen last year (in March '07 he went on stage with a swastika painted on his chest in Germany)?
Yes indeed, I never expected such overblown reactions. But the weirdest thing is that most people seemed to react because displaying a swastika is against the law in Germany. When have I ever cared about the law?

Were you surprised by Kreator's intervention?
At first, yes. But then I was told that they use their music as a tool to fight fascism. I think I heard them introducing “Pleasure to Kill” at a concert though with: “are you ready to kill? Are you ready to kill each other?”. Maybe they should be boycotted for saying things like that. But of course, no one takes talk of killing seriously these days and we certainly know that those wimps don’t mean anything by it. Time to retire, boys.

Do you think prison has made you more determined to make your point?
No, my times in jail hasn’t changed me in any way apart from becoming increasingly bitter towards the Norwegian court system every time I go through it.

How does the ever expanding escalation of celebrity culture sit with you? I can’t imagine you sitting at home checking out the X Factor over a Domino’s.
You lose me again, I don’t know what X-Factor is. I live in my own little world and don’t give a shit what the rest of the world is up to.

Terrorizer ranked you joint 6th "most evil person on the planet" with Osama Bin Laden last year. How do you feel about not cracking the top 5?
I can’t take such a readers’ poll seriously, It’s just a big joke being on the same list as Sharon Osbourne and George W. Bush.

Varg is due out of prison soon, what are your predictions of what shenanigans he’ll get up to on his release?
I have absolutely no idea and am not particularly curious either. I heard someone say he will continue with music. Although I enjoy many old Burzum tracks, I don’t have any expectations that he will create musical magic again.

Where do you see Taake going for the future?
Straight to Hell.