Interview

WALLACHIA

Mardi 23 octobre 2012

How are you doing ?

Lars Stavdal : I'm doing pretty fine, thank you. It's a bit hectic at the moment, work-wise, as the autumn months usually are for me.

Can you introduce yourself and Wallachia

Wallachia

Clique pour voir la fiche du groupe

to our readers ?

L.S. : Wallachia

Wallachia

Clique pour voir la fiche du groupe

is a band I created in 1992 with the intention of being a one-man project all the way, but in 1995 we became a duo when Eystein Garberg (from folk metal band Lumsk) joined me and together we recorded the Demo 1996. In 1999 I recorded my debut album From Behind the Light with the assistance of two drummers playing on four songs each. Since our record label Velvet Music International disbanded soon after the release, I found myself on scratch and Wallachia

Wallachia

Clique pour voir la fiche du groupe

remained in a few years hiatus until 2005 when the first album was re-released on CD via Dark Horizon Records and on cassette through Nightbirds Rex (run by Roman from Drudkh

Drudkh

Clique pour voir la fiche du groupe

and Old Silver Key

Old Silver Key

Clique pour voir la fiche du groupe

). In 2006 I recorded an instrumental pre-production for what would become the second album Ceremony of Ascension and finally two years later it was recorded and released in 2009 through German label Twilight Vertrieb . And now in 2012 I'm back with the third album Shunya that will be out on Debemur Morti Productions on the 16th of November in Europe and January 8th 2013 in North America.

Each of your albums was released on a different label. How come it changed so often ? How is it going with Debemur Morti Productions ?

L.S. : Actually I had an optional contract with Twilight Vertrieb for one more album with them, but since they were forced to shut down their business last year, I once again found myself on scratch with Wallachia

Wallachia

Clique pour voir la fiche du groupe

. I got in touch with Debemur Morti Productions label owner Philippe after buying some stuff from their mail order, and he was asking me about Wallachia

Wallachia

Clique pour voir la fiche du groupe

since he was into the music since many years already. So we talked about my plans ahead and after a few weeks I presented him an instrumental pre-production for the entire Shunya album and I signed with them based from that. I have a contract with them for one more album, so this is actually the first time I feel secure and really at home. And it's good to be label-mates with Blut Aus Nord

Blut Aus Nord

Clique pour voir la fiche du groupe

once again, and also with some other legendary names and interesting new acts. And I feel that Debemur Morti Productions care about their bands and want to make their releases as good as possible, so it's a lot of personal involvement and more like a tight family this way.

You recorded Shunya as well as Ceremony of Ascension with Stefan Traunmüller from Golden Dawn. How did you get in touch with him ? What is his role in Wallachia

Wallachia

Clique pour voir la fiche du groupe

?

L.S. : I was already in touch with Stefan around the turn of the millenium, since being a big fan of Golden Dawn and his very impressive first album The Art of Dreaming, which I still regard as an innovative and totally unique album. And in 2006 Stefan heard some of my pre-production songs and offered his assistance to record and produce my second album, as well as finding a drummer to do the job. At first I thought all this seemed as a big challenge, you know, to travel abroad and record with not only unfamiliar people, but also someone I looked up to as a fan. It was a bit surreal by thought, but I'm very happy about our co-operation and also with Stefan's musical contribution with doing all the keys and orchestral elements. His role in Wallachia

Wallachia

Clique pour voir la fiche du groupe

is first and foremost being the engineer and producer, but in particular on Shunya he did a tremendous job with arranging all the symphonic parts and took the natural sound of Wallachia

Wallachia

Clique pour voir la fiche du groupe

to a new level, I would say.

You played with several guest musicians on this record. Have you ever thought of including other members to Wallachia

Wallachia

Clique pour voir la fiche du groupe

to perform live ?

L.S. : It might happen during 2013 as we already had a talk about while recording the album, so we'll see. It requires a lot to make an international line-up work independently with a lot of preparations, and we're still in short of a couple of members to make this happen.
I come from a small town and musicians in the more extreme form don't exactly grow on trees around here, that's why it's been easier for me to co-operate with the Austrian guys for my two latest albums.

The artwork for Shunya seems to be stunning from what I've seen. Could you tell us more about it and how it was made ?

L.S. : The artwork and design is done by the Romanian artist Laura Sava who also did the artwork for Ceremony of Ascension. For Shunya she worked with a mixed media technique and there's actually quite a lot of handcraft involved in the process. The cover shows a kind of funeral scene, where you see a veiled person lying in a desolate and open forest scenery, and there's an ascending tree which symbolizes spiritual rebirth and the cycle of nature. The end of an era and the coming of a new, metaphorically speaking. The artwork is directly linked to some of the songs and the feelings they bring out in me personally. The veiled person is created as a statue by Laura herself, and the white tree she shaped and cut out from paper and she then photographed both these elements and blended it together with background photo she also took herself in Transylvania. Then all these elements are put together with additional digital painting and effects, and I think it's really cool that it's so much basic handcraft and work behind it.

What inspires you ? Are there any bands that influence you ? What do you write about ?

L.S. : I'm first and foremost inspired by music and the stuff that I enjoy listening to, but I can might as well be inspired by events in my own life, a book or a movie that triggers an idea, musically and lyrically. I usually have an initial idea for a song and I let the music and lyrics naturally take shape, sometimes it can take me years even to complete a song, and that's also a lot of the reason why I have only done three albums until now.
When I started Wallachia

Wallachia

Clique pour voir la fiche du groupe

I was very much inspired by the epic Bathory

Bathory

Clique pour voir la fiche du groupe

albums Blood Fire Death and Hammerheart as well as the Hellenic scene with bands like Rotting Christ

Rotting Christ

Clique pour voir la fiche du groupe

, Necromantia and Varathron

Varathron

Clique pour voir la fiche du groupe

, Burzum

Burzum

Clique pour voir la fiche du groupe

, Emperor

Emperor

Clique pour voir la fiche du groupe

, Samael

Samael

Clique pour voir la fiche du groupe

, Ancient Rites

Ancient Rites

Clique pour voir la fiche du groupe

, Master's Hammer

Master's Hammer

Clique pour voir la fiche du groupe

, Mayhemic Truth. That were the biggest influences for me and the sound of Wallachia

Wallachia

Clique pour voir la fiche du groupe

.
And a more recent influence would be Woods of Ypres as I got into their music a couple of years ago and got all their releases directly from David himself, and managed to have a short friendship with him until his unfortunate death last December. His music and strong lyrics really spoke to me as a person and how I was feeling. He managed to put beautiful and meaningful words to complex feelings of loss and displacement, and it's like his last album spoke of his fate.
The songs on Shunya are all very close to my heart and have a lot of melancholy to them. From the way that I grew up in a split up family and at a young age had to take care of myself. I touch upon a lot of these feelings and memories and how I was shaped from those years, as I believe our childhood profoundly affects how we act and think in life. In particular the song Emotional Ground Zero speaks directly about these things.
And some of the songs deal with the shallowness and egoism within the society of today, the strong focus on materialism and the cynical nature of man, how a lot of people only are able to ascend by others' misery and failures in life. That sense of apathy and perfection, you know, can't do nothing wrong when doing nothing at all, to quote from one of the lyrics. Perhaps not the typical subjects expected from a black metal band, but I just want to write what feels natural and holds a personal meaning to me.

What have you been listening to lately ? Any recommendations ?

L.S. : These days I've been listening quite a bit to the debut album from the Icelandic band Kontinuum

Kontinuum

Clique pour voir la fiche du groupe

, called Earth Blood Magic. A very interesting new band carrying that special Icelandic aura and also bringing in some eclectic influences which both sound fresh and have a '70's vibe at the same time.
And the new Blut Aus Nord

Blut Aus Nord

Clique pour voir la fiche du groupe

album, the last one of the 777 trilogy Cosmosophy I find to be a brilliant album and among his best work. The Dordeduh

Dordeduh

Clique pour voir la fiche du groupe

album Dar De Duh is another good album I've been listening to lately. Other than this I've been hooked on a project called Mirrorring and their debut album called Foreign Body, which is a collaboration between two US artists called Tiny Vipers and Grouper. That's more ambient, acoustic and quiet stuff, but it's a really dreamy and beautiful album.

The final words are yours...

L.S. : Thanks for the interview and to the Belgian readers out there. Watch out for Shunya in November and get a sneak peak of the album here.

TU AS AIME ? PARTAGE !