Hello Yog Sothoth, how are you?
Tired, disturbed and full of hate. Looks like a new 'PN' song will come out soon!
‘Yog Sothoth’ is an interesting name, could you explain what inspired you to use this identity?
Well, Yog sothoth is the god of time in Lovecraft’s books .Its name came from the arab “Yaji Ash Shuthath”, which means “the abnormal times are coming”. Abnormal times are exactly what we’re living today.
What is the inspiration and meaning behind selecting ‘Pavor Nocturnus’ as your band name? Does it have any particular meaning on you as an individual?
My first encounter with 'Pavor Nocturnus' was in one of my psychopathology books.
How and when did ‘PN’ form?
I founded 'Pavor Nocturnus' with Aeternus back in 2005. Back then, Aeternus was playing mostly black metal but he was also looking for something different. I was primary into ambient, but my experience with Engelstein (a Rammstein tribute band) taught me a lot about industrial. Thanks to them we got in contact, and a loot of beer after we discovered our common passion for avant-garde like Arcturus and Red Harvest. The Idea of an atmospheric black metal with dark electronic sounds sounded really cool… and of course, as it always happens in those events, what came out in the end was something totally different to what we had in mind!
Could you describe what sounds you feel are incorporated into ‘Pavor Nocturnus’.
'Pavor Nocturnus' is a metal project. That means that our main goal is to express our rage, our fears, our hopes. What makes 'PN' unique is the way we do this! In fact, each 'PN' member came from a totally different metal genre (Seth 666 from Death, Grind and Hardcore, Aerioch from Black and Thrash, Aeternus from Black, Doom and more Avant-garde genres, me personally from Power, Gothic, Folk, Industrial, and of course electronic music in general): what comes out in 'PN' is that each song represent a different style, with a different concept, but with the same rawness and anger that is, in my opinion, the spirit of Metal.
Many band members of ‘PN’ are/have been in other bands ,what impacts/influences does this have on ‘PN’?
I think that having other projects helps us a lot, especially when everyone in the band likes different metal styles. 'Pavor Nocturnus' contains atmospheres from many metal genres, but it isn’t really classifiable. So with our side-project we can express a side that cannot be expressed equally in 'PN', and of course vice-versa.
What impact do you feel Alexander’s vocals provide to ‘PN’?
'Pavor Nocturnus' is not an easy genre to sing, with all the changes in the sounds and the atmosphere. Alexander himself got in contact with us, and he has been a dramatic empowerment to our style! He seems able to always find the right voice for each part, and sometimes his vocal ideas serve as an inspiration to improve a song or to make a brand new one.
You are involved with the synths and the sequencing, what aspects of emotions/atmospheres etc do you like to create through this media?
When working with 'PN' keybs I decided to use a different approach from what most keyboardists use in metal or industrial metal. It’s not just about a cool noise on a power chord, it’s about expressing with a machine an human feeling! The feeling must be strongly connected with the song’s message and its evolution: if you listen to “morning never came” you’ll realize what I’m talking about. I like to add synth drums loops here and there, to make the song feel less repetitive and to tie some riffs. As for the leads, I try to avoid strings, piano and organ as they are overused in modern music (in general); still sometimes a nice string pad is just what the song is asking for! So let’s say there’s no general rule in my choice of sounds apart from my law “never repeat the same sound twice”.
At what stage in your life did you realise you wanted to become a musician?
I don’t really know. Music has always been a part of my life since I was a kid. But my story with keybs begun when I was 13 and saw my first keyboard at school (had just an electric organ back then at home). I knew back then that I always was – and always be – more interested in the sound creation and modulation rather than technique. So that’s why my synths do simple patterns with weird sounds.
Do you have a favourite ‘PN’ song? Is there any song you feel you relate most too? Any song you feel more musically free while playing?
Tough one! I enjoy a lot playing “Broken_Line”, the a metal version. Still, “Morning never came” because it speaks of me, my disorder, my fears, my vision of human relationship.
When completing the music creation process, who composes the music and lyrics? Is there a set order of which instruments/lyrics etc are produced first? Initially is there an ideal in your mind of what you expect the outcome to be?
First step is a question: “What should this song be about?” Usually I like to use mental disorders to describe those disturbing situations in our lives. Or those stories you can hear on tv or the net and makes you think with anger “why those things happen?”. This is what I call “the atmosphere” of a song. Then I try to focus on the kind of metal that most suits that atmosphere. At this point Seth666 and Aerioch enters too, so we 3 try to make nice riffs. I usually add a riff after they make the main one, or add some other parts. When we got enough riffs I record them on a sequencer and begin placing them in a sort of “order”; At this point I decide what kind of electronics will be on the song. After a night or two of work we got an mp3 that is judged by everybody: if the guys like the song we begin reharsing it. I always try to have the lyrics ready before the rehearsal.
Could you explain the message or ideas behind some of ‘PN’s songs?
As I said, in 'Pavor Nocturnus' actually a disorder or a story are used to describe how individual suffering can be deeper that we can imagine. At the same time we try to show how such conditions are degenerations of some kind of normality, the best way a frail mind finds to survive the true horror: life. As example, “Broken_line” is about borderline personality disorder, and how there are things in our life that hurts us a lot but still we like and want them (like when we just know what’s the right thing to do but still we choose the wrong way). The real difference is that borderline people cannot stand the idea of something both pleasant and painful, so they change opinion on something so quickly it’s like they are interacting with two different things, one perfect and one horrible. This is something we do every day in our “normal” lives, but we don’t care because it doesn’t hinder our survival. “Morning never came” is about separation anxiety disorder, which is usually diagnosed on children, with his evolution as a state of loneliness where you can feel alone even when you are surrounded by the people who loves you and you love too. “I exist” is about self-cutting, a practice where people tries to give form to an internal, unnamed feeling with their body: it can be a cigarette burn, a razor cut, or just bashing the head on the wall. Sometimes people badly injures themselves (like castration cases) because they need their body to suffer, like “I suffer therefore I am”. I got a degree on clinical psychology so I could go on for hours, sorry!
Would your music appeal to any particular audience?
'Pavor nocturnus' is about the horror of life. If you can feel the anguish or the rage flowing from our music to your soul, welcome to our family.
Who has influenced you musically?
Well, Surely Kevin Moore has been a dramatic influence in my way of creating atmospheres. In his post-dream theater works show a great, fluid way of integrating electronic with acoustic sounds. But it’s with Aphex twin that my sounds lost any resemblance with any possible “physical” instrument! Rammstein’s “Fluke” Christian Lorenz teaches us that simple keyb lead lines can make a song last forever in your mind but Red harvest’s “LRZ” remains our best lesson: dark but simple synths that merge so naturally with a genre that seems to hate so much technology…
How do you feel about the metal scene at present?
As a lifestyle or a philosophy, metal died in the mid ’90 in my opinion. As a direct consequence, riffs and sounds are becoming more technical but colder. The older genres extremized themselves or just became the shadows of themselves: ’80 thrash became ’00 metalcore, “heavy” metal died. What remains of Prog is just power with Pink Floyd excerpts here and there. Power Metal, one of my favorites, is becoming more and more a show of technique rather than great anathems to “stand and fight”, as Manowar would say. And it’s becoming commercial. Black and Death were underground genres in the ’90 and now are the mainstream metal. Especially Death, with all the melodic death, hyper-technical death, progressive death and emo-death (yes it exists and it’s called screamo) it’s risking to becoming commercial too. The violent faction of death, brutal, is either vanishing into black or into grind. Nu metal was an interesting movement but looks like it either faded into crossover or just died. Gothic was practically raped by majors and now it’s like pop-rock. Doom has become so slow that now sounds more like ambient that metal – Nothing surpasses the atmosphere of funeral and drone doom. We avant-garde bands are trying to bring metal into the next century, by reinventing it, but metal isn’t just about the music. Metal is about seeing the world as a neverending conflict between archetypal forces, internal and external, with our lives being part of this conflict.
What are your ambitions for ‘PN’? Do you feel you have accomplished many of your initial intentions for the band?
I don’t really know. Everytime we accomplish something we just want to go forward, to have more, to make more…it’s like a neverending journey.
Do you find myspace an effective media to promote your music?
Totally. With myspace not only I have the tools to create a simple site to make people listen to my music in a simple way; there’s also the social networking. One can accidentally see our banner or our logo on some friend’s top list and he can choose to give us a try; smaller bands who would never be heard or seen on a google search can now stand a chance.
There are song samples on 'Pavor Nocturnus' myspace page, feel free to have a listen
The link to 'Pavor Nocturnus' http://www.myspace.com/pavornocturnusband
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