Interview mit Niklas Kvarforth von The Sinister Initiative / Høstsol / Shining

Hi and thanks a lot for taking time for this interview! How are you doing?
I am fine actually. I have been working nonstop for a little more than a year now and slowly starting to harvest the fruits of my fanatic period of getting to where I want to be at.

In the Corona pandemic, this entry question has gained a completely different gravity. For many musicians, the Corona crisis means not only the theoretical health risk, but often also a complete loss of earnings. How are you dealing with this, what’s your situation right now?
Well, obviously the situation has had an effect on my income as well, but to be honest with you, there’s a silver lining to the pandemic as well. See, I think I really was in need of a break from touring and given the circumstances I had no choice but to take this rather long break, which has made me feel much better than I had felt in a very long time. And as you probably know, I also have been focusing on writing a few books on the side as well, and the isolation has certainly made me more productive than ever. I’m not too concerned with the mundane things most other people are, so apart from having had to reduce fine dining to once a week, I’m not too obsessive over earning less.

At least it doesn’t seem to affect your creativity: With HØSTSOL you have founded a new band. How did it come about, and in which direction will it go musically?
I have been working back and forth on a bunch of different projects with Cernunnus (Manes) for many years now, and I guess it was just a question of time when the two of us would sit down and make a full record together. Manes actually happens to be one of my all-time favourite bands and as Cernunnus has written most of the music, people should know what to expect, I think. Also, me and Hellhammer have been trying to find something new to do together ever since Witt replaced him in SHINING on the „Halmstad“ album, so having him in the band was a no-brainer. Then I happened to cross paths with Kalmos from Ajattara and Barathrum, whom I coincidentally began working on other unrelated things with. We bonded in quite a refreshing way, and since he also knew Hellhammer, I asked if he’d be interested in taking part in this new band, and without me even noticing it, the line-up was complete.

How far are you in the working process, when will there be first songs to listen to – and is there already a release date?
Everything is more or less recorded by now, so it won’t take too long until we will unleash our wrath upon the world. If everything goes according to plan, we will release our debut album „Länge Leve Döden“, through THE SINISTER INITIATIVE in autumn. We’ll try to release a single before that though, just to give a small taste of what’s to come.

THE SINISTER INITIATIVE is your own label. Your motto is „One Vision – Three Artists – Zero Tolerance“. Who are the other artists behind it, and how did this project come about?
THE SINISTER INITIATIVE was founded in 2017 as a result of me reaching my limits „playing ball“ with corporative idiots who think that their opinions matter, which they never have and never will. I had actually personally reached a point where I was close to just throwing in the towel and ending my musical career entirely because of just how much of a drag it has been for us the last couple of years having to cooperate with others. So, it was either fuck them all or leave the industry. See, the people behind these corporations are essentially nothing more than privileged postmen, who, just like the post office, dare to charge absurd amounts of money for their usually incompetent services delivering letters that we have written, and I’ve had it with feeding their greedy mouths.

The second artist behind this resistance of ours is Marco Kehren of Dutch black metal band Deinonychus who, just like me, needed to get in control of his past, present and future affairs. The third one is Mr. Marcus Rödl, more of a sentinel than a common artist but shares the exact same opinion and resentment as both of us.

What can you offer to the bands that other labels can’t, what makes THE SINISTER INITIATIVE something special?
We don’t offer anyone anything, as we are not interested in working with other bands than those of our own.

So how did the black metallers Srd from Slovenia get into your roster?
Srd was unfortunately a mistake on our side as we eventually had to realize that they shared neither our passion nor our agenda, which is too bad, as they are a great band. But at the end of the day, we are all too old to work with people who think they know how things work when they sadly haven’t got a single clue. We lost an absurd amount of money unfortunately, but it also was a valuable experience, and what finally had us realize that some things never change.

Is it financially worthwhile or is it a pure idealism thing?
Well, not really, but it‘s necessary for us as artists to make sure that all our work is available in as perfect editions as we can possibly make, no matter what. However, as I have come to learn throughout the years: Hard work will eventually pay off and if it doesn’t, I can still walk with my head held high, not relying on a single other human being, leeching of my superiority.

The first releases will be rereleases of the early Deinonychus albums. What’s planned next?
To regain full control, the idea is to try getting our hands on our respective back-catalogues as well as releasing any of our future albums. I am happy to say that we have managed to achieve that with Deinonychus but as for SHINING, things are obviously a bit trickier.

In February we are releasing the next two Deinonychus albums, „Deinonychus“ and „Mournument“ on CD, LP and tape, followed by two more, „Insomnia“ and „Warfare Machines“ in April. It’s a bit too early to reveal the rest that we have scheduled throughout the year, but surely the entire Deinonychus back-catalogue will be reissued in remastered and visually stunning versions, before we are finally ready to unleash his next album. The same is happening with a few older SHINING albums we have been fighting for to regain control over for years now, and seemingly have managed to get back in our control. Other than that, you can expect new albums from both Deinonychus and HØSTSOL in 2021.

What else are you currently planning, what can you tell us already?
The eight Deinonychus albums and a special one featuring all the old demo and promo material is currently in the works. A few SHINING albums, which I unfortunately cannot list for now, as said. Then, we are releasing the two Bethlehem albums that I sang on in June, however, on a sub-label we call THE SINISTER ARCHIVES instead of under the TSI banner to avoid confusion regarding the core of the trinity.

Vinyl seems to be a big topic for the label. How do you yourself feel about vinyl? Are you a fan of this medium yourself, or how do you prefer to consume music?
When I grew up, vinyl was the main medium on which music was released, so obviously it feels somewhat natural to me listening to music on LP rather than CD. Also, the vinyl industry has had somewhat of a revival the past 15 to 20 years or so, and especially in metal, so of course our releases will always be available on both formats. I used to have a rather big collection back in the day too but have moved from country to country, and for logistic reasons have either given away or sold pretty much everything I ever owned.

Besides vinyl you even have tapes on offer. For this there also seems to be a market again. What do you think about tapes? Do you see any value besides nostalgia, and how do you explain that even this medium is celebrating a revival again?
I also don’t really get the hype, but people are asking for it, and rather than having some crap label bootlegging our work we decided to make them on our own.

With THE SINISTER PRINT you also announced to publish books. In which direction will this go?
So far I published the „When Prozac No Longer Helps“ book in four editions, all via SHINING LEGIONS. Now when I have began working on other books as well it was a natural step to add these releases to THE SINISTER INITIATIVE. I doubt we’ll do anything else than that though.

A first release is your poetry book – now also in a German edition. What is different than in the original? The poems may not have been translated, or were they?
The German edition is published in a German translation obviously, just as another company released it in French, another in Turkish and another in Russian. For those interested in obtaining a copy they should get in touch with Ván Records, who also offer limited coloured vinyls of our releases exclusively for the D/A/CH area.

Another one is „Cinematic Nightmares“, a work of yours about horror movies. What can we expect from this book?
Wow, this is a project I have been working on for years. Basically, there are three volumes to be released over the course of the next three years. Each one focuses on one of the last decades and the overlooked films that have been released in the chosen era, but in most cases drowned in obscurity due to the immense load of crap being released every day.

What are your three favourite ones that you would recommend to any genre fan?
Like I said, the books are studies on contemporary horror, and I have to say that I’ve come to adore many, many newer films since I started to work on these books. But my all-time favourite horror movies do remain the same to this very day. John Carpenter’s „In The Mouth Of Madness“, David Lynch’s „Blue Velvet“ and „Candyman“.

Has there been a movie that was too gross even for you?
I have never been too interested in gore and the more visceral side of horror, to be honest with you. And no, having lived a life where violence, war and blood have been pretty much a part of my daily life, nothing of such nature manages to gross me out.

What impact has your involvement with the new band and label on SHINING? Are you working on new material at the same time or are they on hold right now?
The new SHINING album is more or less already done, but I need to focus on the business side of things for a while right now before I return to Sonic Train and record what will become my eleventh album. I won’t be able to record the new SHINING album before the end of the year, so we‘re aiming at having that one spread like a COVID mutant in mid-2022 at earliest.

Thank you very much for the interview. Let’s wrap it up with our traditional brainstorming:
Your favorite album from 2020: „Ode To Acts Of Murder, Dystopia and Suicide“ by Deinonychus
Christmas or Winter Solstice: Winter Solstice
Skitliv – will we hear from you again? Me and Maniac had plans on making a second album, but I don’t know.
Whiskey or Absinthe: None
Stream-shows: What’s a stream-show?
2020 in one sentence: Who cares?

Once again thanks for your time. The last words are yours:
Thank you for the support! I would like to ask all of you who support our work to go to our website and pre-order the albums we have in production. Things have changed a lot the last couple of years, which means that the pre-orders have become a necessity for us to be able to put out our releases in the tempo that we wish. Every pre-order counts and the more we get, the faster we are able to make our black work available for all of you out there. Support the total deconstruction of Western Society!

Publiziert am 1. Februar 2021 von Moritz Grütz