Interview mit Simon Lucas von Winterfylleth

With WINTERFYLLETH you play rather folk-influenced black metal. Not least because you deal with the history and culture of your homeland, your music is said to have a distinct English nature. How would you personally describe this particular English musical identity?
It is definitely an identity that was distinct for us from day one of starting WINTERFYLLETH and was key to what we wanted to achieve musically. I don’t really like to use the term folk-influenced black metal because it immediately makes one think of insincere folk metal played by larping role-players who have no real deeper feeling and understanding for the music and its spirit. We are a black metal band first and foremost, but a black metal band that occasionally uses traditional folk interludes or song introductions to conjure a specific atmosphere of a place, or a moment in history. Of course, we also made an entire album of traditional atmospheric folk music „The Hallowing Of Heirdom“ as we felt that we needed to explore fully that aspect of our musical headspace. All of those songs were inspired by traditional aspects of rural English folklore and history. Lyrically it was not far removed from our black metal material, but certainly focussed on a more rural pastoral life than the black metal material which focusses more on the struggles we face in society and have historically faced.
Of course, the English folk music tradition is a strong one that has always been part of our lives, my parents brought me up on traditional folk music from the British Isles, so it really is in our souls. You can really get a sense of the spirit of the English countryside from the music. In the same way that folk music from all over the world conjures the spirit of place, wherever it is rooted. I like to think that our black metal material has a similar distinctly English sound to it as well in this same regard. People often remark that we have a fairly unique sound that has a similar effect of evoking visions of rural Britain, the Oak wooded hilltops, and bleak moorlands and mountains for example.

So far you have consistently released a new album every two years. In all the years since your debut, have you ever reached a point where making music has deteriorated into a kind of tendious routine for you?
We never really ever stop writing music, which is why we appear to have that two year gap between each record. I think maybe some bands become stagnant by not writing so regularly. That said, we never like to force it and it has to come out naturally. We have a very strict quality control process, which I think is very important. I think, like the music, you’ve just got to let the writing process breath and we’re always reading or visiting various places and sites that inspire us to write music. On every album we always go on a bit of a journey in its creation so when it comes to making the album, whilst some of the ideas that go into songs can be initiated years in advance of actually being constructed into a complete song, leading up to recording, we normally put 6 months of really solid work on it.

In my perception some people think that your albums up to „The Hallowing Of Heirdom“ have been a bit too much of the same. What do you think about that?
People also say the same about Bolt Thrower and Cannibal Corpse and their strong musical identities never hurt their record sales, did they? Perhaps a surface level comment in terms of our earlier records but I think when people that may be looking for a few new twists in our sound delve into „The Reckoning Dawn“ they may be pleasantly surprised. It’s the first time we’ve made a full-length metal album with Dan & Mark also contributing to the writing which has definitely added a few new dimensions.

With „The Hallowing Of Heirdom“ you surprisingly released a purely acoustic album a while back and your guitarist Dan Capp has devoted himself more to his folk project Wolcensmen. Would you say that this break from black metal was a necessary step for you to get new inspiration?
It was always the plan to do that record and then return to our natural black metal sound. I think it was a necessary step, because it was always something that we had set out to achieve. But, coming back to making a new black metal record, so much in the world has changed in the meantime, which is possibly why there is more bite and spite on „The Reckoning Dawn“.

Did „The Hallowing Of Heirdom“ change anything in the way you approach your music?
The process of writing and making „The Hallowing Of Heirdom“, with all its subtle layers, harmonies and orchestration has definitely made us develop the way we write our black metal material for „The Reckoning Dawn“. It became clear to us that we could use the same approach to writing black metal, so where we would otherwise use a wall of sound, we focussed more on the subtle melodies, harmonies, vocal counterpoints to bring out the atmosphere in the music. Using what we learned writing the material for „The Hallowing Of Heirdom“, having to write parts for instruments that none of us play (cello, violin etc), we developed a deeper appreciation for the orchestration of the way those melodies and counter melodies worked. In writing „The Reckoning Dawn“ material this was something we definitely applied to a greater degree to assist in lifting the atmosphere of the songs to even greater heights.

With „The Reckoning Dawn“ you returned to black metal quite quickly. Do you consider creating a purely acoustic album again in the future?
Never say never! But there are no immediate plans to do another purely acoustic full length album… Just yet. We did have a lot of ideas that were written for „The Hallowing Of Heirdom“ that we didn’t realise into full compositions as yet. So, when the time is right and the mood is right…

I feel like your new album „The Reckoning Dawn“ sounds a bit darker and more forceful than your albums up to and including „The Dark Hereafter“. During your recent venture into folk, did you miss playing music this intense?
As I mentioned previously, we definitely found the world in a much darker place writing this album, and I think that comes through in the song writing. There is an aggression to „The Reckoning Dawn“ that perhaps hasn’t manifested in our sound since „The Ghost Of Heritage“ and „The Mercian Sphere“.

Also the album’s title as well as the song titles seem a bit more ireful than it was the case with your albums before. Do you think this anger is also reflected in the lyrical themes of the record?
Without question there is certainly a much more furious sentiment to be found on „The Reckoning Dawn“. Mankind finds itself facing many challenges and in need of a great reckoning of sorts, one which we felt would need to be a metaphorical reckoning, either of the mind, as this war of ideas we see going on in the world around us in society was won or lost, or perhaps even a physical reckoning; where we may even see civil unrest leading to a resolution or change in the world. We seem to be at a very uncertain time in history.

The record also seems a bit more diverse than your previous albums. Was it your intention to open up a little bit more to a wider stylistic range while writing it?
I think as I mentioned in a previous answer with the addition of two different writing members of WINTERFYLLETH in Dan and Mark, they have naturally added their own styles and influences to compliment what was already a strong identifying sound that I think WINTERFYLLETH has, so it was quite a natural thing. I think „The Reckoning Dawn“ is certainly an enhancement of our sound, it still sounds like a WINTERFYLLETH record, but a progression and development to a place we have been destined to travel to musically.

With „A Hostile Fate“ you have added a fourth part to the song trilogy „The Wayfarer“ from your second album „The Mercian Sphere“ (2010). How did it come about that you took up this three-part-song again after such a long time?
Chris actually came up with the first elements for „Part 4“ in 2010 when we were making „The Mercian Sphere”, but it didn’t feel like the right time to use it, as it’s based on a similar chord progression to „Part 1“. Having toyed with that song idea for many years, we finally made it for this album in a way that it reprises the ideas of the original trilogy of songs, but in a reverent way, and calls back some of the original vocal motifs to link the songs together. There is also actually an acoustic „Part 5“ in the story arc, that we didn’t quite finish for this album. That will most likely be on whatever comes next.

If I’m getting this correctly, the deluxe version of „The Reckoning Dawn“ also includes a synth version of „In Darkness Begotten“ with a different title. Is this due to Dan Capp’s occasional forays into dungeon synth with Wolcensmen or did you come up with the idea for this alternative version for another reason?
Funnily enough this piece was composed by Mark our synth/keys player, who is also very much into ambient synth music, as we all are. We all listen to and collect that type of music, since the early days of getting into black metal. So it was quite a natural decision to make a track of this style. It is something that we’ve wanted to do for a while, but it had to be done correctly and for the right reasons, not just for the sake of doing a synth track, in this instance, an ambient version of the last track on the album proper „In Darkness Begotten“.

You are planning to go on tour through Europe with Panopticon and Alda in autumn. How likely do you think it is that this tour can take place despite the current pandemic?
Indeed it seems like it is out of all our hands at the moment. We hope that the tour happens this year of course, but it will be down to whatever happens with the pandemic restrictions, and how feasible it is for the tour to happen at that time. If it doesn’t happen this year, it will be rescheduled. Austin and Panopticon are very old and close friends of ours, so it will be a pleasure to tour with them.

You had to postpone a tour with Mork already. How hard would it hit you if the autumn tour had to be cancelled or postponed as well?
It would definitely be a big disappointment, but it’s something everybody is having to deal with. Everybody is in the same boat and as I mentioned, it’s out of our hands so we’ll just have to see what happens.

Are there already any plans for later dates for the tour with Mork?
There should be news on this soon, but yes, it is being rescheduled for May 2021. Mork are a great band that really has that essence of true Norwegian black metal at its heart.

Many bands are currently trying to compensate by playing virtually streamed shows. Do you think that is a reasonable countermeasure?
It’s certainly a nice thing for people to watch whilst we’re in lockdown. Unfortunately, due to the level of restrictions in the UK at the moment of writing this we’ve been unable to do one ourselves around the release of „The Reckoning Dawn“, which is frustrating, especially considering we should have been travelling around Europe performing the record at this very moment. I personally really enjoyed the streamed performance from our old friends in Enslaved.

Some artists have also postponed the release dates of their albums to be able to present them live later. Why did you instead decide to release „The Reckoning Dawn“ as planned?
It’s important for us as a band to use this opportunity to still put out the album, and maybe bring people a little excitement or hope, in what have been quite frustrating and dreary times. It didn’t make sense for us to delay the album with it already manufactured and when we could potentially use it as a tool for good. I know it has brought a lot of people a point of interest while they are locked in the house, and I think that is why we wanted to do it. Whether or not that’s the right decision commercially is yet to be seen, but that’s not what this is about right now, and I hope our fans would want to check out and buy our new albums regardless of the situation. So let’s hope we were right.

The current restrictions have changed the daily lives of many in ways never seen before. Do you think that the experiences with this situation – especially the isolation – could possibly even provide new creative impulses?
I think it’s forcing a lot of people out of their comfort zones in many different ways, so yes, I think there will definitely be a positive impact in people’s creativity, even if that manifests through this negative situation.

On Metal1.info we traditionally end interviews with a short brainstorming. What comes to your mind about the following terms?
Life after Brexit: A new dawn
Bandcamp: Useful
Post-„Nattens Madrigal“ Ulver: Brilliant
Pagan Metal: Too often insincere and a mere parody, ‚“larpy“.
Nature romanticism: True spirituality.
Andrzej Sapkowski’s „The Witcher“: I’ve never seen it!

Thanks again for taking the time for this. I would like to leave the last words to you:
Stay safe, and always question everything!

Publiziert am 17. Juli 2020 von Stephan Rajchl