Interview mit Nine von Wormwood

Hello! Thank you for giving us the chance to do this interview with you. How are you?
I’m fine. Last week we did our release gig at Copperfields, Stockholm which was a great success. We are still in awe of the reception we got from the audience. So let me change my previous answer, we are great.

Some of our readers might not be familiar with you, so please introduce yourself and your band WORMWOOD to get started.
I’m the singer, Nine, also the singer of Withershin since 2007. We all come from different backgrounds. Our diverse past bands made the band what it is today really. WORMWOOD got its final line-up in 2015 when we released out debut EP „The Void: Stories From The Whispering Well“. Back then we were more of a black’n’roll band. We wanted to create something new and here we are.

How did you think of the name WORMWOOD and how does it fit your music?
I came up with some suggestions and WORMWOOD was one of them. After I explained the meaning behind it, the rest really could relate to the name and the music we made. In the Bible, WORMWOOD was a star which fell upon the earth and made the waters sour, which made the people sick and some died. It also is a reference to the primordial force up in the far north of Sweden.

You play a mix of melodic black metal and folk metal. Which bands have influenced you as musicians?
Everything from traditional Swedish folk music to the extremes of the early Norwegian black metal. Even the silence from our Nordic forests have influenced us. So has the river, the mountains, the birds. The whole ambience of nature really.

With „Ghostlands: Wounds From A Bleeding Earth“ you released your promising debut. Did everything go as you’d hoped it would?
Yes, and more. We were certain that we had a really good album in our hands, but we couldn’t have imagined the torrential flood of praise it has gotten. It’s been a very humbling experience and it makes us want to create even more and better music for our fans.

Two years before your debut you released EP „The Void: Stories From The Whispering Well“. In which way would you say did you evolve as a band and as musicians?
True, they are very different but yet have the same core. We evolved in that way that from the start we weren’t 100 % sure what we wanted, but after countless hours in the rehearsal studio we were sure. Everything came so naturally. Nothing in the album was forced by any way. It’s all from the heart.

Looking at the album’s title, it seems to be a concept album. What are the lyrics about?
The songs are mostly about nature in some kind of distress. One song is about mother nature and how we all will die under her wings, another one is about the last seconds before the universe turns into a void of nothingness, while another is more about how we don’t need any gods to appreciate nature.

On the artwork we see a forest and some kind of ghostly entity. What can you tell us about it?
You see a spirit of the fallen earth and how the forest still bleeds after we are gone, yet starts to flourish.

When though you often include acoustic parts, your music is mostly melodic black metal. „Silverdimmans Återsken“ and the following „Tidh Ok Ödhe“ are exceptions, they feature female vocals and fiddles. What about these two tracks?
Two more songs actually have fiddle in them, „What We Lost In the Mist“ and „To Worship“. In any case, on those two songs we wanted to tell a different story. A more melancholic atmosphere was added to „Silverdimmans Återsken“ and to „Tidh Ok Ödhe“ we made it quite happy, but with a dark undertone. We also wanted to capture the essence of Swedish traditions and melodies on these tracks. That’s why they sound so different from the rest.

Will you include more folk elements in the future or will you stick with the current ratio?
That’s something you and the fans will have to await and see.

The fiddle on the album was recorded with a guest musician. Will you probably one day also take someone playing the fiddle as a permanent member into the band?
There are no plans at the moment to have a permanent member who will play the fiddle, but we might use a live musician for that sometime.

You released your debut through Non Serviam Records. Why did you choose this label and how did you get in contact with them?
We have heard nice things from Non Serviam Records, and after several mails back and forth, we came up with a deal and we have not looked back since. We both had the same vision, so it was a perfect match.

What are your next plans for WORMWOOD?
In July we will be opening for Batushka in Finland and we have two tours in Europe in November. We have more gigs throughout Sweden during the year. We’re also actively looking for more places to play at.

At last I’d like to do our Metal1.info-Brainstorming with you:
Best Swedish band: Edge Of Sanity (fuck, that was difficult)
Earth: Expired
Celebration: Death
Studio vs. live show: Live show
Politics: Dyrka döden. (editor’s note: english „hail death“)
WORMWOOD in five years: On top of Mount Zion and preaching the words of WORMWOOD.

Alright, thanks again for letting us do this interview with you. Is there still something that you’d like to tell our readers?
Thank you for taking the time to listen to our new album. You are the reason why we do what we do.
Dyrka naturen! (editor’s note: english „hail nature“)