Defacing God Interview

 

1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?

I founded Defacing God back in 2015 with a clear vision.

I´ve been a singer most of my life and I always knew that this was the way I wanted to go but I also knew beforehand that I needed to meet the right people to work with to make my vision come true. 

It happened when I met my drummer (Michale Olsson) more or less a decade ago. He lives and breathes for music as well and always had the same attitude towards things as myself. ´´If we do this, we do it properly. Whatever it takes, whatever it costs´´.

It took us some years to complete the constellation of the right band members though. Around 2017 we had our lineup complete as you see it nowadays. It just clicked and we were lucky in that.

We started out with experimenting with several styles, but mainly focused on the melodic death genre, to find a style of sound and expression that we personally felt complete with and the creative process has been long since then. You can have a vision and a goal, but that´s the fun thing about creativity. You never know where it goes and sometimes things take a turn. I guess my personal interest for the dark and occult shines very much through in our sound and visuals that we have, but it is hard to put us in a specific box since each our personal taste and style are different from each other’s in the band but I think we found mutual ground after years of experimenting with our creativity. Defacing God is not just about the music, but the whole package. The theatric and cinematic aspect is a big part of it for us as well. 

2.You have your first album coming out in September, can you tell us a little bit more about the musical style that you went for on the recording?

Yes, that´s correct. 

If I should put a simple label on our sound or style, then I’d say we play melodic death metal. A very darkened version of it! Very atmospheric with a lot of layers and details due to the symphonic parts. We like to span the arc between raw death metal, symphonic grandiosity and the massive Scandinavian metal traditions. We are completely aware that melodic death metal isn´t a new genre at all, nor did we intend to try to invent one. We simply wanted to create something personal and twisted, out from some old traditions. 

We are very proud of the Scandinavian metal traditions so the intention has always been to play a genre that we love and adore but then put our own personal touch on it. We do mix our music with different styles. For example, you´ll hear a lot of black metal influences, some progressive inspiration and even classical components. Luckily creativity has no limits so with the experimenting and mixing in your own interests and influences- that´s the way you can create something that is very personal and unique. I think we hit something more unusual by mixing styles the way we did.

All the symphonic and atmospheric parts are mostly seen in the modern black metal and not that much in melodic death metal. Personally, I think that many tend to over-use the symphonies or keyboard parts. I wanted to challenge that and find a fine line and create some more balance in the use of it, so that one thing doesn´t take over the other. Our guitars doesn´t drown in keyboard parts for example and the groove is still to be found. At the same time, the orchestrations remain very clear in the sound collage. That is a hard balance to find, really! But if you ask me, I think we found especially on our latest album. The personal mark on the expression is there, also without being bound to certain rules. Our sound is what came out of this experimenting so far but I am definitely not done with the experimenting part and the development of our sound. Let´s see what the future brings. 

3.A lot of your lyrics also cover Occultism and Witchcraft themes, can you tell us a little bit more about your interest in the dark arts?

Do you mean THE dark arts or just ´´dark´´ art in general? Cause the dark arts refer more to black magic, which is any type of magic, mainly used to cause harm. I´ll go with the second one – I´d only use black magick when I am really pissed! 😉 

Anyway, I´ve always just been drawn or intrigued by darkness, the occult, horror or unusual things as long as I can remember. I can´t really tell you necessarily why. I like the adrenaline rush you feel when watching some really creepin´ horror. I guess from a psychological aspect, it can be explained with that it is stimulating, cause it triggers different kinds of emotion; fear, sadness but also excitement (in my case) it somehow makes me feel more alive. Horror or dark art can make you escape your own reality for a moment (every form of art can) but when you are exposed for some real terrifying horror or whatever form of darkness, it makes you think and reflect. Maybe you even appreciate your own reality a bit more after you come back from it? Or maybe you can identify some of your own inner feelings in the horror, which makes you feel safe in a freaky way? It´s hard to say what exactly does it for me. Somehow darkness in any form just feels honest, raw and vulnerable to me. It is not some kind of fake, glossy, shimmering image so to say. The world does that enough already. Covering up for all the horror that happens out there but most of us like to paint our existence in pink and rainbows and then refuse to deal with what reality also looks like underneath. Dark art is a reminder of how the real world is out there and I believe it´s healthy to deal with both sides of life. We need the contrasts to create a better understanding. 

Especially the occult and witchcraft have always been a thing for me. I think I was influenced by my mom from a young age. She has always been a ´´real´´ witch and taught me the importance of our nature and how much we can seek and use nature itself for healing. She learned me how to make tea of the beautiful herbs we can find in our own garden and how everything is very much alive out there and vital to us. She also learned me about spells and the importance of mindset if you practice them and last but not least, to read tarot cards which is a little silly and cozy ritualistic tradition I still have nowadays when I sit in solitude with my coffee. When it comes to the paranormal or super-natural beings, then I must say that I do not believe in it… as such. I do believe that there is things that we humans can´t explain. I also don´t believe in any religions or celestial beings in general. Not at all. But I think if you would call me something, i think you maybe could call me some kind of spiritual maybe? I believe very much in science first of all, but I do also believe in the law of attraction for example, even though it is considered as a form of pseudoscience, without any empirical scientific evidence to support it. Well.. Our universe is a giant pit of pure energy. Everything consists of these energies and we are surrounded by it, so I really believe everything that we send out comes back to us somehow. What we give our time and focus, we give life. I just experienced that so many times in my personal life so it is hard for me not to believe. Maybe it was just pure luck, who knows? I just know I strongly believe in the power of our own mindset and what kind of energy we send out. It never failed me.

I also believe that there is so much that us simple humans can not even comprehend and never will. We are not the center of the universe even though we like to believe that we are that important. Compared to the size and power of the universe, we are nothing.. So, yes.. not everything can be explained from the minds of a simple human creature. That is why I believe that we can´t and never will be able of explaining everything or completely get the big picture which is fine I guess. 

But it is interesting indeed. I easily get ´´lost in space´´if I think about it.  

4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Defacing God'?

The name Defacing God simply just stuck to me. You can analyze it into many things. Mostly offending, I guess. For me it litterally means that we remove the mask from the so called "God" and behind that mask, you'll find humanity exposed. It´s like defacing the image of God, remove the mask and smash it into a wall to reveal what´s behind it so to say. Destroy it or write over it you know.

Religion and the term "God" is by fact created by humans and the name of God has been used in many cultures to cause fear, to manipulate or control a certain group of people and humanity has even killed and justified it in the name of the so called God many times throughout history. The name "Defacing God" is for me a term used to destroy that cover up and expose people and hold humanity responsible for their own deeds and behavior, not hiding behind some celestial being or creature. That is what the name means to me.

5.Can you tell us a little bit more about the artwork that is presented on the new album cover?

We worked together with Peter Sallai from Mortpaintgraphics on the cover artwork and it simply symbolize a woman held down by people, most likely servants of the church but also all the expectations from the society that surrounds her. Out of her chest you see the hand of her inner Lilith breaking free from her chains. What actually happens is a kind of revolution inside her. She breaks free from the invisible chains that held her down, her own negative thoughts and self-restrictions and she will rise as a new, stronger version of herself and we wanted to visualize that in the whole picture of the album.

6.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?

This is a hard question. I barely remember shows anymore because of the pandemic, haha. Things have been a bit slow post corona and we just focused on making the album the last 2 years. 

One specific show stands very clear in my mind though, now you ask about it.. We played a show on a new festival in Copenhagen called Copenhagen Metal festival. That show was so intense and the big hall packed to the breaking point. So many came to see us that the security had to close the doors for more visitors because it wasn´t allowed to squeeze more people in there. They were hungry and in the middle of our witchy ritual everything got so heated (we like to think it was because of that at least, haha) that the fire alarm goes off and everyone had to evacuate and leave the place. The situation got under control and we could return to the stage after a while. Rest of the show was even more intense. I could taste the sweat from the whole front row during the show. Damn, I miss that feeling.

7.Do you have any touring or show plans once the new album is released?

We are in the brewing process of a tour, but as said; Things have been slow post corona because every band wants to go on tour again so it has been hard to plan anything. Next year we have a tour in my home country (Denmark) and I think we will have a few single shows after the album release. We count on 2023. That´s the year live music comes back full force and the touring will start. 

8.The new album is going to be released on 'Napalm Records', how did you get in contact with this label?

Yes, that is correct. 

After the release of the official video of our track ´´Succumb the Euphoria´´ we got in contact with Napalm Records. They liked our concept and found the expressions of the topics and theme very strong and that is how our collaboration started. We are very grateful for that opportunity. Napalm Records have shown us such professionalism since day one which is very good for a control-freak like me, so that is how and why I know they are the right label for us to support my visions.

9.On a worldwide level how has the reaction been to your music by fans of black and death metal?

It has been great so far. Things went faster than I expected so I just can´t wait to get out there on the road. Nothing more to add.  

10.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?

As said; We are not done with experimenting and developing our sound. 

You can never know what the future brings and you never know exactly what comes out of it when it comes to art. That´s what makes the process exciting! I will not follow any ´´rules´´ so to say so I´ll just wait and see what happens in the work process. If I get inspired and want to try out something else, then I´ll do it. I think especially it is important to leave your comfort zone as an artist. So, there is no limits of what you can do.

From each album we´ll try to push ourselves even harder and see what we are capable of. 

11.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?

This is not a question I can answer on behalf of the whole band since we are very different from each others in style and personal taste. We tried to find mutual ground and meet in the middle on this and what we sound like nowadays is what came out of that process. 

I am personally drawn to and influenced by especially black metal, darkness and the occult in general. I guess that is very obvious in our expression as a whole.

12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?

Thank you so much for having me. Take care and I´ll see you all on the road hopefully!

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