1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit more about yourself and your solo project?
1. I can’t think of much to say about myself. Despite the fact I’ve released my music under my name I don’t want it to be too much about me. My project is an attempt to represent my music as purely as possible and hopefully with as little of my “own intent” as possible.
2.Recently you have released an album, can you tell us a little bit more about the musical style that you went for on the recording?
2. I guess Lawn is best described as a highly symphonic metal album. The symphonic sections are mainly made up of strings and pianos and are influenced I think by the classical music I had heard at the time. The metal component is influenced by my initial experiences with black metal in combination with all of the other influences I had back then. The result is probably most akin to “post black metal.” The whole album has a more of a “symphonic” approach than metal though I think.
3.A lot of the music was written between 2017 and 2018 but you waited until 2021 to release the album, can you tell us a little bit more about the wait?
3. All of the music was finished by around March of 2018 and the majority was written in 2017. The wait was unintentional. It’s just been a long battle to present the music in the best way possible.
The vocals where a massive hurdle for me. Not only in figuring out how to approach them for this particular album but also in writing lyrics which I’ve always found difficult to do at the standard that I’m aiming for. I ended up giving up on doing the lyrics alone and asked a close friend to help me finish them. I also concluded that having the vocals be subtle was the best option. I was careful to only feature vocals in places where the music demands them instead of taking a more conventional approach. I didn’t want to cover up musical moments that spoke for themselves with vocals that would’ve worsened them.
There were also issues with the structures of some songs which had to be ironed out. A good chunk of music was scrapped for the song Lustre and an entire song was also thrown away semi-late into the process.
4.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects you have explored with the music so far?
4. The lyrics on this album go into a lot of school experiences from early childhood all the way up to the end of high school (When the album was written). But of course it’d be way too hard to take this style of music seriously if I was singing some dramatic, teenage, school bullshit. So as a result of that the lyrics are shrouded in layers of metaphor that can be interpreted in multiple ways but extract the emotional substance out of my young years in a (hopefully) more timeless manner. The goal was to take the universal emotion out of the real life context.
5.Can you tell us a little bit more about the artwork that is presented on the album cover?
5. I had the idea for a painting of a garden like that for a long time. Then I found the work of XenArtRB who had already done similar things to what I had imagined and his style struck me as perfect for the album art. So I sent him a message and after some discussion he painted the artwork for me by commission. The imagery comes from what I “see” when I listen to the music and the lyrics also use the same imagery. I think the painting turned out perfectly.
6.With this project you record everything by yourself, are you open to working with other musicians or do you prefer to work solo?
6. The music that I release under my own name is that which I write alone and for solely personal reasons in an involuntary and subconscious process. The lack of other musicians on Lawn came about initially out of necessity but later because it just “felt right” for this album. That being said I’m already trying to find a drummer to record on the next album which is also largely made up of old material that I’m finishing at the moment.
I’d love to do some more collaborative work in the future under a different banner and I also have a big interest in producing. There is also an album that’s been in the works for many years with a friend (the same who helped me do lyrics on Lawn) who has a similar musical mindset.
7.Currently you are unsigned, are you looking for a label or have received any interest?
7. I’d like to make a distribution deal with a label for printing physical media but I have no interest if its at the cost of sacrificing the rights to my own music. I’ll print CDs and records independently if I don’t get approached.
8.On a worldwide level how has the reaction been to your music by fans of symphonic and post black metal?
8. It hasn’t had a whole lot of exposure yet but what little response its gotten has been incredibly kind and passionate for the most part. The “symphonic black metal promotion” youtube channel uploaded a track which has been the biggest source of attention so far with a lot of kind words in the comments which was amazing to see.
9.Where do you see yourself heading into as a musician during the future?
9. My goal is just to release the music that captures my emotional state over a given period of time. Albums are “units of time” in my eyes. The future second album (which again: features a lot of old material) is already quite different aesthetically and stylistically from Lawn (While retaining some of the same features) and I’m sure I’ll venture even further later on down the line. The only thing I have a concrete interest in doing in the future is becoming good at orchestral writing. I’ve started learning so that eventually I can hopefully do an album like Lawn on a much larger scale with real and interesting orchestration.
10.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?
10. I’m always searching for new music but my “musical mood” can swing very quickly so I listen to quite a broad range of things nowadays. I love classical music; my favourite composer is Beethoven but I’m also largely into Mahler, Sibelius and Shostakovich amongst many others of course…too many to name. I have a wide appreciation for black metal too, I’ve been listening to the first Enslaved demos and albums recently. Again there’s just too many to name with black metal but I tend to always go back to the Norwegian classics. I’ve also been on a big Celtic Frost and Bjork kick lately. Some other favourites are Devin Townsend, Ween, Paysage d’Hiver and Lunar Aurora.
11.What are some of your non musical interests?
11. I have a large appreciation for visual art though I’m not overly well versed. I’m also fairly philosophically and to use a horrible word: “spiritual” in some sense. I think a lot of philosophy and spirituality is bullshit though. I also love video games but mainly from the 2000s…most modern gaming doesn’t interest me at all. I think archaic 3d graphics have a similar atmospheric effect to raw production in black metal, funnily enough…the same principle perhaps.
12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
12. Thank you for reaching out for an interview and thank you to anybody reading this and/or who goes and listens to my music :)
https://christiancosentino.bandcamp.com/album/lawn
https://www.instagram.com/crustcosentino/
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