1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the musical project?
Unfathomed of Abyss is a studio project that utilizes extreme metal / black metal sounding musical phrases composed in a layered and constantly temporally evolving symphonic framework.
2.Recently you have released a new album, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording?
It's fucking awesome. But, I'm really not an unbiased source of information on this.
3.This musical project has been around since 2001 but so far this is the first release, can you tell us a little bit more about the delay?
I started writing in 2001, and finished in 2012. Though some of the parts I even wrote in 2000, I had used them to do a concept study in rhythmic ideas tied to tonality that evolved, or echoed with slight changes introduced to repeated elements over time, rather than mindless repeating of parts verbatim for the entire piece. That study that I did on 2001 ended up being the proof of concept for the entire album, which is the final section of “The Malevolence of Existence's Continuation”. I had to insert some parts that mindlessly repeated verbatim though because constantly evolving parts with no opposite can create it’s own type of monotony as well. But in estimating / tallying up the actual time spent working on writing the album, if I omit all the time spent not working on the parts that went into the album (time spent writing other stuff that did not make it on the album, writing other music as an exercise or concept studies, time spent studying classical theory amongst whatever other random things life throws one's way), the writing would have consisted of about a years worth of weekends and evenings, it was just spread out over almost the entire time-frame. Although, it took me a lot longer to write parts at first, than it does now. Recording didn't take forever once I was done writing. Then I spent literally a year re-mixing it with mostly decade's old software and hardware. Most of the time was spent waiting for the geezerly Dell I have to process audio, usually around 10 – 20 minutes per track, multiple times for each song. I had like 20 – 30 mix downs to go through for each song because loading everything up all at once would freeze the software for sure, and occasionally crash the computer and forever corrupt audio files.
4.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects that you explore with your music?
“To Unequal the Balance of the Cosmos” is about origins and evolution of life, and that life taking hold of the physics of it's own basis, and a cataclysm that follows when life manipulates it's basis.
“The figment Unadulated” is about the nonexistence, arbitraryness and invented bullshittery of things that exist only in the minds of people; religions, cultures, and really any group of people where the name of that group somehow lasts longer than the people that adopt those made up ways.
“Within The Glory of Other Lights” is about humanity and life in general's need to colonize areas away from Earth, as Earth will be consumed by the Sun eventually when it expands to be a red giant (it's circumference has been estimated by people a lot smarter than me to come to rest roughly along Earth's orbit in around 2 billion years or so, though in around 1 billion years, the increase [occurring right now] in the Sun's luminosity will heat Earth up to the point of being unfit for life). Mars is referred to in the lyrics, however the title suggests other stars besides the one that annoys us in the morning are a worthy goal as well.
“To Nothing” is about a life form that fails to overcome it's subordinance to existence, and then dissolves to existence itself, to molten rock, or vapor perhaps. It however maintains a chance at future evolution to self awareness again, as is true of any of the ingredients for life that may be wandering through the universe right now.
“Within the Void” is about the nonexistent dichotomy purveyed (to annoy people with any sense) by the fake fucks that inhabit Earth, those who pretend that ideas (actually, I'm just talking about traditions, cultural groups and religions) are somehow reality itself, and who purvey that anything observable, testable and otherwise physically real is somehow not real or not useful. So, it's about a habit of travesty that humanity perpetuates upon itself; a fleshy self destruct button.
The Malevolence of Existence's Continuation is about the transience of life, and it's subordinance to Earth.
The way the lyrics are written though, those meanings are hard to glean.
5.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Unfathomed Of Abyss'?
It's a sort of slight of hand way of saying “life”. At least, I wouldn't expect much of it to exist in a universe that largely consists of a relative majority of emptiness.
6.With this musical project you record everything by yourself, are you open to working with a full time band, or do you prefer to work solo?
I couldn't have written this as a collaboration with a band. Nor could I have learned to write this type of stuff if I was spending a lot of free-time practicing playing parts. I did work with two other people on this, and could not have finished it without their help. Kevin Talley did the drums, and Tom Kvålsvoll did the Mastering.
7.Currently you are unsigned, are you looking for a label or have received any interest?
There hasn't been any label interest. I may be wrong, but I assume there has to be some sort of touring capability to entice a lot of labels. These days they seem to serve more of a promotional function (it's very easy to self release digitally and physically) as far as I can tell, and opening for some band with a big following that also kicks ass in a live performance is likely a better form of promotion than putting those same band's name in a “sounds similar to...” section of a website. But I'm on the fence about labels anyway.
8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of symphonic black metal?
Pretty good actually. It varies wildly though. I have received feedback indicating that the music is just right to people's tastes, and even that it is the type of thing some people look for. I have gotten feedback that indicates some people really expect a more linear and “repeated verbatim” based approach to something labeled with the word “symphonic”, I guess the same people might be seeing the “black metal” in the descriptions I use, and ignoring the “symphonic” part. I use those terms merely because they are the closest descriptive terms that people use to search for any music online. I do not believe that somehow, magically or as in some other type of woo woo type way that my music itself inhabits some mystical state of being by being called this or that. So, it is not this, that, or some other thing. It is what it is. I would call it “fluffy cupcakes” if search terms could be replaced by sounds playing in a person's brain. It would be a lot easier if Amazon could hear those sounds when I search for music to buy, otherwise I have to figure out how people are describing music, which can be bullshit.
9.Where do you see yourself heading into as a musician in the future?
I'll be writing more brutally and varied, and more symphonically. There is some new material already written. I'm also interested in getting rid of the use of synthesized sounds as much as possible. So I've got a violin being shipped to me from halfway around the globe as I type this. It's not a far stretch, from guitar to violin. Assuming I can get to the point of being able to record what I write with it, then I'll have to find a viola, cello and double bass as well. All the synth parts were actually written with the real instruments in mind anyway.
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?
Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, old Metallica, Slayer, Mayhem, Arcturus, Emperor, Stravinskiy's The Rite of Spring, almost anything by Alan Hovhaness, Iannis Xenakis, and Vangelis. those are the best examples I can think of now. I prefer modern orchestral styles to classical / boroque, romantic etc eras, dissonant metal, or metal that uses multiple types of scales rather than music that solely relies on the typical overused, ripped of to the point of annoyance western scale. Nowadays I flip constantly between the nu-metal, hard rock, 90's hard / grunge rock, alternative and classical (not the opera one) channels on SiriusXm.
11.What are some of your non musical interests?
Architecture, stop-motion animation, computer generated visual effects software (Blender is the shit) surreal / fantasy / sci-fi visual artwork, designing things.
12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
Just say no to trends.
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