Interview Hellsaw: Aries

De Oostenrijkse black metal band Hellsaw bracht enkele weken geleden hun nieuwe album Trist uit. De recensie hiervan kan u hier nalezen.

"Black metal met koudere temperaturen dan het topje van de Mount Everest." zo start onze recensie over de nieuwe plaat van Hellsaw. Hoog tijd om frontman Aries enkele vragen hierover te stellen.

Hi all! We are Festivalblog (Dutch webzine). Thanks for having this interview with us. I have a couple of questions that I would like to ask you. Thanks a lot!

Hello Kevin. Thank you very much for the interview.

You're going to promote your Trist in your home country, Germany and Russia for starters. What are the plans to go more global with the album in the near future?

We’re always looking for opportunities to play live and to tour, so we’ll just have to see what comes up in the future. Russia will be a first for us, and it’s an extensive tour of the country, and one that we are looking forward to. As regards to other appearances, we will be at Extreme Fests in Austria, Switzerland and Germany, and at Walpurgis Metal Days, but obviously aren’t allowed to mention any other appearances until they are announced.

How do you guys individually prepare for an upcoming tour?

By rehearsing hard to make sure that we can give the best performance for our fans. Playing live is a very important facet of Hellsaw. You need to have a completely different mindset to when you are playing in a studio, and it allows us to add a different dimension to the music. Plus of course being able to interact with the fans is fantastic.

The songs on Trist are of course very dark and negative. Can you describe the writing process for the lyrics on the album?

It’s the negativity that’s inside me, inside all of us really, although many don’t want to accept it, that inspires my writing. I don’t sit at a desk and write all the lyrics for an album in one go. I might be inspired to write by something I see around me, or something that happened, or a historical event that interests me. But always something that has had some kind of impact on me in one way or another. 

Are any of the band members still nervous before a show? And how do each of you buckle up for putting down a good gig?

I think most musicians are nervous to a lesser or greater extent before a show, it’s what gets the adrenaline pumping. We all focus completely on the performance ahead. What you see on stage is our real personality, maybe larger than life, but nevertheless, it’s us, it’s not a fabricated image.  

Which bands inspired you to become musicians?

I don’t know that it was any one band in particular. It was more the style of music that inspired us. It gave us the ability to harness our negativity and turn it into music.

Are there any other bands you guys like besides the black metal genre?

Yes indeed. Like most musicians we don’t restrict ourselves to only one genre but have very eclectic tastes and range far and wide. We listen to whatever it is we like. 

Did all of you immediately agree with every aspect of the new album, or did some parts lead to discussions?

We are all involved in the creation of the album. Whoever has written a particular piece will present it to the others, and then we will all have an input. We work extremely well creatively because we are all aware of each other’s strengths and we all agree on how we want Hellsaw to sound and the direction we want to take.  

What other plans does the band have to promote the new album, besides the upcoming tour?

The usual interviews like this one obviously, and whatever else Napalm may have in mind for us. And of course we rely heavily on the internet. A lot of our promoting these days goes through Facebook, so check us out at https://www.facebook.com/hellsawofficial where you can communicate directly with the band.

Next year is Hellsaw's 10th anniversary, any special celebration plans for that?

To be honest we’ve been concentrating so much on the new album and on the upcoming tours that we haven’t really thought about our 10th anniversary, but it’s definitely something to start thinking about in the not too distant future.

What's the favorite occupation for all the members in the spare time while on tour?

There is hardly ever any spare time while on tour, and people don’t realize how exhausting performing, traveling and living in cramped and usually pretty poor conditions can be. You just play, load the bus, sleep and arrive at the next venue to unload, do sound checks, eat, and hopefully the venue has facilities where you can shower, and then get ready to go on stage again, and in between all that you might have several photo shoots and interviews at each venue. If we are lucky and arrive anywhere with some time to spare we all enjoy doing some sightseeing and exploring as much as we can.

Foto's door Toni Härkönen