Music journalists were, at one time, one of the most lamentable creatures to walk this earth. Sycophantic and cringeworthingly right-on, they infested the pages of 'high brow' arty mags such as the NME, rendering them unreadable self indulgent twaddle, championing acts that many people felt no sympathy or affinity towards and hurling derisory snorts at the music we love. Thankfully, things improved after the extreme metal revolution of the early 90s, spawning magazines such as Terrorizer and, eventually, the excellent Zero Tolerance. One writer for the latter bimonthly is Geoff Birchenall, and not content with that publication, he also writes his own zine, Asgard Root, with his current issue now in stock here at King Penda Productions. With the internet becoming the primary source of infomation for a generation - some of whom have never bought a music magazine, nor even a cd - what kind of person does it take to swim against the tide and insist on creating obscure, print only products? A stack of fanzines in hand, we go in search of the answer...
Hello Geoff. Who are you, what do you do, and why?
I’ll apologize in advance for the long-winded response, but I have a real problem with people agreeing to an interview and then coming out with a reply as banal as “Me; this and that; and because.” I won’t mention any names of such bands like Forgotten Tomb, as that’d be unfair. Of course the desire to do justice to a question must be tempered with self-editing. In fact I recently heard a nice summary of the ‘less is more’ school. It went something like… ‘Sorry I wrote you such a long letter I didn’t have time to write a short one.’ It reminded me of the Japanese Haiku.
Anyway, I’m a 31 year old Englishman who had the misfortune of succumbing to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome after being awarded a fully-funded PhD scholarship, then the good fortune of marrying my Spanish nurse, finding a great record-store job with an impossibly congenial group of people and discovering writing outside of academia. I still struggle with my illness, but over the past 4 years have had more good days than bad, which is more than many people can say.
So, I spend 3 days a week working in the shop, 1 day updating the online inventory system and the rest of the time listening to music, travelling with my wife, going to the cinema, reading (predominantly) crime novels and fanzines and watching TV series’ such as Dexter, House, Sons of Anarchy, The Shield and The Sopranos.
There is a charge going around that print magazines are dead and those journalists continuing to write for them are either secret lottery winners or insane. How do you plead?
I can assure you that I am no lottery winner, but it would be nice. Print magazines are, in my opinion alive and well and one only needs to look as far as Convivial Hermit, Forgotten Path and Hex Magazine in the underground and Zero Tolerance (to which I contribute) in the mainstream for affirmation. I’d like to think that one day my own ‘zine could warrant comparison with such a magnificent publication as Convivial Hermit. I remember the golden age of fanzines in the mid ‘90s and I cannot remember anything as resplendent as CH – so perhaps all that has happened is a rising of the cream to the top of a shrunken pool.
As a child, I remember going through my parents’ books and record collections (mainly the classics and prog rock / heavy metal / classical music as it happens) Freud reckoned that we form our identity at around the age of six, based on interactions with our immediate environment. Given that so much art is now digital and hence transitory, I wonder what the next generation is going to be like. As the writer of a print magazine, do you see yourself as a traditionalist who is resisting this change?
Well, this is a complicated question to answer. I’d be loathe to agree with a Freudian concept without a modern counter study as many of his arguments have been refuted. I couldn’t have had a more ‘normal’ and pleasant childhood and at the age of six I was a happy-go-lucky child who was brought up in a Christian household by two loving parents with my younger sister. For reasons that must have had more with intellect and curiosity than environment, I rejected religion, ripping up my confirmation certificate aged 12 and thereafter embarking on a journey of extreme musical discovery that is still in its prime. My mother has now all but rejected her religion and neither of them go to church any more. Things change and people evolve for all sorts of reasons so I would hesitate to make a link between our generation’s environment and our children’s generation’s beliefs and interests.
Digital music, books and films can certainly coexist with printed matter, I just tend towards a vision of higher end, limited edition, luxury product as opposed to the sort of substandard CDs with meager booklets spewed out by many a label without so much as a hint of pride or integrity.
As a reviewer you surely get a lot of CDs to listen to. In the 90s ‘Twenty Seconds to Comply’ was a disparaging way to describe the length of time it would take for a record label to make up their mind about a demo someone had sent them. Given the explosion in Internet speeds today, twenty seconds is a luxury! There is a theory that the amount of information available to people is making them even dumber than ever. What do you think about this? Do you ever feel like switching off and just listening to the sounds of silence instead?
Have you been reading my mind sir? This is an issue of great interest to me and one that I think will become the study of choice for many a dissertation in the social sciences in 2011 and beyond. It can be paralleled with the oft-quoted example of children living in poverty in African nations, yet seeming incomparably beaming and happy in comparison to the fat, lazy, PlayStation addicted children of the west. I think it is certainly true that the more information a man is privy to, the less happy he will be, because humanity and the world is in a pretty perilous state. I am, however, not sure that it makes people less intelligent. The more choices we have the more stress we have and the less we enjoy the choices we make. A good example is when planning a holiday. We choose from a myriad of potential destinations, consult websites such as Trip Advisor for recommended accommodation, hospitality and things to do and then the trip is left with little in the way of surprises. The same can be said of buying records to an extent as we can pretty much download anything before its release date and the enjoyment we get from the physical purchase is somewhat curtailed.
When I bought ‘Det Som Engang Var’ in the early 90s, the guys in the record shop laughed at me as they handed it over. They also laughed when I bought ‘A Blaze…’. I took my girlfriend (now my wife ) to see Primordial in 1994 and there were about twelve people there. Hardly anyone I knew was into it. How has Black Metal’s status changed over the years you have known it as a journalist?
Ha ha! I think we’ve all had similar experiences to that one. I remember going to see Old Man’s Child in Dudley (1998 I think) and there were no more than 5 of us in the ‘crowd’. As black metal has become trendier, the people organizing gigs have become savvier and this type of thing just wouldn’t happen anymore. Black metal has become more diverse musically and since those mid-late nineties days we now have post-black metal (Fen, Agalloch, Neige-Morte, Austere etc), orthodox black metal (Ofermod, Funeral Mist, Negative Plane etc), depressive suicidal black metal (Lifelover, Shining, Lyrinx, Nyktalgia, Nocturnal Depression etc) and many more diverse expressions of blackness. As the genre has grown branches and the number of bands increased at a rate that overshadows the population explosion in China it is no longer possible to go into a shop and pick up anything with a black metal logo and be pretty sure it’ll be a winner. Discretion is paramount. There are, of course, labels of distinction that can normally be trusted. These days one can pick up most of the releases on Profound Lore, Northern Heritage, Code 666, Prophecy Productions and Van Records without many a dud record. There are of course, also some black metal gems to be found on smaller labels such as the excellent Frostscald Records in Russia and if the new Inquisition album is anything to go by No Colours might be back on track. To surmise, there is more music available than ever before – meaning the choices we make in regards to what we decide to support are ever harder and ever more important. This is why quality fanzines have such an important role to play in 21st century underground scenes.
Should labels continue to release CDs or should they only do mp3s from now on?
I think that mp3s should never be sold. The day that mp3s replace CDs or vinyl is the day music dies. There is no need. The chart-music buyers would probably (indeed they do) buy mp3s as there is no fetish of the artwork or collectability surrounding the new Jessie J single. Folk just want the ‘music’ to put on their phones. Now, with extreme metal – many of us our rather hermitic and obsessive – preferring the solace of our record collections than the veneer of meaningful company found in bars and nightclubs. This tendency of course lends itself to so-called collector mentality and a demand for tangible formats. I won’t deny that there are people out there who ‘collect’ audio files – but there are far more of us who commit to the physical releases on offer. As I mentioned previously poor quality CD releases will die out and only the ones with artistic merit will survive.
There’s a nice picture of you in Asgard Root at your writing desk in your cottage. How old is your cottage? Is it in the countryside, and if so, what are the pros and cons of living there?
Our cottage is just over 200 years old and comes complete with all of the creaks, groans and cobwebs! We have a small chimney which has taken a battering over the past winter and acts as a cooking place for chestnuts – a personal favourite. We are in a small village in Oxfordshire, surrounded by fields, but within easy distance of the nearest town. It is a peaceful place to live and in stark contrast to places I’ve previously called home in Birmingham and London. Of course, the mentality of people in any village can be a bit strange, but I’m not really interested in socializing so that is not a problem. It may be that we move to back a city one day, but for now, village life suits us quite well.
I’m always fascinated by people’s lifestyle choices. When you write, do you take intoxicants? If so is it wine, spirits, cider or beer? Do you smoke? Do you smoke weed?
What a question! Unfortunately, my condition doesn’t allow for much in the way of excess! However, I have never been too bothered about altering my mental state with narcotics, save for some indulging in weed in my youth. The stimulants I use (coffee, whiskey) I do so for corporeal reasons rather than any associated highs. I drink espressos and single malt whiskeys daily and a glass of red wine from time to time. Nothing too interesting I’m afraid!
You wrote recently on your blog that you’ve been ill with chronic fatigue. I think most creative people, including yours truly, will recognise this. How are you feeling at the moment?
My Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is rather a curious animal. It has been at the forefront of every aspect of my life for the past 7 years. Every day it impacts upon me and before anyone judges the tiredness is not the worst of it! I suffer from neuropathic symptoms such as temperature highs and lows, shivering, prickly pins and needles, lack of concentration and orthostatic instability. On a good day I just feel uncomfortable, on bad ones I feel helpless. But this is the hand that I’ve been dealt and I must accept it. As I write this I have tonsillitis on top of the CFS which is not much fun, but what can you do?
You interviewed Freya Aswynn, for whom I must confess to have some admiration. Have you ever dabbled with magic? What do you think about her being a universalist? Did her comments change your perception of her?
Well, Freya is something of an enigma isn’t she? I must confess that I am more interested in her musical contribution than here philosophies, however I can offer an opinion on Universalism as a concept. The belief in a fundamental truth is interesting to me, but I see it from a more scientific and earthy perspective. I am a pragmatist and a dyed in the wool atheist. I am fascinated with the idea of magic, but view it as an extension of science. That there is a fundamental truth (in any given concept) to me is certain, but that this fundamental truth may be somehow spiritually enlightening and tied to a unifying religion is as alien to me as following a Christian religion that is a rehash of much older beliefs or for that matter Satanism – (in the sense of the reversal of Christianity). We recently visited Ireland and in County Meath, made our way to the oldest human-constructed building, Newgrange. Newgrange is over 5200 years old and was built with precise astrological alignment to allow the sun to penetrate an opening above the building’s door and light up the chamber on the summer equinox. It really is a quite astounding place and one that for me best sums up religion. Capable of constructing wonderful things that help explain something not yet understood. In this case the idea of the construction was to aid the appeasement of the sun god to ensure he brought back the sun the following year. Of course, when humans understood the seasons, such rituals were defunct. Religion today exists only because we are yet to know for certain what happens to our inner selves after death. Fortunately for believers this final mystery is nigh on impossible to solve – just as well, because on this last enigma rests the Vatican fortune.
Shamaatae of Arckanum accused you of having a Christian name ‘Asgard’ for the magazine. I find it interesting that people seek to discover pre-christian ideologies, but Shamaatae seems to be on a kind of rather predictable voyage of purification that has more to do with nineteenth century anti-semitic German philosophy than anything else, and pedantry over words smacks of cheap one-upmanship. You argued back however – do you think it is as important as he that we seek to shake off Christianity in all its guises?
Asgard Root was chosen as a name as it was a meeting place for the gods. I thought it symbolic for a publication which aims to bring together the best of the underground. Shamaatae could start an argument with himself and is a rather frustrating interviewee – a pity considering his substantial talent. In terms of shaking off Christianity, I believe that in black metal circles that would smack rather profoundly of preaching to the converted. I believe Fenris made the point in the film Until The Light Takes Us, that Darkthrone’s early albums were not controversial at all because no Christians were ever going to listen to them or read the lyrics. I couldn’t care less what Shamaatae thinks of the title of Asgard Root, just as he probably doesn’t care what I think of his last album title.
My fifteen-year old daughter read the bible, and concluded that it was basically good but ‘it just isn’t about us’ (Europeans). Christianity is probably forever entwined into our culture in aesthetic ways, but surely it wasn’t until 100 years ago that anything like Christian values ever turned into action with help for the poor, and then only half-heartedly? However many of its critics seem to interchange incompatible arguments. Are you of the opinion that Christianity is wrong because it supports poor people who do not deserve it, or because so many ‘Christians’ ( like George Bush and Tony Blair ) behave in the opposite way to what Christians actually say?
Hypocrisy is a concept familiar to many people, Christian or otherwise. It does however seem to follow that people who impose more rules on themselves are destined to lead lives of hypocrites. I am rather tired of thinking about Christians to be honest. Now that my family is out of the grip of the cancerous Church of England I have less concern with regard to the absurdity of the Christian religion. People like George Bush and Tony Blair are simply pawns playing out the political desires of multi-national corporations. Global commerce deserves as much vitriol as Christianity. As for the poor, there will always be poverty if there is wealth - charity or no charity. Charity is a construct designed to massage the consciences of the wealthy, nothing more, nothing less. This does not mean that I believe that the poor deserve poverty – of course they don’t. People rarely get what they deserve as this would suggest that external forces have little to no bearing on one’s personal fortunes, which is nothing short of absurd.
You reviewed the Pagan Herald magazine and criticized it for its stance against far right racist groups ( I think you called it ‘radical politics’ but the two are synonymous are they not?) as an ‘annoyance’. I think the situation is different in Germany as ‘far right’ groups are more organized ( and far, far nastier than they are here ( yet ) in the UK). If I were asked to summarize Asgard Root’s stance I would say it romanticized ( and intellectualized ) the right wing. Do you consider yourself ‘right wing’ by its correct economic definition ( of private enterprise ), and / or also by its more common, yet inaccurate, racist association?
You’re not letting me off lightly are you Scott?! ( actually I am - Ed ;-) ) Let’s deal with the Pagan Herald ‘criticism’ first. My gripe was not at their antifascist stance so much as the fact that it was given so much prominence. That said it is a great magazine run by two of the nicest gentlemen I’ve come across who I’d be honoured to call friends. I just have a problem with boycotting music for political reasons, because in extreme metal where do you draw the line? People who write and play extreme music are liable to hold some extreme views. Now, as far as my own politics extend – I would not consider myself right or left wing. I have many standards that might be considered right wing and yet I despair at some of the things done under the name of capitalism. I found it very difficult to vote in our last election and was torn between a Conservative and Green Party vote. I wanted Labour out because they were incompetent so I tactically voted Conservative. I am not a racist and have no interest in racial matters per se – though I can see many problems caused by multiculturalism in Europe (and some benefits too, of course). I do believe that we are all inherently tribal and will, as a consequence lean towards people most ideologically and culturally similar to ourselves. I suppose religion is again the major cause of friction. I mean, how can two never mind 3 or 4 religious populaces based on supposed absolute truth that have so many different beliefs cohabit without fallout? Being an Englishman with our country’s hotchpotch of genes and race mixes it is laughable for anyone to represent any form of racial supremacy. In terms of romanticism and intellectualism, I can accept that as I enjoy better the company of more intelligent folk and often prefer idealistic and romantic art (art, films, books, music etc) and this is, of course reflected in what appears in Asgard Root, as an extension of my own interests. This year I have been listening to a fair amount of obscure psychedelic rock and also some noise so this may be reflected in issue 3 when I get around to it. Of course, noise could not be further from the idea of romanticism in art, so there’s always that contradiction to keep people (and myself) on their toes.
Black Metal spoke to me when i first heard it not because it was 'evil', but because to me it had a pure and Romantic era 'European' quality, a step further from 'thrash'. I'd already felt that in bands like Joy Division and the eighties goth scene ( Xmal Deutschland etc ) but it was great to hear it loud and fast! What is it about the music that you choose to cover in Asgard Root that is special to you? Would you say that there is a recurring quality? Escapism?
I actually came to music via Iron Maiden, Slayer and Megadeth as an 11 year old before falling out of love with music in my teens and (re)discovering extreme metal just prior to my 16th birthday (1995). I think the first black metal album I bought was ‘In The Nightside Eclipse’. Around this time I was listening to everything from Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails to The Smiths, Bob Dylan, Joy Division and The Cure as well as Candlemass Paradise Lost, Anathema and My Dying Bride. After hearing Emperor I very quickly sought out more and bought the ‘Nattens Madrigal’ on promo from Reddingtons Rare Records in Birmingham and that as they say is history. Darkthrone, Mayhem, Burzum and Misanthrope soon followed and I began ordering bucket loads of obscure stuff from Supernal. Black metal for me is all about atmosphere and as you say that pure ‘European’ quality that sees it compared to Classical music. Black metal is as close as I have come to finding a listening experience that connects me to my inner self and makes me feel complete and in touch.
Do you have any hobbies other than writing? Can you sing or play any instruments? If so, do you want to form an old school BM band with me? ;-)
I like to go fishing when my health allows it, and used to play the occasional round of golf and tennis quite avidly. I am a keen supporter of Birmingham City FC and get up to the matches when possible. As for musical talent I got put off at an early age by being forced to endure piano lessons with this wizened old hag who called me a spastic! Later, I found out she actually meant that my hands would go into spasm whilst playing! She probably did me a favour as I am pretty sure I have not got a musical bone in my body!
What are you considering for your next endeavour? Are you working on the next Asgard Root?
Well, as you may be aware I have been going through a tough year with my CFS. I am hoping to recommence work on Asgard Root issue 3 at least some time in mid-2011. I have contributed some language editing for Forgotten Path ‘zine issue 3, which is out now and continue writing for UK extreme metal magazine Zero Tolerance.
Ok Geoff, thanks for the interview. I'll leave the last word to you. What advice do you have for our readers?
My advice for any metal head is don’t be stubborn about only listening to metal. Yes, extreme metal is wonderful and capable of forming the bulk of a collection, but there is other incredible stuff going on out there. I used to fall into this narrow-minded trap, but am eternally grateful for finding the wisdom to embrace the best of other genres. Check out the following ten eclectic beasts spanning 8 different nations to see what I mean. You may not like them all – hopefully you may even hate some. But, I’m sure at least one of these albums may open up new horizons for anyone who thinks that metal has all the answers.
Rome (Lux) – D’Un Voleur D’Ames (and indeed all of their works).
Cold Cave (US) – Love Comes Close
Neutral (RUS) – Serpents In The Dawn
CCCandy (GER) – Lonesome Berlin
Deathkey (US) – Doctrine Of Intolerant Hatred
Soap & Skin (Austria) – Lovetune For Vaccum
Kevin Drumm (US) – Imperial Horizon
Clubroot (UK) - S/T
Flower Travellin’ Band (JAP) - Satori
Fever Ray (SWE) – S/T
Thanks to Geoff for his answers. Treat yourself to a copy of Asgard Root while stocks last...
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ASGARD ROOT MAGAZINE - ISSUE TWO A Forest of Stars - Agalloch - Akitsa - Arckanum - Austere - Caina - Coldworld - Dead Raven Choir - Enslaved - Freya Aswynn - David Galas - Janus - Lifelover - Lyrinx - Musk Ox - Paragon Belial - Yussuf Jerusalem - plus reviews, features, photography and art. UK POSTAGE GBP 4.75 |
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