KATHAARIA
Kathaaria
come from Germany, presenting to us their view of how black metal should
be played, making clear from the beginning that it's just music to them
with no misanthropic or friendly social legion behaviours. It's music in
its purest form.
So, we had a word with Asakku and I have to admit that he offered us
a really interesting and clever interview.
1.TELL US IN A FEW WORDS THE MOST IMPORTANT
MOMENTS OF THE BAND'S HISTORY. WHICH IS TODAY'S LINE UP?
Asakku: "The idea of KATHAARIA´s
forming took place in early 1999. Three individuals departing from former
bands or musical silences came together manifesting KATHAARIA mark I. Quickly
first successful rehearsing began. Next steps were initial concerts and
then the recording of the 1st Demo Tape in autumn 2000. Shortly after that
another recording session took place that resulted in one coverversion
of Japanese band Sabbat that was featured as the opening track on the Worldwide
Sabbatical Harmageddon Tribute LP, released by Brazilian Live Recordings
Attack Records anno 2001. More Gigs were played and planned before our
drummer suddenly left the ranks. KATHAARIA faced mark II when the search
for a new drummer didn´t succeed. So, it all continued as a duo with
me also doing the drums. Therefore the actual line-up looks like this:
Opolus (guitars); Asakku (bass vox drums)."
2.WHY HAVE YOU NAMED THE BAND THIS
WAY? WHY DO YOU HAVE DOUBLE A? IS THERE ANOTHER BAND WITH THE SAME NAME
AND YOU WANT TO DISTINGUISH THIS WAY?
A.: "Well, actually the name derives
from a middle-ages group of belief called the 'Katharer' that beared a
dualistic world view. The double 'A' has not such a meaning that you assumed.
Maybe also a Darkthrone songtitle will come to mind to some individuals!?
Later, through the net, I even found out that there were already bands
existing that had names like 'Katharia' and 'Kathaaria'. But they (I assume)
have split-up or just drowned in the underground so we couldn´t care
less about such a fact."
3.GIVE US A DESCRIPTION OF YOUR MUSICAL
STYLE. NAME SOME OF THE BAND'S INFLUENCES AND SOME OF YOUR MOST BELOVED
ALBUMS.
A.: "I see any style categorisation
only as pure description of the thing, so let´s face it: Black Metal.
You will recognize various influences of this style (and probably others,
too) in our sound but we´re no copycats, we´re not die-hard
struggling to be either old-school or helpless intellectual avantgarde.
I don´t see my person as a part of the scene with it´s ideological
bullshit ranging somewhere between evil misanthropy and friendly social
legion bullshit. I´m not the least interested in any of those 2 mentioned
subjects. And also musically the thing just stagnates, so I listen to a
great variety of music nowadays and honestly there haven´t been much
good Black Metal albums lately, Thorns´ album would be an exception
but my other actual fave albums couldn´t be set in comparison to
our sound really."
4.HOW MANY RELEASES DO YOU HAVE? TELL
US SOME THINGS ABOUT THEM AND MAINLY CONCENTRATE ON YOUR LATEST RELEASE.
ARE YOU STILL SATISIFED WITH IT OR IS THERE ANYTHING YOU'D LIKE TO CHANGE?
A.: "Our debut demo cassette "Promo
2000" is our only release until now. It´s already been over 2 years
since we´ve been recording it. We´ve recorded 4 songs onto
an 8 track recording unit. I´m still satisfied with it concerning
it is our first release and we hadn´t to invest lots of time or cash.
Musically, playing and songwritingwise, there are of course always things
that could have been improved but not one single thing was that 'horrible'
that I could mention it now, really."
5.WHAT ARE YOUR LYRICS TALKING ABOUT?
DO YOU PREFER REAL LIFE OR FANTASY STORIES? DO YOUR LYRICS HAVE DEEPER
MEANINGS?
A.: "All of the previous songlyrics
have been written by guitarist Opolus, so it´s not too easy for me
to explain real much about ´em (which is a not needed pain in the
ass anyway)! They are quite diverse while all contain certain tenebrous
moods especially of ghastly and spiritistic nature. In most cases they´re
just an atmospherical compilation of thoughts on different themes, consisting
of a very individual approach. "Angeltongue" for example is about various
thoughts on the enochian language. An exception is "Chamber of Spirits"
with it´s kinda 'horror story' in an almost classical way. Personally,
I favour (as you call it) 'real life' lyrics, but not in a social worldviewing
manner, just very very personal simple words that have great effect."
6.WHAT ARE YOU PLANNING TO DO IN THE
FUTURE TO PROMOTE YOUR WORK? HAVE YOU SENT YOUR PROMO TO THE PRESS OR ANY
LABELS? ARE YOU SATISFIED BY THEIR COMMENTS?
A.: "Since now we have just promoted
our first tape with zine reviews and by spreading it to distros etc. The
reactions were mostly fine so that´s ok with me. Currently we´re
in the final steps of finishing the recordings for a 'for promotional use
only' rehearsal including two new tunes. So that will be our first sign
to show labels how our stuff sounds. We´ll see if we´ll gain
interest..."
7.WHICH DO YOU THINK IS THE BEST AND
WHICH IS THE WORST PART IN YOUR MUSIC? WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU NEED FURTHER
IMPROVEMENT?
A.: "In my opinion one of the best
aspects of the band itself is that we don´t helplessly try to be
part of a certain scene, not trying to develope typical ideological ideas
or to stay strict within 'scene law borders', musically or in terms of
opinions. Kathaaria has become quite 'selfflowing', we´re not in
a scene conform way saying 'we´re this', 'we´re that'... So,
musically I see the best points in the original and vastly atmospheric
riffing and song writing, especially when looking upon our new tracks.
This might sound arrogant, but I can´t figure out 'that worst' point
solely. We still need to improve our instrumental playing abilities to
a certain point, though. It´s also a shame that we aren´t able
to perform gigs due to the fact that we´re (temporarely?) reduced
to a 2-piece now."
8.WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WEREN'T
ABLE TO COMPOSE OR INVOLVE IN ANY WAY WITH MUSIC?
A.: "Well, that´s hard as
music is nearly the only artistic thing I really do. Maybe there´s
still some graphical shit on computers that I tend to but not too satisfying.
Everything else to achieve in 'normal' life is just the struggle to survive
and the (helpless?) try to escape certain personal and social voids!"
9.IF YOU HAD THE MONEY TO MAKE AN EXPENSIVE
VIDEO CLIP HOW DO YOU IMAGINE IT TO BE AND FOR WHICH SONG OF YOURS?
A.: "It would either look fucked
up and trippy with lots of distorted harsh pictures compiled sometimes
very hectic; Images of spirits, chambers, bleak walls etc. or the opposite,
just a few images really slowly fading, put together in a very atmospherical
manner. In both cases the bandmembers´ faces would not show up throughout
the whole clip, at least not clearly and not playing instruments, urgh.
So, it would for sure not be a typical heavy metal stage action one (quite
odd for a 2-piece anyway) neither a dark metal cliché bloody mass
video, hehe. The clip would then definitely be for one of our new songs.
Well, I can´t really imagine Kathaaria to have a videoclip one day.
I also don´t think of such thing as really important. You can use
your time and money for much better things in a band. I only see it as
promotion strategy but not for metal, especially not in that subgenre we´re
bound to. There were some cool independent and psychotic clips that I´ve
already seen, though, but not by metal bands."
10.IF YOU HAD THE ABILITY TO CHANGE
SOMETHING IN THE WORLD WHAT WOULD THAT BE?
A.: "Well, that question´s
quite odd and so is my answer to it. Until now I haven´t developed
such a social mentality to think about changing something 'in the world'.
I´m to stuck within myself and my own problems now, so I just think
about changes in 'my world' and these thoughts are way to personal to discuss
them in public like this. I remain silent..."
11.IF YOUR MUSIC WAS AN EMOTION WHAT
WOULD THAT BE? IF IT WAS A PAINTING WHAT WOULD IT SHOW?
A.: "Well, nothing definite, just
a dark mood! Everything´s in that one: void, escapism, shock. The
painting would be a spirit that bears all these emotions and just stands
alone as a great mysterium. A silhouette of the end and/or afterlife. The
irresistable fear and/or hope for another existence beyond this... No greater
ideology, no deeper meaning, just a mood!"
12.ARE YOU ANNOYED BY ALL THOSE THAT
JUDGE THE ARTISTIC VALUE OF A BAND BY THE NUMBER OF CD'S THEY SELL?
A.: "Well, there are either people
who just force their interest onto known bands on labels or others only
enjoy bands primitively stagnating in the 'rehearsals limited to 13' swamp.
I think both sides´ closedmindness is crap, you can´t judge
music only by this part of it´s presentation. There are good bands
in the purest underground as well as groups which have delivered killer
albums on major labels. I only accept certain criticism when bands sell
their souls for a shocking image with photos and artworks that will surely
shock the kids and will raise the albums sales for sure, because that´s
not artistic but simply trendy in the truest sense of the word. Way same
with 'total underground' bands that just try do sound like 'that album'
by 'that band'. So they´re also just trendsheep, as they just follow
a certain formula and don´t have a real picture in mind, what to
express with their 'art'. They just want to be sooo deep within the scene
and spread their music just to the true ones who understand. That´s
so ridicoulus! I am the one who has to understand my own art and the art
that I enjoy, nothing else! Who´s true and fake then? You think you
know that by a few letters or by a few cool meetings? Folks, keep it personal
and try to recognize it for yourself, not for a herd-mentality and scene´s
sake."
13.IF SOMEDAY YOU HAD THE CHANCE TO
MEET THE CREATURE THAT CREATED THE UNIVERSE, WHICH WOULD YOUR BIGGEST QUESTION
BE?
A.: "Well, sorry, but I can´t
really think of a 'creature' that created the fucking universe and so I
can logically not think of any question to ask that man/mam! And once again,
actually I´m just more or less working on my 'own' universe, so I
have to become my own 'creator' now, and man, I have a lot questions to
ask..."
14.IF TIME TRAVEL WAS POSSIBLE, WHICH
HISTORICAL PERIOD WOULD YOU LIKE TO VISIT AND WHY? WHAT WOULD YOU MISS
THE MOST FROM OUR TIME?
A.: "I actually don´t give
shit about any (pre)historical shit, so I would just stupidly travel a
few years back to see some great bands´ concerts that I´ve
missed because of my lack of good taste or earlier birth then, hehe, or
recapture some personal moments again, better."
15.WHAT PROLOGUE AND TITLE WOULD YOU
LIKE THIS INTERVIEW TO HAVE?
A.: "The voice of a dead boy"
16.THANK YOU!HAVE I FORGOTTEN TO ASK
YOU ANYTHING AND YOU'D LIKE TO MENTION?
A.: "Thanx! Watch out for our new
material. In the meantime check out 2 demotracks at: http://www.mp3.com/kathaaria
The Demo is still available in it´s south east asian pressing from:
http://www.fogflames.f2s.com/
Besides that, our edition of 'Promo 2000' can still be ordered from a couple
of mailorders. Get in touch, if interest exists."
email: [email protected]
snail: KATHAARIA, c/o John Grumptmann,
Blumenstr. 1, 45768 Marl, Germany
Christine Parastatidou
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