Eisenwald Records Artist -Ashtar Interview is up
1. I keep reading that you are considered a Black Doom band. I hear so much Post Metal, Atmospheric Death and Blackgaze at times. If you were to give five words to describe the bands sound what would they be?
Marko: Maybe Atmospheric Blackened Sludge Doom? Well, that's only four words, but there are also elements of Blackgaze, Space Rock and even a bit of Grunge in our music. I don't hear that much Post Metal in it though.
Nadine: Archaic desperate eerie doomed blackness – that’s how I would describe Ashtar in five words. And yes, there are a lot of Death Metal and Blackgaze and some Grunge influences in our music.
2. You are a duo when recording, Nadine and Marko. I know you both have guitar, bass and vocal moments on the record. How do you decide who does what vocally and tonally for each track?
Marko: It's not like both of us were playing everything. Nadine's main instrument is the bass and the violin and she does all the growls and screams. My main instrument is the drums and I do some clean vocals. In the second part of «Between Furious Clouds» I also play the bass. Apart from that we both play the guitars. So that's the instrument we share on record. Many riffs come from Nadine, some of them are mine, and usually each of us plays his own ideas. But we don't decide in advance. It's more like, hey, I think I have an idea for this song and then we just try. So the guitar arrangements and overdubs can come quite spontaneously in the studio or the rehearsal room.
Nadine: And sometimes it’s very simple: The one of us who is able to play a guitar part better is the one doing it.
3. Ashtar performs live, correct? How does live versus studio change the overall presence of the songs and do you prefer being in studio birthing the new material or do you want to get out there and have the world react to all the creativity?
Nadine: I prefer performing live on stage. But of course, the studio experience has its own special moments too.
Marko: I love both. It's great to feel the energy of an audience in front of you. It's great to meet new bands and interesting people and to see foreign cities while on the road. But I also love to get totally comitted to the music in the studio. It's so intense. You go into details and get very focussed on your music for several days, 24 hours every day. That's very exhausting, but also very satisfying in the end – given that you are happy with the result, of course.
4. lmasaari was released five years ago. How does it differ in your mind to Kaikuja in 2020?
Nadine: Kaikuja is less romantic and more aggressive, there is less Sludge and more Black Metal. And we left more room and took more studio time for the guitar and violin overdubs this time.
Marko: Yes, I also think Kaikuja includes more Black Metal elements than Ilmasaari. Apart from that the production is a bit brighter and cleaner in my ears. I like both records though.
5. Switzerland has a very impressive extreme and avant metal history with bands like Coroner, Samael, Celtic Frost/Triptykon and Bölzer, to name a few. Why do you feel such unqiue sounds come from this small nation?
Marko: That's difficult to say. There are totally different scenes in totally different parts of the country and they don't necessarily have that much in common. And other small nations have great scenes as well. Finland for example is even smaller than Switzerland, if you compare the size of the population. And they are very creative! So I don't know, maybe it's just a coincidence that there have been some great Swiss bands of that genre recently? However, a cool thing about the small size of our country is that you get to know each other quite well. We are friends with bands like Schammasch or Bölzer and Nadine knows Triptykon's Tom G. Warrior quite well.
6. You were working with Czar of Crickets and now partnered with Eisenwald. How do the two differ and why the move to new label for Kaikuja?
Marko: The two labels are very different. Czar of Crickets is based in our hometown Basel, owned by Zatokrev's Fredy Rotter. It's a label where you have to pay for everything, incuding the promotion. On the other hand you get all the income of the sales. Eisenwald is a label from Germany that pays the pressing, the promotion, parts of the merch and so on. So they take care of everything. And they have a very good reputation. That's why we moved on to Eisenwald. Some other labels from Germany, Italy, Norway, USA and England were interested as well, by the way.
7. Is there a theme throughout Kaikuja you would like to talk about?
Nadine: Lyrically speaking, there is a main theme, as there already was on Ilmasaari. I write about „the other side“ where the dreams are born. In all the songs nature is a female force that just exists, without any further reason or question. And there are creatures fearing her, trying to conquer her, dreaming of her, getting lost in her. These lyrics are mostly fragmentary – like our dreams.
8. The Violin plays a very haunting and eerie role in Ashtar. What makes this a special part of the band's overall sound?
Nadine: I've played the Violin since I was eight years old and I like to use it from time to time in Ashtar, as I already did in my former band shEver. I think it sets a course in our overall sound, and I'm happy to hear that you get it the way I meant it: haunting and eerie.
9. You have elements of bands like Wolvserpent, Immortal Bird, Death Spell Omega, Early Opera IX, Bethlehem and Ancient Wisdom for me. What Bands inspired the creation of Kaikuja?
Nadine: Honestly speaking I can't name any bands that would have inspired us during the creation of Kaikuja, and actually I wouldn’t want to. But you name a bunch of really cool bands here: I adore Opera IX for example. Another strong general influence of mine is surely Bathory. For me, they have this totally black spirit that was essential for all Black Metal that followed them.
Marko: Nadine is right, we like many of the names you mention here. Wolveserpent for example were a big influence when we recorded Ilmasaari. But that's some years ago already.
10. How do you feel things like Bandcamp, Twitter, Youtube and Webzine changed the underground landscape for the better or worse?
Marko: Mainly for the better, I think. As an underground band you get the possibility to get some attention and publicity worldwide through these channels and tools – without being totally dependent on labels. We have to remember: 20 years ago nobody ever heard of you at all, if you didn't have a label and print magazines didn't write about you. And I think the new possibilities are good for the fans as well: They can discover much more good music by just surfing in the internet and social media. Of course some people say that everybody gets access to music all too easily nowadays and that people don't want to pay for it anymore. That's true, yes. But still I believe it's mostly a very good thing.
11. If you could make a proper video on any track of Kaikuja. Which would it be and why?
Nadine: I would love to do a video of «Bloodstones». There is a strong imagery in the song.
12. How do visuals and aesthetic change the overall view of the band to fans in a way that seems interesting to both of you in Ashtar?
Nadine: We don’t have a proper visual concept, but as you can see in our album artwork – of both, Ilmasaari and Kaikuja – we love dark, saturnine and a bit romantic stuff that is not exactly conform to the classical metal style. I think it suits our music well. Personally, I do like the stereotype aesthetics of Black Metal, but for Ashtar it would not be appropriate to go on stage and do a big show with corpse painting and stuff like that.
13. I know both of you have been in other projects before. Is there a style of music that both of you would like to try and create you have not had the opportunity to do yet?
Marko: There is a lot of exciting music I haven't played so far: Krautrock or Progrock for example. But life is too short to try out all the interesting genres in this world.
Nadine: I would love to play and write songs in an old school Death Metal band.
14. At the end of the day, if this was the last Ashtar release, what do you hope the band to be remembered for?
Marko: For music that was 100% authentic…
Nadine: …and touched souls.
15. Thank you for the interview and any closing thoughts here.
Nadine and Marko: Thank you for your interest in Ashtar and your support. Stay safe!
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