SERPENTCULT (Eng.)
– Hello. First off thanks for your time. What are you guys currently up to?
Hi Tania, thanks for getting in touch. Our new album is going to be released in 3 weeks, so we’re looking forward to that.
– To start, could you please start introducing and making some history of the band for all those who don’t know about you yet?
Well, SerpentCult started in the summer of 2006. We started as a 3 piece, but we also had a fulltime singer from 2007 until 2010. Now we’re a 3 piece again, and that’s the way it’ll be. Early 2007 saw the release of our debut EP Trident Nor Fire, followed by our debut album on Rise Above Records in 2008. We’ve done quite a lot of gigs and tours all over Europe and North America in the meanwhile. In 2009 we started writing our latest album Raised By Wolves, and it’s finally going to be released in the coming weeks.
– And why «Serpentcult»?
Why not, it’s a great name, isn’t it? SerpentCult because Lemmy said a good bandname needs 3 syllables. First there was Mo-Tor-Head, now there’s Ser-Pent-Cult. You can’t compare the music though…
– Your latest album is «Raised by Wolves» so, how could you describe its sound for those people that haven’t had the chance of listening to your music yet?
In essence; Raised By Wolves is clearly a SerpentCult album. Our signature sound on this album is very recognisable, but we stepped further out of the traditional borders and added more progressive and experimental parts to our music. We’ve used instruments, arrangements and songwriting techniques we’ve never used before, and this resulted in Raised By Wolves being a very different album from Weight Of Light.
– And what are your expectations? Especially after parting ways with Michelle, as changing vocalist tends to be a risky change in terms of how your fans are going to react toward it.
Even though we’re very excited about the release, we are very realistic about what we can expect from the reactions. People who expect a follow up in the vein of Weight Of Light might be very disappointed.
This is absolutely not an album that is easy to digest for the bigger crowds, and will probably not be a huge commercial success. Fortunately, that’s not the reason why we make music.
We’ve had some raving reviews already, which is excellent, but obviously, we’ve got some negative reviews from the disappointed critics as well. We can’t blame them if it’s not their cup of tea, really. I prefer it that way, there’s a lot dynamics between good and bad reviews. It’s a sign that this is not an average album with an average score. You either love it or hate it.
We hope people appreciate our creative effort, and that it can bring them some musical, artistic and philosophical pleasure.
– After parting ways with Michelle you decided to keep on going as a trio, but have you consider looking for another singer in a future? Or you just don’t want to force anything?
From day one it was clear we were not going to bother looking for a replacement.
We do not wish to take any new permanent members in the band. Throughout the years we have seen that the chemistry in the band is thriving just with the 3 of us. We might work with vocalists for live performances or new releases in the future, but this will never be on a permanent basis.
– And are you satisfied with the vocal work on the record? How has affected the sound on this new album? Though there are, obviously, less vocal parts.
I’m happy with the result, knowing where we come from. You can’t compare my vocals with Michelle’s vocals at any point, so there was no point in trying to imitate that. Our intention was to use several singers for the album. We have used two external singers for Longing For Hyperborea. However, for songs like Raised By Wolves and Growth Of The Soil, the vocals were done by myself, and that was more or less the result from a process of elimination. I certainly do not consider myself as a singer, and it’s always strange to hear yourself singing, certainly if you do it for the first time.
– Did you ever think about having (guest) female vocals on «Raised by Wolves»?
The songs on Raised By Wolves didn’t require female vocals. However, we do not exclude working with a female vocalist in the future again. If some of our new songs might work better with female vocals, we will not hesitate to do that.
– So could you say this provides a new deep to your ambients and compositions?
The way the band is set up now, we have lots of artistic freedom to do whatever we want. Cozy, Steven and I work on the basics of the songs, and whenever we feel we might add something extra to a song with something new, then we look for the best way to do this. Be it by learning an instrument or technique ourselves or by asking a more experienced musician to do it, it’s up to us.
For example I’ve been involved in several industrial soundscape/noise projects in the past few years, and I used this experience to add extra soundscapes to the album.
We have always been writing our music from an instrumental point of view, and we’d add the vocals always in last minute before we’d record the actual song. Things are different now. We have more freedom to fill up all spaces in the songs, and even though we’re not an instrumental band, we don’t have to think where we need to leave spaces for the vocals. We just fit vocals in where we think they are needed.
– Due to this, I would like to know how the composition process tends to be in SERPENTCULT and what are your inspiration sources…
I mainly set out the basics of the songs, the vision and the atmosphere of the album. I come up with ideas, and we start jamming, exchanging ideas and so on. But the songs need to digest and mature. The basic songs for Raised By Wolves were ready a few months before we recorded them already, but they were constantly adapted and improved. It’s a very organic process, and it’s only last summer that we felt that the time was right to start recording, because only then we thought the songs were actually ready.
For Raised By Wolves, I’ve mainly been inspired by 2 topics. First of all, there were my hiking trips to Scandinavia that left a big impression on me. The vast savage nature astonished me so much that it left a huge impact on me.
Next to that, I’m also intrigued by the behaviour of people within a community and society in general. This is reflected in the lyrics of Raised By Wolves, but also on the lyrics on Weight Of Light, who handle about similar subjects.
– In the album there are only 4 songs, and they all are quite lenghty, more than usually. So did this change anything during the songwriting process? How could you say has this affected your music and the final input?
We felt that with the 4 songs that are on the album, our story was told. We initially recorded 6 or 7 songs for the album, but we only finished the 4 which are on the actual album. The fact that the songs are lengthier was a natural process, the songs needed more ‘time’ to build up the atmosphere and reach their climax.
– I have always thought atmosphere is an important part of SERPENTCULT. What are your thoughts on this?
Oh I agree! The atmosphere and the main ‘big idea’ behind this album was set out months before we even started writing the music for this album. It was very clear for me since the very the beginning what kind of atmosphere I wanted to put down with this album, and I think we’ve succeeded quite well!
It’s also interesting to see how people interpret this atmosphere in different ways. Some people find it a dark, dense and heavy atmosphere, whereas other people told me they thought it was a very light and melodic atmosphere. I think a lot of that depends on how and where you listen to the album for the first time, and what frame of reference you use. There is no right or wrong here.
– You have always managed to maintain your personality but refreshing yourself with each release. How do you deal with this?
Thank you, I consider this as a big compliment. Every music we have written and every note we will write as SerpentCult will sound very much like SerpentCult, whatever we do, for the simple reason it is made by the 3 same people and we write this music from the heart.
– When I reviewed «Raised by Wolves» I said that, if some people won’t dare say this is your best effort so far, no one can say this is not the best in creative terms. What could you say on this? As I think has refreshing structures and the final result is really passionate and expressive, as if everything was really well-cared, even the tiniest details…
I leave that opinion to others, but I’m happy to see that people perceive Raised By Wolves in this way, and that that our creative output is appreciated.
For me personally, Raised By Wolves is the most personal record I ever made, and for this reason also the best. This was the album I’ve wanted to make for such a long time, free from all expectations and boundaries. It took us a lot of time to finish it, we had lots of ups and downs, but the result is very rewarding.
And even though I think this is our best album to date, I still think we can do even better! Making music for SerpentCult is not a fixed concept of music, it’s a constant process.
– You moved from Rise Above to Listenable Records; what was the reason behind it? Rise Above seems to be a really good home for Doom Metal and similars, so I guess you may feel really well with Listenable…
Rise Above have always done a great job for us, really. Whenever we needed something, we got it. But when we announced Michelle’s departure and our plans for the new album, we were realistic and we knew there was only a small chance that they would be interested in releasing the new album. Our new music didn’t really fit the label’s roster, so when the plans with Rise Above fell through, Listenable promptly offered us a deal for this new album.
I’m glad we’re on Listenable, Laurent is a great guy, we’ve known him for many years and now we’re finally working together!
– How’s the Metal scene like in Belgium?
Busy I guess, but I honestly don’t care too much.
– And what are your main musical influences?
Haha, do you have an hour or two to go through the items in my record collection? Seriously, I’m influenced by many different types of music and bands, some you would expect, some you would not expect. The result of all this is the music you hear on our records and the evolution we go through. Whilst creating this album, I must admit that next to the usual heavy stuff I listen too, I’ve also been listening to some older stuff from my collection like Ved Buens Ende, early Ulver, Bathory, and so on. But the list of non-metal musical influences is even exponentially bigger, so there you go.
– Finally, what are your near-future plans?
I guess we’ll see what the future brings. Maybe we’ll be doing some live shows, probably a new record at some point; we’ll see
– That’s all from my side, thank you once more. If you want to add some final thoughts; take the last lines.
Thank you for your interest in SerpentCult and for listening to what we have to say.
