HERE WE HAVE AN INTERVIEW WITH AMERICA'S "AZORDON"!!

1. AVET: For starters, thanks for doing this!! Readers of malaiseinterieur.blogspot.com will be pleased!!

2. AVET: Let me start off saying ''Annihilator'' was the first Raw Black Metal album I downloaded, so it's pretty special to me!! Now, here's the first question:
Why make covers of non - black metal songs like ''Replicas''?

AZORDON: Thank you! I'm glad some people get something out of what I do!

In regards to "Replicas", well, why not? I listen to quite a variety of music including non - metal artists such as Gary Numan and A Flock Of Seagulls and I always loved the Replicas album even before I got into Metal so I thought I'd give it a try to cover it. Besides, this isn't anything new, my some of my favorite metal artists have done this a lot too! Take Lycanthropy's Spell's Tribute EP for instance which has a cover of Bahaus and Kino as well as "Winter Dreams" by Accept which isn't a black metal song.

3. AVET: Do you prefer Azordon to Kvasta?

AZORDON: Azordon obviously, it's my main project.

Kvasta and Metookie are side projects I did when Azordon was in its earliest stage of development when everything was new to me and I wanted to explore some other ideas I had going on that I felt weren't fit for Azordon at the time. I definately prefer Kvasta to Azordon's early material from 2008 - 2009 such as the demo, Blood Goat split, and Hateblood, but as Azordon progressed throughout 2009 to now, I don't see much need for Kvasta anymore and only really do it on the side when I want to take a break from Azordon. Lately, I'm planning on focusing on Azordon almost the whole time though because my other projects sound somewhat similar now and I'd rather just do Azordon which blends everything together.

Back in the early days, the original intent was that Kvasta was a sort of folk/viking black metal project while Azordon was a more "true" project at the time I guess, I'm just really glad that's not the case anymore and that Azordon evolved into it's own style which actually I do owe to Kvasta (and my natural progression as a guitar player haha!) because Kvasta let me try out and record new ideas and riffs that Azordon didn't do at the time.

4. AVET: Is Azordon just a fuckin' joke or are you taking the whole thing seriously?

AZORDON: I knew this would come up sooner or later after The Walls ov Pandemonium was released and I'm glad haha!

Well first off, Metookie was around since 2008 and the first demo, The Kvlt Wars was created in August 2008 and that release and overal project can be called a joke/comedy. That was before Azordon even finished the first demo!

Anyways, I wanted to do more of this with Azordon as well because something just made me want to take things a step further into obscurity which I can definately say was a great thing!

And honestly I got so sick of the stupid black metal scene and how some people and bands take shit so fucking seriously and make a whole lifestyle out of it acting like they own the universe just because they listened to some Darkthrone and Mayhem songs on YouTube. I just want to do my own thing and have my own ideas. I don't even call my music black metal for the most part, I call it "Azordon Metal" or just Azordon. At the same time, maybe I am black metal because to me, black metal means being yourself and doing your own thing, but if that's not the case anymore and black metal really means being "true" and confining yourself to a stupid category, doing things only a certain way, appealing to a certain narrow-minded fanbase, obeying some kind of hidden "rules" and formulas and whatever, than I would rather be a so called "poser" any day! Azordon pretty much evolved and merged everything together into its own entity. I guess I take my music seriously in a fun way if that makes sense. I'm serious with my instruments like anyone would be, but as far as the themes and vibes go, I'm really just having fun and doing what comes to mind whether it's a song about some joke or forests or whatever, I don't even write any lyrics for my music and never did from the start. To me it's all about atmosphere and feeling really. Oh and kick ass guitar melodies! I'm not trying to prove anything or fit into some stupid catagory.

5. AVET: Tell us more about your plans in the future?

AZORDON: Just make more music and have fun basically. I don't know what the future holds of course. Maybe I'll have other projects with other people, maybe we'll all vanish into thin air tomorrow, who konws?

As far as making my music and plans for it, everything I do for the most part is improvised and I have very vauge goals for the future. I just live in the moment and see what I come up with. At times I am a bit more focused, for instance on Fragments ov Sorrow, I wanted a mostly acoustic/ambient release and The Walls ov Pandemonium and A Majestic New Paradise Awakens I wanted to do some crazy fun shit! But everything I do regarding the composition, song titles, album titles, album artwork, etc. It all comes in its own time. I just make songs and save them, as the list grows, I begin to come up with the album name, play around with potential pictures for album covers I photoshop, and so forth.

6. AVET: Which bands are your influence?

AZORDON: As I said before, I listen to a lot of different stuff and to list each and every influence I have is pointless and tedious. But I'm pretty sure many people can tell what a few of my influences are based on past songs I have covered and my overal style and atmosphere.

Ildjarn in particular has always been an influence with the raw and hateful lo - fi minimalistic greatness it made! A few other notable projects include Lycanthropy's Spell, Moonblood, Astrofaes, Anthropolatri, Vondur, Windir's demos, Azhubham Haani, Ulver's old stuff, Burzum, Bathory, Gromm, Svarga, Rundagor, Isengard, Diabolical Masqurade's first album, Satyricon's first album, and just so much other stuff including ambient, dark ambient, clean/folk/acoustic stuff, movie/videogame music, and some non metal artists.

Metallica got me into Metal when I was fourteen and I listened to all the usual shit like Slayer, Megadeth, Exodus, Venom, Possessed, and Death and later on Bathory got me into more black metal and then I got into Burzum and it just keeps piling up from there with many different bands from different genres (Black, Death, Thrash, Power, non metal stuff, etc.) so I think you get the idea.

7. AVET: Will you do any other splits in the future? I love the Blood Goat one!

AZORDON: Thank you! If any band is interested and messages me on MySpace or something than I am most likely going to do one with them, but the band has to be unique and obscure, take Valkynaz and S.O.D.D. (Strings Of Distorted Doom) for example! Both great bands and friends of mine that you should check out by the way!

Otherwise, I am absolutely not interested in doing splits with generic bands who are just trying to be "true" and "evil" and play very bland, boring, and predictable music.

8. AVET: How do you feel about Noise in Black Metal?

AZORDON: Are you reffering to the harsh lo - fi quality contained?

Well considering the fact that most of my favorite bands and influences are lo fi and raw like Ildjarn, Lycanthropy's Spell, Moonblood, Rundagor, Valkynaz, and S.O.D.D., than I can say that I love it very much! I absolutely love the atmosphere contained within, it's just amazing what you can do with it!

But some bands just have really bad quality that makes the music too hard to hear or it's just too boring and predictable for me. And I mean really bad, like completely static noise that's overpowering and loud screeching. I'm sure a lot of people out there will say that's exactly what my music sounds like, but I'm sure those are the people who find Dimmu Borgir or Transilvanian Hunger by Darkthrone to be the most harsh quality out there, anything more like Ildjarn and Moonblood is just too much for them. Good riddance I say haha! Anyways, I think there's a good line between Ildjarn style quality and just really bad noise.

9. AVET: Tell us more about your improvisations!!

AZORDON: I just make stuff up on the spot usually with riffs here and there being made before I start recording, otherwise I just play a riff and see what comes from there. I always change melodies and whatnot because that's just how I play and what I love to do. I KNOW that a lot of black or whatever metal is repetative or something, but I'm not a lot of black or whatever metal, I am Azordon!

You know, when I made my first demo, it was hard for me to compose it, I was doing what I said here about improvising on the spot with many different riffs, but I was trying to surpress myself into making songs with three chord progressions because I kept trying to make Azordon a more "true" and minimalistic black metal project at the time and it was just attrotious in the end. I felt like I was really stagnating and limiting myself when I should follow my instincts and do whatever comes to me instead of trying to be something I was not. But hey, you gotta start somewhere I guess and I wouldn't be where I am now if it wasn't for then so I guess things just grow. The split with Blood Goat was where I let go and did whatever came to mind merging everything together and have been growing off that ever since.

Basically though, I'm always playing my guitar, bass, keyboards, and whatnot. I can't go a day without it so I'm always comming up with new ideas!

10. AVET: Do you release CDs? If so, which label releases them?

AZORDON: I had my early Azordon and Metookie material released on CDs by The Black 666 label back in 2009, but for some reason they stopped releasing my music and some random stuff started happening with them I guess. I didn't really care either way though because by the time this started to happen, I got WinRar and a BlogSpot so I always share my music on there for free!

Sometimes I burn my albums on some blank CDs for my friends and send them out in the mail. But otherwise, I just like to post on my BlogSpot for free and for fun and wouldn't have it any other way really!

11. AVET: Non - metal music you like?

AZORDON: Various, as I said A Flock Of Seagulls, Gary Numan, Mortiis (Era I and Era II), Fata Morgana, Vond, Dark Ages, Mistigo Varggoth Darkestra, Burzum's ambient tracks (Mostly the ones on his Black Metal albums though). Clean stuff like Ulver's Kveldssanger, Drudkh's Songs of Grief and Solitude, Circle of Oroborous' Veneration, I like some stuff by bands like Nirvana, L7, Kino, The Irresponsibles (Yes, I only discovered them thanks to The Spoony Experiment!) video game music from games such as Doom, Duke Nukem, StarCraft, and Diablo, movie soundtracks from stuff like Escape From New York, and some other stuff I can't think of anymore. This is why I can't stand having to list a bunch of stuff...

I just listen to whatever I'm in the mood for really.

12. AVET: Thanks for your time!! Any last words??

AZORDON: Thank you for the interview and taking interest in my music, it's really enjoyable to see some people out there get something out of what I do!

Have a great day!!! :D

THAT'S THE INTERVIEW!! SUPPORT AZORDON BY VISITING