INTERVIEW WITH NEBELHEXE (italian version)
by Giancarlo Bolther

Your new record is very dark with a lot of eighties referencies, what kind of music do you want to create with your new project?
With Hagalaz' Runedance I tried to create a specific folk music sound with medieval instruments to create an old and earthly atmosphere that fits to the concept of ancient northern spirituality. But since I am also very inspired by gothic, wave and other alternative music, bands like Depeche Mode, Killing Joke, Bauhaus, Kate Bush, Dead Can Dance, Skinny Puppy etc, etc to name examples, I had many ideas to experiment with music. I felt the urge to explore the many possibilities of creating musical sounds and I wanted to focus more generally on my feelings, dreams, obscure experiences, parallel worlds and the magic that is surrounding me. Now I just want to create, express what is inside of me, being true to myself, without restricting and limiting myself to a specific genre anymore. Being an artist (and a pagan) I always seek to grow, to explore and to challenge. I also began working within other artistic areas; creating visual art and video concepts for example.
I'm not sure how I would describe my new songs. I feel a lot of Hagalaz' Runedance is kept in the new songs, but I also think there are a lot of gothic influences, since 80's gothic, industrial and synth pop inspired me very much.

Can you tell us more about the songs and the making of the new album and what does it mean the title of the new album for you?
The songs are very inspired by my childhood memories, bizarr occult experiences, wet dark streets of London, strange dreams, feelings of sadness, melancholy and lost love. I think I am the typical person who uses music and art as therapy. When I open myself to the emotions and visions of the past I can communicate with my inner self, work on myself and grow as a person. My music has always been personal and honest, yet with Hagalaz I focused entirely on the forgotten pagan mysteries and thus the songs had a message to the listener. The new songs have less a message and more a feeling I want to bring across. Except the song 'Reverse', which is a bittersweet humoristic message: A dark goddess rises from the ground to remind abused women, of their forgotten preditor instinct, getting them to reverse and strike back...
I think my dearest songs are Totems, My Visual World and Touch Of Morpheus. Totems is a vision of wolves disguised as dark men wandering, following me, seeking me... an image of other worlds and the decaying city. This is also a comic idea I am working on. Kind of in the same manner as the old black and white movie 'Carnival of Souls'. My Visual World is about myself...walking
through endless streets...seeing and searching... Touch Of Morpheus is about a vision of decadence, opium, absinth, the sleeper god Morpheus.. and a gothic experience of my own...
Laguz is a rune which symbolises deep emotions, intuition, the deep water, the lake. It can be used to influence and speak to a person's subconscious. In this song I describe a personal experience, a spell trying to influence someone. Symbolically I describe the deep lake, yet the song is about a special someone I had met... we sit in a cafe in deep conversation, time goes by...and he 'floats away' from me...and I drown in the lake of love... yes also witches can fall unhappily in love...

Where have you found the ispiration to write this album?
My life, my visions, thoughts strange dreams and feelings... myths, mysteries, other worlds...

This album marks a new step into your career, will you record again with this new project in future?
Yes I plan to release my new artistic adventures under my artist name...

Which are your fave bands/artists, the ones that inspires you best?
Music that inspired me are no doubt Kate Bush, Dead Can Dance, Death In June, Coil, Current 93, New Model Army, Sisters, Killing Joke, Toyah, the Cure, Siouxie, Lene Lovich, Depeche Mode.and many more...

Gothic music is very popular nowadays, how do you feel about the new artists?
I think Gothic music in general today has lost its touch...I am not so up to date with new gothic bands really...From todays scene I like for example Hoccico (if one can call them goth?), London After Midnight, Gothminister...

In my opinion nowadays there are a lot of bands in the goth scene, but very few are good as the artists of the eighties, i believe that dark wave bands (Bauhaus, Joy Division, Killing Joke, Christian Death, Virgin Prunes.) were much more experimental and searched than today bands, what is your point of view?
Yes I think they had their own style, todays bands often tend to try to copy Sisters, thus loosing a personal touch. I think it is important to try to experiment with new sounds, and interpretate them personally even if one is inspired by the old bands...

You play also Celtic music, but you choose to play a very darkest tipe, why do you are so gloomy?
I just am a gloomy person... hehe... well I am very inspired by dark atmospheres and am a very melancholic person deep inside. But I also am a very humerous person with a lot of self-irony, I love to have fun, make people laugh and my friends usually have a really funny time with me...

How is born your musical carreer?
I think it started in '93 when I took singing lessons and violin lessons.... I started to make music and tried to play in a band as well. Then I was asked by Cradle of Filth to do some guest vocals, because they were very interested in La Vey's satanism and I was at that time a priestess of a left hand path magic order. After that I started with my own projects and released a cd with Aghast...

Which were the happiest years of your life?
Can't answer this one...life always has its ups and downs... but I surely had a quite interested life and experienced a lot of weird things, happy things, but also many sad ones...

And the most difficult ones?
See above...

What does it mean for you Paganism and to be a pagan and do you consider yourself as pagan?
To me being a pagan means to be free and natural, without being restricted by the boundries of dogmatic patriarchal religions. To be a magician or witch means to explore life, to communicate with the cosmos, to influence ones fate to the better and most of all to grow as a person. I see life as a journey, with always new possibilities and also many obstacles... there are always new beginnings in life...

In your website i've read that you are interested in Anton LaVey scripts, can you tell me more about, please? Are you involved in satanism?
No I am not involved in Satanism, cause the figure of Satan is still an invention of Christianity and I like to ignore every aspect of this religion. But nevertheless I have been very inspired by LaVeys books. I agree a lot with what he sais and I do know a lot people from the Church of Satan...

In your opinion there are some links between satanism and paganism?
Like I said, the figure of Satan is still an invention of Christianity and I like to ignore every aspect of this religion. But the link might be that both are interested in living a natural life without dogmatic patriarchal religion...

Do you have a philosophy? Your vision of the world is...
something I cannot say in a few words. I have written a lot about my world views, also in my book 'The Ancient Fires of Midgard'. Chapters of it can also be found in my websites... doing a little advertising here...

Which are your ambitions and expectations about the future? What is the greatest challenge for your future?
The greatest challenge is of course to get very famous, inspire many people with my ideas and finally earn a lot of money from my music and art...hehe... well I guess that will remain a fantasy...

Is there something special that you would like to say to your italian fans?
I very much hope to come and play life soon in Italy...see you there... :)

GB

Reviews (in italian): Lagutz Within the Lake

Related Artists: Hagalaz' Runedance