1- Hello and thank you for this enterview. For those who do not know me, I'm João Simões and Hulduefni is my music project. About Hulduefni... as it says on my blog in the biography part: "It started in November 2011 when a friend of mine showed me the soundtrack of the game "Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines". I really liked the album, and I was extremely interested in the music.
Only in December 2011 is that after further investigate these music styles darker, minimal and sometimes repetitive, like Dark Ambient, Drone, etc., is that I (João Simões) decided to try writing an inspirational tracks on several songs I had heard so far. Using only an electric guitar and sometimes a bass.
The tracks started to get more and more interesting, until I decided to start to pay more attention in the production of each of them.
From December to early February, was to create and produce several songs until February decided it was time to join the best songs he had done, to the point, an album / demo.
Throughout the month of February was preparing the album, but without much certainty if the launch was for the public, or if would do just for me.
But after showing the songs to several people, almost all, if not all the same, they encouraged me to release the album. So I did so ...
In March 2012 I launched my first album titled Deep Darkness, limited to 20 copies. Which also had the participation of two friends.
The reception was very good, which made me immediately start thinking about the creation of new music."
2.How would you describe the musical sound that has been presented on the recordings so far?
2-Well the sound is generally speaking a mix "between dark ambient, drone and experimental, with a touch of psychadelic.", as it says on my blog, but I already record music that is close to black metal and to noise, so it's a mix of strange music genres and styles...
3.What are some of the themes and images you bring out with your musical style?
3-It really depends on what album you are asking, because now with more than 30 records out, it really depends... I like to do themed albums. So some albuns can bring to your mind the image of space in a "good" way (like for relaxing) or an image of space in a "bad" way like the movie Alien or something haha. Or it can be very industrial like in the album "Synthetic Works", where you can only imagine and grey industrial city... Very different themes and landscapes like you see from these examples from album to album...
4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Hulduefni'?
4-This question is also answered on my blog, but I will told you here: "after searching and looking, and thinking for long hours ...
I found this name "Hulduefni", which means DARK MATTER in Icelandic, now and why the dark matter and why name in Icelandic ...
Dark Matter is tied to space, mystery and at the same time the word "black", has to do with my music ...
Icelandic because I wanted a weird name, confusing and even difficult to pronounce, so to speak, but at the same time not too exaggerated.
Even the Icelanders themselves consider their difficult language.
And for all these reasons, it is perfect."
5.On the albums you have had song titles that deal with occultism, aliens and horror, can you tell us a little bit more about your interest in these topics?
5-Well about the occultism it comes from my love of black metal since way back... And horror topics too, like death metal bands and such. Before I knew what dark ambient was I was already an "metal head" so that's why. About aliens well it's obvious, space and terror mixed, and topics like the "end of the human race" of something like that that you normally see in the horror space movies, like the Alien or War of the worlds, here aliens enslave and try to kill humans... That's just some examples...
6.On the albums you record everything by yourself, are you open to working with other musicians or do you prefer to remain solo?
6-Haha, in fact I worked with, not a lot, but some musicians in my albuns... In Deep Darkness for example, I have 2 tracks that were recorded with some friends where at my house, and in another example, like the split "Life (When Nightmares Become Reality)" I have 2 tracks that were played by both artists, and there are some more examples... When I have some friends over my house and we start jamming, sometimes those recordings end up in albums, some times don't. I just reminded another one, the track "Depressive Spring" from the album Journeys Of The Mind, the guitar was played by a friend of mine that lives across the street and the drums were played by me, and then the mixing and production is always made by myself, that is the only thing that I do not want anybody to do but myself, you know it's that "final" touch of the finalisation of the tracks.
7.Over the years you have been a part of a few splits, can you tell us a little bit more about the artists you have shared split's with?
7- Well, frankly it's no special formulla... I just see who are the artists that are usually active in the dark ambient scene and the ones who care about music and love music like I do and contact them and try to work with them... And until today almost all have been very open to splits and to work in colabs and stuff. Great people I have to tell you :)
8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of experimental and dark ambient?
8-This is a great and contorvercial question in my opinion. Well, one great artist that guide me through the scene and how "dark ambient works" that is the artist "Merankorii", he is also portuguese, told me that the dark ambient and experimental music takes time to settle down, people need time to listen carefully, to grow the love for the music as the artist grows itself, and it's very true. I the begining I thought that because I was releasing a lot of stuff and dedicating myself like 200% to this that I could like getting a music contract or something and that I could get into "big business" with this, but well with time I saw that it takes time... It's not like from night to day... And with time I think that my "fan base" is growing and that a lot of new people is discovering and liking my music, and that feels great! :D But yes, I still dream of one day do music for a major video game or a movie or something, that would be awesome!!
9.Are you also involved with any other musical projects?
9-Yes, I'm involved in LostsoL my black metal band, that is running a bit slow now... I'm also running my own label Dark Matter Records and my new adventure is hip-hop and beats, with my crazy/funny artist name Crazy John, John because of my name João, that is John in english. It's a totally different world the beats and hip-hop instrumentals, but it's also great to be able to work with new people from a totally different music background.
10.Where do you see yourself heading into as a musician in the future?
10-Well, I really do not know, but like I told you in the question 8, I would like to start making music for movies and games, and to be able to be "more" than just some tracks on some CD and to "bring to light", bigger stuff like, when working with image (movies or games for example) you can feel the music and see it also in the face of caracters in games or actors in movies, you know what I'm saying right?
11.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
11-Like I told you on question 5, the music styles that influence me is black metal and metal in general, a lot of OST of games and movies and the list goes on and on... But if you want names, I can give you names... Burzum, Xasthur, Darkthone, Mayhem, etc... About games, it is with no doubt the OST of "Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines", and also a band that I would like to guive a especial thank YOU for existing is Darkspace ! This one is wow... I don't have any words to discribe this, only one MASTERPICE!
And about the question what I'm listening these days... Well nowadays I listen to anything, I mean it! From black metal to clasical to hip-hop, I listen to it haha. (But right now I have been listening to a lot of old school punk! UK PUNK! Like Chaos UK for example)
12.What are some of your non musical interests?
12-Haha interesting question, well right now because of college unfortunatly I do not have much free time :/ and the only free time that I get I try to relax a bit, go out with friends, sometimes do a music jam, and when I can, I like to go to the country side to relax away from the stress of the city and just to breathe some freash air :)
13.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
13-Yes, I would like to thank YOU for this enterview! I would like to thank to ALL my fans out there reading this! THANK YOU! And I would like to thank to my family and closest friends for the bigg support over the years! :) Thanks!
And just to finish, sometimes people ask me if Hulduefni will eventually end... haha, the answer is no... I can be sometimes be more worried about college or something and sometimes release less stuff but Hulduefni is here to stay, so no worry about it and keep listening!
Thanks!
https://www.facebook.com/Hulduefni/
No comments:
Post a Comment