1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the musical project? We are quite literally ritual magicians that use sound, in this case, as our tool to practice our craft.
2.You have an album coming out in May, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording? Atmospheric organized chaos
3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music? The majority of the vocals on the upcoming album are free form expressions of the Spirit influenced by an emotion or energy at the time of the recording.
4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Degtras'? Olpirt: Well to be honest the name Degtras kinda happened on accident. It must have been a late night a number of years ago and I was tired so I just created a folder for some files with a random name. Later that year when I went looking for those files, I saw a number of correlations of the odd title to my spiritual system, and decided to adopt it for my art. Degtras has now evolved into an umbrella title for all art projects that I am involved with….. Mahorela: I thought it was a great name for a music project, and I had been working on some ambient tracks created by mostly field recordings. Although it would be several years before that name was associated with the band. The band didn't even exist at the time. I was just messing around with ambient recordings by myself when that name came into being. Olpirt had just started working on ambient music with me when he named that folder for his art. After he had worked with me on several ambient compositions by that point, and it was his name for all of his art projects, it fell into place. I still think it's a great, unique name for a band.
5.Currently there are only 2 members in the band, are you planning on expanding the line up in the future or do you chose to remain a duo? Olpirt: We are content keeping the core of the band a duo but will not discourage any collaborators that want to contribute to our project….. Mahorela: We have had a number of collaborators already, but many of them are friends and family, not necessarily musicians. My brother does bass on Ancient Forest for example. A very close friend of mine does vocals on that same track. My wife also contributed vocals to that track. Many of them were recordings that were never intended for music production.
6.Has the band done any live shows or is this strictly a studio project? This is strictly a studio project.
7.The album is coming out on Wood And Stone Production, can you tell us a little bit more about the label? Wood and Stone productions is an Indie tape label that started this year. They are interested in releasing experimental music. We found them through a mutual friend and sent them Hominidae Resonance. They liked it and wanted it to be their first release.
8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of dark ambient? We have had minimal feedback so far, but it has been very positive.
9.Where do you see the project heading into musically during the future? We hope to venture down deeper, more ancient roots. The addition of analog synthesizers on the new album we're currently working on has really added depth to our sound.
10.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? Since we're recording our second album currently, scheduled to be out on Wood and Stone later this year, we try to have little outside influence for our work. We've found that our best songs and ideas come from a pure place not tainted by any other influence other than ourselves. When we aren't writing we enjoy a variety of music. Mahorela: This year has been filled with black metal, doom metal, and noise mostly for me. Peppered with some progressive and jazz. Olpirt: For me this year has taken me further into melodic/symphonic black metal, and some doom metal laced with scandinavian folk metal for good measure.
11.How would you describe your views on Occultism? Ritual is Life and Life is Ritual. They are entwined like the roots of the Aspen.
12.What are some of your non musical interests? Art of any kind. Nature. Astronomy. Physics. Medicine. Mathematics. Cooking. Biology. Herbalism. Shamanism. Language. History.
13.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts? We thank you for your review and taking the time to write a well thought out interview. To everyone who has taken the time to listen, we appreciate you. All life is connected, we're just trying to translate that into sound. We are the musicians, but you hold the true power of it all. Take what you have heard and do something with it. Even if it is as simple as a conversation, never forget that humans create, that is our true gift.
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