July 4, 2009
North Carolina Black Metal hellraiser OG TegneT and I connected through MySpace via Necrosadik. I asked him if he'd be interested in a review or interview, and he did both.
You name several heroes in the notes for the album. Gonzo, Maynard, Kurt, and more. Could you tell the readers why these men are specifically heroes for you?
These men are more then heroes to me really. I see them as martyrs. They represent everything that I care about and are the ones I have looked to for guidance and creativity for many years.
When I was younger they bridged the gape between what confused me and what was really going on in the world and within my mind.
They opened me to see what lies are around me and how much harm these supposed "good guys" are doing to us as a race.
Gonzo was raw and honest. The same goes for the late Bill Hicks.
Kurt was the one who made me want to play music to begin with.
His ways of creating where so crooked and twisted that they were mesmerizing to hear or see.
Dr.Rick Strassman is the last known to have done psychedelic research in the United States. His studies where on the chemical DMT.
Lets talk about the lyrics of OG TegneT. What are the songs on the album about, from your side of writing them? Obviously, listeners might hear something different in them than what you originally intended.
I write about things that concern me, confuse me, and especially things that piss me off.
"1929" was written about an uncle of mine who murdered his family on Christmas morning in 1929 in North Carolina; "Murders of Creation" is about the government and how they dumb us down to take their bullshit; "2nd of the Ogloktein Scribes" is a guide to what is to be done after my death; "The Doomed" was written after I read an interview with Tom G. Warrior. His view of the world matched mine 100% at the time so I started writing, and "The Doomed" was the result.
As for the rest of the songs from the album, they are a collection of things that simply piss me off.
You're with Trippin' Hippie Records. How long have you had a relationship with the label? What else can people new to OG TegneT expect in the future?
I have been with Trippin Hippie Records since the beginning, back in 2001.
When me and Necrovore (of Alignak) where just starting out, we helped each other back & forth, creating a very tight relationship between us & T.H.R.
This year alone I have two splits coming out, one with Rotting in an Open Field, and the other is with 3 other bands: Dead Mountain, Goatfucker, & Immortal Sacrifice. Also, I will appear on Trippin Hippie Records' North Carolina Black Metal comp.
Then my full-length Vampir Weibchen will be released on October 31, 2009, but if things go my way, I have enough material to release two full-length albums on Halloween night.
It's obvious through listening to "Ashes" as an entire album that you have a love for more than just metal. There's some grungy elements on there, some industrial, and some rock. How is it that you've been able to capture such large degrees of variance in your music?
I play from within. From this I can achieve a sound that is custom to me, and me only.
I like ALL music and appreciate all art no matter what form it is in.
When someone catches my attention as Kurt Cobain, Cliff Burton, Tool and NIN did, I seem to dive in headfirst into why they are the way they are and why they sound the way they do. I concentrate on the person more because that person is the prime creator of whatever grabbed my attention in the first place.
After I discovered black metal, I did the same.
Like Leatherface's mask, it's a crude stitching of everything I hold close to me.
What kind of gear do you use for playing? How about recording; did you use a professional studio or a home studio?
I use Behringer amps. I have a black B.C.Rich Warlock with a Floyd Rose tremolo and
a dark red Epiphone SG covered in stickers which I used in the From the Ashes of Ruins recordings.
For recording I have a very well set-up here in my lair where I use high dollar recording software.
I am constantly surrounded by cords, guitars & mic stands.
Many black metal musicians are attracted to the music because it is "ungerground", it is "raw", "primitive", and other reasons. Why were you attracted to black metal?
Those same reasons are why I gravitated to black metal. I was on a hunt since I first heard Black Sabbath to find the most fucked up, twisted, fastest music I could. And, well, I found everything I was looking for. Over 10 years of searching and I heard Mayhem for the first time.
I have been dedicated to the black arts ever since.
When you're getting ready to write material, does it all come out in a spontanious spurt, which you then go over again and again until a song is born, or is everything you do carefully calculated from the start?
Both. For my next album Vampir Weibchen I planned damn near every riff.
But for my other full length due for release on Halloween,
I spontaniously made a drum track then recorded guitars then bass & so on at a random pace. If I have lyrics that fit, great. If not, then I start writing.
© 2009 Funeral Rain. Questions? Email.
