Amidst Haze

Band: Amidst Haze
Interviewee: Michael Koefman
Year: 2008
Website: myspace.com/amidsthaze
MySpace: myspace.com/amidsthaze
Label: None
Featured on: Loucifer Speaks Exclusive... So far!

Interview

Lou: Hi, sorry for the delay with this interview - I over did it over the New Year and my brain is only just starting to function again! How are you?

Michael: Good thanks, I've been busy working with some violin tracks we recorded a few days ago.

Lou: I've read that Amidst Haze was formed in 2000. What has happened to the band in that time?

Michael: Just briefly, our first real recording was 'Cernunnos' back in early 2003 with our old drummer Michael Thompson (aka Victor Vomit). Shortly after, 'Moth to the Flame' was recorded which had me taking on board the throat-playing duties. A huge amount of musicians came and went and in 2004 we replaced Victor with Nikolas Kissel and changed our name to Amidst The Haze. We recorded a demo called 'In Haze We Confide' made up of some very old songs then changed the name to Amidst Haze which confused a fair few people. In 2005 we recorded 'Grey Hands' and in 2006 'A Gift, a Dagger' and the first version of 'The Golden Ones/Tuatha De Dannan' was recorded. Nikolas was replaced by a drum machine later in 2006 and A Dying Race started to simmer...

Lou: I've had a look through your influences on your MySpace and there seems to be a large range of bands there. Which bands, in particular, have been the biggest influence for your music?

Michael: Enslaved have played a huge part. Not only has their music influenced us since the beginning but Ivar Bjørnson has been doing so himself as he has been providing us with guidance and constructive criticism throughout the creation of A Dying Race. Opeth are also an all time favourite and I learned how to sing/scream through studying Mikael Akerfeldt's vocals. Anathema are probably the bastards responsible for the hint of doom metal and the copious amounts of melodic riffs in our music but being one of our favourite bands, we don't hold it against them. Anaal Nathrakh's Pandemonic Hyperblast, which I snagged before it was released when I was much younger introduced me to an immensely aggressive form of metal so they're one of the roots than course deeper than most. For me personally I must mention Enya and The Beatles as I grew up on the stuff, also Taake's Nattestid Ser Porten Vid - Part VII and Drudkh's Ukrainian Insurgent Army as those two songs are black metal at its finest.

Lou: Another thing I noticed whilst browsing through the MySpace page is that you draw a lot of inspiration from mythology. Which mythology interests you the most and why? Personally I have a fondness for Norse mythology.

Michael: All ancient belief systems interest me. They were our naked thoughts before having them forcefully dressed by power hungry authorities and I believe we can learn a lot from them. That said, I do know more about Celtic mythology than anything. Mark Chadbourn's books heavily influence our work and he focuses mainly on Celtic mythology. After reading his books I read quite a lot on the Celts, they were a very liberal people and particularly their beliefs in the otherworld interest me. It's also where my heritage lies and I find it intriguing to learn about where I come from.

Lou: One of the songs on your page that really stood out for me was "A Dying Race". I know that in your blog you've touched upon what this song is about, but would you mind giving the readers of Loucifer Speaks a bit of information about it?

Michael: A Dying Race is an augmentation of a traditional Celtic myth. There were only ever two battles of Magh Tuiredh but A Dying Race is about about a third battle of Magh Tuiredh in which the legendary Tuatha De Dannan are defeated by the resurgent Formorii. But as with the entire album, beneath the mythological surface narrative there is a strong message. Like Mark Chadbourn once said in an interview "Stories are the best way for transmitting ideas, because the ideas are put into a structure where they can sink deep into our subconscious, where memes do their work."

Lou: Out of all of the songs that you have created with the band so far, which are you most pleased with?

Michael: That's a hard question. I think A Dying Race in its full 18 minute long form with all the additional instruments added is some of our best work. Some of my very favourites are still stored away in my head though. I'll draw them out when we have a full live band together.

Lou: How do you write your songs? Do you start with the lyrics and then build around them, or is it a more spontaneous process where the band gets together and just sees what happens?

Michael: It depends. Sometimes I just hear them as if they were a song I'd heard on the radio which had been stuck in my head all day. If I have lyrics without a song I'll just read through them and see what melodies spring to mind, and visa-versa if I have a song without lyrics. But I find my better compositions are written on an acoustic guitar in a scenic setting. Forests, beaches, rivers etc all produce different sounds. My favourites are written on storms. I always make an effort to get to a guitar when a storm starts to brew. The majority of the material on A Dying Race was written during storms.

As for Peter, he adds his ideas to the mix now and again which can really bring out the colour in my songs. Quite often he'll just make a mistake that sounds good and we'll end up doing something with it. One of the songs on A Dying Race was written by him too.

Lou: Which of the songs on MySpace has received the most praise from fans?

Michael: Probably a tie between Resurgence and A Dying Race. Resurgence is a lot darker than most of our songs and A Dying Race is just intense. It's very rewarding when we get e-mails from people who truly understand what we're doing and can genuinely appreciate it.

Lou: Could you please tell us a little bit about your upcoming album, A Dying Race?

Michael: It's a full-length album comprised of 9 songs. Initially we just chose some of our favourite songs to record, but they slowly started forming the thread of a story. It's now Celtic themed and fairly complex for something we intended to be a rough demo.

Lou: Will all of the songs from MySpace appear on it?

Michael: All of them except for 'A Gift, a Dagger' as that song is ancient and wouldn't fit well. The rest of the songs will be on it but they'll sound a lot better as we've made some improvements.

Lou: Will it be available to buy online - either in CD or MP3 format?

Michael: Yes, we'll have the cd up for sale on our official website (which is currently under construction)

Lou: Are you currently with a label?

Michael: No, we're doing it all independently for now.

Lou: I'm a big fan of vinyl (although my collection is a bit sparse as the world of CDs takes most of my money now!) and so I was wondering if you'd ever consider releasing an album or EP on vinyl? I feel that your particular style of music would work brilliant on this medium. The 'natural / folkish' feel to some of the songs would really work well with the hiss and crackle of a record...

Michael: Funny you say that, we were actually supposed to release a 7" ep late last year but a friend of ours ran into some financial trouble so we lent him our band funds. When we get the money back from him we'll release it. It will consist of two tracks, one of which will be A Gift, a Dagger and probably the original version of The Golden Ones.

Lou: Which is your favourite format to listen to music on and why?

Michael: It depends on the style, I do like vinyl. My Arms Your Hearse by Opeth sounds brilliant on vinyl.

Lou: What was the last album you bought and would you recommend it?

Michael: It was actually Volta by Bjork but I'd probably recommend her earlier work over that one.

Lou: Do you have any plans to tour in the near future?

Michael: If the response to A Dying Race in New Zealand is any good we may consider doing a New Zealand tour with Nikolas Kissel. I have big plans for Amidst Haze in the future though, I want to tour all around the world, especially Europe. That won't be for quite some time though...

Lou: Which bands - current or otherwise - would you most like to tour with? On a personal note, I think you would sound fantastic alongside Wolven Ancestry and Black Lotus.

Michael: If we come to Canada I'd say we'd most definitely end up touring with Wolven Ancestry. A couple of hours ago Fraust and I were just speaking about how similar our style of writing is - I think it would work perfectly. I'd be over the moon if we toured or even played one opening slot for Enslaved or Opeth too.

Lou: Is there a big extreme metal scene in New Zealand? I only ask because I can't think of very many extreme metal bands that hail from there. Which other bands from your area, if any, would you recommend?

Michael: There's a fair bit of death metal here, a lot of it in the vein of the Gothemburg style which isn't quite to my personal taste. There's barely any black metal, the only bands that spring to mind are Varraghor and a new artist called Balthazar. Ulcerate are decent, as are Dawn of Azazel, but they're predominantly death metal. We're certainly different to the majority of NZ metal.

Lou: I understand that you recently worked with Fraust from Wolven Ancestry (members of the Loucifer Speaks forum may recognise that band name as it's a band that I listen to quite a lot!). Would you mind telling us a little bit about how this collaboration came about and what happened?

Michael: Yes, Wolven Ancestry are brilliant. I'd spoken with Fraust a few times before I showed him A Dying Race. He really liked it and expressed interest in the Irish Whistle featured in the track. I offered to record anything he may want and he promptly took up that offer by asking me to record something on a track called Terra for his experimental side-project, Aastyra. Since then we've been speaking quite often and he's offered to mix and master the low-fi tracks for A Dying Race as best as he can at Sardonic Moon studios. There's even talk of us doing a project together, but you'll have to interview us in the future to get a more specific story on that one.

Lou: What are the plans for Amidst Haze in 2008?

Michael: To release our 7" and A Dying Race, perhaps do a NZ tour and then start working on our next album which will probably come as somewhat of a shock to our listeners.
Thanks for taking such an in-depth approach, Lou.

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