I've been enjoying the sounds of "Light Subsides" for quite some time now, so when Black Lotus agreed to take part in an interview for Loucifer Speaks I was over the moon.

Lou: Hi, thank you for agreeing to this interview and please accept my apologies for the amount of time it's taken for me to get these questions to you! To get us started, please could you describe the music you create with Black Lotus?

Jasper v.d. Veen: Our sound has changed since Light Subsides, when "epic dark folk" or "ocean metal" was how we named it. It has developed into something heavier and bigger and personally I think that including the term "folk" would be kind of a misrepresentation, as it makes you think of a very specific sound that bands like Otyg adopted. There's definitely something in our sound that is derived from such influences though. In all creativity, I would call our music "epic and atmospheric rustic black metal".

Lindsay A. Kerr: The newer material is getting more symphonic with very melodic melodies, its hard to pin point exactly but still enjoy incorporating the folk elements as well.

Lou: I understand that there's been a bit of a line-up change recently. Please can you tell us a bit about the new members and their roles in the band?

Jasper v.d. Veen: On keyboards we now have Jason Robertson, who is the current "house composer" for a local horror/suspense movie production company called Frontline Films. His skill and presence within the band have worked very motivating so far. Jason's experience will also enable us to create and enhance more ambient parts within the music.

Cameron Saunders, on guitar, is our latest recruit. There aren't too many people around here who play our style of music, but he happened to fit right in. He had no problem picking up our songs and has already made a major contribution to our new efforts.

Lindsay A. Kerr: Jason & Cameron are incredible musicians and consistently enhance the new material, we are honoured to have them on board!

Lou: I know that both on your website and on your MySpace, you cite your surroundings on Vancouver Island as a major inspiration for you, but I was wondering if there were any other places where you draw inspiration from? There are a fair few bands that look to folk stories / legends for ideas for their lyrics and I was wondering if you did the same, or - if not - is it something you'd consider doing in the future?

Jasper v.d. Veen: "Canis Lupus Luna - The Song of Boreas" deals with the wolf, the hunter, in his territory, and the relationship between Beast and Man - an ancient principle in folklore of course. I did not write those lyrics myself, however. When I wrote "The Great Mortality" I wanted to convey the grief, horror and emptiness that the Black Death brought to medieval Europe, one of my favorite subjects of history. It's dramatized, but based on fact. "Attaining the Pansophic" is probably the most obvious example as it is a retelling of the sacrifices made by Wodan to achieve the runes and the wisdom of fate.

Other than that I don't really rely on folklore or legend for my lyrics. It usually takes me a while to write lyrics, but I can get inspired by images, atmospheres and ideas that present themselves even in the tiniest way possible in my surroundings. Or it could be a certain word that I come across which eventually turns into a song, like "Oneironaut". Speaking for the band; there are masses of other places besides Vancouver Island that are very much inspiring, but we are simply fortunate enough to live in one of North America's most breathtaking environments.

Lou: Which bands do you like to listen to?

Jasper v.d. Veen: I am still hooked on the classic Scandinavian black metal bands, including less obvious names like Isvind, Kvist, Ved Buens Ende and Enthral. Other favorites in that genre are Lugubrum, Master's Hammer and Sigh, neverending praise for those. And beyond that; Meshuggah, Carcass, Pentagram, Cathedral, Samael, Katatonia, lots of old morbid death and doom metal. And outside of metal I enjoy Early music, certain classical, jazz and...eighties pop.

Lindsay A. Kerr: Many great bands and varieties, to list a few of what I've been listening to as of late: Alcest, Ahnenstahl, Lunar Aurora, Morchiant. Lately have been listening to a lot of symphonic music.

Lou: Which bands would you most like to tour with?

Jasper v.d. Veen: I would very much like to tour with Primordial. Their music is amazing and I think that our sounds would be a great match. Opening for Sigh would be a dream come true for me, even if it were only so I could stand right up at the front of the stage every night with mouth agape, to watch them rip up Venom songs ha ha. That's something quite unlikely to happen though.

But we've always speculated that it would be perfect to play shows with our Dutch friends in Grimm and Urfaust. Now that would be a special tour.

Lindsay A. Kerr: Grimm ideally, and other great acts like Alcest, Kampfar.

Lou: What, if anything, do you think is lacking from the world of Metal at the moment? Or, what should be changed?

Jasper v.d. Veen: To be honest I don't keep up with a lot of modern metal anymore. I find it hard to get motivated to check out new bands or albums. Not wanting to sound jaded, but there's too many crappy bands that release their stuff before they develop and "ripen" properly. The Internet, cheap cd burning and increased developments in home recording have contributed to this. It's great for the eager musician but it means that anyone can put out a cd these days and as a result premature bands and their albums just flood the scene. Because of the sheer volume there is a definite lack of "quality control"; record labels and magazines whose opinions metal fans can rely on before they go and check out new bands. They're still there of course but they don't seem to have the same value anymore.

More "mainstream" metal nowadays seems to be focused on "the product". Everything is streamlined and slickly presented in a total package, ready for anyone to pick up. You notice a new band on the cover of some glossy international metal magazine. After visiting that band's flashy website you can check out their big budget videos on Youtube and become their friend on Myspace, where you can also download their latest ringtones and buy their merchandise from their personalized webshop. The music itself is getting more and more "acceptable" for wider audiences, with extreme metal blending in elements from emo and melodic hardcore. The recordings are dense and compressed and perfectly calibrated for airplay and car speakers. It's all so very "safe". Everyone can be a guitar hero nowadays thanks to popularization of the "shred" style and subsequent endless demonstrations of riffs and solo's on sites like Youtube. Visually there seems to a protocol for modern mainstream bands too, with regulations regarding the tightness of their pre-ripped jeans, the length of their stubble and the amount of eyeliner and chipped black nail polish.

It seems to me that what is definitely lacking nowadays is metal's good old sharp edge.

Lou: As you know, I have your album "Light Subsides" and I think it's absolutely fantastic. It's an album that I can just throw on at the end of a hard day (or in the middle of a hard day!) and just lose myself in it! What are your favourite things about the album and why?

Jasper v.d. Veen: Thank you! My most favorite thing about the album is the unison between the music and artwork. Lindsay's art captured the mood of the music perfectly I think. And Dying Empylver's elaborate special edition of the album was just superb.

"Helios Amaranthine" and "Machinery Brings Mold" are two of my favorite Lotus songs. I think the "mystical" production of the album definitely contributed to the atmosphere we were trying to convey. It's a very atypical sound, atmospheric and light. There's definitely things that we would have done differently, but I'm nevertheless very proud of what we achieved in a relatively short time after getting a full band together.

Lou: What has the response been like for "Light Subsides"? Have the reviews mainly been complimentary?

Lindsay A. Kerr: It was a unique release and being on Dying Empylver Productions, its been very limited on our shores. Its nice to hear feedback on the material that mainly was written in 2003-2004!

Lou: Do you have any other albums other than "Light Subsides"?

Jasper v.d. Veen: No, "Light Subsides" is the first thing we released as a band. There was the "Incandescence" EP, but that was basically three unmastered songs from the album recordings meant to get our name out there before the album was released. There were only 50 made by Dying Empylver Productions.

Lou: Is "The Great Mortality" EP available to buy? And, while I'm on the subject of spending money - do you have any other merchandise?

Lindsay A. Kerr: We were originally going to release The Great Mortality EP, but have decided to use it as promo material. For an official release, we plan to have it has bonus material on the upcoming special edition of the next album (yet to be titled).

Lou: I read on your MySpace that you're currently working on a new album (which is set to be unleashed in the summer of 2008). Does it have a title yet and are you able to tell us anything about it? Will it have the same sort of atmosphere as "Light Subsides"? Will it include other instruments (like the flute on "Incandescence")? Have any of the songs been written or recorded yet? Sorry, this question seems to have morphed into about three questions!

Jasper v.d. Veen: There is no title for the album yet, but songs named "Statues in Auburn" and "Awaken the Season of Old" will be featured on it. Our sound has become heavier, darker and more epic. The songs from the EP are more somber compared to Light Subsides, and we have since then developed from there. Currently there are four new songs ready. Possibly we will re-record a song from Light Subsides, but new songs are the main focus.

The flute was actually not something we thought of having featured in the song when it was written. The engineer was jamming along to that song in the control room while it was being recorded, and it sounded so good together that we wanted it in there! But we will have an instrumental like "Incandescence", so who knows what we might add.

Lindsay A. Kerr: We will be adding more acoustic elements this time around including 12 string & mandolin stings... not to mention how great Jason's keyboard work has been coming along.

Lou: The new album is going to be released through Bleak Art Records (also home to Dark Forest). How did the deal with them come about?

Lindsay A. Kerr: They heard our promo and we went from there! We are very proud to be a part of Bleak Art Records. They have a strong vision and will do a great job of the new release.

Lou: The packaging for "Light Subsides" was superb. The artwork was fantastic and the fact that it all came in a digipak made it feel like I was getting something special. Will the new album be available in packaging as nice as this?

Lindsay A. Kerr: Thank you very much! Packaging and presentation are always very important to us and having it in digipack-matte format gave us a lot of space to work with artistically.

The new album will have also nice packaging to represent the new material.

Lou: I'd like to go back to the artwork for a moment - The cover and inlay for "Light Subsides" are awesome and the design on your website and MySpace are equally as good and the colour scheme and images suit the music perfectly. Who creates the art?

Lindsay A. Kerr: I've been creating all the art, thank you for the feedback!

Lou: Have you released any Black Lotus music on vinyl? Would you ever consider doing this in the future?

Lindsay A. Kerr: Nothing has been released on vinyl so far, but for the upcoming album there has been an expressed interest in a Gatefold LP (which we would add the bonus tracks).

Jasper v.d. Veen: It's a beautiful format and offers a lot of possibilities for new special artwork.

Lou: At possibly the complete opposite end of the spectrum from vinyl is MP3s and downloading - would you ever (or have you ever) released any material purely as an Internet download?

Lindsay A. Kerr: It all depends on what all is involved with purely internet download, but vinyl & cd are always the preferred format for us.

Lou: Many people seem to have very strong views on the subject of downloading. Where do you stand on this debate? Do you think downloading music is the best way to expand your collection, or do you prefer getting music on CD?

Jasper v.d. Veen: Let me put it this way: I would be living in poverty if I still bought all the music that I wanted. There is a lot to say for supporting bands you like, and there's definitely music that I prefer to have in my hand rather than on my hard disk, but when it comes to your budget, time and convenience, downloading is just too tempting. Especially for music that's hard to get your hands on otherwise. Of course, paid downloads are a great idea for bands/labels.

Lindsay A. Kerr: The internet and downloading is a great resource to discover bands and new music. I hold it as a resource to get a good idea of how a band sounds before purchasing their album. CD and vinyl is definitely the preferred format to obtain. Support!

Lou: Would you ever consider releasing an album of 'live' music? Or perhaps a DVD?

Jasper v.d. Veen: It would be great to have a DVD, definitely. Black Lotus shows won't be too common and since we like bringing a visual aspect to our shows by means of slide projections etcetera, being able to show the whole experience on DVD would be awesome. At least we ourselves would be able to see what's going on on the wall behind us, he he.

Lindsay A. Kerr: Yes, that would be a great opportunity, especially if it was a special tour.

Lou: What sort of venues do you like to play in? Where have you played in the past?

Jasper v.d. Veen: We played one live show at a local tavern that is the first place to go for setting up metal shows in Victoria. If we do any more shows we'd prefer playing in venues with a proper stage and sound system. House shows and all ages venues (quite popular over here)are not really our cup of tea, as many of them lack those facilities. They're often too unorganized, there's no place to safely put your gear and the sound is poor.

Lou: It would be fantastic if I could catch Black Lotus live one day. Do you have any plans to tour in Europe? ...and, more importantly (in my mind anyway!) do you have plans to tour in England? Thanks again for your time and answers - I wish Black Lotus the best of luck in the future!

Jasper v.d. Veen: Playing live lots is not one of our main goals, but it would be awesome if we got the opportunity to play in Europe, including England. Right now there are no such plans. We will see where our next album takes us, that's our priority right now. After that we'll see what our options are, hopefully in cooperation with Bleak Art Records.

Lindsay A. Kerr: Naturally, playing over there would be the next step, we'll see what the next album brings!

Jasper v.d. Veen: Lou, thank you for the interesting interview, good luck with Loucifer Speaks and perhaps we'll make it to England one day!

Lindsay A. Kerr: See you in the future, thank you for your continued support Lou!


More Links: "Light Subsides" Review, Black Lotus Thread on Loucifer Speaks forum