Line Up:
Nina Spruk On Vocals
Ema Babosek On Rhythm Guitars
Blaz Tansek On Lead Guitars
Neza Pecan On Bass
Mihaela Zitko On Drums
Well,Friends Of Aristocracy!
We speak again of our newsroom, where in a little while, we will have in all its emotions, the interview 163 of the Aristocracy.This time, we talked to a band that shows classic doom in a raw way.Parallel to this, they work on themes such as nature, death and the occult in an intense and elaborate way. A band mostly female, but the talent is so special that you don't feel any difference in the quality and polishing of the songs. from Slovenes from Mist who show us their debut album entitled Free Me Of The Sun. Let's go to a song by them so that we can start this incredible and exclusive interview.First, we have to thank the band and the website Doomed Nation for introducing us to these talented Slovenians. Now, on to the music and the beginning of the chat.
A1:Talking about the composition work in Free Me On The Sun?
Neza:Songs mostly consist of the usual parts - intro, refrain, bridge,
solo and such. We look up to traditional metal genres and occult bands
such as Coven, where simplicity is often a typical element of the music.
Ours is based on simple principles, a riff, a vocal line and a rhythm.
We tailor it to our style with a second guitar or vocal which supports
the main one, often with a third above and add a supporting bass line.
Ema: We base a lot of our music on the riffs and also tried to create
more diversity with vocals by including my softer voice to contrast
Nina’s powerful vocal presence.
A2:What is Ora Pro Nobis?
Neza:It means pray for us and it's taken from an engraving above an
octagonal church's door.The song itself is a fictional story of ghosts
and warriors that found their final resting place in a sextagonal church, we changed the number to be a better fit to our song. The lyrics are based on the aforementioned octagonal church in Slovenia,which is located in the small town of Kobarid.
A3:How does the occult inspire the band?
Neza:We are inspired by nature, witchcraft, spirits and such. Our songs
are mostly about life and death, and being a bunch of creative people,
we often look at our own experiences through a supernatural lens. We
admire history and stories that stemmed from superstitions through time,
but the lyrics we write are based on our lives, the way we live and
think.
A4:Is the fifth song a journey to our innermost depths?
Ema: The idea behind ‘Altar of you’ is human vanity and obsession with
looks, how the external portrayal is not always a reflection of a
person’s inner world.The mask that people wear to be more liked and
admired is used to manipulate and use others so in my mind it becomes
like black magic used for dark purposes.
A5:Some literature or film inspire the band?
Neza: For me personally nothing specific. I enjoy the general aesthetic
of many old films, and would someday like to apply it to a music video
of ours, especially the silent film era visual style.
A6:What´s the idea behind artwork´s album?
Mihaela: The album cover art represents how I imagined the song "Free me
of the sun". Essentially it's a person that has given up and is
accepting the dark depths. She is releaved that the sun is setting
behind the red sea that she created. There is still a regretful feeling,
but it's already too late. The blood waves not only represent the
physical leaving of the world but communicate the complexity of her
feelings. The deeper they go, the less of the brightness she sees. Black
hair covers her face, as she slowly drowns and knows she is fading to be
forgotten.
A7:How are the dark harmonies on this album made?
Ema:Our riffs always gravitate towards darker harmonies, we just can’t
help it!
A8:How is Mist different from your previous bands?
Ema: We all started Mist pretty young at 18-20 years old, I used to be
in a rock band in high school but I couldn’t really express myself the
same way as in Mist. We are also great friends now and I can’t imagine
having this kind of relationship with any other people.
Neza: I had no previous bands, I did play in a classical guitar
orchestra though. There are no similarities to playing in a band beside
from other people being present.
Nina:I did not have any bands prior to Mist. I played drums and sang
in a choir in primary school. Everybody in Mist met each other while we
were in highschool and we sort of grew up together as a band and
friends.
A9:Why does the band have this name?
Ema:I remember we were all actively looking for a name back in the
beginning but we struggled for a while, then when Mist came along it was
pretty quickly approved by all of us and we still love it even though we
later learned it means something like shit in german haha.
A10:How does death inspire the band in their music?
Ema:Death is something ever present and trying to view it with
acceptance rather than fear seems to be our common theme.
Neza:Death is often viewed as an ideal and a desire, mostly to leave
life and find peace in it.
Nina: For me,death and grieving opens a new sphere for vocal ideas and
melody interpretations.
A11:The band plains to doing your second album?
Neza: We are writing songs for our second album at the moment.
A12:This album is conceptual?
Mist:No.
A13:How did the band arrive to Soulseller Records?
Mist:We were talking to a few labels at the time and Soulseller felt like the
way to go. Jorn is a great support for us and he leads his label really
well!
A14:Does song nine deal with real delusions in their private lives?
Ema:The song ‘Delirium’ is actually inspired by this movie I saw years
ago and can’t remember the name but there was a scene where people went
into a casino and were drugged secretly with hallucinogens to keep them
there gambling and doing crazy shit,everyone there was stoned and it
seemed to the guests like they had been there for a few hours when
actually it had been days,then my imagination kind of went from there.
A15:What kind of emotions inspire the band?
Neza: For me, it's mostly heavy, dark and hopeless emotions. Writing is a
release. If you were to use the lyrics,I wrote as spells you'd most
likely get ill.
Ema: it really depends - usually there are some stories in my head that
I want to transfer to paper and sometimes its heavy feelings.Some songs,
but, very rarely come in a dream. For example the refrain of ‘White
Torch’ was in a dream I had and then we added Neža’s lyrics that fit
perfectly.
A16:What does the band understand as natural in their songs?
Neza: Earth,air, fire, water, spirit. Everything that surrounds us,
everything we are.
Ema:We don’t like to use many effects or electronic sounds in our
music, I think that we want to sound a bit rough and not perfectly timed
or always identical. It is a more relaxed way to view music and it fits
us well.Then there is our lyrics that are about nature, human emotions,
spirits.Nature is the source and it is infinitely inspiring.
A17:The band feel differences between Inan and Free Me Of The Sun?
Ema: I think we are evolving with every new song and of course there is
also a difference in production and such. For our next album, we would
like to record all at the same time because we really sound best playing
together, it’s not about precision or technicality, Mist is the feeling
of us five coming together to make something beautiful.