Ewigkeit Interview

Ewigkeit delves deeply into the realm of conspiracy on their latest Earache Records effort, "Conspiritus." Combining intense topical matter with highly compelling landscapes, the album is one that more adventurous extreme music listeners will find to be highly enjoyable. Recently, The Gauntlet get the latest info on this crucial release...


The Gauntlet: How do you feel about your latest release "Conspiritus?" How has it been received by the press/fans?

Ewigkeit: I am really happy with "Conspiritus" - it is conceptually an album I have wanted to make for years, and I think that it has captured both the musical progression I have made in past years, together with a thought-out thought provoking theme along with being mixed by one of Electronic music's best producers (John Fryer). People seem to really have taken to the album - it's really a relief when you have spent over 1 year working on something to then have the blessing of the people who it was made for. With perhaps 1 or 2
exceptions, the reviews tend to reflect the great positivity I am feeling about "Conspiritus" too.


The Gauntlet: "Conspiritus" has a very spacey, almost psychedelic feeling. How did you know this was the right approach for this album?

Ewigkeit: I didnt neccesarily do anything other than what just came naturally to me - thats how I write music, and that's what you hear. The elements of
Ewigkeit's music have all been there since the very beggining - it's just that they have been repeatedly fine-tuned and perfected like a race-car - and will
probably be even more so by the next album.


The Gauntlet: The album's theme is one of global slavery by a group of the wealthy elite, and our inability to understand the truth about how they
manipulate us. Are there any songs about particular secret orders or conspiracies?

Ewigkeit: The song "How To Conquer The World (Live at the Bohemian Grove)" is about the famous Bohemian Club who consist of most of the political & buissness
elite of America. They conduct babylonian-style rituals deep in the red-wood forests of Northern California and werefilmed doing so by Alex Jones
(www.infowars.com) and also a TV crew from the UK, and it was shown here on Channel 4. Sounds a bit far-fetched if you are unaware of it, so I advise
anyone reading this on the internet to "google" bohemian grove and check it out...


The Gauntlet: Would your album's story be incomplete without every song or is each song a separate entity focused around conspiracy theory?

Ewigkeit: I think you may be able to play the songs in any order (perhaps as it is metal, it would be most fitting backwards?) I would say that the links I
constructed inbetween each song are pretty essential to the flow of it, and go some way to put each track in it's desired setting (the jail cell, the rioting
crowd, the ritual, the city, outer space etc etc...)


The Gauntlet: What sources did you use for the main idea of "Conspiritus?" Have you ever watched the videos of American talk show host, Alex Jones?

Ewigkeit: Yes - I know infowars fairly well - I guess Noam Chomsky is an American citizen also (the concept of "manufacturing consent" is a prominant tool for controlling the masses) I also took inspiration from David Icke's books and other general conspiratorial writers and documentary-makers. The "Illuminatus!" Trilogy was also a big inspiration.


The Gauntlet: Does George Orwell's book "1984" help shape your worldview?

Ewigkeit: Yes (although considering the amount I read, I am ashamed to say that I have only seen the film and it is on my "to read" list!) I am a big fan of
Animal Farm (also Orwell), and also "Brave New World" (Aldous Huxley)


The Gauntlet: Do you think Orwell's warning has come true and we are living the fictional world he created?

Ewigkeit: Yes - but to be honest, it is widely accepted that George Orwell just dressed up the society that he was already living in and put it in a different setting (for instance, he wrote it in 1948, but just changed the numbers around) Society has always been the same since the dawn of time - I think it is human nature to shit on others to elevate yourself, but they make sure we dont do it by keeping us down with dogma and religion, while meanwhile they
flaunt the laws of the land. If you want a vision of te future, try to imagine a boot stamping on a human face for eternity...


The Gauntlet: The narrator on "Transcend The Senses" voices dignified words of a profound meaning. Who is this narrator, and what is his message?

Ewigkeit: The narrator of "Transcent the Senses" is Mahatma Ghandi. He was originally talking about the existance of "god", and I edited it to fit my
context (which is something the news agencies, newspaper, governments and television producers do ALL the time - just open your eyes!). Ghandi forced
the British out of India (which had been a colony of the British Empire for a very long time) by th emeans of "passive aggression" - the most powerfull way
of defeating aggression (if you fight a war, you have already lost)..


The Gauntlet: "Transcend the Senses" has a Pink Floyd quality. Are you a fan of Pink Floyd?

Ewigkeit: Yeah I am a fan of Pink Floyd, but also many other bands too. I guess from a rock perspective, Pink Floyd really did set the standard for what I refer to as "3 dimensional music" - it was done afterwards, but mainly by electronic bands/groups/artists (The Orb for instance) - it's a shame that Rock music seems to have since reverted back to just the bog-standard guitars/drums/vocals - music can be so much more.


The Gauntlet: Ewigkeit's roots are in primitive black metal. How did you make the transition to the style you play now? Do you still have many black metal
followers who are fans of Ewigkeit?

Ewigkeit: Ewigkeit always had the melody and a degree of atmosphere - I never professed to playing Black Metal really, because there was nothing "satanic"
about my music - however I was influenced and inspired early on by some Death & Black Metal bands who utilised melody and keyboards - specifically Emperor,
along wit a few others.


The Gauntlet: Considering you are the lone member of Ewigkeit, where does a song begin?

Ewigkeit: In my head usually. Sometimes it starts with an idea, sometimes the idea is applied to the music - whichever way it happens, it does eventually
happen and another song gets recorded and is either put to one side, or discarded to the garbage oif the cosmos...


The Gauntlet: What is the recording process like?

Ewigkeit: It is long, hard and usually takes about 2 months to have something fully finished (if I was talking about sex, I would be extremely proud). To an
observer, it would not be very exciting and involves none of the cliched rock'n'roll stuff like drugs or groupies. I come from a more "hard-work" ethic
of constructing something that is (hoepfully) intellectual, rather than the screaming/noise/300mph stuff that most metal bands do. I guess the music I
write I do is as unique as the process that creates it.


The Gauntlet: One last question, what would you like listeners to get out of "Conspiritus?"

Ewigkeit: I would just like people to have a record that they can put on after a good smoke, and get "into", but, ultimately, I would like people to look into the global conspiracy idea for themselves (start with the fact that there is no evidence of a plane hitting the Pentagon and follow the bread-trail all the way back to 1776 and beyond...)




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Tags:  Ewigkeit   , interviews

Darren Cowan    October 30, 2005