DECADENCE EBM AND UNDERGROUND MUSIC.: 2018

Marcel P. it is an honor to make this interview about you and your project. I would like to know when did you start to make music?

My early life in music wasn’t different from many other people’s lives: I took piano lessons as a child and later (at around 12 years of age) I switched to string bass and joined first a youth orchestra and a little later the city’s orchestra where my mother played the cello.

I added the bass guitar when I was approached to play with an impromptu band for a performance at my high school. I didn’t even play the bass guitar at the time and much less owned one. But I knew the basics from the string bass and I could read notes so I practiced a bit with the band on a bass borrowed from another member. I bought my own bass (which I have to this day) less than a week before my first performance.

It was a pretty standard rock/pop performance in a school. Countless musicians have started with stuff like that. But it was the first stepping stone for me. And I can still play Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick In The Wall” on bass by heart.

Marcel P.

Hard Rock and Heavy Metal bands followed. And after I added Electro/EBM and Neoclassic/Neofolk to my tastes the offers to “join” a band or a project as a live-musician, a studio-musician or even a member just kept coming.

The most important stepping stone in this regard was joining the project Allerseelen (first as a live-musician only, then later in increasing capacities as studio-musician and producer).

After playing with Gerhard of Allerseelen for some time he added new live-drummer Dimo from Svarrogh whom we had gotten to know when performing in Bavaria. We hit it off so much that Gerhard made us as a trio the fixed Allerseelen line-up.

After that we started collaborating in other projects, like working together on Dimo’s Black Metal/Dark Folk band Svarrogh, founding the Occult Ambient project Fahl together with Cornelius of Sagittarius and… in the end… joining forces as Miel Noir.

Dimo Dimov

Tells us what are some of the major influences on Miel Noir?

Miel Noir is comprised of two people with really diverse musical backgrounds (different kinds of rock/metal, electronics, dark folk, neoclassic, ambient and more). It’s easier to understand Miel Noir’s variety of sounds when one takes into consideration that the people involved have been playing music in different bands for a long time. As much as Miel Noir is a “mixture” it is also a “distillation” of what we’ve been doing before.

At the core of Miel Noir you’ve got two multi-instrumentalists who are also both vocalists and producers. I’ve said this before in other interviews but it bears repeating: Each of us could do this alone. And both of us have. We just like doing this project together.

Given the work we have done before it’s not even necessary to name a ton of other bands as musical influences. Instead we could name the ones with whom we worked to give people an idea about what they’re in for. One or both of us has/have worked in/with: A Challenge Of Honour, Allerseelen, Arnica, Die Weisse Rose, Fahl, Mani Deum, Materialschlacht, Megalith, Sagittarius, Sonnenkind, Sturmpercht, Svarrogh, The Days Of The Trumpet Call, TONTTU, Tyr-Kreis, Von Thronstahl and several more…

Lyrically we’ve been influences by personal experiences, philosophy, classical poetry and art, fiction and non-fiction literature… plus bees, honey and darkness in general.

Do you have plans to play in some festivals, gigs, tours in other countries or in other continents?

We have played in a lot of countries with several bands all over Europe; from Portugal in the West to Russia in the East, from Finland in the North to Greece in the South. Thus far we have performed with/as Miel Noir in Spain, Croatia, Denmark and in the Netherlands.

Russia does count as “another continent” for us Europeans, but thus far we haven’t played “overseas”. But we’d very much like to do so sometime.

The most recent concert was a year ago in Holland and it was the second time Miel Noir performed there. There are no current plans for new gigs because we are working in a new album.

Live in Delft Netherlands

Live in Madrid Spain

We would like to know about your albums…and which of them did you like to make?

The name Miel Noir was first used by Dimo as an “experimental side project” of Svarrogh. We started “Miel Noir Mk2” so to speak in 2011 with the first full-length album “Honey & Ash” (released by Steinklang, Austria). Then came “From The Ashes” (released by Indiestate, Russia) and “Honey-Beat” (released by Caustic Records, Spain).

All three albums contain a mixture of tracks with different (dark) styles. It’s all there - (Martial) Neoclassic, Dark Ambient, Industrial Rock, Electro-EBM, Gothic Rock, Wave, Noise/Rhythm-Industrial and Piano Ballads.

We like to explore different styles and avoid limiting ourselves. All the material fell into place without a lot of planning. It just happened. We also had the opportunity to work with a total of four different female vocalists each with their own unique voices and styles. Sometimes these female vocalists get their own lead vocal tracks written especially for them and sometimes they do backing vocals.

All in all there’s a lot of “collaboration” going on. In addition to our four female vocalists and our frequent collaborator Gerhard of Allerseelen we have been working with a couple of friends on remixing each other’s material and these remixes often ended up on our respective albums. These friends include Insect Plasma, Phobos Reactor, TONTTU, Deadlights and Winterhart (whom your readers may know as a side-project of Darkness on Demand; formerly Dance or Die).

When will you release a new album?

A new album is in the works and about 70% ready. But we’ve just released something a short while ago which could be considered a crowning achievement of our efforts to further “collaboration”.

Miel Noir started a CD project which has just been released by the label Panicmachine. It’s entitled “Dark Europa” and features all collaborative tracks from different European countries. 17 tracks from 2 projects/bands each covering a wide variety of styles from dark electro in various forms to dark folk, from experimental ambient to dark metal, from industrial to ritual wave and much more.

All the collaborative tracks are new and exclusive to this release. There are six Miel Noir tracks on the CD (which would make it almost an album’s worth of material) plus two more tracks with Miel Noir members being involved.

The other participants include Allerseelen, Chaos Research (project of Marko "Gravehill" Hautamäki from Two Witches), Choronzon, Extreme Chromo (multi-instrumentalist known for working with Alien Sex Fiend and Nik Turner’s Hawkwind, Jurica Jelic, Laguz Rune, Love The Ghost, P. Emerson Williams (past collaborations include Jarboe, John Zewizz, Manes), Phobos Reactor (project of Oliver from Insect Plasma), snowW.Wwhite, several members of TONTTU, Veil of Thorns, and Winterhart (project of Falgalas & Wagner from Dance or Die / Darkness on Demand).

The physical CD is available from the label Panicmachine (and in very low quantities from us) but the label is giving away the digital version of the compilation FOR FREE! Just go to https://digital.panicmachine.com/album/dark-europa and click on “Buy Digital Album” and when it says “Name Your Price” enter a Zero…

Of course payment would be appreciated, but in this case you can check out the entire 74 minutes of music for free before you make the decision to give money for it.

What your pointe of view about underground music nowadays? And what is your opinion about new bands? Are there creativity and inovation?

I see two main reasons why the underground music scene is so vibrant and active these days:

The first reason would be that recording and distributing music have become so easy in the pure technical sense. Everything has become faster, more convenient and easier to understand. And if you don’t understand it (yet) then there’s a Youtube tutorial about it.

The second reason is something that has always been there in the underground music scene(s) but it has increased through technical means starting with the internet and growing steadily with social media and handheld devices... namely international contacts. What we are doing right here and now: Corresponding about underground music across the globe. People used to do this via letters and spread their music through tape trading. Then came E-mails and burned CDs. And now we’re at the level of instantaneous digital distribution worldwide.

These factors increase and highlight creativity and innovation everywhere. Apart from live performances there are no “local” bands anymore. Everybody has the means to be discovered instantly from the other side of our planet.

As for new bands we really like recommending our friends and one of the steps we’ve taken was getting our friends to join the “Dark Europa” collaboration CD. Start with Laguz Rune and listen to them using the Finnish instrument Kantele in their songs.

What do you know about South America? Do you know some bands from there? Are there good bands in your opinion?

We have gathered a couple of contacts from South America through social media and it seems that our music has been getting around more in Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Peru within the last year or so.

Thus far our most fruitful contacts with South America were:

- The organizers and promotors of Magik Ritual Nacht from Argentina who produced the official music video for our track “L’ennemi”(featuring the wonderful Romina Nacht) :

- The music label Paranoia Musique from Brazil who are now into their fourth volume with their self-titled download compilations. We are proud to be featured on Vol.1 and Vol.4 and we also managed to get some of our friends from Europe included in these compilations. These compilations are also available as “Name Your Price” downloads: https://paranoiamusique.bandcamp.com/

As for bands to recommend I would tell everybody about the Paranoia Musique compilations. And when you check out the participants maybe start with Cubüs which is the project of the label’s founder Diego (who has done a lot to support us).

I did this questions in another interview with a German band also, however is very interesting to know what do you know about Brazil? Please without carnival and Football. Hahahahahahaha...

Those are two very interesting exemptions for me because the area where I come from in Germany ( The Rhineland ) is famous for the very same ( and beer ) . But I´m known for being " no good as a Rheinländer ( person from the Rhineland ) " because I was never into any of those topics ( neither football, beer nor carnival ).

I have some basic knowledge of the history of Brazil and of the current political situation. I´ve known two people who immigrated to Germany from Brazil and I´ve been to Brazilian restaurants in Cologne. But I would never refer to myself as any kind of expert on your contry. I know your national flag,I would recognize your national anthem when I hear the chorus with the " O Patria..salve! Salve!"- part and I may (may!) Have a chance to guess right if I hear someone speaking either portuguese or brazilian protuguese because last time I visited Portugal a friend patiently tried to explain the differences. I n any case we would very much like to visit you sometime to see your country ourselves.

Marcel P. you are free to say what you want...

Thank you very much for your support und greetings to all our listeners in South America!

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