MAYHEM – Interview with TELOCH

One thing is obvious- Mayhem is a legend. European tour, new EP, new album- you’ll hear about them even if you don’t want it. I got an opportunity to talk to band’s guitarist, Teloch, about connection between “Ordo Ad Chao”, forgetting microphones in studio and way of choosing bonus tracks. Enjoy!

You’ve just finished quite long European tour- how did you enjoy it?

Actually it was very short, the shortest European tour we had I think. Only 14 days, so it was very nice. Smooth and no real big problems. Great crowd, mostly.

This year you’re celebrating 30th anniversary of forming Mayhem. Have you expected that you’ll be playing so long or have you had dots when you haven’t believe in your music anymore?

Its always hard foreseeing how long one can do a thing. I’m guessing nobody would foreseen this band keeping going on for 30 years. Especially with the rugged past this band has. Of course there is always some believes in that what we are doing as absolutely fucking fantastic, or else none of us would keep on doing this.

Do you think it’s possible for you to be like kind of black metal Rolling Stones playing 50 years long? How would you imagine your future full of ‘sex,drugs & rock’n’roll’?

I have problems seeing us doing this when we are 70 years old, its too extreme compared to Rolling Stones. This is so much more demanding to play than R.S! Maybe if we all stayed fit and did exercise and no drugs and rocknroll.

Aren’t you bored with playing almost the same songs on every gig? Why did you decided to play particular these and why are you so sticked to that setlist?

Not at all, every night is a struggle to play a song perfect, so it never gets boring. Maybe you play it perfect one night, but then someone else in the band fucks it up. This setlist we’ve chosen for our 30 years celebration, it’s the longest setlist Mayhem has ever done, and its also well thought trough.

Why didn’t you play more songs from ‘Esoteric Warfare’ on this tour?

No point of playing songs that people haven’t heard yet. Plus we focused more about the past 30 years than the album. We might do a album tour later.

I know I might be boring with this question, but what do you think about these e-haters who claim that Mayhem without Dead and Euronymous isn’t Mayhem anymore?

Then why do you ask? You like to bore me? (BINGO!-HERE.) Let they say whatever they want. They are just emo kids with no brains. Mayhem is bigger than the names involved. Mayhem is a feeling and lives it own life.

In last few years you’ve become like less provocative in your stage image and expression. Why?

Not sure, things just happens. Its not planned, maybe it changes it the future. We just go with whatever feels natural for us .

Lots of bands, which started to play in the same period of time like you, had totally changed their music style . What do you think about it? But seriously, haven’t you ever dreamed of becoming glam metal band?

Its up to them to do whatever they want, I won’t judge them because of it. As long as you stay true to yourself you are welcome to do what the fuck you want.

How would you comment the thought that since ‘Chimera’ you’re more into avant-garde/gothic metal scene?

If you think so you are welcome to think so. We don’t.

Both fans and journalists wrote that you actually don’t need to record any new stuff and live with reputation only. What would you say about it?

Whats the point of being a creative musician then? I would say fuck them. (O!-HERE.)

What actually made you to come back after 7 years?

Because we are a band that releases albums. It was never a come back, we never stopped.

Do you think that ‘Esoteric Warfare’ can repeat the commercial success of ‘Ordo Ad Chao’ which was honoured with Spellemannprisen? How would it achieve it?

No I think not. This album is different. This album is nothing new on the horizon, its more like a look back on all the Mayhem albums combined into one.

Is it possible to call ‘Esoteric Warfare’ somehow a continuation of ‘Ordo Ad Chao’? What are the similarities?

In a way it is yes, that was the plan. But instead of taking things further we took a step down to collect the troops to plan our next attack better.

On one of these, you know, ‘trve’ pages on Facebook I read that the theme on your album cover and T-shirts resembles some elements of Albanian flag, which is kind of tribute to Euronymous’ fascination with communism. Fact or just a gossip (why yes/why no) ?

Coincidence.

Now let’s focus on these tracks from ‘esoteric Warfare’ which stand out from the rest on the album. First one is ‘Watcher’- listener may have an impression that its heaviness is attacking them with something like ‘riff waves’… What can you say about this track and lyrics?

It was made to be a opener song for the album. I kinda safed it on that song, with not going to much out of the Mayhem boundaries so that the Mayhem fans would recognise this as a Mayhem song and wanted to hear the next song on the album.

Next one is ‘Posthuman’. You’ve recorded slower tracks before, of course, but on ‘Esoteric Warfare’ there’re more of them, I suppose. How would you comment the phenomenon of kind of slower rate? Are such tracks good to play live?

Yeah, this song I made planned as a outdoor festival song. But we´ll see about that. As I talked some about, we took a step down on this album. Of course some of the songs is probably the fastest songs mayhem ever had, but we felt it was room to make some slow ones on this album. This was done to maybe introduce some new listeners to the Mayhem sound without scaring them off. Of course slow songs is easier to play live.

I know it might sound funny, but ‘Pandaemon’ is somehow a ‘rugged’ track. Its sound (both recordings way and vocals) is also quite unusual. Did you plan it to be a ‘different’ track or did it just came out during the recording? Actually, how had it been formed?

It was never the plan to make it sound different, something strange happened to it in the studio, not sure what it was. I think it might be a combination between Attila and me forgot the microphone we used on the rest of the album at home and had to use another one. Plus slightly different kickdrums and also the levels on the guitars might be slightly different.

Comparing to previous ones, just a title ‘Esoteric Warfare’ sound more ambitious. This perfectly matches tracks like ‘Milab’. While listening to it, I got an impression that you’ve got nothing against modern solutions in metal music. What do you think about debut albums recorded by young bands now? What are the most common mistakes they make?

I have no idea what modern solutions in metal is, since I don’t listen to metal. Haven’t listened to metal in many many years.

Bonus track on ‘Esoteric Warfare’ is ‘Into the Lifeless’ from Budapest sessions, ‘Psywar’ is also sided by ‘From Beyond Event Horizon’…Honestly, these tracks are sometimes really creepy. What was so awesome in them that you’ve decided to put them on the album and EP as well?

The label was crying to us about having bonus material. And of course we had no time recording new stuff, so we took the easy way out and gave them something we already recorded.

What do you think about ‘Esoteric Warfare’ just before its premiere? Would you change anything if you could?

Make it a double album with the album I scrapped as the second disc,

And something relaxing for the end…As a woman I just had to ask this question, you know…Why did Atilla change his corpse-paint ‘design’ (noticed it during the tour) and how does he achieve this breath-taking effect?

He change his corpsepaint everyday, never the same…

I guess it’s all…If you want to say something to Polish metalheads- here’s the place!

Thanks Poland for the awesome gig on this tour. One of the best gigs on this tour actually!

Photos: www.facebook.com/mayhemofficial