Luciferion – “And through the years I really lost the hope that there are still dedicated people who do it because of pure passion and not for the money…”

When Swedish Luciferion announced a new album I was feeling quite euphoric! Their debut album “Demonication” still finds its way into my CD player regularly. My high hopes for “The Apostate” were more than fulfilled as the new songs featured on this album showcase a band progressed and evolved into a musical entity of even larger proportions! Put in plain words, an ass kicking experience…
Two killer albums, released in 9 years of time, reason enough to do an interview. And although I had a lot to ask (as usual…), Wojtek Lisicki was kind enough to elaborate on all of my weird mind fabrications.

First of all, congratulations with the excellent new album entitled “The Apostate”. How are the press and fan reactions so far?
Thanx a lot! I don’t know anything about the fans’ opinion, as people from this genre aren’t too communicative and apparently have it difficult to share emotions, so I can’t answer that yet. Also, our e-mail address is in the booklet and far too many people burn their CDs… When it comes to the press the 90% of the reviews has been really good, which can be seen on our site in the Review section. There were two magazines which reviewers must have directly changed their heads with ass, as they were saying things like total fucking idiots. It was though more laugh generating that pissing off.

When reading the reviews, I occasionally see comparisons being made between Luciferion and Emperor. Obviously, you don’t try to sound like any other band, but do reviewers also have associations with other bands (besides Emperor) when hearing the new Luciferion stuff?
Of course, Morbid Angel – always – and Deicide most often. Sometimes also Dimmu Borgir and Cradle Of Fifth. These two are comparisons that have no ground more than that these bands also use keyboards and do it in a dark way. You know, humans work in a specific way, they must associate, it wouldn’t be possible to resist that. Finding comparisons is a kind of proof of their observing skills, and everybody has needs to expose his capacity. In Luciferion’s case there is no direct inspiration from other bands from this decade. If I were forced to mention any influence at all regarding this matter I would mention Coroner and maybe some more from that period. Nothing else. Otherwise, Emperor was the one who maybe catalyzed the inspiration to use keyboards more extensively and constantly.

A comment you probably hear all the time is that there are only 5 new songs on the album. Considering the fact that the new stuff is based as a concept story on the movie “The dark city”, one could wonder whether it wasn’t possible to write a longer concept album. So, why only 5 songs?
The original idea was to release the promo-demo material from 94 together with the Celtic Frost cover as a collector’s item for the die hard fans. Eventually we decided to include new songs, as releasing only the old material would be more disappointing for the people than of interest. Also, the will to create new songs was great deep inside. We didn’t do more than those four new songs because there was no time (everybody was busy with the full time bands) and because there was no other old sounding material (parts) remaining that could fit to this release and creating it artificially wouldn’t be the same thing.

You included only one cover song on “The Apostate” but you’ve done more covers throughout the years. Why aren’t these songs featured on the album?
Because we want to release an album containing only the covers we have done. We will need one more for that though.

In the thanks-list of “Demonication” quite a lot movies were mentioned as sources of inspiration. You’ve used a sample from “The Exorcist III” on that album, so it’s no surprise that “The Dark City” is used on the new album. What made you decide to use this movie, perhaps the subject it is dealing with or the dark atmosphere it constantly radiates?
Well, that too of course! But the biggest reason is the message of the movie. We choose “Dark City” as that movie represents some values in direct connection to “The Apostate”’s lyrical content. In a way the samples play a separate, own role on the album, as the aspects they reflect are not touched upon in my lyrics (a meant move), still they are directly connected to the subjects that the lyrics describe. Those samples play a significant role in “The Apostate”’s wholeness. The whole new recorded material is amalgamated by them, content wise and spiritually. They also make the album more mystical, dark and illustrative.

What kind of movies do impress or inspire you and which ones would you like to use in the future for integration or translation to Luciferion’s music?
I couldn’t possibly answer that now. The choice will be probably made on the same criteria as with this album. I don’t think there is any special kind of movies that I especially prefer. I have an great spectra of interests.

The new album was released on Listenable Records again. Did you still have a deal with them? If so, for how many albums is the deal with Listenable?
No, we weren’t bound to any contract. We simply didn’t look for any other labels. Listenable was an obvious choice, as we know each other since long time and because the work environment is very easy. It’s something we appreciate very much working day and night in already extremely stressing atmosphere. I have nothing to say about other aspects of the cooperation, we have to wait a little bit more to have an opinion.

How do you write songs? When is a tune a real Luciferion song? Are all band members involved in the writing process?
No, not anymore. I do the whole material, including all the instruments and lyrics. I can’t describe the writing process, as it would take too much time. I can tell You though that my way of working is quite different from the most of other people’s. I actually don’t have any solid procedure, just some typical for me steps, methods and manoeuvres combined with many spontaneous patents and troubleshooting of different kind. This is the best thing with not working under a press – You have no frames and limitations. A Luciferion song, as well as all the songs created by me, are not finished until they don’t cause “disturbance in the force” while listening to material several times.

You probably consider musical progression a necessary requirement, but how complex or technical can one get with this type of music (without losing the listener’s attention)?
I actually don’t see the progress always as a necessity. It depends. If Morbid Angel would decide to do a “Blessed Are The Sick II” I would see it as the greatest idea they had after “Domination”. By this I mean that if somebody discover something great – in this case a perfect form of the style – there is no need to change that only to make progress to every price. It’s much better to continue discovering of new territories within the same area of something that is already great. There is so much to be found. (…) As for complexity and technicality, it actually depends. I don’t think there is or should be any limitation of complexity, neither any necessity to consider music less good only because it’s simple. Of course not to misinterpret “simple” as “primitive”, which is a different thing… (laughs) Personally I actually consider simple and at the same time qualitative and catchy music being much harder to achieve. Being compressed to an absolute essence. In a way I even prefer it before the complicated music. In this case the expression “less is more” is really true.

After the release of “Demonication” it seems that nothing happened. No touring, no new music being released, no news whatsoever. Tell us what happened in all those years. What made you decide to give it another try with Luciferion?

After putting the band on ice in 1996 I locked myself in and moving in other dimensions of reality I started creating the material for the next album. I did it until 1998. Also in 1998 me and Martin recreated Highlander that later became Lost Horizon, Michael joined Dark Tranquillity and Hans several other bands. Peter, the ex drummer continued to play with some minor local bands because of lack of interest in playing on a bigger scale. Johan got a job as a producer of pop music in Scotland. I wouldn’t call the recording of “The Apostate” “another try”, as if we would like to do a concrete comeback we would just have done it whenever we wanted and pretty soon be back in business on an adequate level. We decided to do another album because me and Michael felt such need deep inside. The idea of recording new songs on the album came up after the initial plans of realising a mini CD that should contain only the promo-cover material and the Celtic Frost cover.

In a recent interview I read that you have a whole new Luciferion album on your PC, but that it’s too complex to play for the musicians. Is this true??? Couldn’t some progressive metal/rock musicians play it?
Yes, this is the material I mentioned in the previous question. Well, I didn’t say that it’s impossible to be played – a really good all-round death/blast drummer (drums are the absolute biggest problem) could of course manage that – but it would demand an extreme commitment. And through the years I really lost the hope that there are still dedicated people who do it because of pure passion and not for the money, which in fact don’t even exist in this genre – at least not on this low career level, and also at least not before the album is selling good.

I heard that you left Lost Horizon. Did your own musical ideas or goals differ too much from those of the other band members? Will you fully focus on Luciferion now? Now that the album is released, are there any touring plans (tours or festival gigs)?
Well, no, not really. I will do whatever I can to promote the album, but I don’t think there will be any live gigs, as this is not a live line up. We only summoned to record “The Apostate” You see, to reflect the original atmosphere of the Luciferion people remember. I left Lost Horizon because I couldn’t stand the members in general and the company that through the years did all to destroy the band, something that they have succeed pretty well with, and that depending also on lack of values within the band needed to stand the adversities.

To what extent can we call Luciferion an actual band? I mean, most of the other members are involved in other bands. For example, Michael Nicklasson is also in Dark Tranquillity and drummer Hans Nilsson plays in a zillion bands. Is Luciferion more of a one-man band or project in which the other guys help out when needed?
Before Luciferion was a normal band where everybody were participating the usual way, but nowadays You could actually say that it’s a one man band with the original members taking part of this when it’s time to record an album. Luciferion is of course a band and not just a project. Doesn’t matter we are not active live.

Recently, Luciferion has got a website (www.luciferion.com) so this means you think the Internet is an interesting and useful medium type, right? Will you add some more stuff on the site like for example some music clips of rehearsals or new songs?
We actually count our selves lucky having that perfect address for the band, which is http://www.luciferion.com/, as it was already taken (of course) when the idea came up. The owner of it, Wielfried, had that exemplary manner and it’s not just that he actually released the domain name to us, he also offered the web hostel for free and built up the message board on our site. All that because of respect and estimation for the band, but in the first place because of being a person with character. (…) The internet is one of the best things ever found in the history of the human kind. It will probably be one of the reasons of its fall, but in this phase it’s a wonderful thing. Why should we add clips from rehearsals? It’s a horrible thing to maltreat one’s ears with! The only unreleased thing that actually exists is a lot of camera recordings from the gigs. In the matter of fact is that most gigs were recorded, which I, like usually, love my self for that I seen to be done back then with my camera that I once bought for that purpose. If there will suddenly come up such thing on our site as a video clip(s) You can consider Yourself being the one who re-initiated the thought. (laughs)

On the site it’s said that you also have another band called Blast 2000. Does this band name have a meaning or was the band/project started in 2000? Has any music been recorded or released so far?

It was supposed to be a band, but it never became a reality. We started it together with Varyen (drummer from ex. Damnation, now in Forest Of Impaled). There were great plans and philosophical ideologies behind this, but he moved to USA and I dedicated myself entirely to Lost Horizon. The name was actually temporary, but pretty close to what we wanted it to represent. We came up with that name in 1998. As we both were total nihilists back then and the date 2000 represented in some prophecies an mythologies the ending of the final count down to the annihilation of the world that we hoped would come together with the stroke of the clock closing this Millennium… What do You say about that?

If you were banned to a desert island and were allowed to take 10 albums with you, which ones would these be?

It wouldn’t be metal albums, that’s for sure. I would take things like ambient music, healing music, “tribal” music, ritual music, electronic modulated sounds and this kind of stuff. All that to create atmosphere and bring forth magic needed to attain the direct contact with the pure nature around and again feel the real taste of life. Actually, this is one of my secret dreams, that’s why I in a way love “Cast Away” with Tom Hanks.

What’s your opinion on the whole downloading and burning of music debate? Isn’t this just a new form of tape trading and that the fans will buy the album anyway if they like it? Did you know that recent research showed that people who download music buy more CD’s than people who do not download music?

I didn’t know that, but I am not surprised at all! It’s simply because downloading helps one to hear things that maybe would never ever be discovered by one under other circumstances. Most people don’t visit the music stores just to reconnoitre the present music market and to dig in the CD heaps. The most people actually buy albums after having heard the songs elsewhere first, and internet is just perfect for that purpose. I can’t say that I am buying the albums just because I have first downloaded them from the net and now I feel guilty and must buy the original, I simply buy things I really like or respect and I also want the real thing and not some miserable burned CDr with impaired sound quality by different compressions and slimming.

The extreme music scene seems flooded with releases. Though the overall quality of the albums (in terms of production, musicians’ skills) has increased over the years, it seems that not many bands dare to really try out new things. According to you, what bands out there really push the musical boundaries?

I can’t actually say which bands I consider being that innovative, as I haven’t laid any direct focus on that subject lately. Otherwise, I think it’s simply that people want to play the music they are used to, like and are able to control, as all changes are always like wandering in a “strange land” and everybody wants to have the security, also in playing music.

To what music do the band members listen to? Is it mainly metal or also other music like e.g. jazz or classical music? Or perhaps you really dig Christina Aguilera?
No, personally I don’t, or lets say I don’t know her music. We all listen to many different music styles. Metal is only one of those even if it’s closest to our selves.

A trend in the metal scene is the nu metal genre, which has been getting a lot of mixed reactions. Do you listen to this genre or do you think it has nothing interesting to offer?
I actually don’t even know exactly what is the specification of this genre, so I apparently don’t listen to it. Although, there are some songs on the movie soundtracks from for example “Matrix Reloaded” and “Queen Of The Damned” that are really great, so I can’t say that it’s all just shit, but I still hate all that white-negro attitude this kind of bands have.

An album that has stirred the metal scene quite a bit, is the new Metallica album. Have you heard it, and if so, what’s your opinion on it?
I have only heard what has been broadcasted. I think it sucks enormously, especially the sound. That try of being dirty sounding and having the modern nu-image is just an unsuccessful attempt as the result sucks. I am not conservative, but this is miserable.

If you could tour with whatever band (RIP or alive) you wanted to, and could go wherever you wanted to go to, with what bands would you tour and where?
Doesn’t matter where. It could be everywhere where is passion within the audience. I actually don’t have any special wishes regarding the bands. My way of valuing and the needs are different now. It’s hard to answer this, as I haven’t been around for a while and don’t have this kind of day dreams awake. Probably all my favourite bands would be on that list.

What albums (no matter what music style) that were released in the last 12 months have really impressed you?
I almost don’t listen to music, as I am totally busy with my own artistry. I simply have no time neither anybody that could recommend good music to me. So I am not updated. Sorry. Otherwise, I really appreciate “Matrix Reloaded” soundtrack and the “Queen Of The Damned” soundtrack.

Thanks for doing this interview, if I left something out or if you have something to say to the readers, please state it here…
Thanx Ron for an interesting interview (at last one!) that catalyzed me to go deeper with some of the subjects at the same time being kind of excited while doing it. I have suffered the answering of all that standard shit so far, that the most of the interviews are about. On the other hand this interview contents an FAR TOO EXAGGERATED!!! amount of questions… >:| which I should send back to You unanswered(!), but I actually enjoyed them and did an exception. Also thanx for spreading the apostate words of Luciferion!