Interview with Steve of The Wounded Kings 2010

By Bradley Smith

Your latest album, The Shadow Over Atlantis has been making cyclopean waves of smothering destruction in the underground.  Can you tell me what your artistic aim of the album is?  Do you feel you have achieved your aims and how involving was the crafting and creation of this album? 

I like that ‘cyclopean waves of smothering destruction’ why the fuck didn’t I use that in the lyrics – hahah! Artistically the idea behind Atlantis was to produce an old school concept album I like albums that take you on a journey, ones you have to listen to as a whole rather than something you can dip in and out of. I’d like to think when you’re looking through the music rack at home for something to put on and you’re eyes close in on ours you have to way up whether you’ve got the full 40 mins to commit to it, and if you have then prepare to lose yourself, if you can’t then you move on to something else. I think we pretty much achieved what we set out to do, I mean there’s always things you wished you could have done, but time and money always play a factor. For instance I’d have loved to have had a harp player and a real string section, the shit I could have done with that would have been mind blowing! But hey the end result is it’s dark, emotional and slightly off kilter.

Just how we intended it to be!

I can’t think of any other doom band you guys sound like, I mean there are hints here and there, like maybe some Thergothon or some other slight references.  Do you agree, and do you think it was easy to achieve a unique style/sound in such a cluttered musical landscape? 

Me neither mate! We never actually set out to specifically achieve a unique style, I think it’s because we are both open to different kinds of music, for instance George loves Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Robert Johnson etc.. and I like old school doom, Italian prog and bands like Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Air and Serge Gainsbourg.  Bringing these influences into our music rather than just a couple of doom heads trying to be the next Saint Vitus has by default created it’s own sound! Besides there really isn’t anyone in Doom with a voice quite like George’s, love it or hate it this alone  probably gives us a unique edge!

I read you like to use some keyboard/piano to create dark atmosphere within your compositions.  The most stunning illustration of this for me is the chilling keys on The Sons of Belial where they are so stark within the structure of the song and how they set up that megalithic, crushing riff.  How do you try to incorporate that element within the folds of your songwriting and when you do use it, what are you usually trying to achieve?  Who inspires your style and use of keys?

To be honest I don’t try to incorporate keys as a matter of course, it’s just that nearly all the tracks off of Shadow kinda demanded some non guitar orientated dynamics, keys are fuckin great if used in the right way, they can express a particular mood that a guitar just can’t quite give. For inspiration I’d say Eric Satie for the most melancholy classic piano pieces I’ve ever heard and the late Rick Wright from Pink Floyd for experimentation without losing sight of melody and emotion.

When I listen to The Shadow Over Atlantis, the whole album has a surreal dreamlike atmosphere and the wavering vocals contribute to that.  What sort of atmosphere do you feel encompasses the album? 

Drowning in despair, unrelenting bleakness with just a brief glimpse of an out of reach salvation at the end!

There is of course a well known and long lineage of UK Doom circling all the way back to Sabbath.  What makes doom so prevalent in the UK?  The bleak, grey weather or is something embedded even deeper in the culture of the English?  Do you ever feel pressure to contribute to and uphold that legacy?  What are some of your favorite of the UKs doom forefathers and your doom peers?

I think it’s just that, most of us are working class, miserable, downtrodden fuckers haha!

No I don’t feel any pressure to uphold any kind of legacy or even contribute to one

If it happens to sit in there then great, but primarily I make music because I have to, I’m addicted to it, it’s my drug, red wine and the riff that’s all I need!

As for UK Doom favourites and peers; Gothic era paradise Lost, Forest era Cathedral, Electric Wizard, Pombagira , King crimson (try listening to Epitaph or the mid section in Starless, without being able to admit it’s pure doom! ) and of course Sabbath obviously!

Lyrically there are definite echoes of Lovecraft but really it sort of steers clear of outright worship like Lamp of Thoth does.  What were some of your other inspirations for this album and how do you translate a “vibe” from an author’s stories to a set of lyrics?  

Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith are the fuckin masters I love the otherworldly vibe they bring to the table and I too like to mix that with the myths and legends.

My major inspiration for the album was in fact my new born son, it’s kinda weird that when you bring in a new life it amplifies everything that’s shit about the world we live in. That’s where my fascination with Atlantis started, a race that was so emotionally and spiritually balanced at the beginning ultimately destroys itself in an ocean of war and greed! Are we not following this same path?  

I read an interview with you and you brought up something interesting about “Doom” really is a musical style that evokes imagery and emotions that are devoid of happiness and uplifting feelings.  It seems to me sometimes, as you pointed out, that too many bands/albums pass for doom and they shouldn’t really merit this label.  Why do you think that is?  Are people too obsessed with a style of riffing or of aesthetics rather than the true emotional impact of the art they are experiencing?  Is there a way to change that?

I Suppose it’s very subjective, it’s a personal thing, I’m just not into all the chugging, fists in the air galloping horses type riffing!  Doom to me is all about the hurt, the despair, uneasiness, the slow march, the space in the riff that can swallow you whole, dirty, aggressive, evil and at times hard to swallow. A lot of it is down to lazy journalism, if there’s a song about witches and a Sabbath flavoured riff turns up it’s a doom metal album right? Wrong! I really don’t know if people are obsessed with a style of riffing or whatever, I just know what I like, right or wrong I’m probably just a miserable bastard who’s hard to please!

As I understand it, you are from Dartmoor.  The moor inspired many a literary icon to include the most famous work of Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles.  Do you find this bleak landscape of mighty tors inspiring to yourself and what about this unique land do you think captures the imagination of creative giants? 

Yeah that’s right, I live in a small town just inside the moor, my family and I are always out there, it’s been a great source of inspiration for writing riffs, many times I’ve been hiking and come back with an entire song idea, it’s the loneliness that really makes the mind focus, if you hit it right you can walk all day without seeing another person, totally alone with your thoughts! The moor can change very quickly, sunny one minute a thick blanket of fog the next, I think it’s the unpredictability, the unforgiving nature, the ancient stone circles, menhires and pagan rites of the distant past that conjure up the moods and images of the gothic and macabre

I notice on the thanks list for The Shadow Over Atlantis that a lot of Magic(k)/Occult practitioners, locations, and literary tomes are mentioned.  How much of your interest in these themes are purely aesthetic and how much is a personal active participation in the rituals and philosophical foundations of witchcraft?  What draws you towards these beliefs and how does it affect you artistic impulses?

My interest in magick and the occult is primarily an intellectual one, however I do practice on a daily basis the basic principles of occult philosophy, but I am not a ritualist!

As to what draws me to these beliefs - knowledge! Let’s face it in this day and age we need all the help we can get! From an artistic side it’s the morbid and more sensational aspects of the occult and their effects these have on the human condition that gets my creativity flowing!

Another thing I noted that you said was that our current problems stem from an unbalanced masculine/feminine harmony.  That seems like a fairly New Age and/or Eastern view of the world’s root problem causing these issues.  Do you think it is forever thrown out of whack or if not, what will it take to achieve a restoration of that balance?  What would a utopian existence look like if we ever manage to achieve a true balance?

I wouldn’t view this as a new age or eastern view in particular, for me it is one of the basic principles of occult science, for me I came to it through the Western mystery tradition, while studying the Arthurian legend.

No i don’t think the world is forever thrown out of whack , but we are living in the dark night of the soul at the moment and I don’t think the human race are quite ready to come out of it yet, however  for us to see the light we must embrace the darkness

So what are your future plans for the Wounded Kings?  As I understand it the next album is already recorded and there is a split album coming.  Can you expound on that?  How has the new material progressed from The Shadow Over Atlantis?

Well, a lot of shit has been going down, that’s partly why it’s taken so long to do this interview, both George our vocalist and Nick our drummer are leaving in November, so I’ve been auditioning some new people which has been tough but is now yielding great results. The 3rd album hasn’t been recorded yet, that’s what I’m writing now with the new guys, expect the heaviest fuckin riffs we’ve ever done!  ‘An Introduction To The Black Arts with Cough and The Wounded Kings’ 12” split should be out very soon, I’ve had the test pressing through and it sounds fucking evil!  ‘The Shadow over Atlantis’ is getting a gatefold Vinyl release with our label I Hate in October and a re-mastered ‘Embrace of the Narrow house’ is getting both a vinyl and CD reissue next year through the Eyes Like Snow Label

So plenty to keep people interested while we get our heads done and record the next album!

Thanks Steve for taking time to answer these questions and I’ll leave any revelations from behind the veil to you….

Cheers man and take care!