INTERVIEW WITH AEON SABLE: «We smoke, we drink and we do dark rock»
Aeon Sable will play in October during the Gothic Week in Madrid and they are responsible of some of the best albums of the last years. For that reason, we decided to interview them. Behold the result.
- I imagine that at this point, everyone who read laletracapital know you, but if someone has been left behind, introduce yourselves please.
We are Aeon Sable. We are 4 guys with 2 guitars, 1 bass-guitar, 1 microphone and a drum-machine. We smoke, we drink and we do dark rock.
- You are one of the bands that somehow lead the goth rock’s Third Wave. We think that we’re living one of the most prolific stage regarding bands but not regarding the amount of public ¿Do you agree?
The first Wave was a motley crew of people trying out dark tunes in all sort of ways. The second wave mostly rescaled it to a more “sisters of mercy”-like core, while the third wave is eager to break the boundaries of styles again. So yes, we are in a very prolific stage, where musicians takes a step ahead with the knowledge of the past two waves. The amount of public is connected to the particular times. Since the internet and it’s overwhelming input of information and bands, everyone has a hard time of getting heard, clubs, musicians and artists alike.
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- You have maintained a steady rhythm of album releasing, Per Aspera Ad Astra (2010), Saturn Return (2012), Aequinoctium (2013), Visionaers (2014)… Nowadays those are a lot of albums.
Making music is our primary purpose in life. We do what we like, and discovered we are good in what we do, since people like it. We try to find a routine in our albums, that we don’t flood out music and reduce its value, but keeping aeon sable in the mind of the public.
- Looking at all of those albums in perspective, we can notice (at least as listener) some kind of conductive wire. I don’t know if there’s a «global» concept behind this.
The global concept is to bring the listener an aural drug to escape reality and the daily grind for some time. Every album has an main vibe connected to the lyrical and graphical theme.
- In all the artwork we can find some kind of unity too…
Every album builds up on the previous, they are all doing our own vibe and play in our own universe. We want to progress ourselves and our art on every album, without loosing the roots. To put it straight: we are altering, not changing.
- ¿Which topics do you usually deal with in your lyrics? Where do you find the inspiration?
Our lyrics are mainly based on sex, drugs and post-apocalyptic worlds. The inspiration is formed in strange parts of our brains we don’t even understand ourselves. There is no particular place or time where we get our inspiration from. It’s just an event, a small detail or an intoxication, where something comes out…
- ¿How is the composition process? Do Din Tah, Nino or Jo and Quoth usually take part in it?
The composition is done mainly by Din-Tah Aeon and me. Jo and quoth do their duty by bringing the music on stage and breath life in it. We have no strict routine how we do our job. Some of us has an idea, musically or lyrically and we sit together in our recording studio, chain-smoking, drinking black coffee, and working it out. Since din and me has the same vision what we want to create, things goes smoothly. Sometimes we need a day for a song, sometimes we need a month… surprisingly our “hits” are the ones which happen very fast.
- Focusing on Visionaers, it seems to us one of the best albums of last year. In particular the single, Visions, is an amazing song, but all of the CD is truly evocative…
Thank you very much. We worked hard and are really proud of it.
- You bet for Solar Lodge who edit albums by interesting bands like Merciful Nuns, Opened Paradise or Whispers In The Shadow, in fact Visionaers was published with them. Have you noticed a lot of change between afmusic and Solar Lodge?
We are very pleased to have the opportunity to be signed at Solar Lodge, and since there was some issues with AF-Music in the past, we feel even more pleased with it. Solar Lodge gives us freedom to do our stuff in the way we want to, and supports us where we need to be supported. We would say the main difference is, that the head of Solar Lodge is a musician and audio engineer himself, and therefore can provide us besides the marketing stuff, with support based on his long experience in this issues.
- One of the most common feature of the bands mentioned (besides a strong taste for the Gothic Rock) can be the esoteric touch or the references to ancient civilizations in the lyrics. You handle those registers too but maybe from a closer perspective, like day-to-day.
I’m would be a liar if I would say that I’m not connected to esotericism at all. As I mentioned before, our music’s objective is to escape from the real world for a certain period of time. Some use drugs and some use sex to escape from the real world, we use sex, drugs and esotericism.
- ¿Which artists of any discipline do you think that has influenced your music style? You sound original and different even though the style can be classified as Gothic Rock?
We have been influenced by a bunch of Artists. There is not just one type of music in our hearts. Of course we are driven by Gothic Rock, but also by all sorts of Metal and a lot of Indie, Alternative, Ambient, Industrial…
- You usually give alternative versions of your own songs as well as versions of classics, not only of dark music (The Doors for example). This versions are truly personal, brought to your own style. Do you plan to keep doing this?
Well, sometimes we feel that we need to cover one song of a great artist. We don’t do this regularly and, I hope you’ve noticed, we never sell these covers. I hope we can continue doing this for a long time. Because here is where we pay tribute to artists we appreciate.
- You normally sing in English but in some songs you do it in Portuguese. Do you have Portuguese ancestry? Or is there some other reason? When are you writing a song in Spanish? Hahaha
I’ve been living in Portugal for many years.
As I started writing songs for Aeon Sable, I found out that the Portuguese language is very well connected to lyrical art. If you use German for example, it always sounds hard, but Portuguese is a very nice and soft language, so we decided to produce some songs in Portuguese once in a while.
- Generally, you include bonus tracks in the CDs and so called “stormed” versions of old songs too. Which is the purpose? If there’s one…
Yes, in fact there is a purpose, but we cannot talk about it right now. This maybe is a surprise dated for an yet unknown future.
- About concerts, do you use a particular type of scenography or «just» four guys playing?
It depends on the Venue and on the conditions. If we play “around the corner”, we have the best possibilities to create a great atmosphere for less money. If we play far away for a few bucks, sometimes it can appear that we are just four guys playing.
Most of the times we offer two kind of shows to the organizer. A regular and a special show. If the organizer is willing to invest in a special show, he will get a show based on our own light technician, our own sound technician and we also invite a tribal dancer to underline our show.
But trust me – the Regular show is also very hypnotic and esoteric.
- How many importance do you attach to the concerts compared to the studio? Initially, it seems that Aeon Sable was conceived as a studio band…
Yes, initially we thought that it would be enough to edit a good album. Neither Din nor I supposed it could be important to play live shows.
Now, a few years later, we know that playing live is as important as releasing a well-produced album from time to time.
That’s why we hired our friends Jo and Quoth back in 2013. We are very happy to have them on board. They do an excellent job.
- In October you are going to visit Spain for the first time as a band. What are you expecting from the Spanish public?
We played in Porto, Portugal last year and the crowd was just awesome, so we expect at least the same from our Spanish friends.
- The SGM is a really special event for all the people who love this music. In addition this year’s line-up is impressive…
Yes, indeed for what I’ve seen, there will be a lot of great artists at SGM but I still don’t know the complete billing right now. Grooving in Green are nice guys – we played together with them in Austria a few years ago and we are looking forward to meet our Portuguese friends from NU:N.
- Future plans.
Continue producing and acting like a boss.
And last, three questions of a more frivolous nature (not sure if the above are not so):
You have released many songs in all these years… Which three would you choose from your whole career?
Nino: Secret Flower, Praying Mantis and Quaalude Tango
Din: Finally I’m here to say something, too… I would say Secret Flower also, At The Edge Of The World, because it’s our first not covered Song ever made, and A Serpente e o Andarilho. I hope I pronounced that correctly.
- During the last years, I am sure that there have been a number of bands and songs that have had an influence in you… Could you choose three songs from other bands that you would have liked to write yourselves?
Nino: Emily written by Baby woodrose, Ewig by the blue angel lounge and Nine while nine by the sisters of mercy.
Din: For my part the whole “First and last and always” album by Sisters of Mercy, except the track “Possession”, second the whole “An Irony Of Fate” Album by Love Like Blood, and last that yet unreleased song, I heard at the last Bondage Fairies concert I attended.
- Apart from the three songs just mentioned, which three songs would you cover??
Oh, I can’t tell you exactly… maybe something from Nick Cave or Peter Murphy. Let’s see what will happen…
Thank you for the chance of being here and have a great time. See you in Madrid.
Thanks to you for all!
