{"id":55445,"title":"Interview with Flamulus","description":"An interview with Flamulus from Unto Thee.","content":"

\"Flamulus,When did Unto Thee come into existence?<\/p><\/blockquote>

I\u2019d always written lots of black metal stuff since the 90\u2019s and \u201cUnto Thee\u201d was the name I was always going to use for that, but as it happens I didn\u2019t get around to taking any of that material to a final form and actually releasing it. I ended up playing and recording in other projects and bands instead, like the thrash act Warbastard<\/u><\/strong><\/a> and another black metal band Wolfsgard<\/u><\/strong><\/a> which took my focus off it for a few years. Then life things got in the way for a while so it was never a priority. I just kept these songs for myself anyway and had no real intention of releasing them until this music video came up.<\/p>

So what\u2019s that about, how did the music video come together?<\/p><\/blockquote>

I bumped into a very old friend who happened to run a film production company<\/u><\/strong><\/a>, he asked me if I still recorded black metal stuff as he had a bunch of ideas he wanted to try out - stemming from being a fan of the music, visuals and horror movies in general. He wasn\u2019t really getting to scratch that particular itch in his day to day business and so it was quite opportune for us both. I had recently recorded a couple of demo tracks and he really loved \u201cWe Were Fire\u201d - so we made it happen. I let him call all the shots as it was his vid and involved a big crew, hence the very professionally filmed and acted scenes. I also got to do some cool stuff like standing in the North Sea for a few hours playing guitar and wearing a cloak, setting cymbals on fire, etc. All far more difficult and dangerous than it sounds.<\/p>

That sounds crazy, any interesting stories from filming?<\/p><\/blockquote>

It was a great experience, really quite demanding with regard to locations and getting kit there, but amazing to be part of. Right in the middle of the shoot we needed two cult members at short notice - so Mike and Alex from Nemorous<\/u><\/strong><\/a> jumped in last minute to help put some evil stuff on film for the video. I was on pyrotechnics that day, lighting torches, throwing ever increasing amounts of petrol on a fire while they did ritualistic things in front of it, waving incense, sacrificing Matty Ride-Smith<\/u><\/strong><\/a>, that kind of thing. The tide gave us a real runaround that day too, was quite exciting. A lot of folk came through for me throughout to make it all happen and I\u2019m exceptionally grateful to all concerned.<\/p>

\"AnWho\u2019s in the band?<\/p><\/blockquote>

Just me. I\u2019ve a lot of experience playing, recording and producing all sorts of stuff. So at the moment it\u2019s essentially a solo project.<\/p>

Is that a challenge, how come you play so many instruments?<\/p><\/blockquote>

I\u2019ve always played guitar - that\u2019s my main instrument. I taught myself to play drums out of necessity really as I didn\u2019t have a large network of musicians to collaborate with and basically\u00a0 metal drummers are thin on the ground. I did use a drum machine for some demos in the 90\u2019s but that was never going to cut it for me, I\u2019m not a fan of programming, even with all the real sample stuff it just doesn\u2019t sound \u2018live\u2019 - its far quicker and easier just to play them. Other instruments, like bass, piano and stuff I just dabble in and have picked up a few tricks along the way. I like to write and record everything, no disagreements that way, and if something sucks - that\u2019s on me. I really love the process, I only wish I had more time to spend on it.<\/p>

What are your musical influences?<\/p><\/blockquote>

So for heavy stuff I obviously really like early black metal. But no keyboard stuff. Guitar-wise I was a big fan of At The Gates up to \u2018Slaughter of the Soul\u2019, learned a lot of fast picking rhythm stuff there, early Metallica too. Mainly if I put music on now (which is pretty rare), it\u2019ll generally be a lot of the original Kolbotn bands like Aura Noir, Infern\u00f6, Darkthrone, Ved Buens Ende, and their newer but authentic bands like Obliteration I\u2019m a big fan of as well. I do like some exceptionally bleak DSBM stuff too.<\/p>

\"TheHow would you describe the sound of Unto Thee?<\/p><\/blockquote>

Well so far as you\u2019ll have heard it\u2019s very fast and relentless, but I\u2019ve songs with a lot more dynamics written already, some acoustic guitar bits and atmospheric slow sections too, but it\u2019s all going to be recognisable as Unto Thee. I like interesting riffs, seamless compositions and being able to hear all the instruments - really the production values are quite high for black metal\u2026 I\u2019m always in two minds about just leaving things raw and necro sounding for old school authenticity but this is the direction I\u2019ve gone in here - if I do something rougher it\u2019ll have to be a different project.<\/p>

What\u2019s the story behind \u201cWe Were Fire\u201d?<\/p><\/blockquote>

The video is very dark; a man who essentially finds himself in a cult attempts to escape from whatever fate he sees himself heading towards, visually a lot happens, it\u2019s one to watch a few times I think, really fine film-making. From a structure point of view I wrote the most of the song last year but the end riff of the song (before the outro) is about 20 years old. I have a large back catalogue - tapes full of riffs to draw from and enjoy creating transitions to tie suitable sounding sections together. I\u2019m really pleased with how this one works, lots of open string harmonies and controlled dissonance, built-ups and chill-outs. The lyrics are about regret and a refusal to give up.<\/p>

\"TheHow are people liking it so far?<\/p><\/blockquote>

I\u2019ve not really heard much feedback, I just hope the people who might like it, actually find it. I mean, it\u2019s on all the nowadays streaming platforms but I don\u2019t really know what kind of scene that has.<\/p>

Any gigs planned?<\/p><\/blockquote>

No. I\u2019ve had to turn down a couple already, I just don\u2019t have enough material ready yet. Of course I\u2019d need to recruit a band too, not impossible but I\u2019m not rushing into that, I don\u2019t have too much time on my hands for it.<\/p>

What\u2019s next for Unto Thee?<\/p><\/blockquote>

Recording some more tracks, I\u2019d really like to do more video stuff too. I\u2019ve also got a bunch of songs which don\u2019t quite fit into Unto Thee and they\u2019ll have to come out under a different banner. I\u2019d like to put something out on vinyl too, but that\u2019s for another day.<\/p>","urlTitle":"interview-1","url":"\/blog\/interview-1\/","editListUrl":"\/my-blogs","editUrl":"\/my-blogs\/edit\/interview-1\/","fullUrl":"https:\/\/flamulus.com\/blog\/interview-1\/","featured":false,"published":true,"showOnSitemap":true,"hidden":false,"visibility":null,"createdAt":1773601047,"updatedAt":1774967137,"publishedAt":1774967137,"lastReadAt":null,"division":{"id":387435,"name":"The Damnation Foundation"},"tags":[{"id":4502,"code":"flamulus","name":"Flamulus","url":"\/blog\/tagged\/flamulus\/"},{"id":4503,"code":"interview","name":"Interview","url":"\/blog\/tagged\/interview\/"},{"id":4504,"code":"video","name":"Video","url":"\/blog\/tagged\/video\/"}],"metaImage":{"original":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/usdb5jc2zr0a0ffuttvgrin20ncrtixrxsjevl2nhi0xyjwb.jpeg?z=1.1&fx=0.47150398163113&fy=0.54545454545455","thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/usdb5jc2zr0a0ffuttvgrin20ncrtixrxsjevl2nhi0xyjwb.jpeg.jpg?w=1140&h=855&z=1.1&fx=0.47150398163113&fy=0.54545454545455","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/usdb5jc2zr0a0ffuttvgrin20ncrtixrxsjevl2nhi0xyjwb.jpeg.jpg?w=1920&h=1440&z=1.1&fx=0.47150398163113&fy=0.54545454545455"},"metaTitle":"","metaDescription":"","keyPhraseCampaignId":null,"series":[],"similarReads":[{"id":55602,"title":"Behind The Scenes","url":"\/blog\/behind-the-scenes\/","urlTitle":"behind-the-scenes","division":387435,"description":"Behind the scenes on the We Were Fire music video shoot.","published":true,"metaImage":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/qm3r7wixwh2yihxqhog8fubklqkfo7ud1olqfrsfslrbgpiy.png.jpg?w=1140&h=855","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/qm3r7wixwh2yihxqhog8fubklqkfo7ud1olqfrsfslrbgpiy.png.jpg?w=1920&h=1440"},"hidden":0},{"id":55828,"title":"We Were Fire - Reviews","url":"\/blog\/we-were-fire-reviews\/","urlTitle":"we-were-fire-reviews","division":387435,"description":"Reviews relating to the release of We Were Fire by Unto Thee.","published":true,"metaImage":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/ij2yucsejudqdlw1mj78ajrdicyecq0g1bzw9cgxxzcnenzc.png.jpg?w=1140&h=855&z=1.1&fx=0.53093914356963&fy=0.45454545454545","banner":"https:\/\/images.podos.io\/ij2yucsejudqdlw1mj78ajrdicyecq0g1bzw9cgxxzcnenzc.png.jpg?w=1920&h=1440&z=1.1&fx=0.53093914356963&fy=0.45454545454545"},"hidden":0}],"labels":[]}