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Bergfried is a very interesting metal project with strong references to the Middle Ages and also to other musical genres. Here we talked to its creator, the German Erech Leleth. Here we talked about music, inspirations and, best of all, art.
Firstly, thank you for giving us this interview. For our readers, could you comment on your trajectory in music? How is the process of becoming a multi-instrumentalist?
I wouldn’t call myself a multi-instrumentalist. I prefer the term songwriter to take the focus away from the instruments. I started playing the guitar and stuck with it, bass and vocals followed out of necessity, so that I’d be able to record most of my music by myself. But for me all these instruments are just means to an end to help me writing music. I’m neither a very good guitar player nor singer, so calling me a multi-instrumentalist would be misleading. We started the first punk band as children when I was 12 and with 15 I started writing and recording my first metal tracks at home and then with 18 I discovered Black Metal and released the first songs with a drummer as Der Toten Lebend Schein.
Looking at your other bands, we notice there is a great interest in black metal and some of its aspects. How did this passion for the genre come about? I really like that these projects have brought a lot of that obscure black metal I began to like when I was a teenager.
I think when you’re driven by teenage angst and begin to explore the darker emotions inside your soul, Black Metal can be a pretty good tool to deal with that. You discover there are people out there who don’t shy away from digging deeper and play around with themes of death, damnation, Satan and lust. Of course that’s not limited to this music genre, but it was just there at this time in my life. I think it shaped my open approach to art in general and if you look at Black Metal-related music nowadays there is a lot of variety and a will to transcend the genre itself, which I am really grateful for.
Bergfried proposes to be Romantic Medieval Metal. How was the conception of this project? At least for me, it is an amazing work that uses a lot of references from the Medieval Age (the term Romantic, in Portuguese, is rarely used by people to describe this era, so for some here it may sound like we are talking about love).
The term ‘Romantic Medieval Metal’ (as well as the German title “Romantik I”) has several layers. It is indeed a love story, so you can see it that way for sure. The medieval part of the project is not medieval at all, but rather a romanticized view of the Middle Ages, as it was present in the 18th and 19th century in Europe. The medieval times have always been used for political agendas and they still are (look at those countless Black Metal bands who’d like to go back to alleged simpler times, who use it to support their white supremacist world views). Bergfried has a tad more innocent, almost childish medieval vision throughout the songs and is not based on a historically accurate perception of the Middle Ages.
So how does your interest in the Middle Ages come from? Because it is noticeable, even from the cover art of the EP, that there is a lot of research about the era.
I majored in medieval history a while ago and although I have to admit I wasn’t the best mediaevalist, I had a lot of fun with it. Because of the lack of sources for those times compared to the modern era, I always had the feeling the mediaevalists where rather storytellers than historians (even though a good historian also must be a good storyteller).
I read in some places that people considered Romantik I “weird”, since it is very complicated to exactly classify it in any specific tag. How would you define the musical genre of this EP?
I am not the one to answer that. I am amazed with what genre tags the people come up concerning Bergfried. I only came up with Romantic Medieval Metal, because that’s the vibe, even if it’s not real metal.
And about Romantik I’s cover art, could you tell us more about it? I like it because it has a clear reference to the drawings and paintings of the Middle Ages in a way that is very close to what was done at the epoch.
The artist Haharobin has a distinct style and while I was looking for the right artist to illustrate the story of the war-torn lovers, I immediately knew that his art would fit the mood perfectly. You can see the two standing on the top of a Bergfried (the tower of a medieval castle), while they kill each other with their swords. The city around them is burning down. They realized that would be the only way to stop the senseless killing on the battlefield. You’re right with the medieval references, although I think it also has strong comic vibes.
Listening to all your projects, I can feel that they sound metal at some point, but they don’t seem to be totally influenced by metal. What influences you, in music and in other media?
I like what you said there. They “sound” metal. I cannot be certain how they influenced my songwriting, but I mostly listen to classical music (from romanticism to late-romanticism towards modernity), pop-rock artists like Rilo Kiley, a lot of punk and 80s Heavy and Hair Metal. Other media could be the photography by Robert Mapplethorpe or works by Dostoevsky, but I don’t really think you can hear that in the music, haha. It’s mostly my own emotional life and that of my surroundings which has the biggest influence. I like to fall in love and I like to connect with the people around me, so without that there would be no Bergfried or Ancient Mastery or whatever.
I also read that you have two labels, Ad Victoriam and Doctrina Carnis. How important is it to set up your own space to do your releases and produce other people’s stuff?
It’s not at all. They are both on hold, because I realized I’m not good with doing promo and working for other bands. I still enjoy the releases by Dark Sorcerer, Potma, Drugoth or Dark Meditiation a lot, but I enjoy it more to be working with labels for my own projects who deal with pressing plants, magazines and such. I have more time to write songs then.
Your projects are designed to be studio-only, as far as I can tell. Is there any intention of performing them live?
I’m not against it per se, but it would be rather time consuming for me. I have to find the right musicians and practice. Would I play live with Carathis, Ancient Mastery or Bergfried (or some other project) or would I play an Erech Leleth “Best Of”? Nevertheless, I’m sure one day I will enter the stage again, but I want to do it right.
I also heard you admire and like art and literature a lot. Do you have any authors you like or are reading now? I have a great desire to study German again to improve my contact with German literature and to get away from the translations that usually arrive in Brazil.
I do. If you’re in for a deep & but still accessible read, Hermann Hesse is always worth to revisit. If you can concentrate properly (which I rarely can to be honest) Thomas Mann has a lot to offer, especially in his Doktor Faustus as well as Christa Wolf. Concerning contemporary German authors I would recommend Benedict Wells or the plays of Sibylle Berg and Elfriede Jelinek (she’s Austrian though). If you’re up for some poetry Friedrich Hölderlin surely never lets you down. Though I have to admit that I’m still in my Dostoevsky phase, but I have to careful, because the winter is coming and then it can drag you down into the deepest abyss.
We are a Brazilian music site and I always ask this question to all artists: do you know any Brazilian bands? Do you like any of them?
Oh yes! I always have been a fan of the Brazilian Power Metal scene. I still have the self-titled debut full-length from Burning in Hell on heavy rotation, as well as Aquaria’s Luxaeterna and Steel Warrior’s Army of the Time. I am also a big fan of Vandroya. Daísa has a killer voice. It would be a dream come true to collaborate on a song with her.
Thank you very much for giving us this interview. This is the space to send your message to our readers.
Thank you for taking the time to do this interview! Take care!
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