Dead Man's Hill Interview

A chat with the prolific martial / dark ambient act Dead Man's Hill.

more info: here

be sure to check out his latest two releases from Steinklang Industries: "Spirits" and the split with Hrossharsgrani "Dead : Meat"

Firstly, give us a brief history of your project Dead Man's Hill

Dead Man's Hill was born because I had many inspirations to make dark music - since i found myself a lot in the forest at nights.  The only limitation was that I had only very cheap instruments: a little casio-synth, a 4-track mixer and a minidisc recorder. The music of Dead Man's Hill has gone through a lot of transformations, as one can hear from the old albums through the new ones, and logically, this counts for myself as a person too.

 

In general, what inspires you to write music as Dead Man's Hill?

 I hear music in my head (or I receive the blueprint of it from I don't know where) and the challenge is to work this out in the recording studio, as realistic as possible. I don't have the intention to make dark ambient, industrial or whatever, the "thing" that's in the head will be created.  Also, there can be influences of what I experience in life and what I read in books, but I suppose that last part concerns almost everyone who makes music.

You have 2 tracks on the compilation, "Haunted Castle" as Dead Man's Hill and "Traveling to the Elvenkingdom" as your side project Monade.  Tell us about these tracks; what inspired you to create them, how they were created etc...

"Haunted Castle" is about a castle which is in the village where I raised up.  It's a big white castle which stands in a park which was also a mental institution.  It is abandoned.  When we were teenagers we used to go inside there at dark nights.   This is what the track is about, combined with a lot of fantasies from my part :)

"Traveling to the Elvenkingdom" is what the title suggests. You can use the music to travel to the kingdom of elves, gnomes and fairies, a world which is ruled by peace and where you can gain energy and knowledge. The music about Monade is about meditation, transformation, about going back to our roots, to recognize the Earth as our Mother and the Sun as our Father, and the plants, trees, animals and other humans as our brothers and sisters. 

Tell us a bit about your studio; what gear are you using, what is your favorite gear, etc?

The heart of my studio is a Korg D1200.  I work with The Kurzweil PC2R, Nord Lead 2x and the Microkorg. For the rest, my gear consists of a very old electric guitar, several didgeridoos and 2 Native American Flutes.   And of course my voice, which allows me to do strange things in the music ;D

 My favorite synth is definitely the Nord Lead 2x.  Its sounds are crystal clear, the overall sound quality is amazing and can go pretty extreme the way you want it.

What can we expect in the future from Dead Man's Hill, and/or your other projects?

Well, in the following years you'll not hear much from DMH anymore, since it has been a bit too prolific concerning releases and since I don't know which direction to go with it.  Contributions for compilations, re-mixes and track collaborations will be considered.

I just started a new project which is called "The Earth King".  It is music which doesn't seem to come from this world, full of outbursts and thunders, combined with throat singing, church organs and heavy guitars.  So it sounds very ritual.  I'll soon make a myspace-site for this project.

Further I started also "Order of the 2nd Attention" which, as the name suggests, explores the very wild regions of other states of being. 

But since I spend a lot of my time outdoors I don't make that much music anymore, so everything will go pretty slow.