Aisling - Interviews

Interview with Metalglory

Hi Paolo. First of all congratulations for the marvellous album. How does it feel to read so many great reviews three years after finishing your last “new” album “trath na gaoth”?

Cernunnos (rhythm guitar): Thank to you for your nice words, we are happy that you appreciated our cd! It is always a great sensation knowing that people like your music that feel something listening to your song. You’re right, too much time has passed, too much time in which Aisling has worked into shadow and during this period we had many problems. Fortunately Einheit Produktionen gave us the chance to return in great style and to spread our music everywhere. Finally our album and mini CD will have a great distribution so we are curious to see if we will get great reviews as we got in the past when we distribuited by ourselves the cds through Europe. For this reason the remastered version of our cds made by Einheit Prod. sounds like a ‘new album’ because few people in the past had the possibility to discover our band. But don’t worry, you won’t wait for a long time our next, NEW album!

Let us look a bit further into the past. Your moniker origins from Gaelic?

Cernunnos (rhythm guitar): Yes, surely. We think the monicker of a band could be fundamental and you have to do the right thing. The ancients give a great importance when they had to give a name to someone or something. Our monicker is in Gaelic to express in a clear way our bond to the Celtic ancient world. It means ‘dream-like vision’ a vision created by dream. I’m a visionaire, we have mystic experiences when we are in touch with Nature and we express throught music our feelings. This is Aisling!

What means your music to you?

Cernunnos (rhythm guitar): To be part of Aisling band, music must have an important role into your life. We ‘live’ Aisling, it is part of our body, soul and mind and it takes os many energies but also it give us great sensations. My life would be surely different without Aisling, it would be poorer. The songs of Aisling are a way to express what intimistic is hidden into us, the deepest emotions. Aisling aren’t a joke or a way to pass the time with friends, it is a sort of spiritual initiation that we have to do…

The city you come from was founded 500 B.C. by a celtic tribe? How comes you still have such a bond to the past? Are there any traces of the celtic past left in Trieste?

Cernunnos (rhythm guitar): Yes, a Celtic tribe called Carni Cátali founded our city on the Adriatic sea about 500 years B.C. bifore the Roman conquest of that land. The name Carni still exists in the land with mountains near our city called Carnia. The founding act is the most important fact that can happen to a thing. It is a fact that survive through centuries, think about the founding act of Rome or other cities, all people know them even if many centuries have passed. It doesn’t matter what happen after because some of the spirituality, way of thinking, traditions that were born with the founding act of the city will survive forever. Well, this bond is weak and invisible, but there are some people that can capture it in their soul and submerge their spirit into ancient religion. On our next album, based on our particular territori called Karst, will contain ancient legends of Celtic origins typical of our small surroundings of our city.

Are you familiar with ancient celtic languages?

Cernunnos (rhythm guitar): Unfortunately not. It is a very difficult language to learn, but to express some lyrics in Gaelic we have contacted our Schottich friend Kirk Callum to do some spoken parts in the song “Laoidhan Fogharach Na Dubhachas Agus T-Aisling Agam”. We think to use this solution also in the future, it is better if there’s a Gaelic person that sing in his language!

Maybe you can introduce the band or the people who contributed to your music?

Cernunnos (rhythm guitar): Actually, we had too many changes into the line up from the beginning till now. Better starting with the new line up: me and Cromm on guitars, Sidh on vocals, Gwynfyd on keyboards and Arawn on bass. In these days we have found a new guy on drummer that probably will become a new permanent member of the band. Only Gwinfyd and me recorded album “Aisling” but at that time Gwynfyd was the lead guitarist. Insted with the mini cd “Tráth Na Gaoth” entered in the line up Cromm and Sidh. So Ildanach, Annwn, Cythrawl and Imbolc are no more into Aisling but they gave a great touch to the creation of our particolar sound even thou they didn’t wrote music but just playing because only me and Cromm are they main songwriters.

I wonder why you’ve choosen gaelic songtitles, but English lyrics? What are they about

Cernunnos (rhythm guitar): The simplier answer is that we are not able to express lyrics in Gaelic language and because a title in Gaelic express often a concept that then is explained in a lyric written in English. English is easy to understand so many guys can read what we say, and for Aisling this is important because the concept has the same importance of music. Mainly our lyrics concern about Nature, ancient spiritualism under a Celtic view and our inner feeling in contact with Nature.

How important is nature for your music?

Cernunnos (rhythm guitar): We call it Nature, bacause she is the main source of our inspiration to write music and not only. She surround us, she lead us in every our step. For Aisling music is mysticism because it borns from something divine that through our will became music. So you can understand how much Nature is important for Aisling…

Would you consider yourself as a pagan band and how serious are you into all this pagan stuff with ancient gods…?

Cernunnos (rhythm guitar): We are a pagan metal band bacause our music can be considered in this way but mainly because our lyrics contain a pagan view of life and existence. We are very closet o ancient spirituality of Celts. No New Age thoughts, only true believing in ancient Gods of the past. Even thou not every member of the band can be considered as a religious person, all band have some common ideas about the value of Nature in our life and afterlife. If you notice in some our lyrics we mentioned also the power of our Gods: Taranis for example. You know, not many so called ‘pagan metal bands’ are deeply interested in ancient spiritualism and religion even viking metal bands: they love to play this kind of epic music but mainly they are interested in some folkloristic aspects, some symbols, but they don’t define themselves as ‘religious people’. This is a great difference between Aisling and other many bands.

Would you agree that you have some basic elements of your music in common with Ireland’s Primordial. I think of complex structures, long epic songs, changes of atmosphere within the songs and finally the combination of Black / Celtic Folk? What do you think about Primordial?

Cernunnos (rhythm guitar): Yes, I’m agree with you because of your explanation, instead for other things I think we are very different from Primordial because the main atmosphere isn’t the same and because we are more violent than them. Our music at the moment has many symphonic black metal elements that Primordial haven’t ever had. But I think people that like the great Irish metal band Primordial will probably appreciate also our music and viceversa. I think Primordial are a good band, maybe in the past in thier release there were ever something that couldn’t give to the releases that ‘magic touch’ to make them a real great album, but their new album is really great, maybe the best they did. I have some contacts in the past with their great singer Alan, very nice guy, maybe in the future we will play together, it would be nice!

As already mentioned: You don’t have typical structures (e.g. choruses) in your songs. Is it intention to create different songs of a natural flow?

Cernunnos (rhythm guitar): Yes, at the beginning it was a natural but also a bit planned choice because we liked that songs started with a felling and during its running time they changed atmosphere and mood becoming something different but ever linked with the beginning. But now, sometimes, we feel the needing to have a chorus that gives to the song a cyclic sense. In this way the structure of the songs become much close to our cyclic vision of life and things. Anyway, Aisling surely will never play songs in which you can find also two riffs reloaded to infinite with the same chorus repeated too much times!

Maybe we can do “In Their Own Words” and you could give a very personal description of your songs on the latest album? And which song is the most representative for Aisling?

Cernunnos (rhythm guitar): I think the most representative song nowaday of Aisling sound is “The Shining Darkness (Omega)” because it is a revisited version of the same song we wrote during 1999 and we recorded on our first and sold our demo “Endless Cycle”; a song revisited after so many years in which we inclueded our modern view of Aisling sound and our new skills. It is also interesting to notice that it sounds ‘modern’ also we compare it to our new material that we are writing for the new album. For these reasons I consider this song the most representative of Aisling sound at the moment. I won’t describe the album song by song because it could be boring. We talk about Mother Nature in our lyrics but when you listen to our music you won’t immagine forests and mountains, but the infinity of Cosmos and something mystic. Our music is pagan but it has something mystic inside, it is something like a dream and a vision, so it creates various images not only linked to the ‘physical’ Nature. It is the way to contact the divinity hidden inside Nature, if you understand what I mean.

When can we expect new Aisling-stuff?

Cernunnos (rhythm guitar): We will enter in Fandango Studio in Trieste this summer but the recording sessions will take us much time so i think our new release will be ready for the early 2007!

Many things will ch’ange in Aisling sound, you’ll see…

Thanks for the interview. I wish you all the best. You may say the final words!

Cernunnos (rhythm guitar): Thanks to you a lot for the interview and interest in Aisling! A short message to our fans that hasn’t to be forgotten: music is mysticism!

Interview with sounds2move.de

What is it for a feeling to hear the old Songs again in a new and better production?

Cernunnos (Aisling – rhythm guitar): We are very excited to re-listen our previous releases under this new dress better then before. We used one studio here in Trieste, our city (Fandango Studio) and a studio in Germany and both did a great job, the CD now sounds very cold. I think this is the right sound that Aisling should keep also in future: coldness and atmosphere.

sounds2move: In a retrospective which part at your Old Album would you change, if you had the chance for this?

Cernunnos (Aisling): The CD is the mirror of what Aisling were in that period and I think we do our best also with some mistakes and maybe some wrong choices. But this is called ‘experience’ so in the new album I hope to do not repeat the same mistakes. Anyway, now we are satisfied with our old album and we don’t want to do any changes. Instead with did some changes in the old songs that we play alive because we love to re-write some parts of our song, it is a continuos process of evolution without an end even if at one point of it you have do give it a completed structure and to record it so to give it a real existence.

sounds2move: Have you a favorite Song on “ Aisling / Trath Na Gaoth“? And when yes why?

Cernunnos (Aisling): Yes, of course every one of us has his favourite song. I prefer ‘Tir Na n’Og’ one of our early songs, maybe the first one we have written since the foundation of the band, infact you can find a different version in our debut demo “Endless Cycle” (1999). I like this song because there is a deep feeling between lyric and music: it is described the passage from life to death and to the ‘other life’ into Tir Na N’og but this come through a human sacrifice where you really don’t know if you’re the victim of the druid who make the sacrifice because when you are near to death experience two dimensions fight to rapture your body and soul and you are in sort of unconsciousness. The music of this song describes all the feelings mentioned in the lyrics, infact it is very violent and atmospheric at the same time.

sounds2move: Is this play with heathen religions and lead-early stories, for you only an artistic expression, or also some kind of lifestyle outside of the music?

Cernunnos (Aisling): I’m honest. Not every member of Aisling band is a ‘pagan’ even if everyone support with strong convinction our concept, for me, the founder member of the band, Aisling is a musical expression of my devotion to polytheistic religion. So you can say that for Aisling religion is a lifestyle and some aspects of religion are appreciated by all members of the band, for example the devotion to our Mother Nature. Our lyrics don’t tell about ancient stories, but tell about our inner experiences and feelings we had with powers of Nature.

sounds2move: When was your first Contact with this old mythology of believing in Nature and the ancients Gods?

Cernunnos (Aisling): Many years ago, when I was a child, during the age in which a person wonder many things about life, death and the existence in general. Searching in my soul I understood I’m part of what I breath, of this Earth, of my Mother. Then, after many years, I became to give a name of these sensations and I started to research the names of ancient Gods of my land…they were part of the Celtic world, the same civilization that founded my city where I was born. You know that the founding act is very important into religions in general so there is still a strong bond between my city Trieste and the ancient celtic spirituality that is still alive in legends and not only…

sounds2move: Have you ever read the Edda? And when yes when was the first contact with this book and tell me your opinion about the Edda.

Cernunnos (Aisling): I finished the University focusing my last exams and the final thesis on the passage of German peoples of early Middle Age from paganism to christianism, expecially the Longobards. Yes I read the ancient Edda poem and also the revisited version made in Edda Snorra made by Snorri Sturluson. Edda teach us many things about the mythology of norsemen, their lifestyle, and also about the mentality of Vikings about the destiny, just for example. We know also Edda poem has been written from prists and infact I see Christian influences at the end of the poem when it is described the end of the world, the final battle and the rising of a ‘new order’…all that hurts with typical view of destiny living into German paganism. Next time I’ll tell you all the passages incriminated in the text ahah! You have to know very well both mythologies and the Christian ideology to discover when Christians put their influences into the ancient culture…

Cernunnos (Aisling): This answer takes another complete interview! First of all you have to say, as you already probably knows, there are many kind of ‘paganisms’ or better ‘polytheistic religions’. You know, Greek and Romans or Egyptians had a different religious structure from Germans and Celts, just to give you an example. I try to follow the ancient Celtic religion in a simply way full of devotion (I don’t consider myself a druid or something like that, while somebody does it in a ridiculous way). My name is a homage to one of my Gods…

Cernunnos (Aisling): Self-censored! Eheh! I think it is, together to other monotheistic religions, the greatest disease of our world and society, it is guilty of the illness of our Earth and about the crazy values that reign in the modern society, not only Western society… But I know that these religions, as their apocalyptic view of the end of the world teaches, very soon they will end, fighting each other. So finally a new era will begin, and this is a ‘pagan view of destinity’, not the same you find into Edda eheh! All is cyclic, all returns…2000 years of madness are enough!

sounds2move: Many Pagan / Viking Metal Bands sing in there Songs about the Slaying of Christian Peoples.

Cernunnos (Aisling): Everyone is free to write what he want. Aisling don’t ever mention Christianism in our lyrics. We are pagans and speak about our religions, don’t care about the others. Pagan people aren’t intolerant as monotheistic adepts, we follow our way, you choose your! If telling about the slaying of Christian is a method to fight against that religion I think it is a weak way, are needed stronger arguments, pagan people have them if they search for, christianism is the religion of the ‘book’, we are the religion of the spirit, our faith isn’t written in a book but it lives in our heart and no one can steal it!

sounds2move: The Pagan Metal scene has a big problem with Bands with a Neo-Fascist or National Socialism or Racist Ideology.

Cernunnos (Aisling): Very often bands that musically are insignificant try to become interesting adding something extra musical and often they choose something political, or some particular symbologism or image to their poor music. And when there are good bands with these ideologies that you mentioned so metal kids should only judge and/or support the band for the music they play. Instead very often, above all young people, follow or are attracted by this bands only for their ideas and exhibitionistic attitude. Sad but true, in Italy this phaenomenon is radicated, but I think in Germany too…

sounds2move: Had you ever problems with people, which wanted you to urge into a political corner?

Cernunnos (Aisling): No we hadn’t problem about that. Just one time a journalist thought that we were a political band but then he understood he was wrong. We reject every kind of political label on our band. Also because inside our band someone has no specific political ideals, the others have different ideas, so we aren’t compact in a specific ideology, for this reason Aisling won’t be a political band and also because we think politic has to stay away from metal music.

sounds2move: From your Point of View. Is it allowed to talk about political themes in Metal?

Cernunnos (Aisling): Metal music hasn’t ever been in relationship between political ideologies before the coming of a part of black metal. I understand if political ideas enter into punk or hardcore music, but not in the metal music. Not in this way. I find funny that someone put extreme modern ideologies into lyrics that talk about ancient traditions or people. I don’t think at all that Celts were ‘fascists or communists’ it makes me laugh thinking about that…If you understand what I mean. So Aisling, as we have written also on our booklet, don’t follow any political ideology and don’t want to put something like that in music. We simply love our beautiful places near our city and Nature and we feel a strong feeling with the ancient spirituality of Celts. I don’t see political themes in this! If I can criticize your interview, but please don’t be angry, I think you’re are giving too much importance to this aspect, better to ignore this aspect so if you find an ideologized band you don’t give them the possibility to talk about what they would. Don’t you think so?

Cernunnos (Aisling): Unfortunately here doesn’t exist a ‘viking/pagan’ scene in Italy simply because there aren’t bands that play this kind of music. We and few other bands come from this country.

Cernunnos (Aisling): I like the fact that it is growing still day by day, I like the cooperation between bands that play this genre because there is a sort of invisible bond that link us all. I don’t like and don’t understand people and bands that play or follow this genre only for trend, only to show pagan symbols as the Thor’s Hammer without knowing its meaning… There are two levels: at first there are the bands that are pagan and so they play pagan metal, then there are the bands that play pagan metal because they like this kind of music. The difference is deep. Even if I know there are no laws that say that to play pagan/Viking metal you have to follow this religion. Aisling are part of the first level of course.

Cernunnos (Aisling): It isn’t a simple question because I like a lot of pagan/viking metal bands. I could say Perished. But I like very much also Månegarm, Himinbjorg, Enslaved, Borknagar and many others. Heidefolk are a very good emerging band from Nederland, just for example.

sounds2move: Can you Name a still unknown Pagan / Viking Metal Band of the Underground of your Country?

Cernunnos (Aisling): Well, unfortunately pagan metal isn’t played by many bands. We hadn’t Vikings here in Italy (if you do not consider the Norman reign) so fortunately there are no Viking metal bands here. Here in Italy the bands prefer playing old black metal then pagan metal with epic atmosphere. Aisling is the only celtic metal band in Italy. But I can give you anyway a name: Legion Of Darkness that in spite of the monicker they play a sort of black metal very close to ‘Bergtatt’ style of great Norwegian cult band Ulver. But also our historical black metal band Opera IX in their last period have converged to ‘pagan metal’ genre.

Cernunnos (Aisling): Russia and East Europe in general are giving to the international pagan metal scene many interesting bands and this is good. Nomans land reminds me the early Mithotyn…and this is a good thing!

sounds2move: When will you release a new Album and can you something tells about it?

Cernunnos (Aisling): We have already written a pair of new songs, that we are playing alive, and many other idea are waiting to be realized as soon as possible. During the summer maybe we will also start to record some parts so at the beginning of the next year our new concept album will be ready. The lyrics will concern all ancient legends of our land and the relationship between man and Nature, while the music will be extreme metal various much more than the music we wrote in the past and there will be place for acoustic parts and celtic atmospheres…

Cernunnos (Aisling): Before drinking we want to thank you for the interview! No doubt about your question: Cech & German beer! Cheers!