FIRTAN interview at Sword Chant

May 16th of 2014, the new FIRTAN release "Niedergang" will see the daylight. So, I interviewed Phillip, singer & guitarist for FIRTAN, mainly about their new album "Niedergang".

01. Hi! Early 2010, you founded FIRTAN. How have you all met ?

The drummer Martin and me met through our first guitarist Neves, which i knew from a project we had before but that never did anything productive. One day i met Neves again in the train and he said he knew some drummer that also played in quiet well-known band in our region "MAERSUNG". So i said let's try it and this was the birth of FIRTAN. The bassist Oliver also plays in MAERSUNG, so when our first bassist was kicked out due lack of motivation, we recruited Oliver to get a full line-up again, but that didn't last so long. Neves had to leave too because of personal differences with other bandmembers. However now we three (Martin, Oliver and me) developed to the core of the band and recruited some live-members also from MAERSUNG and my other black metal project ANWAR for the second guitar position.

02. What are the influences of the band ?

Oh, there are so many and they get even more because there are so many great bands out there. To name a few that come in my mind now: Moonsorrow, Negura Bunget, Thyrfing, Enslaved, Alcest, Agalloch, Ascension, Taake and soooo many more, but we don't try to copy them, nevertheless you can hear some clear influences from, for example, AGALLOCH on the newest record. Also we get inspired by our environment and our lives.

03. You released your first record during 2013 but not a demo before that year. …Why ?

Very easy! I was to bad :D ...the songs were pretty bog-standard and very bad recorded. After the recording session we were just not satisfied with it and didn't have the feeling the world out there would need this record HAHA. We decided to do it right and go a step further, so the motivation was bigger to do something listenable...

04. So, Wogen der Trauer EP was released last year. How was it perceived by listeners & medias ?

Mostly it was pretty good. Some reviews were good average, which i think is appropriate since i see this record as first evolutionary step. But most reviews were even about 8 or 9 of 10 what i never expected, maybe it's because as a musician you're mostly very skeptical about your own records.

05. This year, you released your debut album entitled Niedergang. What means this title? Is it a concept album ?

Yeah, in fact it is a concept album.

06. Can you detail us stories in the songs of this album ?

It's about the downfall of a young man who gets forced into a lonely and an inhuman life. He can't fight his fears and gets more and more captured by this bad emotions and thoughts so he develops to a form of vitriolic eremite and instead of fighting he's fears he fights humanity. In my opinion every malignancy on this earth originates on the lack to deal with your one fears you get vulnerable and overact this. At the end the eremite wants to live a normal life again, which shows he's just realized that all that he has done was his one force and that no one than himself is guilty in what happened. However it's to late now and he gets crushed by his guilt.

07. Clara Held, violin player for THE PRIVATEER appears as guest on one song, which one ?

She played on the last song called "Huckup".

08. How have you met together ? How things happened with her ?

THE PRIVATEER come from Freiburg which is quiet near to get from our hometown, so we knew this band because we saw them live once. However, they asked us to play at their release show in Freiburg and we said yes. We always thought about having some real orchestra instruments on the new record so we asked her if she wants to...

09. …Musically speaking, are there some differences between the two records ?

Yes, many and maybe this will piss some people off, but we want to do what we like and that's the main point about making music. The album has much more influences from many kinds of extreme metal and rock, also some folk. It's more specific and no song sounds the same, the black metal influences are dominant and also the orchestra is in the foreground mostly. Also the singing takes some time in getting used to if you are used to the vocals on the EP, it's some kind of depressive, which we thought is important to transfer the despair of the protagonist of the album concept. 

10. Different band logo is on each record. Can you describe them two ?

The first one was drawn by me and we thought it would be quiet okay but weren't satisfied with it anymore, since my drawing skills are pretty lousy we decided to recruited a professional and asked the lord of the logos CHRISTOPHE SZPAJDEL. But we told him to leave the basic form as it is.

11. Is the current band logo a definitive one or do you think to change logo for each record ?

There are no plans in changing the logo again, but maybe in a few years you want something new who knows, it's pretty common you modify your logo within some time.

12. How do you work for composition ?

I work at home or in the rehearsal room and play some riffs or get some ideas while listening to other music and than i write it down into guitarpro. But with future material i want to try to record it directly so that i can really hear how the song is sounding before to go to the studio and get review if the other bandmates are satisfied with it. If i am done with the main composition i rehearse the songs with the drummer so he can get some ideas about the drum track than he finishes them at home. Sometimes i write the bass tracks sometimes Oliver himself but it's always independent. The lyrics are mostly written by me, nevertheless, on the album we also took some poems from VISCHER and HEGEL and also Martin and the singer from my other band ANWAR wrote a text.

The lyrics for the third song on the album were also co-written by our ex-guitarist Simon.

13. Are you looking for a label ?

No, not at the moment. Maybe with the next record...

14. What are your next plans ?

We would like to play many concerts next year and also in the end of this year, also i am right now working at new songs also for ANWAR. Hopefully we can go to the studio in about a year or two.

15. Anything else that you would like to share with us ?

Thanks to all fans for their support and buy the new record it was really hard work HAHAHA. Also thanks for this interview....

Thanks for the interview!