Summon: How did the band start? How long have you been together?
Joe: Noctuary, spawned from two co-existing bands back in 96′. We basically felt the need to kick the vocalist out of one of the bands and fuse the ideas of both bands together.
Summon: What kind of music do you play? Describe your music?
Joe: I’d call our music “Black Metal”, with more emphasis on METAL than “black”. It’s fast, melodic and dissonant at times, and very emotional, from within our minds. Most of our influence comes from 80’s metal bands like Maiden, old Metallica, Megadeth and Ozzy.
Summon: And you guys don’t do the corpse paint thing like most Black Metal bands right? Any reason to why not?
Joe: Yeah, we don’t wear corpse paint. We never have, it just isn’t our thing. We’re more into the old metal imagery of spikes, bullets, etc. I don’t have anything against corpse paint, though… just never interested in doing it for Noctuary.
Summon: What do you think of other black metal bands that wear corpse paint?
Joe: I don’t really pay attention to what the musicians look like. I’ve seen really bad jobs of corpse paint and really good jobs of it. If their music is good, I support them, what ever image they choose to portray.
Summon: Where did you get the name of the band? Is there any story behind it?
Joe: The name comes from a book by Tomas Ligotti. It’s a collection of short “horror” stories. A really good read, and a very interesting title. I thought it would be a good name for the band at the time. Apparently another band from Cleveland thought the same, but they broke up over a year ago.
Summon: How many demo’s/Cd’s do you guys have? Tell me about them.
Joe: We have one demo that was released in 96′. It helped us to gain a lot of recognition in the scene. It’s out of print right now, but there’s a label that is going to re-release it onto MCD this summer. We have a full length out on Lost Disciple Records right now too. It came out Sept. 98′ and we’ve been getting a lot of good reviews and support for the album. It’s 11 songs of hatred, sorrow, and triumph. Extreme, with no keyboards or female vocals to make it “pretty” or “romantic.”
Summon: Do you guys have any plans soon to record?
Joe: Unfortunately, no. We have already written new songs for the next album, but won’t have the funds from our label to record until this winter. Right now we’re just concentrating on promoting the current album and playing as many shows as possible. Including Metalfest 13, and a possibly tour of the Southwestern US early December (including the San Antonio black metal fest on the 4th).
Summon: Who writes the majority of the music and lyrics?
Joe: I write most of the music and all of the lyrics. Edward, the bassist writes all of his parts. Myself and the drummer collaborate on drum ideas. I write all the guitar stuff.
Summon: Where do you guys come up with lyric ideas?
Joe: It all comes from within. It comes from our hatreds, sorrows, passions and triumphs. I write only the truth, as I see it.
Summon: What is the band like live?
Joe: I think we sound best live. I definitely prefer our live sound to our studio sound. We try to put as much energy into our show as possible. I don’t want the to crowd feel like they’re listening to the radio.
Summon: Do you guys use and special props when you play live?
Joe: No.
Summon: What’s the average amount of people at your shows?
Joe: Probably anywhere from 150-200. Depends on who’s playing.
Summon: Have you ever played out of state shows?
Joe: No, we’ve played about 400 miles out of town twice, but nowhere outside of California yet.
Summon: Your playing the Milwaukee Metalfest this year, are you excited about that?
Joe: Yeah, it should go over well. We had troubles getting our guitarist and drummer out there, but we found fitting fill-ins for the show. We are not playing at good time, but hopefully some people will be there early enough to see us. (4:30 Friday)
Summon: Have you played any shows with any of your fave bands before?
Joe: We’ve played shows with some good bands, none that I would call my favorite though. We’ve opened for bands like Dark Funeral, Incantation, Angelcorpse, Suffocation and we were supposed to open for Marduk, which is one of my favorite bands, but they canceled their US tour.
Summon: What was it like to open up for Dark Funeral?
Joe: It was a cool show, nothing great. Just like most shows actually, except this one had a better turnout than most have lately.
Summon: Would you like to play a show in another country?
Joe: Yeah, definitely. We’d play anywhere if the opportunity comes our way.
Summon: If given the chance would you like to do a big tour of the US and other countries?
Joe: Yeah, we’d like to play as much as possible.
Summon: What does the future hold for the band?
Joe: More experimentation, more chaos, more aggression… hopefully more shows/tours and CD’s.
Summon: where do you see the band in 20 years from now?
Joe: I don’t really know. I know I’ll still be recording in some form or another in 20 years, it will always be extreme and from within.
Summon: Thank you for the interview and I do wish you luck. I will see you at Milwaukee!!
Joe: Killer… Hails to you for the interview and your support!
Contact them at:
https://www.facebook.com/noctuaryband/timeline/
