Summon: How did the band get started?
Midgard: In 1994 from the ashes of LEVIAL (our old death metal band) we decided to form OUIJA because we needed another way to communicate our feelings and the different changes about the concept of our music in that moment…so OUIJA was born.
Summon: What kind of music do you play?
Midgard: Our style is just Black metal with some reminiscences of old Death metal.
Summon: Introduce the members of the band?
Midgard: Map is the founder guitar and brain of the compositions of the band, with me vocalist of the original line-up Midgard. In this new stage, three members of Spellcraft : Fulgur (drums), Aldromk (bass) and Murcilag (guitar) joined the band so the line-up is totally completed.
Summon: So what made you guys take over a decade off?
Midgard: It is very complicated to explain it, sometimes the life has these enigmas…the return of OUIJA has been something natural when I listened to Map’s new songs; I found a lot strength and darkness in them, for this reason, together again, we decided to return with a new project
Summon: How has the band response been since you have been back?
Midgard: The response of the people have been awesome, too many people had been waiting our return so the words of support have arrived from all places, world wide…for us knowing that the fans remember OUIJA has been very important.
Summon: Where did the band name come from?
Midgard: OUIJA is a name that all the band liked, and the meaning is as follows: from the French and German words for “yes”, oui and ja, also known as a spirit board or talking board, is a flat board marked with letters, numbers, and other symbols, supposedly used to communicate with spirits.
Summon: Who writes the music? Lyrics?
Midgard: At the moment I am responsible for all the lyrics, the main creator of the sound is our founder and guitarist Map.
Summon: Where do the lyric ideas come from?
Midgard: Our inspiration comes from different sources…but always full of antichristian hatred. We don’t want to transmit a message either; everybody who read them can feel whatever they want to, OUIJA is a fucking and total antichristian band and that will be always reflected in our lyrics…What would the Black metal be without that attitude? That’s our battle and legacy.
Summon: How does the music different from a decade ago?
Midgard: The essence is the same, but of course the new technologies in the new recording has helped to get a. more compact and up-to-date sound…but we always try not to forget our past and fuses it with the new compositions…if you lose your roots; you lose everything.
Summon: Tell me about the Ouija albums that have been released?
Midgard: Our first work; “Riding into the funeral paths” was released in 1997 under the Spanish label Repulse Records, with this work the band reached a big status in Spain and in the rest of Europe, of course with a lot fans in South America too, even in your country United States this album was very well received I remember a lot excellent reviews from there. In the year 2000 we recorded our second album, but for different causes and changes in the line-up it was never released, then the band broke up… At the beginning of this year we released our mini-CD entitled “Adversary” (with four songs) this album has been released under the Spanish record label XTREEM MUSIC. It will be a preamble of our full length in the first months of the next year.
Summon: Tell me about some the songs on the latest CD?
Midgard: As I said before the new songs keep our original essence, you’ll find only Black metal in our work without alterations, with a mix dark melodies with parts fast…the new songs are different between them, for example in “Magma” you can perceive that it is a song with several changes; structured and complex at the same time, however “The blood centurion” is a totally primitive song and full of hate and blasphemy; a lot of times this music only lies in it…
Summon: Besides Spellcraft do any of the members have any side bands?
Midgard: No, we just play in OUIJA and SPELLCRAFT, for us is already too much work with both bands ha ha ha…we don’t need any other projects, our demands are totally cover.
Summon: What is the difference between Ouija and Spellcraft?
Midgard: OUIJA and SPELLCRAFT are different bands with different history too, each one follows its own way; but they are close bands from the beginning, all of us are friends since our childhood… musically speaking perhaps SPELLCRAFT have a root of more traditional Black metal than OUIJA, because if you listen to this band with calmness you’ll discover influences of old Death metal and maybe something of thrash too.
Summon: Who are some of your musical influences?
Midgard: I only listen to metal music; from old heavy, thrash, death to current black metal…we were influenced by bands like Dissection, Morbid Angel, Sacramentum, Slayer, Kreator, King Diamond and so on…it would be a never-ending list…but OUIJA only plays Black Metal in pure essence, Viking and Folk metal aren’t my favourite styles.
Summon: Which current bands in your opinion is a big influence in today’s music?
Midgard: I prefer the old and classic bands as Morbid Angel and Dissetion for example, these bands are a reference for us, their sound and attitude will be always in my heart…generally speaking Metal music is still in a continuous evolution that makes this style great and different from all the rest. Nowadays there are great bands, I like them, but their attitude sometimes in my opinion is stupid and childish, I don’t want to give names ha ha ha…
Summon: Do you guys play live?
Midgard: OUIJA is going to play a few times just in carefully chosen festivals, we will fuse our old songs with the new stuff so that our fans also enjoy of our classic hymns.
Summon: What is the band like when you play live?
Midgard: You’ll find only true metal of death in our gigs, we enjoy our new material but also we want people to join us in our gigs to get together totally dark atmosphere and aggressive at the same time; all of us, together will open the gates of hell…
Summon: What was the best band you played with?
Midgard: All bands, no problem with it, we have played with different Spanish and Europeans bands, but the essential for us is that they feel what they do, be honest and true; it’s the most important.
Summon: Have you guys ever played in another country?
Midgard: Yes, we have played in France. I hope that in the future we can play in the rest of Europe and maybe in the U.S.A and South America, it would be great…but step by step, everything will arrive, we aren’t in a hurry.
Summon: How big of crowd shows up at shows usually?
Midgard: It depends, usually at the festivals the number of people is bigger…as I said before, we try to play only in this type of events because for us is perfect, generally they are better organized than in a small club.
Summon: How is the crowd response when you play?
Midgard: The response of the crowd usually is good, but I’m not the best person to speak about it. I think, that this question would have to be answered by a fan, not by me.
Summon: What is your opinion on the conflict of Black Metal Vs Death Metal?
Midgard: My opinion about that is the next, both styles are part of the extreme metal, for me it is stupid that fans are in conflict for following one style or another…I have grown up with both, I adore the old Death Metal, for example I’m a great fan of Swedish Death metal, I like a lot of bands such as Dismember, Carnage, Entombed and so on…I don’t have any problem and I can admit it, I think that this polemic is just for idiots, I do not enter this game…remaining united, we would be stronger.
Summon: What do you think of the US Black Metal scene?
Midgard: I’m going to be sincere; I’m not really informed about your scene now. Of course I know the classic American bands as Absu, Black Funeral, Kult of Azazel and so on, they are excellent bands.
Summon: What are some of new favorite black metal bands?
Midgard: Normally I prefer the classic and old bands, but just to name a band, I would do mention for example, the Swedish Black Metal Rev 16: 8 really a impressive band, I recommend you to listen to their music and oops I nearly forget that I also like the work of Demonaz, this guy is a genius.
Summon: Any plans on writing any new material?
Midgard: We are preparing our new work, I hope that everything goes well and at the end of this year we have prepared all the stuff and recorded too, we are recording in the same studio because the result of the mini-CD has been very satisfactory for us and for fans, fanzines, etc…this is our plan by now.
Summon: What does the future hold for the band?
Midgard: The future is uncertain for all, this world is totally rotten…so I don’t like doing any plans for the future; the future will speak…Thanks so much for your interview and support I hope to meet you in a gig in your country, it would be great.
HAILS TO ALL AMERICAN BLACK METAL HORDE; THE BLACK BLOOD JOINS US.
Contact them at:
http://www.myspace.com/ouija1997
