Rockezine.com interview with Akercocke on Jun 01, 2004

with David Gray on Jun 01, 2004

Better late than never. After spending months in the digital limbo of email-hell the answers to the questions I asked about the "Choronzon" album were returned to me.
		Choronzon was one of the best albums I heard in 2003. The most striking, I think, is that it is multi layered, extremely complex and fragmented but the songs tend to stay in your head and have their own identity. Quite an accomplishment if you ask me.
		Do you consider all of this when you write songs, that it has to be recognizable for the listener, or are you just writing music you want to play? The most powerful music is immediately recognizable by virtue of the originality of its composer. First and foremost we make music to please ourselves but the four of us have always had (perhaps ambitious) aspirations to indeed be recognizable for our originality. Whether or not we succeed in this end is for others to judge but for us to continue to strive for.
		Your music contains a lot of different metal styles, ranging from death to black metal. Are you all into various styles or is one the black metal lover, another the death metal lover and so on? Jason and I tend to listen to more black metal per se than the other chaps. That said, all members have extremely diverse tastes in music. Spanning all of the metal spectrum and lots of music beyond the metal genre.
		I read in an interview that Akercocke is named after a monkey. I was surprised/disappointed because judging your album covers I certainly thought the cock in Akercocke meant something sexual. Any sexual interpretations of any of our work are purely down to the imagination of the listener and we are not responsible for it!
		Are you taken seriously as a band when you name yourself after a 5 pound monkey? I don’t spend too much time taking myself THAT seriously nor do I consider or have time for others who would wish to waste time contemplating such facile notions. Akercocke is a Capuchin monkey. I have never heard of the 5 pound species from the simian phyla.
		You’re all Satanists. Do you agree with me that if everybody took the rule “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law” seriously, society as we know it would crumble to pieces? Firstly, twits who follow the work of a buffoon like Crowley certainly would not necessarily look upon themselves as Satanists. I would merely look upon them as misguided and reprehensible however that said I find the notion of society crumbling a wholly chaotic and thus satanic idea and would wholeheartedly support in any way I could. Amen.
		Do you consider yourself a black or a death metal band or do you fill up a genre of your own? It’s really not important to us as we do not spend time considering or pigeonholing ourselves. That other folk like to debate such matters is their personal choice. We would much rather get down to the business of making evil music.
Being a Satanist is not about wearing symbols and signs		How do you write songs, is this a group effort or is someone at a point entering the rehearsal place with a complete song? Song writing is a group effort with each member contributing his ideas and assisting with the shapingsculpting process until we are all happy that indeed what we have created is a song.
		What can we expect on the next record? More experiments or a straightforward metal album? Have you found your favourite style? Our style changes constantly and has progressed from recording to recording in a very natural and organic way. I am sure that the next album will be as much of a development artistically as Goat of Mendes was from Choronzon.
		Do you consider your website an important promotional tool for spreading the name of Akercocke? I ask this because your biography on that site is from June 2001, 2 ½ years old. Yes we do see the value of internet media but sadly we no longer know anyone with the relevant skills to regularly update our site. At the moment this is taken care of by a friend who does a sterling job when he has time. Any applicants for the post should email us!
		The last paragraph in that biography deals with the signing of Akercocke on Peaceville for 3 albums.
		Especially the last sentence is ironic: “Let’s hope that this is just the start of a beautiful relationship.” One album later you’re on Earache. What went wrong? An excellent and amusing question. Peaceville saw things differently to us and had different ideas surrounding how the band should progress. Things took far too long to happen during our albeit brief association with them. We thought it best if we sought out a much more proactive and supportive team to work with. Earache have so far fitted the bill.
		Last question, I’m sure you’ve heard about the debate on religious symbols in France, I also noticed that you always wear the inverted cross around your necks. If forced would you take it off or does it have too much religious meaning for you? Being a Satanist is not about wearing symbols and signs. We do not seek re-assurance from others to strengthen our own beliefs. We walk amongst Christians, Muslims and Jews cloaked in anonymity. One of the ultimate weapons of the Devil. We are unseen among society in general. This is good.
		(Roy van den Brink)