FILIPINOMETAL.COM - Septic Tomb

Hello Noktorn, you're from Florida right? How are things going in your part of the world?

Noktorn: Indeed I reside in Florida. Things are fine down here; relatively unexciting but that's about the usual in my corner of the world.

You're quite the multi-instrumentalist, being the single creative persona behind Septic Tomb aside from your trusty producer. Can you chart your musical education through the years? When did it all start and how much have you changed since then?

N: Hah! Calling me an 'instrumentalist' at all is really stretching the word. I'm about as far from a serious musician as you can possibly get while still being able to play (some) riffs. I originally got into music with drums, and studied them under an actual teacher for about a year before I started getting into drum machine bands more and focused on guitar. I still enjoy playing drums and look forward to joining some bands as a drummer. Anyway, I probably started seriously playing instruments about four years ago and I've (slightly) improved since then due to a total lack of consistency as far as practice goes on my part. Anyway, I've never really cared about being a ‘musician,' and I only know how to play instruments just as well as I need to so that I can play the stuff I write without much trouble. As it is, I only really practice when I'm planning on recording soon. This might change soon when I get into live performances.

Your partner in crime is a certain Alarick, who's also your live guitarist. How far back do the two of you go?

N: I actually got to know Alarick through his cousin who's been a friend of mine for about four years. I've known Alarick for two years now and he's currently one of my best friends. We have a pretty fluid musical relationship and collaborate with a lot of different projects. It's sort of an Akitsa arrangement in some ways. We'll just do whatever we feel like on various recordings or ask each other if we want to get involved with something new. Not real conventional I guess, but it works for us, particularly when coming from an area with an incredibly limited pool of dedicated musicians who are into extreme music.

Is Septic Tomb a trailblazing purveyor of shit encrusted old school Death Metal? What theme do you wish to convey with your music?

N: Hahahaha . . . I'm not sure what to call it really. I actually started this project under a different name with the intention of creating total gorenoise material like Biocyst and Anal Birth. But as things have a way of going, it turned into something totally different. The material on the ‘Sewearth' EP is a combination of epic black/death with sludgy doom metal. The upcoming split with Livercage is a bit different: I contributed two tracks, one of which is more conventional, fairly epic death metal, and the other is pure funeral doom. With future recordings I'd like to narrow down the sound a bit more, the eventual goal being a full-fledged combination of very extreme goregrind and equally extreme, torturous doom metal. Here's hoping it actually goes where I'm planning it to, hahaha!

The new EP ‘Sewearth' was recorded in three days. Were those three days really intense or did all the creativity come out like the biological fluid responsible for making babies?

N: It was actually pretty relaxed overall. Nearly all the recording was done on day one. Day two had me laying down some more vocals and starting the mixing process, and day three was only a few hours long where we mastered it. The actual writing process was much, much more intense. I essentially wrote all the riffs and song structures over the course of one day, the drums were programmed in intermittent sessions over a few days, and all the lyrics were put down in an approximately four hour period, which was pretty draining. I tend to write in very compact and intense sections. Letting things sit isn't typically my style. The EP wasn't intended to be a ‘conceptual' release, but after looking back on it I realized it unintentionally was. The title, ‘Sewearth,' is a genuine concept. It's an idea of Earth after all humans have essentially given up on it. I wanted it to sound genuinely dark and oppressive but also alien and surreal at the same time. In a nutshell, the idea of the release seems to be about the most ultimate evil that can be found in humans is that of ignorance and apathy, and it's from those that all negativity stems.

And you're totally satisfied with the outcome, production wise and all? How can interested metalheads acquire a copy?

N: I'm very happy with how the release turned out. Of course there are some things I'd change about it (like all things), but overall I'm very satisfied. I could see remixing it a tad in the future for a possible re-release, but I can't say I have any serious complaints. To acquire a copy, you can go over to my label/distro www.nokturnaltransmissionsrecords.com, or to one of several other distros which currently sell it, including Rusty Axe Records and Autopsy Kitchen Recordings.

Where does this EP stand in the chronology of your budding musical career? Meaning, is it your masterpiece, the latest abomination to come from your brain, or a giant ‘fuck you' to the music biz for staying the way it is?

N: I've done a few releases before this EP, which I'm not particularly happy with, but I'll be revisiting them in the future to make improvements. I consider this EP the best release I've done so far and only see it going up from here. It's definitely going to get crazier and sicker. I just consider this a bar to get over and immediately raise. I already have ideas for new stuff coming soon, which will be a thousand times more demented and evil than ‘Sewearth' and I'm eager to get moving on those.

Apparently you have this record label, Nokturnal Transmissions Records, whose origins and existence are unknown to the rest of humanity. Care to enlighten us?

N: Nokturnal Transmissions Records originally began in September of ‘07 as a pure distro, but started releasing material in January of this year. I came to a sudden realization in 2007 that I had some free time left, so of course I had to eliminate it as fast as possible!

N: Well, I don't have anyone really officially ‘signed.' I just agree to do releases with the artists as they come and they're free to do business with anyone else they like. There are a few which are sticking closer with NTR than others, namely Pagan Hammer, Tomhet, Ashes, and perhaps Necro Cult. I value and appreciate all the artists I've released and will release, but those are certainly the ones who seem most interested in sticking with NTR for the foreseeable future.

If Nokturnal Transmissions had a mission vision, what would it be? And do you run it from your bedroom?

N: I never had a specific plan with this label. I just wanted to release music I personally enjoy and wanted others to hear. I actually had no intention of making this a ‘black metal label.' To begin with, while I love black metal, my releases just sort of ended up adhering to that genre for the most part. Some future releases will definitely be shaking up the idea that this is a black metal label though, and I'm looking forward to exploring some new, different places. I think that one thing I'm trying to explore is that some labels aren't really scaling my releases. I'm willing to do larger scale 1,000 copy releases but also material limited to only 50 copies. Not thinking that something will sell well enough won't motivate my decision to release it or not. I've had music like Necro Cult that I personally love but fully knew there was little chance of selling, and I released it anyway for those few sick bastards who love ultra-raw noise/black like me. There's going to be some very nasty stuff coming soon that will be similarly esoteric in nature for people who are sick enough to handle it, so keep an eye out for those!

What kind of background did you need to found a label and build it up until today?

N: Well, I did some odd jobs for Paul from None More Black Records and started doing that a couple years ago. We're still pretty tight and trade and talk regularly. I wasn't a huge part of the machinations of that label or anything, but it was a great opportunity to learn through osmosis, so to speak. Aside from that, I have no real background in running a business or anything, but I've made an effort to be pretty professional, organized, and dedicated to this, which has helped me a lot where other labels frequently fold after just a few releases. I don't have any plan on laying the label to rest for the foreseeable future, and so far it's going strong.

Well, you own a label so this probably means you don't need a day job. Don't you have a day job?

N: Hahaha! Believe me, I'm not making any money on this label so far! All the money I make off it just ends up going right back into releases, and hopefully the label will soon start being able to pay for itself instead of me bleeding money everywhere! I currently don't have a day job, but I am a college student and I receive pretty substantial government benefits, which means I can be a total fucking bum for at least a while longer. I've got a writing gig coming up which I should be getting paid at least something for, it will really great for me considering I'm constantly doing metal reviews and such on my own time. Ideally I'd like all the stuff I do for the metal scene to be enough for me to live comfortably, if I can. Why settle for something else when this is what I really care about?

Let's now shift to the live setting in relation to your newest release. Will Septic Tomb be playing gigs in support of ‘Sewearth'? How about the other bands your affiliated with, do you book them gigs or is it all DIY?

N: Not yet, but we're really hoping to do that one day. I'm not sure if I could ever have been a full-scale tour kinda guy but I'd love to play outside of this state and try out some new crowds. We're really trying to get some Septic Tomb gigs together for the near future. I've been endlessly haranguing various booking companies that we're here and willing to play at just about any show. Unfortunately the scene down here isn't extremely receptive to bands with drum machines, so it'll take a bit more work for us to get our foot in the door. We think, though, that once people experience a Septic Tomb show they'll keep coming back for more. I'm not involved in the booking side of things right now (though there's a chance this will change in the near future), but I have close friends who are in that side of the business who I've been working with to get some stuff set up. Septic Tomb is actually slated to be on Gore Across Florida 2, a mini-tour that will be hitting various locations in Florida. Baby Basher, The Leviathan's Mandible, and the mighty Putrid Pile will be joining the tour roster in mid-November, and we're incredibly excited about that!

Can you name the places to catch a metal show around your area? What does one venue or bar have over the others? Which has better beer, better sound equipment, cleaner toilets, saltier peanuts, and such?

N: In my actual town, Bradenton, there's nothing for metalheads. Occasionally a hardcore show will pop up here and there, but there's almost nothing for black and death freaks to go to. Up in Tampa and in other locations it's a different story, and the venue I normally frequent is the Brass Mug in Tampa. The staff is laid back, the bands are cool and easygoing and don't hide from the fans, and the overall the vibe is pretty enjoyable.

Any wild adventures you would like to share with us? This is in connection with gigs. Did any crazy shit ever go down during a show?

N: Nothing utterly insane happens around here. There was the band Phobia playing recently resulted in numerous bleeding people emerging from the pit and Don Decker from the legendary Anal Blast got up to his typical menstrual hijinks. But so far there's never been a suicide onstage or attempted arson, so I'm afraid it's just not that exciting.

What kind of stuff do you listen to? Do you have eclectic musical tastes? Are the walls of your house plastered with CD's and vinyls?

N: 95% of what I listen to is metal. The rest is filled with extreme electronic stuff (breakcore/ speedcore/ power electronics/noise), punk (generally slanted towards the crustier end of the spectrum), gorenoise, and other random things here and there. However, it's metal definitely absorbs that vast majority of my listening. Yeah, my collection of music is constantly expanding. I own around 900 CDs or so and it's not slowing down. Downloading isn't enough for me, gotta have the real things!

Being a musician who needs to balance running a label with a regular life, how crazy does your life get? And is every single day an adrenalin rush of creativity, sweat and new opportunities for making dough?

N: Nearly every aspect of my life is related to metal, really. Apart from school, I generally spend the rest of the day writing reviews, working on the label, writing new music, or doing other things related to the scene. Keeping busy makes me pretty happy; every day I wake up I try to think of something new I can do. I try not to let a day go buy without writing something new, improving the label, or otherwise taking a step forward in some way with the things I do. People complain about how short life is, but the days tend to become a blur if you're spending your time doing nothing. You've only got one life so fill it up with something you love!

Alright, I guess it ends here. I hope you had a great time Noktorn. Have all the sacrifices and sleepless nights you've dedicated to music proven worthwhile?

N: Thanks a lot for the interview. And yes, all the work I've done in metal and the music I love has definitely paid off. I wouldn't trade my experiences with writing music and working in the scene for the world. Every time I think I'm getting burned out on it I discover something new and exciting to explore, and I can't see that ending anytime soon. Metal for life or not at all!