Interview mit Charnia

Nachdem wir die Jungs von Charnia vor kurzem in einem unserer Artikel vorgestellt haben, wollten wir mehr über diese noch junge, aber hochinteressante Band in Erfahrung bringen.
Wir haben mal nachgehakt und ein paar Fragen gestellt. Hier seht ihr das ganze Interview.


Hello Charnia, many thanks indeed for making it possible to conduct and interview with you.

The Belgian Metalscene hasn’t been an adress for emotional, atmospherical and sophisticated music for just since yesterday. To give our readers a better understanding of you, who is behind Charnia?‘
Seppe Batens is our drummer. He likes to keep it simple and straight forward. Diederik Van Eetvelde is our bass wizard and does things that nobody does. Thibaud Meiresone-Keppens fucks up his vocal chords each show just to sound more honest. He’s also very busy with his folk project ‚Monnik‘.
And I (Jelle Pieters) play guitar.

Belgium has a lot to offer by the way. There’s a small scene that revolves around Ghent and the music label, Consouling Sounds. Bands like Eleanora, Innerwoud, Lichtschade … ofcourse there’s Amenra but I wouldn’t dare to put them in the same list. But all these projects share the same honesty and emotional values which makes Belgium an interessting country to live in.
These bands are still young but we’re ready to deal with what the rest of the world will throw at us.

What’s the story of your bandname and what does it mean?
A few years ago I was really into science and whatnot. There was this documentary about the first signs of life that was narrated by David Attenbourough. He mentioned a plantlike organism that lived at the bottom of the sea without the light of our sun.

The releases of your first and to date only album „Dageraad“ was about a year ago, what were the reactions of your debut?
We got a lot of positive reviews and a lot reviews in general to be honest. It was quite surprising that a raw DIY recorded album from an unknown Belgian band got that much attention. It made us very happy indeed.

On Bandcamp one can read that you recorded Dageraad in the woods of Daknam. Why did you decide to do it there and how did it come to such an extraordinary recording process in the first place?
It was actually in a cabin in the woods. It’s where we rehearse and write. We felt comfortable there. Made it sound more organic and honest.

The record impresses with a dense sound pattern and atmosphere, what are your tracks about, do emotions from your own life reflect in them?
Everything we do, is a reflection of our lives. The album is about loss, love, and life. How to deal with the choices you’ve made, the cards you’re delt with. It’s about hope. It’s about the first light after the long night. Rumor has it your are very got live act in the Belgian scene. I could confirm that with live sets I had seen on Youtube, eventhough one doesn’t feel half the atmosphere you actually create live, I guess. How do you manage to thrill the audience with an atmospherical and compelling live show?
We like playing in the dark. It sounds strange or pretentious but we hate playing in the sunlight (altough the Boomtown gig was very awesome!) or with a lot of coloured spotlights. That takes away a lot of atmosphere. A lot of smoke, few lights. It is such an important part of the experience. Our release show was in a 18th century wine cellar. A few months ago we played in a forrest. We played in a church on All Saint’s Day. Those shows were one of the most memorable ones we’ve ever did.
Atmosphere is really important.

While we’re on it, any gigs oder probably even small tours beyond the Belgian border planned?
We would love to do a European tour but it’s very hard to book one without the proper knowledge, contacts or even a booker.
One day, we hope.

Is there a place you desperately want to play?
Places that our connected with nature and culture. Theatres and woods. Churches and wine cellars. A cave would be awesome as well. UT Connewitz is also one of the most beautiful venues I’ve ever seen. Roadburn is also on the wish list.
Maybe in ten years.

Are you working on any new tracks or maybe even an album right now?
We’re working on two albums at the moment. One drone track with violins called ‚Het Laatste Licht‘ and an untitled album that will be more riff based. We’ll see which one’s finished first.

What do you hope for as a band in 2016?
Well, I hope to record (and/or release) at least one of those records in 2016.  But I can’t foresee the future. We work really slow.

Anything you want to let our readers have before we come to an end?
Innerwoud is releasing his debut album ‚Mirre‘ on Consouling Sounds next month. Check it out if you’re into classical drone with a double bass.
Thank you for being interested in what we do.
Thank you for sharing the experience. This is just the beginning.

Thanks again and good luck! Hopefully we will see eachother at a show in Germany any time soon.
Thank YOU.
One day 🙂

Facebook
Bandcamp

Atmofear