Svart Lotus: An Interview with Tor 'Seidemann' Stavenes

Svart Lotus: An Interview with Tor 'Seidemann' Stavenes

Prarthana Nandini Venunathan
"The name just made sense; a Lotus is also something beautiful rising from the muck, and black metal is also something beautiful that is slightly hidden or not immediately accessible. So that was the other meaning to me. Also, it was an atypical black metal band name, I wanted something different. There was always a lot of stuff happening in my life. One of the most annoying things about being me is that I have moments where I think 100% that this is it, I’m not going to play instruments again. I’m going to cut my hair, get a job and be a normal person. But I fail miserably at those things and luckily I do, so I always return to music. The project was born from this kind of ‘ah fuck it’ attitude. I figured I would try to be a guitarist, vocalist and try to have my own band, so I did the EP and the album and the single after that. I wanted to show myself and hopefully someone else that I could be the guy up front with a guitar instead of the guy with a bass on the side. I can be the guy who writes the songs, fronts and drives the band..."
Svart Lotus: An Interview with Tor 'Seidemann' Stavenes

Svart Lotus: An Interview with Tor 'Seidemann' Stavenes

Prarthana Nandini Venunathan
"The name just made sense; a Lotus is also something beautiful rising from the muck, and black metal is also something beautiful that is slightly hidden or not immediately accessible. So that was the other meaning to me. Also, it was an atypical black metal band name, I wanted something different. There was always a lot of stuff happening in my life. One of the most annoying things about being me is that I have moments where I think 100% that this is it, I’m not going to play instruments again. I’m going to cut my hair, get a job and be a normal person. But I fail miserably at those things and luckily I do, so I always return to music. The project was born from this kind of ‘ah fuck it’ attitude. I figured I would try to be a guitarist, vocalist and try to have my own band, so I did the EP and the album and the single after that. I wanted to show myself and hopefully someone else that I could be the guy up front with a guitar instead of the guy with a bass on the side. I can be the guy who writes the songs, fronts and drives the band..."
Blood Duster Are Dead: An Interview with Jason PC

Blood Duster Are Dead: An Interview with Jason PC

Prarthana Nandini Venunathan
Pretty much everything we do, is just spur of the moment dumbness, or to annoy someone else. But this is one of the things I’m most proud of. It is my favourite. Everyone just started downloading stuff and we were forced into this conversation with ourselves of who we were making music for, because we were obviously not doing it for money. If we weren’t doing it to sell it to people, then were we doing it for ourselves? So I thought yeah, we were doing records just for ourselves. But if we were doing it for ourselves, then what does it matter if anyone hears it, what’s the point of even releasing something? When you release something, everyone has an opinion on it so I was kind of like, well We released it wrecked and then I binned all the files. It’s never going to come out!”
True North: An Interview with Brett O'Riley

True North: An Interview with Brett O'Riley

Prarthana Nandini Venunathan
"All I've ever wanted to do is play music. For a very long time in my life, that is what I was focused on. I wanted to make records, travel around and see stuff. Now, in YLVA there is nothing but love and respect. It’s great to go out and have people enjoy what we do but we would probably do it anyway; it’s very personal and intimate and YLVA means something to all of us...”
Staff Picks: Vol 3

Staff Picks: Vol 3

Disho VB
"It's that time again folks! Dive in to what our DIRECT MERCH staff have been listening to lately and hopefully you find something that you dig!"
Never Enough Snuff: An Interview with Abramelin

Never Enough Snuff: An Interview with Abramelin

Prarthana Nandini Venunathan
“I remember when I was a kid Iron Maiden’s ‘Number of the Beast’ came out, and looking at the cover, getting hooked instantly onto Maiden for years after. Then I started discovering other bands and the music I listened to just got heavier and heavier. A big part of that was the imagery of the subject matter in the songs. It got me thinking about how, this was the whole package. This is how I can be into both horror and art. I loved drawing and reading about horrible things and watching horrible things and now I can sing about horrible things. Match made in hell if you ask me. This was a way I could express myself and to be honest, I don’t really think you can do this with any other genre..."
Sociopathic Constructs: An Interview with Abnormality

Sociopathic Constructs: An Interview with Abnormality

Prarthana Nandini Venunathan
"Women have been a part of the scene since the beginning and we're equally important. If you're passionate about something, you should go for it. Don't let other people's expectations limit you. It's hard being one of the only women sometimes but if you are dedicated to what you do, it works out. Build solid relationships with the people around you, support other women in the scene and keep going..." 
The Outer Ones: An Interview with Revocation

The Outer Ones: An Interview with Revocation

Prarthana Nandini Venunathan
"From my personal experience, if you find something that works for you, then stick to it, find out more about it. That's what I learnt; I got myself out there. Because eventually, if you put yourself out there's you'll find the guys that want to play as hard as you do."
Staff Picks: Vol 2

Staff Picks: Vol 2

Disho VB
"It's time for the second instalment of DIRECT MERCH Staff Picks! Here is what we as a staff have been listening to lately, we hope you find something you enjoy!"
Twisted Horror: An Interview with Gruesome

Twisted Horror: An Interview with Gruesome

Prarthana Nandini Venunathan
"The new record is basically getting written right now so that’s three different things that are getting written right now in three of my bands, which is awesome because everyone has the time to focus on it.  Even though it’s a rough time for bands and touring at the moment, I feel like we’re going to keep releasing music anyway because now we have more time to do it...”
Staff Picks: Vol 1

Staff Picks: Vol 1

Disho VB
We here at DIRECT MERCH are passionate about music, so we thought it only fitting to share with you what our staff have been listening to from time to time. Here's the first instalment, we hope you find something you enjoy!
The Dead Are Screaming: An Interview with Werewolves

The Dead Are Screaming: An Interview with Werewolves

Prarthana Nandini Venunathan
"We’re just trying to be noisy, rude, offensive, savages - it naturally comes to us. This isn’t the kind of thing that lends itself to creative blockages because we’re honestly not trying to be creative at all! All the other music we play with our other bands - for instance, my project The Senseless and what I’m trying to do there with melodic super happy major chords, that facade takes a lot to keep up. But when we’re being complete fuckwits, it just flows..."
King Of The Silent World: An Interview with Graveir

King Of The Silent World: An Interview with Graveir

AustraliaPrarthana Nandini Venunathan
"When writing, what really influences us is what happens during that time; it’s like we were talking about the timestamp before, of your life at that time and everything around that time that inspires the writing of the songs. While we do love different kinds of music, our influences come more from experiences and our knowledge of various things than listening to an old black metal album and wanting to recreate that..."