Metal Life Exclusive Interview With WATAIN

Black Metal Warfare Part 2 may have just ended over the weekend, but the impact made by Watain over the nation will be remembered for years to come. Our reporter Karila spoke to the dark visionary himself, Erik Danielsson, about a brand new documentary project he is involved with and about his seemingly natural approach to media outlets.

You’ve had a very long and exciting 2015; from Black Metal Warfare part 1 and 2 with Mayhem and Revenge to your unforgettable experiences with the Australian Watain Militia, I bet you’re feeling pretty exhausted.

Well it’s as one can expect, I suppose.  {Some of these places} we visited received us very well, which is funny considering there are cities we haven’t toured since 2005. But we are grateful for everyone who has journeyed with us thus far. 

I want to get a little more insight into your most devoted of fans, the Watain Disciple group. I’ve heard from people who have been with this group for some time, some who joined very recently since your last tour in the US with Mayhem. What is your desire in creating and expanding the Disciples group?

I want to underline that the Watain disciples is something that is driven by people who are not in the band but, let’s say, they’ve come to be close associates. It’s a thing that’s really taken off and run on its own, but it has very strict guidelines. There’s a set of….I wouldn’t say “rules” because we are talking about quite lawless people here….but at the same time they have a specific way of working and approaching the whole membership program. I don’t know, I don’t think they even want me to talk about so much how the club actually works because it’s very much an internal thing that’s meant to be for die-hard fans of Watain. We’ve seen by now that they are willing to take that very far, and we couldn’t be more honored to have that kind of appreciation. It’s quite overwhelming.

I’ve admired how much the Disciples have become a global movement. It’s not quite a marketing campaign in the slightest but a community that, though easily reachable, not everybody has the stones to be a part of!

They especially come out when we are on tour, and we get to meet a lot of them. These are the people who hugely contribute to each show. They come with specific….I should say “contributions” to the show. And that’s something that’s been working really well. It becomes a special time that adds to an otherwise quiet routine scenario on the road.

You as an individual have something big that’s coming up and perhaps been a little under the radar, but talk a little bit about your contribution to the film “Music, Blood, and Spirit.”

The film is by no means a Watain movie or anything like that. It’s another guy’s project that I as a person am a part of. [My contribution] is the third part of three short documentary movies. Each of these [episodes] is about a different person. So the first one is about a tattoo artist, the second is about a UFC fighter, and the third is about me. I think Claudio [Marino, director] felt that he could see a common denominator among these three individuals. He wanted to make a trilogy about people that had chosen their own way of life outside of society—people who created their own world on their own terms. It’s a movie about why I had chosen that path, what motivates me, and what drives me. I guess it has value to Watain fans who are more interested in that specific and more personal realm.

It’s funny that, given the alluring mystery that’s always been behind Watain’s philosophies and music, you are so out there as far as your ability and willingness to be out there in the media world, whether it be a movie like this or an interview like ours.

For some reason I tend to talk to the media, and I’m not particularly comfortable [doing things like] being in documentaries about my own person. I don’t really like the idea of it. At the same time my own well-being and level of comfort is not really what [should be] prioritized. Why I am doing these things is because they add to the general understanding and insight of our work, which I think is something very valuable and much more important than whether or not I feel comfortable. People still seem to have a lot of questions about Watain, myself, and why things are the way they are. And for some reason I keep trying to answer them; don’t ask me why!

Well, we hope you continue to tell us as much as you can. I think I can speak for an entire world of Disciples when I say we are all very fascinated with this world you have created and chosen to share with us. Thank you for your time!

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