Metal Mayhem UK

Metal Mayhem: Firstly thanks for taking the time to talk to us.
Vratyas Vakyas: I feel honored to get your support, no need to thank me.

MM: It's clear from other Interviews that you would rather people focus on your music and lyrics, than your personal life and the specific meanings of things. Is it safe to say that you have no real concern on just how popular Falkenbach is/becomes?
VV: Well, I do not read a lot of magazines, nor reviews and stuff like that. I care about Falkenbach itself, not about popularity, so you're probably right, yes.

MM: Can you briefly tell those that are unfamiliar what Falkenbach are about lyrically?
VV: Western and northern Germanic traditions, cultures, traditions, mythologies etc. There are too many aspects to go into detail. In the end everyone has to find his/her own way into the lyrics, the way sometimes is much more important than the result, and when we're talking about Falkenbach, the combination of both leads to the best result, I think.

MM: You go by the name of Vratyas Vakyas, which roughly translates as "The Searching Wanderer" which are taken from the "Vatan" . I take it Asatru is something you into then?
VV: Asatru is one aspect of it, side by side with some other aspects. Vatan for example also is one important aspect of Falkenbach, and it contains metaphysical aspects, art, philosophy, Asatru etc. Falkenbach's lyrics are about more than just the typical and popular weekend paganism things.

MM: Did you grow up with this philosophy/religion or was it something you've recently discovered?
VV: It's been a part of my education, and therefore it's become a part of my daily life, yes.

MM: Do you have any opinions on the supposed corruption of Asatru, specifically Neo-Nazi groups grafting parts of the religion onto the Nazi racist beliefs?
VV: I do not care about what other people do, everyone is free to create what ever he/she feels to, and the mass of people will decide of such things will go on or stop. As long as there's enough interest for something, it will appear and stay. And as soon as the popularity of something gets less, also people creating things for it will disappear. I can remember how many ultra true black metal warriors have been around in the

early 90's, but most of them have disappeared. To me personally, music and politics do not have anything in common, same for religious aspects and politics, though we all know such things work good obviously. Personally, I strictly differ between my personal politic opinions on one hand, and music, religion etc. on the other hand.

MM: Coming back onto your music, your latest album "Heralding - The Fireblade" seems to have been received well pretty much anywhere. When it comes to reviews though, do you ever get disappointed when you see a bad review, or do you simply pay no interest to reviews in general?
VV: Due to the work for my own small label Skaldic Art, I had the chance to learn how "business" works, and music is nothing but business nowadays unfortunately. Except for most internet magazines, and some smaller, printed fanzines, most of the magazines are corrupt. You pay for a good review, for interviews etc. They call themselves "fans", but they just try to fool you by getting money from labels to tell you that shit is honey. What I was trying to say is, I don't give a shit about most of the reviews, and that's why I do not read them. To me the opinion of people who get in touch with me is of high importance, I really appreciate people writing to me with their opinions, and such things are worth much more to me than what is written in some crappy magazine.

MM: Are there any plans to play any live dates? Festivals maybe, or is it just going to be smaller intimate shows if there are any planned?
VV: At the moment, there are plans for 1-2 small live shows. There won't be too much promotion, and limited tickets only, and it's meant to be something like a tribute to those who supported Falkenbach throughout all those years, and constantly asked for a live show. Maybe more shows will follow after that, maybe even a tour or festival(s), I don't know, but to be honest, it's not likely. But as I said, I do not know what will come in the future. For now, those 1-2 small gigs are planned, and probably those will be the only shows for quite a while, maybe the only ones for ever.

MM: Do you follow the Metal scene in general? And what kind of music do you listen to?
VV: No, I don't. I use to listen to demo material mainly, or self produced albums, apart from commercial chains. If we're talking about non metal stuff, I mainly listen to classical music like Wagner, Groothe, Grieg etc.

MM: Is there anything other than Religion/Philosophy that influence Falkenbach?
VV: No, I don't think so, those are the main aspects.

MM: Your fairly upfront with your answers when it comes to Interviews, so what is it that keeps you motivated when it comes to Falkenbach?
VV: Some things have to be said, over and over again. What Falkenbach is all about cannot be said often enough. Interviews are a way to get in touch for the first time with Falkenbach for a lot of people, I guess. I do not describe the music of Falkenbach in interviews, I do not use interviews to sound praise about an album and make people buy it. To me the only aspect of importance is when people are finding a way into the lyrics, and get the intended impulse. Maybe not more than 1 out of 1000 is able to find something like that in Falkenbach, but this 1 out of 1000 is worth everything.

MM: If you could ever make that jump from a fairly secretive, cult band to a more popular, as in the "money" side of things, would you?. Or is this something your simply not interested in at all?
VV: Well, I guess with a label like Napalm Rec. behind Falkenbach anything could be possible. Beside that there're nearly always other offers as well. Big festivals asking for Falkenbach to play live pretty often, and tours were proposed more than once. For Falkenbach it's harder to stay what it is than to grow big, I guess

MM: Please tell us a bit about your label Skaldic Arts? Is this going to be a "quality rather than quantity" kind of thing?
VV: In a business world like this it's been hard, much harder than expected to be honest. I learned a lot, but lately I had to put Skaldic Art on ice for a while as I could not invest the needed time anymore. When ever I work on something, I want to give 100%, and I prefer to put Skaldic Art on ice instead of working with half power for those bands only, as they deserve nothing but the best.

MM: Are there any new/young bands that have caught your eye?
VV: There are always young, talented bands, rare and hard to find, but they're there. But lately I did not look for bands due to the reasons mentioned earlier before already.

MM: What bands do you have on the label at the moment?
VV: I discussed this topic with all the bands that were left, and we decided together to put it on ice for now. So, no more bands are signed to Skaldic Art now. Maybe Skaldic Art will return sooner or later, when there's sufficient time again, we will see. But if so, it will remain the small label with limited releases etc.

MM: I've read that there is a planned "Tribute to Falkenbach" to be released at the end of 2006. Were you involved with this is anyway, and what are your thoughts/opinions about this?
VV: "A Homage To Falkenbach" I and II is going to be released next week as a matter of fact. In the beginning, Semivivus, the webmaster of the Falkenbach and Skaldic Art homepages, initialized this project and cared about it. He invested a lot of time, same for all the bands, but lately he decided to quit due to private reasons. That's why I decided to care about the final release myself, because otherwise the work of a couple of years and a lot of bands would be destroyed. Both CDs are limited to 500 copies only, incl. the free copies for the bands, so there's not too many copies for sale.

MM: Thanks again! Any last comments/words?
VV: Thanks for your support!
Check out http://www.Falkenbach.de.