Today I just want to share with you one of the best experiences of my life.
During the summer 2002, with some friends, we had an all-night party in a bunker.
You see, when I lived in France, I lived on the Riviera, between Cannes and Monaco, where the ragged coastline harbours little sandy bays.
This night we went up to a cliff on which was perched a military base of some sort (do not ask me for details, I was not aware of that place and have never researched it since). There was a steep path descending on the side of the cliff, leading to a series of bunkers.
This is where we found some friends who had already made themselves at ease and lit a fire. All those gothic folks were peacefully chatting, sitting on the dusty ground, waiting for the DJ to bring and plug in the music equipment.
The bunker still had a functioning dynamo. One spotlight and a mixing table were plugged in and there began a dark began. I remember the shadows of the black-clad girls echoing on the walls, in unison with the bass-beats of whatever new wave hits was playing. I remember the light of the fire the dark shapes of the Alps on my right and the dark blue mass of the sea on the left, outlined by the orange lights of the Riviera night life.
It then happened that some friends who were to join us after their night out phoned us to tell us that they had been driving through the village close-by, and had seen police cars heading our way.
We put the fire out, stopped the music, killed the light and waited at the entrance of the pitch-black bunker for a noise to come.
We stood in silence for a few minutes, discussing in whispers what we would do if the police would show up. As nothing moved, we decided to start again and went to rekindle the ambers and turn the music on. Suddenly, over our heads, from over the cliff, came flying the largest birds I have ever seen. Flapping side by side in perfect silence, the two lark-like apparitions slowly made their ways over us - behind us - lost away in the distance - forgotten.
I have seen many things in my life, but nothing quite as ghostly as these two apparitions. Oh, no deeper meaning in them. But you have to agree it is rare to be confronted with the symbol of coincidence itself.
When I think about what dark music means to me, I think about my feelings, even those in conjunction with other forms of art, and I am able to give a musical, ideological and cultural definition that is both right and understandable for many people.
When I think about the word “subculture” then, do you think I see a merchandising stand, or metallers drunk, fallen head first in the German mud? Do you think I see clothes retailers, burlesque clubs full of jessies in panties, tour buses / after parties sluts who will scream to their friends that meeting the band ROCKED [insert devil’s horns there]?
Oh, I love you, my collector friends, I love you my music pals get caught in the spirit of Odinistic drunkenness, don’t get me wrong…but gi’e us a break, please.
Because I do not drink, it does not mean I am a sissy. I simply refuse to drink the donkey piss you call a good pint.
Because I do not go around with a patched jacket, a metal T-shirt and all my (music) tattoos out, it does not mean that I, 1 - think you’re a parasite if you do, 2-do not lead a properly extreme lifestyle, however you define it.
Because I do not do the devil’s horns, which look more to me like you’re phoning Satan, the way your fingers are pointing upwards, it does not mean that I cannot feel the power.
You know, I’ve never really clicked with Satyricon. There is nothing that has attracted me in them. I am also not very much of a concert person, as I like having a personal, intimate experience / connection with art.
But there is something in “Mother North” that is compelling, that is raw energy, pure power, and when I heard Frost explaining, in Roadkill Extravaganza, that hearing the audience chanting the riff of the song when they played it live was one of the most emotionally-charged experiences of his life - I knew I had to mix with the crowd, at least once in my life, and sing with my brothers. It is not a prayer, It is not howling with the pack. It is what F. Martin calls a growling stoicism (“Stoicisme grondeur”), in the same way that the Highland bagpipes are the only instruments classified as a weapon.
I know it contradicts all my views on racism and sectarianism, but you, me, and any other human being who becomes that growls, who channels, that power, who stands with a stone-cold stoic spirit, bringing order to the chaos he has entered - all of us, are fit and worthy to survive.
For my culture and my music range from single notes accompanying the dancing shadows on the walls, to a stoic war against everything shallow, imposed on us by the lies written in the desert.
From a lark to a lone wolf winter.
If you cannot see past my hippy skirt, you fell before the battle even started.
