It’s Susie from MIRP with Steffen Kummerer of Thulcandra. I saw the show in Portland, Oregon and it was fantastic.
You pull double duty with your other band Obscura on this tour. Is this something you like to do or did the opportunity just present itself?
The possibility to bring Thulcandra to North America for the very first time was the reason to pull double duties. In 2020, we had a similar tour with both groups performing every night, as part of a European tour package. Personally, I love performing with Thulcandra and Obscura. The physical demand within one month and no day off has been rough, but joy at the same time.
For those who may not know…Thulcandra is black metal and Obscura is technical death metal. Do you ever write a song that blends the two more than you’d like?
When working on a new album, I keep my focus on this particular record and not anything else from start to end. Once in the right feeling, the songs come together naturally. I have never been in the situation to think about which idea could work for either Obscura or Thulcandra to make a decision.
I’m wondering, do you prefer death metal or black metal when you listen to music?
My taste shifts every now and then. Aside from extreme metal, I listen to other genres as well and have no preference in general.
Touring about three months in anticipation of the new release “Hail the Abyss, out 5/19/23,” will you return to the states later this year after the release?
We are working on a headline tour of North America to take place in 2024. Within the current tour package, we have been granted a good half an hour of music, which was a nice way to introduce the band to a new audience. When we get the chance to play a full set with our own stage production, we might end up at 75 minutes and cover the entire catalog of the band. More new soon.
The lyrical theme of Thulcandra is dark. Where do you pull lyrical inspiration from for this particular band?
Themes shifted over the years, and also the position who writes lyrics changed every now and then. Thulcandra worked on full concept records, as well as loose ideas with separated narratives. Mainly books and stories are the foundation of lyrics.
We all know the negatives of the pandemic. Can you see any positive that has come out of the lockdowns, the pandemic, and fear?
We have been granted with good timing. Our last European tour ended in March 2020, without any cancelled concert. A week later, every country shut down their social activities. Within this time we worked on music, video clips and re-releases to keep the band active. Whenever there was a setback, we kept going and soldiered our way through. With the release of “A Dying Wish,” we gained quite big success and performed live at several festivals and toured within Germany before this first North American tour took place.
Was there anything that you took up during the pandemic that you wouldn’t have normally? A show? A hobby?
Nothing changed aside the lack of concerts. We made the best out of it, wrote more music and took care of our families and friends in this time.
Thulcandra has released more videos 2021 than for previous releases. With our society’s short attention spans, do you feel videos are now more important than ever to keep interest, or is it something you just enjoy doing?
Since we had more time to work on videos during the pandemic, we went this route to keep in touch with our fans and friends. Good video productions are important these days, more than ever. Personally, I enjoy arranging and producing music videos since the beginning of both bands. Aside music production, layouts and design, music videos represent a band to a worldwide audience in addition to live concerts.
If metal didn’t exist, what genre of music do you think Thulcandra would be best suited? Could it translate to classical? Opera? Rock?
Thulcandra would be a straight dirty rock and roll band.
Originating in Scandinavia/Europe…do you think black metal can be made in any country? Japan? USA? Australia?
Good music will be made by good musicians. You find talented musicians all over the world and bands that deliver fantastic albums. Music has been universal and can be found in all corners of the world.
It was my first time seeing Thulcandra and it was a pleasure preparing for this interview.
Thank you very much for your interest and support. We will be back in North America soon, watch out.
Check out our review of the entire show: Fleshgod Apocalypse, Obscura, Wolfheart, Thulcandra Show Review
