Fen/Interview with The Watcher

Interview by Jay Parker

Hi this is Jay reporting from Bogota, Colombia... Today I’ll be talking to UK black metal geniuses, FEN…

1) Tell us about Fen... when and where was the band formed? Who is in the current line up?

The first real seeds of what would become Fen were sown in the winter of 2005. I’d experimented many years before this with some atmospheric black metal ideas when I first encountered the genre but this fell to one side in favour of more aggressive, discordant material. It was in the second half of 2005 – and after more than half a decade of pursuing ever-more dissonant sounds – that I felt the pull to create something more elegiac with a focus on soaring, depressive melodies and billowing ambience. I spent time that winter forging several pieces and then in the new year presented them to the bassist and drummer of the band I was in at that time with a view to creating a studio-bound project. They too were in a similar creative space – yearning to bring elements of post-rock and post-metal into black metal and meld this together to create a more layered, enveloping form of music. We had a few rehearsals in the early part of 2006 and really felt the energy, inspiration and above all - excitement - flow from these sessions. There was a tangible sense of having discovered something that resonated quite deeply within us. We recorded our first EP ‘Ancient Sorrow’ in those same few months after perhaps a handful of rehearsals and then things really gathered momentum from that point. The lineup still consists of myself on guitar and vocals and Grungyn on bass/vocals from those days. At the risk of sounding a little Spinal Tap, we have unfortunately had a few drummers in the ranks now, however JG joined us on the drums midway through last year and has quickly immersed himself in the world of Fen.

2) Describe your sound in 5 words.

A bleak, immersive sonic journey.

3) Run us through your releases, first to last... where do you record? What are your future plans for albums?

OK, so to start at the beginning, we recorded Ancient Sorrow in the Spring of 2006. This was very simply put together on an old digital 16 track I own and was essentially created as a demo for us to listen back to more than anything. It was the first three songs we played as a band together and we really wanted to catch the energy of those early rehearsals. We put the songs up onto Myspace and fairly soon after, Northern Silence Productions approached us about releasing it physically. This really set things in motion for us as a band and we quickly started receiving a lot of attention – far more than we could have originally anticipated. We then set about recording the debut album, ‘The Malediction Fields’ in 2007-2008. This consisted of a variety of material – a few of the pieces dated back to those early writing sessions in the winter of 2005, the rest were built up by us as a band. Again, we self-recorded this on the same equipment as the EP – though we spent more time focusing on tracking this, you can still hear the limitations of the equipment we were using. Still, for us this was a milestone release – we were just discovering that ‘post’ black metal or ‘blackgaze’ was really emerging as a concept and we felt somewhat at the vanguard of this movement. I think this album has a very distinct, misty, timeless quality to it. Yes, it’s shaky at points but I think it’s a supremely honest record, steeped in conviction. ‘Epoch’ followed – this was predominantly tracked at a friend’s home studio with mixing being carried out by myself (I’d upgraded my gear a bit by then). It’s a much more layered, dense recording – far more tracks involved – and we had committed to ‘upping our game’ with this one. We felt the pressure to follow up the debut on this, there’s no doubt about it, so we really pushed ourselves on the songwriting. The compositions here are more complex, longer and denser with a focus on weaving a mood. In many respects, it’s almost like one long song (and we’ve heard this as a criticism) but I think in the right frame of mind, it really fulfils the brief of a sonic journey that we set ourselves when we commenced work on it. The next record ‘Dustwalker’ followed fairly quickly, though represented the first big lineup shift for the band – gone were the keyboards and we also brought on board a new drummer. We felt we needed to prove we were still a strong unit as a band so really focused on this record – this time, we wanted each piece to stand apart rather than the record having this feel of one long movement. The recording set up was the same as it was for ‘Epoch’, though we did look to pare it back somewhat, make the record a little more direct. ‘Dustwalker’ gets overlooked I think – there are some powerful, evocative pieces on the album and the opener ‘Consequence’ always gets a good reaction at gigs.

‘Carrion Skies’ was our first venture into a professional studio – we felt it was about time and I also needed to step away from production/mixing duties as this was becoming an increasingly demanding job being placed upon the shoulders of an increasingly tired man! We spoke to some people we knew and then reached out to Greg Chandler who runs Priory Studios (and also fronts doom legends Esoteric). He seemed on our wavelength and we booked ourselves in to record there. We really pushed ourselves with this one – we wanted to cement our intentions and our definition as a ‘metal’ band and therefore concentrated on making the material harder and sharper. The days in the studio were long but we were all 110% focused on putting together a real ‘statement’ album. The lineup was settled and we all drove each other to step up. For me, it’s a landmark album for us – having an external perspective from a production point of view really added another layer to the experience and we were really driven to push against what a lot of bands of our ilk were doing at the time (i.e. moving further away from the metal aspect of their sound). We wanted to deliver real riffs and intensity alongside the more delicate, atmospheric elements to forge something primal and affecting. As we started work on the follow-up ‘Winter’, we decided to embark on something even more ambitious – a single song concept album broken into several ‘movements’ which was heavily inspired by oldschool prog acts such as Yes and King Crimson. We took an almost ‘classical’ approach to composition with themes/ melodies weaving in and out of the pieces, returning in different guises but always with a sense of forward momentum. We really spent ages forging the material and as we got closer to recording, we knew it would be Derwydd’s last record with us – so we pushed the boat out and recorded with the renowned Jaime Gomez Arellano at Orgone Studios. He really helped us deliver a massive, earthy sound to underpin the lengthy, winding pieces we were working on. Lyrically, this album dug into some quite personal depths which only seemed appropriate to accompany the material. ‘Winter’ really garnered a lot of attention for us – the huge sound, the intricate songwriting, the extended length – and definitely felt like something of a one-off.

I don’t think we could do something that progressive again without it seeming almost like some sort of pastiche. But it’s still a huge entry in our canon – a lengthy, challenging, demanding listen but with plenty to reward the patient listener. And lastly we have ‘The Dead Light’ – with a new drummer on board and with the complexity of ‘Winter’ behind us, this was an opportunity to look to do something different again. This time, the key word was focus – rein in the indulgence and concentrate on creating concise material that nevertheless retained the Fen identity. We also wanted to inject an element of the ‘cosmic’ into this record – colder, starker, glittering. This album was recorded with Chris Fielding at Foel Studios – a legendary place and legendary man, combining to really inject this album with creativity and energy. The sessions were long and demanding but always a pleasure given the wonder of the spacious, rural surroundings of the studio and Chris’s insightful input. ‘The Dead Light’ has some classic songs on it – and in ‘Nebula’ one could argue almost our first hit! The more stripped-down approach might have caught people off guard after the complexity of the album before it but it absolutely was the record we needed to make at the time, perfectly capturing the more spatial atmosphere of the ambience we were looking to create. Of course, earlier this year, a seventh full-length was completed… and of course all will be revealed in time.

4) Who writes the music/ lyrics?

The majority of the music is written by myself and Grungyn – a lot of the time in isolation before presenting it to the full band for input, arrangement and honing. There are some pieces which come together almost entirely within the rehearsal room but generally speaking, we like to have at least the semblance of an idea in place before we spend valuable rehearsal time working on things. Some pieces evolve significantly at this point, others remain more or less as they were when originally written – it all flows from the feel and the ambience when all three of us are playing. A simple change to a drum pattern can add a wildly different interpretation to a riff for example and send a song down a completely different path. As for the lyrics, I tend to pen the majority of these – Grungyn has contributed to some songs in the past, predominantly the pieces for which he performs lead vocals – however, certainly for the last few records, I have shouldered the responsibility for forging the words that accompany the music. This is fine with me but is by no means some sort of manifestation of ‘control’ or whatever – anyone within the band is invited to contribute if they so wish! I guess I have just had lot to say over the last few years and the others seem happy to let me get on with it…

5) Your sound is a vast dark cold wasteland of metal and melodies... what is the inspiration behind your sound and the lyrics?

It’s always driven by what’s taking place within – the moods, the roiling swirl of emotion, the darkness, anger and despair that’s always there. It’s in all of us, deep down, somewhere, waiting for release or expression. This music – and the lyrics that lend it tangible definition and meaning – are my way of confronting this, of dealing with it and somehow managing to exorcise these notions. I’m not really interested in telling stories with Fen – of literal expressions of ‘reality’, of materialism, history, geography, whatever. This may sound massively pretentious but I prefer to take a more philosophical, interpretive approach to writing lyrics – I certainly like to leave a lot of ambiguity in the imagery therein, I always find it more satisfying when there is scope for the listener to interpret, to set their own mind’s eye against the images described.

As for the music, it’s just about what flows… about what I need to hear when the hour is late, the guitar is in my hand and the whisky is in my glass. It needs to resonate; it needs to accurately reflect whatever desperate darkness is coursing through me at that point.

6) Your sound is very technical and symphonically polished, when did you start as musicians? What inspired you to become a black metal musician?

I first picked up a guitar in 1994, 1995 – so quite a long time ago now! Almost immediately, I wanted to play extreme metal – my descent into black metal coincides completely with my learning to play the instrument so by about 1996, all I wanted to play was black metal. The possibilities of the sound to me back then were boundless – to take something heavily distorted and a backdrop of aggressive percussion, using these tools to describe something bleak, intoxicating and stirring. It was a wildly exciting time of musical discovery – of SELF discovery – realising how inspiring it was to explore these sounds and to forge my own path within it. Back then, myself and Grungyn lived in the fens with no real contact with other musicians – there was no internet for us, no way to collaborate with anyone else and I think this really fed into a sense of ‘isolated inspiration’. We were doing it our way and despite moving to the city a year or two later, those early times were crucial in developing a sense of identity that runs through Fen today. In many ways, the seeds of what Fen has become here in 2021 were sown almost a quarter of a century ago during those bleak times of creative growth.

7) Now I grew up in the UK and I obviously have a massive soft spot for UK black Metal...but I’ve been away for a while now, and I’m a bit behind... bring myself and our raiders up to date and tell us about new bands there and the evolution of the scene.

The UK scene has seen it’s fair share of ups and downs but right now, it must be regarded as a serious player on the global stage. It has taken a little while for us to reach this point I guess – of course, Cradle of Filth were the key standard bearers back in the early-mid 90s (and it must be reiterated that they were a huge inspiration for many UK musicians looking to make their way around that time) and we also had Bal Sagoth, Thus Defiled and Hecate Enthroned around that time. As with most scenes at that time however, I think the UK struggled in the shadows of what was pouring out of Scandinavia and as we entered into the 2000s, the UK black metal scene seemed to wither a little. Anaal Nathrakh garnered attention and there were more underground bands such as Reign Of Erebus putting out records but it was a quiet time really. I think things started to really gain momentum when Winterfylleth, Wodensthrone and A Forest Of Stars began to garner serious acclaim, not just at home but also in Europe and the US. This was around 2008-2009 I think, with things really gathering momentum from around 2010. It’s really been something of a continuous upwards spiral of quality since this point and right now, we have a huge scene here with a large number of hungry, creative bands all supporting each other and mutually inspiring each other to push themselves further with each release. Our most recognized acts are of course Winterfylleth, Saor and A Forest Of Stars but just off of the top of my head, the following are really starting to make names for themselves – Necronautical, Wode, Abduction, Wolvencrown, Aklash, The Infernal Sea, Old Corpse Road, Ante Inferno, Cistvaen, Heathen Deity, Thy Dying Light, Terminarch, Necro Ritual, Ninkharsag and many more. I have no doubt several of these will take that next step to become established acts globally. And that’s without bringing some of the more death/black acts into the conversation like Scythian, Adorior and Craven Idol. And of course Akercocke. Just reading back on this list of names literally from the top of my head has underscored how rich the scene is here right now.

8) What music do you listen to today?

A wide, wide variety of things – extreme metal features highly of course and I have recently been spending a fair bit of time digging through the Celtic Frost and Carcass back catalogues. That said, I’m quite happy firing up some classic stuff like WASP or Whitesnake when the mood strikes and I’ve also a lot of time for oldschool prog like Yes or Camel. I like to keep an open mind however – good music is good music, irrespective of genre and a well-crafted song transcends boundaries. It would probably sicken some people to realise that I’ll often throw on a bit of A-ha or Tears for Fears but these acts made some fantastic music and crafted some timeless songs. As long as something is made with true creative integrity, shot through with authenticity and atmosphere, I am willing to give it a chance. In terms of new stuff released this year, it’s been a good one – the new Ruins of Beverast, Cult of Luna and Year of No Light albums have been excellent but I’d put the new Bicep (atmospheric electronica) record up there as well.

9) Do you have any advice for up and coming musicians out there?

Play from the heart, always. Don’t try and force yourself into crafting something that you think will sell or you think will get you signed – the foundation HAS to be something that you genuinely feel. Authenticity is so important when it comes to metal (and extreme metal in particular) – play with feel and passion. And don’t worry too much about being ‘different’ – if you’re playing from the heart, you’ll eventually forge your own sound and originality will come. But if you’re forcing it, it just won’t be right. And work at it – there’s this oft-propagated trope within the metal scene that inspiration somehow strikes from on high (or down below!), that a moment of sheer, unbridled creative energy hits from the blue that results in genius just flowing from the fingers. Not true. Well, not often. Sometimes this can happen but more often than folk care to admit, inspired music arises from focus, dedication and craft – hours spent working on riffs, reworking melodies and digging through to the very essence of what it is you are writing. Keep playing – and for focused sessions. Not just 15 minutes of noodling around, hoping something will sound good. Go deep, power through and hit that intangible moment when the music starts to flow. Record everything. If you get an idea, get it recorded asap. These moments can be fleeting – with the abundance of affordable recording technology, there’s no excuse not to have something to hand now. Even record it on a phone – everyone has one of those. Sometimes an inspired idea can be ephemeral and needs to be captured. From a business perspective, never undersell – if you don’t value your art, no-one else will. If you’re fortunate enough to reach a point whereby you have a growing, dedicated listener base, respect your music and demand to be paid accordingly. Extreme metal is hardly a fasttrack to big cash but it’s only fair that if you’re stuff is in demand, that you as an artist are recompenses in some way for it. Those who repeat the mantra ‘there’s no money in extreme metal’ are the ones making it.

10) Would you like to add anything?

I think we’re good, thanks – just keep an eye out in 2022 for big noises emerging from the depths of the fens…