Blackthorn. Interview with Aina Blackthorn

Interview by Andrew Stanton

Blackthorn has gone from strength to strength. Combining Black Metal with Gothic Metal, and looking sexy as fuck. Andrew Stanton talks to the world’s most beautiful woman, Aina Blackthorn.

Hello and welcome to Inside the Darkness.

“Hi, my pleasure.”

- Can you tell our readers a bit about your history, please?

“BLACKTHORN is an all-female metal band from Moscow, Russia, formed in 2004. The name mostly refers to magical qualities of this plant/ shrub, it’s associated with witches and our entire concept is based on witchcraft. We incorporate Gothic and Black Metal with classical symphonies, then we add some occult lyrics and as a result there is what we call Hextreme Metal. We played many shows in Russia and abroad and released 3 full length albums: “Gossamer Witchcraft” (Russian version entitled “Аранеум”) in 2009, “Codex Archaos” in 2011 and “Witch Cult Ternion”in 2015. Some singles, EPs, piano albums and music videos. At this moment we are working on a new album!”

- Is the witch theme permanent? Would you like to write songs about other things one day?

“In this band – yes, it’s going to be permanent. You see, it’s not a theme we’d like to use for a couple of conceptual albums. It’s always been our stage image, our idea, our message and even a lifestyle for some of us. In fact, we can write songs about anything we want but they will be written from the perspective of a person who is into the craft anyway. So my answer is no. I’m pretty sure things will remain like they are now.”

- What do you think about certain bands using controversy to sell very poor albums?

“Can’t say I approve that. Controversy can be really cool, but if it’s all you have as a musician, you should take a new look at what you create. But in the end, whatever floats your boat; you do what you want in your band!”

- Does it make it difficult when Metalheads expect you to be from California or Norway? When people find out you’re from elsewhere, they lose interest.

“To be honest I never heard people got disappointed finding out we are from Russia, haha. However, I admit it is possible, since this world is lousy with fools who lose interest in something they liked at first, just because it’s hailing not from the country they expected. If you like it, who the hell cares from what part of Earth it comes. Always be brave about your choices!”

- Why did you change your keyboard player for a violin player? Surely you can do more with keys.

“Our former keyboardist left the band due to her personal reasons, so to be clear on that, no one changed her for anyone else on purpose. Anyway, there is no keyboardist in Blackthorn, but there are still keys in our music. Of course you can do a lot of things with keys, and we still do, otherwise our music would lstop being so symphonic and melodic right after Freya left. You see, Elvira is a graduated pianist plus she’s really good in sound technology and has been doing this for Blackthorn like for ages, so in fact we don’t need an extra keyboardist.”

- How do you change vocas from growls to sopranos so quickly?

“It’s just another operating mode of your vocal apparatus. At first blush it seems difficult but believe me it is not. You just need to practice and then get used to fast switching, just like you switch from speaking normally to whispering.”

- Are the growls and the sopranos supposed to be two different characters?

“Good question, I am glad it’s raised at last. Yes, they often represent different characters of a song; not just two, the more the better. Same thing for my screaming and choirs. The latter for instance can represent ghosts or other entities. It’s because when I write lyrics I mostly see a track as a play with some kind of dramatic persona, you know. I think if you read/listen to our tracks carefully enough you notice that there are several characters.”

- When you meet new people, are they often surprised you sing in an Extreme Metal band?

“Well, that’s true! It mostly depends on where people meet me too. I am a vocal coach and my students sing mostly classical things, so when they find out I’m in such a band, they are very surprised. I try to keep it secret from them, by the way. It’s just I don’t wanna scare them away! When people meet me at metal shows in my natural habitat, they are totally cool about it.”

- What can our readers expect from your upcoming album?

“There is still a lot of work to do, but I am really looking forward to presenting the new LP! It’s gonna be a conceptual album full of sinister symphonies that will hopefully get stuck in your heads and obtain your hearts. We will try to stay loyal to our signature sound and to be different at the same time. We feel pretty comfortable playing what we play and still we want to develop, because they say if you don’t grow, you regress. T h e songs a r e based on stories of haunted places or so-called places of power where countless mystical events happened in the past so such places collected a lot of dark energy. Vocally, the new album is going to be more versatile then before. What else? Choirs, piano, string quartet, incantations, cool artwork. I hope you will love it!”

- Do you have a message for our readers?

“Thank you for reading this and check out our latest full length album WITCH CULT TERNION before we cast a spell upon you with a new LP we are currently working on!”

Thank you for your time.

“Thank you for having me, I enjoyed this interview!”