Interview with King Aleister Satan of King Satan
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| Photo by Cerulean Midnight |
By Mick Michaels
COSMICK VIEW: Hello! Welcome to The Cosmick View. Thank you for taking some time out of your day to chat with me, it's greatly appreciated.
CV: Do you feel Heavy Metal music in general is
viewed differently by fans in Europe compared to fans elsewhere, especially in
America, and if so why?
King Aleister Satan: I don't think there is really one way to put it, as even with my own hometown circles, metal music is viewed so differently between the individuals alone. True music fanaticism is always kind of a “spiritual” thing, even if you are not “spiritual” in other aspects of life at all. And all things “spiritual” are taken pretty seriously usually by the person, no matter where you live.
King Aleister Satan: I don't think there is really one way to put it, as even with my own hometown circles, metal music is viewed so differently between the individuals alone. True music fanaticism is always kind of a “spiritual” thing, even if you are not “spiritual” in other aspects of life at all. And all things “spiritual” are taken pretty seriously usually by the person, no matter where you live.
CV: What do you feel makes Heavy Metal music so
alluring to the fans? What is it about the music that personally resonates so
strongly with you?
KAS: I can only speak on behalf of myself with this one with good conscience, but it usually seems to reach some primordial and intuitive part of mine, passing the barriers of my conscious mind. This of course tells me that I have some innate psychological need to be fulfilled with this kind of music, because the dimensions of my everyday life are not delivering it completely, whatever it is. We are intelligent animals after all, so maybe it is some sort of psychodrama-like enactment where the intelligent part gets dominated by the animal part, but without making it disappear completely and then manifesting itself through the animal part and not vice versa like in our so called “everyday life”. But that's just me of course. I don't know…maybe I just like it 'cos it’s just hard stuff and I just make pseudo-intellectual excuses to justify it.
CV: Has Metal splintered into too many sub-genres in your opinion, thus, making it harder for newer bands to actually classify themselves as one style over another? Is it confusing for fans as well?
KAS: One of the most boring attributes of human being is our somewhat psychopathological need to conceptualize everything almost hysterically before a human can let oneself experience it. I am more of an intuitive person, so I don't give a shit about genre boundaries or conformity in general…but I must admit, it confuses those a great deal who do need those boundaries to help them to form opinions. I think it is impossible for artists themselves to classify their own act objectively, but I think it should not even be their job to do in the first place…especially not before the creative process even starts.
KAS: I can only speak on behalf of myself with this one with good conscience, but it usually seems to reach some primordial and intuitive part of mine, passing the barriers of my conscious mind. This of course tells me that I have some innate psychological need to be fulfilled with this kind of music, because the dimensions of my everyday life are not delivering it completely, whatever it is. We are intelligent animals after all, so maybe it is some sort of psychodrama-like enactment where the intelligent part gets dominated by the animal part, but without making it disappear completely and then manifesting itself through the animal part and not vice versa like in our so called “everyday life”. But that's just me of course. I don't know…maybe I just like it 'cos it’s just hard stuff and I just make pseudo-intellectual excuses to justify it.
CV: Has Metal splintered into too many sub-genres in your opinion, thus, making it harder for newer bands to actually classify themselves as one style over another? Is it confusing for fans as well?
KAS: One of the most boring attributes of human being is our somewhat psychopathological need to conceptualize everything almost hysterically before a human can let oneself experience it. I am more of an intuitive person, so I don't give a shit about genre boundaries or conformity in general…but I must admit, it confuses those a great deal who do need those boundaries to help them to form opinions. I think it is impossible for artists themselves to classify their own act objectively, but I think it should not even be their job to do in the first place…especially not before the creative process even starts.
CV: How would you describe the current state of the
music business considering we are now living in a COVID aware, and maybe even
feared world? Have things drastically changed long-term for artists and bands
given the recent pandemic? What are your thoughts?
KAS: I guess you don't have to be expert to tell that things do indeed need to change greatly for the future, so many music venues going out of business and record labels suffering collateral damage from all of it too, not to mention that we have no certainty yet to know if COVID-19 will be even conquered soon, even though we do have promising development there and there. It is too soon to tell what kind of world we will be facing after the pandemic is under control, it could be much worse than before, or it could be a creation through destruction type of scenario, where the good new forms will emerge from the ruins of old. Only time will tell.
CV: What do you feel makes your band and its particular approach to songwriting work? What keeps the band together and making music?
KAS: We are constantly juggling on the edge of our own creative capacity and we keep challenging ourselves all the time. All the ideas that are almost too much out there for us to execute but not quite, are the ones that seems to work best. Chaos is what feeds us and the will to embrace it keeps us together. Chaos is the law.
KAS: I guess you don't have to be expert to tell that things do indeed need to change greatly for the future, so many music venues going out of business and record labels suffering collateral damage from all of it too, not to mention that we have no certainty yet to know if COVID-19 will be even conquered soon, even though we do have promising development there and there. It is too soon to tell what kind of world we will be facing after the pandemic is under control, it could be much worse than before, or it could be a creation through destruction type of scenario, where the good new forms will emerge from the ruins of old. Only time will tell.
CV: What do you feel makes your band and its particular approach to songwriting work? What keeps the band together and making music?
KAS: We are constantly juggling on the edge of our own creative capacity and we keep challenging ourselves all the time. All the ideas that are almost too much out there for us to execute but not quite, are the ones that seems to work best. Chaos is what feeds us and the will to embrace it keeps us together. Chaos is the law.
CV: On a more global view, how do you see your
band’s music and songwriting separating itself from just being another Heavy
Metal act?
KAS: I think our past speaks for itself as all external attempts to define us or compare us to other acts has always been very contradictory and controversial ever since we started. We have been labeled as industrial black metal because of our theme, but we are not black metal band at all, we have never said that, Satanism and blasphemy are not exclusive to black metal naturally, the black metal world knows this, but not the other world so easily it seems.
We have been also compared to Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson, Ministry, Turmion Kätilöt because of industrial side mostly by the media and listeners, but we are apparently still too harsh sounding to meet those comparisons as well! Not to mention, some don't think we are metal at all, and that we are only an aggrotech band like Hocico, Suicide Commando, etc. My favorite was probably when one music journalist once said that we are like if Rammstein and Slipknot had a baby with little bit Die Antwoord in it. It was something that stuck with me and seems to add to my ongoing confusion…that there might be something that separates us from others…all which has not yet been properly defined or invented!
KAS: I think our past speaks for itself as all external attempts to define us or compare us to other acts has always been very contradictory and controversial ever since we started. We have been labeled as industrial black metal because of our theme, but we are not black metal band at all, we have never said that, Satanism and blasphemy are not exclusive to black metal naturally, the black metal world knows this, but not the other world so easily it seems.
We have been also compared to Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson, Ministry, Turmion Kätilöt because of industrial side mostly by the media and listeners, but we are apparently still too harsh sounding to meet those comparisons as well! Not to mention, some don't think we are metal at all, and that we are only an aggrotech band like Hocico, Suicide Commando, etc. My favorite was probably when one music journalist once said that we are like if Rammstein and Slipknot had a baby with little bit Die Antwoord in it. It was something that stuck with me and seems to add to my ongoing confusion…that there might be something that separates us from others…all which has not yet been properly defined or invented!
CV: Can an artist truly be unique? Some would argue
there is no such thing as being unique; that it’s nothing more than a
compounding of influences making an artist who or what they are. Would this
then say that artists today are destined to be just copies of those who have
already come to pass?
KAS: Everything builds on the top of earlier things, so in a philosophical sense, nothing is unique, because reality and therefore culture, develops cumulatively in sort of an everlasting continuum of things. It is like you say, we are just combinations of earlier things, and in a pragmatic sense, the seemingly aspect of being unique is best approached if you can combine these things in such way that it gives an impression of a completely new form. For instance, Quentin Tarantino's movies are pretty unique, even they have been forged together with excessive method of exploitation, so none of the ingredients are actually unique, but when they are together, they composes a new form.
KAS: Everything builds on the top of earlier things, so in a philosophical sense, nothing is unique, because reality and therefore culture, develops cumulatively in sort of an everlasting continuum of things. It is like you say, we are just combinations of earlier things, and in a pragmatic sense, the seemingly aspect of being unique is best approached if you can combine these things in such way that it gives an impression of a completely new form. For instance, Quentin Tarantino's movies are pretty unique, even they have been forged together with excessive method of exploitation, so none of the ingredients are actually unique, but when they are together, they composes a new form.
CV: Are there life lessons to learn being in a Heavy
Metal band that you feel cannot be taught elsewhere? If so, what are they?
KAS: This is those situations like when fish cannot see the water while swimming in it I think. For me, the music, mysticism and occultism are the part of the same continuum…so for me, there has been so many lessons, but no idea how much of it is exclusively caused by metal music alone.
CV: What do you feel makes someone a “rock star”? Does being a rock star automatically make one iconic or are the two completely different in your opinion?
KAS: Even though the term “rock star” is very much of tabloid shit concept, I get the sentiment, and I think all really the magnetic and mesmerizing phenomena surrounding a person or a thing has a certain x-factor that is always between the lines but defining the surface as well. By the immortal words of Special Agent Dale Cooper, when lacking of a better term, let's call it magic.
KAS: This is those situations like when fish cannot see the water while swimming in it I think. For me, the music, mysticism and occultism are the part of the same continuum…so for me, there has been so many lessons, but no idea how much of it is exclusively caused by metal music alone.
CV: What do you feel makes someone a “rock star”? Does being a rock star automatically make one iconic or are the two completely different in your opinion?
KAS: Even though the term “rock star” is very much of tabloid shit concept, I get the sentiment, and I think all really the magnetic and mesmerizing phenomena surrounding a person or a thing has a certain x-factor that is always between the lines but defining the surface as well. By the immortal words of Special Agent Dale Cooper, when lacking of a better term, let's call it magic.
CV: What's next for you? What can fans expect to see
coming as the world looks to surmount a new normal laced with a load of
restrictions?
KAS: We shall escort the new single, “This is Where the Magick Happens,” into the public’s existence, and continue working with the new material in studio together with me directing new music videos as well for our act. We can’t wait for this pandemic to go and become history so we can start touring again. This is what we look forward to very much.
CV: Thank you again for spending some time talking and sharing with our readers. It was a pleasure. I wish you all the best and continued success.
KAS: Thank you for the interview. Fuck the rest, Satan is best!
Check out King Satan at:
Official: http://www.kingsatan.net
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/kingsatan616
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/kingsatanofficial
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3_nV0hfri-8wi7wzmxWO3Q
KAS: We shall escort the new single, “This is Where the Magick Happens,” into the public’s existence, and continue working with the new material in studio together with me directing new music videos as well for our act. We can’t wait for this pandemic to go and become history so we can start touring again. This is what we look forward to very much.
CV: Thank you again for spending some time talking and sharing with our readers. It was a pleasure. I wish you all the best and continued success.
KAS: Thank you for the interview. Fuck the rest, Satan is best!
Check out King Satan at:
Official: http://www.kingsatan.net
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/kingsatan616
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/kingsatanofficial
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3_nV0hfri-8wi7wzmxWO3Q
Like The Cosmick View on Facebook at:
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Music, Talk & Nothing But Business
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My name is Mick Michaels...I'm an artist, music fan, songwriter, producer, show host, dreamer and guitarist for the traditional Heavy Metal band Corners of Sanctuary.
Writing has always been a creative outlet for me; what I couldn't say
in speech, I was able to do with the written word. Writing has given me
a voice and a way for me to create on a multitude of platforms
including music and song, articles, independent screenplays, books and
now, artist interviews. The Cosmick View is an opportunity to
raise the bar and showcase artists in a positive and inspirational
light. For me, it's another out-of-this-world adventure.
Spiritual Counseling and Sessions Available
www.pamelaaloia.com
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