The Spotlight: Interview With Agrona By Matt Bladen
Agrona: At the outset we considered ourselves relatively fortunate to be honest. We had a number of shows booked that were quickly able to be rescheduled towards the end of the year such as Eradication, supporting 1914, SouthWest HeavyFest & the UKEM all-dayer. So in that light we were very lucky to not lose out financially or otherwise, it's just been a case of “well we'll play these shows when we play them”, and instead focus on what we do have some semblance of control over which is writing new material.
The bigger impact we've found has been off the back of the more ongoing nature of the pandemic. There's still a huge amount of uncertainty with the venues and shows are now being postponed for second if not third times. It's also making it increasingly difficult to plan shows for the future without being wilfully optimistic that there will be a government change of heart so that gigs can be held again. With the bulk of our postponed shows also being rearranged for next year there's a potential for our calendar to be pretty busy already and that's before looking at commitments from outside of the band. So whilst we haven't lost out much yet, there's still a lurking potential to.
MoM: As a supplementary question then, the reason for this interview is obviously due to your second album coming out soon. Was this always on the horizon or has lockdown allowed you to focus more on it?
MoM: As a supplementary question then, the reason for this interview is obviously due to your second album coming out soon. Was this always on the horizon or has lockdown allowed you to focus more on it?
Agrona: It has always been there bubbling away in the background. We're not ones to rush things and if we take “Realm Of The Fallen” as an example, the tracks were written over 2-3 years, recorded in the latter half of 2016 and then finally released in 2018. The process was quite long, but that also means that there has been a good few years to write more material. So it's a bit of column A and a bit of column B, the pandemic has definitely meant that rather than just moping about the hiatus of live music we've concentrated on getting the album fleshed out and completely written so it's allowed this to happen ahead of any potential “schedule” we might've had, it's actually arguable that it's been a good thing for us...
MoM: What are the themes and concepts of this second record?
Agrona: Black/blackened metal has often held ties with history, heritage and folk-lore, to the point where it can be considered a trope amongst the war or death themes. So broadly speaking we've approached this in a cliched fashion however the upcoming record will be interpreting different tales from predominantly Welsh folklore, so the album title is “Straeon Gwerin”, which is literally that. Folk Tales. I said predominantly because as our vocalist is Czech, there is a contribution from Slavic folklore too (which as it turns out is also pretty fucked up). Every track will explore a different tale and tell the story through both the musical and lyrical medium which works for us in so much that it allows the record to have a thematic cohesion we didn't necessarily have with the debut. What also helps is that Welsh folklore themes typically tend to be around loss, tragedy, bloodshed and death; all of which fit in just fine the genres we involve in.
MoM: Has the themes of Folk tales always been something you wanted to explore, or did it happen more organically?
Agrona: Black/blackened metal has often held ties with history, heritage and folk-lore, to the point where it can be considered a trope amongst the war or death themes. So broadly speaking we've approached this in a cliched fashion however the upcoming record will be interpreting different tales from predominantly Welsh folklore, so the album title is “Straeon Gwerin”, which is literally that. Folk Tales. I said predominantly because as our vocalist is Czech, there is a contribution from Slavic folklore too (which as it turns out is also pretty fucked up). Every track will explore a different tale and tell the story through both the musical and lyrical medium which works for us in so much that it allows the record to have a thematic cohesion we didn't necessarily have with the debut. What also helps is that Welsh folklore themes typically tend to be around loss, tragedy, bloodshed and death; all of which fit in just fine the genres we involve in.
MoM: Has the themes of Folk tales always been something you wanted to explore, or did it happen more organically?
Agrona: It's always been there as a potential concept “go-to” amongst other ideas. As much as it would be a cliched subject matter for the genre, we couldn't really see that it had been done before by a Welsh band, and Welsh bands of any genre by and large don't really approach this as a theme. The light-bulb moment really came when reading the story of “Beddgelert” and listening back to some of the riff ideas we'd kept aside. From a writing perspective it made itself happen and the pieces started coming together. Once we'd really sat down and did some research on the stories and topics which is something we hadn't really found as much time for prior, it cemented itself. It also definitely helps that if you do some research into Welsh folklore – and we've done a fair bit by now, the subject matter really lends itself to our type of music. It's typically intense, bleak and/or violent. If people listen to it after and use any of those three adjectives to describe us, then we won't complain. Writing music about tales embedded in folklore also has an advantage in a artistic capacity where we can potentially do some exciting things with the physical packaging of the release.
MoM: Did you go out of your way to make it different from your debut or try to stick to what you know?
Agrona: It's going to be different organically regardless. The debut was written by multiple band members over a few years with differing line-ups and multiple contributing song-writers and if you listen to it with that in mind, you can definitely tell. So looking back has a slightly less joined up overall picture even though we're definitely fond of the variety and we remain happy with the album as a whole. The second record is mostly written by myself as it happens but there will no doubt be plenty of changes and adjustments made during the studio process by the rest of the band to stamp their own imprint on the framework. Having listened back to it in demo form a few times now it definitely feels like a more consistent album. We learned an awful lot from the recording process of the first one and I believe we've taken that growth to definitely produce something more ambitious and epic that still retains the aggression that people crave from the genre. If you listen to the final track of the debut “Summoning the Void”, as that was the final track written for that record, that's probably the closest indicator of what is to follow.
MoM: Will you be doing any special versions of this album similarly to your debut (cassette box etc)?
Agrona: Never say never, especially because we'd love to. We've always sold well regardless of medium so if there's demand then we'll likely produce it but it will also depend on our distributor. I know we're hell-bent on ensuring vinyl's make a return though.
MoM: So obviously you'll be looking at touring the show next year (Covid willing) have you got any shows lined up that you can tell us about?
Agrona: Well coming back to the first question, we know that we definitely plan on fulfilling all of our postponed 2020 shows including supporting 1914, a long-overdue return to Nottingham for the UKEM all-dayer, likely multiple Eradication appearances as one of their house bands which will also involve catching up with our friends in Gra whom we toured with previously. This is all before we get to the big one which is finally out of the bag – the Sophie Stage for Bloodstock's 20th anniversary. Bloodstock means a hell of a lot to us as the M2tM events were our first shows, and the experience as a whole gave us the drive and impetus to do everything that has followed.
MoM: Did you go out of your way to make it different from your debut or try to stick to what you know?
Agrona: It's going to be different organically regardless. The debut was written by multiple band members over a few years with differing line-ups and multiple contributing song-writers and if you listen to it with that in mind, you can definitely tell. So looking back has a slightly less joined up overall picture even though we're definitely fond of the variety and we remain happy with the album as a whole. The second record is mostly written by myself as it happens but there will no doubt be plenty of changes and adjustments made during the studio process by the rest of the band to stamp their own imprint on the framework. Having listened back to it in demo form a few times now it definitely feels like a more consistent album. We learned an awful lot from the recording process of the first one and I believe we've taken that growth to definitely produce something more ambitious and epic that still retains the aggression that people crave from the genre. If you listen to the final track of the debut “Summoning the Void”, as that was the final track written for that record, that's probably the closest indicator of what is to follow.
MoM: Will you be doing any special versions of this album similarly to your debut (cassette box etc)?
Agrona: Never say never, especially because we'd love to. We've always sold well regardless of medium so if there's demand then we'll likely produce it but it will also depend on our distributor. I know we're hell-bent on ensuring vinyl's make a return though.
MoM: So obviously you'll be looking at touring the show next year (Covid willing) have you got any shows lined up that you can tell us about?
Agrona: Well coming back to the first question, we know that we definitely plan on fulfilling all of our postponed 2020 shows including supporting 1914, a long-overdue return to Nottingham for the UKEM all-dayer, likely multiple Eradication appearances as one of their house bands which will also involve catching up with our friends in Gra whom we toured with previously. This is all before we get to the big one which is finally out of the bag – the Sophie Stage for Bloodstock's 20th anniversary. Bloodstock means a hell of a lot to us as the M2tM events were our first shows, and the experience as a whole gave us the drive and impetus to do everything that has followed.
Without it who knows? We could've just have become another band that folded over time. I'm a firm believer that if you get on a stage like that just once and if you're at all human, you'll want more, and you'll work for it. It'd be a huge understatement to say that we're totally made up with being invited back to perform, and it goes without saying that we've got some plans in the works to make the most of the occasion.