A BRIEF INTERVIEW WITH THRANENKIND

 

I wanted to talk a little bit about the philosophies that drive the music of Thranenkind.

First of all, tell me a little bit about how Thranenkind came into existence. A little bit about the band's influences, origins, etc.

Thränenkind was founded by a friend of mine and myself in 2007, because we wanted to make melancholic and atmospheric music. We recorded a demo, an EP and a split release with post black metal band Heretoir within the first five years of our band history. Since 2013 we are a complete band with five band members. Most of them are vegan and straight edge and share interests in left wing politics and anarchism. We are playing a mixture of post black metal, crust, hardcore punk and post rock, with a lot of melancholy and somber atmosphere.

There are so many cookie-cutter bands, and bands that seem to have no identity. How important is attempting to carve out something unique in this oversaturated market?

For me on the hand it is kind of important to try something new, but on the other hand it is also okay to have aspects in your music which have kind of a tradition. When we write music it is not our first goal to create songs which are something absolutely new. We try to write songs with a certain atmosphere and melancholy which reflects our state of mind and our feelings in a world like this one we all live in.

Has it been a bit of an uphill battle being a "metal" band with an actual message? Where is the line between spreading a message and preaching? I have some militant friends that have gone beyond blurring that line, and are now standing on top of a soapbox daily.

All members of the band are antifascists. Most of them are vegan and/or straight edge (I am both). We are interested in left wing politics and some of us could be described as anarchists. Of course our views concerning politics and environmentalism do influence our music.

I dont want to lecture people, because everyone should be able to think for themselves. I would rather call attention to different problems and invite some of our listeners to think about issues like the destruction of the natural world, the repressive hierarchies in capitalist systems and industrial civilization in general. Sometimes our lyrics are a bit cryptic, so you won't be able to recognize the influences on the first time, but if you have a closer look, you can find some hints at our worldview. For me it is really important, that our music is something more than melodies.

As a writer and critic of modern society, I tend to look for correlations. My Grandmother always talked about having to walk 5 miles to school in the rain or shine, and now kids can barely pull themselves off the couch. To me, this "obesity epidemic" started during the rise of automobile and progressively became the monster we see today. The other correlation I see is the spike in cancer rates that coincide with the meat industry. We tend to discuss away these correlations but they're very clear to me. Being from Germany, what have you observed in terms of these societal correlations? (Being from the states, I'm sure it's different)

I am not sure if the rise of the automobile is connected in this way to people who have a problem to become active. Ii could be possible that higher cancer rates are connected to the meat industry, but i am not sure of this one either. What i can say is, that in an industrial civilization like ours it is normal, that with a rising standard of living people dont need to be as active as they need to be, for example in hunter gatherer societies. Of course this changes how we behave, in what conditions our bodies are and the ways we think of a lot of different things.

To put animals in small, dark cages, feed them with medicine and bones of their own kin and to kill them as if they were just products is disgusting and i think everyone can imagine, that eating this kind of "produced" food is not good for you. That a lot of people have lost their connection to all other (non-human) living things is very clear to me. One of the biggest problems of modern humanity is that we think we are something like the crown of creation. We are just apes, able to think and plan. We need a planet, which is not polluted and destroyed by industries. We need to recognize, that we once were a part of the natural world and that humanitys survival on this planet is only possible if we do not destroy this natural world.

While I agree there needs to be some form of government, I think the ones that we have been forced to accept are far too restrictive (and in terms of our current election proceedings, an absolute joke). The anarchist theory is correct in many ways. There is no true government. Only people with suits directing others to produce mass carnage and pain and it's been that way since time immemorial. For awhile, I was seeing a shift in public consciousness in regards to back alley governments acting like elected thugs, but now they have been lulled back to sleep. In my opinion, believing in a higher human authority is a destructive mindset.Do you think this is a problem that can be solved or are we just spinning our wheels getting nowhere? Things don't appear to be getting any better so it makes me wonder if the masses doomed and we're simply along for the ride. Thoughts on that one?

I dont think that we need some form of government in general. Today it is very difficult to undo all the mistakes humanity made during the last thousands of years. I think if all the governments would vanish from one day to another, it would be a really brutal time, with a lot of civilwars and a lot of people would die. But if you check out what some scientists - mostly anthropologists and philosophers - say, concerning humanitys history, it is very interesting, that most of the time humans seemed to live in tribes which had no government or real leaders. Maybe it could be interesting to find out how people managed - for a really long time in our history - to survive and live without modern problems like violence, racism, sexism, crimes, hunger, diseases like cancer etc. And by the way: they managed to live lives which did not destroy the environment, which i think is one of the most important things.

Today people are alienated from their world, a world which is being killed by capitalist societies and their overconsumptive lifestyles.

People are slowly wasting away. Fear, pain and depression dominate their lives. Consumer society simply destroys peoples lifes for they have to work in repetitive jobs everyday, to pay their rent for tiny apartments every month and to be able to buy shitty things they dont need in the next supermarket. It is a problem, that most people do not know where their food comes from. They have no connection to the part of the earth they are living on. Big city life cuts the connection between humans and nature. And capitalism destroys even the tiny bits that are left of this connection.

This way of life has nothing to do with self-determination or freedom. It is more like enslavement. Like living in a cage your whole life. These circumstances give way to shocking high suicide rates and an ever increasing number of people suffering from depression, cancer and other (also mental) illnesses.

A lot of people today understand, that it is not possible to go on like this forever. But it is also really hard to make this world a better place. Nevertheless a lot of people try to do it. I hope humanity will manage that in time...

I wanted to talk about the strangeness of creating music. I'm obsessed with all forms of music and heavy music in particular. But, when it comes to the writing process, it's so bizarre to release something out into the world that has never been heard before. Even stranger is the phenomenon of obsessed fans that wait with bated breath for their favorite musicians to release something that has never existed before. It's a pretty cool thing to be a part of on a small scale and on a deeper level. What's the writing process like for Thranenkind?

Usually i start writing some guitar melodies, when i feel inspired by some feelings, thoughts, experiences or maybe books or movies. When some melodies came to my mind i write them down and start to program some drums. After that i add some other guitar melodies and the bass. After that our drummer adds his ideas for the drum patterns and our guitar players check if they have something to add to the song and we start to discuss how the song feels like, what is good and what needs to be improved. I wrote the first album on my own, but since we are a band now, all of us have ideas which become part of the songs.