INTERVIEW: Jonas A. Holmberg – This Gift Is A Curse

For as long as there has been metal, there has been a healthy competition to outdo one another in who can be the most extreme. Be it the Satanic-leanings of VENOM, the infamous actions of certain individuals of the Norwegian black metal scene in the 90s or simply writing music so disgustingly heavy, they can level a building. Metal thrives on pushing sonic boundaries and none know this better than THIS GIFT IS A CURSE. Whilst some bands utilise aural horror for either a gimmick or shock value, the musical maelstrom THIS GIFT IS A CURSE have forged since 2008 is genuinely terrifying, one in which puts the Swedes leagues ahead of their competition. Four years have passed since the band’s last outing, All Hail The Swinelord, and now, the band have returned for another dive into the void with A Throne of Ash (read our review here). Prior to the release of the record, we spoke with vocalist Jonas A. Holmberg to get the insight into their next slab of sonic depravity, including its creation and themes, as well as the band’s cross-pollination of metal’s varying styles.

So, you are set to release your brand new album A Throne of Ash. What can we expect from this new album?

Jonas: “A monstrous black beast”. I think it was the label that described the record like so and I guess it is pretty accurate. This third album is an natural continuation of the dark musical journey that is THIS GIFT IS A CURSE. It is what we always have done – just wider and deeper in its creative and aesthetic reach into the sonic abyss. I feel like for each record the work continues as we develop our craft further. We keep on exploring the musical darkness as far as we can go and with A Throne of Ash – this is the final frontier. For now…

A Throne of Ash arrives after a three year wait since THIS GIFT IS A CURSE’s last album, All Hail The Swinelord. How has the band developed in that time?

Jonas: The biggest change is that shortly after releasing All Hail the Swinelord (2015) we brought in a second guitarist to the band. We felt that we needed some change as well as a new creative force. Also, many of the songs on AHTS were written with a second guitar in mind so this move felt very natural. I can’t almost not imagine the time when the band was a four piece now. We have also changed some of the writing process and tend to be a bit more analytical now days. We record ourselves more while practicing etc. and then after listening to what we are actually playing. I think this has helped us write better songs as well as made us as musicians a bit “smarter” (in a lack of better words).

In the build up to the creation of this new album, you recruited David Deravian as a second guitarist. How has he settled into the fold and what does he bring to the overall sound of the band?

Jonas: David joined the band in 2016 and was actually recommended to us by a mutual friend; Mike P. of psych-/progg-rock outfit JIRM. He knew that David for some time had been looking for something “heavier” to play in. We actually knew of David beforehand as he had been in various bands over the years, but nothing in the style of THIS GIFT IS A CURSE. He came to our rehearsal space and headquarters at Norra Begravningsplatsen, Stockholm, for a little meet and great. With him he had this little black portal hard drive where he had collected stuff that was either too heavy or dark for his other projects. He pushed play and it just blew our minds. It was some of the best and most ferocious riffs we had ever heard. Turns out that he had just been waiting for something like this to come along and we on the other side; wanting a new force to boost up our sound even more. It was an instant match, both musically as well on a personal level. David later said that the first year in the band was just about him understanding what the hell we were doing. Eventually he did and naturally emerges into it. I think both parties learned a lot from each other and it made us a better band in the end, in all aspects. Sometimes I actually feel that he understands THIS GIFT IS A CURSE more than us that been in the band from the start. He got some overview perspective that we lack or something.

They often say that by the third album, bands have found their sound. Would you agree in the case of A Throne of Ash? Does this album represent exactly how you want the band to sound?

Jonas: Yes and no. This is a hard question. I feel that you are never totally satisfied and that you always want to do more with the material. But it is also good to just leave it. Like to have a creative “closing of the books” and then move on. In some way I guess people “understand” us more with each record but to ourselves we always try to evolve in all aspects; with the music, the craft and the aesthetics. On this album we changed main producer and studio. From Magbjörk, that we have worked with on every album and helped us shape our sound – to the great William Blackmon of the Overlook Studios Gävle. Although; Magbjörk ended up doing some “consulting” with the sound in the end. And as I said before; we also changed a lot of the old ways of how we used to write songs. David, the newest member, actually wrote most of the base material to the album. We all help out with the arranging and each member always put their own signature to the song and by so take it through the same creative blender that has come to be “out thing”. So to some degree it is the “good ol’ THIS GIFT IS A CURSE” but on the other hand in totally new ways. But we always feel that change is good. We a super satisfied with Williams’ engineering work and David’s extremely vital addition to the band from day one. In conclusion, change has always done us good. By destroying what we think is “us” and then build it up again seems to make us better as a band and more grounded in our sound.

Musically, A Throne of Ash is absolutely vicious. Combining elements of black metal, sludge, hardcore and drone, the soundscapes you craft are absolutely punishing. By fusing all these elements of various styles, how difficult is that process?

Jonas: We all come from somewhat different musical backgrounds; death/black metal, hardcore punk, shoegaze, indie and marching bands (believe it or not) and because of this we also have a bit different ideas on how to play and write “heavy” music. But what we do actually come quite naturally and most of the times we are on the same page on what we want to achieve musically. We never try to limit ourselves into like one genre or pace; we do what we feel like. Some members are more into the technical aspects of the music; others are more interested in the sonic atmosphere and the overall sound. We all bring different creative tools and ideas to the table. We like it dark, heavy and gritty – this is what we always have had in common.

And by essentially having a mixing pot of various styles, do you believe that it allows the music of THIS GIFT IS A CURSE to transcend the constraints of singular genre tags?

Jonas: We never think about these things that hard. I think this is more important for others to be able to identify us, in order to understand what we are doing. We know what we are. We like to play hard and heavy music and we take inspiration from various sources, not just music either. I believe there is no one source when it comes to wielding chaos. This is at least how I see it.

We’ve seen a number of bands break down the walls of genre constraints in recent years, what are your views on this? Do you believe that musical cross-pollination is a good thing for creativity?

Jonas: Creativity at is best comes from a state of chaos. Why limit yourself in your creative work? I guess this is a natural process and that people that make “art” want to try new paths or just what comes naturally to them. Of course there are better and more worse examples of “musical cross-pollination” throughout music history. Everyone has their own ideas about this I guess. I like both perspectives, let the puritans be puritans and let the explorers explore. Both sides are equally important and vital to the music scene. Also, these opposites are usually closer connected then they like to admit. In fact they need each other to pave their own ways.

Can you describe the writing and recording process for A Throne of Ash?

Jonas: When David joined the band, like six months after the release of second album All Hail the Swinelord, he had this little hard drive with a lot of “unwanted” riffs that was either to bleak or dark for his other musical endeavours. From that we built much of the foundation of what later became A Throne of Ash. After time went by we also wrote new music from the same vein as those initial ideas/riffs that David brought with him. The more he became adapted to his new musical surrounding more songs came about. A lot of hard work went into the rehearsals as well of each member’s effort on evolving their own craft. For example: our drummer J-Rot has now switched up to double pedals and so the song writing has also been able to evolve around this fact. We also did more and better demos for this album, this in able to play the songs better when later in the studio. We booked studio time with William in the beginning of 2018 and went to Gävle (about 200km north of Stockholm, on the east coast) to record drums. After that we went back to Stockholm and recorded all guitars, bass and vocals at Norra Begravningsplatsen with the help of our old friend and demon magus Magbjörk as a sound consultant. We then sent William stuff continuously as we recorded and at the same time he was mixing the material. We then later went back up to Gävle to finish the mixing onsite with William. After some back and forward with mixing we finally found a common ground on what we wanted for the sound of the record. I think if William got his notion all the way through, as the professional sound engineer he is; that the overall sound had been a bit more “clear” on the album. And if we in the band on the other hand got our initial idea through, the album would probably have been a bit dirtier and broken sound wise. What you hear is the middle ground and it is most likely the best version that it could be. We then sent the songs to Magnus Lindberg (CULT OF LUNA, TRIBULATION, ALCEST etc.) for mastering which he almost directly did a great job with. This is the whole process. It took about two years to write and one year to record, mix and master. Although we didn’t record every day and we took quite a few breaks from the recording for tours and whatnot.

Lyrically, what messages and themes are you addressing with this new album?

Jonas: To me THIS GIFT IS A CURSE has always been about duality, just like in man. THIS GIFT IS A CURSE has two pools; the almost animalistic raw side and the esoteric hidden side. The first represented in the live music and the stage performance and the latter in the lyrics and aesthetics seen in artwork, covers and merchandise. Both these sides are combined and inter-knitted via a ritualistic gateway through mainly the lyrics. I see it as bridge between these two worlds, and also as an extended arm of the music together with the artwork. I use a lot of different symbolism that I borough from different occult thought systems and make it into my own. I try to correspond to anyone whom might be listening or paying attention to what THIS GIFT IS A CURSE does by leaving keys and hiding portals in the text. With the lyrics I try to deal with inner turmoil, chaos or sort out complex psychological processes. I have come to find that I can make sense of the world with the help of esoteric symbolisms. Like sometimes I feel that reality is best exposed via fiction or most accurately described in lies. Maybe a mirroring of sorts. I try to work with the dualities of mankind, the best and the worst in us (more on the later subject matter). To me we are all trapped in circles or time cycles unable to move from our positions. With THIS GIFT IS A CURSE’s lyrical and aesthetic tools I can create a metaphysical kingdom where we rule everything and are the eye of the storm. This whirlwind of chaos either pulls everything in or cast all out. My goals was not to write a “thematically album” lyrics wise, but songs always seem connected in the end. A Throne of Ash is mainly about the meaninglessness I feel for the shared reality we call life and the constant battle with yourself in able to cope with this notion. I try to find meaning by seeing a complex world from an even more abstract viewpoint and at the same time curse the same reality for what it is by implanting some ancient magic and esoteric “Trojans” its fabric.

And with the fact that A Throne of Ash is your third record, how do view it in comparrison to your back catalogue? What do you hope to achieve with it?

Jonas: With each record we try to reach a new level in what we do and the work always continues. I feel with time we know more and more what we want and we also get better as a band on making a record. The first EP from 2010 we didn’t really know what we wanted and ended up recording only our slow songs for some reason. We then got labelled as a post-metal band (amongst many other weird names such as “art-core” or “experimental emotional hardcore”). We didn’t see ourselves as post-metal band and we got quite pissed off about this if I remembered it right. Like, we didn’t want to be pinned down genre-wise. So for the next months we only wrote fast and aggressive songs. We also felt that the production of the EP was way too clean so when we recorded the first album I, Guilt Bearer (2012) we told then producer Magbjörk that we wanted it to sound like hell. The recording was very raw and mainly to place in an old basement of a Cold War-era bunker. We really pushed (tortured) all the equipment and ourselves to the limit of almost total annihilation. Some of the guitar amps I actually think they sound like they are crying on that record and I get why, because we broke at least two of them during those sessions. All Hail the Swinelord was a bit more easy recording wise and we as a band knew what we wanted to do with the song writing and recording. We did more direct flirtation with black metal (blast beats and atmosphere) as well as more experimentation with the material – adding more guitar layers and guest vocals (clean, choirs and growls). It got us signed to Season of Mist so we apparently did something right. With this new album we wanted to take things even further in our musical approach. We wanted to be darker, heavier and more vicious than previous albums as well as master our craft even more, both in our individual roles and together as a whole. So what do we want to achieve? Probably to suck more in people to our sonic maelstrom and push away anyone that doesn’t get it…

Once the record is released, I imagine the focus will turn to touring to support your new release. What touring plans do you have in store for the remainder of 2019?

Jonas: We will do a couple of selected shows this fall/winter in Sweden and Norway and then try to focus on getting a proper tour the first half of 2020. We are working on things out and hopefully we have some great news soon about this.

Live, I imagine it must be a challenge to replicate the sound of your studio material? What challenges do you have trying to bring your music to the live stage?

Jonas: Live performance and recordings are to me two different art forms but I have never seen any greater challenges on working out a good live act connected to what we do on the records. We use a lot of effect and noise pedals for the string instruments live so we can replicate most things that we do in the studio to the stage. I like the nerve that you muster on live shows, that feeling of chaos and that anything can happen. No live show is the same and a lot of factors can change the setting and outcome (audience, stage, location etc). What you do on the records is of course a more controllable medium and I actually finding a greater challenge in transferring what we do on the stage to the records. How does one capture that true nerve of total chaos and what happens in that moment inside the sonic mayhem that bands generate during their live shows?

Are there any songs in particular from A Throne of Ash that you are most looking forward to performing live?

Jonas: We have played a few of them live already like Blood Is My Harvest, that was actually one of the first songs we wrote for the album and has been part of the live set since 2016. Another one is Wormwood Star that we have played live a few times now and both these songs have been very well received by audiences. This is good because we also really like to play them live as well. We are right now rehearing Monuments for Dead Gods and Gate Dweller to be ready for live shows later on. These are two songs that people instantly seem like when they’ve listened to the album, so playing them live I’m sure will be a great experience.

To close, we’ll offer you the chance to part a leaving message with our readers. Do you have anything to say to the readers of Distorted Sound?

Jonas: First off, thanks to Distorted Sound on taking an interested in our obscure musical outfit and for giving us a platform to talk about our creative work. I never imagined doing these kinds of interviews when we started this band almost 10 years ago. To Distorted Sounds readers; if you like loud, fast and heavy shit – THIS GIFT IS A CURSE might just be your sonic drug of choice.

A Throne of Ash is out now via Season of Mist.

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