Intervista Mayhem (Attila Csihar)

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Hi Attila, welcome to TrueMetal.it

Hi, how are you?

I’m good, you?

Fine, fine.

Perfect! I’d like to start talking about your new album, “Deamon”, it is coming out soon, 5 years after “Esoteric Warfare”. It’s not as long as the 7 years between “Ordo Ad Chao” and “Esoteric Warfare”, but it’s still quite a long time, why did it take so long for you to complete this album?

Well, between “Ordo” and “Esoteric” there was a lineup change so that took some time.
Then, after “Esoteric” was released, its tour was combined with the 30 years of Mayhem: it started with us playing only a show, in Sweden, playing the whole “De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas” record and that was something really special for us.
We didn’t really plan it like that, but we just had this offer and we thought, “Why not? Now it’s a good time to do it”, so we played a show and we felt really good about it, we even released the [recording of the] first show, then there was more interest, we had more offers and we said yes, and more interest came, so we said, “Okay, let’s do this tour”, we wanted to do it anyway, so that took some years, actually, because there was a lot of interest.
I think it was good for us to do it, and after the tour we went into this new album, so it took some time but it was good because we came more together as people on this tour, so everybody is more in shape, the band became more solid.
At the end of that tour, we were in South America, we had this meeting where we thought about stuff and we said, “Maybe we should go even before “De Mysteriis””, in the idea, go back to the core [of Mayhem], that was my idea.
And that was setting the first direction, that was more than a year ago, it was June of last year.
That’s how it started and that’s why it took some time.

If I’m not mistaken most of the band lives in different places, how does the songwriting work for you?

Nowadays it’s not a big problem because when make music we can create first demos at home, we send them to each other, and then we come together to rehearse and that’s also not that crazy because it’s a day of travelling to get up to Norway, the flight is three hours for me, I live in Budapest, Charles lives in Holland, the others are in Norway, so it’s not complicated.
But we don’t need to be all the time together, and also we spent a lot of time together on these tours, so we already shared many ideas, and the rest we can communicate through internet [laughs].
We record the demos at home, today you just need a laptop to record stuff, make demos and things, so that’s very useful and we do that and when we have ideas we try them out at rehearsals.

The album’s sound is very aggressive and it feels very “old school” to me. How would you describe the album to someone who hasn’t listened to the single, ‘Worthless Abomination Destroyed’, yet?

It’s Mayhem today, but in a way it’s back to the core in the idea, to me the essence of the band goes back in time, it’s not just musically, it’s also the approach.
Back in the day we were more involved in the whole creation, when I looked at the other Mayhem’s albums it’s always been Teloch, me, Rune (Blasphemer) who made most of the compositions, and before me it was Maniac, but if you go before “De Mysteriis” there was more people involved, so our thought was to make more people involved and that makes this album more special.
I wanted more members to be involved, and to me this is something new and more exciting.
That’s a new thing for us, and it was the idea of trying to go back to the old times.

I’d like to talk about the first period you spent with Mayhem. First of all, I read that you were chosen to join the band also because Dead liked Tormentor, and that you were pen-pals too. Is that true?

Yeah, that’s what I learned later, that he was a big fan of Tormentor, and I have a lot of respect for him. I never talked to him personally so it’s such a big coincidence, because my name in Tormentor was Mayhem.
When I heard about Mayhem, and later I heard about Dead, how much he was into Tormentor, I felt and I still feel a strong connection with him.

And what about the pen-pals thing?

No, I never had any contact with him, it was a spiritual connection.

Of course, everyone knows about the homicide of Euronymous: you joined the band not long before, and you were with Mayhem for most of the time that Varg Vikernes was in the band. What do you remember of the relationship between Varg and Euronymous?

I was in contact with Euronymous for a few years before I met them, but the first time I met them personally it was Euronymous and Varg in 1993, and the rest of the band, Snorre and Hellhammer.
My impression is that they were cool dudes, impressive: they were both there when I arrived with the train at the train station and Varg was wearing this chain mail, you know, like the ones used by the armies during the crusades, you know what I mean?

Yeah, I’ve seen some photos of him wearing it.

[Laughs] Yeah, it was cool.
My impression was that these guys were gentlemen, cool, very straight, very sober, smart also.
Crazy but in another way [laughs] not like drunken parties, not at all, it was a lot about music: they listened a lot of music, I recorded a lot of music for Euronymous’ recordings, both guys gave me a good impression and we became friends, I guess, that’s how I felt, we became on the same page.
But, back to your question, yes, I could sense something, they talked both a little bit behind their back, I felt a bit like, “Maybe you guys should talk”, but I didn’t pay too much attention, it was not that bad. Maybe some dark jokes, but I thought everybody was a bit worn out after the recording because it took years and a lot of effort.
It was a big production, especially back in those times, recording at Grieghallen in Norway, in Bergen, it’s a nice music complex: it was a very good studio, pretty expansive, there was no record label behind it, so the band had to make a lot of sacrifices to get that.
So that’s all I thought, “Everything’s gonna be cool when the album will be out and when we start playing live”, that was the plan.
To me everybody was very cool and friendly with me.

Have you had any contact with Varg after the homicide, after he was imprisoned?

No, I was very sad about what happened.
Of course it took me some time to understand that there were their personal issues, I had never been involved on a personal level in the band, in Mayhem, it was just the music.
But we never had a contact since then, I don’t know what’s going on with him.
I saw some YouTube videos with him, that was kinda interesting, but I’m not too much into any stuff like that, I don’t watch that kind of stuff, I’m more into listening music.
I know he made new records, I heard something from it, but I listen also to different types of music.
I don’t share his ideologies, from what I heard, but I’m not exactly sure what they are. Maybe on a personal talk, yes, but not really on a public level, that’s not my cup of tea on an artistic level, I like to leave that shit out. I believe it’s fucking bullshit. My personal view is like, all that is going on behind the fucking scene, I don’t care, fuck it! Back to the music! [Laughs]

When you recorded “De Mysteriis”, did you go to Norway just for the recording or did you live there for a longer period? What are your memories of that time, in general?

It was just maybe two weeks: I went up to Oslo and we had a few rehearsals.
I was looking forward to that because when I heard the first tapes from Euronymous, the first time I heard “Deathcrush”, I thought it was cool but with Tormentor it wasn’t THAT different to me, it was a bit Punky. But then I heard more stuff and when I heard the “De Mysteriis” tapes, without the vocals, just basics, it was already from the studio, some demo or something, then I was very impressed. The whole music sounded very advanced, futuristic, something I’d never heard before so I was very interested, even more interested [laughs]. Then it started to make sense to me, so I was really looking forward to see how Hellhammer was gonna play the drums, and it was amazing at these rehearsals. And then we went to the studio where we recorded everything in three days, but of course it took one day to go up there, and then to come back. My memories are, yeah, we were pretty much into the whole music and the whole idea, it was cool.
And the beautiful nature of Norway! That was very impressive too, it’s a beautiful drive from Oslo to Bergen, it’s like a day drive.

Actually, I was just there  a month ago on holiday, I went from Oslo to Bergen by car, so I know exactly what you’re talking about.

Okay, yeah, it’s beautiful.

Today there is a sort of mythical aura around that time, but if we think about it we are talking about tragic events, the suicide of Dead, Euronymous’ murder and so on. Why do you think that happens, why are people so attracted by these events?

I think it’s because somehow the whole thing opened a new era in music.
Of course it was pretty crazy and extreme, but everybody was young so it was intense, how I understood, but I didn’t take part of it since I was only there for two week in those times.
Everything was more underground, a bit more secret, a lot of things were going on in the media but it was more like terrorism [laughs] not supportive at all! “You have to watch your back” type of things, so it was blown up by the media too, because if you think about it, two young people killing each other is something that happens, I guess, many times every day, unfortunately.
So, how it happened and how the media blew it up, and how all the surroundings made it like big, I’m not sure it was a good idea to go that big, but that’s my personal thing, I like to focus more on the music.
But it was still interesting and really impressive, but totally different from today, because today in Norway they support our music, it changed a lot. It’s became a cultural thing, almost, like so many bands, and there is a lot of talent and great musicians coming from Norway.
It’s been interesting to see how things have changed with time, but it’s been of course many years and now it’s something else.
I remember during the Tormentor times too, with Tormentor compared to Mayhem… Mayhem, before “De Mysteriis”, I think they had maybe ten show, like “Live in Leipzig, something in Turkey, in Norway maybe two-three show, it’s not many, right? And that was also later, it wasn’t until “Wolf’s Liar Abyss”, in ’98 in Milano, that was when Mayhem started to tour again.
For me the difference with Tormentor was that from ’85 to ’89-’90 we had maybe, I guess, between 50 and 100 shows, at least, we were playing all the time [laughs]. Also, if you look at Mayhem’s shows it was maybe 30 people, 50 people, and with Tormentor we had that first, but then we had easily 700-800 towards the end, it was fucking crazy.
We were one of the few bands to play this type of music, and we never got really paid [laughs] because it was a different system, we weren’t even officially allowed to play, really, or we could but we couldn’t get paid, for that you needed to get a special permission from the state and bullshit like that so, you know, we were just playing but to a shitload of people all the time, so I had this Black Metal high school, it was cool.

Today Black Metal evolved and there are a lot of different sub-genres, what are your thoughts on the current state of Black Metal?

Of course, like you say, the music, the definition is so many level differently, there are so many different types of Black Metal music: you can have very raw old school, to symphonic, to industrial like we have with Aborym, so many differences.
I think it’s different for everybody, or so it should be, but to me Black Metal should deal with the dark aspect of nature, and human nature.
That aspect of us and all about those relation and it should be approached like in an esoteric way.
Also daily life, I guess that’s important about it, how you approach it, and it should be approached with freedom, but of course you play together with other people so there should be collaboration, coming together into something, but I think Black Metal should be always about that being on a personal level, this dark aspect of your mind, and whatever it is for a person it’s most important how honest you are with it and how it reflects yourself.
It’s very hard to put it in words, this is what it is for me but it could be something else for other people, I don’t really care about that, but for me it’s personal, it’s my life too, I’ve been so involved, it’s part of me.
It’s amazing, actually.
And I think it’s beautiful that we can embrace that thing, this thing that a lot of people try to escape from facing your own fears, and embracing that you release pressure through this music.
So many different kinds of people listen to this type of music, so now it’s spread but I wouldn’t say it’s commercial because it’s still underground, but it’s a more spread underground and that’s amazing.

I guess the internet helped that too.

Yeah, and of course some bands made it more popular too.
But for me the essence is this personal connection with the other members and the listeners, whatever you have to say you say it by your music, I think it’s beautiful and it’s extreme.
If you look at the whole music, I think Black Metal is the most beautiful extreme music, maybe Hip Hop is extreme too with its lyrics, but I don’t know the whole music concept itself.
I think you can be proud of the whole Metal scene, it’s great what’s going on, it’s good that it’s spread and that people respect more each other, even if they listen to different types of Metal, of extreme Metal, even if you don’t listen Heavy Metal, it’s not… you know, in the ‘80s there was much more opposition, now there’s more respect and unity and that’s cool, maybe people are more open-minded.
It makes it more varied when you play in front of 5000 people or more, at some festivals, of course not all of them are hardcore Black Metal fans [laughs] and I think that’s okay [laughs] it shouldn’t be an issue.
There are all these different people, different levels, different approaches to Black Metal and it’s cool, it is what it is.

Talking about another band you sing with, I’ve seen Sunn O))) once and it was the loudest concert I’ve ever seen. I was wearing earplugs and still it hurt. How it is like for you, from the stage? Do you struggle to sing with the volumes being so high?

Yeah, that’s part of the concept of the whole band, these Sunn amps are pretty much loaded [laughs] they are old legendary amplifiers, so that’s how the band started, out of adoration to the Sunn amps and it’s all about it.
Of course through the years it’s grown pretty big and now we got a lot of these amps, it’s really loud, but it’s still a special very old sound and it’s not so high, it’s really low frequencies but still I think it’s cool to have in case some earplugs because if you’re used to regular lives that sound could be too much, it could hurt.
That’s not the whole point, the point is that it’s very physical, vibrations, the sound waves coming through the floor, that’s the point.
The vocal approach it’s like going back to… not the Sixties, but a bit more psychedelic, more shamanistic leading through the sound.
We have songs and stuff, but to me it’s a totally intense experience, I’m in the focus of that sound and it’s really loud, so recently I had to start using myself some in-ear monitors because I couldn’t perform anymore, it’s so loud! It’s impossible!
This is challenging, I think it’s unique, for sure it’s an experience to be in a show like that.
I’ve played so many shows with them and I’ve seen people coming with sleeping bags and stuff [laughs].
Recently we’ve had a little bit of a break, now they’ve been playing without me, but I just played with Stephen the other day with Gravetemple so we have some stuff going on, it was good to have this break because I have a lot of things to do, but now I think we will come back again, but I have to focus on Mayhem now. I still played with them the last summer, two shows, but not on the tour.
That’s okay, maybe it would be too much [laughs] I like it but it’s intense.

Recently the Lords of Chaos movie came out and caused a lot of contrasting comments. You are in the movie as a character, and you are played by your own son, Arion. What do you think of the movie? Was it weird to see yourself being played by your son?

First of all, they’ve been talking about this movie for many years, even other productions first with different directors.
We weren’t really approached, we just heard these rumours at the time and so when the movie came we were not involved in it, so we tried to separate ourselves once we were not involved, of course.
Anyone can make a movie about anyone [laughs] so, first when we read the script we thought, “Oh shit, this is crazy” so we said, “Please, no!”.
Then it turned out it was going to be a bigger production, I heard the director was going to be Åkerlund, and it was maybe a bit more promising, he came from a Metal background, he played in Bathory, I also saw one of his movies, “Spun”, with Mickey Rourke and it was kinds funny, so it was a bit more promising but we didn’t really have anything to do with the movie.
About my son, it’s just a funny coincidence: I was on tour, I was in South America with Mayhem, three or four years ago, the film has been delayed a lot, and when I came home I got this call from my family, “Guess what? Your son is gonna play… you in the Mayhem movie”, I was like, “Really? Wow! What?!”.
It turned out that by coincidence they shot part of the movie in Hungary, because in Hungary there’s a big film industry, they make a lot of productions here.
My son has been going for many years to a drama school, more like a private drama school, he even started to teach there now, and he is also… he’s not like a qualified artist, but he’s been acting a lot, he’s in the film industry, even though he’s more into directing, he’d like to be a director, but he’s been acting in other movies and in tv.
Anyway, he phoned me and asked me if I was okay with it and first I was conflicted for a moment, but then I was like, “For sure”.
Especially because he was in my age at that time, so why should I say anything, it’s a good thing for him and that’s something I like about the movie, I think it’s really cool. He is the same age that I was at the time of those events, almost, it’s funny.

So, it this the only thing you liked about the movie?

To me all these conversations, it’s all made up, it’s based on some stories, it’s nothing like how I would picture it, and I’m not an outsider, also.
It’s really strange if someone makes a movie about you or part of your life.
It’s controversial, so that was strange, but on another hand it’s cool that someone makes a movie about our band, that was also a unique, special thing.
I told the director, actually, and he knows that it’s very sensitive making a movie about a band that it’s still touring, still making records, it’s not good for us is someone makes a stupid movie, it could affect us, our fans could think… whatever.
Luckily it’s not that bad, I think, I’m not really a critic but I think it’s a good photography, and it’s still just a movie based on some stories.
Of course it’s based on what happened, but the dialogues, the drinking, parties and shit, I’ve never seen any of that, all I remember is everybody being totally sober and focused on the music, when I was there.
It’s a bit controversial, but it’s cool, it’s okay now, we’re kinda over it.

I know that beside Metal you did other things, you played in a Jesus Christ Superstar production and you also worked as a private teacher of maths and physics. Did you ever have any problems with these other jobs because of your Metal background?

Those years were a long time ago, I had just stopped with Mayhem and I had disconnected from things, you know, you can’t always survive with music, it’s difficult, so of course I had to get a job.
Between ’94 and ’98 I just had some small experimental bands, and then it was a good time for me to do this Jesus Christ Superstar, so the two things…
When I was teaching maths and physics I did it I had a hard time for me to function with the whole fucking society, the people, the work, I like to be my own boss and that I could do when I was a private teacher and actually I did it for years because luckily I became very successful in the first couple of years.
Then I became better and better and I didn’t have to advertise, kids came, they liked my approach, I didn’t come from above, so to say, they expected some fucked up guy with glasses but I came just like myself.
Normally I was like, okay, first lesson is free if you don’t like it, if you like it then we can keep it going.
When I close the door I just had boy or girl looking at the wall and I could understand what was going on, I talked with them, “Do you like music, do you like to party, but you have this problem with your family because of this shit”. It depends, of course, on what type of student it was, someone was going for university and it was different, but if someone had a problem, which is most of the cases, kids had some problems, I was like, “I’m not an Einstein, I don’t know much more than you do, but I know how to approach and I can teach you some logic, how to think when you have these tests and then you’ll get better marks, your parents will chill and you will be able to go back with your friends and party!” And they liked this!
So they followed my instructions and I’ve never been too hard, I always went with them through everything, whatever, I don’t want to talk about my methods of teaching [laughs] but I became very… I just got bored with it after a while, but I think I did it for maybe 7 years, 8 years, a long time.
And the Jesus Christ Superstar was in that time too and I thought it would be funny, someone asked me if I was interested, a friend, so it was cool to see how they put it together, but it took a year or more to find all the actors and everything.
I had a smaller part, Caiaphas, this piece “Jesus must die”, the evil guy and it’s suited to my voice, it’s deep. I enjoyed that time, we performed it a few times and it was pretty successful, I don’t know why we stopped, but for me it was a good experiment, to play with a Rock band and with a classical band and the same time, a lot of vocalists, it was interesting.

You played with Aborym for many years, do you speak any Italian?

I understand a little bit, “poco” [laughs].
“Io ho capito poco” [laughs].

I’ll let you finish this interview with a final message for our readers, if you want to.

I’m really looking forward to playing this album live, it’s gonna be really special, really unique, it’s gonna be great to be back to Italy, it’s always crazy!
I’ll see you from the stage.
Come and raise the demon, release the Demon together with us!
It’s gonna be very intense and very great, I’m looking forward to it.
“Saluti” [laughs] okay, I don’t want to talk more Italian [laughs].

Davide Sciaky