Mayhem interview (Attila Csihar)

Interview by Davide Sciaky

Puoi leggere l’intervista in italiano qui.

Hello Attila, welcome to TrueMetal.it
First of all, you are now on tour celebrating 40 years of Mayhem, and of course you haven’t been there from the beginning, but you’ve been there for a long time. And I guess that when you first started you could have never imagined to be still here this many years later, so I was wondering if there was a specific moment that you remember when it dawned on you, okay, Mayhem is here to stay.

Oh, yeah, I mean, I started in 1985, 1986 with my first band, Tormentor, in Hungary, and then I would never think that I would be doing this, like, that’s 40 years also, you know. But the first time I heard from Mayhem was like in 1991 maybe, something like that, when Euronymous approached me to sing on “De Mysteriis [Dom Sathanas”] album. He also wanted to release our “Anno Domini” record, which was not released [yet], from Tormentor, and he was really into it, [he wanted] to release it with his label.
So, of course, for me it looked like a great opportunity. I mean, I was also very young, like 20, in my early 20s, and at that time it was a big deal to make an album, so I was thinking like this, it’s gonna be good. When I heard their music first, I was not that impressed, actually, by “Deathcrush” and stuff. It was okay, of course, but I don’t know, I felt like we’d been there, but when I heard the “De Mysteriis” demos, they were the next level, so that was really interesting. So, I thought it was gonna be great, but no one could foresee this future, you know. And, well, a very special and great moment was here in Milan, in 1998, when I first met the guys after the “De Mysteriis” session, and I played with them a guest song, I think it was in the Rainbow Club, what was it?

I think so, yeah.

Yeah, “From the Dark Past”, and it was later released too, a live record, a smaller release on Avantgarde [Music], at that time. That was a very special moment, because it was first time with them on stage, and the first time I had the chance to meet Mayhem fans, you know, and… but still, you know, at that time they restarted the band with a different lineup, of course, and no one could see what would happen in the future, so now it’s pretty much like a miracle to be still here, actually. Like, it’s fucking crazy, and yeah, we play this forty years anniversary show now, which is like a two hours set, it’s really extreme [laughs], I think. Extremely long to play, and probably to survive.

I guess it must be particularly tough for your voice.

Yeah, I have to be focused. Like, really focus on the thing, you just can’t just be all out all the time, I don’t know how to say, but yeah, that’s kind of challenging.

When Mayhem started out, but also you with Tormentor, you started this new scene, you started to introduce new elements in the music and everything that surrounded you, and I guess it was a bit about being unconventional, about thinking outside the boxes of what Metal was until then, but later on, Black Metal became a bit more scripted. Now, if you do Black Metal, you sort of have to wear facepainting, to wear certain clothes, to do certain things in a very well-defined way, which is different from when you first started. So, have you ever looked at that and thought like, this is not what we were about back then?

Yeah, we were inspired by, I don’t know, King Diamond, Alice Cooper, you know, that was my inspiration, and also a band called Alien Sex Fiend: I saw a video and he had this vibe, that make-up, like, kind of corpse paint. So, that band, there is a video called “Live in Tokyo”, that’s very 80s, mid-80s stuff from Alien Sex Fiend, but it’s not even a Metal band, you know, it’s something like a dark goth, fucked up psychedelic goth stuff. So, that was my inspiration, kind of, and we just wanted to make it on our own ways. I already wore a mask and make-up with Tormentor, but we were experimenting so much. So, for instance, our drummer had a total blue face, not even white, it was blue, like a blue corpse paint [laughs]. And I had my thing, and then when I saw Mayhem, of course, Dead, their ex vocalist did his stuff on his own way, so everybody was starting this, but I think back then it was very extreme and, I mean, just to wear pentagrams or inverted crosses and stuff, that was kind of spicy to do, not like today, you know, it’s like almost kind of commercial, which is good in a way, like, fuck religions, but at that time it was pretty extreme. You had to be very dedicated, and I think it was more like for the selected people who were having the balls to do this. And then, I don’t know what is required today to start a Black Metal band, probably you are right, probably now it’s like a prerequisite to have makeup. I still do my makeup, I’m trying to do my own way, I never check what anyone else is doing, I always do what I feel like doing. But I think today Black Metal is pretty big and established. Back in the days it was, like, nothing, there were very few bands, even Mayhem I haven’t heard of before, you know, it was so underground, so I heard about the band only when they approached me.
It was fucked up also, my name in Tormentor was Mayhem.

Yeah, I remember this crazy coincidence.

Yeah, so I was like, what is this shit.

“Are they making fun of me?”

That was my first thought for a moment, you know, but then I realized it’s just a coincidence, and that was a strange coincidence for sure. Maybe it was already a very bad omen [laughs]. But yeah, today it seems like everybody heard about Black Metal, it’s like a well-established scene, and we are probably one of the oldest, I could be one of the oldest vocalists today in Black Metal, I don’t know.

And talking about Black Metal in general, I think it’s maybe the most serious genre in the Metal scene, people take themselves very seriously and some fans almost take it as a way of life. Do you share that feeling, or do you think maybe some people are taking themselves too seriously?

Yeah, I think it’s very personal, how you approach this and what it means for you is very individual, I think. It’s kind of my life, so actually when I have my normal life [outside of Mayhem], I don’t think about it too much, but it’s such a big part of me, so I can’t even not think about it [laughs]. It’s always there, how I look at things, how I deal with stuff. This dark aspect of energy, this dark energy is always there somehow. I think, yeah, some people maybe take it the wrong way, like even we were taking it wrong, I think with Mayhem, like people at the end killed each other and went a little bit over the top, that was too much. But yeah, these energies exist and you can get burned if you’re going out of control, so I learned how to control it, and every night I deal with these energies, and the whole past of the band and this whole thing kind of manifests every night. It’s good to learn how to keep distance in a certain way, but still embrace this dark energy. I mean, we’re all going to die, so that’s the topic, and nothing can change that, so I think it’s very original to play that in the form of music, play about that, like the death itself and like how everything is passed away and washes away by time. And at the same time, I think it’s very good to challenge religions, because they are actually very blasphemous to me, because they all deal with that thing, what’s going to happen after you die. That is something that nobody fucking knows. They just make these different deals and they promise you this and that, but it’s all like a big mass, mind control. It’s all about power and kind of like they take away from you, from your personal experience, they program you how to think about that, they say cliches, for instance, our heritage, like Christianity, talking about love and stuff, but I don’t think you need a religion or like a person who says, “I’m the only way and there’s no other way to get to past life”, and that’s something like what I think Jesus Christ said in the Bible. I mean, who knows if he said anything, because I don’t know who wrote these books, you know, someone else for sure. It’s not saying like Jesus Christ is the author, some other people talk about it. Anyway, I don’t want to go there [laughs], but yeah, actually, I have kind of respect for the older religions, like ancient Roman religion, and I love Stoic philosophers, for instance, like Marcus Aurelius, I think it’s a really, really great philosopher, and Epictetus, you know, he was Greek, but I think he also lived in the Roman Empire, and this is interesting: one was a slave, Epictetus was a slave, and he became a great philosopher, and then Marcus Aurelius was a Caesar, before he was emperor, and also he became a great philosopher, so it shows that’s a strong philosophy, it’s so extreme, but it doesn’t matter if you are an emperor or a slave, it can work on both ways. That’s really interesting, but so I have certain respect for pre-Christian, pre-Jewish, pre-like this one man god, one angry man god, that’s a fucking bullshit, I’m sorry, that’s something stupid to believe in. I mean, people believe whatever they want, but I think that’s wrong. I think that’s made up, it doesn’t make any sense to me, especially because we all came from a woman, so, if there was one god, at least it should be a woman… okay, I don’t want to go into this [laughs].

I’ve seen that this year you played some shows with Messiah and Mannheim as guests, something pretty special.

It was very good, and I wish they could be here tonight, it would help me a lot [laughs], because this is such a long set. But seriously, it was good to have them, great people, I have a lot of respect for them too, they’ve been part of this band, and unfortunately now they couldn’t take part of this tour because I think there were some issues, like in their life personally, not about the band, so they couldn’t be with us, but we had them on the festival in the summer, and actually it was only Oslo first, but I liked it so much that I asked them if they could come for more shows.

I think you made a lot of fans happy.

Yeah, it was great to have them, Billy is great, Mannheim is great.

Do you think it will happen again in the future?

Maybe, yeah. I mean, now this 40 years tour is getting over, so maybe on some next occasion, but it was good to have them at least for those shows, for a short tour.

Over the years, Mayhem had this sort of aura of mystery also because there were a lot of rumours that circled around the band and the members. Some were false, some turned out to be true, even though they might have seemed unbelievable. Were you always aware of these stories that were going around? Or is it something that you learned about later?

I think with a band with such a history, like we have, it’s kind of normal that people make up some stories, and like anyone who had something to do with the band, they try to say some stories about it, and that just goes into the public knowledge, or it turns into rumours or something. For instance, Stian Culto, he used to play in The Shadow Dancers and he was for a very short period in Mayhem, but I think he was there for one rehearsal or something. But he still likes to talk about what it used to be. I mean, we are friends, so I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, but it seems like it’s very important for anyone who got in touch with the band to say something about it, and of course some rumours are true, some are not. I think everything has something to do with the truth probably. Now that this new movie came out [“Lords of Chaos” (2018)], that also makes a lot of rumours, because it’s not exactly accurate, of course. It’s just kind of made up: it’s based on the story, but what you hear in “Lords of Chaos”, those conversations, those characters, they’ve never been like that. Nobody said one sentence [laughs], it was just made up. So, yeah, I mean, it’s okay. What can we say? I mean, we had a lot of spicy stuff in our history, so that makes sense to have rumours about it.

After this many years in the music business, what is your relationship with music like? Has it changed in any way? When you are not on tour, do you go out and find new bands to listen? Or do you take a break from music when you are at home?

No, it’s actually the opposite. The only the time I go out, it’s kind of like when there is a show. So, it’s two types of things. Either my friends are playing, and then I check the opening act and stuff, but I’m not so much following the Metal since I’m in it. I like dark, old industrial, classical, that kind of stuff. If any of those bands is coming, some of them are my friends too, I definitely go out and I’m super passionate about music. I’m into stereo and hi-fi, so I have a nice system at home today, I put it together piece by piece, and I really enjoy that. I don’t have a TV, but I have a beautiful stereo, and I go home, and I just sit in my throne in the centre and I just like listening to music. But that’s not necessarily Metal or Black Metal, it could be anything. I even go out, I just went last time to see an opera, the Rigoletto, which is a super easy, cheesy thing, but it was kind of cool to see. My friend invited me and I was like, “Of course”. I like classical a lot, Shostakovich, he’s a Russian composer, it’s super amazing. But old Italians too, like Vivaldi and stuff, I love. Or Bottesini, if that was the correct name. It’s good. And of course, Rigoletto was Verdi, Italian too. I’m listening, in that sense, a lot of Italian music too. And whatever comes and I like. It’s normally never pop [laughs]. I mean, I can’t find anything interesting there, unfortunately, but I love Hard Rock for instance, old stuff, 70s, 80s, psychedelic shit sometimes. Sometimes jazz, sometimes blues, but it’s also rare.

Is there any other genre that you like, that you think maybe people wouldn’t expect you to, like rap, hip hop?

Not really, not really. I wish I could, but I couldn’t find my… of course here or there, one tune or one song, but I like other stuff. I like industrial, I like old stuff like Skinny Puppy or even the new stuff. Like one of my best friends, formerly in Aborym, he has a band called Alien Vampires, it’s a fucking good band, I’m kind of a fan of his stuff. But I like many things, I like to listen to YouTube. I think that sounds pretty okay. People would disagree, but I’m into hi-fi: I can say that if you have a good system, and this of course has to be a special system, but everybody’s into like this lossless stuff, like Tidal and shit. I think YouTube is good. And I hate YouTube as being one of these fucking tech giants, but I think their quality has been pretty okay.

I read that the new Mayhem is proceeding well, you have many demos ready…

Not really. I don’t know who said that. This is all rumours. We should do a new album, but it’s very, very in the beginning. I have some sketches, just started to sketch some lyrics, and we have some small, few demo ideas, but it’s very early. So hopefully it will come out next year. That’s the plan, we should put our shit together soon. But so far, we’ve been busy with these tours and stuff. So yeah, I have some ideas, but that’s all.

Okay. And these little things you said you worked on, is it stuff that you did on your own?

No, no, we worked together. Yeah, like we go all out, Teloch, Morten you know, Charles, the guitarists, we kind of put together… But there are no demos. We just had some ideas. Even my lyrics, I had some older lyrics. I’m working on some newer ones. I don’t know how I will combine them with the older, like a year old, so not that old. But sometimes when I have inspiration, I write some shit. So yeah, we’ll see. It’s still very, very early. It’s shaping.

Mayhem’s legacy will always be connected with those events from the 90s, Dead’s suicide, Euronymous’ murder and everything. And of course, they brought a lot of attention to the band, which can be a good thing, but also, they brought a lot of interest from people who maybe were more interested in that rather than in the music. They say “any publicity is good publicity”, but do you think that is true for Mayhem?

That’s a good question, you know, because it’s good and bad, because people… Of course, it depends, but a lot of kids I think they think, “Yeah, it’s not THAT Mayhem anymore, so fuck it”, you know, so it’s not that many people come to our show thinking… I think about like Metallica made a video clip about us. There’s a movie about us. Compared to that, it’s not that many people [who follow us]. We are still kind of underground [laughs]. However, our name is like mainstream, almost. So that kind of backfires. And I think it’s stupid because kids should understand like, okay, what can we do? We are still three persons from those times. The others gone or died or passed away or whatever. So, what can we do? We have to have new members to be able to continue. You know, it’s still the same band, but of course we were in our 20s. We were super crazy. It was different times. Now we just focus on the music, the art, you know, try to deliver shows. Like two hours long ones, it’s pretty hardcore. And we have this projection, a little bit like showing the story of the band. Almost like a movie or like a storytelling show, that is what we are doing now. So, I think we are still evolving, but I think we are still kind of underground in that sense, which is okay, I don’t give a fuck, but I wouldn’t mind having more people either. I don’t know, it’s okay. People are free to think whatever they want, it’s not going to affect me, I never cared about that. What people think about us like that, okay, that was the past, this is now. Think whatever you want, the facts are the facts. We were there. I was there. Everybody was there. I mean, three of us, at least the old members, I guess we know how it was. And that’s the most important and we just keep going.

Do you think there is room for Mayhem to grow more than where you are now?

I don’t know. I hope so. But I think our music is not so commercial. Our name is big, and of course, the old songs are kind of easier to listen, like “Deathcrush”, or even “De Mysteriis”, compared to the what followed. But we enjoy to challenge ourselves, challenge the audience. We will see, it’s something you can’t predict and I think it’s wrong to [try to] predict it. If you are like trying to fucking measure or calculate what’s the best, what brings most people and shit then it’s not true art anymore for me, you know. So, we will see. I hope so, actually. Maybe the world will change and then they will like our music. I don’t think we’re gonna change. It’s hard to change what we’ve done already anyway [laughs].

I don’t think we will hear any Mayhem in the radio soon.

It doesn’t look like that. Yeah.

That was it, thank you.

Thank you and hail to the fans from Italy.