Interview mit Fiar von Foscor

Hello and thank you for answering our questions. How are you doing?
Hi, thank you so much for your interest on our proposal and allowing me to share part of our world with your readers. I’m fine, thanks, since we signed with Season Of Mist we have been working so hard on the new album, and the results once they were released couldn’t be better. We knew that we had a big opportunity ahead with a huge platform like Season Of Mist, and all the work is more than worth it. Also seems that we have pressed the right buttons with the new album ‘Les Irreals Visions’, musically and artistically talking, so now it’s our time to spread it live as much as possible. It is the only way to make it grow properly.

Some of our readers might still be unfamiliar with your band, so let’s get started with something general: What’s the meaning behind your band name FOSCOR and in which way is it connected to your music?
FOSCOR is like some kind of filter through which we read and feel the world. Means ‘Darkness’ in Catalan, our language. Some of you might be familiar with the fact that in Spain there are four official languages, no dialects. Back in the late 90’s when Falke and me were thinking about naming our music we set the premise that the name should connect to us as much as possible. Instead of thinking of a concept and trying to make it all coherent, we decided that our own reality should write and inspire the artistic path of FOSCOR as much as possible. A concept in our native tongue would be useful to connect closely to our culture, the one which we have grown with or learnt from. And a concept as general as possible but concrete in terms of landscape and color palette should define the way we read the world.
So, FOSCOR works as the filter through which we see the world. We are used to speak and treat the human being and how individuals face life in terms of their own struggle learning and advancing despite of their weaknesses and constant social threats. There’s a lot of beauty in a world full of pain, and the darkness we see covering the sky draws a vital and so emotive speech on how to face it. There’s a perfect metaphor in Rilke’s poetry to describe what I am talking about, someone walking through the edge of life and death enjoying the performance, an equilibrist.

Your music is influenced by the fin de siècle and by the structures of society at the end of the 19th century, right? How did you get in touch with this epoch and what fascinates you about it?
Look at our very first logo. There’s a nice story there because the F came from a word written in an old Gaudí drawing from one of their most famous buildings “The Sacred Family” in Barcelona. The word „façade“ was written there with a strong “Jugendstil” style by another famous architect called Domenech i Muntaner. I must admit that at the very first moment one might be fascinated by the aesthetic without going that deep into the meaning of the cultural movement, but through the years one would realize the weight of it not only in Barcelona but in the whole little country where we live.
One of the most exciting movements is the emotional dimension of nature which is something we feel very close to our thoughts, and which evolution from a previous movement such as Decadency is giving sense to our whole artistic speech. As sort of previous stage of the “Fin de Siècle” movement, Decadency came opposed to the Realism and a hunger for the world to be poeticized and humans to be united with nature and coming back to life. Their everyday world was like a magical place, and here it is where we set our scenario, trying to give sense to everything we create or perform following the same steps:
– Common things must acquire a new meaning.
– Visual things, a new secret appearance.
– The already known, the dignity of the unknown.
Modernism (Jugendstil) seeks the hallucination experience to develop what they called, the complacency of the senses. Again, this sort of sensuality is what we feel when it comes to the form of darkness we dive in.

By which bands and musicians have you been inspired the most?
I think that our DNA was written back in the early and mid 90’s by the Norwegian black metal scene and its freedom concerning musical creation and drawing up infinite emotional layers and levels. I always mention that period because of its density and intensity and the capacity of reinventing themselves album after album. There’s a special band which changed the rules and also affected us, Ved Buens Ende. Probably because of the melancholy, we have many times been compared with Katatonia, also has a lot to do regarding how we face the musical creative process and emotional level.
In the past, those references probably were a lot clearer, but a band needs to grow step by step and try to find its own way. This has been one of the most important goals for us across the years. Now, I would describe the music on this new album as a collection of subtle textures covered by a general color, which is shaped by the emotional level we are always trying to achieve. The production is closer to a rock album than to an extreme metal album. There’s a vintage taste of the 80’s and the guitar level is now working in a new way, with less presence, less distortion than ever and the most atmospheric approach.
You can find the mystery of 80’s dark wave vibe here; also some catchy guitar riffs like in recent pop, the majesty and density of 90’s black metal and even some 70’s psychedelic and prog rock… We learned some lessons from every different musical moment, and now we have tried not to follow them but assume their essence our own way. Perhaps we have finally found the precious way to express ourselves with our own words.

You used to play black metal, however, you have over the time more and more changed towards dark metal. What’s the reason for this?
It’s clear to see how different our music sounds nowadays compared to the raw and primitive kind we pursued on our first album… or even on the following albums, but in the end, as I always say, it’s all about emotions. This is the main point and aim we always had when creating music; to lead to a place where life’s intensity and strong personal requirement is translated into music in a most dense way. Let’s say there is a sonic translation of different emotional landscapes… and as it is the case with our own human being, unexpected aural twists respond to life’s changes.
After 15 years, metal music and specifically extreme metal, has not evolved at all and has only delivered one copycat after another. Although we have always tried to reach higher ways of self-expression we also felt it was a stagnant emotional landscape that derived from musical creation which needed a break. That’s why we began finding more inspiration, resources or enjoyable moments in other styles… Let’s say something was going wrong and that’s why our music has evolved through the years from black metal to a more difficult to label music. We would like to think this is our most personal stuff to date.

Your current album „Les Irreals Visions“ features almost no screamed vocals at all, but it still has dark riffs and blast beats. Why did you stick with these elements, but not with the extreme vocals?
We have tried to achieve a great collection of songs where less is more concerning the use of elements and resources. So it is a matter of how we use them, we are reaching this surprising and magic result on the album because we have pressed some right buttons. Look at our previous album “Those Horrors Wither”, it was absolutely necessary for us in terms of breaking our own laws and boundaries, but it probably ended up being divided into two faces because of the vocals co-existing in every track. Many people said it has a progressive vibe, which we never pretended, but we understand that the amount of information and how cold it came out, led people to understand the album this way.
So, with the aim of working on and achieving a timeless soundscape we decided to not turn our head back and instead go ahead with every single important decision taken previously. To add clean vocals was a crucial changing point for me and the band, so following the message which lies in our music, vital and luminous despite of the darkness our name and music holds, we thought that working only with clean vocals could let us create way more personal moments and emotive results. The exercise and translation from emotions to textures, silences and space got, in our opinion, its best results in the way we worked it out on this album. It was something we always wanted to achieve, so we are really glad that we did it.

However, on the track „Espectres Al Cau“ there are still some strong growls. Why exactly in this song?
When Falke composed this track, at some point, it became clear how to recover the intensities and densities of our past and translate them into a new reality. I never wanted the album to continue being half sung clean and half growled… What I wanted is to get more coherent and solid stuff together, but why not using some strong element as well as recovering some blast beats? I surely could use this resource in other songs and moments, but “Espectres Al Cau” had something that was like a tribute to our own past which led me to using some growls here.
Listen to “Instants”… there we use the fastest drum tempo we have ever done. The reason is simply that we felt it to be like this… but again, there are subtle reasons for this, like for example the fact that the riff there is probably the most alternative or indie one ever done by us… Again, one of the general rules we love to work with: the contrast.

How was the general feedback on „Les Irreals Visions“? Were there people critical about you turning away from black metal?
We are so satisfied and even surprised by the positive response and how the press is seeing this evolution and proposal. In general, it doesn’t matter where we come from because of how special the album seems to sound, and how unique and personal it is compared to what the band has proposed in the past. Lucky for us, most of these people understand our logic behind reducing the amount of resources and references in order to get this uniqueness. It’s priceless indeed, but I guess, it just depends on how you guys feel the music…
We have always assumed that we were not able to reach a solid piece of art in the past, or at least not as rich and special as the current one and that’s why we could not get a constant rhythm as a band in terms of movement, live dates, etc; we hope to be able from now on to work in a different way, now that we feel we have found a good starting point to keep on working in a coherent way.
All in all, there are many aspects here and now that, after many years of working, played an important role on how initially the label understood where the band was before signing us, and now about how the album has been conceived as a whole coherent piece. It was the right moment and the right label to work everything out.
Considering the aesthetical side with such a beautiful photo artwork made by Nona Limmen, the packaging layout designed by Maria Picassó, and of course all the elements we have gathered musically and lyrically talking, it probably was the right moment for us as a band to once and for all push the right buttons in order to compose our most solid piece of art to date.
Probably, the fact that FOSCOR is still a newcomer to the general audience allows people to just discover our music without knowing anything from our past. Anyway, if someone reads an interview like this and gets curious about our previous stuff, I’m pretty sure that reader will realize the logical progression that I’m talking about. Even more so with a band like us which is trying to reach a higher emotive level all the time.

You used a guest drummer for the record. Why didn’t you have a drummer at that time and will you soon get a full time drummer into the band?
After parting ways with Nechrist before the composition process for “Les Irreals Visions” was initiated, we were sure that it was alright for the band to continue with a three member line-up in the studio and later on stage, we would be able to find a proper musician to complete what we couldn’t do by ourselves. Nechrist was our drummer since 2004, the year we began to play on stage, but Falke and me have always assumed the main roles in the band in terms of composition and networking. For this new album, A.M. and Falke have developed the whole album composition except the vocals which were done by me, as were the usual networking, lyrics, etc…
We have enough tools by ourselves to face and complete the preparing of an album. Even to work on it once it has been recorded. Anyway, as you clearly pointed out, we need a drummer on studio and on stage if we want to continue with the band as we used to do.
That’s why we asked Jordi (Ered, Sheidim, Cruciamentum) to join us first in the studio taking the drums duties. We share similar points of view and references regarding music and considering he is such a young, talented and even internationally experienced musician, we easily found him to be perfect for FOSCOR. He accepted, and although he is not a real member of FOSCOR, he will take part in the upcoming live dates and hopefully in future recordings.
After four albums we are not in the mood of fighting to keep people without the necessary level of passion a band like this requires. It’s as simple as this.

There’s also another guest musician on „Les Irreals Visions“: A. A. Nemtheanga (Primordial). How did this come around and why did you choose exactly him?
With Alan, the funny thing is that his collaboration was neither expected nor prepared. We have known each other for some time now. We have played with Primordial a few times and when he has come to Barcelona for not music related stuff, we have met and hang out.
At that time we were finishing the album recording at Moontower Studios, when on a Friday Alan sent me a message asking if I would be available on Saturday for getting a beer because he would spend one day in Barcelona before traveling somewhere else. I told him I was busy at the studio and I would do my best to catch him at some moment. The same Saturday morning it came to my mind to offer him to spend the afternoon and evening with us in the studio and doing some vocals for the album. He accepted and we spent some very nice hours speaking about Dokken, drinking some fine wine… and asking an Irish gentleman to sing a few sentences in Catalan for the song „Ciutat Tràgica“. (laughs) I still keep the phonetic transcriptions that he used with me.
The best thing was to get him there by chance and creating something unique for all of us.

Is there a track on the record that you especially like and if so, which one and why?
Honestly, I cannot chose only one track among the ones on the album tracklist. There are different highlights that to me are very important either because the lyrics’ meaning or because of the feelings I get from the music.
I would say the preparation and blast beats on “Instants” which I composed by myself and which were arranged by Falke; the beginning of “Ciutat Tràgica” with this post punk vibe that I really love, even more after having Alan there; the beginning of “De Marges I Matinades” with a personal kind of tribute to one of my favourite bands of all times, Ved Buens Ende… and the end with one of the most epic and beautiful vocal melodies in my opinion; and last but not least, the very last sentence of the album closer “Les Irreals Visions”. Translated into English would say something like “the city once again awakes”.
To me, it has a meaning transcending this moment… a sense of closing the album but opening the door to future chapters… or a clear metaphor on the fact that after every personal failure or disappointment there is a new beginning worth living for. Again the equilibrist metaphor comes to my mind as a perfect example of how we face our everyday life.

What exactly are the lyrics on „Les Irreals Visions“ about?
Referencing one of the previous answers, „Les Irreals Visions“ works as a journey, and its beginning is set in the foundations of the Modernism art period. From there, common things must acquire a new meaning, visual things, a new secret appearance, and the already known, the dignity of the unknown. This is the general landscape where we set our play.
In terms of lyrics, the album deals with the map of collective interactions, weaknesses and individual hopes of the human being in the city as a metaphor. The city is a magical place and sort of an amplifier of the myth that we face. Life, represented by a maze of places, paths, wefts and bounds that make us who we are.
The emotional dimension of these interactions must be read in its individual form, but is translated to a life level as well as nature in its whole.
The unreal visions speak about memories and how they work as an extension of our experiences inhabiting the world. We cannot access to a site, but perceive it. Same thing with people we deal with and sadly also with ourselves. The senses help us doing this in a physical and interactive scenario, which is the city for most of us, but as the city hides many realities affecting us, there’s also a huge world on an emotional level that constantly affects us and needs to be dealt with.
Something that is unreal, that we don’t control, a vision affecting ourselves if we don’t know how to perceive its meaning. To feel the beauty of a space it is mandatory to inhabit it. In order to live in a social world we need to learn and reach higher levels, emotionally talking.

Contrary to the lyrics on your previous album, which were written in English, your new album is sung in your native language. What’s the reason behind this change?
Since our first album we have been using both English and Catalan in our lyrics, and not only once or twice people from outside Catalonia let me know that I was more credible and able to transmit the deepest feelings while singing in Catalan. More so than in English. Although they could not understand what I was going for, they felt it even more than in English.
It’s all about how to reach and share emotions, so we heard those individual voices and after considering that we were in need of synthesizing our language and finding what could define us the best, we focussed on the elements closest to us, the ones that could work and represent our philosopher’s stone.
Catalan, with no doubt, allowed us to work in that way. There’s no other intention than showing who we are, how we think and how we feel… Our mother tongue allows us to speak closer to our hearts although most of the people which will listen to our album won’t understand the lyrics. We are confident that, in terms of feelings, using Catalan and clean vocals all the way through the album will be a distinctive and way richer sound to people ears than other languages they are used to.

You now have a contract with Season Of Mist, „Les Irreals Visions“ is your first release on that label. How did this collaboration come around and why did you choose Season Of Mist?
The signing with Season Of Mist is the ending of a process that began two years before at Roadburn Fest, right after parting ways with our previous label and our management at that time. “Those Horrors Wither” was about to enter the international stage after a quite successful national one with a tour with Vallenfyre, but the project ended suddenly and right then we began to build the future. Sometimes things don’t work as expected and plans change.
At that time there were many people from the industry, media, etc. who helped us to stay active by offering their help and contacts to promote or distribute the album. But then there was Michael Berberian at 2015’s Roadburn who told me: “Don’t spend a single minute or euro more in this album, shit happens. Put your efforts in a new one and show me something when you think it could be the right moment”. I still keep these words with me and in some way, at that time most of the things we were doing to prepare the future were keeping in mind that we would offer a new project to him and his label at some point in the future and build a new creature.
One year later, at the same place, I remember telling him that in about very few months we would send him a demo of our new album. It was really nice to see how eager he was to receive something from us, surely partly due to our good friends Obsidian Kingdom, who I know to always have spoken good things about us… (laughs)
It was in early September 2016 when I got to contact Michael, and luckily for us as soon as he heard a couple of songs from the demo, everything began to flow… until now. We feel proud, honored and so enthusiastic with Season Of Mist as our new home.

What are your next plans for FOSCOR?
We are mainly trying to play as many live dates as possible, focusing our efforts on playing outside of our country. This is the only way to make the album grow in the right way. In October we will be supporting the Norwegian band and label mates Vulture Industries during eight dates and although we have been discussing a couple of nice tours to complement it, we haven’t been able to fix it yet. We do have some dates across Spain until the end of the year and a project to translate some of the album songs into a different language that could allow us to bring it into new formats, venues and to expand the band’s interaction with the audience.
We intend to record something special; enlarging this album in a kind of mutation that for sure will be useful to us in terms of knowing and controlling our skills and musical borders. I’m sure that 2018 will allow us to play a lot with the new live line-up and hopefully FOSCOR will consolidate their position in the international scene.

Let’s slowly bring this interview to an end. Now let’s go through our traditional Metal1.info-Brainstorming:
Spain: The country where we have been able to grow as band, slowly, but step by step we have been able to develop what we haven’t had that much of a chance out here. Also our beloved neighbors whom we share many things with but with whom we often struggle because of a deep difference. The closer we are, the harder it sometimes is to understand each other. Hopefully both territories will be able to resolve their differences face to face and equal to equal, and don’t make people keep on losing their time. Until then, we will keep enjoying its friendly lands and people.
France: The country where FOSCOR began their path after releasing the first album “Entrance To The Shadows’ Village”, and again the place where we were reborn. I cannot call them neighbors like Spain, that’s obvious. But this is definitely a country with an important role for us and me personally. Would be similar to what other countries have given me or FOSCOR or my other band Graveyard over the years, musically but also personally, like Germany has lately.
Horror: I love horror as an uncontrolled force. Neither similar to fear nor something simply scaring us. Horror speaks about extremes and limits of our behaviour. It takes us to a changing point, and that’s what “Those Horrors Wither” treated lyrically and musically.
Brexit: Another consequence of how wrong Europe and its countries have managed their politics outside of their own boundaries. We are constantly manipulated because of the errors committed by our representatives, and it is so sad to see how bad decisions out here committed over decades, cannot find solutions beyond the culture of fear and hate. Besides that, I do think every country should be free to decide its own future, as in this case has happened and as I would like to live by my own here.
Avant-garde: Probably this is or should be what nowadays people like to call progressive attitude. I’m not talking about prog music… I’m not into prog at all. I associate avant-garde with the attitude and aim of breaking the rules and going far beyond the established rules. This is not a search for innovation with no sense, but I don’t like those who cannot see interest in going far from what is already known only because it is yet unknown.
FOSCOR in five years: Hopefully in five years we will be facing the third album with Season Of Mist, as our contract is set for three works for now. I really hope at that time we will be received as an already known band within the dark music scene, both musically and artistically. Getting people used to recognize us for some aspects, which would mean we are speaking for ourselves.

Once more, thank you very much for your time. Is there still something you want to tell our readers?
Just greeting all of you and expressing how much we appreciate having the chance to explain what is going on here to you and your readers. Next October we will be touring through Europe and visit Germany for four dates: Lübeck, Erfurt, Munich and Köln. Any of you interested to know a bit more about what we deal with beyond what with words is said here, feel free to come, see us live and share some time with us after the show. This is something we really love to do.
All the best guys! May darkness be tragic.

Mit dem Laden des Videos akzeptieren Sie die Datenschutzerklärung von YouTube.
Mehr erfahren

Video laden

YouTube immer entsperren

Publiziert am 17. Oktober 2017 von Stephan Rajchl