Interview mit Serena Cherry von Noctule

You started the project NOCTULE in 2020, during the COVID pandemic. Was that an idea that came up during this period or was it something you wanted to do for a long time, and just then had the time to do it?
Actually, when I was a teenager, I had a little black metal project where I would record music on a little tape four track with a drum machine. So it’s something I had done previously and I always thought about wanting to go back to it. I was always really enticed by the prospect of creating music just me, not having to work with other people, not having to compromise. And the thing that mostly prevented that at the time before the pandemic was SVALBARD had a busy touring schedule and I have a busy day job as well. So I never really had the time or the chance to sit down and just develop my own ideas until the first lockdown happened. And at the time I lost the job that I was working in at that moment. So suddenly I had a lot more free time and so I could just sit down and write music. And at first I didn’t even realise it was Skyrim themed. I just happened to be playing Skyrim at the same time as writing some black metal riffs. And then I realised that the game was very much influencing what music I was writing at the time. So I decided to make a conscious effort to make black metal about video games.

When you say that you enjoyed or were looking forward to making music alone without having to compromise, that’s also a bit negative about working in a band. So don’t you miss at all getting feedback or playing around with other people’s ideas as well?
Ideally, my dream scenario would be to have both at the same time. So to have a solo project where I can indulge in all my ideas without having to hear yes or no from anyone else. And then having a band to play with where so much of the magic of writing music together is that synergy of, they might have some ideas that you don’t expect, they might have some ideas that force you to think about what you’re playing in a different way. So I do think working with other people is an integral part of making music. And I hate that it’s hard now. I hate that working with other people involves emailing files to a computer. Because my dream with working with other people is to go back to how it used to be when SVALBARD started and we just all get together in a room and jam out ideas. That’s my favourite way of working with other people. And I feel quite a lot of disconnect doing group work, collaborative work digitally, because it just feels like you’re on your own. But you have all the compromise of the yes or no from other people. So I think it removes a lot of the magic for it. So yeah, my dream scenario, I would have a band that’s a group, a different band, something new, maybe a power metal band. That’s what I really want to do. Where we hang out every week in a rehearsal space and jam ideas and then having NOCTULE where I can just really run with my own ideas.

But wasn’t it that way in SVALBARD in the end any longer? So have you been working mostly remote in the past years with SVALBARD?
It became more and more difficult for us to all get together in the same room because we all live in different cities now and life has changed for everyone in that band. So just finding the time to be together, even just finding the time to rehearse for tours became harder and harder. So logistically, it became the case that we just weren’t really writing at all. We wrote one song, „If We Could Still Be Saved“, the final song, and we didn’t have anything after that. There was nothing left on the cutting room floor because up until the fourth album, we did write together in a room, but that became increasingly more difficult to organise.

I read a quote from you: “‘Lord Of Blood’ represents the joy and freedom of being in full control of the music you create, without having to make any compromises with bandmates or manager.” Was SVALBARD big enough that a manager tried to have an impact on your music?
Not directly, but there were definitely directions that were being strongly advised. There were definitely songs that industry people we worked with wanted to make singles. There were definitely discussions about having more clean singing in the song. So it was never full, decisive control from outsiders, but there were a lot of heavy-handed suggestions and encouraging certain ways and certain styles and things.

So is there some kind of relief for you that not that many people are involved into what you’re doing with NOCTULE right now?
Yeah, genuinely. People kept saying this to me. They were like, oh, why? Because I could have released on a record label. I could have done the same thing again with that type of thing, and I chose not to. And I’ve seen it’s getting a small percentage of the views. The video hardly has any views compared to SVALBARD. Spotify hardly has any plays. But I don’t care about any of that. What I care about is having the freedom to only answer to myself and just to create for the joy of creating and make something that connects with me and makes something that I’m proud of and not having to jump through all the hoops of industry stuff. That to me is the opposite of creativity, and I’m not here to be famous. I’m not here to be a rock star. I’m the opposite of that. I really am not motivated by any of those things. So it’s just nice to be able to really do what you want. And I think that’s what metal should be about.

I really love this approach. It’s a rare thing that someone puts artistic freedom over the benefits you get from playing the game of the industry. On the other hand, I guess every artist, at least to some degree, wants his music and art to be seen, heard … doesn’t it also hurt a bit that you went from this big level of popularity you had with SVALBARD back to the underground status of a solo project? Would you have expected it to be easier to transfer more fans from SVALBARD to NOCTULE maybe as well?
You can never assume anything in music and with fans, especially nowadays with the oversaturation of sponsored playlists and ads and the way social media works. It is very, very hard to break through and even make something accessible to the people that follow you, who might even actually be interested … I mean, they follow you because they want to keep up to date with what you’re doing, but they might not even see it because so many things get throttled now. I remember releasing the first song, „Lord Of Blood“, from the second album and being really disheartened initially because it had hardly any views, hardly any plays, and this album is my favourite thing I’ve ever created musically.

This is the album I’m the most proud of and it’s probably going to reach the least people. But if reaching people involves paying, … do you know what I mean? I’m paying for all these different things. I just want it to be genuine, I want the fans to be there because they want to, but I also am aware of the flip side of that’s an incredibly idealistic way to look at it. And you do have to use tactics if you want to get those views and you want to get those listens. You do have to find ways of pushing via social media and PR help and press and all that kind of thing. Just because SVALBARD had some success that doesn’t mean I’m entitled to it for everything else. I would really love NOCTULE to just naturally build word of mouth. And I’m hoping that will happen once the album’s out.

Releasing an album on your own also means a lot of work not being done by anyone else. Is it more work than expected?
It’s interesting because when SVALBARD started out, we were DIY. We did do pretty much everything ourselves. So it’s not that I’ve never been in that position before, but I think my energy for a lot of that stuff has changed. I just cannot get the energy for social media anymore. It just feels like you’re screaming into a void and it feels too much like, look at me, look at me, all the time. I just cannot get the energy for all of those things that are required to do to promote it. In terms of the work schedule … behind me right now, you probably can’t see it, I have boxes and boxes of records and t-shirts and once I finished my day job, I will be spending the whole weekend packing and posting orders. We always did mail order stuff with SVALBARD, but we split it and we had different duties and things like that. With it all just being on me, it’s a lot of work for sure.

You’re not only responsible for these tasks, but also for the entire creation of the album. Does that create a different kind of pressure – for example, in the sense that someone who criticizes the album isn’t criticizing the work of a team, but rather your very own personal creation?
I really hope that fans like it. I really hope that fans aren’t disappointed in any way. Given the reception to the people who have heard the two songs that I’ve released has been really positive. So hopefully that goes for the rest as well. There are some surprises on the album. There’s some very death metal parts that aren’t really what I’ve been known for as a musician before. There’s a lot of symphonic arrangements that are inspired by the good era of CRADLE OF FILTH. So I’m never afraid to take leaps as a musician. I never want to be too people pleasing with what I create. But at the same time, I’m super proud of this album and because it is just me, if there is a lot of criticism, I think that has potential to be quite damaging because it’s a really vulnerable thing to create something entirely yourself and then just put it out into the world for any kind of feedback. I have had some negative feedback already, like people saying it’s not real black metal and stuff like that, to which I say, you know, what is real black metal now, in 2026, like? (laughs)

Absolutely. But does it feel different also to show a solo album to your closest friends or your family in comparison to showing a band’s effort?
I never show my music to my friends or family. My family is not really interested in that kind of thing. They have to find it on the internet. And then with my friends, again, a lot of them aren’t really into metal. Some of them are, and some of them I’ve shown it to, and they’ve been really hyped about it, which has been lovely. But I never feel that drive … I don’t want to force it on people. I don’t want to be like, hey, listen to this thing I did. If they’re interested and they ask, sure. But for someone who creates so much music publicly, I’m weirdly private about it.

You already mentioned those death metal or melodic death metal influences, which are clearly obvious on the new album, especially in comparison with the first one. How did that come? So is it a change of what you are listening to that influenced you or was it influenced by the topic of the album that it better matched to this kind of music?
I think I had been wanting to include more melodic death metal influences for quite some time. I’m really inspired by bands like BRYMIR and KALMAR and CHILDREN OF BODOM and INSOMNIUM and stuff. I wanted to bring those elements into it. But then also the producer that I worked with, who is called Keir Campbell, he comes from a band called BOUND IN FEAR. And they’re a heavy … I guess deathcore would be the word. I don’t know … I don’t want to get that wrong. So he’s less afraid and there were definitely times where I would be doing my usual thing of putting six guitar leads all over the top of each other and he would say, hang on a minute. Why don’t you try doing something down here, doing something low? And we worked on some ideas together. He opened that sort of more straightforward death metal style up to me. And I think it really accentuates the leads and stuff like that.

When you say you put a lot of tracks over each other: Does it make a difference for your songwriting for NOCTULE that you know you are not writing for a band arrangement, that the song does not have to work being played by a four- or five-piece live on stage?
Absolutely – and that’s what I love about it. I love the freedom to just keep adding layers and layers and layers and not have to consider the logistics of taking it live. It’s really liberating to me. The issue I have with taking NOCTULE on the road at the moment is: I don’t really want to play to 60 backing tracks. That’s not really my style. SVALBARD never used backing tracks. I know most bands do now. I don’t denounce it. It’s just not for me. I like things to have that breath and that push and that pull that you get when it’s fully live.

But I have kind of dug a grave for myself with this NOCTULE album in that, being able to make it sound remotely like the album live is going to require either a lot of musicians or a lot of backing tracks. (laughs) And either one of those requires a lot of money. So I’m logistically figuring out how to do this … You want to write the grandest pieces possible. Well, I do at least. I want to put as many layers in the work as possible and not be restricted by that. But then if you are thinking about taking it on the road, that changes how you think about what you write. And it’s a bit of a sort of chicken-egg scenario where I want the recorded music to be the thing that comes first rather than how is it going to work live.

Is it easier or harder to write a song that isn’t limited by a band lineup? For example, when it comes to the question of when you have added enough tracks and layers?
Well, this is where Keir, the producer, came in really great because I sometimes don’t know when to stop. And he had that objectivity. He’s got a great ear for what works and what doesn’t. And he would rein me in and kind of say, maybe this part doesn’t need seven layers. Maybe it only needs five, this kind of thing. And I think working with him really, really helped with finding the limits of what suits the song best.

So you did work on the songs in the studio still? Did you just erase some tracks, or did you also add something in the discussion with him?
I had three songs pretty much finished before going into the studio. But we didn’t do one long studio stint because we both work day jobs and things, so we would do maybe a day here, a day there on a weekend. We basically did it as isolated songs. But before I even started working with Keir, I had these demo songs, and I sent them to him and asked him if he would be interested in working with me on these. We worked on those first, and that involved removing some of the layers, changing some of the layers, changing some of the parts, and just bringing out the most memorable melodies in them. From that point on, I would just show up at his house with some new ideas … I remember one time where he’d been thinking about pianos and stuff like that, and I just showed up, and he was trying to play something on a keyboard. I have learned piano since the age of four years old. And I went, oh, well, I’ve had this thing in my head and sat down and just played the whole thing. And he was like, oh, I feel so stupid. I didn’t know you could play piano. But yeah, there were lots of funny moments like that, and we worked super great together.
Recording the vocals was a really fun experience because he’d never seen SVALBARD or anything. And I think he was truly quite surprised by the power of my voice.

These days it would be so easy to do home recording alone in your chamber and just giving the tracks to the studio later on. But you recorded everything with him, so do you prefer to have someone around during recording?
I much prefer – I hate doing the buttons and the keys. I think sitting there with a guitar and then trying to do control V, control this, like all the – I’m not the best at Logic. To be the creative person who’s thinking about ideas and building layers and then the computer person who’s making sure all the production, like the interface stuff is going right, that’s two different sides of my brain. And if I can have someone sit next to me and do that side of things, like do all the clicking of the mouse, basically, and I can just sit and play, it really makes a difference to me. Plus, human interaction face-to-face is becoming rarer and rarer these days. I work from home on my own in my day job, so if I can take a chance to actually hang out with people and have some fun making music, actually being creative in the same room together, that, to me, is gold, and that’s the thing I want to pursue, even if it’s slightly more inconvenient.

So, you did record all the guitars and the bass, I guess, but the drums are programmed I guess – why?
The drums are programmed, yes. I actually, maybe I’m in the minority here, I really like programmed drums. I really like how the drums sound. I know it’s not for everyone, I have seen a few comments already like, oh no, programmed drums, well, they sounded to me. I can play drums myself, not well enough to do the NOCTULE album, but I have played in a few different bands on drums before. So I do have a feel of exactly what I want. Keir did have an electronic kit, so I would sit and give the gist of what I wanted and then we would programme it all in. I was just totally happy to go down the programming route: Sometimes with programming you can do things that would be impossible to a human, which again, it’s quite nice, it’s quite liberating – even if it does mean that finding a drummer to play live shows is now really difficult.

Since we now twice or twice had this live topic in our conversation: You had planned some shows, but the tour was cancelled then – did you ever bring the songs to stage so far and are you still planning to do so in the future?
I have played two NOCTULE shows a long time ago after the first album. The first ever NOCTULE live show was with EMPEROR, which is crazy to think. I was so nervous, I think that’s the most nervous I’ve ever been for a show, and it went really well. And then we also played a show in London for Church Road Records anniversary, a little festival thing. Those shows were both in 2022. And so it’s been a really long time. I found it a struggle because obviously it’s a very different dynamic: In SVALBARD it’s four people who are members of the band and they’re there because they want, they are fully part of the band, whereas having a live band where I’m the employer and I’m hiring the people has a very different dynamic. Learning how to do that effectively is a thing that takes time, and finding the right people takes time as well. So yeah, it’s not written off, there’s sort of things in the works, trying to make stuff happen, but financially it’s pretty challenging when you have to pay all the other members, and trying to figure out the logistics of taking it live … but it’s something I would love to do one day.

Let’s switch to the topic side of your lyrics. The first NOCTULE album was based on the Elder Scrolls game. You already mentioned that it was kind of accidental because you were writing music and playing the game, and it just fell together. At which point of writing the music did you realize that this would be a great concept to meld those two ideas?
I always write all the music first. It’s the same with SVALBARD, and it’s the same with NOCTULE. All the music comes first, and once the whole album’s done, then I go back and do lyrics, because I think then you can listen to the whole thing musically, and pick out the atmospheres, and the vibes, and the emotions in it, and make sure that what you’re putting over the top lyrically really fits. So with the NOCTULE album, I wrote three songs just instrumentally anyway, and then I had the idea that this album is clearly inspired by Skyrim. I wrote the rest of the album instrumentally, and then went back and did all the lyrics at the end, and just kind of matched each. I would have little notes, like, oh, I think this song is about this dungeon, I think this song is about this dragon, but I just sat down right at the end of writing all the music, and wrote the lyrics to go over the top of each song.

With the second album, it was slightly different, because I had the idea to write an album about Elden Ring way before I even started writing the music, so I was writing the music with the bosses in mind: I knew I wanted the album to be about specifically my favourite bosses in the game, so I’d be writing a riff and thinking, well, how do I represent Melania in musical form? How do I represent, you know, Morgoth in musical form, or Radahn, and you really dwell on these things, even though the lyrics did come last again, and I recorded the vocals last. That’s always what I do last, in one take as well … all the vocals on this NOCTULE album were done in one go. It was crazy: all songs in one day, and most lines in one take.

I think it’s quite interesting, because the metal scene and the gamer scene have a lot in common, and a lot of metalheads are playing games, and so it’s quite obvious to connect those two. Nevertheless, there are not that many bands doing this. Of course, everyone thinks of WINDROSE and their Minecraft song, but when doing it seriously, there are not that many. Do you have an explanation or an idea why this is not done more often?
It’s interesting, isn’t it? And I’d never really thought about why there aren’t more bands doing it. I don’t know why, because most metalheads I know play video games, and the worlds, the artwork … most video games are like stepping into the artwork of an IMMORTAL album cover. So there are so many crossover points, and I think a lot of bands are inspired by games, but just not so vocal about that. I’m aware of lots of smaller bands. Like, there are a lot of smaller bands inspired by Elder Scrolls. And I know BOLT THROWER were influenced by Warhammer, but that’s tabletop gaming, so it’s not really the same thing. I’m trying to think of some other examples. DRAGONFORCE, their last album, they’ve got a song about Zelda on there, and there’s quite a few video game references, they obviously play with the big arcade cabinets on their stage set up. And they have a song about Elder Scrolls as well, it’s called „The Last Dragonborn“. So I think it’s slowly creeping in. It is out there, but it’s few and far between. And often it’s not done in a very obvious way. It’s done in a way of, if you know it, you know it: You hear the title, „The Last Dragonborn“, and anyone who’s played Skyrim will know that that’s a Skyrim reference. But DRAGONFORCE aren’t telling everyone, we wrote a song about Skyrim.

It’s interesting, because a lot of these fantasy books are a quite common source for lyrical inspiration, like Tolkien or H. P. Lovecraft and so on. But games are maybe not true enough. Did you have problems when you were more like black metal with the first album, that people responded that it’s not true to do true black metal, with games as a lyrical topic?
I haven’t seen any, but I don’t sit there and go rifling through every single comment. But I haven’t seen anything negative about using Skyrim in a black metal sense. I mean, my big question nowadays is, well, what even is true black metal? The idea of black metal is more of an ingredient now than a confining genre, which I think is a good thing. And all the black metal bands that I like that have influenced me are the kind of bands that have challenged the limits of black metal, like bands like DODHEIMSGARD. So, yeah, I’ve not seen any complaints yet about writing black metal themed to video games, but you know, there’s still time.

Well, maybe even black metal fans became liberal enough to accept also modern concepts like games as a lyrical topic these days. When talking about modern times, AI is a big topic in game creation those days, and also swapping over to the music, at least the more mainstream, easier to create type of music. What do you think about that from being a gamer and a metalhead?
I feel very, very strongly against AI, because I think any creation should, in its human essence, have those flaws. One of the great charms of Skyrim as a game is that it’s janky, and it’s broken, and it’s kind of flawed. Elden Ring is one of the greatest games ever made, but it’s not without its flaws, but those flaws are actually what connect us to things, and as soon as we fixate on this kind of perfection that’s defined by a machine standard, is when we’re going to lose sight of what it means to be human, and what it means to create, and I just find it very interesting that anyone could draw any satisfaction from a creative industry where they’re getting a robot on a machine to do the work for them, because the joy of creativity is the creation.

I was writing a big piece today in my day job, and it would have been so easy to put my notes into AI, and have AI organise everything for me, and set me off on the right, and it took me so long to write this piece! I do think as well we’re going to generate impatience towards human creativity, because it takes time to think on your own ideas, it takes time to perfect what it is you’re trying to say, but if you’re asking a computer what am I trying to say, then what are you saying at all? You know what I mean? It’s a very, very dangerous tool, and I think it just highlights how we’re so fixated on convenience, we’re so fixated on the quick easy product, and sort of commercialising ourselves into good little quick robot drones that can do what’s asked of us, that we’re gonna lose the magic of what it means to be human, and to connect with games made by humans, and to listen to music made by humans. I just miss when you would hear a demo, and it would sound kind of shit, and it has flaws, and because of that it has something unique and special to it. All that’s going to be gone. We’re going to lose our voice to the machine.

You mentioned at the beginning how hard it has become for a small band to make a name for itself. Do you think it will get even harder because, in the future, bands—even in the metal genre—will have to compete with AI-generated music?
Absolutely. AI is in metal already. There are bands using it. There are things clogging up playlists that are definitely utilizing AI, and yeah, it’s going to make an already difficult situation for smaller bands even harder.

Publiziert am 3. Oktober 2026 von Moritz Grütz

Fotos von: Afra Gethöffer-Grütz