Interview mit Êlea von Noêta

How are you doing at the moment? How has the pandemic affected you and how are you coping with it?
Thank you. I think the effect has been small on our end. I live a fairly solitary life to begin with so the only negative effect has been that the border between Sweden and Norway has been closed, and that has complicated things.

Four years have passed since your debut album „Beyond Life And Death“. What has happened to you during this time?
It’s been quite a long journey. Musically we would explore a lot of different directions and sounds for the new album. We started out writing more in the realm of folk, closer to our EP, we then pivoted to a sound more dark and dramatic. In the end we went down a more dark ambient path with clear influences from black metal and folk still in there. Rather than have all of these songs on the new album, we wanted to divide them up by their style and have them on separate releases instead.

Your music has changed in the meantime, the individual songs are now less easy to divide into ambient and folk. How did this new, rather coherent approach come about?
It was a combination of exploration and conscious thought. Our aim was to have the songs be more coherent, in comparison to our last album where we aimed to do the opposite. This approach was a result of us wanting to keep our sound intact, while still being able to have the album be a journey to dive into, and to be able to lose yourself in that.

On your new album „Elm“ there are also tremolo riffs and guest musicians from the black metal scene have contributed to the record. What encouraged you to integrate this musical style from your past into your sound?
We’ve always taken a lot of inspiration from black metal, the difference is that on “Elm” those influences are much more obvious. I think reverberated tremolo guitar can be a very atmospheric element if used correctly, and that’s how we wanted to use that element. These guest appearances weren’t planned out initially but grew out of my close ties with those musicians. P. Stille (Bergraven) sent me 15 year old songs he wrote back in school, and one of them catched my attention (what became „Elm II“). We slowed it down and transposed it down by an octave or so, I then added a lot of atmospheric components. Initially the outro of the album was an acapella folk song that I had written. But after stumbling upon Stille’s old song I thought it was a much better fit. The collaboration with E. Rustad (Knokkelklang) was a similar story. I was working on finalizing “Above And Below” and wanted to add some electric guitar to an otherwise sparse song. He was hanging out at my house one day and I asked if he would play some guitar on the album, and we recorded it right there in my living room.

At the same time, these stylistic elements remain rather in the background of your music. Why do you find it more fitting this way instead of letting them play a more dominant role?
I think this ties in with what I wrote above. Even though we’ve taken inspiration from black metal, we don’t in any way want to make black metal a dominant part of our sound. When working on the mix, we made decisions on both those elements and all the other components of the music, and the reason they ended up as they did was to make the album as a whole coherent.

Unlike on „Beyond Life And Death“, there is practically no percussion on „Elm“. What is the reasoning behind this?
This has always been a thought with NOÊTA to limit the use of percussion, out of all the songs we’ve written only two have drums. We wanted to have a very distinctive difference between our music and metal/rock etc, while still being able to use certain elements from that style, like electric guitars.

There are a lot of interesting things to discover in your new songs. Is there anything on it that you think a lot of people would overhear or be surprised to know about?
That was the case on ”Beyond Life And Death” in a much larger degree, where we used accordion, flutes, a storm recorded through a fireplace (which many thought was a cello) and whispering voices and many other things, but on “Elm” we tried to make an album that was more cohesive, and so we decided to stick to a lot more of the same elements through the songs. We do have a lapsteel in there though.

„Elm“ is inspired by Sylvia Plath’s poem of the same name, which she is said to have written not long before her suicide. What was it about this text in particular that fascinated you so much that you wanted to dedicate an entire album to it?
Initially we hadn’t decided to dedicate the whole album to her, or even make use of poetry on the album at all. This came about mostly as a coincidence as I found it hard to write something that portrayed how I felt. As for Plath’s poetry, I think it’s very real and honest, almost naked. Apart from the subject matter, that approach to writing stuck me as a breath of fresh air, so void of pretension and disguise. „Elm“, „The Colossus“ and even her book „The Bell Jar“, are all wonderful works of art that resonates with me on a deeper level.

You split the title track, in which you also quote directly from Plath’s poem, into two pieces. What is the reason for that?
Mostly due to what I wrote above about the outro song, which I replaced at the end of the process from one of P. Stille’s songs. The original folk outro lyrics, whereas „Elm II“ did not. I felt that the song needed a vocal element, and as I couldn’t fit the whole poem into „Elm I“ I decided to tie it over to the next song.

Depression seems to play a big role in the lyrics of your new songs and the album sounds very abysmal until the very end. Can one still gain something positive from the record from your point of view?
I’d like to think so. For me personally, it can be very cathartic to listen to music that fits my state of mind. I write as I feel. My music is the one place where I can be brutally honest, and at times even explore subjects that are the very darkest part of me. There aren’t many outlets for that other than art. I want it to feel honest. I think many artists, both musicians or painters or otherwise, use their art to explore parts of themselves that they can’t otherwise.

In gloomy music like yours, depression and other mental illnesses are unfortunately often romanticized. What do you think about that?
I really don’t want to romanticize depression or anxiety (which are the only things our music deals with so that’s all I will comment on). It’s not a glorious thing to go through in any way. But I make music first and foremost for my own sake. It’s cathartic, it’s something I love to do, and the way it sounds is the way I felt when writing it. It’s not dressed up as anything, it’s just an attempt at honesty. Bands who have the opposite approach, glorifying and romanticizing dark and disturbing thoughts for the sake of image, I often disregard as ridicolous. But in a world where many people struggle with these things anyways, I can’t see how it would be better to keep it concealed.

Although many find it cathartic to create music, it’s certainly debatable whether one can actually overcome one’s inner demons that way. How about you – is music healing for you?
Of course making music on its own isn’t going to make you a positive and healthy person. But it wouldn’t be any more cathartic to make something that doesn’t feel honest towards yourself. Personally, I think singing especially is very meditative, though maybe not healing. But it’s one of the few times when I’m in the present, in contact with myself and my body, not thinking but feeling. Having that kind of thing in your life is one piece to a bigger puzzle on how to feel complete as a person, I believe.

What advice would you give to a person struggling with such psychological problems?
It greatly depends on what the specific problems are, as it’s not the same for all, the reasons are different and often also the solutions. Some psychological issues really need medication or professional help, whereas for some it can be a more temporary state with a very direct correlation to a specific issue that you can solve with tangible things. In general I’d say read philosophy, psychology and educate yourself on the processes that are going on. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, but also don’t be afraid to be alone, don’t try to flee from those feelings with drugs or alcohol. Spend time in nature, and examine what makes you feel in a bad way, how you can break those patterns and what really matters in your life.

Getting back to your new album: It seems to have a slightly hazier, more ethereal sound than your debut. What can you tell us about that?
I wanted to make something that was more ethereal and coherent. Thus, this prompted us to use more synths and I sing in higher tones and a lighter voice, to contrast the music. It was a direction that grew in itself during the process, but was also a result of me getting to decide the creative direction alone, whereas before we’ve tried to compromise.

You left the mastering to Tore Stjerna this time. Why did you outsource this part of the production and why to him specifically?
We produced, mixed and mastered our previous album “Beyond” ourselves, and we felt that it wasn’t very successful. I’ve followed Tore’s work for many years, so it felt natural to involve him over anyone else.

Do you have any further plans for NOÊTA or other projects?
As we just finished “Elm”, we have nothing planned for NOÊTA at this point. I’m working on solo projects, and some guest vocals that I’m doing on another album. Though it may take time before any of that sees the light of day.

Let’s finish with a short brainstorming session. What do you think about the following keywords?
Neurodivergent: Is as needed in this world as neurotypicals.
Post-black metal: Makes me think of Alcest and Russian Circles.
Happiness: A temporary state of mind that is often mistaken for the norm, which should be to be ”content”.
Social media: A pretentious waste of time in which people overly compare themselves to others. But also a great way to connect with like-minded.
Concept album: A good framework for music to be understood through.
Contemporary philosophy: Valuable reading, and much less spacey than ancient philosophy.

Thank you so much for your time. Any last words you’d like to share with the readers?
Thank you for reading and listening.

Publiziert am 22. Juli 2021 von Stephan Rajchl