Silent Path interview with Metal Recusants [02/16/2013]

Posted by Nick Skog on Monday, February 18, 2013 Under: Interviews
Silent Path Interview with Metal Recusants Webzine - Feb. 16, 2013
“War and Especially World War II was the Reason I Started the Project” 
Interview by: Veronica
Original Link

Silent Path is a black metal project created in 2009 in Tehran and its debut album was released in July 2012 entitled Mourner Portraits. The person behind this band (and another black metal band called Ekove Efrits) is Saman, who talked to MetalRecusants about music and war.

Veronica - Hello and thank you for taking the time to answer these questions. First off, what are your influences? Which are the bands that urged you to start this band?
Saman – No problem. I just have to mention that I’m not in the mood of talking these days for some personal reasons so I hope my short answers don’t bother you and your readers that much.
OK! Back to the question. My influences come from what I feel about life…this weird fucking subject that we feel by each breath. I think it’s more effective than any other band’s music as a main source because  it always brings something new (positive or negative) to make us feel surprised. But in closer detail and of course in the case of Silent Path, war and especially World War II was the reason I started the project.

Veronica – Please tell us a few words about the recording process of your debut album Mourner Portraits.
Saman – Fine, just a few words…I like it this way! Sometimes talking too much about the work of the artist ruins everything. Anyway, all things happened in my rental home in northern Iran while I was studying at university in 2008-2009. I had an idea about recording some tracks with the atmosphere of war to show the misery and the pains of humanity along this disaster. So I used my free time at home and started to record some concepts as a test but after a while things got serious, hehe…Also I used some sound samples from a couple of horror games to make the atmosphere more complete and closer to what I recorded with my instruments.

Veronica - The album’s lyrical theme is war. Why did you choose such a difficult subject? What is the message you want to convey to the listeners?
Saman - The subject wasn’t hard alone that much. War is one of the most painful and tangible events in history but things are harder when you want to tell the story by yourself in a manner of what you feel from your viewpoint. I have to confess WW II is an interesting subject and I have a love/hate relationship with it. But in a bigger scale there is no difference with other wars. Names change but those sad facts are the same for people who are just victims and nothing more. I prefer not to tell any clear message from here, because I’ve tried to show that in my music.

Veronica - You have another band called Ekove Efrits. Can you tell us a bit about it?
Saman - Just a bit! In one aspect Ekove Efrits is my main project, a self-educated project because it’s somehow experimental too in the way of discovering my inner world. From 2005 till now I released eight albums under this name and the last one was Conceptual Horizon which was released by a nice Canadian label Hypnotic Dirge Records in 2012.

Veronica – How different is Silent Path from Ekove Efrits? Why did you need to create a new side project?
Saman - I think Ekove Efrits has a completely different story. A wide range of different things in the land of emotions are the warp and woof of the project. In fact I’ve been involved with Ekove Efrits for almost eight years as a way to depict mostly the dark side of my inner world and I think it’s growing by each album. But in the Silent Path debut album I just focused on one subject… one important subject called war!

Veronica – You are the sole member of both bands. Why do it alone? Are you looking for any band members to join or do you prefer to work alone?
Saman - I tend to mostly work alone. It’s my nature but also refers to what I’ve expected from my own music. I always have a scene, something like a storyboard in my mind and music is just a tool to show that scene, to depict whatever I feel inside that belongs to me, so I think it’s a little bit different from when you gather with other band members with different ideas to play music. Some people tell me my music is like a soundtrack, I agree with them somehow. But in completing my ideas sometimes I need guest members to accompany me in new parts and bring new aspects to Ekove Efrits, close to what I did before in the Suicidal Rebirth album in 2008.

Veronica - It must be difficult being a metal musician in your country. How is the situation in Iran? How is the Iranian metal scene?
Saman - Yeah it is! Well it’s clear that the situation is far away from what a musician expects,  particularly in an extreme form of music. Lots of disincentives have chained musicians and made many problems but along all these things they’re working very hard and even many of them have shined outside the borders as well.

Veronica – Do you have any plans to release a new album under the name of Silent Path or Ekove Efrits in the foreseeable future?
Saman - For now I’m working on the new album of Ekove Efrits. Hopefully it will be ready this year. Also I have to mention there are some surprises for you so just stay tuned folks!

Veronica – Thanks again for your time. If you have anything else to say, please do!
Saman - Thank you so much for your time.

In : Interviews 


Tags: silent path ekove efrits inner trip saman nu interview metal recusants funeral doom depressive black metal iran iranian