Pythonissam

Who are you, and where are you from?

DJ: I'm Derek, aka DJ. We are a two-piece project from the north-midwest of the USA, I live in Wisconsin, have lived in many states around the US over the years, but this is home for me.

FG: Foster, sometimes I go by Bukavac, a name I came up with from my black metal days — I haven't made or really listened to much black metal in a while now so I use that name a bit less. Sometimes it's nice to be a bit anonymous though. I was born in Virginia Beach. I grew up outside of Baltimore Maryland and now I live in Jamestown, North Dakota.

You are not too far off from your five-year anniversary. Why don't you write a bit about the history of the band?

DJ: Crazy how time flies haha! We had originally met years ago through Soundcloud and had done some collaborations with our respective solo projects (Bukavac and Tahazu) alongside developing a friendship and just getting along well. So we decided to start Pythonissam, both having a love for Doom Metal and Funeral Doom (Ahab, Bell Witch, Bvried at Sea, Bongripper, Conan, etc.) we wanted to get our ideas out.

FG: One day Derek hit me up and asked if I wanted to work on a psychedelic funeral doom project, I thought about it for a whole three seconds and was like fuck yeah! We had teamed up in the past so we already knew each other's work flows and everything came together pretty fast. We changed up our writing style with Transcending, but really it was kind of like going back to our pre Pythonissam days. Only with this project Derek contributes a lot of different layers with guitars, percussion, and other weirdness along with the lyrics and vocals. 5 years! I didn't even realize we had been at this project for that long.

The title of your releases gives it away: Lovecraft and the universe he created through his writings are what your music deals with. Why did you pick him?

FG: I would have to credit Derek with that one. I like Lovecraftian themes and a lot of the concepts but I can't really call myself a big Lovecraft fan. I like a lot of his works more than others and some I couldn't even finish. I think his style of writing just feels a bit dated to me. His writings really work for death metal or metal in general, I know we aren't the first to do it — he is the OG of cosmic horror!

DJ: I've always loved that Cosmic Horror genre of stories and films, the elements of both mystery and horror in a scale beyond what you see in typical fashion is just awe-inducing and otherworldly (not to be cliche).

What would be your favourite novels of his?

FG: The Beast In The Cave and Dagon. If I recall, The Beast In The Cave is kind of Matheson-like. Similar to the ending of I Am Legend, dude finds out he is actually the beast in the cave. And Dagon is some poor bastard teleported to some wasteland ruled by an ancient god. What's not to love?

DJ: Definitely the Call of Cthulhu, Dagon, At the Mountains of Madness, and The Colour Out of Space. I like them all but those are some of my choice picks.

Aside from the lyrics, what influences can be found in the music?

DJ: We really like to implement "color in sound" so to speak as much as the ritualistic feeling and nature of the Cultist caricatures, so we take great lengths to implement a fusion of those styles and elements. We use a mix of Keys/Synths, Sampling, and Traditional Instruments (Shaman Drum, Sticks, Nut Shakers, etc.) to get a really wide range of capability and accomplish that.

FG: I went down a rabbit hole studying horror themed music, I couldn't play a video game or watch a horror movie without actively listening to the soundtrack. A lot of that is in the synth work — layers and layers of synth that try to capture the weird scariness of Lovecraft. But still try and make it go somewhere musically and not just be layers of weird sounds. Also my love for HM2 pedals, that's been in there since the second album Transcending.

How do Lovecraft and funeral doom metal go hand in hand?

DJ: There's just something about a grand sound that just fits to the scale and power of the many stories and expanded genre universe. Doom is such a diverse subgenre that you don't have a lot of atypical limitations that are expected.

FG: Lol they don't. Lovecraft is cosmic horror and insanity, Funeral Doom is usually about themes of sadness, loss, or just all around crushing depression. I think they do meet in a place where the old gods have returned and the world is basically dead now, that sucks, something to be depressed about I suppose. I also really like the idea of a cultist that realizes he really fucked up — now he has to come face to face with the consequences of serving a dark uncaring master who sees everyone he knows and loves as ants, so regret, sorrow, weirdness, and horror are all present there.

Why do you play music that has a certain amount of non-metal elements in them? How do you place your band amongst the plethora of other bands of this genre?

FG: I'm just a big fan of Doom music, always have been. I feel that slower music is heavier and I get tired of trem picking over blast beats. Most of my favorite bands are stoner doom, sludge, progressive sludgy stuff, or crust punk/D beat. I try not to compare myself to other musicians or artists because they are all better than me! But bands like Ahab I will look up the tabs to and see how they create those sounds and emotions. As for psychedelic funeral doom, I'm not sure that's too big of a sub sub sub genre, someone else had to have done it before us, I just don't know who.

DJ: I think the ability to infuse various styles and influences with cognizance can really make something special and just awesome to listen to. Definitely think we fit well in the genre with both bands we love listening to and those also making a name for themselves in the scene, but can stand out with the aforementioned style infusion that makes it unique and pulls the listeners back time and time again.

Just to throw something at you, but should music that is influenced by this writer not attempt to display a level of insanity or weirdness?

FG: We get this a lot. I think a lot of people expect doom grind or something like Squid Pisser slowed to a crawl, and as I type that I realize that would be really cool but not exactly the kind of music I want to write — it's psychedelic funeral doom. So long as it's slow, heavy, sad, and weird I'm happy. I think on a lot of the tracks we capture the weirdness, the psychedelic elements have slowly become more prominent and a lot of our sound is kind of ritualistic with different percussive elements. It seems we just get weirder with every release.

DJ: Lovecraft has a wide range of story types, many which do have those thematic elements, and that makes it awesome haha! The creatures or events can be weird as hell, as much as the insanity of main characters and antagonists — that's all fuel and inspiration for wild and great tunes.

While the first two releases of yours have artworks by Marios Kerpen, the ones on the latest two releases were done by the band member Derek Jacobsen. Why did this switch happen?

DJ: Marios is a good dude and we love working with him for artwork commissions, I also do a lot of art and graphic design and such too so it's fun to go back and forth using a range of art styles and color and other nuances. We'll definitely do more with him again, but I'll also be doing more of the designs and layouts too.

FG: I don't do much with the artwork at all. I might send a suggestion or use AI to make an idea for an album cover but 99.74% of the time I like Derek's idea more. Marios's artwork is awesome and I'd love to use it more but it's not cheap. I don't want to give anyone the idea that I had anything to do with the album art including paying Marios for his work — in my opinion if I didn't help pay for it I shouldn't have a say in it, but I plan to continue to put forward god awful ideas for album covers for future releases.

There is also a change in style. With the earlier ones appearing rather mystical, the latest one presents a version of Cthulhu on the cover. A nice attempt to instantly grab the attention of the "innocent viewer". Worked for me, at least.

DJ: Haha thanks, yeah we just wanted to get the visual themes right and in correlation to the musical ones, so it worked out well.

FG: If it works it works!

Leaving the visual aspects aside, there is also one in the music. Your earlier albums, those with the different visual style, come with a different take on funeral doom metal. Could you lay out the evolution from somewhat minimalist and raw music to what you are currently playing?

FG: For the first album Derek sent me tracks with rhythm guitar and drums, I then played bass and layered more guitars on the track. From Transcending onward I do most of the basic guitars, drums, and bass. That would probably explain the biggest change from a writing standpoint, I'm not very good at figuring out what key a song is in or hearing what chord or note is being played, so it's a lot easier for me to do what parts I come up with and then send it to Derek for his parts. For the newer stuff I try to write with more minor toned melodies in mind rather than just heavy grooves and such, we also seem to use more and more synths now and our songs have grown into a collection of tracks that my poor DAW can't seem to handle haha, I also think the low end of the bass up front in the mix has always been a main ingredient to our sound. As for the rawness, I guess I got better at mixing and mastering.

DJ: Like any band who likes to experiment and implement different styles and influences, we are always trying different things while pushing to improve and expand our capabilities and quality, while being apt to the various themes.

From your perspective, what would be the core differences here?

FG: For me it's the shift from psychedelic guitars and the occasional synth to all out horror themed arrangements. It's actually a lot of fun to "compose" horror themed music and we try to keep it in the world of weird.

DJ: Not too terribly much besides just trying different techniques for really cool horror and cosmic-psychedelic atmospheres, adding instrumentation and effects, and getting more polished with mix and general production.

Do you know the comic series "The Unspeakable Vault of Doom"? They might be your thing, actually.

DJ: I have seen it, yeah! Pretty cool series, I need to read more of it haha.

FG: I've never heard of it, I'll have to check it out.

What would be your opinion on AI and music?

DJ: Musically, I don't like and don't think AI should be used at all, it takes any organic and human/creature element out of what is a human language. Artistically/for visual art uses, it can be effective with the improvement of tools out there to adequately get the visual aesthetic a band is looking for. There's plenty of bands out there using AI for visual art now, and it looks good for the most part; there should always be some effort to refine the art to accomplish the goals of the band (editing, color correction, etc.) — and that's coming from a graphic designer who does use AI art from time to time, it is another tool in the toolbox for a band to use, especially if they are on a limited budget and can't afford a commission, or just want something a little more bizarre, a number of things.

FG: AI is going to take all of our jobs! In all seriousness I have no idea what the future holds, I would be surprised if AI anything continued to be free, I am surprised it's free now! Something that advanced and cool is just free for everyone to use? I think that AI will continue to change every entertainment industry whose purpose is making a profit off a product, at the end of the day free is always the cheapest labor, and the better the robots get the harder it will be for writers, soundtrack composers, musicians, and quite possibly actors to have a career. Why would they pay someone when an app on your phone can do it for free? Everyone will still make art though, creativity and expression is just in us as humans, I can't fathom people stop painting, drawing, writing stories and novels, or playing an instrument just because it's nearly impossible to make a career out of it. We will have to see where artists go and how they put their art into the world. I think with music, social media has changed the music industry; Streaming services, platforms, and algorithms have become some of the best promotional tools, so the next evolution of social media could impact music or the music industry just as much as AI. The places people listen to music or consume it has changed drastically first with the internet and then again with social media, so who knows how we will be listening to music or who will be making it in the not so distant future.

Closing comments

FG: Thanks for listening to our music and taking the time to do this interview. I'm excited and honored to be included! I'll have to check it out when it drops!

DJ: Thanks for talking with us, we are super appreciative of you and all of our fans/listeners and friends out there who enjoy our music, there is much more to come. Doom on!!!