Tenebre and used underwear from black-metal chicks

interview with Richard, October 2005

Please give us a short introduction of yourself?
Hi. I’m Richard Lion, guitarrist and founder of the Swedish goth-metal band Tenebre.
Tenebre is a band that has been around for 9 years and have made five CD’s and some singles. We started as a horror-metal band, but today we sound more goth.

A new album, a new direction a new life?
A new album and a new diredtion, yes. A new life? My “new” life began some years ago when I became a father. Not now.

How is the drugs and alcohol consumption these days compared to the first recordingyears?
The amount of drugs these days for me are zero, but I offcourse drink some beer and wine. When we started, things were very different. Too much of everything.

How dark were the beginning years? What led you into music? Which bands?
In the beginning I was completely swallowed by my vision of making dark and mysterious music. In my very young years I think KISS, Sweet and ABBA were the first bands I liked. When I was 13-14 I got into Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and all those hardrock and heavy metal bands that were popular around the beginning of the 80’s.ThenVenom came along and destroyed my brain.. My main sources of influences for early Tenebre were Danzig and Death SS.

Do you give drug and alcohol abuse warnings to the youth?
Perhaps to my own kids someday, but otherwise I hope people can make their own choices. Good or bad, you choose yourself. I don’t think drugs is a good way to acheive happiness in the long run.

Which inspirations were used for Hearts Blood? Do you research for the topics?
I look into myself and I find a lot of thinks to write about. Things that have happened, things you dream about. I don’t do research, that’s for PC punk loosers and pretentious goths.

Do you care for social care problems? Do you support charity foundations?
I care just as much as everyone else and that is too little I guess. I was a member of the Red Cross some year ago...but not right now.

Metal is driven away from your music nowadays. What was the reason?
We have made four CD’s with metal based music. Time to do something different.

Are you interested in experimenting with other music streams? What music do you listen to yourself?
I like to make acoustic guitar music, like country and folk. When I listen to music it’s very different from one week to another. Here’s the name dropping of this week: Acid Mothers Temple, HIM, Ladytron and Deathspell Omega. All those bands make good music in my ears.

Why did you make a special DJ version of Mistress Of The Dark?
We had extra free time in the studio to do it. It’s not so different than the original version....actually it’s more of a video edit. We will perhaps do more versions of other songs soon....a church organ version of “Night Reborn” or a euro-disco version of “Silver Flame”?

Did you ever appeared in a television show?
Not that I know of. Well.... Kalle and Andreas were actors in a episode of a Swedish TV show were they search for criminals. Does that count?

Is Tenebre ever asked for a soundtrack of some horror or underground movie? Would you do it?
We have actually done that already. The movie is called “Avenging Disco Vampires”, and it’s a very low budget horror movie. I wouldn’t recommend the movie to anyone.

Any plans for making a DVD with visual clips to support the music?
We are making a video clip for the track “Mistress Of The Dark”, which is the most sell-out track on the CD.

Who is the girl on the cover? Were her nipples taken off to avoid censorship?
Don’t know the girl. The photo is about 70 years old and it’s a ballet dancer you see on the cover. We have not erased any nipples, she wears clothes. Most ballet dancers do that you know....

Will the new album promoted live? Club or festival?
I hope we can play some festivals next year

Is there a place you would like to play? Why and with whom?
Tokyo with Moi Dix Mois. I think Japan is very different and exciting

Any interesting gossip to share with us?
Kalle, our singer loves to get free stuff, like used underwear from black-metal chicks. Send your stuff to:
Kalle Metz
Annedalsv. 7
233 33 Svedala
Sweden

Last rites?
.......Nruter lliw ew