Sombre Arcane

Iranian Depressive Black Metal one-man’s band Ekove Efrits has allowed listeners around the globe with his first installment "Suicidal Rebirth". Our great friend Count de Efrit accepted to show us his mysterious world and his personal visions. I enjoyed conducting the interview and learned a few things about the artist's perspective of their fans and reasons for doing what they do.

Goebbels: Hi Count de Efrit! Before entering your mysterious world, introduce us yourself.

Count de Efrit: Hi Djihad, I'm founder of Ekove Efrits, a depressive black metal one-man band at this beautiful world!

Goebbels: Ekove Efrits, a very original name especially for Arabic mythology’s lovers, where did you get the idea?

Count de Efrit: Yes, I know, in fact "Efrit" has same root in Persian mythology and Arabic mythology. nearly 5 years ago I decided to choose a name for my band , a name with dark feeling and the signs that show where I came from , so finally  I did choose  "Efrit " which means "Evil Soul" . Also, Ekove is reverse word of "Evoke". Now, you know the meaning of "Ekove Efrits" .  It means "Summon Evil Souls ", I like to make some secrets by my creations and of course I try to do that by the band name.

Goebbels: If someone had never heard Ekove Efrits before; how would you describe the sound of the music to them?

Count de Efrit: talking about my music is really hard for me because I say my words and feelings by my music not by writing, I believe in my work and I try to make the music that haven't exist in black metal but I like to hear from that, the visual imagine of Ekove Efrits could be different for everyone but for me "Ekove Efrits" is as a window to the black or blue sky among all the gray breathes of gray people.

Goebbels: "Suicidal Rebirth", is there a story behind the name of your first Full-length?

Count de Efrit: I think "Suicidal Rebirth" is the best title for this album,  two words with a big paradox between their self , we don't know in fact  which one can be first , is this a kind of rebirth at the another world after our death ? Or this is not a physical death? , sometimes our life makes a paradox for us , a paradox about the meaning of existence and maybe this album is about a life story among the other stories , what do you think?

Goebbels: What’s different in this new album from your demos you’ve done before?

Count de Efrit: First of all I added two guest members for this album, Erato for female vocals and art works and Fegar for last two songs, he singed clean vocals and also wrote poem for those two last tracks and they were a huge effect on the album .I had some emails from the fans which told me "Suicidal rebirth" has something new for them and they can't put it exactly at any special genre, Well this album is on the roots of depressive black metal with lots of doom metal and ambient influence.

Goebbels: How long was the recording process for Suicidal Rebirth? Are there any difficulties?

Count de Efrit: Nearly one year, I recorded many tracks for this album, I remember that I recorded 4 tracks about 3 months for the album but after creating one new track I felt yeah this one talks from inside so I decided to remove all of those 4 tracks cause their differences and again I started to create another songs because I found new elements on my music, I had many problems in the process of recording, I haven't really good equipments and I do all the records on my room. for the last two songs on the album "An elegy of life, a hymn to death" Fegar and me were keep awake our self nearly 2 days .I was writing the song and recording them and after that he started to sing his poem on that, after that time we were waiting for Erato, she came to Iran 2 months later and started to sing female vocal on her tracks .but I think all of those hard works have this cost because its result.

Goebbels: The atmospheric elements are coming out more and more with every demo. Why are you leaving raw and "true” Black Metal touches?

Count de Efrit: I think Black Metal needs to creation, needs to something new, the old elements are not enough for now so these are why I changed my music, I try to make an imaginative music that while you listen them you could able to see some images and atmospheres in the background of your mind by listening the music, another reason could be movie themes! I'm a big fan of movie themes, and I give huge effects from that.

Goebbels: Usually we find our friend Efrit with tortured screams but in "A Dream Beyond the Oceans" some clean and nice vocals burn us in such a different world… Did creating this element cost a lot of effort or was it all natural?

Count de Efrit: It's the thing that I call growing; each way has its growing. The new album has those screams but the difference is about using melancholic doomish atmospheres, I have to mention this album has more doom metal influence than my previous albums but like before at the roots of black metal style.

Goebbels: What influences came into writing the lyrics?

Count de Efrit: lyrics are not a fixed thing to me , I've lot of influences to writing the lyrics , but almost them come from my self reflections about outside  but maybe the biggest subject is the philosophy of our existence , what is the true point ? I can't be successful at the end to find an acceptable answer , so many things have no meaning to me  , among these words they seem simple but in real life each one of them leads me to write , to think , to make music ...

Goebbels: As I see, An Elegy of Life, A Hymn to Death contains Iranian sentences. Decipher us there meaning.

Count de Efrit: "An Elegy of Life, A Hymn to Death" is a philosophic and deep poem by "Fegar" which has been wrote in Persian language, I can't even imagine the English translate from that because the meaning will be lost by translation, I think if you want to know what is the story behind that first you have to learn Persian as well.

Goebbels: Frankly speaking my favorite and eternal song is "Whispers Of Suicide". Tell us a little about what this song means to you?

Count de Efrit: This track means suicide feelings to me, the story about emotional reflection against all the pains, imagine a lonely man in a dark world with his own fears, he looks at mirror and remembers his past times, he found suicide as the last solution because he was born as a victim, maybe he thinks he has chosen, nobody ask him that did he choose this life?. This track is something like this in the album.

Goebbels: Looking back at your musical career, are there any interesting moments that will last in your mind forever?

Count de Efrit: I had really great moments with Erato and Fegar at the recording process of «Suicidal Rebirth", they imported a new soul to Ekove Efrits and this is one of the reasons that make this album different.

I remember Erato had a bad common cold one day before that we start recording her vocals and we hadn't more time to waiting, but fortunately the problem was solve in tomorrow and we came success to record her vocals.

I had some meetings by people which came from outside of Iran to see me, the countries like Germany, Poland, Netherlands and ect , they made me really happy because its so good feeling when you see the reflection of your music on your fans and also while I receive emails from them I feel a new blood on my vain to continue , music without listeners is totally nothing , I'm really thankful to all fans of  Ekove Efrits , we are as a family.

Goebbels: As we know, you have your hand in another project called Silent Path. The first realization Mourner Portraits is still waiting such labels to torture your fans. Describe us its ocean, please.

Count de Efrit: This is totally a different project , for example in Silent Path you can hear more guitar parts beside an eerie atmosphere, I believe I've created a music between black metal /funeral doom and movie themes , that was a new experience to me but I had the ideas about that inside my mind for several months before that I start to record some materials , Silent Path has less tempo than Ekove Efrits but in some parts it's reverse the lyric themes are more about real world specially world wars and their genocides and of course the nihilistic ages after that .

Goebbels: The first time I heard about Ekove Efrits. I thought that I will find some Middle-Eastern elements as many Iranian bands (especially our friend Aras ) do.

Count de Efrit: It's a good question, I don't care to a fixed forms of music in my creations, I respect all the types of music but If I came from Middle-Eastern it's not means to me to create oriental music maybe you can hear some native influences but these are not my main problems in my projects, making eastern music by black metal or doing a copy from western black metal music, fuck them all, I’m just making to share my feelings even with just too simple notes.

Goebbels: How do you perceive the future of Iranian Black Metal scene and are there any other new bands or types of music that are out there that you like right now?

Count de Efrit: Iranian Black Metal scene is something different from the worldwide black metal scene, its very emotional type of black metal as you know but needs more experience and attention, I think Iranian black metal has many ability in its roots but still needs more time to judge. Not any special band right now but in the type of black metal I listen often "Shining" but these days I listen more to movie themes, and some rock bands like Riverside and Radiohead.  I'm searching for some new elements from outside to import on black metal because next album needs more deconstruction.

Goebbels: I'm also very curious about your religion? Did Zoroastrian ideas affect your everyday life?

Count de Efrit: I respect so much to Zoroastrian ideas but for me these are not those things which I spend my life at all , I'm so disappointment about our ages , for me many hard problems in the world are totally unmeaning , I believe that the future of people will be learned that to have a good life you should first seek your inside to know your self , to know your point in this life , we create the lies and then we start to believe them so the walls will be created one by one , it's why we still can kill each other, sometimes I ask  myself  that are we exist to have such this destroyer behaviors? Why we still close our eyes against the facts? History could be an intelligent teacher but we are bad students.

Goebbels: What are your views on the misunderstanding between Iran and other Arab countries? How do you feel about the last Gaza’s Holocaust?

Count de Efrit: I don't like to talk about politics , it's not my world but I'm against any genocide, I'm so sad about the last Gaza's Holocaust, this is a fact that I can't understand , for me war has just one meaning "  mankind disability to respect and understanding their self" , another sign of insipience .

Goebbels: We are running out of time. Any parting words or advice you'd like to give?

Count de Efrit: I want to thank you for your supporting and give the best to your viewers.

Site : http://ekoveefrits.com/index2.html