Posts Tagged ‘Harvestman’

Steve Von Till / Harvestman interviewed by The Obelisk

Posted on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009

Steve Von Till - Harvestman- Roadburn 2009

JJ Kozcan of The Obelisk recently conducted an interview with Steve Von Till about Harvestman’s latest album entitled In a Dark Tongue, Von Till’s home studio and his Roadburn-experience. An excerpt from the chat follows below.

How is In a Dark Tongue different from Lashing the Rye in your mind?

Steve Von Till: “Well, the first one was sort of like my first solo album. I didn’t have a project in mind, I just had a collection of recordings from over the years of strange stuff that wasn’t Neurosis, wasn’t Tribes of Neurot, wasn’t Steve Von Till songwriting stuff. After a while it took shape and I realized there was a body of work there that was leaning more towards a guitar-based home-recorded psychedelic tribute to European folk songs and folklore and Celtic and Germanic mythology, taking all the things I was interested in and filtering it through traditional filters but coming up with something (laughs) very unorthodox as far as a tribute to traditional music might go.
While it looks towards European folklore and folk songs and folk music, it also looks towards what I like about what I think is modern Celtic and Germanic folk music: the krautrock, the space rock, the psychedelic music of the free festivals in England and the folk rock revival of the ‘70s. How those things inspire me, putting it through my own filter of using my home studio as an instrument to create these strange pieces of music.”

About Roadburn, what was that like for you? I know from my end, just watching the bands, it was more like a celebration than a concert.

Steve Von Till: “It was a complete overload. All those friends from all over the world, and trying to even just say hi to them all from backstage, then trying to see my friends who weren’t playing outside, being the organizers as well as performing three sets in two days — it was totally overwhelming. I was in a constant state of busyness and we didn’t get a lot of opportunity to enjoy the performances because we were so busy, but the vibe was very emotional. It was very cool and I agree, it felt more like a celebration than a concert. It was a once-in-a-lifetime thing. What a privilege it was to host that thing. How many people get a chance to do that? Not very many. It was pretty amazing.”

Continue reading: Harvestman Interview with Steve Von Till: Lashing the Dark

Tags: Harvestman, In a Dark Tongue, JJ Koczan, Neurosis, Neurot Recordings, steve von till, The Obelisk
Posted in 2009, Interviews | No Comments »