BEHEMOTH's NERGAL Compares Creating New Music To Taking A Crap

Jägermeister conducted an interview with guitarist/vocalist Adam "Nergal" Darski of Polish extreme metallers BEHEMOTH at this year's edition of the Bloodstock Open Air festival, which is being held August 11-14 at Catton Hall in Walton-on-Trent, England. You can now watch the chat below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On the creative process:

Nergal: "It's maybe not the nicest comparison I can come up with, but it's very organic. It's like when you wake up in the morning and you feel like the shit is coming. It's pretty much the same with performing and with creating new music. It's literally very much like defecating. It's there in your system; you've gotta have it out. But, obviously, you take a crap a couple of times a day, but when it comes to new music, it happens when it happens, and I can't really force myself. So, yeah, I just feel it — I feel it in my balls, I feel it in my bones. And if it's ready to have it out, I just get it out somehow. It's all about the right timing, I'd say. I can just jam on my guitar, and then, all of a sudden, some pattern comes out, or a riff, or a chorus of a potential song. And the other time, it's the other way around — I just come up with a songtitle, and then it sparks, and it turns into a song eventually. And there's probably five or ten more formulas or ways I can work with a song. So it's hard to say, you know. I like it that way. I like it that it's just different ways of achieving the same goal."

On his outside projects:

Nergal: "Sometimes I come up with happy stuff, you know [laughs], and then, obviously, none of our fans and none of us in the band would love to hear some happy-sounding tunes on BEHEMOTH albums. [BEHEMOTH is] pretty dark and it's very radical, so we've gotta stay that way. But, you know, I've got this other band called ME AND THAT MAN that is not metal, and, obviously, that stuff could never fit a BEHEMOTH record, so I find my outlet to get some of these ideas. And the album is not out yet, but it's ready, so I'm super curious how people handle these tunes."

On taking chances with his music:

Nergal: "I love to bring myself out from the comfort zone and to challenge myself, especially when it comes to different genres. I never played anything but metal — I've been metal all my life — but I know I had different vibes and different feelings within myself that really require a different approach and a different attitude, and ME AND THAT MAN gives me that. So, I don't know… I just think it's a very logical way of expressing my inner darkness."

On how his solo project might influence BEHEMOTH:

Nergal: "There is a way it might influence BEHEMOTH's music — not directly, not literally, but in the concept of having more air, having more breathing in the song."

On whether he is worried about about how some of his more experimental music will be received by the fans:

Nergal: "I never think of what people think about what I do. I just do [it], because it's something that I must do, you know what I mean? And then I pass it over to people, and then we see if it works or not. But it starts here, and it's gotta work within myself first. And if it does, I just bring it out to the bigger crowd."