WATAIN All About 'Peace, Love And Understanding, Man'

Decibel magazine's J. Bennett recently spoke with WATAIN frontman Erik Danielsson regarding the band's motivation for perfoming black metal music. An excerpt from the conversation follows below.

It's not like the members of WATAIN are trying to convince young black metal fiends to join the dark side. Like many a great showman before him, frontman Erik Danielsson recognizes the inherent value of severe reactions. "If we wouldn't get a reaction from people, then something would be wrong," he concedes. "Whether it is a positive or a negative reaction, the crucial thing is to touch. Our goal has never been to convert the masses into a great satanic army. That would be a utopia I believed in when I was 14 years old. The most important thing after our own need to praise our own gods is the listener's experience. If we can reach their heart and only for a second lead their minds away from their daily ordinary life, and put them in our world… that is what I almost demand."

Decibel: So, if the goal is to get a reaction, how do you resist the temptation to do something shocking just for the sake of pressing buttons?

Danielsson: "As I said, the primary goal of WATAIN is to satisfy our own needs, and our needs cannot be satisfied by trying to be controversial or trying to intentionally, like you say, press people's buttons. That is not what our artistry is about. It's a matter of expressing ourselves and knowing that what we are expressing is so strong that if people close their eyes and listen, they will experience something no matter where they stand in life or ideologically. But there is something real that people will feel whether they want to or not — if they listen closely."

Decibel: What are WATAIN's needs?

Danielsson: "WATAIN exists out of a yearning to create music in honor of the heart of black metal, the dark side if you want to put a simple name on it. For us, who are the spawn of that dark side, it's like a patriot who feels the great need to write songs for his mother country. My heart is filled with the passion to try to channel the great and incredible things I have become a part of in my life. To me, it's simple and pure. I do it out of love."

Decibel: Love for Satan.

Danielsson: "Yeah. To put it simple. [Laughs] The saying, 'Peace, love and understanding' is very adaptable to WATAIN in this sense: The peace is total death. The love is the love that we have for our gods. The understanding is the wisdom, the flow of intelligence that Satanism represents. Peace, love and understanding, man."

The full WATAIN cover story is featured in the July issue of Decibel magazine, on newsstands now, and available for purchase here.