Lunar Shadow pour "The Smokeless Fires".

1/ From what I've seen, the band was formed around 2014. What decided you to make such music and how did it eventually happen?

Actually the band was already “formed” during my schooldays around 2007, but I didn’t have a line-up back then, the band started to exist at around 2013 then, when the Triumphator/Far From Light Line-Up came together, so you are right basically.

My motives were quite simple: I wanted to play the kind of music that I would like to hear as a fan. I started to write songs at an early age, up to this day I have probably written between 70 or 80 songs. No other new band seemed to sound the way that I thought it’d be cool. Some came close, Atlantean Kodex, Borrowed Time to name a few, but I had my own ideas and wanted to express them.

2/ You released your debut in 2017. How was the reception of the disc? What were you expecting? Were you satisfied?

We received an extremely positive feedback regarding FFL. I think it’s a good album, I wasn’t that surprised, I knew it would get some attention. Feedback from the press, magazines et cetera is a two-bladed sword, for on the one hand I don’t really care what they write. It’s important to understand, that I write the music of LS for myself and never for others. On the other hands I am of course thankful, when someone likes what I do. It always amazes me in this digital age how far your music is spreading actually. We sell our music to Japan, Brazil, Chile, USA, Greenland, Norway, South Africa and India. A very surreal thing to think about.

3/ What are your musical influences and how do the band work when composing, rehearsing... songs?

My main influences are probably 90s-Gothenburg-style bands like old (!) In Flames, Sacramentum, At the Gates or Unanimated. I think you can hear those influences a lot in my own guitar work. Dissection is an extremely important band too, you can hear the influence too. And then classic Heavy Stuff like Judas Priest or old Manowar, they always had the attitude I love about this music. Be yourself, do what you want, fuck the others. It doesn’t get any better. The vocals on our albums are influenced by Simon & Garfunkel and the twin-leads are “borrowed” from Wishbone Ash.
I simply write, whatever I feel like. I don’t sit down and got a plan already. It just happens, that’s the whole thing.

4/ What makes "Far From Light" so special to me is that there is a very emotional touch in it. Was it intentional? What was the concrete aim of this album in term of sensations, emotions?

Well, that’s a difficult question. First thing I have to say is, that I can only write music with a slightly melancholic touch in it. I cannot write “happy” music, it just doesn’t work for me.

I write about things, that interest me and that I can relate to. Death, loneliness, scorn, isolation, escapism, lost love. So of course this vortex of topics leads to a certain atmosphere of the album. Take “Gone Astray”, which is an extremely personal song with extremely personal lyrics, it’s hard for me to listen to this one actually. And I suppose the listener can also feel, that this is something, that means something to me, the person that wrote it.

5/ Most of your songs are very long and complex, such as "The Kraken", "The Hour of Dying" (personal note that won't appear in the interview: it's my favorite song!) or "Hadrian Carrying Stones". Do you have any prog influences? Does it help to convey messages, sensations or emotions?

I love Rush, I love Fates Warning, but I would not call them direct influences. As mentioned above, it’s something that just happens. I have lots of ideas and it’s a good feeling to know, that I can work freely and write a song, that’s 8 or 12 minutes long, who cares? There will be some plus 8 minute songs on the new album again too, oops I did it again!

I like “The Hour of Dying” a lot too by the way. Very Dissection’esque riffing and I like the lyrical concept with a different approach towards the topic of Jesus Christ.

6/ Let's talk a bit about the future. You are about to release your new album called "The Smokeless Fires". In the announcement made through your facebook page, you stated that it will be made "in a new, but also familiar direction". What can we expect then from this new opus?

It's basically Lunar Shadow, I am certain, that if you liked FFL you will also like the new one. There are just some new elements I wanted to try, there will be a piano ballad called “Pretend”, we recorded this one at the workplace of our Drummer Jörn, who is a piano builder. Or let’s take “Roses” that sounds a bit like The Sisters of Mercy, very direct and almost with a radio-catchyness. But also classic LS-stuff, tons of twin-leads, fast solos.

The most interesting thing for the listeners will be of course our new singer Robert Roettig, he did an incredible job on this album and I am eager to present him to the world and the outer emptiness behind space.

7/ "Far From Light" talked about death and "The Smokeless Fires" will deal with passion. What inspires you in your everyday-life to write about such "human" topics?

Everything actually circles around emotion in some way. For example I write a lot about fictional texts, especially Tolkien and Robert E. Howard. It’s fiction but those stories also deal with human feelings. Far From Light was written in a very problematic time of my life in which I was almost obsessed with the topic of Death, it’s a very dark album because of this, at least to me, maybe I listen to it differently. Passions are everything, they are the reasons why we choose to live. I like to explore those depths and put them into form through my music. I guess it’s also some kind of self-inflicted therapy.

8/ Death seems to be a very important topic in your music, but not from a gore or death metal-esque point of view. Why taking a specific "human" approach and what makes this topic important to your eyes?

I think the fact, that death may be the only thing in life, that is absolutely certain, is highly interesting. To me death is freedom and a release from earthly bonds, it’s a gentle embrace and not something to be afraid of. This topic is always somehow present in my head, sometimes stronger, sometimes less strong. But it’s there…

9/ What look do you have in our modern world? Does it inspire you?

In fact I try to shut out the modern world as much as I can, to me it seems vulgar and often trivial. Escapism to me is the only raison d’être of art in general, be it paintings, literature or music. I have a longing inside of me, that goes beyond mere human longings. I think you can also hear this in our music. The utopian thought, that somewhere in some time there is something better. A better place, a lighter place, shores and silver and gold.

10/ In "The Smokeless Fires", there will be a song that will take place in Tolkien's Lore. If I'm right, it was also the case with "Earendil" in "Far From Light". How much did Tolkien's works impact you? More generally, do you read and if yes, what are the genre you particularly like (you may also quote several books)?

That is correct, both deal with Tolkien’s works. He is probably my favourite author, I’m also a Tolkien-collector, I own many editions of his works. It’s the thing I stated above. His works are a door to a place, that gives a lot of solace to me, a lot of calm.

I read a lot, I own several hundred books and it’s getting more and more and more, I also work as a librarian in fact. I love the pulp authors, that began in the 1920s, like Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, C.A. Smith or earlier Lord Dunsany and Arthur Machen.
Yet I also read Houellebecq, Beigbeder, Louis Ferdinand Céline or philosophical works, Fichte, Hegel or Schopenhauer. Plus Uncle Scrooge comics, very important.

11/ Any inspiration, from music but also art in general (or anything else)?

I’m also interested a lot in arts, artists like Thomas Cole, Bierstadt, Jean Delville or Felicien Rops mean a lot to me.

12/ How would you describe Lunar Shadow to someone that doesn't know the band at all?

Ha, that question is always hard. Someone once called us “Sad Iron Maiden”, I actually like that description a lot, though I’m a Priest-fan. I usually only say “We play Heavy Metal!” and that’s it. Dissection meets Wishbone Ash in a sauna with Manowar, something like this maybe.

13/ Thank you very much, it's going to be my last question, the traditional conclusion-one: you have the final word if you want to say anything!

Death to Life

Merci!