- INTERVIEWS -

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- JANVS INTERVIEW -

Email interview with Matteo by Mark Howitt (2009)

Thanks for taking the time to do this interview with Archaic North Webzine, as most of our staff here are fans of your work.

Archaic North - How has the reaction been since the release of Vega?

Matteo - The critical response has been quite good I would say. Being a band with no live activity is very hard on the public reception side seen that before buying a CD people these days usually prefer to cut themselves an arm and a leg.

AN - Where has touring taken Janvs thus far, and are there any current tours or future dates to look out for?

M - We never did a single concert, mainly because of line-up issues. In the future I would really like to transform Janus into a band that tours to some extent, we will see. I would like to ensure us and the public decent performance conditions, so how well our sales will do in North America could be quite decisive since here in Europe the market is so stale. Our label got an agreement with Sony Red/KLM for the distribution of "Vega" in the USA and Canada a couple of months ago, so we really hope you'll give us this chance!

AN - How is the scene in Italy doing at the moment for Black Metal?

M - Honestly I basically live in an ivory tower, I don't really feel to belong to any scene here in Italy although I recognize some important common ground with bands that blend metal and progressive rock sounds and attitudes that come from Italy and other countries. Here at home I keep in touch with the other musicians I became friend with during the years but really nothing more. For Malphas it's the same, he was in the scene thing 10 years ago but now he is the band's old sage who doesn't care anymore for such things. m:A Fog is the most involved of us playing or having played in several Italian bands and also in Norwegian and French ones, doing gigs around and such things on a regular basis ecc. ecc. Italy however doesn't lack good bands at all, usually we only get underrated because of where we come from and that can be frustrating when you see some German or Scandinavian or American band that is worth a tenth of what you are having ten times your visibility.

AN - What are some bands that are doing well there?

M - Black Flame, Hate Profile, Spite Extreme Wing, Hiems...I don't follow the Black Metal scene very much.

AN - During the production of Vega, how long was the process and can you describe the experience?

M - Thank you so much, really. Well, "Vega" costed really a lot of fatigue and sacrifices to me. Except for the bass and the drums I had to compose, arrange and record everything myself. We also made a substantial economic investment to upgrade our instrumentation and afford the production you can hear (although we had to work really fast in the studio). Everything was recorded, mixed and mastered in 13 days. It's been stressing, the only positive side is that the studio we worked in was in a calm and beautiful countryside spot near Piacenza, so I could relax a little bit between the straining sessions I had to overcome alone for the most part.

AN - What does the name Janvs mean, and what does it mean in regards to the choice to use if for the band?

M - Janus is the double faced god of doors and transitions who belongs to the ancient Italic/Roman religion only. The symbology of Janus is immense. Janus represents the constant strife and synthesis between opposites, all kinds of opposites, which work in the sense of a journey towards its third, invisible face which represents transcendence. I think that all the most important aspects of the symbolical universe of this very important god, really fit my personality and the aims and ways of expression I wanted to develop with the project I intended from the beginning to become my main and deeper effort in music and "art", which could last my entire life-span and could grant me total freedom of expression. I really think that our musicality and language is every day closer to the symbolical way of being of the god we use the name of, delivering the longing for a timeless dimension through a journey made of the constant attrition of opposing and diverse elements.

- Vega has a very strong atmospheric and progressive feel to the album, as compared to Fvlgvres. Is this something that you will continue doing for the next album?

M - Yeah we will continue to change and evolve, I am that kind of person. I began writing some new material and it's quite different from Vega, more varied. Unfortunately a new album will still take some time though, I have fewer spare time than before and I want to make an important record.

AN - Lyrically, what inspires Janvs and what is Vega about?

M - I never liked to do long talks about the things I do myself, judging them for others. I was forced to do so from time to time of course, but don't like it. It always makes me feel incomplete, gross and somewhat arrogant. I prefer to give people a great freedom of approach to what we do, because I do songs for the very reason I have difficulties expressing certain things in more conventional ways and because I think that when an album is born from a proper amount of passion and resources it can speak for itself, without the need of a user manual, so to speak. I think that it is very rare that the "artist" may understand everything of what he has done too. I don't want to say to our listeners what they should think or feel listening to our music. However, let's say that the overall theme that crosses all the songs on "Vega" consists in the expression of the search for a lost fixed point of reference, in a moment in which a certain sense of loss and confusion doesn't appear to offer any escape option, but that at the same time fails to destroy all the "positive tensions" that have the vagueness, the visionary power, the distance and the strength of a true faith. "Vega" has been the polar star of Earth until 10.000 years ago and will return being it in some others millennia from now, this is for sure. This star and its name are also bound to a lot of different cultural and ethimological meanings across very distant civilizations, and almost all of them are closely related to what I intended to channel through this little work of ours. Longing for transcendence, that's what inspires me, it always comes down to that.

AN - I truly believe that Vega is a hidden gem, and the clean vocals are some of the best I have heard mixed with Black Metal. Do you think that the next Janvs release will have more of this? What vocalists inspire you?

M - Thank you very much! Yes probably our next album will make almost exclusive use of clean vocals. What vocalists inspire me? Well I guess a lot, every singer I like actually may influence me here and there. Let me think...Layne Staley, Chris Cornell, Dave Mustaine, James Hetfield, John Lennon & Paul McCartney are very high on the list of the male ones.

AN - What are your thoughts on the current state of the world?

M - My thoughts about it are pretty awful.

AN - Thanks again for the interview, is there any last comments?

M - I want to thank you and all the people who supports us reading this.