Hierophant Nox | Label Focus

Label Focus
Misantrof

Hierophant Nox: Hail Vrangsinn, how are you doing?
Vrangsinn: I'm doing the best I can in a world gone mad :) Thanks for asking.

HN: We’ve come together to discuss the Misantrof experiment; when was Misantrof founded, and what were the main motivations for beginning it?
V: I founded Misantrof early 2007- I was extremely bored during that period of my life and I just made the first Misantrof page out of boredom and to piss off a few people. I wanted a place to host the Hatepulse project, which by then was dead and buried, and I did not see a point in signing it to any label.
I was pretty much annoyed with the entire music industry and the fact that everyone out there will constantly try to rip you off when you are a band. So I made this simple little site with a short statement about the music industry and file sharing, and that was pretty much it. I also added some rehearsal recordings from one of my other projects – A Waste of Talent.
At that point I had no intentions of creating an anti-label to set music free, which is what eventually Misantrof would start doing. I only wanted a place to put out my own things. Misantrof, as it is today, did not start to take shape until about six months later when we did the first Eirik Skrangle EP. It turned out pretty cool and we figured we should put that one out on the Misantrof page as well. An idea was born and Misantrof went in a new direction.

HN: Can you explain the key features of an ‘anti-label’?
V: First of all, we don’t think of ourselves as a label. We are here to help musicians as best we can with the struggles the industry is facing today with file sharing and piracy. We know we can't beat the pirates so we try to co-exist instead, or even better, beat them at their own game by producing everything in the best audio and visual quality we can. It’s not a secret that most musicians will never make any money from their record sales, ever. The few who do are all that’s left of a dying breed. They were born at a time when good looks and no talent would get you far because the music industry would promote the shit out of you to all the motherfuckers out there. That time is over because people started downloading the crap instead.
What you can actually find in a CD shop is only a very small part of the music that’s out there, and the content of a CD shop is always decided by a few people in some label somewhere. What you can find today on the Internet instead is the entire world of music. Your options as a consumer are endless and it's all available to you with a few clicks of the mouse. The music industry can no longer dictate to you what you should listen to because now you can finally hear all those bands that are too unique and cool to ever be released by a label. A label will put their money on the safe horses, as this is about money, not the art of music itself. And it’s the art of music that is pretty much what Misantrof is about.
Misantrof will continue to experiment and to help artists in any way we can and try out new ways of doing things. We might fail completely but we will never stop trying.
We are to be a reminder to humankind of everything it is not. Misantrof will be a pure thing in a dirty world. Without greed or corruption art is set free - to remind mankind what it can never be

HN: How has the organisation been received since its inception? Has the response been largely supportive?
V: We received both positive and negative feedback, and also a lot from those who could not care less too. I guess what we do is controversial and even way ahead of its time, so I don't really expect people to understand it, you know. The ones who do understand what we are trying to do seem to dig it pretty much and the majority of the feedback has really been very positive.

HN: You began Misantrof, but it is run democratically – how does the board system work?
V: The idea is simple. The ones who run Misantrof should be chosen by the all the bands that are there. This will be something for the future I hope, as now we are so tiny and insignificant on the Internet that we just have to be happy that anyone is willing to help us. The board today is not functioning as it should I guess, but we all have to keep in mind that all this is so new that it will take time to get it working properly. We are all just like the blind searching for the light. We will get this working step by step and never bite off more than we can swallow. All hails to everyone involved for everything they do really. We are one hell of a weird gang.

HN: Who else is currently involved, and what different functions do they perform?
V: The ones on the board are involved in different ways. Some a lot - some not much. The hard core in Misantrof is made up of a few people doing a lot of things. The other ones are nice to have there if ever there is a need. The most important function right now is the technical development of Misantrof and making the tools needed to get to where we want to go. There are a lot of programming tasks to do so that the bands on Misantrof have a better and easier way to do what they need to do. We are currently focusing a lot on that, and Misantrof’s genius programmer Harry is working on it. Harry is a very important part of Misantrof but as Harry can never agree on a proper title for the extensive amount of work done for Misantrof, Harry will only be known as the programmer/Daniel’s trained monkey department. I think I don't want to talk more about this, as we are about to take a slightly new direction with Misantrof. And I would like to let people wait and see what will happen and who does what, and how.

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HN: Although the organisation promotes the accessibility of art, it also has an exclusive aspect, looking for material of historic value and rarity. What sort of recordings does this encompass?
V: This really applies to the Archives part of Misantrof. Right now we have material from Amok, Bloodline, Deathcult, Dispatched, Hatepulse, Lidskjalve, Los Bongos, Nidingir, Orcustus and Slavia. The sorts of thing we are interested in are original demos, classics that are hard to find or are no longer available through commercial channels, and bands so special that a label would not dare to release their material. Pretty much any band we think would fit in there basically, we are not restricting ourselves to any genre. This part of Misantrof can be a lot of things. But it is mostly bands that either have a label or are dead and forgotten projects.

HN: Is there also a selectiveness about the new projects you support? What criteria do you look for when gaining new creative partners?
V: That depends on which part of Misantrof you want to be a part of really. The anti label part of Misantrof is setting the criteria just as high as a label would with one very important difference – commercial considerations do not play a part in deciding who to work with. We base it strictly on musical quality. The quality of the music you find here is such that it could, and should, be released by any label, except that we got them first. So the criteria are kinda tough. In the music archives we have lower demands, not on the quality of the music itself, but we will look the other way when it comes to the quality of the production – i.e. it does not need to have good sound. It just has to be interesting and have some kind of historical value for the future generations.

HN: Which currently active bands are working with Misantrof? Are there any planned releases from these that we should look out for?
V: I hate making lists because I always miss someone off, so apologies if I do but at the moment we have A Waste of Talent, Dos Hellhypnosis, Eirik Skrangle, Machine Insufficiency, Toxic Death, The Small Penis Syndromes (am I allowed to say Penis on Hierophant Nox? – no you fucking aren’t- Ellen) and Vrangsinn.
The very first vinyl release from Misantrof ANTIRecords is about to make its debut. It will be the "Happy Fukking Holocaust" EP from Toxik Death. We are releasing a limited collector’s edition of this fantastic punkrockthrash attack. That one is in production right now. The band is currently in studio recording a full length, also to be released on Misantrof.
We also plan a release with my solo project this year but I'm not sure if we will print it or not. I did not release the previous one in any physical format and have not decided yet what I will do with "Phobia"
We are planning to do a full length with punkrocker Eirik Skrangle. That man is a first class poet and it will be a pleasure working on that album later this year.
There are other releases in the pipeline with different bands, for both sections on Misantrof and we may even expand it with a brand new section but we will let you know more about that when we are ready.

HN: Misantrof also functions as an archive for bands who have moved on or split up. You’ve said that this preserves worthy music for future generations – should this be the aim of musical creation? Do you think musicians compose with an eye to their own posterity?
V: We are musicians you know. We just want all of you to love us and worship us a lot, thank you! We also want you to keep on buying our merchandise and we all would really like to be immortal. On top of this we also want to have sex with your girlfriends. That's just the way it is. Haha. Nothing more to add really.

HN: Much of Misantrof’s outlook separates money-making (and therefore ‘work’) from art – what is it about this distinction that is so important? How is it that the modern world has lost touch with it?
V: True artists create because they are artists and cause they have to do it or else they would go mad. The opposite applies to the plastic music the major labels will puke in your direction any chance they get. This music is targeted music, specially designed to sell an album on the basis of one hit you already heard someone sing with different lyrics yesterday. This is not art; it’s just mass-produced plastic copies of the real deal. Of course, artists deserve money just as much as people deserve real artists! Can you remember there was a time when music actually meant something and was real art? I want that back. Let music be art once more

HN: You do describe the bands participating in the project as ‘brave’ – what is it that they risk?
V: You pretty much know that yourself I think. These ideas are pretty insane and extreme you know. And we don't have the slightest clue what we are doing, and it seems most of the world will misunderstand and assume we are waging our very own war, or that there is some hidden agenda. On top of that they risk not making it at all. I would call them brave any day for still putting their trust into our madness in spite of everything! Haha!



HN: With the proliferation of the internet and illegal downloading, the question of art and ownership has become a hot topic. Is Misantrof a reaction against such matters, or is it the logical harnessing of new technologies and attitudes?
V: We respect the artists copyright on their works a lot actually, but we don't think the system today is working very well as it is completely outdated. We strongly agree that an artist’s rights should be protected and we want to apply a creative commons licence to any music released on Misantrof, simply cause it make perfect sense: it will hold up in court and will let the artists decide for themselves what can, or can't, be done with their work; for instance whether they want to allow others to use it for free and what, to each individual band, constitutes commercial use of their material and therefore not free. Simple and clean. The point to emphasise is that Misantrof NEVER owns any of the releases on Misantrof and has no rights whatsoever over the material. These always remain with the artist and they are completely free to licence their rights to any label out there should they want to. All we ask is that the music can remain on the site as long as it exists.

HN: Digital tracks and downloading cut costs and grant access to a wider audience, but many music fans will never leave behind a love of vinyl… how do you strike a balance between the two? As we’ve discussed, you will be releasing vinyl in the future.
V: We are looking forward to this actually. It will be cool to get out some nice vinyl on the market. I’m old fashioned and CDs are totally worthless in my eyes so we will not print them. The bands can do that though if they want. We’d like to release a lot of vinyl, but we have to do it step by step, since we do all the work with Misantrof on volunteer basis, and we experiment as much as our tight budgets will allow us to - so failing is not an option.

HN: Where does the music fan sit between an artist and their output (and an anti-label)? Is their market-leading/market-led demand a warning influence, or is the audience a positive factor?
V: Because Misantrof is not in it to make money, we can afford not to worry about pandering to the majority of fans and just let the musicians create the kind of music they want to create, and decide what they want to do with their art, and how they want to promote it. This is not a luxury the normal labels can afford, and many force their bands to create something they might not actually want to, simply because fans will buy it.
But of course we want the bands to generate as much interest in their work as possible. After all - we are here to help them. We like to think of ourselves not so much as a label, but more like a home for independent artists who are independent because they want to be. Many are musicians who do not need to be on a label to reach their audience. These bands want to do it their own way, and we try to help them a little along the road. We will help out the artist any way we can really with the resources we have. We want to educate artists too. Show them the tools that are at their disposal today so they see that it is possible to do things themselves and be in control of every aspect of their own art.
With the Internet the only barriers between the fan and the artist are the barriers that the artists want to impose themselves. Some artists like to keep in touch with fans and some hate it. But the options are endless today. You choose!

HN: You’ve described Misantrof as a ‘child’; in what ways do you plan for it to mature? What are your highest ambitions for the project?
V: A child stumbling around in the dark, without any idea about what to do or how to do it, but it keeps on trying to do it anyway.
Misantrof is a child. Completely! We're just trying to figure out how we can live with the nasty pirates out there who also happen to be our fans. That's quite a riddle to solve you know. I think we are doing ok so far but I wish we knew what the hell we were doing. Misantrof will mature with time. We have to try and fail a little first. So please excuse us and keep on smiling and enjoy the music we actually do put out :) The plans for the future will vary a little on a day-to-day basis, as we are an experiment after all. And we have fun from time to time with it too!

HN: If I may ask about yourself – your own album "Moon Psychedelia Collection" was released on Misantrof in 2008. Can you tell us some more about the inspirations behind this release? Has it been well received?
V: I think maybe 20 or 30 people even noticed I released that one. As I am a musician and probably am a little mad as well, I forgot to tell people I released it. But that's ok. That album was of course something I happened to do by accident. It’s mostly stuff I recorded while waiting for band members to show up but never did.
I originally planned to just put the music up on a page as a collection and never really thought about making it into an album. But in no time at all I had enough material for an album and was actually quite amazed by this weird creation, because I never thought I had it in me to produce music that was even remotely similar to this. This first album was inspired by the grey shades of life, and nights under the enchanting moon.
I just completely loved it - "Moon Psychedelia Collection" was a really refreshing adventure for me. I am eager to do a lot more weird music like that!

HN: What can we expect from your forthcoming "Phobia" release? Have you found yourself branching into different media over time, or have you always wished to adopt a multi-media approach?
V: The idea behind "Phobia" is not old at all - January I think.... But video and graphics have always been something I found very interesting and I have done a lot of experimenting with them over the years. I want to create something that will be a far better product than can be released on a CD, with all the limitations that are inherent in that product. I want to make the entire album audiovisual with a lot of extra options you will never get in the CD format. "Phobia" as a release will be targeted at your TV, not only your stereo.
Also since I think there is already too much ME in me! To be able to watch this one myself without being bored, I invited the rest of the world to contribute visuals as well. This way no one knows what the hell I am creating. Not even myself. I really love to work like this cause it's a big challenge, and what I am doing now has never been done before to my knowledge. I will love this release. Maybe you will like it too. Check it out when I am ready to show you!

HN: What are your other plans and commitments for the coming months?
V: New Carpathian Forest album, new Nattefrost album and new Vrangsinn album, and a lot of other things. You really don't want to know!

HN: Lastly… what does extreme music continue to offer mankind, and why should be continue to support it?
V: Music is fantastic you know. One of those things that make life a little better, and that will always either be enjoyed or hated by someone somewhere. It doesn't matter if it is extreme or not, or what musical style it is. There are only two kinds of music in this world. There is good music and there is bad music. Only you can decide what you want to like. And it is very simple. Support the good music!!!