Punk Head: Your self-titled single feels like both an introduction and a declaration of intent. What did you discover about Karma Noir during its creation that you hadn't fully understood before?
Karma Noir: The first singles we brought out were created with a different approach in mind: we were anchored in a more "traditional", old-school hardcore and metal vibe at that point. Our aim was to play live – we didn't really focus on putting out much music. The song "Karma Noir" came together organically as we were developing our live set and we started to get a feel for what the band actually was. It's a little weird, but most bands will tell you this: the music you create as a group of people is the result of a strange kind of alchemy between members. Slowly you see an atmosphere, an identity emerging as you create together. "Karma Noir" is the single where we tell listeners: "here is the sound world this project belongs to" and, hopefully, they will want to take part.
Punk Head: You've moved away from a stripped-down hardcore aesthetic towards something more cinematic and layered. Did you feel that your previous sound was no longer capable of expressing what you wanted to say?
Karma Noir: In short: yes. The atmosphere of this song and the rest of the set we haven't recorded yet belongs to a different sound world to our previous output. With "Karma Noir", we needed something heavier, more layered, more rhythmic and altogether more "somber" (both in terms of production and atmosphere). So, we consciously told our producer, Gerald Jans, to reflect that and we really like what he created. Obviously, on our side, we made sure to layer more guitars and record in a way that would enable him to support us in expressing this new direction. We also wanted to balance heaviness and melody (which remains an important part of our identity), so we're not totally abandoning our old tracks (we still play them live, although modified) but that type of production felt "too thin" or "too small" to properly contain what we want to express going forward.
Punk Head: William Blake's idea that opposing forces are necessary for progression seems central to the track. Do you see the tension between brutality and beauty as the defining characteristic of Karma Noir?
Karma Noir: Light and shade are crucial to how we approach writing music. The tension of opposites often leads to interesting outcomes. The song "Karma Noir" still maintains a more classic structure: there are verses, a chorus, a bridge, etc. The next tracks will focus more heavily on contrasts, and their structure will be less immediately recognisable. That doesn't necessarily mean all future songs will follow this path or explore the same themes. But the beauty of metal is that it's a genre where you can really push the envelope, on both ends of the spectrum: really heavy or dissonant or very melodic and atmospheric. But, at the heart of the project, the idea of fate and wrestling with (visible and not-so-visible) obstacles will no doubt remain present.
Punk Head: Your lyrics explore fate, unconscious forces and the possibility of something existing beyond our immediate perception. Is music, for you, a way of exploring ideas that are difficult to approach through ordinary language?
Karma Noir: Definitely. Lyrics are important but music is what gives them weight, expresses what's behind the words. Leonard Bernsetin once said: "music can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable." That's how it feels to us: music is probably both a good outlet (a way of letting off steam) but also a way of letting tension express itself directly. Dissonance is the most obvious way this comes across, but also this shifting between light and shade, clean and harsh vocals, melody and purely rhythmic passages, etc. In the end, we're just a metal band making music of course, but we do pay attention to what we put out and the themes behind the songs – and music is the best medium to express all this for us.
Punk Head: With all four members contributing to the songwriting, how do you ensure that such a diverse range of influences develops into a recognisable collective identity rather than simply a collision of individual tastes?
Karma Noir: The way we tend to approach things is that one or two of us will come with riffs, or even an entire song worked out. But that's when the "real" work begins: we play the song together over and over again, rehearsal after rehearsal. And everyone starts coming up with ideas, tweaks, changes, new riffs, new structures. Initial versions of songs are sometimes barely recognisable once they've gone through this kind of ritual. What could have been a "song by member X" is transmuted into a "song by the band". It's exciting in a way: you don't have full control of the process and songs slowly develop a life of their own. And since Karma Noir explores the themes of fate and obscure forces at work, this approach suits us – and hopefully suits our music too.
