Esben and The Witch reflect on the potent darkness of Older Terrors

Older Terrors was released back in November - what was it like letting go of something you worked so hard on?

I go through various stages once an album is finished, for a short while its all I listen to, whilst its being mixed and mastered and everything but thats with a very analytical ear and never especially pleasurable. Then there’s an even shorter period once its finished where I feel like I can listen to it with some degree of distance and dare I say it, enjoyment, and finally there comes the point where I just have to entirely stop listening to it. I feel a certain sense of pride in that we achieved what we set out to but I don’t want to hear it anymore, it’s done. I’ve reached that point with this record now so yeah, I’m good with letting it go.

What made you want to record a four track album?

We all enjoy longer tracks that unfurl gradually or swerve in different directions so I guess it's no surprise that we feel drawn to writing them. I like how demanding of your time they are, especially with the way I find myself listening to music now, hopping from one track to another all the time. I find that a longer track goes some way to restoring a sense of ceremony, for me at least. I set aside time for it when I can settle in and listen on headphones rather than just clicking play and then going back to whatever it was I was doing. So that was the idea, to create four titans that work together as a cohesive whole but also stand tall when parted from their companions.

Was it a risky decision do you think?

I’m not bothered by anything being too risky anymore. I think that the people who like our music appreciate what we’re trying to do even if the songs are long, not structured traditionally or even especially coherently. I feel very glad for that fact, we’ve never been ones for choruses or short bangers.

The majority of album's creation took place in Berlin. Was it an inspiring place to make music?

Personally I find the inspiration doesn’t come so much from my immediate surroundings, I mean I’m sure its influence seeps into the music all the same, just not in any tangible way. Instead it comes from books and films and images or stories that get stuck in my head. Thats not to say Berlin wasn't an inspiring place to write. We were able to get a proper rehearsal room, something we could never afford back in Brighton, and that just enables you to write in a different way. The thing with the pay-by-the-hour rooms, as nice as some of them can be, is that the spectre of time always looms large over you. Not such a problem if you just want to rehearse but if you’re writing I think that pressure is immensely unhelpful and it wasn liberating to not have to worry about it.

What has the album done for you as individuals?

Well it was a big part of my life for two years. I moved to a different country and started carving out an existence for myself in a new city so it's all entangled... in that sense I guess it has been a personal journey of sorts although I’ve never really thought about it in such lofty terms.

How have you shaped your sound over the years?

It's been shaped over the last four or five years by the changing live show and the changing crowds we find ourselves in front of. We are a louder band than we used to be, a more confident one and that has just evolved over time. You can distill all that down to the fact that we enjoy playing heavy passages live so we write more of them! These days we seem to play a lot of heavier rock and metal festivals rather than the more indie-orientated affairs that we started out with, and it seems to me like our music has found a home there. I’m sure that we’ve absorbed different ideas and elements from these surroundings too. I love the fact that the crowds at our shows are so diverse, there is no ’typical’ fan of our band and thats both exciting and gratifying for us.

What sort of reaction are you expecting when you play Older Terrors live?

I’ve been looking forward to it; we were playing all the songs a bit already last year and, considering people hadn’t heard them before, the reaction seemed very positive. They are long, as I’ve already mentioned, so we wanted to have a bigger gap between the album coming out and us touring. To let people spend a bit more time with them before they encounter the live incarnations. I appreciate that they might not seem instantly familiar but I hope that over time they’ll seep in and start making sense.

Do you all have an interest in the history of witches and black magic?

No more than usual. I mean everybody is at least a little interested in these things aren’t they?

The artwork for the record is cool, where did the inspiration for it come from?

We just knew that we wanted the night sky to be on the album cover. That was the simple brief we set out with and then we just let it guide us. The photograph was taken by our good friend, Adam Kola who has relocated to Australia. He took the photograph there, on a expedition into the countryside where the sky is evidently clearer than the one I see each night.

What does the term 'Older Terrors' actually mean?

It comes from Rilke’s Duino Elegies and it refers to those ancient and primal fears that haunt us all. They also explore the sublime, the intoxicating point at which wonder and horror meet. As Rilke himself puts it, far more eloquently than I ever could: "Beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror." I am by no means an expert but I find this idea very inspiring and interesting and it resonates strongly with me, even if my interpretation of these words is very much my own. We have always been interested in this idea of the sublime and how it can manifest itself in music, this time around we set out to explore it much more directly.