Interviewing Eulen
January 25, 2012
Eulen is one of the most successful post-black/doom bands in the middle-east and Syria. I was honored that they agreed to elaborate on some of their views and journeys along the way in producing music and supporting their fellow metal-head fans and artists in the city.
Hey guys, this is such an honor to finally meet you in your own studio.. We’ve heard there has been some working on a new release, would you please elaborate more to us?
Hey man, thank you very much, actually we've just finished our upcoming EP "Diminished Mass Realm" which will be out soon, and we are preparing for the pre-production for our second album.
I see quite a progress. So, could you tell us about Eulen and how were you set to start a band?
We started in early 2009, the truth is that it was not intended to be, we didn't plan it, just played some tunes that we thought were nice then they turned into parts and tracks then a full serious project.
Where does the name Eulen come from, and what urged you to use it as your band's name?
It's German for Owls, in Arabian culture, an owl is an omen of bad luck and since we've been facing bad luck everywhere and found out that we ourselves are some kind of bad luck bringers to others, so it suited us completely, kind of a funny story.
Which major bands influenced you the most?
Mainly it was Agalloch, some other bands like Katatonia, My Dying Bride, Emperor, lately we've been influenced by a lot of post rock and post metal bands like Alcest, Isis, Godspeed You Black Emperor, and God is an Astronaut.
Yes, I love most of them personally myself, and it shows heavily in your music. We’d like to know the truth behind this awesome studio, and how have you supported the Syrian metal scene?
It's quite an old idea we've always had in mind, at first it was like a home studio to record our own stuff because most of the local studios had that anti-metal attitude or a greedy high price to record it, and they knew nothing about recording and engineering metal music anyway. So we slowly made the our own home studio, then decided to go further and help other bands with their recordings and stuff.
So, what’s the ultimate inspiration that you used to write in such imagery in your album Mother Tree? And how much does it describe your everyday lives as musicians and metal fans?
We tried to share our idea of the path of humanity, creation, love, hate, death, holiness somewhat in an imaginary way through nature and philosophy, and it mainly comes from our personal life experiences.
How difficult was it to produce music genuinely during the situation in the middle east, and how did it affect your spirits as metalheads and musicians?
We went through a lot of hellish situations to make this first step releasing our debut, not in terms of composing but it took us a lot of time to build and purchase our own studio and equipments.
Why is it that only you are in the band? What inspired you to start a duo band?
Nothing, we just knew how to play the instruments that we needed so we didn't need a full band, we could hire them in case we wanted to go live. In addition, you got less band fights.
As Eulen, what do you see your future like, as a band?
We have great plans for the future, every release is going to be different, we like to try new things and experiment with all styles of music but still maintaining our essence.
Will we be seeing you live any time soon?
We are planning on it, we don't know the time and place yet, but it's not in the near future. We really like to go live and do tours, it's the ultimate experience for us.
It was a lovely meeting and I’m looking forward on meeting you soon again, keep up the good work and keep the metal alive.. Any final words?
Many thanks to you and to the Blood or Love webzine team for the interview and the great job supporting metal in middle-east and everywhere in the world. Big thanks to the fans and everyone who supported us. Cheers.
Quite an interesting interview, had so much fun with it, interesting views, and I am definitely looking forward on listening to their new music.
A nocturnal psycho-genocide would be the ultimate solution, nothing better than a massacre in the blackest of nights. Always trust nocturnal authors, they'll always give you the darkest words!
