This Saturday we’ve received a devastating news about the death of Andrea Meyer (also known as Nebel) was killed by a lunatic shooting to random people with a bow. Alongside Andrea also four other women were murdered during the Kongsberg attack.
She was involved in such projects as Hagalaz’ Runedance, Nebelhexë, Aghast Manor and – last but not least – Aghast, which “Hexerei Im Zwielicht Der Finsternis” classic album was a huge inspiration for many contemporary dark/ritual ambient musicians.
As a small memorial dedicated to this very special artist we would like to present you a short interview we did with her exactly 8 years ago on the occasion of our “Attich Ebulum” compilation where Andrea has contributed a track with her Aghast Manor project. This interview has never been published online before, it was available only to those who have purchased the compilation. But giving the circumstances, we’ve decided to post it online.
Let’s treat it as a farewell to this beautful mind.
The interview was conducted by Sylwia Partyka in 2013.
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How did you first get involved with making music, and what inspired you to do so?
Well, I started off being more of a writer, I always have enjoyed writing stories and poems. Then I really wanted to pursue a career in modelling and acting. It was more out of coincidence that I suddenly started to write lyrics and then added music to it. So for the past years music making has been my main thing, something I am mostly known for. I call myself a ‘recording artist’, because I mainly see myself as an artist creating music. I always like to challenge myself and I explore and create music of several different genres. Often combining them with my other artistic expressions. Music is the perfect way to express emotions, it’s the most powerful tool to influence the listener’s moods. I love to express emotions and thus connect with other people’s feelings.
As a female musician in an alternative/underground scene, what is your opinion with regard to women being accepted and embraced as musicians? Do you feel their activities are being rendered more challenging by the fact that they are female, or has the underground music world gotten used to the idea?
Not really. Though it happened to me a few times that I was referred to as ‘the singer’, and it was automatically assumed that my live musicians were the composers of my songs, and not me. I got really pissed off when that happened. But this happened to me in different genres, I would even say the more commercial ones were worse. I don’t see myself as being part of any underground scenes, I always find that term ‘scene’ quite limiting. I always say that I am an independent artist who creates what comes to her mind and some songs are more commercial than others. What is important for is that my works always are deep and artistic, but I like them to be for everyone. But of course the music of Aghast Manor is rather underground indeed and thus mostly enjoyed by those with special interest in horror soundtrack themes. Aghast Manor for me is a side-project, an outlet to express my fascination for the macabre, morbid and grotesque aethetics. I like to invoke the atmosphere of those old, surreal silent movies. And as you know, the music of Aghast Manor is rather popular amongst major film-directors (such as Scott Derrickson who used the music for his thriller Sinister). So I never had any problems of being accepted as a female musician. However, I experience a few times that some people out there seem to have a problem with me being a female artist who just does her own thing, it’s like they feel provoked because they cannot put me in any box. So I sometimes get rude comments on the net from guys, like ehm, ‘whore’… ‘what makes you so special’, and other idiotic stuff, hehe.
Do you find it difficult to combine your artistic endeavours with your everyday ones (family, job, private life etc)?
No, my art is my job. I work everyday on either music, writings, designs, promotion, budgets or photoshoots… with a few extra acting jobs. It’s my life and everyone around me knows it. The only problem with it is that I make my own hours, thus my family think they can disturb me whenever they want at daytime, because to them, I am at home. This can be a little frustrating sometimes. For me it’s all about priorities. I prioritize my closest family, my artistic career, then my fitness, training, dog walking etc. This means I almost never have time, or even interest, to go out on a friday or saturday night to party. For me this would be a waste of precious time. It’s a choice.
“Being a woman”, does it have any special meaning to you?
Hmm, I don’t know… I just love it. I love being a beautiful woman, I love to dress sexy… What I love most is that I appear to have quite a strong presence… apparantly I can look quite intimidating, hehe. I didn’t really have a usual upbringing. I learned early in life how to fight, I was hanging out in gangs with the tough boys, I only had guy friends, and I still do really. I am really into strong, raw, animalistic ideals, I love fighting sports. In my writings, such as my book “Feed My Shadow Nature”, I talk a lot about how I want women to be fighters and able to kick some ass. I really hate this ‘thin’ look trend we have, why on earth do women want to look thin, in other words weak? I think it’s just another form for sexism. No I want women to look strong and fit…
remember your inner predator girl!
What is your personal relationship to cats, and what made you agree to participate in our project?
I have a close relationship with animals… I love having cats, and often the cats find me… it’s like they choose their humans. I really like siamese cats, their nature is just so adorable and unique. I like to participate in all kinds of projects that seem interesting. In today’s fast and shallow internet generation there aren’t many deeper and ‘real’ artistic projects around…
Tell us a few things about your latest release, and your plans for the future.
The latest release was Aghast Manor’s Penetrate. The song Red-Haired Jezebel is from the first Aghast Manor album Gaslights. My next release will be a new Andréa Nebel album. And I just finished another novelette (story) called The Body In The Skeleton house.
Santa Sangre 