You have been labelled somewhat as “hippies” and some might say that playing black metal and those sorts of liberal earth loving ethics might be diametrically in opposition. How do you feel about that? I mean it is obvious you don’t think they are self-exclusionary.

If you listen to BM, but you don’t know what phase the moon is in, or what wild flowers are blooming then you have failed. It is shocking to me that one could be seriously interested in Black Metal and not be deeply committed to radical ecology. Is BM supposed to be about concrete high rises, suburbs, television, an easy modern existence with access to 4-tracks and corpse paint from the local hot topic? No! The music is about wild forests, unfettered rivers, nature: furious and vengeful.

Frankly, I think a good portion of Black Metallers haven’t thought too hard about why they are into the music. I remember reading an interview with Garm of Ulver, I think in Michael Moynihan’s “Lords of Chaos”. Garm just couldn’t say enough horrible things about the youthful malcontents who buy the majority of Black Metal records; I tend to agree with him. Black Metal is a fairly easy thing to get into. There is a style, a sound, a set of beliefs – it’s all there to be purchased or downloaded with nary a thought of one’s own needed to get the whole package. There is deep truth underneath the façade of grim posturing, but one needs to search for it.