Interview with Ian Alba

RavenzCraft Arts Presents 

Ian "Black" Alba 

First I want to Thank and Welcome you to the RavenzCraft Arts Interview Project , is an inspiration to get to talk and know more about the artists and creators of today, this interview has been long awaited and im glad we finally get to talk and let the public get to know a bit more about you.

Ian has also been a supporter and cover artist for our facebook and instagram pages, as has become a personal friend of ours id also like to thank you for that!

1.So Ian, we understand you are an artist and illustrator for Deviant Art and many other collaborative projects, for those of us who dont already know, can you tell us a bit about what you do? where you are from? 

Well, I am of Colombian nationality .... I started as a simple illustrator in graphic matters in Germany in the year 2009 .... at this time I worked making designs for political organizations like die grünen and other things for associations of environmental protection in Denmark called The WDCS (Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society) from there and in conjunction with the music that I listen to, I started doing things like PC wallpapers more than anything and I have also done some things for public events, music concerts and things like that ....

 2.Ok so lets go back, when was it that you first started creating artwork? I mean we all have art class in school but when was it that you really picked up drawing and illustrating as a hobby or art?

Well ... this comes from when I was very young, because my father had a graphic arts company and he was also a very good painter of oil and things like that ..... but at that time I decided to exploit my skills for the drawing, becoming a tattoo artist ..... but speaking of my passion for designing images, I owe this to a great grand graphic arts master named Adam Tsiolas .....His amazing works were what prompted me to delve a bit more into digital graphic design.

3.Did you have any specific artist or creators that inspired to start creating art yourself?

What are some of your personal favorite illustrators?

My greatest masters of illustration have been Alan Lee and John Howe (The Lord of the Rings) and Yaroslav Gerzhedovich .

And of course my all time inspiration , Master Adam Tsiolas.

4.How did you start getting recognized? How did you get involved with Deviant Art? did you simply start uploading art to the internet yourself?

The person responsible for this was someone who has supported me a lot in all this ... inside and outside the virtual field ... I got to know with some of my first jobs and from there I started the passion to design and design non-stop .....

Hekata Rusimova ..... This great woman gave a very important turn in my artistic life with her support and good contacts in the musical medium.

5.Do you have interest in traditional practices or spiritual followings? 

if so, does this help to inspire your ideas for artwork?

I think music inspires you the same way as your examples.. to create something with your own stamp or signature .....

Obviously you have to fill culturally with many themes, especially if you are a follower of an artist and its musical genre ....



6.What kind of equipment or programs do you use for creating digital art? can you share with us any favorite programs or software you have used to create with?

I'm an old school graphic designer .....

when computers did not exist and everything had to do it with a pencil and a sheet of paper .... Obviously life is responsible for making you move forward by force, but in terms of digital design I am very simple .....

I use the programs that everybody has on their computers ... the question is to know how to use them well .....

Things like the corel and the photoshop ..... nothing more ....

7. I understand that you also create artwork for band album covers and things like that, what are your future goals with your art? where do you want to ideally take this? 

Yes, of course ... I've done many images dedicated to bands that had a lot of success in the past (a sort of Tribute)

and I'm also making images of contemporary bands ....

I really like music and I've done a lot of works just like Fan-Art ..... obviously hoping that some day one of my images will be chosen for the cover of some CD or that I will ....

the truth, it's more, Love for Art.

8.What about music? do you have any older favorites you listened to in the past? and what about today, who are some of your current favorite musical artists?

 I have always been inclined towards Black Metal ..... and something about Folk .....

I grew up listening to Black Sabbath in my childhood and then everything changed when Evol came into my life in the year of 1993 ....

I think I'm the biggest Evol fan ... I even have a page called " Evol Cult "  that together with other great friends we make a tribute to these great musicians.

Falkenbach also marked my life with his great songs .....

and now, the Epic Black Metal and the athmospheric Black Metal fill my life completely .....

Being the top of the list, SummoninG, Emyn Muil, NumenoR.

9.Tell us more about your creative process, do you use music or have a special setting or mood you set up for creating your artwork?

do you have a studio or place to work out of or is it just at home for now?

Yes, I believe that music is 90% of the inspiration that is needed to create ...

there is no comparison to what is achieved when the environment is conducive, but without music it will never be the same .....

At home there will always be that special corner to devote to what you really love doing ... of course.

10. Do you have any current or future projects that you are excited about and working on you can tell us about?

Yes of course .... I have two invitations from bands to create their logos and if everything goes well, I will be creating the cover for their CDs and other things .... for the moment is all I can say and trusting that everything comes out all right.

11. I personally wanted to ask you, have you ever created artwork for an official published book or would you be interested in doing this in the future? 

The reason for asking is because im creating a sort of collaborative book, which will feature submissions, art, and knowledge from a few chosen people from all over the world, i was hoping you would be interested, and could possibly create some custom art or graphic details for it?

I have been involved in some things, but nothing that has been important ..... but obviously I am open to continue exploring and exploiting my potential, always trying to make my work and my efforts and dedication pleasant for others ... Of course you can count on me ..... !!!

12. So if its ok to ask, What else do you enjoy doing for fun? concerts, travel, parties ? tell us a bit about what you like to do on your free time?

Have you met any cool or interesting people through your art career that you are actually friends with now?

Well ... my passion is the images ..... all the time I'm with something on this in my head ... I'm not a very sporty person, but I refuse to use the car and I really like to walk ..... and my greatest virtue, I think it's that I'm a good beer drinker .....Of course, if ..... I had the honor of chatting with great legends of music ... obviously from the one I hear ... but this I owe to a large extent to the person who made My whole career as a designer was worth it ..... Hekata Rusimova and his immense knowledge about music and especially his great friendships ... I could get in touch with people that until then I considered untouchable people.

13.  As an artist im sure you have had your ups and downs, and making money off of it is often very hard to do, what is your advice for other artists like yourself? anything you would tell yourself if you could go back a few years and change something? I personally understand as i creator myself, you have to love what you do because it is very time consuming and takes alot to create something with quality..do you agree?

Yes At this moment, making money with this kind of work is very difficult, because nowadays, anyone with a computer and two simple programs can do anything without having experience ...

but there are many things why experience makes a difference .....

because many times it is not about simply putting an image or a logo in a photo ..... behind this there is much more .....

with this I do not want to discourage anyone, on the contrary, practice makes the Master .....

obviously every profession has its ups and downs ... and its moments of crisis, when you wonder if at some point all your effort will be worth it .... but regardless of all that, the love for what I do is what drives me to keep going no matter what....

Well I just want to end this interview by saying that is a very great honor and opportunity to have you as a friend and a supporter and cover artist for projects.

Your artwork is very unique and i have not seen anything like it...so we encourage you to continue your great work as it inspires us and many others around the world as well!

Thank you we look forward to what the future brings!

-Tim Raven Rotar

Follow and support Ian Alba and his artwork at this link below 

https://www.deviantart.com/ian6black/art/Ian-Alba-Summoning-759457483

Interview with Nils Edstrom of Hindarfjall

RavenzCraft Arts Presents 

Nils Edstrom of
Hindarfjall

Hindarfjall hails from Örgryte, Sweden and consists of many great talented musicians

Nils A. Edström - vocals, guitar

Samuel Tibell - vocals, percussion

John Lennartsson - vocals, percussion

Dani Hellwig - vocals

Cecilia Mix - guitar, vocals

Maja Peining - flute, vocals

Joel Andreasson - flute, vocals

We have been impatiently waiting to release this interview as Hindarfjall has been one of our "under the radar" favorites for the past few years now..
There is so much hidden talent out there that goes undiscovered, but thanks to social media and advances in technology and our efforts here at RavenzCraft Arts,,.. We are able to hear and connect with great music and artists from all over the world!

For those of us who may not know, can you tell us a bit about the background of your music, where your from and the meaning of the name of your band "Hindarfjall"? 

From what I have researched it is said that it is a story of a mountain where Brynhilder lives, is this where you get the name from?

Hindarfjäll was founded by my friend Elias and I back in 2014. We were both interested in the norse mythology and very facinated by nordic folk music, so we basically decided to give it a try. When we started to record our first demo we simply wanted the project to have a name, and the name became Hindarfjäll. Yes, exactly. That’s where we got the name from.

2.I have also noticed you Create amazing artwork and Bindrune art such as your symbol on the new album covers..can you tell us what this specific symbol means? 

Thank you very much! The artwork and bindrune is made by the amazing artist Dominik Schäfer (Wappenschmied). The bindrune basically consist of the letters in ”Hindarfjäll”

3.Can you tell us about what inspires you to create? 

Is their anyone in particular who first sparked your love and interest for music? 

There are a lot of things that inspire me to create music and I play in three bands at the moment. All the three bands plays different types of music and therefor the inspiration comes from different sources. 
For an example the inspiration to Hindarfjäll comes from nature and norse mythology while the inspiration to my two other bands comes from something totally different. 
So everything depends on my mood really! I’ve always loved music as long as I can remember. 
I started to play the guitar when I was twelve years old and the band that got me inspired to play music was actually Guns N’ Roses. It wasn’t until the age of fourteen I started to listen to ”darker” stuff. 

4.So can you tell us a bit about how your band got together? 
Were you already friends with some members , How did this all become "official"? 





As I mentioned before Elias and I started Hindarfjäll back in 2014 but just for fun. 
When we uploaded the song called ”Så Som Träden Viskar Hans Namn” on our facebook page we got a lot of good feedback which we didn’t expect at all. 
We did it for ourselves and basically wanted to try to make nordic folk music. Elias had a very busy schedule at that time so he eventually quit the project. I continued to write and record songs on my own because I thought it was a lot of fun. 
Suddenly Hindarfjäll had some listeners and some time after that my best friend Samuel joined me in the project. Today Hindarfjäll consists of seven members and we’re all friends from before! 
The band got ”official” when we got a request to play on a festival in England. That’s when I decided Hindarfjäll should become a band as well. 

6.I have to say I have been a fan of your music for awhile now the first song I heard that really caught me was "Hjulet Vander" from 2016 I believe, obviously your music has a Pagan/Norse vibe to it just curious if you don't mind sharing, do you have a certain spiritual following that inspires your creativity and work? 

Good question! None of us are a part of any religious activity or so but I can only speak for myself. 
The only thing I follow and believe in is nature. My grandmother has actually a lot to do with this. 
When I was a child I spent a lot of time with my grand parents and it was the best thing I knew. My grandmother showed me the way to nature like her father did to her. 
We always went for long walks through the woods and she taught me about the trees, the birds, the animals etc. She also told me that she could see essence in the forest like elves and trolls. I didn’t know what she was talking about and I thought it was incredibly weird, haha. 
One thing she also did was to tell me old tales about nature that her father had told her. When I got older and started to get interested in norse mythology and the old knowledge I realized that my grandmother had been teaching me this my whole life. But she never spoke about norse mythology or anything like that, and I don’t know why. 
She passed away when I was seventeen and I never had the chance to speak about the things I had on my mind. Back to the question... I follow all the religions that have its feet in the soil and that worship the only true thing we have - Nature. 
The norse religion is just one piece of a big puzzle. 
That’s what I think. 

7.I have also listened to your new releases as of late "Middnattssol" and "Dolda Krafter" very good, can you tell us a little about these songs and their meanings? 

Thank you very much! ”Midnattssol” is not about anything really. Samuel and I wanted to try to make a song inspired by the native american music combined with our nordic folk.



 ”Dolda Krafter” is something deeper though. 
The song is basically about ancient ”nature powers”, about gods, spirits and the balance between light and darkness. 
It’s totally up to the individual. There’s no right or wrong. 
We like to tell people that they should make up their own meaning. 
The song may mean something totally different for us than for the people who listens to it. You don’t have to understand the lyrics to feel what it’s about, so to speak. 

8.So what are you up to these days? Do you have any other interesting hobbies or things you enjoy to do on your free time? 

The band are actually spread out through the whole country. The only once who live in Gothenburg at the moment are John and I. That’s why we’re not very active. I can only speak for myself and at the time I’m not doing much. I’m searching for jobs and at my spare time I create music. That’s it! Haha... 

9.Do you have any projects or any upcoming events you can reveal to us?

Yes, with Hindarfjäll we have two events coming up.
 One with Grimner and Fehreid this friday (9/02/17) and one the 5th of may I think. 
We will be playing on a viking boat in the swedish lake called Mälaren, which will be pretty cool! 
We also have some changed plans for the future. Before we release the album ”Från Tidernas Begynnelse” we will record an EP in a studio called Nordic Sound Lab with only new songs. I can’t tell you when though, but probably this spring! 

10.Are you open to creating or Collaboration with other projects or artists in the future,? 

Absolutely! Everything that sounds interesting....



11.So you have a new album/project on the way correct? can you give us a hint more about the time frame of release and anything special you can briefly tell us about it?...I understand their is info you cannot tell us yet,.. but anything new we dont know you can tell us?


 We have a lot of plans, dreams and expectations... 
The things I can reveal is that we have new material on the way and our plan is to release three singles and a music video before we start focusing on our debut album. 

I can’t tell you when it will be released though. Shortly after we finished the shooting of the music video every single clip dissapeared from the camera so now we have to do it all over again, which is quite annoying.. 

Hindarfjäll is a project that I started for myself and for no one else. That’s basically the reason why we only have demos on youtube. They’re far from completed and let me tell you that this is only the beginning. 
That’s what’s so cool about it, we haven’t even started yet and we already have a lot of people that likes the music. Samuel and I are beyond overwhelmed!

12.So on to another subject, you are also planning to do a collab project with a certain artist or band in the future as well,,can you tell us anything about that? 

Yes, that’s correct. A couple of months ago we did an amazing gig with two swedish bands called Grimner (folk metal) and FehReid (nordic folk). 

We had a great night and everybody had so much fun. Later on I decided to ask FehReid if they wanted to do a collaboration with us. FehReid uses a lot of cool and old instruments but what they don’t use a lot are vocals. 

I though it might be cool to try to make a song or two together. Almost at the same time I talked with FehReid about doing this collaboration, a guy contacted Hindarfjäll on facebook and asked us if we were interested in recording some songs with him in Varberg (where he study music production).

 I thought that this was a perfect opportunity for the collaboration. I can’t tell you more than we’ll enter the studio together in the beginning of December... 

13.How are things beyond music and work? do you plan to make any trips or see any events/concerts or festivals yourself for fun ? 

There are a lot of cool upcoming shows in Gothenburg. One concert that interest me the most must be Enslaved, Gaahls Wyrd and Skogen. My money situation could be better, so I don’t know for sure if I’m going to the show. 
What I do know is that I cannot miss Månegarm Open Air and Midgardsblot next year!

 14.Can you tell us One of your favorite musical artist or creator these days? 

My two all time favorites must be Wardruna and Månegarm. Månegarm, which is a swedish folk metal band from Norrtälje, was one of the bands that got me into extreme metal and folk music. If you listen to their acoustic folk songs you can definitely hear where my inspiration comes from. I’m telling you, if you haven’t heard them yet you should really check them out.

15.Ok well it was good talking with you.. this last question is open for you to mention anything you want, ..any advice or words of inspiration for other musical artists trying to make it and get discovered? 

Take risks and do something you believe in while having a great time! 
Thank you very much for having me!

Special Thanks to Nils and Everyone at Hindarfjall!
You guys have been one of the bands we stumbled upon on our long nights of work and research and became one of our many favorites among all the new great hidden talent out there...Keep working and moving forward we all are listening...


Follow and Support Hindarfjall here at

https://www.facebook.com/hindarfjall.music/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbapIIzz7RIJQY6tAbU2KIw


Watch the official promotional music video for Hindarfjall on youtube here 

Follow and Support RavenzCraft Arts here for more interviews and music videos here at:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC95bFF-xNLMcxAzRO7rFiCQ



https://www.facebook.com/RavenzCraftArts/

Happy Halloween! 
2018
Happy Samhain!

Interview with Peter Stahl of Leidungr

LEIDUNGR is a Nordic Ritual Folk project formed in 2010.

 LEIDUNGR quickly grew into a unique separate entity with visual assistance found in Freki Wodenswolf, a talented artist known his unique handcrafted creations, made from natural materials as leather, wood, horn, bone and metal. Perfectly in tune with the project’s inspiration and Nordic roots, Freki has provided much of the artwork that accompanies LEIDUNGR‘s outputs. The band made their debut via the limited edition “Hell Eder Asar” 7″ EP, released on Fronte Nordico in 2011, which quickly started to build anticipation surrounding the release of a full album. 

First I just want to thank you for your patience, and welcome you to the RavenzCraft Arts Interviews Project, 
It is an honor to speak with you and learn about your music and  what inspires you and your process of creating..

1.So lets start off by you explaining a bit about your musical project Leidungr, 

When did you first officially start and can you briefly explain what Leidungr is trying to express and create with this project? 

  Hello my friend and thank you for your kind and generous words.  We started Leidungr in 2010, wanting to create a project that was inspired in large part by old Scandinavian culture and lore. 
We wanted to make music worthy of these themes, a soundtrack if you will, to this kind of stuff. It always striked me as stupid that you should have to settle for just pop or rock music if your a historically and philosophically interested person. 
You should have music that can match your interests and temperament... This is the type of art and music that we like to make.

2.The next question I would like to ask is about your interests and people you were inspired by and looked up to as a young child, what sparked your interest in music? anyone or any project in specific that made you decide to start creating and producing your own music?

As long as I can remember I have always been a philosophical person. I wanted to know more and learn more. I was curious and fascinated by the unknown, by what lied beyond immediate perception. 

I liked music that delved into these matters. When I got older I discovered neofolk/martial industrial, musical genres that explored  concepts like mythology and ideology on a much deeper level than metal had ever done. 
There was also a freedom from a kind of formal orthodoxy here ( for example that you must use drums, guitar and bass to make music). What mattered was not how the music technically was being put together, but the IDEAS that were manifested through lyrics and sound. This is where I creatively and spiritually felt at home.

3.I notice your music is mainly Nordic and folk genre, can you share with us your personal interests in your own spiritual or traditional path ? Do you have a certain following that inspires your music?

Im very interested in culture, not just Nordic culture but also generally interested in various forms of mythologies and philosophies. With that being said, the Scandinavian history and myths holds a very special place in my heart because they are part of my heritage, my history and identity.

4.Can you tell us a bit about your "creation process" how do you begin creating a song,?

any programs, recording equipment or anything you use that you have had progress with that you can mention to others out there looking to create their own music as well?

 We use a mixture of folk instruments, ambient elements and industrial ingredients. The main thing here are the ideas behind the music, not to follow some dogmatic scheme of how it should be done. People that obsess over what instruments are being used are in my opinion missing the whole point. If the right spirit is there, it simply does not matter how its done.



6.So living in the Sweden must be amazing,.. can you tell us anything you do for fun or inspiration out there?, any places or events you attend that you may want to mention or share that you have been to or done in the past?

 There are lots of interesting historical places to visit of course, like castles and rune stones, old churches and so on...  But the Swedish people are not taught or encouraged to be interested in or to take pride in their history. 
This is one of the things that we try to change with Leidungr. There is a war going on, not waged with bullets or swords, but with words and ideas.

7.Have you traveled to any amazing or historic locations in the world for content or to see someone perform, or anywhere you went just to visit personally?

 Just the nature in itself in Sweden is quite incredible. 
You got deep and dark snow covered forests that goes on for miles and miles. Breathtaking and majestic wilderness.

Unspoiled nature is truly a beautiful and wonderful thing, and its with great sadness and anger that we witness the destructive effects on nature because of human stupidity and greed.

8.I also notice you are connected and support with other music artists and projects like Arditi , have you had any collaborations or people you have met that you were excited to have the opportunity to work with ?

 I have done several guest appearences for Arditi and its always an honor to do this work. Of course Leidungr is very closely connected to Arditi.

10.So who are you a fan of? can you share a few artists or people you have interest in currently? who is in your current playlist?

 Sagentoeter is a very overlooked neofolk band I think. The same goes for the apocalyptic folk band Changes in my opinion. 
They started in the 1960s and have put out some amazing songs. 

I also support bands very similar to Leidungr like Wardruna, forndom and Heilung. Lets make this music big! 
Remember good music is good because its good, not because its "underground". And music that sucks doesnt suck because its mainstream, but simply because it sucks. Its the good stuff that deserves to reach the masses and become "mainstream culture".

11. So I really like your style of music and art, and i just recently heard your new release Nordlandens Odefjall, Do you have anything planned or any upcoming ideas you can share with us that we may not have heard about yet?

We are currently working on a lot of new stuff so keep your eyes and ears open!

12.This is sort of off topic of music, but i notice you have a sort of meditative feeling and vibe to your music,  do you have interest in Runic art and or the mysteries behind the uses of the nordic Runes and historic folklore of magical practice in your area or any part of the world?

If so i have a few artists and researchers to recommend you to...

 Yes of course Im very interested in these things.  Like I said I have a huge general interest in things like psychology, art and religion. But being Scandinavian myself, the Scandinavian religion and culture feels extra close to me. Im always very happy to receive new recommendations on books and so on thank you.

13. So one of our many goals with RavenzCraft Arts is to help other upcoming artists succeed and progress to the next level, which can often be a very difficult thing to do, can you give any advice or things you have learned in your path as a musical artist that you would say to a fellow musician trying to create a project like something similar to yours?

Put up small and concrete goals! Your much more likely to actually get stuff done with this strategy.

14.Well im interested in seeing more of your work and possibly throwing a few ideas at you for possible collaboration projects in the future... if you are open to it, and have time to do so of course,,,

So I Thank you for talking with us, and leave this question open for you to say a closing statement to all the fans, followers and readers out there...

 Thank you very much for your interesting and well thought through questions!
I want to take this opportunity to thank all the people that have supported us! 
The response has been great and there is a lot of new stuff from Leidungr to come in the future.

Special Thank You to Peter Stahl and all the people involved in creating this amazing music!

Keep our History and Traditions alive!

Follow, Support and purchase music from Leidungr at these links below:

https://leidungr.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/leidungr/

Follow and Support RavenzCraft Arts on Youtube 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC95bFF-xNLMcxAzRO7rFiCQ

Our Next Interview features Nils Edstrom of 

Hindarfjall

https://www.facebook.com/hindarfjall.music/?ref=profile_intro_card

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