Hails to the both of you. Thanks for taking some time to answer my questions. How are you both? What is happening in your world?
T- Thank you for having us. I'd say things are fine in my world at the moment, work is fine, family life is fine. I can't really complain to be honest.
J- Everything is as ok as this fucked up world allows it to be I suppose, it has been a strange few years and a lot of people seem to be treading water at the moment.
How did the two of you come together to form Poisonous Reflection?
T- Boredom struck, I had all these thoughts and ideas of a chaotic migraine Inducing project and I needed someone with a creative mindset as well, I spoke with Jyoti about the idea and here we are today. It's great working with Jyoti as we're local to each other and have all the means to record our individual parts at home.
J- I think Tom pretty much summed it up. I had come across Tom on the local scene and understood immediately what he was looking for when he described to me his vision for the project - so things moved on from there pretty quickly. It helps when you are working with somebody who you share a musical understanding with.
Your music is far from accessible in terms of the sound that you guys create. Was the more noise orientated style always the plan or has this developed organically through practice?
T- The project started under the idea of Goth Rock infused Black Metal, if you take the basics of The Sisters Of Mercy, Christian Death etc etc and imagine that fused with Black Metal. That idea kind of went out the window when we decided to branch out a bit and go down a more experimental route. The noise came in almost straight away as you can tell by our first demo, an introduction was needed and I love creating weird and horrible noise, so as you can imagine it came hand in hand and the noise made itself prominent within our sound.
J- I think it was something that just developed naturally in all honesty, I wanted to create a sound uncompromising in terms of its atmosphere, and both myself and Tom have a tendency to explore an experimental approach when it comes to achieving our vision. I'm not going to give too much away, but some of our yet-to-be released tracks are pretty dense soundscapes, and if it helps us reach that feeling of audio-desolation that previously we didn't think possible I think all bets are off.
What do you consider yourselves? A noise project with Black Metal influences or a Black Metal band fused with noise? What are the influences being directed into Poisonous Reflection?
T- Me personally I wouldn't really consider us any particular genre at all, we like to experiment a lot and I think that will make itself more obvious with the upcoming releases. We've spoken about keeping things fresh with each release just so we aren't grouped into one specific genre, it's more fun that way. Influence wise I have a wide range that gets me in the mood for making music. Examples being: Knifedoutofexistence, Morbid Angel, Full Of Hell, Napalm Death, Ramleh, Hadone, Yung Lean, Choir Boy, Caustic Wound, Knoll, Bismuth, Drab Majesty, French Police, Boy Harsher, Anaal Nathrakh.
J- I think I approach this as a Black Metal project, not necessarily just musically, but in terms of those feelings of isolation, desolation and depravity that inspires the music and that the music helps inspire. There is far more to Black Metal these days than corpse-paint and shit riffs, and I hope this is a reflection (no pun intended) of that. Personally, when it comes to crafting the sonic assault that is Poisonous Reflection. I find myself influenced by artists like Lamp of Murmuur, Revenant Marquis, Beherit and Hate Forest. I tend to gravitate towards music that incites feelings of ritual to it - that it is a force of nature rather than just music. It would also be pretty remiss of me not to mention Darkthrone as an overwhelming influence on the way I craft music.
Are the two of you in any other music related projects that you'd care to tell us about?
T- This is my only completely active project.
J- I play guitar and write the music for Vandr, which while it is Black Metal, is at the other end of the spectrum in terms of its melodic approach. It is a far more traditional band set-up and should have some new material released later this year if all goes to plan.
I have also released a track under the name of Deorcwald - which is an Atmospheric Black Metal/ Post-Doom band. Again, it's different to both Poisonous Reflection and Vandr. There are also projects which I contribute to in a completely anonymous way too.
What kind of themes and concepts run through your work? Do you focus heavily on lyrics or do you prefer them to add to the noise?
T- Lyrics wise I don't actually write anything down to use, it's time consuming and I'd rather it be more improvised when I record, obviously I have little ideas in my head that I think would sound good and then the rest just flows with it.
J- Tom tends to take care of mouth noises, but I like to think of vocals as another instrument really. They are an avenue to be explored when adding another layer to our constructed cacophony.
Theme wise, those dark senses of desolation and depravity that I described earlier provide the fundamentals. It's not an ideology as such, more reoccurring despair. The idea of prisons and torture, mostly self-inflicted tend to crop up a lot too.
What kind of response have you had so far to both your debut demo and then your longer release? Any reviews or comments that stick in the memory?
T- The reception for both has been quite positive, which to me was quite surprising as I know Harsh Noise isn't everyone's go to music, but it helps having the break with actual songs so the listener doesn't stray away that easily. I welcome all reviews and comments even if it's bad, at the end of the day we enjoy making this music so a few negative comments won't put us off.
J- You wrote some pretty good words. The response we have had so far has been great. You either get Poisonous Reflection or you don't. It's not for everybody admittedly, taking the easy route and creating a radio friendly record would be a betrayal of what we represent.
Have you got a third release planned? What can you tell us about your upcoming plans?
T- We have the split with Razorwire Handcuffs which is complete on both sides, that will see the light soon via Matriarch Records, a single titled 'Symbio Mouth' which is a collaboration with UK Techno artist Euclidean Symmetry, We are working on a full length as well which is about 50% complete at the moment.
J- We have plenty of stuff planned. Hopefully a full length amongst some other collabs. I can't say too much, all I can say is beware.
Are there any bands in your area that you feel deserve a mention? Who are you listening to these days?
T- Local wise I'd say Abduction, Vandr, my brother has a band called Axioma which is in the early stages but what I've heard sounds really good. UK wise, Reign, Euclidean Symmetry, Völniir, Outergods, The list goes on.
J- I can't not mention Abduction - A/V and the guys are absolutely smashing it and really stepping up, I'm really looking forward to their next record which I think is out in October. Devastator never fail to impress either. We are lucky as we have a really strong healthy scene in the East Midlands.
That's all I have for you. The last words are down to you.
T- Thank you for the interview, to everyone who actually pays attention to our music thank you very much for letting us wreck your ears. We have tapes of our demo and ep coming soon via Wyrmsele, our split will be released on tape via Matriarch Records, keep an eye out for more music.
J- Check out our music. Shower frequently and thoroughly. Never vote Tory.
* You can listen to Poisonous Reflection by clicking HERE! *
* You can listen to Poisonous Reflection by clicking HERE! *
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