(1) Could you tell our readers about your band AZURE EMOTE ? – What kind of music do you perform, when was it established, etc.?
Azure Emote was created in 2003 after the breakup of my then band Divine Rapture on listenable records. It was my chance to get crazy and experiment with whatever i wanted at the time. It started out as very Avantgarde and now is more progressive Black Death Doom with violins from Pete Johansen from Sins of thy Beloved, etc. Azure Emote incorporates a lot of different guest musicians over each album and strives to make each song unique or different instead of just sticking to the same old vibe every song or every album. I have a lot of different bands that are more straight forward black or death metal, but this is my project to get crazy and creative without any boundaries: A “fuck you” to everything – just do what i feel like at the time kind of band, regardless of what is popular or what the scene expects from certain genres or whatever.
(2) Which bands or artists inspired you to play music?
Growing up it was bands like Laibach, Dead Can Dance, Arcturus, Kovenant, early And Oceans, Nocturnus, Morbid Angel, Pestilence, Bethlehem etc. I started out headfirst into early 90s death metal but then also acquired other influences including industrial metal, ambient noise, gothic black doom, etc. As long as it was super dark and creative i usually enjoyed it.
(3) Who came up with the album cover?.
The cover art is actually a photograph i took of a homemade corpse that i burned over a bonfire under the first full moon of 2020. I spent a few months building it in my garage. I altered it a bit digitally, but it’s pretty much still the original photo. The cover concept was a returning meditation concept from the previous album “the third perspective”, symbolizing the trauma and seismic change that has occurred throughout the last 5 years: Burning the effigy of the past while embracing the cryptic next chapter.
(4) Who wrote the lyrics for your new album, how did they come to be?
I write all the lyrics. It’s not a fantasy inspired band, singing about satan or gore or horror movies. Each song tackles different topics whether it be mentally wrestling with insomnia, alcoholism, loss and death, slowly decaying, meditational experiences, societal observations and frustrations, extreme rebellion and misanthropy, nihilism, anxiety and the like. Previous albums touched on Quantum theory, the right to die movement, conspiracy research and other things, but I tried to keep this album focused on more personal internal struggles to keep it a bit more “Cryptic”.
(5) Who created the logo for the band, and who takes care of the graphics and the website? What about you and social networks?
I do everything myself. Azure Emote is my baby really, so i like to do all the artwork myself as well. I run a website called visualdarkness.com where i create artwork for all kinds of different bands. I started out as an artist first who then started dabbling in music later. Singing in bands like Monstrosity and Vile helped me develop my skills and experience over the years.
(6) How many Shows have you played? Which type of gigs do you prefer, whether (Venues or festivals) and which of your performances would you consider as the best?
Azure Emote hasn’t played live yet, i’ve always been so busy touring and playing out with my other bands at the time (Monstrosity, Vile, Hypoxia, I.C.E. etc) that I didn’t really give it any thought, and since all the members are spread out all across the globe i figured it’d be too hard to pull it off live with Azure. If there is enough interest i’d be down to play a festival though and have some people in mind to help me. I like both the big festivals, but also the more intimate small shows. The smaller shows are usually more energetic and engaging. The giant festivals tend to feel disconnected and more about partying than the actual music.
(7) who came up with the name of the new album?
“Cryptic Aura” i thought of while watching the red glow around the skeleton when i was photographing it, It looked pretty cryptic with the smoke and fog and fire all around it so i ran with it. Azure was the color of my aura that i saw while meditating back when i first made the band, which is where the band name came from, so i thought it might be cool to have this album be a more cryptic aura since the darkness of everything happening around the world after 2020 really brought on a sense of dread and doom. I think everyone has felt it. There has been a major shift happening over the past 5 years which has been traumatic for a lot of people.
(8) How and where can your fans contact you? Can you provide some contact information?
You can find me online, mainly Instagram but also Facebook, and you can always email me direct on my website visualdarkness.com HAILS!
