Hello Marko,
when you started to explain and create artwork for bands? And why that choice?
For your passion for black metal music?
I started doing artworks for bands sometime during 2008 I think, can’t remember correctly right now. I was always drawing and doodling, but never doing anything with it but “ruining” margins of books and backpages of notebooks. Idea of doing art for bands came out of the blue, perhaps randomly as choice between doing comics, posters, zines, logos. But metal in general is a lot more relaxed towards what kind of themes and compositions you can feature, therefore it was easiest to gravitate towards it, as I could progress at my own leisure, first doing shit and crap, and then steadily improving rather than being requested to do proper compositions, proportions, shading at first while I wasn’t up to it. Passion for black metal and metal in general had more emphasis in early days of Vatra I Sumpor as it was a catalyst for anger management due to the chaotic and violent nature of the music.
I have seen that you are the creator of your own “Vatra I Sumpor”
Do you consider it a real grimoire ? and what feedback did get from this publication?
And what is the purpose for which you created it?
There were two editions of the zine, both with their own qualities and defects. Vjecni Rat edition was more of attempt to make a zine, while Nuclear War Now! Edition was simply a tool to further propagate my art at that moment. Looking back on it, as a textual example of a zine, I think it’s bad, with some interesting ideas, but I like how I visualized it in materia. Subpar to what I saw a zine textually could be (Horrible Eyes, The Sinister Flame, Call From the Grave, Dauthus, Bardo Methodology, some good ones to mention). I kinda went into it without giving any heed to what the good zine (in my opinion) should be like, as I have/read very few zines, and even while I was compiling it, my interest in the subjects featured waned. I didn’t get any real feedback, but I don’t require it now, I understood where I was wrong in my decisions. Calling it a grimoire is a poetic expression, but everything that inspires anything can be considered magical.
How was your collaboration with Nuclear War Now and are you going to print a next issue of VIS or other illustrations in the future?
Collaboration with Nuclear War Now! has always been exemplary of how a deal should be done, that’s why Yosuke enjoys the deserved spot of biggest underground label. There won’t be second issue of Vatra I Sumpor zine, but something else I won’t divulge right now. As for illustrations, hopefully there will be a couple more of my drawings on record covers.
Have you worked for some particular band that you've been impressed with by their music?
I only work for bands which music I find appropriate to my art. Of course, not all of them are occupying my turntable the same amount of time, but I don’t have the luxury of being OCD about every single detail fitting to the wide picture of what I imagine Vatra I Sumpor to be, therefore I work with bands which music I’m not really into save for certain periods of time when the mood strikes, while other bands I play alongside classics. I’ve had great honor to work with Sortilegia, Nexul, Urfaust, and Cultes des Ghoules, which are some of the modern highlights of the genre.
How did you get in touch with the "Quadrivium" exhibition at the National Museum of the University of Aguascalientes in Mexico?
Jhtn Sahsahhu from Sinister Emanation Art/Mors Omnibvs/Sahluqtu Archives was doing Vatra I Sumpor merchandise at the same time he was preparing the exhibition, so I was invited to participate.
What kind of media and tools do you prefer for your illustrations?
Hammer paper, simple pencil for sketches, and simple marker pen for stippling/inking and shading plus details. How much primitive can you get?
Do you think you will use new tools or techniques in the future?
Lately I’ve been experimenting with colored pencils, but I don’t think it’s something I’ll continue doing, although they’re relatively easy to learn (in accordance to the laws of primitive black metal drawings). Thing with pencils and marker pens is that they’re everyday tools which skill you can hone practically everywhere. Other techniques requires a lot of more work, practice, learning, all in dedicated ambients and places. And Vatra I Sumpor won’t exist that long. I have no intention of doing goat skulls and Goetia spinoff seals when I’m 40.
What are some artists who admire and think that they are at the same time messengers of a certain kind of particular spirituality?
Denis Forkas Kostromitin in our metal milieu. Forkas, asking me, is ill suited and too sophisticated for gracing run of the mill metal releases, his artworks are stylistically above all else in underground today. Solemn contemplation can be found in works of Artem Grigoryev, delicate building panic of Zbigniew Bielak, the clashing violent occultism of David Glomba, and demented chaos of COMAWORX. These are some of the artists I feel most connected to spiritually. I’ll also mention Timo Ketola, but only for his work on Teitanblood’s Seven Chalices. Major influence on me.4
Considering artwork in the packaging of music support such as CD vinyl covers, attached posters etc. Is getting more and more important, do you think that illustrators should have more weight and importance on the record labels that use their work?
Yes, but illustrators only when they’re competent graphics designers! In these time of mass consumer appeal, it has become more important to have strong marketing strategy via coherent visual side of the release, pretty graphics which sell out releases because they make it look nice to have them on a shelf or on a wall. Music has become secondary characteristic today. If you’re able to package shit in a gorgeous casing, people will buy it. This is important for underground bands, mainstream sells shit because of the already established branding.
To create a subject or theme to what extent is your psychological predisposition important and how can you channel the energies into the work of your illustrations?
For the past few years, absolutely none. There are no drugs involved, no meditations, no extensive research. No spiritual sessions, no channeling of anything. I simply sit at a desk and let ideas come out. Sketches which I then assemble, change, modify. Whether this can be considered subconscious or automatic ritual, I don’t know, but there are no gimmicks involved. I lost all “interest” in the occult back in 2013, now I’m “straight-edge.” But before that, a lot of anger and diseased aura was put into night long sessions of drawing. Nowadays, it’s the meditation through concentration after creation to final piece.
Is there a need for a particular tune with the members of the music band with whom they collaborate?
Yes. Bands are often graphically incompetent so they tend to fuck up releases with bad choices outside cover artwork. I got burned by this ill problem a lot of times so I started accepting commissions exclusively under pretext of having control over entire layout. Most of the time it works out but there are exceptions, even with bands you’re really close to, as opposed to the first comers. Even worse, with bands who agreed to you having control over the layout, but then went behind your back. Other than that, I didn’t get in much confrontations, the artworks I do are pretty straightforward layout wise so there is not really much discussing to do. Makes it even more irritating when they ruin it.
Any last word ;)
Yes : )
