From reading Eveline Lot-Falck’s “The Hunting Rites of the Siberian Peoples” to discovering the mighty atmospheric black metal band Grima, the endless, inhospitable, and mysterious Siberian region has always held enormous fascination for me and exerted a deep attraction, both from a naturalistic and anthropological-social point of view. Therefore, when I came across Neverending Winter, a great Siberian metal punk band, years ago, I was infatuated with them at first listen, and from that moment I wanted to try to interview them. Playing black metal bastardized by crust punk and folk sounds, glacial, evocative and atmospheric at the same time, in the vast and rigid Siberian lands cannot be an easy thing, but they have been going on with passion and attitude for almost ten years. Here in our latitudes we know far too little about that region and its underground music scene, so there is no better way than to discover a little more through the words of Neverending Winter, heeding the primordial calling of the Siberian wilderness!
Hi guys! To start this interview would you like to tell us a little bit about your history as a band?
Ivan: Hi! Ivan is here, responsible for guitar, vocals. First of all, thank you a ton for being so patient and finally helping us to make it happen! The band are: Alexey – drums, brainbombs; Sasha – bass, pleasures-master; Ivan – guitar, vocals, ideas. I was born and raised in Khakassia, Southern Siberia and after school I moved to Tomsk for studying. There I discovered d.i.y punk ethics as is and the world of punk/lefty charged music and many interesting people including Sasha – bass and Alexey – drums. Spent already more than 13 years as this band and used to play in a number of bands before/during Neverending Winter. The one I’d like to highlight all three of us used to play is Louder Than Words. So when the previous band came to an end, we just decided to start something new but in a darker way, basing the sound on metal and taking the best from punk/leftist ideas.
Your name seems to be taken directly from the title of a song by Axegrinder, one of the first bands to play that primordial soup known as stenchcore and fundamental to the rise of crust punk. How much have these sounds influenced you? What were your first approaches to this genre?
Sasha: First of all, my nickname (aka) is Sasha Crust. I got it when I was influenced by crust/punk, in a certain period of my life, this music (culture) strongly influenced, and changed my worldview forever (diy ethics and ideas, politics, anarchism, veganism etc.)
Ivan: That’s correct. Whole idea belongs to our first drummer and a good friend of ours Sergey. At the same, it follows a tradition of many punk bands to be named after a favorite song, an album or a band, giving a tribute to the ones whose music and ideas inspired you enough to start your own. Talking about an influence – of course, not only stenchcore did it but many other great crust and anarcho bands from the UK, and from many other countries as well. Axegrinders’ early days records are still in my playlist from time to time but musically I personally believe we took more inspiration from Amebix and likes as. Nevertheless, an attitude of those bands found in the lyrics and spoken on gigs, or interviews was and still takes up a lot of space in our band despite all these years we’ve been active. Raised by metal, taught by punk.
Throughout your career, you have always given more space to black metal sounds, mixing them perfectly with your more crusty soul. What fascinates you about black metal and what pushed you to play this hybrid?
Sasha: I don’t really like metal music in general, not my piece of pie. But what attracts me in black metal is its nature of creating an atmosphere of hopelessness and dispersion, in general, everything that surrounds me. I translate this through music.
Ivan: Looking back into the years passed, I’d definitely say that black metal found itself in the band’s sound almost organically and for sure without a particular or conscious effort from our end. Besides, the thoughtful and melancholic part of whether it is about art, literature, narratives or music – was and always will be a part of an average russian mode or soulstate. It can be easily found by checking any famous people coming out of here. The same I observe in many other cultures (Eastern Europe or CIS countries, for example).
On the other hand, cold music and the cold climate you are surrounded by for the major part of a year comes hand in hand, and just adds an additional contrast to each when mixed together based upon my musical and life experience. In addition, from record to record we always try to find something new in the sound and look for a way to add a previously unknown or rare traditional instrument or at least a closely imitated sound of it. The Lore of the country is mastodonic I believe, so inspiration and thus experiments and possibilities to create something really unique and catchy stuff are limitless. I assume that the path we followed, and continue as a band is just as natural as it could be, giving us enough possibilities.
You often define your music as “Siberian metalpunk”. How much does the land you come from influence you? Is there a correlation between your often glacial but at the same time atmospheric music and the vast Siberian landscapes?
Sasha: Definitely.
Alexey: Yes, of course, and I don’t want to trust those people who are ready to completely forget their roots, no matter how trite it may sound justifying it only with their ephemeral cosmopolitanism. We are a small band that was one of the first to play such a mixture in Siberia for sure but in general, Siberian Metal Punk for us is rather a try to pay more attention to the small local scenes because until now, for various reasons, many excellent local bands and artists around the world remain unknown. Why wouldn’t someone from Palermo call themselves Cicilian black crust hahaha?
Ivan: Totally agree with Alexey’s thoughts on this. Probably, our attitude and views grew up together with us among frosty landscapes and really harsh winters and due to this we would like to highlight our origin by at least giving a tribute to our motherland. Telling the truth, but I believe this motto was given by someone during one of our tours in Europe or else as a description to the music we played that night. Perhaps, the form was different but the main idea was caught by us and we thank this person for this whoever you are!
Going back to talking about black metal, it’s no mystery that this is a genre and a scene that has several problems with bands close to the extreme right if not openly Nazi-fascist. In opposition to these fascist drifts at the beginning of the 2000s was born a strand of black metal openly anti-fascist, anarchist and / or leftist known as RABM (Mainly thanks to bands like Iskra) . What is your position regarding the spreading of Nazi-fascism within the Black Metal scene and how do you try to oppose or counteract this in your daily lives both as a band and as individuals? Do you define yourselves as a RABM band or as an anti-fascist band?
Sasha: It is as simple as that – I hate metalheads and will never play with right-winged bands. We are more like an anti-fascist band but if you want to put a label/genre on us, then yes, we are a R.A.B.M. act.
Alexey: I already mentioned that I played death metal back in the mid-2000s. So back in the days, we traveled a lot around the country with my previous band playing gigs and constantly faced the fact that most of the metal community was at least tolerant to fascism and xenophobia in some or another way. This was always difficult to ignore, so when Neverending Winter started its journey, from the beginning we refused to participate in gigs with metalheads only and did not deal with the metal promoters to put on our gigs on tours, at least during the first 5-7 years of the band’s existence. Later, we met a number of great people from different cities across the country and outside of it being still metalheads but not dumbheads. At the same time, I can’t call ourselves street activists but in the past we were part of a community that organized, let’s say, safe leftist concerts and open-airs in our city, uniting a pretty decent amount of good guys around it. So yes, we can be classified as R.A.B.M. and Anti-Fascist band.
Ivan: As we are hailing from, first of all, a local DIY scene, and not afraid to say this, a bit more educated than many other bands around here, we don’t tolerate such things which are actually plague not only of NSBM and Black Metal in general. The same applies to Grindcore and Death Metal too. To talk about the ways how to oppose and try re-educate those who are open to self development and opening new horizons – there must be a constant work not only by playing a gigs but by talking to people, trying to understand where exactly they could have lost their way and started to follow a xenophobic ideas which, as we know from history, lead only to a dead end as a usual. Of course, such efforts can be taken locally, during your own personal activities as a left winged artist or whoever you consider yourself. To change things globally, again, we, as a kind, should start to follow a part during the whole lifetime aimed on self-education and self-development as a personality.
Nationalism is a product of poor state in culture, economics, social inequality and social distances in between the classes and least but not the last, because of ignorance for sure. May peace and bright ideas come upon us all one day.
Exactly at the moment I’m writing these questions I’m listening for the umpteenth time to “Хиус”, your 2017 album and probably the record I appreciate the most. An album in which you explored in an even more decisive and convinced way territories different from the classic black/crust, often leaving room for folk influences and atmospheric moments. Where does this choice of using instruments like violins or flutes come from? How much is important for you the purely atmospheric and evocative dimension of your music?
Ivan: Sometimes a familiar sound can be quite deceptive. The flute used on this record is originally called tin whistle hailing all the way down from the world of celtic music. This is just another great example on what high level in general musical life of Tomsk is. The rest of the instruments are composed by our fellow Konstantin Rusanov who is writing everything by himself (something is played live, some parts are composed in digital format, but still, from the beginning to the all by his hand).
You know, as for myself, I personally like the bands that don’t set themselves any boundaries and just do what they like and can the most. The same for our music. When I have some parts or a whole song ready, we decide later which parts can be here and which can wait for a better day for them. I dare to compare the average mood of our songs with a blizzard or a snow storm that is replaced by a soft, calmed down nature and gives you a great view on the beauty around you, to stay alone with yourself,give time for thoughts, dreams, etc. This is how we just feel the music and live around us.
Siberia is an extremely fascinating and mysterious land, especially for the writer, and unfortunately here in Italy we know very little about the underground and DIY scene in your parts. Would you like to tell us something? Which collectives, squats, fanzines or DIY labels are active in the scene? What are the most valuable bands in the Siberian scene in your opinion?
Alexey: Indeed, there is a huge number of such acts in Siberia, an even greater number of such bans existed 20-30 years ago. Especially, when you’re banned or limited to get an outlook or inspiration from the outside world, and thus, giving birth to something new looking/sounding, new cultural phenomena. If we won’t stick to the genres in general, then 2-3 names from the pleiad of Tomsk bands will be more than enough to understand that this land has something to say: “Передвижные Хиросимы” and “Будни Лепрозория” (google it in Cyrillic, so we’ll get more changes to find a right band, youtube has their lives as wells).
But now I would like to share a bit more personal thoughts I’ve gained during the life there that the majority of the Siberian bands are pure fatalists, deconstructors purely acknowledging their blank existence before the forces and beauty of nature. Bands come and go as fast as the seasons change, your statement which you screamed aloud awhile ago smashing your fingers into the blood against the guitar strings is your swan song. Nowadays, many active bands are to find in any streaming but I want to share two crust bands that have not existed for a long time but which had a huge impact on all of us, these are “Lago” (Tobolsk, Siberia) and “МойФлагСмят” (Barnaul, Siberia).
Ivan: Unfortunately or luckily, there are no squats allowed in Russia (in many post-soviet countries too). Therefore, all the gigs or other activities usually took place in a number of very-very various and different places and buildings (ranging from the canteens and up to bars, from forests in the countryside, to a hole in a cultural museum in the city center). As for the labels, there are a big number of independent inspired people from the scene but not sure how many are left active. Our friends still do run their record label started as a total diy, punk dedicated and moved a bit further now by finding an outstanding artist of different genres now. Check them definitely out: TheyLive! Records. They have blogspot, bandcamp and other social media resources I believe. No Feelings Records is also a label run by our close friend Sergey. Pretty young label by age but not by its taste.
As for the bands I would mention the following ones:
Хуун-Хуур-Туу (enough everywhere, worldwide heroes of world music)
All in all, try to follow the tag “Tomsk” on bandcamp, perhaps, you’ll find a band/s that we haven’t ever heard about yet, who knows!
Reading the description of your album Хиус, you say that the lyrics are influenced by both Siberian nature and a sense of life in these boundless landscapes. What does it mean for you to live in close contact with such a dominant, inhospitable and fascinating nature? What are the biggest difficulties you find in living in such a boundless territory and harsh climate? What fascinates you most about the infinite Siberian nature and how are these feelings reflected in your music?
Sasha: Pluses and minuses: lots of mosquitoes during the hot summers and severe frosts in winters. What good and I’m happy for is nature and people.
Ivan: I suppose that people around the globe might not have a full or confused picture of what life in Siberia is. Yet, it is a cold place, not for everyone but when you are born there, most likely you will get used to such temperature and climate, otherwise, you just won’t survive. Biggest difficulties which even people from the central part of Russia meet here when they travel are the long distances between the cities, as well as the climate. For example, when we went to Krasnoyarsk from Tomsk it took us usually two day-two days and a half to play a gig, spend some time with friends and be able to be back in town without missing a job or other local business deals. So you can imagine how patient many Siberians are just because we learn to cope with so many things since our childhood which people in many countries won’t probably experience within their whole lives. Looking back on my child days and up to I can fully say that I’m pretty happy for being able to be born in Khakassia region, among steppe and eye catchy views on the mountains, and add to this an ancient culture of the local tribes which used to be nomads, shamans and some of them are still are.
Сеногной”, your last publication dates back to 2018. The last two years of pandemic have definitely affected your activity as a band, but beyond these material difficulties, are you working on new songs or a new record? What are your plans for the immediate future?
Alexey: We started a new record when the covid just crashed upon us all and still we are doing our best to get it completed, a lot is already ready but some corrections are still needed. Not all the invited musicians have recorded their parts, slowly but we are moving towards the final. It will be a 3-song EP or a full-length born in a struggle or during a search for compromises with life’s unexpected constant surprises and personal grief.
Ivan: It is the first record that takes us too much time to complete despite the fact we recorded our instruments, vocals and the rest really-really quickly and in a DIY way as we always do. Secondly, it is the first record many people we know from different places ask when it is finally ready. I do hope this record will see a light within this year. In my opinion, these are the most adult songs we’ve ever done as both persons and musicians. Some guests on this record are hailing from the worldwide known band, so let it be a surprise for everyone on the day of release then. Fingers crossed!
We have reached the end of the interview, I leave this space at your complete disposal to write or talk to us about anything you think might be interesting or important! Thanks again for taking the time to do this interview!
Alexey: A million thanks for your interest and great questions! In general, you know, a song that has come out of the hands of the author begins to live its own life, woven into the cognitive and speculative processes in the listener’s brain, if at some point these processes intersect with what we put into it – fine, if not – we don’t give a damn that much. To live is to die, as said.
Ivan: Agree on this! Thank you for having us and giving us the opportunity to speak. We are always up to talk and especially with people involved in DIY things – who’ll do it, if not we? I would like to wish everyone to stay safe, be open-minded, explore new heights and horizons, fight for a truth where you can and be honest to people around you. Stay punk and be brave.
Ivan: We haven’t made any statements since last year when a full scale war started with Ukraine. This is definitely a hard and painful topic to speak of since as our countries have a long going ties, connections, history, language and cultural similarities, all in all, a lot of families are mixed from both sides. To say it short, we always stand against all the wars, warmongers, capitalistic corporations feeding on other people’s grief and tragedy. And exactly this is what is witnessing now – this is a totally composed war from the beginning. Any of the currently involved sides indeed had enough time and triggers to avoid this massacre but instead we have what we have.
As a band, we got a chance to play in Kiev, Odessa and Zhytomyr back in 2013, and still to us those memories of that trip are the ones which we’ll remember for years. All of us, as well as the majority of the people of Russia (don’t believe one sided media only) heartly and truly want this tragedy to be stopped sooner than later. We wish people to be strong during these darkest days and all the current war to stop whether it is Ukraine, Syria, Libya, Yemen or elsewhere. War is not a way out or a solution, it is rather another profit for the likes of Lockheed Martin or other bastards Inc. who do deserve being shelled by their products instead of civilians on the other side of the globe.