INTERVIEW WITH CELTIC FROST BASSIST/VOCALIST MARTIN ERIC AIN
There are few times in life when you are able to sit down and talk to a legend, but Martin Eric Ain, bassist and vocalist of Celtic Frost is certainly a legend in the heavy metal world. Formed in 1984 in Zurich, Switzerland, Celtic Frost were the fathers of extreme death metal, and unleashed upon the world the most brutal music ever heard. Not content with simply creating a genre, they redefined themselves and heavy music over and over again, with albums such as Morbid Tales, To Mega Theroin, and Into The Pandemonium, all of which belong in every metal fans collection. Internal issues between martin and vocalist/guitarist Tom Warrior broke up the band years ago, but the two have reunited and released Monotheist in May of 2006. Once again the masters have shown us how intense and expressive extreme metal can be. I had the honor of talking with Martin during the bands current tour in support of the album and he gave an eye-opening look into one of the most important bands in the history of heavy metal.
Anarchy Music: How’s it feel to be back together and on the road? It’s been a long time since you toured the US.
Martin Ain: We’re back on the road in the US for the first time in 19 years. That’s a long time. The last time we were together on the road was 1987. Tom did some more shows in the Cold Lake era. It feels great. I’m actually really surprised at the reaction we got. I’m kind of overwhelmed from the reception we received. I knew that Celtic Frost was sort of like a cult band, of course over the years having been name-dropped and mentioned by so many different artists, but the response from the fans, from the audience directly, there are people who came to the shows have been with us for like 20 years. And there’s a whole new crowd who got to know us through all those bands who came after us. We’re stoked.
Anarchy: Lets go back all the way to the beginning. You and Tom basically created a new form of music, which is such a unique thing to be a part of, especially when it’s the heaviest and darkest form of music known to man. What was it like growing up that inspired you to create this extreme music?
Martin: Well, I guess that would pretty much have to go to Black Sabbath. What we were doing was a subgenre, expanding the boundaries of the genre mostly, without us even knowing. When we were thought it out we were really induced by Venoms Welcome To Hell. We were big fans of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal like early Iron Maiden, Angelwitch, Witchfinder General and of course Venom. Where we lived at was a rural part of Switzerland, sort of a sub-sub-suburbia part of Zurich. Just small villages where nothing really was going on and your future seemed to be predestined. You’re doomed to become a clerk or whatever kind of apprenticeship you could get a hold of. This was our form of rebelling this society’s upbringing. Trying to break free from those boundaries. Trying to shape our own fate with that kind of music. Of course, we were very much alone in doing so in Switzerland. There was a rising heavy metal scene back you could say, but it wasn’t really heavy metal. People were thinking of AC/DC as heavy metal back then. What we did was way, way beyond what they could accept, nevertheless respect.
Anarchy: You guys have gone on to create some classic music that will live on forever. There’s been a few times where you’ve left the band, but you keep coming back together. Do you see Tom as like a musical brother? What’s the relationship like there?
Martin: That’s really complex. It’s difficult of course because it’s changed over the years. We were more like soul mates back when we started out because there was really nobody in our immediate surroundings that wanted to do the same things that we did. We had some people like Stephen Priestly who was a school friend of mine who started out, but he didn’t want to see it through. He gave up half way. He succumbed to the lures of society or to the force of his parents to be quite frank. So that was different than today. I think today was more premeditated. When we got together again we knew what this was about and we knew it wouldn’t come easy. We realized it would also have to do with us and our relationship. We realized that we would have to bring some skeletons out of the closet that we had nicely tucked away. That’s exactly how it was, it was kind of difficult. We are still sort of like soul mates but we are more stronger individuals ourselves because we have grown and matured as well.
Anarchy: When the splits happened you were working on unreleased stuff like Under Apollyon Sun and The Necronomicon.
Martin: Well, when I quit I quit for good. I didn’t want to have anything to do with music. It took me like three years to find out who I really was. You’ve got to realize, I was like 14-15 when we did the first demos, 16 when we did Hellhammer Apocalyptic Raids. When I was 20 basically my career was over, after Into the Pandemonium. I spent the biggest parts of my entire puberty trying to pursue a career in the music industry, which is really tough. Other of my age try to get wasted for the first time, or try out drugs or try to get laid for the first time, whatever. They are just trying out the boundaries of what is possible. I was really pursuing a career in this tough business, so after I stopped with Celtic Frost I had to stop with everything that was dealing with playing music. I just couldn’t do it anymore because I realized “wait a minute, who is the real Martin Ain here?”, “Who is me?”, “What am I all about?”. So I started to slow down. I was starting some businesses with friends, running nightclubs, promoting shows. I run a couple of bars and a nightclub in Zurich right now. That didn’t have anything to do with playing music. I did some fun projects with friends of mine but that was just for fun. Tom was doing Apollyon Sun. He tried some demoing with Reed and Kurt immediately after we had separated after Parched With Thirst Am I And Dying but that didn’t work out as Celtic Frost and he realized that Celtic Frost had run its course and that he couldn’t do that on his own basically. He got a couple of other people together and became Apollyon Sun and Apollyon Sun released two records.
Anarchy: What led to the decision to finally get back together after all those years?
Martin: First, it had to do with the re-release of Celtic Frosts back catalog. That was the first time Tom and I had to get together to talk about our past, about our legacy. Of course, we also pondered the question “What if?”. What would have happened if we would have continued? Would there be a possibility? Would there still be a future for Celtic Frost? Would we still have something to say? At the time that was in 1999, Tom was busy with Apollyon Sun and I was busy with a new bar we were opening so the time wasn’t right for that. Two years later Tom approached me again when Apollyon Sun had been disbanded and he asked me if I was interested and I was stupid enough to say yes.
Anarchy: You’ve obviously been a huge influence on heavy music. What do you think of the music going on now?
Martin: The genre in the last 15-20 years has grown tremendously and has expanded as well. There have been so many sub-genres and niches to sub-genres that have been created. In one way heavy metal has become much more open minded, on the other hand heavy metal is still as conservative as it was back then. I’m really amazed at the variety of music in one way. In the other way I’m the same amount of amazed at how closed-minded heavy metal is and how secluded from the public it is. There’s so many fans out there and so many heavy metal bands but the public eye doesn’t hardly recognize that. That still amazes me, but on one hand I realize that this is what heavy metal is all about. If heavy metal would be embraced by more people it would become the commercial abomination it already did once in the late 80’s.
Anarchy: Are there any current bands that you’re a big fan of?
Martin: There’s quite a few bands out there actually that I think are absolutely brilliant and stunning. There’s this French band Gojira for example that’s kind of like progressive metal. Opeth, Mikael Akerfeldt, great guitarist, great band. I think they’ve taken death metal to new boundaries. Same goes for Nile, I’m a big fan of Karl Sanders and Nile. Same goes of course for Satyricon out of Norway. I think Satyr is really focused on what he does and the last two records have been very exciting to me. Then there are more obscure bands, one of the original Norwegian black metal bands, Gorgoroth for example have a real strong singer in Gaahl. Then there’s even more obscure stuff like a one man project called Furze out of Norway. This is one guy and he basically records everything on his own and he has a timing and a phrasing entirely of his own. You can really see where he comes from he sometimes writes these 20 minute songs. It starts somewhere and end somewhere and they develop in levels that most probably be really hard for a band to follow but the way he does it on his own is almost magical. that’s really some extreme and weird black metal there. There’s actually some black metal artists in the USA that’s done that to quite some extent. There’s Leviathan or Krieg, or some of those artists. Mostly one man projects where they get other people on board to record an album or so. Then there’s an English doom artists Electric Wizard, there’s Lair Of The Minotaur out of Chicago. I think they’re playing some really raunchy, dirty doom metal. Of course, Sunn, who we had out on the road with us for our west coast dates. There’s a lot of different bands that I like in extreme metal these days. There’s some extreme death metal bands out of parts of the world like you wouldn’t believe. Black metal bands out of Thailand, extreme death metal bands out of Brazil. Metal has become international nowadays..
Anarchy: I think your new record Monotheist is brilliant. My favorite song is “A Dying God Coming Into Human Flesh” which is such an amazingly primal and dark song. You also have a video for it as well. Tell me about that song and what its all about.
Martin: Have you seen the video clip yet?
Anarchy: Yeah, I saw it on your Myspace page. It badass!
Martin: That’s right! That’s one of those songs that…you know it took four years to finish this album. Of course these four years were not only about writing songs but also becoming a band. It wasn’t only like lets get back Celtic Frost and write some songs. First of all, we had to become Celtic frost again. We had to evoke the spirit of Celtic Frost and really focus on what Celtic Frost was all about. “Dying God” is one of those songs that grew over almost a four year period. When we started out I had written a poem very much at the beginning of this entire endeavor, maybe even a little earlier on, and I had some ideas for a vocal line. I was singing that to Tom and Erol and Erol had an idea for a guitar line. It was sort of like a folk song almost, just a vocals and guitar to it, nothing else, no drums, nothing. Then over the period of time that it took to get the band together the song grew. Once we had Franco in the band we played him the material. We didn’t even envision drums. He played some drums to it and we realized that the song would have to grow and develop. I think we were working on 3 or 4 phases of the song and really finished it when we were in the studio with Peter Tagtgren. It has a really organic flow to it and I think this is the same with the album. You can really feel that the material here has grown, has matured. Much like a good bottle of wine. Also with “Dying God” we tried to keep it as simple as possible. If we had had one mission statement with this album it would have been “less is more”. Sometimes taking away something to give room for what is already there to develop. I think that with “A Dying God Coming Into Human Flesh” that it worked pretty well.
Anarchy: You self financed the record and then when it was done you then handed it to Century Media. I know you’ve had some issues with previous labels, has this been a better fit for you?
Martin: Oh yes, definitely! Everything’s been better so far than what we experienced. In the old days we were signed to Noise Records and whatever else came was with permission of Noise Records. In the end when we were with EMI it was only because Noise was licensing it out to EMI. So, Noise was having full control of Celtic frost. The rights to our old records are gone. They are owned by people we have never met, mostly they don’t even know that they have those rights. But they own them until 75 years after we die. Some businessman that most probably has more of an idea of what is going on in the stock market than in the heavy metal scene. We didn’t want to do those same mistakes so it was very important to us to be our own masters this time around. Of course, we had to take on more responsibility, get the financing together. That was, of course, quite costly. Paying for Peter Tegtgren, the studio time, getting the rehearsal room furnished, having recording facilities in the rehearsal room so we could do a proper preproduction and record material there that you hear on the album now, get the cover artwork finished, everything like that. Then licensing it to Century Media, that was crucial. We were in complete freedom. We were offering this record to any heavy metal independent record company you can imagine. There was interest from most record companies, this being the benefit of having the name Celtic Frost to bring into the game. We knew that would help us so that made the risk more worthwhile, basically. Century Media , we thought they were not only interested in getting this record because they thought they could make some money with it, but they also seemed to genuinely interested in the music. They seemed to be enthusiastic about the record and what we had created and that’s why we opted with them. So far I’d have to say we’re quite pleased.
Anarchy: Usually when there’s a reunion, it’s a dash for cash, but you guys took your time and really did one of, if not THE best metal album of the year. So as a fan, I’m hoping that there’s more to come. What does the future hold for this band?
Martin: Well, I think there is more to come, but if there is one thing I have learned from the past twenty years is that you should never say what is going to happen next. You can plan for something and then once you see it’s working out, alright. I’d like to think that there is more to come. I think we are much more focused than we ever were. I think it’s not going to take another four years. I think it’s going to take much less time. If everything works out the next record should be out it early 2008. Of course, we’ll be touring on this record. We’re in the middle of this North American tour of 48 dates, then we’ll be going to Japan for the first time. Early next year we’ll be touring Europe and then hopefully coming back for a few shows and the start to work on the next record.
Anarchy: That’s good to hear because I’m interested in hearing what you come up with. You have always broken new ground and redefined what heavy metal can be and refused to be kept inside a box, so it’s good to know that there’s more on the way.
Martin: Thank you. Thank you very much. This also puts the pressure on , of course. But then again, we’ll see. We’ll do what we feel like. This what it was all about this time around. This record is what we felt like at the time. that’s why we took our time, because we wanted to get it right. We knew that most of the pressure was from our side to begin with. That’s why we did it so low-key. That’s why we didn’t go out and say “yeah, the next Celtic Frost record is going to be released then and then”. We said “okay, lets start working on this and see how it progresses“. I’m not so much worried about that right now with the next record. All of us already have an idea on what direction to go and what it might sound like. Once we are sitting together, all three of us, I have quite a good feeling about it. We’ll what the public will say then, but right we still have a couple of shows to play.
Anarchy: No one could have imagined that you would have reunited and released something that equaled or surpassed your best work, and you did! It just shows what a great band you are.
Martin: Thank you very much.
Anarchy: Those of us who truly love metal want it as true and pure as possible, and that is Celtic Frost.
Martin: That’s what I really appreciate with a lot of people. That after this time we still have a strong following or people who are really into it. That Celtic Frost means something to them on a personal basis. That is the biggest benefit for me. That is enticing us to continue. Especially after a 20 year hiatus when this music is not at its most popular peak.
Anarchy: Well, when you do the next trip to the states maybe I’ll make a road trip out to see you, so hopefully we’ll see you then and maybe we’ll talk to you then as well.
Martin: I hope so, thank you very much.
I would like to thank our friends at Century Media for making this possible, and Martin for spending some time talking with us. For more information on Celtic Frost visit their website at CelticFrost.com or their Myspace page.