The title of your first album Hatred for Mankind was pretty self-explanatory regarding the themes. How much of that is carried over onto the latest album Widowmaker?
Widowmaker is a separate root to Hatred For Mankind. It represents another tentacle or facet to the open wound that is Dragged Into Sunlight. Widowmaker is a beast of its own making and very much another head to the hydra. It was never intended that Widowmaker would be a follow up to Hatred For Mankind. The two recordings draw on entirely different influence and differ vastly.
A ‘widowmaker’ is an embolism of the heart. It is the internal combustion that is more than likely to determine life. There is no compromise and in that respect, Widowmaker draws on the same conceptual extremity as Hatred For Mankind.
Thematically, what differs?
Whilst Hatred For Mankind is an external projection, Widowmaker represents the internal. The recordings have a different sound and a different voice, musically attaining the same feeling in the listener, yet following a very different path.
Why did you decide to write one 41 minute piece opposed to a collection of songs?
Widowmaker was initially longer than 41 minutes. Similarly to an album with 40 tracks, it is important that the overall integrity of the release is preserved. Dragged Into Sunlight presents the listener with a blank canvas and the music is there to be interpreted accordingly. Like any creative output, there is minimal scope for prediction and like a canvas, it is scalable.
Widowmaker evokes the feelings it does because of the breathing space that is provided to the listener, that overall sense of lonliness, reflection and isolation. It is generally felt that a larger presentation provides a less claustrophobic atmosphere in which to digest what are some relatively diverse sounds, allowing for the interpretation of the bigger picture.
You recently released a one-off collaboration track Gnaw Their Tongues. Tell us a little bit about that.
Dragged Into Sunlight is currently working in collaboration with our good friend Mories of Gnaw Their Tongues. The construct involves other artists with whom we have chosen to work. The worst is yet to come.
The untitled track was only posted online for 24 hours before you removed it. Why was this?
A recording as diverse as Widowmaker can separate those who understand an artist from those who are merely following. Needless to say, the latter are of no significance and if anything, an inconvenience.
There were of course those that did not grasp Widowmaker, and sympathetically, it is felt that the untitled glimpse provides those individuals with further insight.
Meanwhile, you’re working on other new material. What can you tell us?
It is in hand.
There was a three year gap between Hatred for Mankind and Widowmaker. Is this a conscious effort on your part to work on a quicker follow-up?
It is what it is.
The only conscious effort on our part is to put everything we have into every performance and recording.
Like any artistic output, Dragged Into Sunlight is meticulous in its approach. A recording can take anywhere from a day to a decade.
Can we assume that the album’s themes will be of a similar vitriolic nature?
Assume nothing.
If not, what can we expect concept-wise?
An exorcism of the matter that consumes every one of us every day.
Is there anything else you can tell us about the sound or approach of the album, such as lengthier songs like Widowmaker or something more like Hatred For Mankind?
Dragged Into Sunlight is a completely selfish endeavour and to this end, paths meander and directions can change. The listener either appreciates what it is that we do or it does not, there is no template in which to work in and there is very little recognition of ‘boundaries’. Dragged Into Sunlight is certainly not formulaic or simply put, music by numbers.
Whilst each recording is an ugly tentacle to a larger body of sound, quite often one presents as a deformity of another. Evolution and devolution are both paramount, however, whether new material will sound akin to Widowmaker or Hatred For Mankind remains to be seen.
Finally, can you give any indication of when you hope to be finished?
Dragged Into Sunlight will complete its collaboration with Gnaw Their Tongues in 2013. Ancillary material may take somewhat longer.
