17th March 2024
On 1st March 2024, Suldusk released their second album, Anthesis (review here), their first as a full band following their debut Lunar Falls in 2019. Two weeks after its release, Hotel Hobbies spent time speaking with vocalist and driving force behind the band, Emily Highfield.
Hotel Hobbies: Thank you for taking the time to talk about the band and the album. I have been listening to the album a lot both to write a review and also since its official release. Now it is out there, how are you feeling about the reception for it?
Emily Highfield: Yeah, very happy with the way it's landing and people seem to be connecting with the material and to the feelings and the styles. It's really, really heartening, very fortifying. So, it's giving me a lot of momentum to just keep going with everything.
HH: Just before we talk about the new album in more detail, can we talk about the time since the last album. It's been a few years since Lunar Falls. Can you sort of talk about the journey of getting a full band together, recording the new album and signing with Napalm Records.
EH: The project started off just with myself and my little family of guitars. Being a total introvert and not being very good with peopling, it was just an outlet to enjoy sounds and acoustic frequencies. I started to upload things and share things on SoundCloud, which was just a safe place to share music. It was very encouraging. Then I thought, I might as well just go to a producer with my swag of songs and see what happens. His name is Mark Hilson. He comes from a European doom metal background. So, he understood the dark space that I was coming from, although he was quite shocked at the harsh vocals. He was like, do you really have to do that? Do you have to ruin this song by screaming and carrying on? (laughing). And I said, well, that's a huge part of the expression that I want to show. So, we kept going and released Lunar Falls through Northern Silence Productions in Germany. It was a one-man label that curated mainly atmospheric black metal artists. My project was dabbling in atmospheric black metal and blackgaze and just a few metal flourishes but mainly acoustic.
The next step was I guess to get a band to play the album live, and that's where I recruited Shane Mulholland and Josh Taylor, Frankie Demario on drums and Pip Green on bass. We played a lot of international support shows and then COVID hit. So it was a massive momentum we had going. We won an award here in Victoria at the Melbourne Music at the Victorian Music Awards. We played at the Melbourne Recital Centre. We were the first heavy band to play the beautiful concert hall. It was such a buzz. Then because of COVID, for two years, we were dormant live wise here in Melbourne. But the writing then happened so I got a chance to work with other composers and that was challenging, but ultimately very rewarding. It was a really good process of being able self edit and explore different ways of composing. So that was how Anthesis came about.
HH: Having listened to the albums many times now what is most striking is, as you have mentioned, the different styles of music. There is an incredible balance between grace, vulnerability and cathartic release. How do you go about creating and album that has such a difference between dark and light?
EH: Thank you so much, that's so beautiful to say. I did read your review and I loved it. Even the reviews where they have constructive kind of critique, I take that all on board because for someone to take the time to actually listen, to digest it, and to write about it, I'm so grateful. I'm so appreciative of you doing that and the other journalists that do that as well. As for the light and shade, I think there needs to be levity. It can't all be heavy for me. It's too much to be in the dark all the time. It’s better to go deep when you can. It can't all be monotone. It has to be…. there's got to be these moments and a lot of metal musicians do it within a song. I think with this album, we're doing it within the whole album. Someone wrote – and I giggled when I read it – that they had been playing the album really loud and they were wondering what their neighbours must think as one minute it's folk, the next is blast beats! It shimmers and then screams in pain. It’s because it's life, isn't it? Being able to write this sort of music is cathartic for me, and I hope that it is cathartic for people listening and going on that journey.
HH: Talking about particular songs, the opening songs Astraeus and Verdalet have that amazing balance immediately.
EH: Thank you so much for saying that and pointing that out, because I remember discussions when we were discussing where we were going to put the songs on the album. Astraeus is a sad lull and the with Verdalet, it was like let’s wake people up and it felt natural to do it that way. You noticing that really validates that our feelings were right.
HH: One song that stands out to me from the quieter tracks is Crowns Of Esper, which is probably the most beautiful song I have heard this year. It is very rich in mysticism and poetic imagery with its lighter music but dark lyrics.
EH: Oh wow! That's the sort of writing that appeals to me because you can say some very dark things, sad things, poignant things. Setting it to beautiful music makes it somewhat digestible. With Crowns Of Esper, I have heard the outro so many times, I should be sick of hearing it but I don’t know how many times I’ve cried. But I still find value in hearing it. Josh Taylor and Shane Mulholland wrote that outro section and every time, I think there’s a real beauty.
HH: I completely agree and there is something to be said for albums that reveal more, both musically and emotionally, with each listen.
EH: That’s very validating and that is the same for me too. With many amazing artists, I hear something new every time – a frequency, a word or particular guitar tone will jump out. With the layers on our album, Troy Mccosker - the producer - had a challenge on his hands to try and find the space for every instrument, every layer. It's not just a five piece band because live we are a six piece. Having those little nuances on the album makes it a richer experience.
HH: Sphaera come across as a sort of mantra and intentionally defiant with its repetition of the lyrics Now you’ll see the evidence / I will be the apple of your eye. The way it is sung sounds like a balance between trying to convince yourself of those thoughts but also trying to convince the person the lyrics are addressed to.
EH: Yes with that one defiance is definitely the word. There’s a lot going on there. If you’re going to go there, you really have to go there. I think the best stuff has a fair bit of authenticity happening but has to be able to be interpreted wider than just that person’s experience, so I’m glad it can be.
HH: The title track itself encapsulates all the eclectic elements of the band in one song. Was that always going to be the title track?
EH: No, actually Sphaera was going to be the title. It was heading that way. But the label really liked the cover art, which is a little controversial, and it was kind of ironic to have this figure who's very uncomfortable, and that's why we kind of went with that. Anthesis is to blossom, to bloom. I thought it worked well because the band is not just a solo project anymore. It's grown literally and also I think there's been a little bit of musical growth because of the other bandmates who have really elevated the project.
HH: Definitely. There are certain tracks where you sing with other members of the band, the penultimate track Leven for example, and the combination of voices works brilliantly.
EH: Yeah, that’s Shane Mulholland. I recruited him for his fantastic guitar tremolo and shimmering guitar tones. He's in a post rock band called Myriad Drone, and I went to see them because I remember thinking I really would love to explore like more tones. Then this guy ends up being an incredible vocalist as well. Harmony is the reason I've gone into music. I enjoy the power of the voice and I realised he had a very good vocal palette and we needed to utilise it. We want that experience for the people in the audience because metal fantastic, it gives you goosebumps. I like the balance between people creating chaos and something nuanced, restrained and simple.
HH: A nice bonus to his guitar work then.
EH: Yes, he’s an amazing musician. They are all fantastic. He's a multi instrumentalist too. So to have the band members with this type of mastery and who are so well crafted in what they do makes me think I’m the imposter really. I bring them together and bluff my way through!
HH: Just to go back to the title track for a moment, the video for that one is fascinating. The changes in mood without a huge amount actually happening certain draws out the emotions of the song.
EH: I'm glad you like it; it is definitely interesting. It was fun to do. It was just a day. We had another video planned and that fell through so we went to Sydney to work with David Scherer, who was a one man project but I had seen some work he'd done with Aussie bands in Sydney, and he just had the grasp of mood. I like that you identified that as he knew just how create a mood with angles and lightning. We spit-balled and sat down and did it all in a day. He's a force and it just came out really well. It was a fun shoot because I got to play those different characters – all so different. White is despairing and her scenes were influenced by a movie called Mandy – a supernatural horror with Nicholas Cage, which David was referencing a lot. It’s a crazy movie, but he said I've been dying to use ideas from that. He was so stoked about it. The Red character was about rising about and being able to say I am not going to let anything take me down. And Black was grounded; embody all those moods and be very cathartic. There’s that word again! It’s about the power of imagining and he grasped the mood. This project has been quite blessed. I’ve had the right people around me a lot of the time. Sometimes, I have had the wrong people trying to feed the wrong energy into the project and I have to think like, no that’s not going to work. I’ve been lucky that I have crossed paths with a lot of the right ones though.
HH: You have had some other collaborations too with the cello and violin contributions in a track like Mythical Creatures which has a woodland and pastoral feel to it.
EH: Rachel, who played cello was someone I used to see improvising at open mic nights. I said to her you're an incredible player and I would love to work with you. I asked her the day before if she could learn the cello lines. You can tell it’s a human; it’s not a MIDI. It’s a real human with a real bow. And we have Raphael who plays with Leprous too. We needed someone for a cathartic cello solo. Shane Mullholland wrote the cello lines and Raphael nailed them. We are going to get him to do a live play through when he comes off tour.
HH: Raphael plays on the last track A Luminous End which is a very labyrinthine song. Lots of twists and turns.
EH: Definitely! I think with that one changes happen quickly. We are plodding along and its great and then what the fuck! You know what happened but you have to roll with it. You have to adapt. I know I’m going to misquote so I am paraphrasing but Einstein said a sign of intelligence is the ability to adapt, and I think that it is. It is hard because as humans, we want to keep the same and cruise along. But that leads to no growth and stagnancy. I do believe that and music is a good way of looking at it. Creative chaos is fun. It’s life affirming. It's exciting to play as a musician and to engage the listener to elevate their mood.
HH: Thinking about the balance in your music between folk and black metal, what were the influences that led you towards both of those areas?
EH: For me, Agalloch was the big game changer. I had given up music. I did it for a while in my twenties and I just didn’t want to do it anymore. I put my guitar away then it crept up on me after a long break and it was because of Agalloch - I think because I'd been learning some of the material after I heard their album The Mantle. I thought what is this!? I’m an acoustic guitarist who writes gloomy songs. So, when I heard that stuff, I just thought this is definitely atmospheric, spacious and pastoral. I love that word you used. They have a release called The White EP with a lot of sampling of nature. I thought it was incredibly beautiful, I wanted to explore that space. Damnation by Opeth is another one and I love Alcest too. Then people told me about Chelsea Wolfe, who is incredible.
HH: There is much more acceptance from a lot of fans of the crossing of genres these days.
EH: I think it's healthy too. The best sort of music breaks out from where it may have started and pushes this. I listen to all sorts of music. Not just metal.
HH: Living in Australia you must be used to some bands never travelling over to tour there, so to reverse that for once, is there any chance you are going to come to Europe at some point?
EH: 100% working on it. 100%. Napalm have said we need to get our butts over there so we are saying let’s make it happen. We are in discussion with some one based in the UK so hopefully we will see you later in the year or next year.
HH: Let us hope that it happens! Thank you so much for the insights into the album and all the best with it for the future.
EH: Thank you so much for your fantastic questions and your support.
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