This interview was conducted at the Denny’s in Seal Beach, CA at a time when Justin and Anji had named their band, Ravensong. By the way, we have a review of their promotional tape in this issue. In later Black Chronicles we would like to run an update on this exciting and breathtaking band!
BC: Could you tell our readers of any compilations or collection that the band has or will perform on, or works with any other bands?
Justin: There was someone from New York who did a fanzine called Graceless Passion and she was talking about a couple of comps that I was supposed to be on. I did the songs and got them ready.
Anji: That was months ago.
Justin: We haven’t heard from her since.
Dark Marc: They may have just moved?
Justin: I don’t think so because we sent two postcards. I don’t think it’s going to happen.
BK: I wonder whatever happened to Graceless Passion? When Dark Marc and I were up at Vinyl Fetish on Melrose in Hollywood I bought issue 3 and enjoyed it very much.
Anji: I wonder whatever happened to her? Know she had written some poetry in a recent fanzine so she’s obviously still alive.
Justin: She was really enthusiastic and she really liked one of the songs, “Capuchin,” which is an instrumental with tribal drums and guitar sounds. She said she would do a second compilations that was all cover songs, so we worked on a cover of “I Am The Walrus” by The Beatles.
Anji: Now we’ll have this weird cover song. Maybe we’ll make our own compilation of Beatles covers?
Justin: We had fun doing it, though. There’s also a side project, a collaboration we’re doing with a correspondent from Colorado. The singer is Christ Reider and his band is called Luster. It’s really good music. Right now we are working on a collaboration by mail where one of us gets an idea and writes it down on paper, then sends it to the other one to be completed. So far it’s in its very beginning stages, so eventually something will happen with that.
BC: Could you guys tell me about any inspirations you have for your music?
Justin: I had always loved fantastic novels, Moorcock, of course, Lovecraft… that has had a great influence on me, but I don’t know if it comes out in my music, though.
Anji: Maybe in the way of writing your lyrics?
Justin: I don’t think anyone can figure out what most of my lyrics are about. They seem perfectly clear to me, but they end up coming out as vague.
Anji: One of the only songs that I had written on the first tape was called, “When Rabbit Howls.” It’s about a woman who had multiple personalities and the lyrics are all from her perspective. I sure hope no-one thinks it’s about me.
BC: Our sister read that book and every time she talked about it she told me about the personalities, like Big Joe and Gutter Mouth.
Dark Marc: Little Joe, Crap Game, Oddball…
BC: When our sister would talk about the book, I thought she was talking about a friend who had this problem, who had been abused for so long that she had multiples, and I was like, “What the fuck?” It’s shocking!
Anji: It is, yeah. I read quite a few books about that — at least 3 books that I remember.
Justin: It’s funny. I had gone through all the insanity in fiction and Anji’s read all the true stories.
Anji: I read a lot of true crime, biographies, and stuff like that — stories of people with mental problems and drug addictions. I’m into those types of books for some reason. My whole family had read that stuff that Justin had read, so I know all the titles. I’ve seen them our bookshelf for 10 years and I never picked it up, all the Michael Moorcock and those people. Justin’s turning me on to some it now.
BC: Don’t forget, Chaos is the way to go!
Dark Marc: I don’t see what’s so cool about Chaos.
Anji: You guys are into the whole fantasy things as opposed to the hard boiled reality, two opposite ends of the writing scale!
Justin: I think that the Moorcock books were actually being philosophical. I don’t know if the views expressed in the books actually expressed Michael Moorcock’s views. They were very fatalistic.
BC: That’s true. The Eternal Champion would never have any rest until… Did you read the Hawkmoon?
Justin: No. The only series I read was Elric of Menibone.
BC: Well I have Corum, all six books. If you like, you could borrow them.
Justin: That would be great! You know, I used to have some Michael Moorcock miniatures.
Dark Marc: Oh, from Stormbringer?
BC: Oh yeah, Chaosium made that game!
Justin: I heard of it, but never played it.
BC: You would be surprised about how many crossovers there were in the Eternal Champion.
Justin: I know that Elric comes into contact with some of the other incarnations of the Champion Eternal on some of his adventures.
Dark Marc: Corum, Erekose, Hawkmoon.
BC: I have only read Elric, Hawkmoon, and Corum. I haven’t read Erekose, or John Daker — or however you say his name.
Justin: Yeah, there are all these weird accent marks on everybody’s names.
Dark Mark: Here you have the Eternal Champion who knows what’s going on, he knows everything, and he knows all of his incarnations, everyone knows who he was and who he will be and yet, you can’t pronounce his name!
The end of part one of this interview ends with some warm feelings that we weren’t the only people who were fans of the Eternal Champion and Michael Moorcock — blessed be his name!
CASSETTE DEMO REVIEW:
RAVENSONG PRESENTS THEIR MUSICAL STYLE ON A PLATTER MADE OF THE DARKEST HEARTS THAT EVEN PLEASED THE HARD TO SATISFY MUSICAL PALLET OF DARK MARC HIMSELF! A FEAT NOT EASILY ACCOMPLISHED. TO ME, I FELT THAT THE UNION OF JUSTIN AND ANJI’S VOICES THROUGH SOME OF THE SONGS EXPRESS LOVE AND ADMIRATION OF THE BASAL ART OF MUSIC AND FOR ONE ANOTHER! SOME OF THEIR SONGS ARE BASED UPON LITERARY SUBJECTS, FOR INSTANCE, “WHEN RABBIT HOWLS,” A SONG BASED ON A BOOK OF A GIRL THAT HAD AN EXTREME AMOUNT OF PERSONALITIES WAS READ BY MY SISTER, THE PRINCESS OF THE BLACK, AND WHEN RAVENSONG LAID ON ME THAT SONG, I SAID, “YIKES, MY SISTER READ THAT BOOK,” AND I WAS VERY HAPPY TO KNOW THAT THERE ARE WIDESPREAD POINTS OF INTEREST THROUGHOUT THEIR MUSIC! ANOTHER EXAMPLE IS “SOLITUDE,” A SONG MEANING A DAY SPENT IN THE RELAXING FREEDOM OF NATURE, WHERE JUSTIN MAKES MANY REALIZATIONS ABOUT MEANINGS TO HIS LIFE AND SPIRITUAL AWAKENINGS THAT HE EXPRESSES IN HIS WRITING. WE GAVE THE SAMPLER A HIGH RATING FOR ORIGINALITY AND CREATIVITY. BOTH JUSTIN AND ANJI WORK WELL TOGETHER, KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK, GUYS!