When and why did you start Semen Datura? What have you released?
We started 1997 influenced by the Black Metal movement in the middle of the nineties. The power and the dark, sinister atmosphere of this music was like a healing fire for us. It was like an answer of a research we started some years before... as we played as teenagers in a local dark/punk/rock band.

What does the name Semen Datura means? Why did you choose that name?
The name is our personal metaphor for “origin of the night”. It's complete Latin, no English. We felt “This is the right name to express darkness and originality too”. There are some Latin translations like “she, who gives the semen” and so on, but for us it's a metaphor, an art-word.

Talk about your latest album "Einsamkeit", are you satisfied with it? How would you describe it? The sound, the music, the concept etcetera.
I think, after twelve years we have reached a point of honest expression and a kind of maturity.
It was written like in a cocoon of privacy and solitude. If you are a total underground act you work always in isolation. You release an album (in the best case), get a bit of feedback and then you feel like a dead man for the next three years. So you have to concentrate the focus only to yourself. The dark nature that surrounds us, some journeys, a lot of post-rock music and in the autumn a healing dose of SSRI. The sound and the music is the consequence of that. I'm very satisfied with the result. But I'm not sure if I want to repeat this dark phase of my life which was the source of “Einsamkeit”.

How has the response to the album been? Both from the press and the public?
The time since the release is too short to talk about the response. I only read two reviews so far.

From your "Retrospection": "...thank the universal forces...". What are these universal forces? How does these forces affect your life? Your music?
It's the result of thinking about the term “fate”. A lot of energy surrounds us, energy of thoughts, energy of humans (mostly negative), of animals (mostly positive), nature (both in its extreme). Also the constellation of the stars, magnetism, sources and metal under the surface. I think all these things are able to influence a person in a very strong way. And to survive in this chaos you have to find a personal balance. In the last years I felt that there was a force with the ambition to extinguish the light in my live. But I'm still alive and so it was normal for me to say “thank you” to this forces.

More from your artwork. The "Anti-Human-Art" should we interpret that as a mission statement from Semen Datura, or a sort of definition of the bands and its music?
There is no “mission statement”. It was a negative moment and I was fulfilled with hate and despair. And in such a moment it's important for me to do something. I write words on the paper or play guitar or I go for a walk. During the layout process I collected all the letters and created a whole picture with these fragments. So it's possible to extract the essence of the most emotional moments of several years.

How should we interpret the Joseph Beuys quote in relation with the "Anti-Human-Art" statement?
My free interpretation of the statement of Beuys “art is the only revolutionary force“ means that art is a stronger force than violence or politics and so on. There was a time I thought a lot about people who are running amok. The ambitions of these people, the reasons for there doing. What has pushed they so far? The society, the media, the isolation, the ignorance – all the big lies in our modern world. They are screaming with a gun, that’s her final expression after a long period of silent suffering. The interpretation of the statement below and the relation to the words “Anti-Human-Art” helped me to focus my thoughts to the album.

The artwork on the album is brilliant, very fitting. Did it take much time to create/choose the artwork? How much thought goes into the artwork? How important is the artwork?
We don't release an album each year. So the release is very especial for us and time is not important. In my opinion the lyrics, the music, the sound, the pictures and the layout are one continuum. It was a long creation process because I'm full of doubts sometimes. Now it's nice to hear that it is brilliant. By the way, I'm not a fan of harddisks full of mp3. I would prefer to burn all the internet shit and the mobile phones and go back to letters, telephone and vinyl, haha. True permanent values.

How important are the lyrics for you? Could you describe your lyrical content and why they are based on such topics?
The lyrics are an additional layer to the music. On the actual album we tried to use words that suggest you something “Einsamkeit” (solitude), “Psychokrieg” (psycho-war) or “Marschbefehl” (marching order). Influenced by Hermann Hesses story “Über das Brot”, which explains the meaning of “strong words” like Mother, Bread, Earth - we used such topics. For example, if I say the word “Vineta” - most people have no imagination. Otherwise if say the word “Mother”, hope you know what I mean.

Why are some lyrics in German and others in English? On your previous albums there seems to be more English lyrics then German, on ”Einsamkeit” it is the other way around. Why is this so?
German is our native language and so I have a direct imagination with the lyrics. In English there is like a hidden wall between the words and the heart. The album is more personal than all stuff we did before. At the moment I would feel like a clown or an actor with to much English titles. I mean most bands are pure fake, they are the copy of the copy of the copy. For such bands, which are more in entertainment and karaoke, it's okay to spit out English phrases. But not for me at the minute.

I have only heard your latest album, how would you describe your previous releases?
In a way different to the new one. There are so many years between, many line-up-changes, different periods in live. We started as young metal heads with a lot of energy but not so much musical knowledge. But from the beginning we tried to find an own way. A bit different to the masses. This ambition you can hear on each release. The ambition to push boundaries and the true will to be no “copycats”.

Your third album was called ”Vineta Part I”, does this mean that there will other parts in the future?
“Vineta Pt.I” was our second album. It was planed as a trilogy about the sunken island vineta. We got very good reviews and most of this people understand the interesting concept far away of these ordinary themes most bands use. On the other hand we realized that most people in the metal scene are not ripe to go deeper into things. You can't work as an artist if the ignorance is too much overwhelming. So we felt, the only way is to spit out our deepest personal feelings. That's a „must-do“...fuck all, it's a expression of yourself. The Vineta-story is not an expression of ourselfes. It's a pure artistically expression, who needs a bit dialog with the audience. But we got not enough dialog and the only way to work was to chancel this story. Maybe later we will continue with the Vineta themes...

How has Semen Datura evolved over the years? How would you describe your music?
I think we arrived a point of very honest form of artistic expression. Pure and personal. The essence is black metal in the sense that Black Metal is the most important music style in our personal development. But the main question was “How would we express our emotions if we would be free of any influences?” I analyzed the words and the moments to figure out what is their natural sound. For example if you are full of doubts. What do you hear in this moment? It's not a cool scream. It's no melodic voice. It's your breath and a kind of jittering. And after this research we tried to transform this knowledge into our music. Listen to the song “Unter bleigrauen Wolkenlasten” and you know what I mean.

Let's talk about your influences. Which bands, musicians, writers, poets, philosophers, artists and so forth influenced you and your work in Semen Datura?
I keep it simple. In the beginning we were influenced by bands like Dissection, Emperor, Satyricon, Mayhem and so on. Meanwhile I mostly listen to bands like Godspeed You Black Emperor, MONO or Wovenhand and a fine selection of Black Metal and ambient music.

In these days there have been a sort of stagnation in the Metal scene with a lot of bands regressing musically into an almost parody immersed in nostalgia of the early bands. What are your feelings about this?
I agree with your statement. It's boring to see bands that sound similar like the originals years before. It's a kind of cover-music. But why don't they found a real cover band and earn money with it, haha. Maybe most people are just into drinking, partying and making a bit karaoke. Responsible (in my opinion) are big magazines, big labels and the organizers of big festivals. They lead the taste of young people into stupidity. They are only about to sell out the scene. It's normally. like ever. But I'm no part of the community anymore... so I negate this stagnation.

What are the future plans of Semen Datura?
I'm not sure. It depends on what happened with the “Einsamkeit” album. Sometimes I'm full of energy. On the other day I'm full of emptiness. Time will show.

Thanks for the interview, end in any way you like.
Thanks for the interview and the interests in Semen Datura.