Metaekdotiki, Greece, January 2011
Interview with Joseph Vargo by Alexandra Dimitriadou
Visit Metaekdotiki to read the Greek text
Tell us a
little bit about how Nox Arcana started out, how you met William Piotrowski and
decided to form the project with him, and your course in the music field so
far.
After performing in several rock bands in the
1980s, I had produced two albums of gothic-themed ambient orchestral music with
another musical project here in the Cleveland area in the late 1990s. Although
the cds were well received, the music was limited by the skill and imagination
of the other musicians involved. I left the project in 2000 and formed Nox
Arcana a few years later to create the type of dark cinematic music and concept
albums that I had always envisioned.
William
is the son of a good friend of mine. I've known him all his life. He developed
impressive musical skills at an early age and by the time he was 15, he had
taught himself the basics of digital recording and engineering. His mindset was
very mature for a 15-year old, so I discussed the possibility of forming a
musical project with him. Within six months, we had written, recorded and
released our first cd as Nox Arcana. The album Darklore Manor told the musical tale of a legendary haunted mansion
that harbored sinister occult secrets and a dark family curse. The release met
with success and critical acclaim, so we continued creating new concept cds
based on other gothic themes. To date, Nox Arcana has 12 full-length albums, in
addition to 3 collaboration cds with other musical artists.
William
left the band in 2009. Will you continue with Nox Arcana as a solo project, or
are you considering including other musicians into the band?
Yes, it was great collaborating with William, and
we are still good friends, but after graduating college he decided to pursue
other interests, so I will continue to create new music alone. I wrote and
recorded almost all of Blackthorn Asylum by myself and I've written, recorded and produced the last two Nox Arcana
albums, Winter's Eve and Theater of Illusion, on my own, so I've
become used to working without a partner. I've also created two other cds with
my friend Jeff "Buzz" Hartz. The albums Zombie Influx and House of
Nightmares are geared specifically to a horror audience.
Your
albums are all concept albums, covering metaphysical subjects such as vampires,
paranormal activities, legends and fairytales, as well as traditional horror
authors such as H.P. Lovecraft, E.A. Poe and Bram Stoker. What inspires you to
choose a theme for an album, and how do you proceed in approaching it?
All of the themes for my cds are topics that
fascinate me. I have always held a strong interest in the paranormal, horror
and the occult, both in literature and film. Lovecraft and Poe are two of my
favorite writers, mainly due to their dark subject matter and their artistic
creativity.
When
choosing a subject for a concept album, I begin with a mental list of ideas
that inspire me and have broad themes, so that the music can cover a wide
variety of emotions. I compile a list of ideas for each theme and make brief
notes for each song title concerning the mood, instrumentation and tempo, then
I begin composing music with those ideas in mind. The ideas and song titles
usually change quite a bit from the time they are conceived to the time the
album is finished. I also develop the album art and stories for my original
concepts.
Our
first cd, Darklore Manor, offered an
original twist on the classic theme of a haunted mansion. The music was a
mixture of orchestra strings, ghostly choirs, piano, pipe organ and harpsichord
to create a dark, Victorian elegance. Our next cd, Necronomicon, was a much more sinister and powerful theme, so we
used low horns, drums, and chanting choirs to accent the ominous
orchestrations. There were also a lot of narrative intros to explain some of
the cryptic history and deities of the Cthulhu mythos.
For
our third cd, we went in a totally different direction, because I didn't want
any limitations on our style. I had always wanted to do a more serious and
haunting Christmas album filled with songs that conveyed a dark, tranquil
beauty, so I developed my ideas into the concept for Winter's Knight. We added some acoustic guitars, Gregorian choirs
and even guest vocalists on a few tracks. We included our own renditions of medieval
Christmas carols and created an original story arc about a ghostly knight that
haunts the ruins of a fallen cathedral on the eve of the Winter Solstice. It
was a huge risk and I really didn't know what to expect, but our fans really
embraced the album, and Winter's Knight ranked in the Top 10 on the Billboard Magazine holiday charts two years in a
row.
By
then, we had established ourselves as a diverse band that covered a wide range
of musical styles and moods. We were mainly a symphonic instrumental project,
but we also incorporated vocalists, narratives, sound effects and eventually
even rock music. I still have a long list of themes that I would like to cover,
so the future is wide open for me.
In 2004
you released the Necronomicon album,
a musical tribute to the Lovecraftian pantheon, which was complemented by
captivating imagery and a detailed narration on your website, explaining the
Cthulhu mythos to the fans. What is your relation to the Cthulhu mythos?
H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos is one of the most
influential concepts in modern horror. To this day, many people believe that
Lovecraft's creations, the Necronomicon and
it's fictitious author, Abdul Alhazred, are real. Of course, they are not. They
are simply ingenious products of Lovecraft's dark imagination, as the author
clearly explains in his essay "History of the Necronomicon." There
are several books that claim to hold the text of the ancient Necronomicon, but they were all
published decades after Lovecraft invented the legendary tome for his stories.
Over the years, numerous other authors and screenwriters have expounded upon
Lovecraft's concepts, altering many of his descriptions and taking liberties
with the his established mythos, resulting in many conflicting and confusing
ideas.
My
concept with our Necronomicon cd was
to pay tribute to the Cthulhu mythos, describing the pantheon of Elder Gods and
the Great Old Ones exactly the way Lovecraft envisioned it, and disregarding
all subsequent works by later writers. I did extensive research into
Lovecraft's cryptic descriptions of his ancient diabolic deities as well as the
history of the Necronomicon and
compiled a precise account of each of the major characters. I wanted to clarify
Lovecraft's concepts and introduce his work to an audience that may not be
familiar with it, or may have misconceptions about it. The artwork that
accompanied the cd was designed to look like pages from an ancient tome of
magick, illustrating rituals and monstrous, otherworldly creatures.
One of my
personal favourites is the Transylvania album, which I believe returns the vampiric legend to its traditionally dark,
horrific atmosphere, as well as its historical background. Do you believe in
the legend of Vlad Dracul?
With Transylvania, I really wanted to delve into the dark folklore surrounding vampires, capturing
the horror and romance of Bram Stoker's novel. I used the story of Dracula as a basis for the concept, then
added a few other gothic elements, such as witches, ghosts, stalking wolves and
living gargoyles.
Bram
Stoker did a great deal of research into European lore and compiled the tales
into an original story that has become a literary classic. His novel defined
and established many of the ground rules for vampire fiction. In fact, the
original title for his novel was "Vampire," but he changed it after
discovering the legend of Vlad Dracul, otherwise known as Dracula. Vlad was an
actual Romanian Prince who reigned in the 15th Century and used savage acts to
defend his homeland from the invading Turks. He became known as Vlad Tepes,
meaning Vlad “The Impaler,” after impaling thousands of enemy prisoners on tall
spikes along the roadsides as a deterrent to anyone who dared invade his land.
Over the centuries, several sinister stories arose, claiming that Vlad drank
his enemies blood and that his dead body vanished from its tomb, but these
claims are unfounded and are most likely embellishments of fiction and
folklore.
In
truth, Vlad Dracul did exist, he did impale thousands of his enemies, and he is
respected in his homeland as a hero for his actions. He was a strong leader who
used brutal tactics during brutal times, but he was not a bloodthirsty monster
with supernatural powers.
Vampires
have become a significant part of popular culture lately. Do you see this trend
as a positive thing, and is there any part of it that you follow (books, TV
shows, films etc)?
I love anything with a supernatural mystique that
embraces the dark romance and erotic danger of the classic vampire tales.
Unfortunately, many of the vampire books and films that have become popular in
recent years have strayed from the classic concepts. There are a few basic
rules that should never be broken. Vampires are immortal undead creatures, they
are weakened by sunlight, and they are driven by their lust for human blood.
The Twilight series of books and films
has become extremely popular in recent years, but it lacks the essential gothic
elements of good vampire fiction. It is basically a mindless teenage romance
fantasy with several poorly conceived supernatural elements thrown into the
plot. It panders to a young female audience and has no real moral or literary
substance. But worst of all, it paints vampires in a very mundane light. The Twilight "vampires" don't
sleep in coffins, live in castles, wear gothic clothes or turn into bats,
instead they drive cars, sleep in beds and wallow in teenage angst. The worst
part is that they frolic in the daylight, playing baseball and attending high
school classes, while their skin sparkles in the sunlight. It's detestable
tripe, but sadly the book and film sales show there is a huge audience for this
type of watered-down vampire fantasy.
You have
collaborated with Michelle Belanger, who is a well-known occultist, for the Blood of Angels album, as well as for a
track on Winter's Knight. How did
this collaboration come about, and do you also share some of her other
interests?
Michelle and I have been friends for many years. We
met in the mid 1990s at a Renaissance fair in the Cleveland, Ohio area, where
we were both merchants vending our own products. I was selling my art on
posters, calendars and t-shirts, and Michelle was promoting her magazine, Shadowdance. Because of our similar
interests, we struck up a friendship and we eventually worked together on my
1998 Born of the Night calendar. I
had the good fortune to hear Michelle sing on a few occasions and was very
impressed with her voice. When William and I began work on Winter's Knight in 2005, I approached Michelle about performing on
the cd. She graciously accepted the invitation to sing our rendition of the medieval
ballad "Past Time With Good Company," and did a wonderful job with
the song. We later discussed doing an entire album together and the next year
we set aside one week to write and record Blood
of Angels. The creative energy was extremely high and we really pushed
ourselves to complete an entire album, from start to finish, in about 60 studio
hours. Michelle's concept dealt with the mortal descendants of the Watcher
angels who carry unearthly magic in their blood, allowing them to revel and
excel in artistic pursuits. The concept really seemed to encapsulate our own
creative work environment for the project.
Michelle
is well-known for her books The Psychic
Vampire Codex, Psychic Dreamwalking and The
Vampire Ritual Book, among others. She and I share many of the same
interests and opinions concerning politics and religion, but we don't discuss
our actual occult or spiritual beliefs. We both share a strong work ethic and
believe in working hard to attain the goals we envision, but Michelle's
techniques are far more metaphysical than mine.
Apart
from a musician you are also a very gifted illustrator and horror writer. Tell
us more about your other artistic occupations.
I began my career as an artist, painting images of
gothic fantasy for books, magazines and cd covers. In 1991, I established my
own company, Monolith Graphics, to sell art prints, calendars and t-shirts of
my own design. Over the next few years, the business grew and we branched-out
into various other artistic avenues. In 2000, Monolith Graphics published the
book Tales From The Dark Tower, an
illustrated collection of 13 gothic tales based on the characters I had created
in my gothic paintings. The anthology delves into the mysteries surrounding a
medieval tower inhabited by cursed vampires and other lost souls. In addition to
creating the artwork for this book, I also wrote and co-wrote several of the
stories. Later that same year, we launched Dark
Realms Magazine, a quarterly periodical that explored the shadows of art,
music and culture. I created all the magazine cover art and also wrote numerous
articles on various paranormal topics, such as the crystal skull, Grimm fairy
tales, witchcraft, hauntings and creatures from folklore.
In
the following years I created The Gothic Tarot and worked with my partner,
artist Christine Filipak, to produce Madame Endora's Fortune Cards. We also
published the art book, Born of the
Night, which contains over 100 of my gothic fantasy paintings and drawings.
In 2009 we published a new book of horror stories, The Legend of Darklore Manor and Other Tales of Terror, which
contains 13 sinister stories including the novella that chronicles the grim
history of the haunted mansion that inspired Nox Arcana's debut album.
I
am fortunate to have several artistic outlets for my imagination. I find writing,
painting and creating music to each be very gratifying in their own way.
You are
the creator of The Gothic Tarot, which quickly became one of my most frequently
used decks, as it does an excellent job of combining gothic imagery and
symbolism with the arcane knowledge of the Tarot. How did you decide to do a
Tarot deck, and what was the basic principle in creating and assigning images
to the cards?
I had always wanted to create my own Tarot deck
that would appeal to people who shared my gothic interests. In 2002, I began
assembling images for The Gothic Tarot from my existing body of work. I had
over 200 paintings and illustrations to choose from when I began assembling
images for the major and minor arcana. I use a lot of symbolism in my art, so
some of these existing images were a perfect fit for various cards of the
tarot. Dracula reigned supreme as the Emperor of The Gothic Tarot and Lilith
became the image for the Empress. The kings and queens of each of the four
suits were represented by various vampiric characters, while living gargoyles
were used to depict the knaves.
I
researched and studied the history of Tarot cards while I was designing The
Gothic Tarot and decided to pattern my cards after early traditional decks like
the Tarot of Marseilles and the Rider-Waite deck. Much of my existing art had
to be altered to capture the exact meaning of each card, but I also had to
create several new pieces specifically for the deck. Some simple alterations
included adding cups, wands, pentacles and swords to the artwork, but some
paintings underwent drastic changes in composition and color scheme in order to
convey images that were appropriate for certain cards. I worked closely with my
partner, graphic designer extraordinaire Christine Filipak, to transform my
paintings and illustrations into The Gothic Tarot. I later worked with writer
Joseph Iorillo to create a companion book, The
Gothic Tarot Compendium, which gives details behind the artwork and reveals
the cryptic symbolism of each card.
Is the
Gothic Tarot linked to your other work, and if so, in what way?
The deck contains images from a period spanning
over 10 years of my life, so it represents a large portion of my artistic
career. However The Gothic Tarot is not linked to any of my writing or music. I
can relate to several cards though. For example, I think that The Chariot
really represents the choices people make for their own destiny. We can either
see ourselves as riders on an uncontrollable course, or we can take hold of the
reigns to steer our lives in the direction we choose. Most people are content
to just sit back and enjoy the ride, but the only way to achieve your dreams is
to take control of your life's course and direct your own destiny.
Monolith
Graphics has also published Madame Endora's Fortune Cards. Tell us a little
more about them, where they are based and how they are used.
Madame Endora's Fortune Cards are different from
the traditional Tarot deck. The imagery and meanings are based in folklore,
ancient mythology and mysticism from several different cultures, taking wisdom
from each of them. The deck is centered around the artwork of Christine
Filipak, which has a very feminine, Art Nouveau quality to it. I created
several images for the deck as well and Christine and I created the meanings
and spreads. The 48 cards are divided into five oracle groups, The Royal Court,
The Realm Of Fable, The Bestiary, The Treasury, and The Elements, representing
the various physical and spiritual forces that surround us. In addition to the
detailed meanings in the instruction booklet, each card also has a brief
fortune written on a scroll on the face of the card, to allow a quick and easy
interpretation.
Madame
Endora was a regular feature that we created for Dark Realms Magazine. The articles covered a wide variety of
divination methods and provided insight into different myths, legends,
folklore, and spiritual belief systems. The card deck was simply a way to
combine all of these ideas to create a modern oracle offering the wisdom of the
ages. The fortunes offer sensible and inspiring advice based on inner
reflection and personal relationships. We get numerous letters from people who
use both of our oracle decks, The Gothic Tarot and Madame Endora's Fortune
Cards, telling us that the readings they get are amazingly accurate.
Are you
yourself a magical practitioner, and if so, which path do you follow?
No. Although I find the subject to be extremely
interesting, I've never known anyone that could provide proof of any one path
that led everyone who followed it to health, happiness, power or enlightenment.
I believe that visualizing your goals and sending mental messages to universal
forces are positive actions, but I also believe that you must take physical
action toward achieving your goals. Sometimes this is just as simple as working
hard to attain your desired results.
I
do believe there is an underlying connection between all life, but the universe
is a vast and mysterious place filled with wonders that our mortal minds cannot
fully comprehend. No human possesses the key to unlocking the infinite
mysteries that surround us.
My
outlook on spiritual matters is simple: Don't waste your life searching for
answers that are beyond human reach, just live life to the fullest, without regret.
Do you
view the themes you present as based on mere fantasy, or do you believe there
might be some truth hidden behind them?
The stories of Lovecraft, Stoker and Poe are
obvious works of fantasy fiction, so I enjoy contributing to the mystique that
surrounds them. The fairy tales of the brothers Grimm were collected from
European fables and folklore. Many of these are based on allegedly true
accounts of witches, ghosts, fairies, goblins and other creatures of legend.
This is where the boundaries of fact and fiction become blurred. Some of the
other themes I've explored, such as ghost ships and haunted houses, are based
on documented cases of paranormal encounters, so I feel there is a certain
basis of reality behind them.
Many
of the original concepts I've created deliver morals based on universal truths
and various spiritual beliefs. The concept album Theater of Illusion combines the realm of stage illusion and the
realm of ritual magick, while Winter's
Knight and Winter's Eve blend
Pagan and Christian customs to deliver positive messages of hope and redemption
for the winter holiday season.
Have you
ever had a paranormal experience that you would like to share with our readers?
Unfortunately no. Many people I know and respect
have had strange encounters with ghosts, psychic phenomena and even UFOs, but I
have never had any personal experiences of my own. I have an open mind to the
unknown and paranormal, but I guess I'm just never in the right place at the
right time. I would love to have a first-hand encounter with the spirit realm
or any extraterrestrial beings.
Your
latest album, Theater of Illusion‚ is
about stage magic. What inspired you to choose that subject?
Our music has always been very popular with
magicians, and several professional illusionists have used various Nox Arcana cds
to enhance their acts. As a lifelong fan of all magic, I was inspired to create
a musical tribute to the mysterious realm of illusion, blending spellbinding
stage magic with ritual practices. The cd invites listeners to enter a realm of
magic and dark fantasy to discover the mysteries that lie in wait beyond the
veil of shadows.
The
setting for this concept album is an old Vaudeville theater, hidden beyond the
threshold of dreams and nightmares, where mystifying acts are performed by
phantom magicians. The 21 tracks take the listener on a musical journey
throughout the theater and provide a cinematic soundtrack for the eerie acts that
play out on stage. The music ranges from haunting melodies on piano,
harpsichord, and music box chimes to dramatic orchestrations accented by gothic
choirs and pipe organ. Other tracks offer exotic, mystical rhythms and hypnotic
narratives to create a spellbinding atmosphere.
What are
your plans for the future? Do you have a new album in the works, and can you
reveal anything about it?
I am currently working on writing the sequel to Tales From The Dark Tower. The new book, Beyond the Dark Tower, will be the
second in the Dark Tower trilogy.
I've also begun working on the next Nox Arcana cd, which will be based on the
Dark Tower mythos. Later this year, I will begin work on the third and final
Nox Arcana winter cd. I already have some tracks written for both albums, but
I'm looking forward to being able to completely immerse myself in the studio
for a few months.
Thank you
very much for accepting to interview with us. On behalf of our readers and
myself I would like to wish you the best for your future artistic endeavours.
We are looking forward to the new album!
It's been my pleasure, Alexandra. Thank you for the opportunity to reach
your audience.
Darkest wishes,
Joseph Vargo