Interviews: Hidden Since Foundation Of The World
On this new occasion, we had the opportunity to interview the Neo-Psychedelic Doom Metal band Hidden Since Foundation Of The World from the Netherlands. Check out the interview and follow this band on their FACEBOOK PAGE.
1. Where did you get the idea for the band name? Did you plan it, or did it just come out like that?
Blev (vocals/violin): We brainstormed a lot of options and let them compete in a
bracket.
Joel (guitar/electronics): The winner we stole from a 1978 book (Des choses
cachées depuis la fondation du monde) by French literary critic/social theorist René
Girard, who himself stole the phrase from the Christian Bible. The book expands on
the theme of scapegoating and the origins of violence in human societies that he first
developed in La Violence et le sacré (1972)— a better book but less interesting band
name. We also naturally thought it sounded kind of Lovecraftian. Like, people
probably don’t really want to know what kinds of things lie Hidden Since the
Foundation of the World: probably cosmic horrors from the Far Realm! We later
learned to our dismay that certain of our fascistic tech overlords claim an affinity for
Girard but decided not to let them have it without a fight.
2. Why did you want to play this genre?
Joel: True story: when I was 16 or so, I found a cassette of Carcass’ Heartwork in
my front yard. I was more of a goth/indie kid than a metalhead, but when I loaded up
this semi-melted and waterlogged tape, I loved it. Pretty sure that gooey, half
backwards rendition of Heartwork was where I first started to imagine that metal
could be as mind-bending as the Hawkwind, Bauhaus, and Sonic Youth I was
obsessed with at the time. You didn’t have to choose between weird and really
heavy. First year in college, a friend slipped me a bootleg copy of Sleep’s Jerusalem, and I was transfixed. I was sold on the idea of low, slow metal with lots of drones, but
I was kind of a synthesiser guy, so it took several years before I looked at a guitar as
more than a feedback generator...
Blev: To me, the slowness of doom makes space for awareness and critical
listening, so as the emotive gestures of blues stretch and warp, the familiar is made
strange. Since these tempos have a way of grounding physically, bridging body and
mind, we can be as abstract as we want under the doom umbrella without letting
anyone’s head float away.
Ivar (bass): Well, from a bass player’s perspective, it’s interesting: you don’t always
follow the guitars blindly in unison, but when you do, it turns out even more massive
and heavy. As a youngster, I got into stoner and doom, coming from a more death
metal/grindcore/hardcore background. The slow grinding heaviness intrigued and
inspired me to tune down and play more mellow.
3. Did you know each other before the band was formed?
Blev: Joel and I met at an academic conference back in 2021. The rest happened
through working the musical network.
Joel: Something like that. We’re on our third rhythm section now, but I knew
everyone in the original lineup as well as Tina (who played drums on the singles)
beforehand. Ivar was a friend of our second bassist, and they just sort of swapped
places seamlessly. The only time we’ve really held auditions was when we brought on
Kareem late last year. We played with him twice and cancelled the remaining
appointments! I think we’ve got a stable and sympatico crew going forward.
4. Each band member's favourite band?
Blev: The Cramps
Joel: In the context of this project? Thou.
Kareem (drums): Tool
Ivar: So many, but I’ll say Godflesh for now.
5. Who or what inspires you to write songs?
Joel: Often, the process starts with a short concept note around something from the
news or a book/film, or some inside joke. What if Werner Herzog’s solitary penguin
was actually exiled because it was a prophet that tried to warn everyone about the
coming tariffs and Trade War? Then I’ll try to write a riff and some variations that
evoke that scene. Blev does the same with lyrics, and if we get a decent match, we
start trying to demo it. We’ve got a shared doc with a decent backlog of these kinds of
prompts.
Blev: We often start with a motif, social ill, or speculative conceit. But sometimes
emotional life bleeds into the conceit, and the outcome is more poetic than personal.
Kareem: All the unresolved knots that come from “going through life” create inner
tension, and one likes to think that this tension is released through this creative
process of songwriting/composition.
6. Where was your last gig?
Joel: This old bomb shelter called the Vondelbunker in Amsterdam, on a 3-way bill
with Fuzzard and Prophets of Thwaites. Fantastic bands and atmosphere. We’ll have
some live video up soon, hopefully.
7. Where would you like to act?
Blev: We’re hoping to book something soon at OCCII, a former squat that’s a
legendary counter-culture institution here in Amsterdam
Joel: There are lots of great festivals in this country I’d really like to play one day:
Roadburn, Soulcrusher, Sonic Whip, Samhain, etc.
Ivar: For me personally, as a regular visitor, Roadburn would be a milestone for
sure.
Joel: Bit of a pipe dream (pun intended), but I also think it’d be fantastic to play in
one of those gothic churches with the giant organs. Pantheist played St Paul’s
church in Huddersfield (UK) a couple of years ago, so it’s not as if these things never
happen. We’d need to recruit an organist, but that can be done.
8. Whom would you like to feature with?
Joel: Coltaine, Cwfen, Daevar, Litania, Messa, Monolord, Slomatics, Slow Crush,
The Answer Lies in the Black Void… someone’s going to have to stop me…
9. Whom not?
All: Nazi punks. Zero tolerance for any right-wing nonsense.
10. Have any of you ever suffered from stage fright? Any tips for beginners on
how to beat that?
Blev: No, but my clinical psych background would have me playing out the worst-
case scenario and realising even this is livable. Another strategy would be getting to
the underlying fear that the stage fright ‘stands in for’ (say, not just fear of failure but
the suspicion of being a failure) and challenging what’s so bad about that. One last
way is to actively support other acts. A genuine act of generosity in your scene can
help you recognise and relativise what is valuable in a performance.
Kareem: What always helped for me is to really practice your
instrument/performance to the point where you have built up so much confidence
that you can use it as a crutch to calm your nerves.
11. What bands have inspired you the most?
Ivar: Thou, regarding DIY-ethos. Countless doom/psychedelic/sludge and of course, some dream-pop and post-punk bands.
12. What's the weirdest thing a fan has ever asked you for?
Joel: I once played a show where this kid drove in from a long way away and had
planned to drive home afterwards, but his car broke down. Still came to the show,
then walked up at the end of the gig and asked if we knew a place he could crash for
the night. So we put him on my couch, and someone took him over to the mechanic
in the morning. Worked out fine, as far as I know.
13. What do you think of your fans?
Ivar: A wide range of people, not just the ‘typical metal crowd.’
Blev: Brilliant, funny, and especially kind.
Joel: Obviously, they have exquisite taste in psych-doom.
14. What do you think of our site?
Ivar: I love the sheer width of topics/scenes that the site covers; it feels like a
passion project that became a giant index of rock & metal music, and everything in
between.
Blev: Great that Breathing the Core dives deep and supports new acts.
15. Something to add?
Joel: We’ve got a remixes/collabs album called Acts and Bones coming out in April
that we’re excited for people to hear. The first singles, with collaborations by Buzzard
and Megaton Leviathan, are out now on our Bandcamp and most of the streaming
platforms, and we’ll have 2 compelling videos associated with the release, too, so
keep an eye out!
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