Interview: Withered Land
Photo by Withered Land
Belarus is a land filled with a lot of complications, to put it succinctly. One of the bright spots (ironically enough) hailing from the country is a black metal artist called Withered Land. Olga Kann is the mastermind behind the project, creating music that is both beautiful and chilling to the listener. Maybe it’s intentional or a subconscious manifestation, but that is often the same description we could give our world. There is beauty in nature and in the love of other human beings, all while there is a coldness in the world that reminds us that all is not as it should be. Even the name “Withered Land” embodies this concept, which is befitting.
Withered Land is not metal without a spine, nor is it music without direction. Olga is an artist who endeavors to create in multiple formats, not just music. Through those expressions, we see the heart behind the artist in all of its joys and sufferings. As with most artists (at least the ones who do it for passion and not mere financial gain), we are invited to step into a more intimate space in their minds. Withered Land is a tapestry Olga has created to depict her own journey thus far, which we’re honored she wants to share it with us.
Blacforje connected with Olga to talk about Withered Land, Olga’s personal worldview as a human being, and what inspires the artist’s work.
Thanks for joining Blacforje for an interview! I really enjoyed The Endless Journey, which prompted my interest in talking with you further about your music, your worldview, and the thematic elements behind Withered Land. To start, you’re in Belarus, correct?
Many thanks! Yes, that's right.
Tell us a little bit about where you’re from and how that has impacted you as an artist (if at all).
Of course, the place of stay, the people around you, impose certain features and restrictions on your development. If we talk about my case, then I feel like everything around me is alien. I do not support what is happening in my country now. I have little understanding of the average people and this whole mood of the post-Soviet communist abyss.
This is about the situation as a whole. If we talk about my environment, then it is mostly creative, friendly, close to me in ideas. Additionally, I constantly communicate a lot on the Internet with people around the world. I often go to nature and almost never get out into a noisy city. Intersect with unhealthy environments to a minimum. So, we can only partially say that staying in a country affects development. I am a person hovering in the clouds, in my castles in the air, books, fantasies. It has always been like this. I was more interested in knowledge, things, stories, art than people.
In comparison with the advanced countries, our metal scene was not so developed. But the years of youth were nonetheless truly interesting. I was able to make interesting acquaintances, attend interesting events, concerts, theater performances, and all that. Being young, inexperienced, but ambitious guys, we gathered at music studios. I don’t even remember how many people I had a chance to play with in my whole life - a lot. We organized concerts, gatherings, participated in the activities of webzines. Well, it's not something unique. But I am still grateful to any environment, whatever it may be. I know friends who have a metal scene in much worse situations. Well, in any case, I believe that it is not the place that makes the person beautiful, but the person make the place beautiful. Too many negative thoughts when I think about it.
Over the past couple of years, a lot of my friends have left the country, someone fled driven by political persecution, someone could not put up with the economic disaster. The rest are sitting on suitcases.
So let me just tell you about how beautiful nature is here. This is a wonderful authentic, sometimes mystical, moderately epic, a little intimate, beautiful area in its own way. In my songs, from time to time, one way or another, one can trace the inspiration from the Belarusian nature. Although, of course, I'm not a big fan of using local tunes. I use universal English as language of lyrics instead of Belarusian. But it would not be a mistake to say that all the bitterness and pessimism of music came out of the Polissya swamps, seasoned with tears from repressions and exalted by wild forests and epic lakes.
Photo by Withered Land
What inspired you to start Withered Land, releasing your first album back in 2021?
Some developments were many years old, but basically this conceptual canvas was completed in a relatively short time. This story splashed out with an inspirational impulse, after which it was methodically and painstakingly finalized. I was waiting for that moment in my life when my experience, accumulated over the years, will allow me to create those arrangements, go to that production to release this material. I don't think it's the perfect version of that album, but it's definitely perfect for that moment. With all its shortcomings and virtues, this is selfless love like between mother and child. I'm currently preparing to release the next album, and I have a lot of material for other releases. This experience is very different from working on the first album. Firstborns are always special. A huge thank I want to say here to those who helped with the recording or provided moral support. Of course, to my partner in many projects, Alexander Rabets, (the vocalist), and to guitarist and sound designer, Koliopanos Filippos. Thanks to Evgeny Volokitin for his help in recording vocals, to Vadim Kann, and the list could probably go on for quite some time.
I'm a big fan of "depressive seasons". Ordinary life falls asleep and archaic creativity awakens. So, one Autumn/Winter I again had an irresistible feeling that it was time to bring this project to light. Cold, lifeless gusts of wind swaying the twisted branches of trees on the devastated ground. I looked again at the devastating motives, and melodies swarmed in my head. Walking through the snow-covered, fluffy snow-white forests, epic-ness was added, and sublime feelings took me far from here in my thoughts. I won't say in which day exactly. It all happened with a cumulative effect. And at one moment there was a desire to quickly implement new and old sketches of compositions in something depressingly epic, melodic, moderately raw, and strongly pompous. If some idea arises in my head, and it pursues me not only rationally, but also swarms deep in the subconscious, creating an echo in the subcortex that cannot be drowned out by anything, then it is impossible to stop me. I will do everything to keep these "lambs" silent.
This is not my first project (and not my last). But it is special to me in many ways. Here, as in no other place, the burden of choice rests solely with me. What can I say? Art is my gift and my curse. If you objectively look at the world, I live a little, I constantly create. For yourself or for others. This is my Sisyphean stone I constantly raise uphill.
If you were to summarize the themes and lyrical content behind The Endless Journey, how would you describe it?
The real inspiration for me are fictional worlds, legendariums mixed with epic nature, esoteric and sacred worlds. The central place in the concept is occupied by the themes of death, karma, the futility of wars and battles, low and high human feelings, and decline. This is the world of the withered earth, where there is always hope, but no light is visible.
Of course, literature, video games, and films served as an important source of inspiration. I just love writing lyrics. It's poetry inside the music; it's an art in its own right. I am a psychologist by education. Perhaps this fact also influenced the sources of my inspiration in some way. I love hidden meanings, complex characters, their contradictions, doubts, decisions, and actions. My graduate thesis was related to the concept of death in different cultures. Many years have passed, but this topic does not leave me in my art. One of the most sacred things, like the sacrament of birth, so the sacrament of passing beyond life is the most interesting object of study. A small spoiler: the next album will be entirely tied to this. Also, an important source of inspiration is the love of reenactment. This is another way to temporarily become what you want, running away from the dull reality. In your world of fantasy, no one has the power to put you in chains.
As mentioned earlier and will be added a little later, nature, especially during its "depressive seasons", is also a strong source of inspiration to me. I wander through the forests a lot. I like to look at the water surface and raging waves, and I enjoy watching the birth of life from the bowels of the earth. You know, another hobby of mine. I participate in volunteer programs to green our planet, plant young trees, and also enjoy doing my own growing plants. The difficulty with which a tiny seed breaks through the layers of the harsh earth, in search of light, away from the impenetrable darkness, on the way from nothingness to being - very strong images for me in a symbolic way. The earth takes away, but the earth also gives life; this endless cycle of life is most accurately reflected in it. The earth, by the way, is my main element, which also funny refers to the name of the project.
The earth remembers everything: bloody battles, the fall of great cities, the creation of the greatest buildings, and their destruction. In a sense, the earth is time. Ruthlessly all-consuming, but invariably bestowing in return. Flowers will sprout on the remains of the fallen warrior's bones and provide food for thirsty bees. Is this not the true poetics of metaphysics?
Photo by Withered Land
Your real name is Olga Kann, a black metal artist, album art designer, and now music video director. You’re a very gifted artist in multiple formats. Tell us what drives you as an individual, not strictly focusing on Withered Land.
Thank you! Well, it turns out that I have a real obsession with art. Probably behind this lies not only a way to survive the hardships of the world, but also the original, primitive interest. Just not so long ago, this could be mistaken for something like a craving for achievement. But still, the realization of the unimportance of the result, the fact that there will always be someone who will jump higher, sweeps aside this reason. Sublimation, neurosis, or primitive interest?
The creator archetype is definitely my archetype. Creator or Maker are other names for God. Perhaps not wanting to try on an image less than the Absolute, I, like Icarus, fly to my sun.
I never get tired of finding something new, switching between different activities. Yes, for someone to focus on one thing is an effective way to achieve a colossal level. In my work-ark, I try to integrate all my skills and experience one into another, sometimes combine incongruous, but not get hung up on one thing. But, of course, such activity is exhausting. I'm a sick workaholic who objectively should be cured. [laughs] I don't know how to relax, and I'm bored to have fun.
When someone is jealous of a talented artist, partly he does it in vain. Behind all this creative layer lies a huge ballast of lack of sleep, neuroses, dubious health, and frenzied obsession, except for which he sees nothing, like a bull rushing after a red rag. On the positive side, it's very exciting. However, before embarking on this path, one must carefully weigh the pros and cons; there is usually no going back.
Art is a big fascinating world in which we create castles in the air, destroy them ourselves, and build new hitherto unthinkable. There is little that can replace the inner delight from satisfaction with the final result of your work. And when you see the sparks in the eyes of the beholder, this is the highest reward for the creator, giving new inspiration.
Are you a spiritual person? Do you have a faith or a philosophical ethos that drives you as an artist?
It can be said that I am a spiritual person, but only in the sense that I believe in a certain Absolute, or I want to believe in it. I do not recognize religions in the form in which they are in their pure form. I am impressed by the ideas of ancient Greek philosophy and Roman philosophy. In terms of interaction with the outside world, the ideas of Buddhism are close to me more, I suppose. From each idea, I want to take a little bit of everything, and brush aside something.
All my youth, I was not allowed to live in peace thoughts and doubts that were within the philosophy of absurdism fueled by the poisonous ideas of existential nihilism. Attempts to find the meaning of existence in the world invariably led me to art, to the act of creation. But at the same time, many attempts at creation crashed against an insurmountable wall of meaninglessness. This confrontation continues to this day, but not in such a critical form. I don't know if the sun will shine after I'm gone, if my creations will be forgotten (you know, someday and death will die), but here and now it probably matters. For other people around it matters, so fuck this nihilism, right?
I would like to believe in a higher good, but every day I look around and see different things. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I tend to notice one thing and try to block unpleasant information. However, here it is difficult. This evil corrodes everything around. Yes, there is no light without darkness. Nevertheless, it seems that now the balance is upset, the world is again going in the wrong direction, and it is sad to realize this. Probably not only the vision of the beautiful, but also the terrible has driven artists from time immemorial. As they say in the dramaturgy, every performance should have a problem/conflict, otherwise the action impossible. So, I think the imperfection of the world and its perfection in separate things at the same time attracts the artist, me in particular.
Most important question: how much has The Lord of The Rings influenced your work? It seems like there is a lot of imagery that could easily be mistaken for Middle Earth. [laughs]
There are a lot of references in the first album, both in lyrics, titles, and in images to Tolkien's worlds. What can we say? The name of the project is also inspired by his lines:
"Cold be hand and heart and bone,
and cold be sleep under stone:
never more to wake on stony bed,
never, till the Sun fails and the Moon is dead.
In the black wind the stars shall die,
and still on gold here let them lie,
till the dark lord lifts his hand,
over dead sea and withered land."
- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of The Rings
Another small spoiler for the next album: there will be at least one song on it completely dedicated to one of the chapters of "The Two Towers".
For the first album I was very inspired by the image of Boromir, especially when composed the third song. All the epic, tragic, and contradictory nature of this character is what it is worth loving fantasy worlds for.
Not only Tolkien, but, as mentioned above, in general, fantasy, legendariums, epic works from the world of literature, computer games, and films attract me. Most of all, I like to pay attention to antagonists or conflicted characters. Superheroes are of little interest to me, and if you delve into the psychology of "ideal" heroes, you can go far in your conclusions to the point that not everything positive is truly positive. A big inspiration for me from youth till nowadays is such a character as Arthas Menethil, who later became Lich King. And in general, the worlds of Warcraft never cease to fascinate me. Also, I'm a big fan of Dragon Priests from Skyrim. I will not tire of repeating that the conflicting destinies, decisions, and hardships of such heroes pull at the innermost strings of the soul.
You can follow Withered Land on Bandcamp, Instagram, and Facebook.
