Iamí is a Black Metal/Dungeon Synth project from Brazil that focuses heavily on atmosphere and spirituality. The debut album Luz e Sombra is a great display of raw black metal and Dungeon Synth in the old tradition. In this interview I speak with project mastermind Rômulo about the project and his Dungeon Synth zine, Masmorra (the first printed Dungeon Synth zine in history).
- Greetings! Please introduce yourself and provide us with a history of Iamí.
Greetings! I’m Rômulo, mentor of Iamí and Masmorra, and I live in south of Brazil. So, Iamí started as a brief experience, in a moment I was really interested in black metal, for, although I always liked this kind of music, I listen to many things, for example, before Iamí I was in a mood more of psychedelic/progressive rock of the 70s.
And then I felt an impetus of creating black metal, so I did ‘Crença Profana’, my first demo. I was trying to create something that really reflected myself, and after one year I decided to record a full album, all by myself. And so, Iamí is here, evolving.
- Iamí’s music covers various topics such as shamanism, nature, spirituality and meditation. Are there any subjects or forces beyond these that inspire you to create music?
Let’s begin with the name, ‘Iamí’ means ‘Night’ in the ancient indigenous Tupi language, and also is a feminine name, it synthesizes much of my ideas with the project. But in fact, I don’t follow exactly any lyrical themes, although the band has an indigenous name, I don’t speak about Indians, but I have a high inspiration by their culture, also I have a high inspiration by other cultures, like Scandinavian, African, middle-eastern, or philosophy, like Nietzsche. So I try to find the essence of our spirituality, for I think black metal is about spirituality, and that’s why there’re lots of contradictions on it. And I try to work most with the dark side of all this, and to me dark doesn’t mean bad nor evil, for some people tend to deny our obscurity when thinking about nature, so that’s why I think black metal fits perfectly for these themes.
Human is nature, part of nature, and every culture, every nation, every being has common roots, and if we study ancient knowledge we will see shamanism as the ancient manifestation of human consciousness, for shamanism isn’t religion, it’s just practices involved in spirituality, since the most ancient animist religions. But I don’t follow any ideology and I contempt elitism. I speak about humans and our transcendence through time.
So, since I live in Brazil and, although I’m a vicious reader, I never travelled to any country, for that I tried to express all my pagan knowledge in a more Brazilian way.
- Your debut album “Luz e Sombra” features a great blend of raw Black Metal and Dungeon Synth. On your website you stated you wish to move more toward the Dungeon Synth style and further away from raw black metal. What caused you to want to focus more on the Dungeon Synth genre? I personally think the Dungeon Synth tracks on your album are very impressive and create a strong atmosphere, so I am looking forward to hearing more of this from you.
Man, my first album was totally raw! I recorded it using an old Casio toy keyboard with a cheap headset microphone attached to the small speaker, and the same for the guitars and vocals. Everything was done in my apartment room, without any mastering, just a lazy mixing to avoid ear bleeding, hahaha. I think that was cool, I tried to do everything very simple, no complexities in music, but I think that was just an experience, a good and necessary experience, but now I think I need to move on.
After I did Masmorra zine, I got more inspiration to make dungeon synth, so I won’t abandon black metal, but I think it’s necessary to separate both styles, so I’ll release this next album with dungeon synth only and release my black metal tracks in another album. It will have a very different composition process and production, but I’ll preserve that thing of the first album, everything will be connected, the lyrics, the music, the cover art, everything will work as a single piece, expressing all that I said in the last question.
- Your music is also written in the Brazilian Portuguese language, a special touch that I appreciate since Barbarian Skull is a big supporter of bands that create music in their native language. Will future releases continue to use Portuguese for lyrics and titles?
Yes, I intend to make things totally in Portuguese with Iamí (except the band’s name, it isn’t Portuguese, neither any language from Middle-Earth). I write some music in English too, but I think language is important if you seek true expression, so for all the themes involved in the compositions with Iamí I think I can’t do it in another language or I’ll be killing some part of the magic. You know, this isn’t anything like nationalism or something, for that’s another thing I contempt, it’s just expression and one way to work with my art.
- Iamí recently won a contest for “best cover song” from the German project Grimrik, covering the song “Der astrale Ursprung (Teil II)”. This is the first such contest that existed in the Dungeon Synth underground. What other contemporary Dungeon Synth artists are you most inspired by?
It was very fun to participate in that contest, I did that cover in one day, starting in the morning and finishing late in the afternoon. I admire Grimrik’s work so I really delved into his song and tried to put Iamí’s spirit on it.
I think one of the artists that really inspires me is Til Det Bergens Skyggene, I love all that simple and dark atmosphere of almost all Voldsom artists. Hedge Wizard and Foglord are both new artists that I like a lot also. Erdstall is a project that I really want to listen to new stuff, that heavy drone synths are great. And if we go to more epic dungeon synth, I would say Skarpseian, Gvasdnahr and Murgrind. And if we think on some classics I would say Burzum of course, Wongraven and the album Die Festung from Paysage D’Hiver. To be honest I’m not much inspired by Mortiis, although I like his works a lot.
And if we extend this list to black metal it will be a huge list, but if we make it through all my inspirations I would say its infinite.
- You also create the artwork for your albums. Can you describe the process for creating art that fits your music? How is creating visual art different from creating musical art?
I like to do that because, like I said, I try to connect everything in my works, so the artwork isn’t mere decoration nor anything, I create art! And art is serious, you put a part of you out and share with the world, so it doesn’t matter if it is musical or visual, the essence is the same. Of course they’re different, but in a more technical way, and when I do both, they complement each other, creating a whole. Sometimes I do the graphics first, sometimes the music, and so I get inspired by my own art, which is a manifestation of a higher level of consciousness.
- You recently created the first printed Dungeon Synth magazine in history, Masmorra Zine. The zine was very well done and I was pleased to see an actual Dungeon Synth zine become reality. The zine seems to have been very successful. Can you tell us more about the zine? When will future issues be released?
I don’t know exactly what I can say about the zine. Like everything I do, I did it with much love, caring with all the details by myself. I was very pleased with the final results also. I want the dungeon synth scene to grow stronger, for I really dislike some things I see in heavy metal scene, specially black metal, so, since it’s a small scene, and yet, international, what I really think is beautiful, I think I can do my part with the zine, supporting the artists, the genre in general and spreading my art.
For now I intend to release 2 issues per year, in the same format I did this one, with the same sections, for I planned it very well before releasing, I thought a lot on how many ways it could go in the future. But it’s an independent zine, so, there’re no strictly rules, many surprises may come in this chaotic universe.
- In your opinion, what is the reason that Dungeon Synth has remained underground for the most part, despite its origins in black metal (a genre that has lost its underground status by now)?
I don’t know, but I think dungeon synth doesn’t have many elements which can be explored by the media nor anything that could please a mass of fans. There’re no dungeon synth concerts, very few physical material, so it’s hard for a genre like this to get out of the underground, even now it has its own zine, spreading its contents worldwide, it will remain “unknown”. And, like this, I follow many kinds of musical genres, and I know that there’re lots of other underground genres and small scenes around there, some really nice, other totally weird, it’s a contemporary world you know. I think the time for the “rock stars” are coming to an end, and music industry will follow a very different path. The world is always changing…
- Thank you for taking the time to answer this interview! Any last words are yours!
I just want to thank you for the opportunity, I loved answering these questions. Know that Barbarian Skull has a strong ally which gives total support, both Iamí and Masmorra.
To check my work, just go to https://iamimusic.bandcamp.com/ . There you can find my music and buy my CD. And I’m working on an official website for Masmorra, but for now just look for it on Facebook.
Respect nature, practice love! (I think this wasn’t much black metal, right? So… Hail Satan! =D)
