(((O))) Interview: Stygian Bough (Bell Witch and Aerial Ruin)

Stygian Bough, the stunning collaboration between Bell Witch and Aerial Ruin, is shortly going to be unveiling the second volume of the project, and it is a stirring and expansive collection of music that is the perfect counterpart of the first volume. The album shows both Bell Witch and Aerial Ruin coming together again to create something passionate and personal and shows how well these artists come together. To celebrate the release of Stygian Bough: Volume II, Gavin Brown caught up with all three 3 artists in Dylan Desmond and Jesse Shreibman (Bell Witch) and Erik Moggridge (Aerial Ruin) to get the lowdown on the album.

E&D: Your collaboration album Stygian Bough: Volume II is coming out on November 14th. Has there always been plans for this second volume?   

Dylan: Volume II was always a loose plan, but remained abstract until the day we started rehearsing in early 2024. Erik and I were trading riffs for the album before Volume I was even released in 2020, but Bell Witch had other priorities to record Clandestine Gate. Alas, our studio time was interrupted by the pandemic lockdowns, so everything slowed down on both fronts. We had a leftover song from Volume 1 that somehow didn’t make it onto Volume II either. We always wanted to have collaboration records that came out in between the albums in the Future’s Shadow trilogy. This particular record became less of a collaboration and more of its own band, but perhaps that is a separate issue.

Jesse: I think that Volume I was an excellent first stab at an idea that begged for more development. Once we finished the writing and recording of Volume I, I think all of us, in our own right, had things we wanted to improve upon in regards to the approach. I’m really glad we took another stab at it and am very excited to play these songs out!

E&D: It’s been five years since the first volume, when did you start working on Volume II?

Dylan: Erik sent a demo of what ultimately ended up being ‘Told and Leadened’ to me sometime in early 2020 before Volume I was released. It retained plenty of the same character with some healthy doses of elaboration. There were several parts of songs I demo’d on the Bell Witch Patreon throughout the past few years. At one point, we had nearly 100 minutes of well structured material demo’d out for this record. Obviously we culled a lot of that.

Erik: It was an interesting contrast having many years of slowly working up demo ideas and then having that concentrated 3 month period to form and grow those ideas into completed songs as a band.

Jesse: I was sent that immense amount of demo material about 2 years ago at this point. There was then a lot of discussion about approach, different ideas about what we wanted to do with this new record and material. We didn’t all sit down in a room together until January of this year. Within 3 months of rehearsals we whittled away and reorchestrated the demo material into the album as it exists now.

E&D: How did the creation and recording of Volume II go?

Dylan: We spent weekdays in Portland, OR assembling and experimenting with the outlines we came to the table with. After a couple months of assembly we moved to Tacoma, WA and put the final touches on things.

Erik: Recording with Billy Anderson was great, he has a lot of creativity in his approach but respects our many strong opinions too. I enjoyed doing all the vocals in his basement studio where we also mixed the album. Tracking at Hallowed Halls and Jackpot was a pleasure too.

Jesse: We then moved back down to Portland for the recording and mixing of the album. We tracked drums at Hallowed Halls, where we had recorded Mirror Reaper for its giant room to get a huge drum tone. We then recorded everything else at Jackpot Studios in Portland. The entire album was mixed at Everything Hz in Portland.

E&D: Does this new album follow straight on after the one ended or are you looking at a different aspect of The Golden Bough by James Frazer?

Dylan: I wouldn’t say our approach or interpretation of The Golden Bough have changed in any way. This is just an elaboration on the theme already established on the first volume which is focused on the aspect of the King of the Wood described in the first few pages of the work. Observable aspects of this story are present in all human societies and lives, Frazer proposes.

Erik: There is a lot of exploration of various aspects of  worship and awe, how they prop up, eclipse or destroy each other. The battles that rage within religion and spirituality in various forms. The risk of self sabotage within the human experience while reaching for power, illumination and transcendence. Each song has a different perspective on this and draws influence and inspiration from more than The Golden Bough.

E&D: Are you fans of Frazer’s other work and would that lend itself to any music in the future?

Dylan: I presume any and all work under the Stygian Bough moniker will always have an aspect of The Golden Bough, as the name is a direct reference to it. This isn’t to say we hold the book as some sort of irrefutable holy scripture. Rather, it is an invaluable piece of work that turns a mirror back at us as a species to observe and ponder the social elements of what make us what we are across time and geographical hurdles.

Jesse: My dad studied under Thomas Gaster, the person who edited the single volume version of The Golden Bough. Unbeknownst to me until my later years, I was essentially brought up with the lessons and ideals discussed in The Golden Bough my entire life. In a strange way, it seems it has had a relationship with most things in my life, one way or another. All that said…I think the direct reference within the project Stygian Bough is where Frazer’s influence will likely see focus in regards to musical projects in my little world.

E&D: Did you want Volume II to retain the same intensity as the first?

Dylan: Of course. But we also wanted to expand on the theme. In many ways, Volume I was a collaboration project that began to resemble a separate band. Volume II is much more a reflection of that separate band being established after extensively touring and performing Volume I. We wanted Volume II to build on what Volume I established of the project and come into its own right as its own entity.

Erik: As Dylan mentioned we really started feeling a band with an organic sound after touring for Volume I and when it came to writing Volume II I really felt like we were writing Stygian Bough material as opposed to “collaboration” material, so the intensity of this album feels more cohesive and focused than the first.

E&D: You have released the epic track ‘Waves Became The Sky’ before the album comes out, how has that opening salvo been received?

Dylan: It seems folks are resonating with the song. I think that song has many elements of the album and makes for a fair representation of the rest of it. That said, the album has a special flow and one song can’t really summarize it.

Erik: The feedback has been great and I really appreciate it, however I really feel like the album is designed to be listened to as a whole so I look forward to people being able to experience the entire journey and the flow and contrast of the four songs.

Jesse: It seems like people really like what they heard, and more importantly, are excited to hear more! Releasing music into the wild is always a strange experience, and I am forever grateful to those who take the time to check it out, regardless of their opinions.

E&D: How was it having Dennis Forkas doing the artwork for Stygian Bough: Volume II?

Dylan: Denis has an incredible body of work and I’ve always been interested in working with him. It was a pleasure to finally have that aligned. This piece in particular, with the severed head, is striking. While it isn’t a direct reference to The Golden Bough, the severed head symbolism is prevalent across the globe in most (if not all) cultures which is fitting for the theme of The Golden Bough. In the modern world, the severed head comes with a heavy reference to the French Revolution when the aristocracy was so separated from the people they ruled over that those very people literally separated their rich heads from their rich bodies under guillotines. One doesn’t look so rich and powerful when their ugly head has been cut off. One can’t help but think of all the ugly heads prancing around out there…

E&D: How did this collaboration come about in the first place, was it after you had worked together on ‘Rows (Of Endless Waves)’?

Dylan: Way back in the early days of Bell Witch Erik did guest vocals on the second track on our first album Longing, titled ‘Rows (of Endless Waves)’. We continued that collaboration on the next album, Four Phantoms, on the track ‘Suffocation (A Drowning)’. We continued the trend on much of the second half of Mirror Reaper, and eventually it became clear we should just do a full collaboration record. This was a serious adjustment for us, as Bell Witch itself has no guitar. We had to assess placement of the instrument into our general approach to filling out the sonic spectrum. After Stygian Bough Volume I, it seemed clear this was more of its own band and less of a collaboration. I think Volume II is the realization of the collaboration as its own entity and less of a collaboration of two separate styles.

Erik: I really enjoyed my guest vocal spots on the first three Bell Witch albums and my contribution to Mirror Reaper was more expansive than that of the first two albums, so it felt really natural to take it even further. The vocals came very naturally but it was a challenge to figure out the role of the guitar but ultimately it found its place within the behemoth sound Dylan and Jesse create.

E&D: Were you pleased with how the first volume of Stygian Bough was received?  

Dylan: We had big plans for the record when it was scheduled to get released in June of 2020. There were a string of awesome tours booked to support it. Of course, that was all tossed aside when the world shut down in late March as COVID had everyone locked inside their houses and public gatherings prohibited. Obviously that was vital to stopping the spread of the disease, but it saw all public performance industries come to a complete standstill. When things finally started opening up in 2022, we toured the album but it felt a little late. Regardless, the general reception was always positive and I think a lot of people that had been paying attention to the band since the beginning were happy to hear the elaboration of the project with Erik playing a more constant role.

Erik: Yes, but it was harder to gauge with not touring for it until two years after its release.

Jesse: Yeah! It seems like people dug it, and also was a bit of a slow burn. I love that there are people that still haven’t necessarily heard it and are now just finding out about it. Releasing a record in 2020 was weird haha.

E&D: Are there currently plans for a Volume III?

Dylan: I’m not one to tell secrets!

E&D: Are you looking forward to touring Stygian Bough: Volume II in the UK and Europe with 40 Watt Sun next year?

Dylan: Very much so. There is a natural tightening of a piece of music after it’s performed in front of an audience a few times. I’m excited to see how these all lock into place on a stage. Something I love about Bell Witch is the attention and capacity for harnessing moments of energy and power with stillness and resonance. Stygian Bough is no different in many ways, but it also has its own character and attention to details. Those will establish themselves even more as the days go on.

Erik: I am very excited to play these songs live, the first rehearsals we have had have gone great,  and I love touring in Europe is always such a pleasure, I so look forward to being back there. It will be great to see 40 Watt Sun every night too.

Jesse: It’s going to be great to play these songs live, and I’m grateful every time I get to travel and play music to audiences outside of the U.S. Patrick is an immense musician and a wonderful person. I look forward to listening to him play every night and getting to know him more!

E&D: Will you be playing it in full at these dates or is it a mixture of both releases?

Dylan: That is yet to be determined. It’s possible there could be some variation to the setlist.

E&D: What are your further live plans after that tour?  

Dylan: Hopefully we can cover as much ground as possible. There are a few irons in the fire and I suspect more will come.

Erik: Very excited to tour as much as possible for this album.

Jesse: We want to play everywhere! Hopefully some more stuff in the US, Canada, Europe and beyond.

E&D: How did the lives shows for Stygian Bough: Volume I go and what were some of the highlights?  

Dylan: We did a few tours and there were no low points. The European tour with Wolves in the Throne Room and Incantation was a highlight for a variety of reasons but especially because it was in Europe. I was worried I’d never see outside the US again after being locked in my house for two years! Honestly, I love playing any shows in Europe because the localized culture can be so rich and unpasteurized compared to what we’re accustomed to in the US with dystopian stripmalls and miles of dilapidated highways. The Red Fang tour in the US was also great and it was fun playing to a different crowd than what we were accustomed to.

Erik: I think my highlight from the Volume I tour cycle was the Damnation Festival in the UK towards the end of our tour with Wolves in the Throne Room and Incantation. The crowd was amazing, the stage was huge with killer sound and flanked with massive Gustav Dore banners and we were really tight after a month of playing that set, a really inspired moment. That fest was great in general, with so many great bands on three different stages. That tour was awesome the whole way through. Our US tour with Red Fang and Help was also a lot of fun and a different kind of sonic diversity that worked surprisingly well. It helps when you like the bands and people in them which for me was the case with all the touring we did. Was also a pleasure watching our friends Vouna every night on our first west coast tour.

Jesse: The shows were awesome! We were lucky enough to be able to share the stage with a lot of incredible bands in support of Volume I. My person highlight was the show we played in London opening for Wolves in the Throne Room and Incantation. The crowd was stoked, and it was the last show of our tour in that package… I was invited to play drums with Incantation at the end of their cover of ‘Evil Dead’ by Death… I will never forget that moment, or how nervous I was.

E&D: What else have Bell Witch and Aerial Ruin got planned for 2026?

Dylan: I’m working on the next volume of Future’s Shadow trilogy and hoping to have it ready for the next stages by the beginning of the year. Hopefully life allows time to be efficient and rewarding.

Erik: When not on the road with Stygian Bough: Volume I will continue to record the next Aerial Ruin albums, I have so much semi finished material I am excited to finish and hopefully release before too long.

E&D: Have you ever considered a tour where Bell Witch and Aerial Ruin perform as well as collaborating on Stygian Bough?

Dylan: I can see this taking shape at a festival. Time will tell!

Erik: Hahaha. When we played Roadburn in 2018 I did three sets – one as Aerial Ruin plus Mirror Reaper in its entirety and a second Bell Witch set featuring the songs I guested on on Longing and Four Phantoms. What you asked about would be even more exhausting than that, but yeah, maybe Dylan is right, if it was to happen it would likely be at some special festival performance.

Jesse: Oh man… that sounds completely exhausting haha!

E&D: What are some of your favourite musical collaborations of all time?

Dylan: I’ve been loving the Lustmord/Karin Park album that came out a few years back. The vision, dynamics, and raw power behind her performance opens so many emotional doors on top of the unrelenting swirl of Lustmord terror.

Erik: This question makes me realise I need to listen to more collaboration albums, I really love the prominent presence of members of Lankum on Blackbird Raum’s album Destroying. These are two bands I love and got me through the darkest times of covid.

Jesse: Billy Cobham and John Mclaughlin, Satyricon and Munch, Sunn O))) and Boris, Neurosis and Jarboe, A Tribe Called Quest and Busta Rhymes.

Photo by Emma Ruth Rundle