Interview: Imperial Triumphant
We’ve never tried to set boundaries on the length of our songs until now, and it's definitely paid off.
Goldstar, the grandiose new album from New York’s avant garde black metal maestros Imperial Triumphant is another phenomenal album from the band and its scope and execution is as impressive as ever. Ahead of the release of the album, Gavin Brown caught up with Imperial Triumphant vocalist/guitarist Zachary Ezrin to hear all about Goldstar, its influences and guest appearances as well as discussing everything from their New York City hometown and decadence to Stanley Kubrick and The White Lotus.
E&D: Your new album Goldstar is coming out very soon. Has anticipation reached fever pitch for you with the new record yet?
Zachary: Complete fever. I’m absolutely boiling.
E&D: How did the creation of the album go?
Zachary: I’d say pretty smooth, despite all the changes we made into the way we do it in the time frames. We had time restraints. It went as smooth as it could be. I gotta say this, this new song format of five minutes or less made it really comfortable. This is easier. We track live, so if we’re doing it, it takes us probably one to three takes to get a good take, yeah. But if it’s only five minutes long, that’s only 15 minutes of the day spent laying down one track, so we can move pretty quick.
E&D: Is that more streamlined approach, something you’ve been moving towards for a while?
Zachary: Yeah. I mean, we always track live, but we’ve never tried to set boundaries on the length of our songs until now, and it’s definitely paid off.
E&D: Dave Lombardo and Tomas Haake both feature on tracks on Goldstar. How was the experience of working with these iconic musicians on Imperial Triumphant tracks?
Zachary: It went exactly how I hoped it would, and it usually does. I don’t think we’ve ever worked with someone and they sent us something we didn’t like. It’s usually we’re working with someone that understands our music and what we’re trying to do, and the vibe of the band, maybe through their background, and we know that they’re going to take our music and elevate it to a higher level.
E&D: How did the collaborations come about, did you just reach out to them?
Zachary: Yeah, man. I mean, we’ve known Lombardo for a while, and we’ve known Tomas too. It was actually pretty serendipitous. We were in the studio, and we didn’t realise that he was in the city too. So Kenny, just hit him up and said, hey, do you want to come by later and lay down some spoken word. It was pretty cool.
E&D: Are Meshuggah and Slayer a big influence in the music of Imperial Triumphant?
Zachary: Yeah, but I would even say that obviously, Slayer is amazing, but also Dave’s work in Fantomas and Mr. Bungle and his other projects also really makes us think, okay, this guy is gonna get it. We didn’t really want him to do the Slayer thing, you know, we wanted him to do something more than that like he does with Fantomas but we just let him do his thing.
E&D: Yoshiko Ohara from Bloody Panda also features in the album. How was it working with her?
Zachary: Every time we work with her, it’s the same, we send her something, and then she sends back pure gold. She’s our secret weapon that we’ve put on pretty much every record.
E&D: Will you work together again in the future?
Zachary: Yeah, we’ll never stop.
E&D: Who would you love to feature on an Imperial Triumphant track in the future?
Zachary: Herbie Hancock is my number one. We’ve done great things and worked with incredible people, and everything we’ve done, it’s been done through hard work and taking chances. So why not? It’s possible.
E&D: The track ‘Hotel Sphinx’, sounds like it has a big like Wendy Carlos, Clockwork Orange/The Shining soundtrack vibe about it. Was that what you wanted with the track?
Zachary: Sure, it would be really weird if it wasn’t!
E&D: Are those soundtracks for Kubrick films a big influence?
Zachary: Oh yeah, Wendy Carlos playing the Barry Lyndon theme too.
E&D: Have you ever had thoughts about Imperial Triumphant doing the soundtrack to a movie?
Zachary: Yeah, I’m waiting for my phone to ring!
E&D: What kind of film would you like to soundtrack?
Zachary: I don’t know. I mean, we can do anything I guess, something that would make sense. I think we could do anything, obviously, but a romantic comedy might be a little a waste of our skills.
E&D: That’d be interesting though!
Zachary: Yeah. I mean, if we’re scoring something, you want us to do our thing, but, I understand what the film calls for.
E&D: How was the experience of making the ‘Lexington Delerium’ video on top of the Chrysler Building?
Zachary: That’s a dream come true, Gavin, and that’s why I think, why not work with Herbie Hancock? You know, if I can achieve my dream of shooting a music video on the Chrysler Building, my favourite building in the whole world, then maybe I can get the greatest funk keyboard player in the world, the king himself, on my album.
E&D: Was making that video difficult to do, regarding red tape or anything like that?
Zachary: No, I have a really good contact there, and I was able to talk under every bit of red tape. It was one of the easiest videos we’ve ever shot.
E&D: Is the more decadent side of New York City, still an influence on your outlook and the music of Imperial Triumphant?
Zachary: Yeah, we like to play with the whole duality and juxtaposition of it all.
E&D: Did you also want to combine the decadence with the grit and grime of the city as well?
Zachary: Every single time.
E&D: What’s the vibe in the city like at the moment?
Zachary: Disgusting. There’s a lot of crime these days. You read the newspaper, someone’s getting slashed every single day, which is not great.
E&D: Do you think that environment is abrading ground to make great art, like in the 1970s?
Zachary: I don’t need to live in a crime ridden shit hole to make good music but I see what you mean.
E&D: What is the extreme music scene like in the city at the moment, especially with an important venue like St Vitus closing down?
Zachary: There’s a lot of clubs in Brooklyn putting on underground metal shows and stuff. Maybe there’s not a hub like St Vitus, but there’s still plenty of venues for bands to play and opportunity, and there’s still a lot of really great bands playing shows.
E&D: What bands are you listening to at the moment?
Zachary: I mean, Couch Slut never fails. That’s a New York band that’s really great. Konono Nº1 is this Congolese, fucking super weird band that Steve, our bass player, turned me on to and they’re just like the trippiest thing of all time. They play these things called lamellophones. I’ve been listening a lot of that. I’ve been listening to a lot of Sly And The Family Stone too. I think the new the new record from Oranssi Pazuzu is really great.
E&D: What has been the most decadent experience you’ve had since you’ve been in the band?
Zachary: I mean, there’s so many. We’ve had some really insane steak dinners in some tiny village in Romania for Steve’s birthday. That was awesome. We’ve had a whole crate of champagne for free from this dealer. We just picked it up on tour, and then for the rest of the tour, we were just clinking in the back of the van with two hundred bottles. That was pretty decadent. There’s so many moments that we’ve had that are just really wonderful.
E&D: Would you say the TV series The White Lotus draw parallels with the music of Imperial Triumphant, as with the opulent grandness masking a dark underbelly underneath?
Zachary: I never thought about that. Yeah, I like the show, but I never thought about it as, like, an Imperial comparison. I think that’s an interesting comparison, and I am always interested in what people think about our music and where it takes them.
E&D: Do TV shows and movies influence you when you’re writing songs. Obviously A Clockwork Orange came up earlier?
Zachary: Yeah, certainly the work of Stanley Kubrick plays a big role. In our lives.
E&D: How did you first discover Kubrick?
Zachary: I was about thirteen, and at someone’s house, and I saw the Clockwork Orange DVD or tape. I watched it, and I found it profoundly disturbing, but it also pulled me in. I found it grotesque, but I couldn’t look away, and I was curious by it. I think what makes Kubrick so great, is that he’s extreme, but in a in a very tasteful way, I guess.
E&D: How did your recent live shows in Mexico with Rotting Christ go and did you debut material from Goldstar at the shows?
Zachary: Gavin, they were so amazing. That was like the sharpening stone, you know? Those shows were, Okay, can we pull off the new songs? Can we pull off the new costumes? And those shows were all amazing. They all went really, really well. I can’t wait to play these new songs a trillion more times!
E&D: Are you playing a lot of a lot of new material from now on when you play live?
Zachary: We’ve pretty much beat all our old material to death. I don’t think we have any actual hits, so we can kind of play whatever we want. It’s not like we have to play ‘Enter Sandman’ every night!
E&D: Are you looking forward to heading back out in the road on the Decibel tour with Mayhem, Mortiis and New Skeletal Faces once the new album is released?
Zachary: Absolutely! I can’t wait. So excited.
E&D: You’re also coming back over to Europe as well with Igorrr later in the year. Are you excited about coming getting back over here too?
Zachary: Very excited. I think we’re also going to come back in August. We’re just waiting on a few more shows to lock in.
E&D: What have been some of your favourite ever live shows you’ve played with Imperial Triumphant?
Zachary: We’ve done some really amazing shows. It’s hard to say, I guess the shows where the crowds are really rowdy and wild. Shows in Denmark that we’ve played. We sold out this tiny club in Madrid once, and that was just insanely packed and hot and amazing. We’ve we played in Belarus, seventy miles from the nuclear reactor. We played our song ‘Chernobyl Blues’ and they all had their fucking lighters out. It was insane. We’ve played insane shows in Mexico City. I think we did two sold out shows at St Vitus back to back after Alphaville came out, and that was the first time we ever sold out a show as a headliner. And to do two in our hometown at St Vitus, was a really, really validating experience to us because I’ve played so many shows in New York City and at St Vitus to like, 10 people so to come back and do that was really awesome. I really appreciate your questions. It was really great talking to you, Gavin.
