Interview taken from Spark Magazine
 

It´s written on your promo material, that the band was founded like an opportunity to black metal bands where you played before. Does it mean, that black metal doesn´t attract you anymore? Why did you decided to change your musical genre to this one which is played by Dargaard?
Tharen: It´s not correct to say that I turned my back to Black Metal, after a few years in various bands I just wanted to have another platform to build my own realm with my own concept, my own music and lyrics without making compromises with other musicians. This state I reached with Dargaard, though I have to manage the cooperation with Elisabeth - but this is no problem up to now, I always was positively surprised by her ideas of the vocal arrangements.  Anyway, I´m continually involved in Black Metal with my band Amestigon as drummer and vocalist.

You play now only in Dargaard, is it right? Or are you still a member of another band? Which is your relationship with your ex-bandmates in those bands that you left?
Tharen: As I said above, I´m involved in Amestigon, but I´ll release another project of mine in near future on Napalm Rec.. The debut Cd “The Hand And The Sword” from “dominion” goes more in the industrial/electro/ambient-direction. I hope we´ll release it in summer this year. The music comes all from myself and the main vocals too, it´s more the distorted way, but Elisabeth did again a few vocal parts. Watch out for this damned dark piece of apcalyptic electronic music!  I have a good relationship to all musicians I ever played with may it be Abigor, Heidenreich or Amestigon ex-members. Silenius from Summoning/ex-Abigor for example is a member of the new Amestigon linup and does a part of the vocals.
Elisabeth: At this time I am only involved in “Dargaard” and “dominion”; I think my relationship to the bands, for which I sang before( Abigor, Antichrisis ), is not so bad.

Btw, how do you call the Dargaard´s style? Gothic, ambient…?
Tharen: Nothing personally, but I hate this question…I don’t really know how to call Dargaard´s music style…Hmmmm maybe “Dark mystical sounds from eternity”?

Which musical styles and periods influenced you mostly? When listening, I suppose that you must like renaissance, maybe some gothic chants, and maybe soundtracks for movies…
Tharen: I cannot really say what are the styles that influenced me, I can only tell you what I´m listening to: Black Metal(some Death Metal), Medieval/classical music, Industrial, Ritual and Ambient. And of course Soundtracks like Braveheart. 
Elisabeth: I am listening to medieval, classical music, Death/ Gothic/ Black Metal, Industrial…I wouldn´t say that I prefer a certain style, I prefer certain bands or composers. I am surely influenced by my listening attitudes, especially in composing the vocal arrangements (by classical and medieval music), but I prefer a more natural and clear style of singing.

When talking about movies - are you thinking about composing some soundtrack (or music for theatre performance)? Did you receive some offers?
Tharen: I really want to do such a soundtrack…Maybe for a monumental movie or something like that, but I don’t received any offers up to now. Hmm…Maybe Hollywood does not know Dargaard? Is this possible?

Do you think that you can captivate also metal fans with your music which is not hard, not aggressive…? Which response from metal scene did you collect yet? Which kind of people (in your oppinion) is possible to find among your listeners? And what about the musical press, magazines etc.? How did they appreciate your new album?
Tharen: To be honest: I got more responses from (black)metallers than from Gothics. It´s of course a question of the label(Napalm=Metal), but maybe it has something to do with the metal-underground philosophy and with my past too. On the other hand it think that nearly everyone could find something interesting in our music, because everyone seems to like to flee this planet for a while… From the press we got remarkable good critics. Almost every mag. I saw gaves us excellent points. I really didn´t expect it, but it´s a very good motivation!

Are you fully satisfied by the result of this recording, or is there something that you would like to improve for the next time? How do you imagine the musical evolution of Dargaard? Do you have some new songs just prepared yet?
Tharen: At the moment I´m very satisfied, except some little things, but I kow that I´ll think otherwise in a few months. Shortly after the release of “In Nomine…” I listened to our first Cd again and found tons of things I wanted to change. But this is a cool thing, it drives me forewards. Of course it will be the same after the release of our next Cd. The music for “In Nomine…” was finished nearly one year ago now, and this was time enough for me to compose some new songs, but I overwork and overwork…it will take a few months to complete the music for the new Cd I think, and then we´ll go to studio again and begin the work on the vocal arrangements.

Can you tell me more about the first album „Eternity Rites“? Which is the difference between this recording and the new one („In Nomine Aeternitatis“)?
Tharen: Some people told me that they had a “darker feeling” while listening to our first Cd. Maybe because of the stronger employment of my vocals, but I think it was simply the sound of the Cd - We just had almost no budget in contrary to our new Cd, and this was the result. “In nomine..” is much more symphonic and complex in both music and vocal arrangements. It´s simply better…

What do you use like instruments? Only synths (which types) and computers? Or also some accoustic instruments? How did you start the cooperation with Elisabeth? You met her in some band where you played before? Did she have some school or lessons of singing (she has really beautiful voice…)?
Tharen: On our First two Cd´s I just used a Roland XP-80 Workstation with a classical sound expander and a Pc with Cubase VST. After the end of the Trilogie with “The dissolution of eternity” it´s my plan to record the best songs of the 3 Cd´s with real musicians or an orchestra. I don´t know Napalm Rec. opinion, so I cannot say more about it, but I´m sure it would be an interesting result.  I knew Elisabeth since her guest appereance on Abigor´s “Nachthymnen” and from a local demoband. At this time I was on the search for a male or female singer, and she was the perfect choice.
Elisabeth: I never had any lessons but I have really musical parents and of course this was of some importance for my life; until now (and I am sure this will be the same for the future) I didn´t want to change my style of singing into something more classical oriented, but I am soon starting some lessons for breathing technique and similar. The most important thing in singing for me is using my voice as an instrument for composing, most of the songs have 2 or 3 different vocal lines, some of them are also doubled.

Are you able to imagine some live performance of Dargaard (with some visual effects, lights, good atmosphere…?).
Tharen: I don’t really like concerts. Almost ever I saw a band I like live it was the same thing as I read a book and see the movie afterwards- a dissapointment. But we´ll play one exclusive concert on the “Wave/Gothic-meeting” in Leipzig this june…with tons of lights and smoke of course. Let´s see how things work.
Elisabeth: For this concert I have to search for two guest singers for realizing my arrangements; so I will need a lot of time to practice with them. Tharen is really happy about staying in the background on this event…

Now please, let´s talk little bit about texts. I have only a promo CD, so it is without lyrics. Can you tell me what are the main themes and ideas of those texts? Some of the song titles reminded me a touch of mythology for example…
Tharen: In my lyrics I write above occultism, ancient myths and realms of my dreams and fantasy. It´s hard to explain for me, but these are the main inspirations I think.
Elisabeth: Two of the lyrics are written in antique languages (Latin and Ancient Greek)and it was my job to pick them out and go over them for singing. My personal favourite is the Greek text (the first one on the Cd) by Alkaios of Mythilene, which is 2400 years old; it gives me the feeling of conquering time when I am reviving a text by singing. Besides Latin and ancient Greek where the traditional languages for hundreds of years for transporting and conserving ancient (and also occult) wisdom, so the sound of these languages raise certain associations.

What can you tell me about the nowadays Austrian scene? Which bands in your oppinion are promising?
Tharen: Next to the wellknown bands like Abigor, Summoning,…there are a few really interesting bands at the moment like “Hollenthon”, “Kreuzweg Ost”, my project “dominion”, Amestigon(we´re just recording a new demo with new lineup), Grabesmond, hmmm…that´s all I know I think. Check it out!

We are in the end of interview - do you think that there remains something that I didn´t ask and that you want to add? Anyway thanks a lot for your help and patience, and sorry for my english…:-)
Bye and have a nice day
Martin
Tharen: Thanks for the interview!

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