Mind Noise Network
Interview with Dan Jackson
After being involved with several bands over the years, Dan Jackson has taken a new project on and it's all his own making. Read what happened when Dan had a chat with him.
Hi Dan, for Those who don't know you, please tell us a bit about yourself and Void Ritual.
My name is Dan, and I’m the only person in Void Ritual. I’ve been making music in bands and on my own for 15 years, but have only recently really ever released anything. I have three daughters and my favorite professional wrestler is Ric Flair. I work for a living and I’m afraid of anything that flies and can also sting you. I don’t have any pets. I’m overweight, a smoker and I started losing my hair in my mid-20s. I listen to a lot of metal and I think a band talking about how much they love prog raises a red flag for how much I’ll enjoy them in the future.
Void Ritual is a black metal band, only the lyrics are about how terrible people can be instead of Satan, being depressed or winter.
How did you come about starting up Void Ritual and why has it been kept as a solo project?
I’ve kind of given up on being in a full-fledged band at this point. I have three kids and black metal wasn’t a way to make a living when people were buying music, let alone now. I started Void Ritual the way I start anything, which is to say that I just get an idea in my mind like “Hey, I want to make music that sounds like ______.” and I just go for it. That’s the wonderful freedom of being alone with your music. You can just do something because it sounds good at the time. I don’t have to argue with another guitarist because he’s been listening to Hawkwind and wants to write a twelve minute jam where he wah-wah solos himself into eternity. I just wanted to create something ugly and violent, so I did. Hawkwind is pretty great, though.
How does the writing process differ for you in Void Ritual compared to other projects with more band members?
To be honest, I’ve only very infrequently written songs with other people. Not that I wouldn’t welcome the opportunity, it’s just never really come up. The bands I was in years ago tended to have people just write a song and then everyone else learned it. Collaborative songwriting would be a fun experience, but it’s not something I’ve really been able to do at this point.
As for how I write songs, I tend to try to do things in a linear fashion, building each riff after the previous. Sometimes I have riffs or ideas that I keep in my back pocket that I can fit into a song I’m working on, but generally I just go piece by piece.
Holomodor has been described as darker and more 'miserable' than your previous material, why have you gone down this route?
I guess because Ancestral Oath had - despite being a black metal album - a lot of positivity to it. The lyrics for Ancestral Oath were taken from the poetic edda, which is a real source of positive inspiration for me. So I guess I just decided that I’d rather the next thing I worked on go completely in the opposite direction from an emotional standpoint, at least as far as overall tone and subject matter went.
Is the tone of this record going to be something you continue with in future releases? Or is this a 'this is how I'm feeling at this time' release?
Absolutely. Another wonderful thing about doing everything myself is that if I want to do something that sounds different, I can just create a whole new thing. I’m never really married to just one idea or sound. When I want to make something miserable, I can come back to Void Ritual whenever I like. Right now, I’m working on an EP based on a Godzilla movie I like. It’s a fucking goofy idea, but it doesn’t really matter because I just do this shit to make me smile. I’m not worried about pleasing people because I can just slap a new name on it and the expectations of following up on a sound that people have really liked are eased somewhat. If it sucks, hey at least it wasn’t Void Ritual, it was that dopey Godzilla black metal band.
Black metal seems to be a genre of metal that has a consistently solid fanbase. How does it feel from within the scene?
I think black metal is a style that holds a consistent fanbase for the same reasons heavy metal in general does. It’s all because there’s always someone doing whatever it is you liked about the genre in the first place. Were you only in it for Venom in ‘82? Midnight’s going to help you recapture that magic. Do you wish someone would just put out something raw and cold like Darkthrone or Ulver in the mid 90’s? Void Ritual has you covered. Sad that Dissection’s last album didn’t sound like Storm of the Light’s Bane? Thulcandra is your dream come true. Want a band that’s pushing the genre in new directions? Krallice, Thantifaxath and Oranssi Pazuzu and plenty of others are making things happen RIGHT NOW.
My point is, if you’ve ever liked black metal, there’s someone doing what you like in it today. All heavy metal is like that.
There aren't many bands releasing on cassette anymore. Why did you feel it was right for you?
Tridroid is a tape only label for the most part, and they wanted to put the album out, for which I am eternally grateful! I’d thought about tapes before, but wasn’t really sure how to get started. Thankfully, I didn’t need to worry about it! I’ve seen all of the reasons people like to shit on cassettes and I don’t really get it. Sure, it doesn’t generally have the same audio quality as vinyl or CD or digital, but it’s something people enjoy. I've seen folks complain about cassettes, but I don't really understand that mindset. Quit worrying about their reasons and enjoy what you enjoy.
Do you have any crazy stories from your times on the road? Any you can share without incriminating yourself anyway.
I was boring when I went on the road for the most part. There was this one time where I went on tour with this band Phynius Gage, which was a sludge band, kind of along the lines of early 00s Soilent Green. I was the vocalist, and I got way more shitfaced than I’d planned to before the show. We were in Seattle and booked on a show that didn’t really make any sense. There were a bunch of indie rock bands and then us. I guess the guy who booked the show just wanted to hear something that sounded like us. Anyway, the bartender apparently mixed my jack and cokes way heavier than I thought he had. By the time the show started I was completely gone. The crowd fucking hated us. We started the show with a ton of feedback, like that first Khanate album, and people immediately covered their ears or just took off. I remember yelling “Fuck Seattle” a lot.
After the show, I’d locked myself in the van. The other guys in the band had been videotaping throughout the tour, and were taping when they went to get into the van. I had the keys still and needed to let them in. I pawed at the sliding door’s lock for a minute or so before my head just disappeared out of frame. Then, they just saw vomit flowing out of the gap at the bottom of the door. I finally get the sliding door open and fall face first into my own vomit. It was probably the lamest thing I’ve ever done.
What does the next 12 months hold for you and Void Ritual?
Well, I’m focusing on that goofy Godzilla black metal project right now. Beyond that I’ve got a more ambient Ancestral Oath EP I’ve finished the music for. I never stop creating so I’m sure there will be plenty of things happening. Void Ritual probably won’t pick up again until early 2015.
Finally, if you could put together your own band lineup who would be in it and where would you play?
I don’t know how I’d feel about Danzig-ing four other people and just telling them “Play these songs just how I like them”, but in a world where I’m calling those kinds of shots, I’d go with:
Me-Vocals
Dash Arkenstone - Bass
Chris/Nick/Seamus from Vattnet Viskar - Guitars/Drums
I’d want to play all over Europe and then Japan so I could catch a New Japan Pro Wrestling show and watch Nakamura, Suzuki and Ishii murder each other in person. Jesus, I’m a fucking dork.
Thanks for taking the time out to talk to us, Dan.
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