Almyth is a new doom band. I found out about them while browsing bandcamp. Their self titled debut album reminds me of OM, mixing psychedelic and meditative vibe with heavy and slow riffs. Perfect music to end the stoner night on 4.20. The man behind Almyth is Andre, a dutch guy living in Riga. I have seen him on Tuesday Jam nights and also playing with The Cure cover band the Imaginary Boys.
Here’s the story of Almyth
1. Hey! Thanks for applying for the festival and finding time to chat! Doom scene in Latvia is kinda poor. We have bunch of post-rock and post-metal bands but very few doom and sludge bands. How did you deicided to make a doom band in Latvia? What’s the story behind this project? You even got Erna Daugaviete to play chello on your album!
Hey there! I always been a fan of Doom and Stoner music, I mostly been attracted to it being heavy without sounding too aggressive/metal-ish, if it makes sense. Therefore I decided to form my own project, originally started as a one man project with one ep, I revived that band during my heavy writer’s block where I wanted to try something new. So, i took old name and made first album, it originally wasn’t even planned to be that serious lmao. I met Erna at Biedriba, now defunct jazz club, she was part of Imaginary Boys for our first show, then we created little piano/cello project that made around 4 recordings but never took off, one of those recordings is Alice Coltrane cover which is featured as an outro, I added bass and drum track on top. Story is very weird but that what makes it fun.
2. After releasing an album you found live musicians to play shows. You have Marta on bass. Previously seen only as a solo musician. And you have Eliana on saxophone. Really interesting to see wind instrument players on stoner bands. So far, over 10+ years only Velns Viņu Zin and Advanced Blue have used either clarinet or saxophone on their shows in the local stoner scene. How’s your live shows different from recordings? Do you write all parts and ask your live musicians to play what you want or is it more like a full band now and every participate with their own ideas?
Idea of combining doom and jazz came to me probably from Kilimanjaro Dark Jazz Ensemble, I mean, doom and jazz gone hand in hand many times, not in Latvia though hah. Live shows are definitely more chaotic than album versions, more improvisations and changes. Well, currently they play what I wrote myself on album, in future, of course I would like participation from everyone. All of us came from different musical backgrounds, so I think it’ll be pretty cool to combine all of it
3. Almyth are planning to record another album this year. Is it gonna be in the same meditative/arab style with some jazzy elements or are you planning to explore a different way? How far are you with writing the album?
Hellyeah. Well, only couple of demos are made now, so I can’t say exactly, but, I’m experimenting with Dub, Post Hardcore, Hip Hop, Trip Hop and Ambient. So, new album will be a lot more progressive and experimental than previous while leaving classic sound too. Lyric wise I think it’ll be more spiritual and conceptual, most of lyrical ideas for now are inspired by Five Percent Nation which I’m very interested in, those teachings helped me became more, I would say, reserved person? So, influence will be strong hah
4. What can Filthy Hangout attendies expect from Almyth show in April? Cheers!
Bone crushing set that’ll randomly turn to dub reggae and arabic scale improvisations for an hour as usual [haha]. I can say tho, there’ll be new songs debuted so get yo asses here. Oh and go to vagonu hall at 23rd March if yall free. Peace, God bless and see yall in April. Cheers, Dave!