After a long silence, Shinjuku Thief is back with the final chapter in the witch trilogy which started with the release of The Witch Hammer in 1993. The new album, named The Witch Haven, is supposed to continue were The Witch Hunter from 1995 left us, meaning that it is once again a dark and cinematic journey into the witch paranoia of medieval Europe and its related themes. For those who are unfamiliar with this great project, I can say that Shinjuku Thief is one of many projects of Darrin Verhagen, a professional musician from Australia who also runs his own label named Dorobo. Darrin's musical skills are not only acknowledged by fans of Dark Ambient and Neo-classical music but also by choreohraphers and directors throughout the world. Thus Darrin nowadays earns his living by composing music for theatres, dance shows, videogames and even operas. Read on to find out more. Darrin answered these questions at the end of May 2002.
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ECTONAUT: After the release of The Witch Hunter in 1995 there was a huge silent from Shinjuku Thief other than your contribution to Funeral Songs and as far as I can see, you started focusing more on your other musical projects. According to what I have heard, some people even thought Shinjuku Thief was dead but now you are back with a new album. What's the reason for this very long abscence?
DARRIN: Much of the The Witch Haven was atually complete years ago. the only reason for the delay was the problem finding time to go back and finish it. I make my living writing music for theatre and dance companies. Any time outside that occupation is absorbed by Dorobo administration. It's rare to find a window of opportunity these days when I'm in the studio simply working on my own projects (you'll notice that The Witch Hunter was the last non-commissioned CD (Soft Ash/radio, Raised by Wolves/theatre, P3/radio, Zero, Hydra/dance). Balancing the need to make a living and finding the timeto work in the studio on personal projects is my current priority!
ECTONAUT: What can you tell us about this this final chapter in the witch trilogy? Will it be in the same vein as the previous two or will it present any new additions to the Shinjuku Thief sound? What' s the concept this time?
DARRIN: I think the new album continues the progression suggested by the previous two - furthering the trend towards a greater level of musicality. The sound design remains an important surrewal backdrop (occasionally ripping into the foreground) but it doesn't carry the album to the extent it did on The Witch Hammer. Contrasting with some of the more reflective, serene passages on the new CD are moments of carnivalesque insanity (so fans of Waltz of the Midwives from The Witch Hammer will be very happy!). The album dives headlong into the world of the supernatural, bordered by the theological attempts to contain it (both conceptually and literally). One step further back however, and the CD can actually be viewed as a rant against 'certainty' (hence the german word on the spine).
ECTONAUT: How long have you been working on The Witch Haven really? Were there any difficulities in completing it?
DARRIN: Work began on The Witch Haven as soon as The Witch Hunter was finished in 1995. The dificulties in completing it were only organisationsal, not artistic.
ECTONAUT: You earlier told me that there may be a vinyl version available from CMI. Do you have any more details on this that you could give us?
DARRIN: CMI have said that they will be manufacturing and exclusively distributing the vinyl, but it will still be formatted as a Dorobo release.
ECTONAUT As mentioned earlier, The Witch Haven ends the witch trilogy which you started with the release of The Witch Hammer in 1993. How do view the entire trilogy in these days? Are you still satisfied with how all albums turned out and do you think it has been alltogheter rewarding working with them?
DARRIN: Overall I'm very happy with the way the trilogy has come together. Working on the remastered version of The Witch Hammer for the box set saw me relistening to the first CD in the series after quite a break - and I was impressed with how well it stood up to close scruitiny after 9 years. And The Witch Hunter had always been my favourite out of the first two (although public reaction seemed to be the otherway around!) and now The Witch Haven I think is the most interesting overall - both in its musicality, its surreality and the sheer bruitality of aspects of its sound design. Couldn't be happier.
ECTONAUT: I have never really heard the reason why you started this project in the first place. What was it really that inspired you to compose three albums, dealing with witches and their surroundings? Was it planned to be a trilogy from the start?
DARRIN: That was never the initial intention. The original idea was to explore the possibilities of a hip-hop approach to construction, but using a classical soundpallette. By the time the first album The Witch hammer was complete, I had obviously seen some potential for further exploration, because I had taken the tripartite structure of the Malleus Malleficarum and worked it into the design layout (with the 'erster teil' quote). The track The Second Dream (as found on The Witch Hunter, the second in the trilogy) was also written after I had 'finished' The Witch Hammer but before its release - so at that stage I saw the potential to continue the exploration...
ECTONAUT: Eventhough you're Australian, it seems to me like most of what you have released till this date can be traced to European culture and history, i.e the witch paranoia and Kafka. Why is it so? Do you have european roots or is it simply that you're very intersted in some aspects of European culture?
DARRIN: Ultimately, I guess, I'm interested in culture full stop. Had you extended the question to include my first album, you would have added African, Arabic, and Japanese to 'European' interests. Whilst my father's dutch, there was no overtly 'eurocentric' aspect to my upbringing. I spent 3 years of my childhood growing up in Canada, another 3 in England - but all those experiences were more to do with the 'culture' of childhood than a given nation.
There's been a theory that australians are pretty adept at stealing from other cultures given the paucity of our own cultural history. As a result, one could mount a case for the sharpening of that appetite. If one were to further the cliche, one could also say that that, combined with a relaxed lack of preciousness, places us in a good position as cultural bowerbirds. One could also posit that that's all academic bullshit, and that national history and geography no longer hold as much sway over our interests as they may have previously....
DARRIN: Could you imagine doing something that deals with more Australian subjects in the future or are your interest in the culture of your homeland far too low?
DARRIN: I did do some additional sound design work on the 'Stolen generation' film´of Philip Noyce The Rabbit Proof Fence - but I have to admit, that to do an 'Australian' work by Shinjuku Thief would seem pretty weird. The Australian landscape, and musical front-end of aboriginal culture has already successfully been co-opted into either New Age Ambient pap or tourism sales-pitch cliche whereby to even reference it subtly or appparently sincerely is next to impossible. That said, the broader political issues are easier to reference, albethey in a more obteuse manner. The witch trilogy for example, is as much a rant against the evils of certainty as it is a reference towards a point in cultural history. And evils of certainly appear as strongly in Australian (and world) contemporary culture as they do in the middle ages witch hunts.
ECTONAUT: I guess the release of The Witch Hammer will give back Shinjuku Thief the freedom that you didn't have in the past due to the fact that the coming Shinjuku Thief albums had already been announced as albums dealing with witches. Now I wonder, since this concludes a chapter in the history of Shinjuku Thief and you'll get free hands again, where will you turn your head this time? Have you thought of a concept for a future Shinjuku Thief album yet? Is there perhaps another area that you would like to explore?
DARRIN: I have to say I had so much fun fishining off The Witch Haven that I already began to regret the 'close' of the trilogy. A friend has approached me to work on a concept album on Jack the Ripper - which would offer some pretty rich (and related) elements... but we'll see....
ECTONAUT: You're active in several musical projects, i.e Shinjuku Thief, Shinjuku Filth, Darrin Verhagen and Professor Richmann. Would you please tell us what separates these projects from each other and why you have decided to separate these different aspects of your creativity?
DARRIN: I think the decision came down to observing how stratified the musical markets seemed to be. A distributor who could sell good quantities of dark orchestral music wouldn't know what to do with Industrial Dance. Another distributor who could sell experimental Techno wouldn't know what to do with sinister Gothic music. My initial naieve assumption that folks (distributors and the public) would just come along with us for the ride hit a rock and took on water pretty early on. At that point I decided to make a delineation between Shinjuku Thief (dark cinematic soundscape), Shinjuku Filth (Industrial Dance), Professor Richmann (Ambient Techno) and Darrin Verhagen (minimal Electroacoustic).
ECTONAUT As far as I can see, Shinjuku Thief was the project that more or less started it all for you Darrin. Do you still consider this project to be your most important one or have the other ones become more crucial in these days?
DARRIN: Ultimately, the tag falls behind the interest and the project. i.e. I'll start work on something i want to do, and the moniker is more a marketing than an artistic decision.
ECTONAUT: I once read in a quite old biography that you have a third Shinjuku project named Shinjuku Fluff which is supposed to be reserved for New-Age music. Is this a serious project or was it more like a one-time joke considering the fact that I haven't seen anything of it since I read about it?
DARRIN: A complete and utter joke. Was quite horrified to see it given credent in a recent guide to Electronic music. New Age music is one of the most disgusting things on the planet (alogside poverty, exploitation, and starvation)
ECTONAUT How many Shinjuku projects are there in these days really?
DARRIN: Filth and Thief. but both are dormat for a while though (whilst I work on a few pieces for dance companies, games, and theatre)
ECTONAUT: How come Smoke and Ice from The Witch Hunter ended up on an intro by Swedish Black Metal band Marduk in 1998? Were you contacted about this or is this part stolen?
DARRIN: Completely stolen!
ECTONAUT From what I've seen, you've been quite active in the commissioned music business during the last years. Would you please tell us a little of what you have done and what you're up to at the moment .
DARRIN: I'm currently writing the score for a playstation 2 game, a theatre soundtrack, and opera, and have just finished a dance film. I'm also preparing for a live set early next month. Recent projects have included a large interactive project for the new federation square building (Melbourne), a range of dance company projects (Chunky Move/Stompin' Youth in Australia and Mary Oslund in usa), and theatre (Playbox/Handsapn etc).
ECTONAUT: "A bit too sophisticated for the ear of lord" said the lord who had commisioned Joseph Haydn to function as a courtcomposer when Haydn wrote a piece that was a bit to complicated for the taste of his contractor. Eventhough this was 200 years ago, it is still a common fact that there may be difficulties when a composer is to compose music which is to satisfy someone elses taste or work under the guidelines of other people. Have you experienced any problems yet when you have done commisioned works (i.e rejections)? Do you think it is harder for you to work without total freedom or do you enjoy the challenge of working within clearly defined borders?
DARRIN: Good question. I have to say I enjoy both. whilst I certainly relish the freedom to go off on whatever tangent a track may suggest to me (despite perhaps original intentions). I also really enjoy being given parameters within which to work. Part of the appeal at that point, becomes the potential for subversiveness. for example, the templates suggested in Hydra for the track which became Carnage were some pretty safe (but nonetheless enjoyable) bits of Speedy J and Aphex Twin. Taking the intent of the scene (which was pretty violent) and running into more extreme territory was a lot of fun. In that regard I've been lucky in that most of the choreographers and directors I've worked for have been happy to fuel my excesses (whether the excesses be delicate and minimal or vicious ones!)
ECTONAUT: What strikes me when listening to your album is that all of them are very characteristic and well-composed. What is your musical background really? When was it that you started to compose your own music really and what was it that led you to do this?
DARRIN: My musical training was in classical piano and clarinet (at school), followed by African drumming, Indonesian gamelan and the (Japanese) shakuhachi (at university). My interest in composition has always been strong. During my western classical keyboard training, my ear was always better than my eye, and improvisation and composition were of far greater interest than rote note learning.
ECTONAUT: Many musicians that I've interviewed has said that composing music is like terapy for them and it seems like music belong to the very fundament of their lives. How do you view this? Could you imagine living a life without composing music? What role has music got in your life really?
DARRIN: I think the cliche of the artist as (precious/important) provocateur in/commentator on society is greatly overplayed. Most artists are mainly selfish. Creating work is something the 'have' to do. In doing so, they _may_ engage in a relationship with society, but that's a secondary consideration. For the most part, art is the equivalent of an obsessive compulsive disorder. Now this shouldn't be taken as a value judgement.......
Relevant links:
Dorobo Records
Shinjuku Thief