Interview with Peter Nyström By Per Najbjerg Odderskov
"Megaptera is a survivor. A project which has been with us through good times and bad. One of the most important post-industrial acts of the 90s, alongside the likes of Brighter Death Now, Inade, Schloss Tegal and Anenzephalia. They started on the proto CMI-cassette label Sound Source (like Consono), and then released material on several cult labels like Slaughter Productions, Art Konkret, SSSM, Release Entertainment, Malignant Records and of course Cold Meat Industry. From their very first release, Near Death, they were noted as one of the early pioneers of death industrial. The band's sound combined a dense, hypnotic and heavy soundtrack-based industrial atmosphere, with occasional bass-driven metallic machine rhythms. At most times it felt like being trapped inside some HUGE cathedral-like warehouse filled with grinding machines, and in company with a crowd of people humming and worshipping something unpleasant. Megaptera weren't as minimal in sound atmosphere like most, they could fill up your surround-system in no time and drown you with their heavy darkness. Various members have come and gone but Peter Nyström is the sole inheritor of Megaptera, and has been for some time. I've been a fan for ages and asked Peter for an interview about the legacy of Megaptera. He graciously agreed and you can find our discussion below.
First of all, I understand the founding and first member of Megaptera was Mikael Svensson (Deaf Machine). You then joined the project later on. How did you become involved in Megaptera?
It was Mikael and Magnus Åslund (Pettersson) who started Megaptera together. I was making music with Magnus Sundström as Fiskebåtarna and First Aid at that time Mikael and Magnus recorded the first Megaptera tracks. These later became the first homemade release. You Will Recover. I think I started to listen to CMI related music at that time, like BDN, MZ412 and Raison d'etre. I heard that they had started to experiment with some old gear that Magnus mother's new boyfriend had, like a 4 channel portastudio and an analog delay. I borrowed a drum machine from my friends in the synthpop band Cell Division, and then I joined them. We were friends already.
What was the idea of Megaptera in the early days? You managed to create something which was quite unique back then.
I'd say no idea at all. We got very influenced by the CMI sound and we were already big fans of The Klinik, Test Department and Cabaret Voltaire. We didn't know much about instruments so we just took what we had: scenes from various films, TV, radio, whatever we could hear fit in. The reason why we ended up making this kind of music was that it was quite easy. We didn't need expensive gear or a computer to record the atmospheres that we liked. And it was also very funny to just search for crazy sounds and movies and just push record. Very unpretentious.
It seems to me that the cult of Megaptera expanded with your friendship/involvement with Slaughter Productions. You had lots of side projects released there, and you appeared on many of the cult compilations. Do you miss the days of Slaughter Productions?
Of course I miss some of it, and Marco of course. He was such a nice guy. Very polite, gentle and everything went very smooth with him. The best part was that we wrote REAL letters back then, and it was amazingly fun to both receive and send letters, records and tapes. The most important releases were those on Slaughter, otherwise I don't think Megaptera would have reached the status we did. I remember being very proud of having two tracks on Death Odors and also as number 1 and 2 on the disc. Shadowland is still one of Megaptera's strongest pieces of music.
You finally had a bigger "commercial" release on Release Entertainment (also like Brighter Death Now). How did Curse Of The Scarecrow come to be? I'll also point that that a lot people got to know Megaptera through this album.
It really became a hit for us. Magnus Åslund left the band already in 1991 and Mikael and I recorded this album together with Magnus Sundström on his Amiga 500 and EPS sampler if I remember correctly. We felt that we were doing some really good tracks. We did not think, just recorded track after track. It went very easily. I had some contact with VUZ Records and somehow the record came out on Release Entertainment THROUGH VUZ Records and then the guy ripped us on the money. I was very blue eyed, and thought everybody was as polite as Marco Corbelli, but that wasn't the case. I'm still very proud of that album, and it was very important that we got Don't Desecrate the Dead released on Absolute Supper. It really promoted Megaptera well.
Which Megaptera album are you most proud of doing?
I must say Songs from the Massive Darkness back in 1992. Me and Mikael was heavily influenced by Great Death by BDN, so we connected the gear we had in my boy's room and recorded those 6 tracks in 4 hours. I still enjoy listening to that album from start to the end. I love the metallic sound of that BOSS RRV-10 reverb, the sounds we pulled out from the SH-101, and the voices in the background from The Thing. A perfect and funny recording session. I remember that I was down eating a quick dinner while we recorded one of the tracks, and Mikael were sitting on my bed playing a Casio VZ-1 with his feet in the meantime, haha! Great memories!
What does the future hold for Megaptera? Is there still unreleased material hidden in the vaults?
All tracks have been released, so no more old surprises. I get some ideas sometimes, but we'll see. Maybe a CD version of Nailed on vinyl later on. Only Satan knows (*Winking face)."
"Maeror Tri was an ambient, noise, and drone music band from Germany founded by 3 members of 'Screaming Corpses' in 1988. Similar to Zoviet France, they used only analog instruments* with an enormous amount of effects applied. Very little is known about the group except for spokesperson Stefan Knappe, who is also the owner of the label 'Drone Records'. Nevertheless, it is for sure that all three came from the city of Leer in northern Germany, and knew each other since their time in school."
