Joseph Vargo and William Piotrowski are the partners of Nox
Arcana.
William was unavailable
at the time of this interview, but we were
fortunate Joseph
could act as spokesman for the group.
JEF: Am I
correct in saying that CARNIVAL OF SOULS falls into a musical Gothic genre? The
closest I've come to listening to this type of music was a long time ago when I
"was into" Metallica & Black Sabbath. Your vision seems a bit
more complex. I've got some Vampire CDs on order—and more of your music, of
course.
JV: Essentially, we create dark concept albums based on various gothic
themes, or as we like to describe it "music from the shadows for creatures
of the night." Our music is mainly classically based instrumental,
although we do incorporate chanting choirs and spoken narratives for dramatic
effect to achieve a blend of darkly haunting melodies that encompass the
complete gothic spectrum the romantic, the mysterious, and the horrific. We
utilize a variety of instruments such as piano, pipe organ, violin, acoustic
guitar, drums and tolling bells to achieve symphonic orchestrations. Our
concept has always been to create moody and melody-driven gothic soundscapes
that take the listener on a musical journey through various dark realms of
fantasy.
We generally stay within the domain of gothic horror with our musical
themes. This is a dark and brooding nightmare world, filled with lots of moody
imagery. Gargoyles, ghosts, supernatural creatures of the night, and anything
set in a haunted mansion or ancient crypt. I love the old American
International horror films that Roger Corman produced. They were just dripping
with gothic atmosphere.
To convey the mood of an ancient fallen cathedral on Winter’s Knight
we utilized gothic pipe organs and Gregorian chanting. We also used a lot of
bells, piano and harpsichords to capture the solemn feeling of winter, and even
had two medieval minstrel songs with acoustic guitar and haunting vocal
harmonies. Bram Stoker¹s Dracula was the main inspiration for our Transylvania
cd, that combined brooding horror with a romantic European flair. We basically
told Dracula’s story through music, then added some original elements like the
ominous warnings from sentinel gargoyles and witches.
JEF. Another
thing I liked about your CD was the inclusion of great artwork & scenario.
For the exception of classics that seemed to go out with LPs. Is this a feature
of all your music?
JV. Yes. I create all the original art for our cds and work closely with
graphic designer Christine Filipak to layout the cd booklets. In this age of
downloading music, I feel that the people who actually buy our physical cds
should get something extra for their money. We even concealed a quest inside
our last cd, Blood of the Dragon, and hid clues in the booklet, disc and songs.
We strive to develop full-blooded concept albums that tell a story, complete
with words, pictures and music.
JEF. I'm an HP Lovecraft fan (both the writer & the group). Do you
have a list of "fav" artists in the past? or today? (Carnival
reminded me of Something Wicked This Way Comes...)
JV. Our third
album, Necronomicon, was based entirely on Lovecraft¹s Cthulhu mythos. I¹ve
read all of his works several times. He has so many great stories, but some of
my favorites are The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, The Shadow Over Innsmouth,
and The Dunwich Horror. I wanted to pay homage to Lovecraft¹s original concepts
of the Necronomicon and the sinister mythology that it contained. It’s such a
wealth of ideas and dark inspiration. The cd gives a rundown of the various
monstrous deities, ancient rituals and dark prophecies of the Cthulhu mythos as
if someone were reading it from the Necronomicon. All of the text is based on
Lovecraft¹s original ideas, ignoring the embellishments of later writers. There
are narrative intros to some of the tracks that explain the specific roles of
each of the Great Old Ones, as described by Lovecraft. The music ranges from
mystical Arabian pieces to dark Egyptian chants to powerful gothic
orchestrations.
You’re absolutely right about Carnival of Lost Souls. The major
influence was Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes. The idea of a
diabolical circus that rises from the shadows to tempt human desires was a
tribute to his Dark Carnival concept. The Circus of Dr. Lao also inspired us,
which was the basis for the old film The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao.
Once we had the groundwork for this concept, we set out to put our own twist
on it. I love delving deep into the shadows of my own imagination. Some of the
original inspirations like the gypsy fortune-teller machine, the living dolls,
and the spellbound puppet show came from a Halloween party that I put together
several years ago. Other concepts like the Theatre of Sorrows, the Soul Stealer
and The Devil’s Daggers² were conceived specifically for this album. We had the
cd release party for Carnival of Lost Souls on 6-6-06. It was a wild event that
tied in nicely with the idea that this sinister carnival, The Circus
Diabolique, rises from the shadows every one hundred years. Hopefully, we¹ll
inspire someone to continue this tradition in the centuries to come.
As far as contemporary artists go, soundtrack composers like John Carpenter,
Jerry Goldsmith, and Danny Elfman had a major influence on me early on. They
made me appreciate dark instrumental music with their scores to Halloween, The
Omen, The 13th Warrior, and Edward Scissorhands.
JEF. I
want to remind readers that this interview includes both artists. How did you 2
meet?
JV. I began my career as a gothic fantasy artist, selling posters, t-shirts
and calendars of my work through my own company, Monolith Graphics, and by
1997, I had established a large audience in the gothic realm. In 1998, I came
up with the idea of doing a Halloween music CD that would sound like a
soundtrack to a gothic horror movie. I branched out and began producing gothic
soundtrack music with another band, but we parted ways after two albums. I’ve
known William since he was very young. I’m actually very good friends with his
father and I watched his musical skills develop as he got older. We formed Nox
Arcana in 2003. He was very enthusiastic about the project and within a few
weeks, we were in the studio working on the initial tracks for our first cd,
Darklore Manor.
We work on all of our music together, although I’m the main composer and
William is the better musician. I write the majority of the basic melodies then
we work together to flesh them out to create more elaborate compositions. We
mix every song together but William handles all the engineering and mastering
while I develop the concepts and write the lyrics.
JEF.
Would you describe your technical training? Any special mentors?
I took a few years of piano lessons when I was a kid, then developed my
musical skill on my own. I sang in a lot of different rock bands in the 80s and
90s, and then later started creating my own music in my home studio. I produced
my first cd in 1998 and have since expanded my studio. William plays several
instruments, including piano, violin and guitar. He has also studied classical
music and is currently pursuing a degree in music at Kent State University. He
learned how to record and engineer music on his own and he¹s a great studio
technician. We work very well together, but because of our age difference and
my years of experience, I guess you could say I’m his mentor.
[Also see Nox Arcana Biography
below.]
JEF. Any
thoughts about the music scene in general you'd care to share?
JV. I don’t listen to many of the rock bands that have come out in the past
decade. There are a few good ones, but not like in the old days. On the other
hand, with Internet sites like MySpace and YouTube, it¹s very easy for unsigned
bands to get their music out to a wide audience. Sites like itunes and Amazon
really help independent artists market their music, so it¹s not imperative for
bands to be signed to a major label anymore.
JEF. Any tips/advice to kids who want to go pro?
JV. I work very hard at all aspects of my craft, but I feel very fortunate
to have enjoyed the success that we’ve had with all our projects. I am a firm
believer in the old saying that success is hard work meeting with opportunity.
Many people who want to pursue careers as musicians, artists or writers think
that they¹ll strike it rich with one big break. Inevitably they fail because
they aren¹t determined to put all the effort into neither polishing their work,
nor doing all the marketing to get their work out there. If record companies or
publishers haven’t ever heard or seen your work, they’re not going to come
knocking on your door. You have to make all the contacts yourself, or hire an
agent who you can trust to do it for you. I feel that experience is the best
teacher. It gives you a real sense of accomplishment to know that you created
something substantial by following your dreams and doing things your own way.
JEF. Any future plans you'd like to share?
JV. We are currently working on our eighth album, Shadow of the Raven, which
is based on the writings of Edgar Allan Poe. It’s darkly romantic in a haunting
and elegant way, but there are some seriously creepy pieces as well. And, of
course, there’ll be lots of sinister artwork to decorate the booklet.
|
Joseph Vargo is
a music composer, published author, and internationally acclaimed artist. His
visions of gothic fantasy have graced the covers of several books and cds,
appeared in numerous publications including Spectrum III, Carpe Noctem,
Dark Realms, Bite Me, and Dark Visions, and have been used for set
design by broadcast companies such as NBC, Universal, 20th Century Fox,
A&E and The Discovery Channel. He began his professional artistic career
in 1991 and achieved worldwide status by 1993 with the release of a series of
art collections entitled Born of the Night. After several years of
success in this field, Vargo extended his talents to other venues: In 1998
and 1999 he conceptualized and produced the popular Halloween soundtracks Born
of the Night, and Realm of Shadows, and to this day his influential
sound and ominous voice resonates in almost every haunted house and theme
park across the country during Halloween. In the following years, Vargo
created various artistic and literary projects; most notably to date is the
illustrated gothic anthology Tales from the Dark Tower and The
Gothic Tarot. In 2003, he returned to the music arena with his new band,
Nox Arcana, to compose the haunting melodies and darkly themed orchestrations
that are a trademark of his gothic realm. |
|
-:{ Music -:- Biography -:- Arcanum -:- Reviews -:- Interviews -:- Contact -:- Shop }:- |
First Time Was The Charmer
This was my first time to explore this "spooky"
genre in music, as well as the first exposure to Nox Arcana--and, my, what a
darkly seductive experience it was. I'm not quite sure what I expected.
Something "Gothic" for sure--but would it be art?
It WAS art, art-full, deeply mesmerizing & very entertaining.
AND "Carnival" is technically brilliant.
One of the things I missed when CDs replaced LPs was the creativity that went
into the record jackets. Most pop CDs these days offer very little for the
eye--but this is not the case in Carnival of Lost Souls. A beautiful little
booklet is enclosed loaded with wonderful drawings & other illustrations,
as well as a Goth libretto of sorts & many other strange & curious
& wonder-full things.
Obviously Nox
Arcana knows how to make the Dark Side fun.
— JEFarrow
Return
Updated 05/07