1. When did you decide to create the band? Why did you choose the name Morgarten and what does it refer to?
We started the band in 2005 and the name "Morgarten" refers to a battle in 1315 in which the Swiss defeated the Austrians, who were far more numerous and trained than the Swiss. We chose it because it sounds pretty good, but also because it reminds us that you don't have to be a famous person, a professional warrior to fight.
2. Although Morgarten has been active since 2005, and the formation has remained stable since then, it is also true that the number of launches is rather low with only a couple of launches to date, why is this long time between each one of your releases?
Yeah, you could think that we took a break with Morgarten during this time frame, but in fact we worked hard, haha. “Risen to Fight”, was our first album, so we really took the time to promote it, did some shows in Europe, before we started to work seriously on “Cry of the Lost”. We could for example do the opening for Finntroll, it was great! Then as we wanted to do a concept album with 12 songs, it took quite a lot of time to create the concept, compose the songs and so on. And with the Covid coming on board, we postponed the release date for a year
3. Your most recent album is entitled "Cry of the Lost" and has been released about six years apart from your previous "Risen to Fight", how has your sound evolved between both albums? been the process of composition and recording of this album? What brands of instruments have you used for the recording?
In Risen to Fight we were more focused on black metal sounds I would say and over the years we have become more sophisticated with the synth arrangements and added more rhythmic and clean vocals parts. The compositions are also much more interesting I think on this album. The music was written both by Ilann and Pierric and the lyrics were written by Pierric. The concept of this album and the story behind has been discussed and decide by the whole band and then developped by Pierric. We mainly used guitars, bass, keyboards (with lots of different instruments :-) ), and drums, but we also have some parts were we used a banjo, acoustic guitars, bagpipes. And for the intro of the album, we also recorded knives and forks and a barn door, haha
4. The sound of “Cry of the Lost” without being complex if it offers a good number of different styles and sounds, fusing sounds of black metal origin with others of more folk inspiration, is the whole process of recording very complicated for you? work and shape the final sound of an album like this “Cry of the Lost?” How do you organize yourself to bring your proposal forward?
I wouldn't say it was complicated. In fact there was a lot of work before the recordings, to create the story on which the album is based, to determine the episodes of the story that the songs are about. Then the lyrics and music were composed to fit the atmosphere of the different events in the story. That's what gave the songs their wide range of styles. The songs are composed by either Ilann or Pierric and overall, all the tracks are finalized when they finish composing. The recording process then "just" involves playing it all down perfectly. There are just the synth and drums that have improved their parts after the composition
5. As I mentioned before, your sound could be defined as black, folk metal metal, however in it there is also room for elements that are not completely refined that give it an added credibility and personality. How would you define the sound of “Cry of the Lost "for those who haven't heard it yet? What bands and styles have been an inspiration for you when defining your sound?
It's always complicated to define your own style or sound. I think the question sums up pretty well what we do: Black/Folk metal and with that Death, Ambient, Symphonic, Epic elements, sometimes clear vocals... But we never wanted to limit ourselves to one style, on the contrary, we try to explore everything we like to obtain a varied result while remaining coherent. As sources of inspiration, the bands are just as varied: Ensiferum, Eluveitie, Wardruna, Equilibirum, Wintersun, Faun, Morvigor, Epica, Slechtvalk, Cân Bardd, ...
6. The theme of your lyrics deals with fantastic themes and others related to battles, why did you decide to treat these themes in your lyrics? Are the lyrics adapted to the music and are they written after having the complete music?
We always liked to have a concept and a story for our albums and we always liked the Middle Ages and epics. So it was a natural choice. For the lyrics it depends a bit. Most of the time we choose the general theme and the events and emotions that the song should describe and the lyrics are finalized once the music is finished.
7. Who was in charge of the cover design for “Cry of the Lost”, what does it represent and how does it relate to the musical content of the album?
The Artwork was done by David Benzal, a spanish artist, and the scene illustrates the song “The last Breath”. In this song, the hero of the story is caught in a snowstorm and is exhausted. He realises that his whole life may have been for nothing, as he will not be able to reach the goal of his quest if he falls today. We really wanted this cry of despair that he expresses when he realises that everything is in vain to come through in the artwork. A careful eye will see that the warrior is actually a member of the band ;-)
8. The album has been edited by Inner Wound Recordings, how did you come up with the idea of working with this record label for the album edition? Are you satisfied with the editing and promotion work carried out by Inner Wound Recordings?
We got in contact through our booking agency Desert Rose Agency. At first, we were a bit wary as we value our independence and didn’t really see the benefit of signing with a label. But the more we talked with them the more we saw they were serious. We don’t regret it at all, as they are great to work with.
9. Switzerland has always been linked in some way with the black metal scene since its origins, a tradition that has been maintained to this day with a good handful of bands of unquestionable quality, how do you perceive the health of black Swiss from within?
As we have always known this context, it's hard to know what it's like compared to other countries. But there are regular bands coming up that definitely have originality and quality!
10. The restrictions derived from the Covi-19 have affected bands in different ways, one of the most important, above all, and in your particular case, not being able to offer concerts regularly. How did you as a band face this period?
Yes, that's clearly the aspect we like best, to be able to share our music with the audience and have fun together. It's not an easy time. But in our case, we were lucky enough to be able to record the drums in Sweden at the end of 2019 and we started recording the rest at the beginning of 2020. So at that time we didn't suffer from not being able to play live and we were able to keep meeting to rehearse too. But now it's getting really long and hard to promote Cry of the Lost under these conditions...
11. How were your beginnings in music: first concerts you attend, first albums you buy? What did you do in your life that made you want to be musicians?
Ooh, I don't remember which were the first shows we went to. Probably one or the other local band. I think one of the first albums I (Pierric) bought was "Deep Purple- Perfect Strangers". Some of us had started playing music as kids, but more on trumpet, flute... But for the most part, we started playing our instrument with Morgarten. We liked to listen to metal music and we thought "why don't we make a band?" and that was it...
12. Which album represents for you the essence of black metal? What last albums have you bought?
No idea, it's hard enough to know what style we're doing, haha. The last albums we had, we didn't actually buy them, we traded them for our Cry of the Lost album with the last bands we played with, that was in Gent, Belgium. It's Vanaheim's EP "The House Spirit" and Lemuria's latest album "The Hysterical Hunt".
13. What future plans do you have for Morgarten in terms of upcoming releases, concerts or reissues?
Nothing is decided now, but we were asked to perform a short acoustic show at Brainstorm Festival (NL) in November and we had a lot of pleasure to play it and were quite happy with the result. So we're thinking about this possibility of maybe releasing an acoustic EP. Otherwise the next confirmed gig will be in Switzerland at the MetBar in Lenzburg and several other dates are under discussion, but it's a bit complicated to confirm gigs now, as everything is closing up again...
14. Thank you very much for taking the time to answer these questions for Black Metal Spirit, if you want to add something for the Morgarten fans this is the place. I hope the questions are to your liking.
We want to thank everyone who supports us and shares what we do. We can't wait to get back on the road and do some dates to meet you when this pandemic is over. Come on, we believe!
Thanks a lot for the questions, it was a pleasure to answer them!
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