High Mage Productions are a duo and a small label whose work I stumbled upon while trying to divine the future by sifting through the entrails of the internet. The portents revealed led me down dark and twisty pathways to their music. I had never really heard of dungeon synth, which is a new genre for me. As I have begun to explore it, I’ve found that lots of it resonates. Frankly, I’m kind of mystified as to how I wasn’t aware that people were making these sounds, they fit well within my wheelhouse of interests, especially with the fantasy and science fiction connections.
I wasn’t just drawn in by their music, I also really appreciate their overall aesthetic. The artwork on a lot of their cassettes fits in well with my own sense of style and I appreciate the DIY approach. I was really interested in the concepts behind their work, in the mage characters they were summoning up and projecting into my imagination.
I reached out to tell them how much I liked their stuff and during a short conversation, I asked if they would be willing to engage in a correspondence interview and to my surprise they said yes.
I am grateful they let me break my interview teeth during our conversation. I expect I’ll get better at doing these as I do more of them. I find a lot of value in the written interview format, especially that it gives creators time to think about their answers, but it also takes a good deal of work on their part as well, so each of these is most certainly a gift. Starting by talking with a musician was comfortable for me and they were very forthcoming with information and answered my questions with patience.
Here is their website (full contact information at the bottom of the page): www.highmagetapes.com
Here is a record of our correspondence.
CR:
Can you describe your project? What’s High Mage Productions?
HM:
HAILS Continuous Revelations!
HIGH MAGE PRODUCTIONS is a very small DIY dark ambient (dungeon synth, dungeon drone, depressive soundscapes, all synth heavy) cassette tape label from the Front Range of Colorado. We began as something to blow off steam during a GLOBAL FUCKING PANDEMIC.
We get very high, a little drunk, rehearse a bit, and when the edibles kick in, hit record. Most of the projects are wandering improv tracks based on whims of inspiration. To describe the music, it's all ambient drone. But the differences in projects depend on the inspiration for the individual project. For Mossbridge Mage, we were aiming for a light, but moss-ridden sound, with Pvmkyn Mage we were inspired by All Hallows and the harvest season, Astro-Mage inspired by the surf rock band Man... or Astro-Man?. It's all centered on droning until our heads hang, then we add a little *umph* to keep things interesting.
CR:
Can I ask you about your gear? I know there are two of you~ what instruments are you playing? What kinds of pedals are you implementing?
HM:
We are both rock / punk influenced and are both primarily guitar players. We play through various synths and keyboards into our guitar amps. Most of the droning is built over the sounds of a Korg Minilogue through various guitar pedals, into a BIG ampeg amp. Most of the loops are recorded and played through a Fender Blues DeVille 4x10. Most of the lead parts are played with a Casio CT-S200 through some pedals and into an Orange Crush. We also pepper in the magic of a Yamaha VSS-30. At first, we were using an old circuit bent Casio MT-240 for a lot of the really crazy sounds but it died. It turns out that circuit bent instruments die if the bender didn’t know what they were doing when messing with the circuitry. Maybe we will be able to revive it some day.
We LOVE Dr. Scientist pedals. I think that every track has the Bit Quest and the Atmosphere engaged by one of us. A lot of the self oscillation sounds come from a DOD Rubberneck. We love the textures we can make by combining the Digitech Luxe and the Hardwire TR-7 Tremelo/rotary pedal. We sort of play with tones that we get out of combining effects until we get the “wow” moment where we absolutely need to use that combo.
CR:
What kind of recording process do you use? Are you recording all of these in one take? I have noticed that your music has a distinct narrative quality, which I expect is intentional. When you rehearse, do you map out the structure of each of your projects, or does that unfold after you start recording? I think that narrative quality really sets you apart from lots of other ambient drone heavy music.
HM:
We generally practice and come up with ideas independently and schedule a weekly “jam” session. We map out what we want to play and decide on an arrangement. Of course, as you have noticed, we often aim for a theme. Once we have the synth voices we like for the theme/project as well as the combination of effects, we “jam” with each other. After a bit more of rearranging and planning..... as well as a few drinks + the cannabis edibles kick in...... we hit record! Most, if not all, of our releases are recorded live and mostly improv in one take. We record by close micing the amps from an Allen & Heath mixing board whose output goes into a Denon tape deck. We love tape culture and intend to record everything onto cassette. We lucked out recently with some really high grade tapes found at a local thrift shop.
CR:
I like how I think I am developing a general idea of the multitude of pedals available and then someone mentions a bunch of new ones to me. Mixing and twisting tones and textures is the best. The description of your process makes sense. I'm on a long sobriety kick these days, but I'm pretty sure I trained my mind to go to most of the same places it used to back in the proverbial day. To put that another way, I completely grasp the use of substances to alter and enhance music creation and I would be surprised if people out of Colorado making the sounds you do (at least those called the High Mages) didn't partake. I am impressed by your recording technique, but that being said I was using a really primitive technique up until a few years ago when I started incorporating pedals. I've got a lot of respect for the tape culture and the DIY approach.
What are your musical backgrounds?
HM:
For me, personally, my musical background is mutt-like at the very least. My musical tastes, like most people, blossomed in my early teenage life. The exposure to punk rock in those formative years formed and shaped what tastes would come. When I started exploring punk rock, I found that the more aggressive, the more angry, and the more offensive a band could be meant more pleasure I could get from the music. I quickly went from the power-pop punk sounds of the 70s, to the “current” punk bands of the late 90s, to the soft and drug-fueled music of the 60s, to the delta and Chicago blues, then yearning for the aggression again, crusty and pulverizing sounds of the 00s, searching for the next band to fuck me up. In my late teenage years I happened upon Black Metal and honestly, I pushed it aside. The interludes and horrible sound quality were a big deterrent. After a long (long, long, long) dive into the world of dirty south trap rap, I was longing for the raw and unpolished music I once sought. I found my return to black metal, and subsequently dark dungeon music, in the past year. All of the musical styles and sonic madness I’ve absorbed in the last 20 years gets filtered through a keyboard and becomes a High Mage Production.
CR:
What other projects have you been involved in and how do you know one another?
HM:
I’ve been involved in numerous completely unknown punk bands, all from Jacksonville, FL. I met my co-mage through my now wife roughly seven years ago. We’ve always had harebrained ideas and projects. We’ve made novelty spicy raisins, brewed a couple of batches of beer, threw a shitload of yo-yos, and partied our asses off together, but until this year had never played any music. I’m very fortunate to have a co-mage that already owned absolutely everything we would need to start a DIY cassette label, and one so talented that can play every instrument placed in front of him. It really means there are no limits to what we as High Mage can do, and leaves the amount of projects limitless.
CR:
It is awesome that you were friends before you started making music together, I think it speaks to your ability to communicate with one another musically and it shows in your work. I'm sorry I missed the spicy raisins. When I listen to your music, I can hear elements of the influences you mention. It brings to mind roleplaying and video games and dark fantasy books I've read over my life and to aspects of films all mish mashed up. For example, I've heard things that make me think of the dark gloomy second half of Excalibur and of the movie Ladyhawke, of Gene Wolfe and Robert Holdstock novels, and all sorts of other things.
Can you identify some of the things which inspire the themes you develop for your projects? What kinds of concepts are you thinking and talking about as you develop and explore those themes, for instance, when you crafted the Diamantina's Embrace tape? It has a description of "seasick homesickness and the want to visit the voids beneath the surface", which invokes all sorts of associations. Also, the names on that tape are of interest: both Diamatina and Dordrecht are places, but what do those names mean to you?
Do you see yourself as building a world/setting through your music and liner notes? There are numerous mages, could you describe them? Are the mages different aspects of the two of you or are you yourselves pale reflections of the mages from a dimension which is more real than our own?
Also, I keep finding myself thinking of the spicy raisins. What did you make them with?
HM:
So far, we come up with themes based on a target soundscape I suppose. For example, the deep ocean is SCARY to us..... but in a captivating way. Diamantina’s Embrace came about because we wanted to create a musical story about a character who gets lost at sea trying to find powerful artifacts but ultimately sees his fate in the Dordrecht Deep. The Diamantina Trench felt like a scary and mysterious place which helped us during the creative planning process to come up with an ambiance that was “on brand” with our other projects.
Thank you for sharing your associations that you get from listening to our music. In some ways, we try to tailor the flow of our recordings in a way that the final product is something that would go well in a video game or fantastical movie.
We are absolutely building world settings between different “projects” under the High Mage Productions name. We like to work out themes that have us geeking out about the events that would go alongs with the various tracks. For example, on Mage... or Astro-Mage? - Defcon 0, I find myself in complete terror picturing the Astro-Mage slowly drifting off into the vacuum of space to his doom. One evening, I went back to the project file and looped the middle segment for something like 2 hours and just zoned out to the droning and just got lost in just visualizing this. The commute to work is long and this is my favorite release to listen to because it is almost stressful how terrifying that specific soundscape is to me.
Truthfully, the different mages thing is sort of our way to stay on track. Almost like we are writing comics about different characters, but with droning ambience and chaotic synth passages. It helps us stick to a theme. Also, naming a project or album is more fun this way to us. It forces us to focus on a topic and to come up with a name or theme that we think would appeal to a listener. We like to think/hope that the listener might imagine their own universe while listening to our music. It is fun this way.
In regards to the raisins, we were coating raisins with powderized Carolina reaper peppers as sort of a challenge type snack. Like, see who would cry first after eating one. That project did not take off and now we have a bunch of spicy raisins to “test our might” with at bbq’s or family get togethers.
CR:
I’m glad about the raisins. I was worried they were some lightly spiced, lowest common denominator kind of thing. The project didn't take off because people are weak and don't want to risk the catalyst of raisin pain. I bet those raisins are little jewels of transformative suffering. Like focusing on the terror of the deep ocean.
I'm sure that everyone would have their own associations with work like yours, but I am pleased by your description of the Astro-Mage drifting off into space and certain doom. I mentioned the work of the author Gene Wolfe earlier. In his book 'Urth of the New Sun' the narrator Severian is on a spaceship for the first time. The ship is immense and he has a limited understanding of low gravity. He gets around by leaping towards objects and catching them. This is all great until he misses his target and floats out into the void. Trigger the horror of the Astro-mage and your commute. Anyhow, your music and comments make me think of Severian in particular. There is another scene in the series where he sleeps under the stars and lies transfixed by the weight of the depths of space above him, oppressed and horrified.
I think your different mages are a fantastic way of anchoring but not restricting the imaginations of your listeners as well as keeping you on topic. I think it is a great way of creating a character, these little snippets in the liner notes combined with your sonic explorations. It is also a way of creating that seems honest and real, that punk aesthetic manifesting there, without pretension.
Can you recommend music in a similar vein to what you two are doing? You work in genres which are relatively new to me and I'd be interested in hearing what you have to say. Are there people out there you think are overlooked that we can direct people towards?
HM:
As for recommendations, there are so many amazing artists in this scene and everyone deserves a shout-out, but there’s simply no way I am going to be able to do that. I’ll start with some friends of ours.
Delorean Gray - @natk_1989 - deloreangray.bandcamp.com
This guy is great. A multitalented monster, he churns out great material faster than most can even think of. In the past month he’s released something like six EPs and at least two albums, making everything from the crypt hop-inspired “Winter Solstice Beat Tape” to straight-up comfy synth with “A Wintery Realm of Warm Memories Lost in Time”. The guy’s a madman and his music is a very fun listen. He’s been doing tape versions of some songs and they are *chefs kiss* beautiful.
Wanderer - @forest_of_orthanc - forestoforthanc.bandcamp.com
Wanderer is another of the multitalented people we have the pleasure of working with. He’s not only part of the dungeon synth community, but he also is the man behind Stone Ram, a killer OMB heavy metal project. Wanderer’s project Forest of Orthanc is amazing in its minimalism. The textures and soundscapes he creates are enviable, and right on-brand with his Tolkien theme. A little birdie told me that he’s been experimenting with recording direct-to-tape, which will likely add an “aged” feel to his beautiful Middle-earthian conjurings.
We are super proud to know both of these artists, and doubly happy to be able to work with them! Our main project (High Mage) has recorded and finished the assembly of the split album “Wandering Mage of the Spellbound Wood”, a joint release with Forest of Orthanc. We’re so excited to unleash these recordings unto the public. I believe we’re going to drop this on NYE/NYD in both physical and digital formats.
CR:
I see you have released a Christmas album during our correspondence called Stolen Tallow, which was a welcome surprise. What can you tell me about it? What other projects on the horizons?
HM:
In our emails, I mentioned two releases coming up. Forest of Orthanc x High Mage is number one, and number two is a solo High Mage album “Conjuring Witch of the Great Conjunction”, a noisy and beefy ritualistic album, we were inspired by both the astrological phenomenon and what a coven of ravenous witches might be doing during said phenomenon. We have digitally released this album, with hopes of dropping it right alongside the FoO x HM split.
We have plans to work with Delorean Gray on a split album in the near future, something uncomfy and wintry, and I offered to release a solo Delorean Gray comfy album, which will likely be available in late Jan/early Feb.
I recently got a positive response from the man behind Realm of Sleep about doing a split. As you may know, we do a lot of drone work, and one of RoS projects is Of Antler and Oak, who we both love. Shimmering dungeon drone that really forces your brain to imagine. All of the projects under Realm of Sleep are great, definitely give the label a look. (realmofsleep.bandcamp.com)
Thanks for checking out Kertasníkir Töframaður! The name “directly translates” to Candle Wizard, but with context it will make sense. The album is a brief introduction to Grýla and her children, the 13 Yule Lads. One-by-one, starting on the 12th of Dec, the lads come down from the mountains, one per day. In lighter mythology the Yule Lads are little Santa’s, rewarding children with treats and trinkets. The darker mythology is that Grýla is a mountain witch that comes on Christmas to steal and eat naughty children. Actually, some sources say that Grýla would snatch you up if you weren’t wearing new clothes! The 13 Yule Lads in this dark version were mischievous little things, stealing pots, bowls, silverware, anything that might contain something edible. Candles used to be made from tallow, and therefore edible. Kertasníkir was the “candle stealer” Yule Lad, and I think now all of the pieces are in place.
Until the next one Continuous Revelations! Have a great day!
I really enjoyed talking with these fellows. I love how their music has the capacity to dive into the whimsical and the existentially horrifying without pretensions. They are creative people who create for the joy of creating and they deserve whatever kind of support you have to give them. Likewise, you deserve to give their catalog a listen- they have released a half dozen projects this year already. I expect I will reach out to them in the future to check in with what they are theirs are doing.
Here is their contact information:
High Mage Productions
Main Page: highmagetapes.com
Follow them on Instagram: @high_mage
Email them at: highmagedrone@gmail.com