Erang Interview: 'The Kingdom Is Ours'

Greetings! I am pleased to bring you a conversation with Erang where discuss we his recent film and his new album, ‘The Kingdom Is Ours’. Ever the champion of imagination and an inspiring creator, Erang’s new album is an extraordinary collection of collaborations with amazing musicians.

CR: I thought we could start by talking about your movie~ I really enjoyed it and I think it serves as an excellent introduction to you and your work. What is the history of the film? How was it created?

E: I’ve been contacted by Dennis from Wyrd War (a Portland-based record label & association specializing in strange and horrific or fantasy, pulp art) to play live for an event in March 2023 at the Hollywood Theatre. I replied that I was more inclined to make for them a dedicated film for the audience to watch in the Theatre. Dennis was really enthusiastic about the idea and that’s how it started.

About the film, I wanted from the start to divide it between several aesthetics: vintage animation movies, 16mm films, VHS, black and white early cinema, video game from the 90s, etc. So I started to create different art based on each vibe and look to find which song from my discography could fit with the corresponding aesthetic. Because it was aimed to be shown in a Theatre, I wanted it to have a ‘cinematic’ feel to it and I thought, to some extent, about what ‘cinema’ and movies really mean to me… that’s when I came up with the title of it “The Darkness Before Your Eyes”. And it is explained in the last chapter of the movie: when you’re alone at home, at night in your bed, and then you close your eyes to darkness… During that moment when your eyes are closed but you're still awake, this is where you have “The Darkness Before Your Eyes” and this is when your very own personal movie starts to play in your mind and before your eyes…

CR: You have a new album coming out, let's jump right into that! How would you describe what you've created?

E: This new album is something really special for me. It will be named 'Kingdom is Ours' because, for the first time, it will be a collaborative album with many great people from the DS scene. I don't know if the album will be out when this interview will be published so I don't want to reveal too much. But I've already announced Quest Master, Fogweaver, Hole Dweller... and many other absolutely awesome musicians!

You know, I'm always looking for happy coincidences when I'm doing an album. I knew I wanted to name it 'Kingdom is Ours' a long time before I decided to go the collab way. Because this phrase is a motto of mine for a longtime. Then, it wasn't planned at all but at the last minute, in march 2023, I've decided to go to the NEDS festival in the US and the Dark Dungeon Festival in Belgium. In both places I've met many followers, fans and other musicians. For the first time in 12 years, I was out of my cave so to speak. And you can't imagine what it meant to me to receive so much warm feedback and cheering all around. I was so humbled to hear what my music means to some people... This was like one of the best moments in my life. It was a 'Kingdom is Ours' moment again you know. And finally, I also met there for the first time some musicians that were instantly on board and enthusiastic to do the collab album which wasn't planned at all... So, as you can see, the stars were aligned and all made sense.

CR: What kinds of qualities did you look for in collaborators? When constructing the album, did you consciously try to choose people to work with in order to serve a particular narrative, or did the stories and themes of the album arise from the collaborations themselves?

E: Qualities? Well, human and musical. It was also based a lot on the relation I had with them as a person before, or with their music. Another thing I really wanted to take into account, very important, was to have a vast panorama of what this genre is about. So I wanted to have people with a unique identity you know, with their own world and sound. People who take Dungeon Synth somewhere else. Also people from different generations and Eras… So you have people from the 90s with RAL from Depressive Silence, even earlier with our dear Jim Kirkwood, but also people from the revival era with Hedge Wizard, and most recent projects like Quest Master for instance. That was an important aspect of this project for me. Concerning the theme and narrative, it was very different with all of them and that’s what I loved with this album. For some, we discussed it before, about the direction we wanted and the theme we wanted to explore. With others, I sent them snippets of things with total freedom and a narrative arose while working on it. And with some, I already knew what I wanted from them to make: for instance with Hole Dwellers, I knew I wanted to have a mandolin and guitar solo from him and not necessarily his classic hobbit synth sound. I love his sound but he already did it beautifully on his own album so we both agreed it would be cool to explore new territories.

CR: What else can you share about this new album and what you learned from making it?

E: Well, since you just told me that the interview will be out after all the collaborative announcements were revealed, here is the complete list for your readers: Quest Master, Fogweaver, Hole Dweller, Hedge Wizard, Silù de Mordomoire, RAL from Depressive Silence, Jim Kirkwood, FIEF and Mortiis.

I met Mortiis in Belgium at the Dark Dungeon Festival. We already have exchanged a few emails over the years but here we met in person. It was a great moment and we shared a cool photoshoot together in some amazing medieval ruins before sharing some beers with Depressive Silence and their friends at the Airbnb they rented for the festival. With Quest Master and Hedge Wizard, we met during the NEDS Festival in the US, early 2024, around the bar of the Raven pub: great nights there! Concerning Fogweaver and RAL, I asked them on messenger and they were instantly on-board, it was such a cool and smooth process to work with the both of them. We later met with RAL during the DDF and it was a special moment for the both of us. With Silù de Mordomoire, she has one of the best projects in France with a unique stellar voice. We’ve been in touch for a longtime together, chatting online from time to time. Same with Hole Dweller and I talked about it above. With Jim Kirkwood, we started some epistolar relationship and, here and there, we’re sharing some news together by email. It started when I wrote to him after reading one of his comments on Youtube, saying that he was listening at the moment to Another World, Another Time and appreciating it. A bit the same with FIEF concerning that last part: we’ve been put in touch together by Peter Beste, the photographer, and shared a mutual appreciation for our respective bodies of work. Very cool and spontaneous! Finally, Silvana Massa, the Queen of DS art, will be in charge of the artwork.

CR: Silvana Massa is a wonderful choice for art on the album. What was your collaboration process with her?

E: Definitely, it’s the perfect choice, as a symbol, for an album celebrating all the different ages and diverse sounds of DS. A bit at the last minutes because for a long time, I was hesitant to do it myself as usual with all my albums… but this time, I thought that if the music is going to be a collaboration, why not the album art too? So I asked her a few weeks before the release date and I was so lucky she said yes. I made some quick mock-up collage on photoshop with the idea I had concerning this album art. For me, the album being “Kingdom is Ours” with so many collab, it couldn’t be on the cover art anything else than all the people involved in the album you know. So I made this quick digital collage with all our faces, some blue color scheme and the title in big red letters and sent it to her. The rest is her pure talent and skills at work!

CR: Shifting gears, I was wondering how have your creative motivations grown and developed over the arc of your career? Specifically, I’m thinking about your relationships (with fans and creators) and how they have impacted the evolution of your art. I personally find your work to be inspiring and I know that I am not alone in that. Likewise, you are such a supportive and positive influence in the dungeon synth community.

E: Well, I don’t really like the word career. You know, I’ve only recently learned the origins of the word “Amateur”. It’s a French word that itself comes from the Latin word "amator," meaning "lover," which is derived from "amare," meaning "to love." Always interesting to come back to the roots of a word. So, I see myself as an amateur because I’m driven by the love for the craft. I don’t want to analyze myself and prefer to let things go as they are but one thing is for sure concerning my creative motivations, I’m always trying to explore new territories while staying true to my roots. And I think that’s something people who follow me know by now and, hopefully, appreciate. I can’t make the same album again and again. And it’s not a critic for those who do. For example, I don’t know, you have people like ACDC or Rammstein who have pretty much the same sound on every album and it’s perfect for them. Then you have people like David Bowie who reinvented himself very often. Not comparing myself to him but I’m much more in his camp for that matter. So, yeah, basically, I try to find a new approach, a new angle, each time I’m working on something new. And concerning interactions and relationships with fans, well, that’s my fuel. The best feeling on earth and what gives much more sense to all I do. To read their comments or email, the support they show or what my music means to them: that’s something that means the world to me and gives me so much strength to keep it up.

CR: Do you see more collaborative work in the future? Do you have ideas about where you are going with your next projects? Any chance you'll be working in other mediums, such as more film or animation?

E: To have a feat back in one of their albums would be something cool to work on, definitely. And more relaxing for me haha. It was a pure bliss to work with all of them, but to put it together and organize an album with 10 different people is a bit of a challenge, trust me

Also, I have a book to finish. I’ve been working on it for approximately 2 years and it’s a collection of short horrific and supernatural short stories. In the vein of Outer Limits, Stephen King, etc. As for now it’s in French only but I’d like to translate it into English at some point. The French version is almost finished. If everything’s fine I guess I could self publish it between the end of 2024 and the first months of 2025.

I made this promise to myself to create at least a piece in each Art field I appreciate. So for music it’s obviously done. Soon I will make this book. Then I wished for a comic book, or a cartoon, a movie… All of that is a huge amount of work, I’m realistic. Realistic but determined. I’ve never given up so far.

CR: Imagination never fails! Thank you so much, Erang.

E: Thanks to you and a massive thanks to all the musicians involved in this album: an honor, really, to have worked with all of them on this! And an Eternal Hail to all the Erangers, fans & supporters… the Kingdom is Ours!

Many deep thanks to Erang for another amazing conversation.

Here are links where you can find Erang online:

Erang on Instagram
Erang on Spotify
Erang’s website with free DS resources

Here is my first interview with Erang, one of my favorite interview experiences and well worth your time if you have read this far and are not already familiar.

Also, if you want to go deeper and see thread of questions answered by Erang and his esteemed collaborators, check out this reddit thread:
Dungeon Symposium #6: Erang & Guests.

The thread has been put together by Kaptain J.A. Carbon, who has been writing about synth music for far longer than I have and is a genuinely nice person and in the scene~ his website is such a good place to find and learn about new music, you should definitely be reading it: Synth Digest.

Finally, we end with some of Erang’s recent sketches; I’m particularly fond of the ‘Ranger of the Emerald Forest’.