What is NEW MEXICAN DOOM CULT’s origin story?

The band started just for fun with me and some friends based on the name NEW MEXICAN DOOM CULT. We had a cool/silly name and nothing more. After a while, we decided to be a little more serious about the whole thing and began to write real songs.

Where does the name NEW MEXICAN DOOM CULT come from?

It’s just a name that I came up with to distinguish and categorize my heavier tunes from everything else when I started to record my own music about 25 years ago. I wanted a name with a place (New Mexico) and something doomy (a doom cult). A name that was cool, but also a little over the top and silly (especially since I am from Sweden). But there are a lot of interesting aspects of New Mexico which turned out to go hand in hand with what became the band.

Was there a vision for NEW MEXICAN DOOM CULT when you first formed?

No, not more than jam, drink a little beer and have a good time!

How has the band evolved since 2018?

Well, the most obvious thing is all the lineup changes. We started with Emil on drums. He then picked up the guitar for a couple of years only to move on to the bass. He is no longer with the band, but we are still good friends. The band has had a couple of other drummers and guitar players, but everybody had  jobs, families, and other bands and some of them lived in other cities, which made it hard to rehearse. 

Now the band has new members since last summer, Magnus Östgren on drums, David Zachrisson on guitar, and Fredrik Nygren on bass. Magnus and David are also members of BEARDFISH, a very good prog rock band, and Fredrik plays the bass in GADGET, a grindcore band (also really good). I am very happy to have them in NEW MEXICAN DOOM CULT.

There seems to be a cosmic element to many of your albums and EPs. What about cosmic psych intrigues you?

I don’t know, actually. It’s just fascinating and . . . cool. I’m very fond of H.P Lovecraft, space, and everything “cosmic,” so I guess all that comes with the territory.

Your Bandcamp page notes that Ziggurat is your “heaviest, darkest, and most myth-soaked work to date.” Is this a reflection of our times or is it just creative exploration?

Actually, that is not something that I have said, maybe it comes from our label, or maybe a review. But I think it’s true, and we want it to be darker and heavier all the time.

Thematically, the album seems to focus on ancient Mesopotamia. Why Mesopotamia as opposed to any other region or mythology?

I am very fascinated by history, and the older the better. I love ancient Egypt with all its myths, religion, gods, goddesses, and real history, but it is very covered ground, so to speak. Mesopotamia is very similar in a lot of ways, but it isn’t as well known “visually.” Everybody knows what a pyramid looks like, or Tutanchamon, Memfis, or Horus, etc., but a ziggurat, Uruk, and Ereshkigal—those are somewhat lesser-known things/names/places and so on. But I mix those up with Egyptian and other cool stuff as well because I’m not too strict about having everything exactly correct. 

Every listener will have their favorite tracks from Ziggurat. I gravitate to “Metatron” and “Cloudrider.” Which track are you most proud of?

I don’t know, I think I like them all, but at the same time I’m rather tired of them all. I had been working on them in the studio for quite a while, and not in a concentrated way under a limited time, but rather for a long period of time—maybe only five or six hours every week (depending on the situation in the studio). When the album was mixed and mastered at last, I just wanted to release it and move on.

Since I was alone in making Ziggurat (and before that Necropolis)—both albums were made between stable lineups—I didn’t really have anyone to discuss the music or lyrics with. Of course, I had Jonathan Ekvall on drums on both albums, but on Necropolis he hadn’t yet joined the band and on Ziggurat he had already left! But I’m glad he agreed to play on Ziggurat.

Talking about “Cloudrider,” there are some who say it sounds exactly like PENTAGRAM’s “Forever My Queen,” and . . . well, they are absolutely right. I wanted to make a song in that style, because it is so damn good, and a real doom classic. In the end, it turned out to be very much like “Forever My Queen,” but I thought, “What the hell?” And it’s so obviously inspired by that song, so I see it more as a tribute.

“Sungod” seemed to be most different of all the tracks on the album. Is there a story behind this track?

I wanted to write a song with a lot of spacey sounds and atmosphere, with a long intro, backwards guitar, and with a simple bassline. It’s a kind of song that grows in the studio, because it’s hard to sit on your sofa at home with an acoustic guitar and write that kind of tune. I love being in the studio and coming up with cool sounds on guitar and old synths (everything in that area was done by Jonas Strömberg, the studio owner).

“The Church of Starry Wisdom” made me think of H.P. Lovecraft. Are there any writers, games, or films that have influenced your music?

Yes, but there are too many to mention! Writers, books, movies, art, music, well everything. But, of course, Lovecraft and a bunch of others old writers like Algernon Blackwood, Chambers, Poe, etc. I also really like Cormac McCarthy. Science fiction, horror, westerns, historical movies, Bible epics, sword and sandal movies . . . again, to many to mention.

I noticed you’re responsible for a lot of the cover art for your albums. How involved are you in visual arts?

I really like to paint and draw, and I do that quite a lot when I’m in the mood. The cover of Ziggurat is heavily inspired by a photo in the book Heavenly Bodies by Paul Koudounaris.

Does your artwork inspire your music or does your music inspire your artwork?

Well, both I guess, but not in a very deep sense. It’s more like “I need a picture for the new album cover.” The Ziggurat painting was not made for the album, but I thought that it could fit the overall vibe of the music.

What are your thoughts on AI in music? Is there a place for it, or is it verboten?

No, there is no place for it at all as far as I am concerned. It takes away exactly everything that I am interested in doing myself. So, speaking for me, it is absolutely verboten.

What’s next for NEW MEXICAN DOOM CULT?

We’re making new music! About nine or ten new tunes at the moment. Rehearse them, record them, release a new album. We would, of course, like to go out and play live, but it’s difficult with everybody’s different schedules. Both BEARDFISH and GADGET are bands that have been around for many years. They are on another level regarding touring and management and everything.

Any special message for your fans out there?

Only the fact of having fans at all is rather new to this band. The band may have existed for ten years, but I don’t even know if you can speak of a fanbase in the real sense. First and foremost, I write music because I enjoy it, and I am always happy and amazed when other people like it.