Hi Daphne, and thanks for having us. We all listen to a lot of different types of music, including heavy music but also pop, hip hop and electronic music. That said, our early influences are definitely rooted into heavy music. Dan used to play in a grindcore band for years, Dudley used to play in an indie rock band and I used to play in Doom bands.

But when we started Dvne, the music we started putting together was much more influenced by the early 2000 US sludge and progressive sludge scene. Bands like Kylesa, Baroness, High On Fire and Mastodon were particularly influential to me at that time, while our drummer Dudley was really into Gojira and Tool. But as it is for now, we find inspiration from tons of other bands and artists in and outside the metal scene.

Our early influences really shape us as musicians, so they will always be present in our music to a degree. But I think Etemen Ænka is as much influenced by what we've been listening to more recently. Synths were a big addition to this album and it's something we wanted to do because we really like electronic music, modern but also old school stuff like Carpenter and Goblin which is super synthy!

This was a collective effort. We wrote the concept before entering the studio and the artwork was created prior to the recording too. We had the general direction of the album concept done together, then Dan and I wrote the lyrics together.

Well we're about to announce more shows for 2021, which is super cool. We might drop a couple of tracks from Asheran for longer shows.

Challenging for sure, but we're pretty flexible as a band, and we managed to make the best of it. It allowed us to work on some live sessions and really up our game live. Filmed live sessions are pretty tough going as they don't leave much room for error. They are also a great way to see what works and what doesn't, so we've learned a lot over the last year.

Travel restrictions were a nightmare, and they are still a nightmare to deal with. We work with a lot of my friends in France, and we had tons of flights cancelled because of covid restrictions.

We listen to a lot of music from many different styles and from many different countries. We also really dig our history and ancient myths which often lead us to use some musical elements from traditional folk music from places like the Middle East for example.

In the way Frank Herbert mix science fiction with mystical and fantasy elements is definitely a big inspiration for us. I also feel that the set up of Dune, in the desert of Arrakis was something that really resonated with us.

Now tons of other writers and artists have been equally influential to us on our concept story and artwork choices. Guys like  Alastair Reynolds, Iain Banks, Philip K Dick to name a few. But to be honest, we find inspiration from the work of Miyazaki and Giger equally inspiring, and we always keep researching new sources of art we can get ideas from.

Marald did the whole LP artwork. We had this initial direction of a front cover that was only showing the embellish side of a society myth while the inside of the LP would showcase the hidden side of this myth.

I remember a very important visual reference for me was "The Beethoven Frieze" by Gustav Klimt. But then Marald went further with the initial concept and had this dual portrait concept which was mixing a bit of that Klimt style for the front cover with a much more Giger vibe for the inside cover.

"Dune" (the novel), "Nausicaa Valley of the Valley of the Wind" (anime), "Warhammer 40K" (board game)

We're working on the next album and as with all our album concepts, we will be continuing to expand the universe we've started building with our first two albums.

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