Interview with Adrian Bromley of "Unrestrained!" magazine. February 1st, 2006.

1. What kind of mindset do you find yourself in (or need to be in) in order to create your music? What kind of reaction do you get from it? How do you want people to react to it?

I like to be in the strangest and most inhuman state of mind that I can achieve at the time. I will do anything I can to send my head spiraling down into the deepest and most bizarre places of my soul, and in that sense I am an explorer or a sailor; an Argonaut, if you will. I find that if I lose touch with the external world, I will start to recognize patterns in my subconscious mind which I otherwise may never have discovered. That type of journey almost always proves to be a profoundly beautiful experience, but it can be deeply frightening or disconcerting as well. Conversely, if I focus on absorbing myself into my external environment and the beauty of nature, I will recognize patterns in the world at large that never fail to blow my mind. That sort of experience is also quite beautiful, but in a very different way than a purely mental one can be. Essentially it comes down to this: if I can disrupt the mundane pattern of behavior and daily life which many people allow themselves to fall into, then I am succeeding in my art. I'll go to any lengths to achieve this, and I attempt to make everything I do aesthetically charged. This whole process of exploration generally ends up manifesting in the form of music, words, or images. The art that I create is generally for my own pleasure and my need for a creative outlet. That's why there's so much of it. I am constantly pouring out words and coming up with musical ideas. In the end, most of these are limited to the confines of my own mind and personal world, but there are a few that inevitably blossom and find their way into some sort of permanent medium. These are the artifacts which I refer to as my opuses (in the tradition of many composers whom I admire). The reactions that I get from my own work, viewed in retrospect, are often very personal. They most likely wouldn't make much sense to anyone who was unfamiliar with the obscure ideas and concepts I've woven into my music, as they are all descended down out of these worlds in my mind that I am so busy exploring. The only reaction that I'd hope for from other listeners is an active interest in my work as whole works of art. I don't do this for entertainment. All of my work serves as a chronicle of my subconscious mind (and a reflection of my aesthetic taste) and thus should be viewed as art. That's all I can hope for, but of course I have no way of making any such demands upon the listeners (nor should I; each person has their own mental world and I'm not the one to step in and alter its processes and preferences).
 
2. As an artist – writing, art, and music – you no doubt have quite a creative sprit. Do you consider them to all fall under one trait (as in being artistic) or do these three styles of art come from different feelings, emotions, etc.?

All of my art is channeled from the same place: the depths of my mind. It's all made out of the same substance; whether it manifests in the form of a black metal song or a painting is largely irrelevant. Sometimes I guide my ideas toward one medium or another, but generally I could write an instrumental song setting out to express the exact same idea as I could with a poem or a painting. Of course, each piece is unique, but the point is that each piece is not constricted by any particular medium. A good example of this is my "Through Astral Canopy" series of automatic drawings. The concept originally came to me in the form of music, but I decided that a better way to interpret it would be in a visual form. Eventually I'd like to record the music that came to me in the first place, and when I do, both the drawings and the audio recording will be just as much "Through Astral Canopy". It's the same idea channeled in two different ways. It allows for a nice interplay and reverberation in which my ideas and creations feed off of each other and multiply, pointing out new pathways and possible expressions which I might not have seen in any other case. Of course, this process of artistic reverberation and transliteration through media is not limited to my own work; "Deathwanderings" is my interpretation of certain Chopin pieces (as well as a composition by Schubert which I included as an epitaph), and this is an excellent example of how I can be inspired by another artist's work and literally incorporate it into my own on some level or another.
 
3. I found a lot of the music to be very creepy – at times almost unbearable, yet I didn’t turn off the music. The music within is very captivating – what kind of traits or characteristics do you look for when writing and knowing a song will come into fruition?

I really don't look for anything in particular. The process is almost completely intuitive for me; I'll start writing a song, and if it feels right then I'll develop it a bit further. If it doesn't feel right, I don't develop it and I move on to something else. Eventually bits and pieces of sound that I've composed will start to attract and repel one another, and so I meld them and stretch them until they work as an overall composition. In that way songs are formed. I suppose it's a bit like atoms forming bonds with one another until an entire molecule is formed. Because of this, my music is intuitive to the degree that the specifics of its sound are nearly unintentional (or at least unpremeditated). It's just a pure expression of whatever is in my mind and soul. If you listen to a lot of my music, you'll probably hear some very similar characteristics throughout all of my work. I've discovered that I have subconscious affinities for particular chord progressions and rhythms, and I just let these flow out naturally. Generally my music is very minimal as well. I think that says quite a bit about my aesthetic preferences and who I am as a person. Again, it's all just derived naturally from however my mind wants it to be. I don't really edit myself at all when I'm composing; I either keep something or throw it out altogether. I suppose it all coalesces into this sound I've developed, which is proving to be very minimal and eerie. I am very pleased with how it's turned out, but I am always seeking to discover new directions as well. Stagnation is not something I value.
 
4. Out of all the material you have done – writing, drawings, or music – what piece of work have you been most proud of and why?

That's a very difficult question for me. All of my work seems so completely different to me – although there's of course an underlying aesthetic current that generally remains the same. One of my favorite compositions is my dark ambient album "Argo Navis". It's very claustrophobic and nightmare-like, and it expresses quite well the mood I was attempting to express, which was disoriented, alien, and in some ways fearful. It's so far the closest I've come to expressing the beauty and terror of Iolanthe in music. "Ghostvoices" is very pleasing to me (and I am glad to be having it released) because it stands out as unique from all of my other recordings. It is the only full-length acoustic album I've recorded, and it is the only one which utilizes solely acoustic guitar for its ambience and melodies. It is one of my foggiest albums in atmosphere; it has a lot to do with the mountain lakes in the Sierras as well as the misty back-bays bordered by pine trees that I spent all my time around as a child. In that sense it conveys a different atmosphere and mood than a lot of my other recordings. I also have an affinity for "Deathwanderings", because it was when I used that music as a channeling device that I came face to face with my own death. I saw myself in the third person as a child, who then transformed into a red-haired angel who I know will one day kill me. He's waiting for me somewhere out in the lightning-struck desert.
 
5. What kind of goals have you put on yourself to do with Procer Veneficus – for this year and years to come?

My only goal is to keep progressing and to keep exploring. I have no way of knowing what will happen with Procer Veneficus, but I can be absolutely certain that I will always continue to create this type of art. To me, art is life and life is art. The two are one and the same; they are inseparable. I'd like to have a few more of my ambient recordings released. It seems like lately I've been viewed as a black metal band, and that's not at all what I am (despite the fact that I've certainly used the black metal aesthetic and mode of recording on some of my albums).
 
6. How do you feel about reviews, etc. – most artists want nothing to do with them for they fear rejection. Are you the same way? How do you deal with it?

I suppose the thing that interests me about reviews is that they allow me to read about the various interpretations people have of my music. To my knowledge no one has ever written a review of any of my recordings, but I've certainly heard back directly from some people who listen to my music, and it can be amusing or enlightening (or both) to hear their ideas about what I've created. Of course, many reviews in general are dry and lacking in any real stance on whatever it is that's being scrutinized. I think sometimes reviewers are afraid to offend, and thus they keep a relatively neutral position in their writing. On the other hand, some writers are too quick to judge and they perhaps don't look as in depth as they ought to. Reviewing music is a difficult thing because it always involves imposing one's own judgment on an artist's work, and that's a pretty bold thing to claim to be able to do.
 
7. Who are your influences? Can you hear them in your music?

I generally don't like to list off my influences, as I hope for my work to be interpreted individually; not in comparison. In this case however, I'll indulge for the sake of discourse. I have a lot of influences that don't really show up directly in the sound of my music. Certainly people will hear a certain connection in my black metal to the sound of Velvet Cacoon, and I can't deny that I have been (on and off since I first learned of them) very much influenced by their brand of art. Also very important to me is the music of Brian Eno, Robert Rich (whom I listened to quite often when I was a child; I believe he had a strong effect on my psyche), Jhonn Balance of Coil, and the poetry and music of Jim Morrison and The Doors. Many of my influences are not musical, but literary. Hermann Hesse, Walt Whitman, and Charles Baudelaire have all left a mark on my mind in some way or another. And there are far too many visual artists for me to list off, but I am primarily interested in the more subtle veins of surrealism as well as the passionate, furious elegance of many abstract expressionists' work.
 
8. Why the Velvet Cacoon cover? Was it a challenge to play someone else’s material? How do you think the cover turned out?

I chose to record a version of "P.S. Nautical" simply because I love the song and I play it on acoustic guitar fairly often. My own rendition of it is I think a bit more minimal and simplistic than the original, but either way I feel like I've successfully conveyed the feeling which that song gives me every time I hear it and play it. It's quite beautiful and organic to me, and the reason I selected it to include on "Ghostvoices" was because I felt like it fit very well with the organic flow of that recording. I could have chosen a different song in its place, but I think it augments the album well. I never really think of it as a cover song; to me it's just something that naturally fits with the whole sound I crafted on "Ghostvoices". I've infused it with my own words and I've played it with my own style, with my own mind at the helm. It's a perfect example of my philosophy on the way art works: if something is a successful piece of art, it will find ways to influence and reincorporate itself into the works of artists who witness it. In this case, it was very direct. In some cases, it's much more subtle; I'll make very slight or obscure references to artists who have made an impression upon me, or even reincorporate bits of my own past works which seem appropriate.