We are excited to present our exclusive interview with JJ, the vocalist of Harakiri For The Sky. The Austrian post-black metal band, Harakiri For The Sky, has garnered a massive global following with their deep and emotional music. In this interview, we discussed various topics with JJ, ranging from the start of his music career to their latest albums. Discover the unique sound of Harakiri For The Sky and JJ’s personal musical journey in this must-read interview.

Click here to watch our video interview!

• Since we are in the quarantine over 1 year,  I want to ask how it changed your daily activities, habits and your musician life.
  
  JJ: The worst thing is I’m not being able to play live concerts. Some of us live from the music and I always had a job beside. But I wouldn’t need it, a job, if I could play live concerts on a normal basis like we did before. We always played like 60-70 shows a year. It pretty sucks. I played 2 shows with Karg and 2 shows with Harakiri last summer. It was cool that we could play with them but it was small stuff. Because it was like distance shows and all. The first lockdown was kinda okay because I needed it. To rest a little bit, I mean to be at home for 1-2 months. I liked it at the beginning because I had time to go hiking, to read books and all that stuff I wasn’t really able to do. Because we were so often away, at least on weekends. I used the time to get creative and be creative. I wrote a book. Not sure if it will be released, but I hope so. And then I recorded an EP with Karg. Harakiri album was already finished, we finished the recording, which had to mixed and mastered. I think I recorded the last track, the singing stuff, in the end of January. Then we went to Russia for a small tour. Yeah and then, all the shit started. I played 4 shows in summer, but generally it feels like one year off. 
  
• The band is formed in 2011, in Austria by you (Michael Wahntraum) and multi instrumentalist Matthias Sollak. How did you two get together the idea of founding a post-black metal band? Did you know each other back in time?
  
  JJ: I know Matthias since 2007 or something. He went to school with first Karg drummer. So I met him. Me and Matthias spent many many evenings together. Drinking and talking and stuff in the months before we found Harakiri For The Sky. We listened a lot of post-black metal like Woods Of Desolation, Heretoir.. I’m not sure if Austere is post-black metal but it’s depressive black metal. Alcest was always one of my favourites and also Les Discrets. I think that’s what we listen to most. The first Les Discrets album and the second Alcest album. And maybe Woods Of Desolation. And we listen to this everytime we met. I was not really glad how Karg turned out of the third album Apathie and Matthias was not so happy with playing pagan metal with Bifröst. We both liked post-black metal way more, so we just said “Let’s do a band together.” and it was clear from the very first moment that I will just do the vocals and lyrics, and Matthias is the songwriter. It is like this still today.
  
• Since there is a song named “Harakiri for the Sky and the Trees” from a Norwegian band named Snöras, I want to ask if it was the inspiration to choose that as the band’s name. And what does it mean to you?
  
  JJ: Yeah, it was an inspiration. I’m not sure if anybody knows this album because it’s very rare. And it’s also very difficult to get. You don’t really find some songs of Snöras on Youtube. I think there are just two songs on Youtube. The LP, I got it at home. And yes, it was also inspired by a Sigur Rós video, exclusively. This children jump off the cliff and swim like into the sky, like they can fly. And both of these were inspiration for the band’s name. To me, it’s post rock and post black metal. Always felt a little bit like running full speed next to a cliff and then you fly in the sky or jump to the sea, or something like that. This feeling was also an inspiration for the name. The video, the Snöras song and this feeling I think. It was my idea. I’m not very happy, I’m happy and cool with it, but not 100% happy after nearly 10 years the band’s name. But it’s cool and if you hear once or twice, you recognize it because that’s a strange name. That’s also pretty cool, because people don’t forget it that easy.
  
• We are really interested to ask you about the exact genre definition of Harakiri. It is called post-black metal. How would you describe your own music and the genre?
  
  JJ: I think it is 50% – 50% mixture of post rock and black metal. And maybe there is a little bit of grunge and shoegaze influence with the new album. So, that describes it pretty well.
  
• Are there some similar local bands that you love to play with them on stage? How is the local metal music scene there and how is the support in your country?
  
  JJ: I think it is way more interesting if you tour with bands that are not 100% sound the same or play in the same genre. I think something like the last Alcest tour with Birds In Row, something like this is more interesting. Like hardcore bands touring with black metal bands or post rock bands touring with black metal bands. I think that is way is more interesting than 3 bands from the same style or something like this. There is way more support in Germany than in Austria. But it is also that Austrian people are not that much into metal than the German and the Scandinavian people. I think it’s okay but we don’t have the most fans here.
  
• There were some very first guest vocals in your second studio album as David Conrad of Heretoir and some other names. For which reason you decided to put some guest vocals? And why did you continue with this idea for the next albums?
  
  JJ: I’m not sure about that but I think we always tried to get a guest vocalist. And I think on HFTS, it was like 3 people. It was Torsten from Nocte Obducta and Agrypnie. Then, Ben from Fäulnis, David from Heretoir. David has a very good clean voice and that is something I’m not very good at singing. Singing clean. And this is why most of the parts that the clean vocals are sang by other singers. Like Davide from Shores of Null did the clean vocals on III: Trauma, which is clean. And Neige from Alcest, he did both clean and distorted vocals. I think the track is also influenced by Alcest itself and so. His voice fits it pretty well, I think.
  
• So you’re planning to continue with guest vocals?
  
  JJ: I think so yeah. But we are not thinking about the next album nowadays because the new album is just out for 2 months or something. And I’m not sure if there is, I mean I always write, I write on daily basis. But just sentences and stuff. Which I write down on my cellphone or on the paper. And if there is a song finished, I write the whole lyrics. And I’m not sure if Matthias wrote already, some parts for the next album. But I think we still have some time for thinking about that because we did in the past. We put out an album every three years, but I don’t think we have to. And I think the next album will a little bit longer. Maybe 3 years or something. Let’s see.
  
• “Arson” was the first one that the band hired a session drummer to play, which is Kerim “Krimh” Lechner, a great Austrian drummer. How did the idea of a real drummer come up? Since he played also on the last release Mære, is he going to be a full-time drummer?
  
  JJ: I’m not sure. The thing is that Kerim is a studio drummer. For sure he is for sure one of the best drummers here in Europe. Metal drummer as well, generally one of the best drummers. Misha is the live drummer. He didn’t play that much in the studio. He is a very good live drummer but I’m not sure if he could work on the songs also in the studio. And with Kerim, it takes very little time to work on the songs because he is so professional and all that. So it’s pretty perfect because you go to the studio for 2-3 days and everything is done with the drums.
  
• About Mære, it was the most anticipated release of the year and it’s finally released in February 2021. How did the band’s path change with the latest release? Was that a step up for the band?
  
  JJ: I’m not sure if the style is changed that much. I think it is a natural progression which we did. I mean the album is kinda succesful. It was on place #4 in the German album charts and all that. And I think it was also in the charts in UK and US, Canada. I think it’s pretty cool that more and more people seem to like heavy music. And that is everything I can say about. I think it is a natural progression which we do from album to album but I think we still have this typical Harakiri style. To me, not much changed. The lyrics are maybe a little bit more poetic and less direct as they were in the past. So are the songs, I think, they are more progressive and less agressive. Also, I think Arson, the album before Mære was way more agressive with quicker songs and stuff. Mære is more dramatical and melancholic. So, maybe we changed from that perspective of style.
  
• Neige, the frontman of Alcest, is surely one of the most known singers for the shoegaze/blackgaze scene. The collaboration was something fans did not expect at all, but totally a surprise. We really liked his appearance on the song, and the emotions he put with his fairy-like vocals coming from another world. Is there any chances to put him for another guest vocals on the next album?
  
  JJ: No, I don’t think we will work with a singer on more than a one album. I think that’s not something we’re thinking about. Even if Neige is one of the coolest singers of all time. But we always have to do a new step and not do something twice. That’s the part of natural progression, like I said before
  
• About the covers, from the album Arson, there is a “Manifesto” cover by Graveyard Lovers and also another one called “Song to Say Goodbye” by Placebo from the latest release. Should we expect more non-metal song covers for the next album? What is the idea behind choosing these songs to cover them?
  
  JJ: I think it was always a cool thing to do a cover song for limited editions or limited vinyls or box sets and all that. Me and Matthias are huge Placebo fans, so, we did the cover from “Song to Say Goodbye”. This is a song I really really was into when in the summer before I finished highschool. I moved out of my parents’ home and all that the song was pretty perfect for that mood, back in the days. And Matthias is such a huge Placebo fan that he likes every song. So it was a little bit difficult for him to decide which one, so I decided. Because this is the song where I most remember. It’s all that. This is why we chose this one.    
  
• If you would cover another indie/alternative song and you had to choose right now, which one would you choose?
  
  JJ: I’m not sure. I think something from Nick Cave or “Glycerine” from Bush. I think me and Matthias already talked about this. For sure there will be more cover songs. Let’s see what happens with the next album. We will see in the future. That’s something you can’t say 2-3 years before you record an album, but maybe yeah.

• Do you have new material since the release of your latest album in February 2021? Should we expect more post rock transitions for the next Harakiri album? Especially on the vocals.
  
  JJ: The new album is so fresh and everything. So, we are not thinking about writing new song nowadays but I think this writing process is that something we’ll start in the next months. The thing is everybody stay at home all day long and you have to shut down and lockdown shit. There is no input from the outside which you need to express yourself to output and all that. That is why we are not so much in the mood to write new songs nowadays. Because there comes nothing from the outside we can transform into something creative. If all this shit is over, when it is over, and someday I hope so, then we are more motivated to write new songs and new stuff.
  
• How do you manage to mix the depression vibes with relieving emotions at the same time on your music?
  
  JJ: I can just talk about my lyrics because I don’t write the music. I think that makes me really sad, all these estrangement stuff. I mean, when you turn celebrity or something, you lose so many friends you got from childhood and all that. Because of the estrangement. This friend walks this way, you walk this way, and all this. Many of my songs are also about broken relationships and maybe also about my restlessness and all that. But I think the main theme always was estrangement. So, my lyrics are 99% depressive. But it is cool to me, because it’s something like psychic hygiene. Like a therapy. I don’t know how would you want to call it. Or catharsis. I think, I couldn’t live without expressing myself through poems and lyrics in songs. This is such a huge part of my personality. I couldn’t live without it. 
  
• Now there are some questions about vocals! Do you have a practice routine/technique for your vocals? Are you into singing other types of music besides metal? And how did you started doing brutal vocals?
  
  JJ: No, I never did! I just started shouting in bands when I was 16 or something. And I think this, maybe you can call practice. But it’s something that turned out with the years. You get better and better and you get a technique because you have to. If you go on tour and if you play like 20 concerts in a row, you have to look after your voice. You have to learn a technique because otherwise the voice is destroyed after 2 or 3 concerts. Nobody wants to play a bad gig because this voice doesn’t work out anymore.
  
•  Can you tell us about some of your favourite metal singers? Which one had a huge impact on your style? And which bands inspired you to start singing back in time?
  
  JJ: I’m not interested in metal generally. I’m just interested in black metal. I don’t like heavy metal and all that stuff. But except from black metal, I listen to a lot of indie rock, post rock, much hardcore and stuff between bands like Converge or Modern Life Is War which are one of my favourite bands. For sure, also post-black metal and shoegaze. There are so many good shoegaze bands nowadays like nothing and all that. There is always something you can find new. “Who?”, that’s a difficult question. I think Torsten from Agrypnie had a huge impact, Eviga from Dornenreich, and nowadays maybe the more hardcore singers like Alex CF from Fall Of Efrafa, this is one of my favourite singers. And Jacob Bannon from Converge is one of my favourite singers. There are so many.
  
• Karg(Ambient Black Metal (early); Post-Black Metal (later)), Lûs(Post-/Black Metal/Punk), Seagrave(Black Metal/Post-Rock), Small Night Searching and Five Minute Fall are some of your other bands. Are there any new stuff coming on the way?
  
  JJ: Five Minute Fall broke up like 5 years ago. Small Night Searching was the band of my ex-girlfriend. And I’m not really the guy who is friends with his ex-girlfriends. So, I don’t play in these bands anymore. I’m not sure about Seagrave, what will happen in the future.. I have nothing in mind nowadays but I’m writing the second part of the Karg EP. The first one was Resilienz. And the next one will also have 2 long songs. From the concept like the same on Resilienz and I think it will be called “Resignation” in English. I’m writing music and lyrics on a daily basis but not all of it is good. Let’s see what will turn out to that. 
  
• If everything goes well and the pandemic will be finally over, there is a planned Harakiri For The Sky show in Istanbul, Turkey organized by Duality Productions. Since it will be your first time in the country, do you feel excited about it? What do you expect from the audience and the city for that night?
  
  JJ: I’m looking forward to it. Because I have never been there before and never played a concert there before. But I heard that Istanbul is a quite of party city and we really like cities like that. Always good concerts in the cities like that.
  
• Since this interview will be published in one of the biggest Turkish metal magazines called Surge Türkiye, Anything you would like to say to “Duality Productions” and your Turkish listeners?
  
  JJ: Like I said before, I hope to visit Turkey with Harakiri as soon as possible and I’m looking forward to it. Because I’ve never been there and all I heard about Istanbul is good stuff. So, I hope everything will work out until autumn and we can really fly there. Thank you for the interview and everything. Wish you a nice day!
  
  Click here to read the inteview in Turkish.