Nechochwen - All Instruments,
                  Native Singing and Chant

Andrew Della Cagna - Guest Vocals
on "Talgayeeta" and drums on
"Pilawah"

West Virginia  USA
Label: Dark Horizons
Genre: Native American/NeoFolk

CURRENT LINE-UP:

Aaron Carey is a unique talent in the music business.  However, you will rarely see his name in the press, if at all.  More likely, you will see the name Nechochwen in the presses, a name that was given to him by a friend and one that many come to know him as when speaking of him.  Nechochwen has involved himself in many different bands of diverse styles and ideas.  However, it is with the music project that bears his namesake that people really get to know the man himself, at least in the ancestral sense.  He has also broken some new ground, becoming the first neofolk act to play at the Heathen Crusade Fest in St. Paul, MN last November.  This interview with Nechochwen happened a few days after the festival, in which he enlightens people about his background, musical experiences, and his new album Algonkian Mythos.

Peter: For those who don’t know about you or would like to know the back-ground, could you say a few things about yourself and what Nechochwen means?

Nechochwen: The name Nechochwen literally means “walks alone” in the Lenni Lenape (Delaware) language.  It was a name given to me about 16 years ago by a friend.  It’s not necessarily an “alter ego” or stage name, just another name I am known by.  I started recording music under the name Nechochwen to connect with other musicians and people with an interest in early American history and American pre-history.  I am using the sounds available to me to create musical textures and scenes representative of western Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley in years past. 

Peter: At what point did you decide to go along the current path that you have chosen for yourself?

Nechochwen: When I was in college studying classical guitar, I visited Dusk from Harvist when he was recording the A Gleam in the Night album.  I think I was playing some guitar studies or something and he asked if I would write something for the album.  So I came up with this little outro for “The Roost and the Song”.  After I did some more work with Harvist and Angelrust, I was offered a deal by Typhus of Dark Horizon Records to record some acoustic guitar music for an album.  I was surprised that a label releasing records by Black Witchery, Abigor, and Revenge would want to put out an acoustic album.  But now it makes perfect sense, and doesn’t seem out of place.  When Angelrust folded last year, I decided to concentrate on this music for a while and explore the Indian side of my ancestry a bit more. 

Peter: What are some of your influences?

Nechochwen: Growing up, my biggest influences were probably about the same as most metalheads my age: Metallica, Slayer, Iron Maiden, but I was also into Coroner, Death, and the early Relapse, Century Media, and Nuclear Blast bands.  I’m still a huge fan of the early Anathema and Amorphis releases.  At some point before everyone was online, a friend of Dusk’s sent some tapes that had a lot of great stuff we had never heard.  It was like the holy grail of metal…Dissection, December Wolves, Ulver, Arcturus, Absu, and a bunch of other, mostly foreign stuff.  That noisy dubbed cassette circa 1994-95 was more important than a billion gigabyte iPod full of stuff from the past ten years.  It was so underground at the time. I started checking out early releases by Master’s Hammer, Impaled Nazarene, and Marduk. 

Nowadays, I like Agalloch, Moonsorrow, Katatonia, and Tenhi a lot, too.   Nick Drake and Iron and Wine are some folky influences and I love R. Carlos Nakai’s Native American flute playing. My acoustic playing improved a lot with persistent studying and listening to records by Segovia, David Russell, and Christopher Parkening.  Michael Hedges is a great influence.  I’ve become acquainted with some current artists like Ruhr Hunter, Dysperium, and Musk Ox that have become influences as well as friends. 

Peter: You have been in bands such as Angelrust, Harvist, and Forest of the Soul.  How is each band different and how does it contribute, if it does, to your music?

Nechochwen: Angelrust began back in 2000 as a black-tinged heavy rock band.  When I joined in 2003, the band had begun to write heavier, more epic music.  We had a great chemistry, but it had run its course by 2007.  We finished up with our best album, The Nightmare Unfolds, and decided to call it a day.  It will be released later this year on Stronghold Records. 

I’m proud to have appeared on several Harvist albums and to have performed live with one incarnation of the band.  Dusk’s vision for Harvist continues to evolve and improve, and I’ll continue to contribute as long as I am able and welcome. 

Forest of the Soul is a project I have with Andrew D’Cagna (Angelrust, Dofka, Wilderkin, etc.) that is mainly acoustic music.  It’s a blend of my classical writing and our respective heritages.  We blend Celtic, Native American, Italian, and even some blues and country/western influences into a unique sound.  We feel at home with these sounds because of our ancestry and because we grew up hearing this stuff in West Virginia.

Of all of these, Nechochwen probably has the most in common with Harvist.  Not on the surface because Harvist is metal, but more in intent and mindset.  The music is focused basically on our fascination and frustration with the same region, and both sort of raise awareness about our specific culture.

Peter: The new album Algonkian Mythos tells stories of your Native ancestors.  What do you hope the listener will get from listening to the album?

Nechochwen: The album’s subject matter is the Northeastern United States in the second half of the eighteenth century into the early nineteenth century.  Not all of the topics or characters are Algonquian in origin, some are Iroquoian.  All these people interacted and either directly or indirectly affected each others’ way of life and belief systems.  I want the listener to learn something and get transported to that dark era.  For those who are already familiar with this subject, this music is for you.  These are compositions to keep history alive.  Try to picture the sights and smells that go along with the music.  

Peter: Recently, you played at Heathen Crusade 3.  The set-up was interesting, as it had you playing at three separate times throughout the weekend.  How did you prepare for it and how did you feel the sets worked out?

Nechochwen: I had to do a lot of brainstorming to turn this into a live experience.  It involved creating loops of pre-existing guitar and ebow tracks to play along with to simulate the recorded songs.  Some of them were so, well, free form that I’d have to create some type of a beat to keep my place with everything else going on in the music.  That did not work well for the most part.  I had to strip some songs, like Fallen Timbers and Talgayeeta, down into solo guitar pieces.  Others, like Algonkian Mythos and Nilu-famu, were quite easy to replicate live with all the parts present from the album, a one-man band, if you will.  I had three sets worked out and timed, but then when I got to the venue, I threw all my planning out the window, added some songs in, and cut others according to the feel of the audience.  I love that kind of spontaneity in a live setting.  It’s nerve-wracking and fun at the same time!  I couldn’t believe the positive reception at a metal festival!  Who’d have thought?  It stands out, but one should never underestimate the metal underground.  If the music is honest and the intent is true, people will respect it and maybe find something in it they can relate to.  I think that the crowd maybe enjoyed something at a lower volume for a few minutes to relax to and have a couple drinks before the all-out assault of bands like Inquisition and Chaos Moon.  My only complaint with the fest was that the P.A. I was playing through was not adequate for a venue that big with that many people. 

Peter: Are there any other shows planned for the future?

Nechochwen: Not at the moment.  The musical highlight of last year was getting to travel to South Texas and Minnesota to play.  I’d love to play the West Coast, as I’ve never been there, and I think my music might go over well live in Washington, Oregon, or British Columbia.  I keep telling people that maybe someday; I’ll get to play in Europe.  Who knows?  But I’m pretty sure I’ll at least do some stuff around Wheeling, WV and Pittsburgh.  If anyone wants to hear this stuff live, let me know and I’ll see if I can make it happen.  

Peter: Anything you want to leave for the reader to think about?

Nechochwen: Walk your own path with whatever you do.  It’s tempting to write music about foreign lands, fantasy, and things that have been romanticized through time, television, and fiction.  This is completely fine of course, but there is often enough culture and tradition in your own backyard to write some interesting music.   I think you should tell it like it is, or like it was, to the best of your abilities.  The music I like to listen to is the music made by people who represent where they come from, spiritually as well as geographically.  I’ve dug up so many interesting things from reprints of obscure local books, and sometimes I feel I was born in the wrong era.  Creating this music helps me cope with that, to learn about old languages and such.  Very few people seem to care anymore that there were people in my hometown before 1793.  But there were, and I’ll continue to remind people of it.  Look for the second Nechochwen album in 2009, and thank you for the questions!

Nechochwen

January 2, 2009

Interviewer & Photographer: Peter

DISCOGRAPHY:

Algonkian Mythos (2008)

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Click here for Peter's Review of Nechochwen's Algonkian Mythos

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