: Welcome to my humble show, 
!
Do you enjoy being here? 
: Yes, very much and I am very flattered to be here thank you for the oportunity!
: The DARK ARTS!
Tell us more about them! 
: Surely, the first one "Nuclear Armageddon" is a cover done for a band of mine that unfortunly was declined because another friend of mine managed to do one that suited our EP better, the theme is of course is kind apocalyptic/nuclear war with two characters that are grossly being deformed by the radiation and heat from explosion, it was also inspired by the style of the very famous metal cover artist Ed Repka.
"Visions Of Hell" I can't tell you much about this one because I draw alot while listening to music so I let the music drive my imagination, I've made this one some time ago so I don't remember what bands or artists inspired me while I was doing this piece. (also right in the top you can see the angel that appears on Led Zepplin albuns, t's a nice little easter egg).
"Cannibal Corpses" I just wanted to do an awsome zombie cover, I tough the zombie/tribal/cannibal theme would be awsome instead of the normal plain zombie that hungers for human flesh, this piece was started with a sketch of the figure on top I really liked the hostile crouched position of the zombie.
And finally "Braindead" it's a tribute to (believe it or not) Peter Jackson's "Braindead" or "Dead Alive" horror zombie classic that is one of my favourite zombie movies, just an awsome movie full of hilarious scenes and gore.
: CD COVERS, and potential CD COVERS!
Tell us more about them!
Also, about your personal relationship with them!
: "Zombie Queen" was done because I wanted to do a really gore/horror themed cover.
"Where Angels Die" was inspired by the theme of the fallen angel.
"Under Construction" is one of the best concepts i've ever done I wanted to illustrate the idea of a human mind that is always in the process of change, really proud of this one it turned out just as I wanted.
"Mechanoid" is kinda similar to "Under Construction", I just really wanted to do something mechanical like a robot.
Well my personal relationship with them is of love and fun, I love doing covers because one of my biggest aspirations as a visual artist is to make covers for bands because I love music so much and I think a good and awsome cover that compliment's the band's music just makes the whole album even better and more enjoyable and will stick in your mind.
: Do share some of your favourite bands with us, and also elaborate on THEIR reactions to your covers so far, please! : Humm god, it's really difficult the list is so long but let me see some recent ones ive been listening to alot and that have been influencing me lately...At The Gates, Triptykon, Brujeria, Mastodon, Dissection and lots and lots of many more bands but I forget their names because I try to listen to new music that I do't really know as much as possible.
And so far unfortunly I'm having very little feedback and reactions from bands. Some time ago I had emails regulary with people asking me I f i could do stuff for, I managed to do dozens of logos for bands and a cover or two, and it seeems to be positive and it showed me that people were interested in my art (note that during this time I did stuff for free), but when I posted here that I was charging some money for my works everything stopped during the , it's a little sad because I don't think that the majority of people and bands realize the efforts and the work that goes in creatign soemthing unique that suits you and they prefer to get a freeby from anyone else instead of paying a small price for soemthign that's really special.
: Well, tell us all about it then! 
How much work and effort DOES go into a cover?
: Usually It takes lots of effort, technically but especially conceptually because you're trying to illustrate something visual from sound and has we all now sound is invisible, abstract and shapeless. Sometimes depending on the music, if you like it there is a click and you can come up with something in a matter of minutes, other times you just end up with lots of headaches trying to imagine the concept for tht cover, but then again it's really hard and it's a matter of taste because your vision might not satisfy the bands vision even if you feel that the work you've made is really good.
: So you are designing your covers according to your personal interpretation of the sound, itself?
: Yes, at least to me has an artist It's really difficult not to create something according to your personal interpretation, but sometimes your really need to distance yourself from your personality in order to make your client happy and satsifeid.
: A "client" is someone, whom you are in a businessy relationship with.
So I was just asking because I understood you in a way, in which "clients", mainly, are yet to come for you...
And so, I was just wondering what the cause for that might be...
Is it because of TOO MUCH YOU in your cover artworks, or is it rather because of too much overall IGNORANCE, from THEM? : Well when I say client I refer to anyone who comes to me and asks me to do a work for them, but yes, unfortunately recently clients are yet to come to me.
And regarding the question no, it's not a question of ignorance from the clients but as an artist you need to understand that not all clients will like your most personal style of making art in which your reflect a lot of yourself, so it's a question of trying to come up with something that reflects more the concept that they want ratter than imposing yourself in that work in some way.
: …leading us straight to the question of PERCEPTION! 
What do you think is responsible for making your PERCEPTION as unique as it is?
Also, how would you actually describe that unique thing?
: I think that what makes my perpection unique is the things that surround me and affect me, basically all your experience that you take in from what your learn in life, that's what shapes your perception has an artist and also has a person and that will always transpire to your art.
: So what would you actually WANT your perception to be like?
Also, is it quite like the one you have? If so why, if not why not?
: Well I want my perception to be like I me, to show you what I feel and my vision on things, in those points my perception is quite like the one I have because it is mainly me, I can see myself in it everytime even tough I wish I had more technique to show people exactly what I am percepting
: What kind of "techniques" do you think you would NEED for that?
: Well having alot of "technique" will help you transpire those ideas from your head to the medium much better and fluently but I belive that deeply inside it's just a natural procress that is different on everyone, so everyone will develop their own ways of perception and art.
: About YOUR way of perception and art, how would you actually name the, let's say, three most striking features about how you perceive them to interact with the world?
: I guess I would name those features recognition, analize and act or response.
: Yes, but makes YOUR way of exercising those, well, YOUR way?
: Oh, I think it's the lines of my brush strokes or pencil, Its a really good sensation when you finsihed something or do a little sketch and you or somebody else now that the lines you've made or brushes we're made by you.
: Oh well, never mind...
MORE ART!
Because many people don't know, that sometimes you do also do other, non-cover-related art... I think.
So what's your PERSONAL way in THESE?
Also, just what is an "electric diddley bow" supposed to be? 
: Well I try to send a message on all of my works and I don't want to tell you right away the messages behind my works because I think that people need to figure it out by themselves. Also the second painting is a reproduction of Van Gogh's "Starry Night", I did it people I really love his art and his style, and a diddley bow is a string instrument, normally it just has one string and it's acoustic but I fitted a guitar pickup on this one so I can plug it into an amplifier 
.
: So your love for MUSIC, partly at least, is a result of doing music yourself?
: Well this story goes back quite some time, I loved music even before I did any of it myself, just being a fan of music (especially Rock and HEAVY METAL) made me want to start to play and noways I can say it goes both ways I just love to make music and hear it from bands and artists even more then I did, it's really strange , It's a kind of passion that continues growing you know?
: I do not doubt that at all, but just how EXACTLY do YOU think that passion is growing, if you hardly get ANY response on the stuff that YOU actually do?
: Lots and lots of PERSEVERANCE that's the key, even it everything looks like it isn't worth it you need to grab yourself to that passion you have and grind. And also it's not like I don't get any responses at all, asides from the visual arts that currently haven't been that great the music side is blooming and this November I have my first album coming out via the label I'm on, so at least music wise the response has been great, the output isn't massive but from what I've heard it's good and with some little help from the label promoting my album I'm sure things with my solo ROTEM will get far.
: Can you share some LISTENING EXPERIENCES with our humble audience?
: Well sometimes I get chills listening to my music because I managed to make it sound like I'd imagined it sounding in my head and it's really difficult for musicians (at least me) to make that happen, it's a little hard to explain but it's the same as drawing without any model or image to guide you, if you try and draw something just from memory it will never look like it should as opposed to using a image or a model. So when that happens with the music I make I feel a really great sensation at least with everything in the album I'm going to release, It took me make months but finally after much struggle and persistance it's finally done, the music fits the concept of the album perfectly and everything I had envisoned came to reality.
: Well that's quite an interesting approach on "listening experiences" too, of course, but I rather meant that like, "can you share a SONG or two of yours, with our humble audience!" 
: Oh yes it will be a pleasure to share some of my music with the audience, oh and I must warn you that I am a big metal fan and the music I make is more on the extreme side of metal more like Black/Death metal so that viewers know.
So the first video is a lyric video of the main song of my debut album and it's named "Dehumanization" also the title for the album it's very important to me because it was the first song that gave birth to ROTEM (my solo project you're now going to hear).
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh95s6…
and the second is a track preview of the album so you can all hear a little taste of each track
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jr44BP…
: What does DEHUMANIZATION mean to you?
: To me DEHUMANIZATION means the opposite of being human, means becoming cold, distant and numb. Becoming a machine without feelings or warm. When I wrote this album I felt that the present world we are livingin is stripping us of our essence of being a human of loving and caring about the important things in life and making this place better. So I bascially wanted to show to anyone who steps upon this work i've made to question and think she's or he's wake up because there is too much noise in our world, there's too much war, and corrupted politics and we need to stay aware of these things that are happening and its really easy to make the worst or us come out because of all these negative things but we need to fight them and keep our essence of being human and to me that's loving and creating positive things and leave the world a little better after you're gone.
: Apart from staying aware, what would be your suggestions to change some of those things?
: I think the most important thing that would solve the problems we have in this world is being educated and to have knowledge and think by yourself because the governments and the society we live in don't really want us to think by ourselves (at least in my view) ,they want everyone to have this sheep mentality of following the herd and believe everything that the media tells you because they sure won't lie to you. Another thing is simply try and be positive because your negativity will affect everyone around you and the same can be said for your positivity, if we could spread more positivity this world would be a much better place but it's hard to break this patterns that society made.
: Are you talking from experience here?
: Yes, not about the point I made about being educated that's just common sense, but the second one about positivity and negativity yes I was talking from experience for example, I suffer from depression and when you suffer from depression and you're really down you don't just drag yourself, you drag everyone that cares about you and even if it's seems like the most difficult thing for you the best you can do is just talk about your problems with someone that loves you but you can't just talk about it and let yourself go down again from the negativity you need to struggle every day to get better and sometimes keep the pain and the negativity for yourself because the people around you also have their problems and you can't keep on complaining you need to do somethign with yourself and fight to be happy and positive and be the one to help anyone who you love who is down just like you were, I believe that if everyone does that the positivity will reflect on our surroundings.
: I do exactly get what you are saying here!
So, do you have any other last words left, for our humble audience?
: Yes, enjoy life don't let bad things drag you down and never give up on your dreams, keep chasing them and when the time is right everything will come into place.
Also thank you for the interview too DasGhul
: Ladies and gentlemen, 
Providing you with some nice and ghoulish happytunes, for the holidays!
Check them!
Last 3 previous episodes:
: dasghul.deviantart.com/journal…
: dasghul.deviantart.com/journal…
: dasghul.deviantart.com/journal…
