Written for CDM by Leigh Wright (Wyrd Daze)
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Please introduce and tell us about yourself
Hail! I’m Jani from Finland and I run Misantropia Records. I have been into black metal since the 90’s and with my label I mainly focus on black metal releases.
Tell us about the story / world building / themes behind your project/s
Misantropia Records was founded in 2021 and it was suppose to be Distro only at the beginning, but then I started to get more and more the idea of creating a label. Today it’s only a record label. Like I mentioned on the previous question the label is mainly focused on black metal and it was BM label at the beginning. This has changed in 2023 when we did announce the release of Waeltaja’s Heremite CD, Patient Omega debut album and The Suspended Apparition CD. Waeltaja is dungeon synth and Patient Omega and The Suspended Apparition are both dark ambient projects. To me those genres have always been really close to Black Metal, so those will fit perfectly to Misantropia Records
Tell us about the art & design associated with your project/s
I have some friends who are talented to make art and desing, like Nucleart Design who has done the Deceiver Legion “Varjoissa” and Nazgul Rising “The Cycles of Primal Chaos” layouts. Also many band have their own desings already when they approach me, so it’s quite easy to put the album together. I’m also learning to create some design stuff so that I can create as much as possible on my own. I have lot’s on visions how I wan’t things to be and sometimes it’s really hard to try to explaing it to the designer.
What are some of your influences (musical and otherwise)?
My main influences comes from the second wave black metal, mostly the old norwegian scene and swedish scene. Also I must say that the Polish Beast of Prey label and Swedish Cold Meat Industry introduced me lot’s of great dark ambient/industrial stuff years ago. I never thinked back then that I would run a label someday, I was more focused on playing drums with my band but we never did get anything out and we just stopped that. The band stuff happened long time ago and I haven’t been missing that. Music is my fuel, but today only as a listener. I still play drums for fun now and then, but I’m not interested to play on any band anymore.
Show/tell us about your creative space and process
My laptop is my creative instrument. I create now my labels adverts, like flyers and such. It took me while to learn to do something like that and I used other designers for these stuff earlier. I hate computers, but I cannot do these things without my laptop. I answer email daily and use lot’s of time to plan the new releases, but mostly I enjoy to experiment with the different programs where you can do label flyers, I’m still learning so it’s fun.
How does your sense of place affect the way you express yourself?
I enjoy sitting in the dark room listening to music to get some ideas about the label stuff. I also enjoy reading books while listening some dungeon synth or dark ambient music to create the atmosphere. Maybe if I would be a musician I would have more to say about this.
What does dungeon synth (and/or related genres) mean to you?
It means a lot. In the 90’s I found Mortiis and Burzum who are somekind of founding fathers of dungeon synth music, exspecially Mortiis and his first era albums. Those were the only DS records I listened then and still enjoy those old recordings. After I started to get into dark ambient/industrial music I also found some newer kind of dungeon synth and when I heard Waeltaja’s Heremite album I wanted to release it on CD. To me it brings lot’s of similar feelings from the days when I heard Mortiis and Burzum’s synth albums first times.
How would you describe the Dungeon Synth community?
I really don’t know anything about DS community… But there must be some community because there’s so many DS artists out there and I really enjoy The Dungeon Synth Archives YouTube channel. That’s a great channel to find new interesting records.
Tell us about your gaming habits: video games, RPG, tabletop, other? Past & present.
I have always played video games, not so much these days like when I was younger, but it’s still a good way to relax. RPG and other story driven games are my favourite games. I hate puzzle games, they just make me stressed. Single player games are the games I mostly play, because multiplayers are too chaotic to my taste. But I do play some online games with my younger brother and cousin.
If you could step through a portal to any realm of fantasy (established or otherwise), where would it be?It would be Middle-Earth! I’m huge fan of J.R.R. Tolkiens fantasy world. Other realm would be H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. Tolkien is mys favorite fantasy author and Lovecraft is the master of horror.
