Episode 001 - Lord of the Blue Mist - Foglord Interview

So we've kinda talked about dungeon synth a little bit, but I think for some people it may be like a whole new thing, and as you say, it, it kinda started as the dark ambient thing, and obviously Mortiis was doing his thing back in-

Mm

...

the '90s, like pioneering other stuff.

But for you, what really is dungeon synth and like, and how is that kind of related to what you do with your music? Like, is it a label you're kinda happy to have applied to your music? Yeah, I guess the, the origins of your music with Depressive Silence and Gothmog and things like that, that's all really kinda intrinsic to it, but yeah, is that, that kind of s- fit with what you've been doing? I mean, obviously there are so many different syn- subgenres that I guess you could pick and choose whichever you like the most.

Yeah, so it's, it's interesting where I've been, you know, active in the dungeon synth scene for so long, uh, now.

I've got to, you know, see it grow and solidify, you know, actually solidify as a genre, which I, I think is really interesting.

Um, and it's expanded a lot since back when I started and, you know, there's, you know, there's always a lot of like debates on what dungeon synth is and, you know, you got that in any music genre, but it's, um, it's just interesting to have watched it solidify into a genre.

And I've always had, like I'd mentioned before, I've always been into, you know, fantasy-oriented sound and music from a young age, from like games and movies and stuff.

So I was drawn to it because of that.

And it's, it's hard to pin down other than it's always been, you know, a kinda fantasy-oriented genre.

You know, fantasy, dungeon synth, fantasy synth, that's a, a term a lot of people use now too, and so many, you know, subgenres have came about in the time since I've been doing it, which is really interesting.

But it's funny 'cause I've never...

I've always been grounded within like the dungeon synth scene.

But I also like venture a little bit into adjacent stuff too, you know, like, um, just general ambient and new age and folk-oriented stuff too, 'cause it all, it all kind of, it blends well with dungeon synth.

And so it's, it's hard to exactly pin it down what it is [laughs] exactly, 'cause you know, different people will say, you know, it'll be different things to different people, you know? But it's als-

That's always the way.

Yeah, yeah.

But it's basically what I can say is it's always been kind of like my music has been rooted in dungeon synth, and I kinda will go adjacent ways, but each album always has a, like a root in that.

And the kinda fantasy stuff that you talk about, can you give us any kinda examples of the things that really inspired you early on? Are you t- like the kind of like 8-bit game soundtracks and like not the John Carpenter synth stuff, but like the, the kind of '80s synth soundtracks? Is it those sorts of things?

Uh, some of it, 'cause I got, you know, I, I wasn't actually around in the '80s, but I was drawn to, you know, some of that stuff like with The NeverEnding Story, um, and different fantasy movies from the '80s.

But The NeverEnding Story is like a, a standout to me.

And, um, Final Fantasy, I was always big into Final Fantasy when I was younger, so the soundtracks of Final Fantasy and, uh, those are two of the, the standout ones for me.

Um, then just kinda random l- PC games I played when I was younger and stuff too [laughs] that kinda had that kinda sound to it.

Yeah.