Indigenous Melodic Black Metal Hísemtuks Hími•n has been writing and recording music for sometime now, Releasing an array of material over that sometime period, with the band playing shows of course, with more shows and even tour set for this year! The band discloses the matters of all of this right below.
1. Where did you get the idea for the band name, you planned it or came out just like that?
Hísemtuks Hími•n is “Night-sun Wolf’ in Sahaptin (Nez Perce) language. If you look at our logo, you’ll see the two wolves on the side and the moon on top. I wanted our band name to go along with what we write about. (pronounced: hey-some-tucks hey-me-in)
2. Why did you want to play this genre?
There's only a few limitations for what we play, we can literally go from writing the most evil eerie riffs to the most beautiful, atmospheric, melodic song and still have it sound pretty decent. A lot of what we play is just a reflection of what we listen to as a whole.
3. Did you know each other before the band was formed?
Yes and no. I've known our guitarist, Mikey, since middle school. We’ve always wanted to be in a band together. We were pretty much the only metal heads throughout the school years, but growing up in the west plains of Spokane, there was always push back. When I was forming the full line-up, I decided to try to find a drummer first before anyone else, I put an ad out and got a follow on Instagram from Coleman (Gormless) from Pullman, Wa. He had drum vids on his page and so I hit him up. We met and talked, and then we just clicked!
4. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?
We are from Spokane, Washington! The scene in Spokane is super cool! Great bands and a great support system! Covid was kinda a lose win situation. It cost a bunch of venues to close down completely, but at the same time it gave an opportunity for kids, like me at the time, to come up with their own music. Even till this day, you still see new bands coming up left and right. Our biggest hot spot for metal shows is The Big Dipper, one out of many venues that survived the pandemic. My recommendations are Age of Nephilim, Xingaia, The Night We Died, Xenoplasm, Penis Envy, Toxic Vengeance, Tombripper, POTUS, Lich, Desert Dweller, Reaping Fields, Bonemass, and that's only just to name a few!
5. Who or what inspires you to write songs?
Mostly other Black Metal bands. Bands like Catamenia, Dissection, Limbonic Art, Emperor, Old Man’s Child, Vinterland and Carach Angren are what really got me into writing. As far as the symphonic inspiration, Legend of Zelda games have some really cool theme songs LOL! I also like to use some influences from bands that aren’t exactly in the Black Metal realm. Bands like Death, Trivium, Children of Bodom, and Slayer to name a few.
6. What are your songs about? (What specific themes do they cover?)
Mostly about Native American history, culture and folklore. Mickey and I (Nathen) are both part Indigenous. I'm a quarter Spokane and Nez Perce, Mikey is half Sioux. If you ever get into the Black Metal rabbit hole, you’ll notice quite a few bands have a viking lyrical theme. We wanted to do the same thing but with our culture. I think it fits well where we are from. Washington state definitely has a pretty good Indigenous population and most of our cities are named after Native American tribes. One thing that I've noticed with bands like Blackbraid, Nechochwen and us is that we go for the same lyrical theme but since we are all from different areas of the US and therefore our cultures are different, we all have our own sound. I think that's pretty cool!
7. Do you write your own songs? (Discuss the songwriting process in detail.)
Before I put together the full line-up, I did all the song writing. I would usually record guitar first to write the whole song, then add drums, bass, additional guitars, symphonic stuff and then write lyrics and vocals. I still write songs as a whole but now that I have a full line-up, I let my band mates do some of the writing and see what works and what doesn’t. One thing that I've been trying out is writing all the symphonic parts first as a full song and then adding the rest on top.
8. What have you released so far and what can someone expect from your works?
We have our first release, Wendigo. I wrote that album when I was about 16 but didn’t release it until I was 18 lol. That album is about Spirituality and coming in touch with ancestors and horror Indigenous stories. Our second album, Yawí•chinika, is about my hate for winter lol! And also spirituality. Yawí•chinika means “North” in the Sahaptian language. Witch of the Night was definitely a step up as far as songwriting goes in my opinion. I explored different bpms and time signatures. Our last album, Sp’q’n’iʔ, I was really honing in my Spokane heritage on that one. Sp’q'n'iʔ is “Spokane” in the original Salish language. It means “Children of the Sun”. We made a lyric video for Dancing Ghosts of Latah, that song is about the leaching of Yakama’s sub-chief and his six other people in Hangman Creek. You can find that video on our YouTube channel!
9. How about playing shows and touring, have anything planned out?
Right now, we are playing at Ray’s Golden Lion in Tri-cities, Wa on Feb. 8th 2025! There's talks about us playing at The Big Dipper in Spokane here soon! We are hoping to play a PNW tour during the summer, we will see how that will go!
10. What plans do you have for the future as a band?
We are already writing some new material. Our idea is to write a concept album of the Steptoe war. This one is gonna be quite a difference from the other albums, this one is going to have more of a grim spooky vibes lol! We might also release a compilation album of rerecorded stuff. Our goal for the year is to do a tour and hopefully play some festivals to get our name out there a little bit.
11. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
We are on all the streaming platforms! We have merch and CD's, if you want something just DM us on our socials! If you want Plague Demon Records issued CD's link will be down below
https://linktr.ee/hisemtuks_himin?utm_source=linktree_profile_share<sid=fdb4e120-3156-4d02-b888-8e2ad69019df
https://plaguedemonrecords.bandcamp.com/album/usbm-tribute-to-darkthrone
Post a Comment