Ten years ago, in 2001, in a faraway Denmark, was created a unique project that almost all of these years have not produced official or unofficial release. First and last became «A Martyrium Of White Roses», published by cult label Cold Meat Industry in 2009. But the band gave many concerts around the world and has become a sensation in the post-industrial music. It's all about Die Weisse Rose. And today we'll meet a closer to creator - Thomas Bøjden. He'll speak about yourself, music, relationships with other musicians, and many other things that have not yet told any Slavic magazine.

Information about album «A Martyrium Of White Roses»:

Label: Cold Meat Industry

Release date: 27 May 2009

Genre: martial industrial, neofolk, apocalyptic folk, martial, postindustrial, experimental

Short description: May 2009 marked the formation of the long awaited and much anticipated debut album «A Martyrium Of White Roses» which was finally released to highly critical international acclaim. «A Martyrium Of White Roses» being a concept album that focused upon the thematical questions of guilt, martyrium, shame and fanatism through an often contradicting and ambiguous character. (www.Last.FM)

Evilly: You have no own site. But there is a page of band on Facebook. In the same place you have also the many photos. Maybe you have a personal blog or something like that?

Thomas: I only use Facebook. But I am thinking of getting a Tumblr account. I kind of like that you cannot get all information about a band by just googling. It keeps the mystery alive. And I believe that makes art more powerful. Instead of just googling and then you have all information in 2 minutes.

Evilly: And this attitude has resulted to the fact that about group there is not enough information in a network, tell me a little about creation DWR. And why a white rose? Is it accident or any special latent sense?

Thomas: For me a white rose has numerous interpretations. From beauty and transformation to the more esoteric meanings associated with the name. A white rose being the symbol of purity and exactly that purity is the key symbol to understand something that I was aware of ever since I started. I find it also further encouraging that the name is something that everyone can find different meanings in depending on the context and the objective that you chooses to view the music and the lyrics that I do for the band. Last weekend (is meant a concert on October 15, 2011 - Evilly) I was in Portugal and playing with Death In June and had a wonderful talk with Douglas about his own view upon white roses and the symbolic value in his own work and the way that Jean Genet (French writer, poet and playwright - Evilly) and Yukio Mishima (Japanese novelist and playwright - Evilly) used the rose as a reoccurring symbol that have been used in their writings. For me it was already very important to have a name that was able to adapt to different contexts and was able to express transformations and transition of different stages. Something living and something that wasn't static. So no, it was not a accident. I like that art should be very focused.

Evilly: And whether there is something the general with a known film of Michael Verhoeven about The Third Reich?

Thomas: Yes, I am aware of the movie that was made by Michael Verhoeven about the German resistance group Die Weisse Rose. Though I have to say that I found the movie to be a very tedious portrayal of the resistance group and betraying them very one dimensional since I do think that the complexity of their struggle was far more profund that what Michael Verhoeven was able to tell in a 90 minutes mainstream production. But the historical group itself and the documents from their case and the letters and leaflets that they left behind I find of a very poetic nature and that they choose the white rose as a symbol was of course another symbolic meaning that I was aware of when I chose the name. Especially as a symbol of defiance. And yes, the historical Die Weisse Rose is surely also an influence that has affected me and one that I can constantly go back to as a source of constant inspiration. Since this age really also demands resistance to this soulless age where our enemies are all around us and in many forms.

Evilly: Are you really thinking the enemies of those who surround you? Such an worldview affects your work in DWR? And as a historian you should have a more positive attitude toward the world, I think so.

Thomas: No, they only enforce my belief that I am doing the right thing. And though my background is being a history teacher I really don't have any educational purpose behind what I am doing with my music. It's not my part to tell what is right or what is wrong. Everyone can just look around and see where the soulless mass is heading and then make up their mind.
I don't believe in anything either... but I have a big interest in mythology. Since I think that mythology is reflecting something deeply rooted in the human mind. And that it's unique to the human tradition to tell these stories. Mythology is a old way of telling the same things as science I trying to do now. And that is also why I don't believe in religion. Since it's just a political tool to control people.

Evilly: Yes. But politics is more real. It doesn't give empty promises. Sometimes.

Thomas: Agree. But religion is from my perspective a way to control people. Just like politics is.

Evilly: Control is necessary to some people.

Thomas: Yes, and a lot of people needs to understand responsibility too. But the masses are largely stupid.

Evilly: Are you misanthrope? Because sometimes I hate people and I see these notes in our conversation.

Thomas: At times I can be misanthropical. But in general I am not a misanthrope. I do love to be in the company of the right people. And hate when people are dumb, uneducated or intolerant. I am not interested in politics either. It's just for people that are either interested in money or want to have easy answers. I am interested other things like paintings, literature, music and other art forms.

Evilly: Ok, back to music. One day I walked in the rain and listened to your album in the player. I thought that this music would be a good soundtrack for the apocalypse. What are you think about it?

Thomas: Maybe Louis Ferdinand said it best when said «To hell with reality! I want to die in music, not in reason or in prose. People don't deserve the restraint we show by not going into delirium in front of them. To hell with them!» Apocalypse is so final and since I don't believe that things are a of a linear nature. Things seems to be more working in circles and in a cyclic movement. Or maybe it's just me getting old... But I am sure the older you get the more you get aware that everything seems to be working that way from the small to the bigger picture of everything and what we conceive to be our reality. But the sound of rain or the sound of filling a glass with good wine or the sound of crying is all certainly good ways to set any mood for an album.

Evilly: What movie would you like to see with your album «A Martyrium Of White Roses»? Historical, drama, sci-fi or action, or something else... or maybe you never-never give your music for movie.

Thomas: I would like to see the movie more set in abstract way of rose petals falling silently in the foreground like snowflakes and men and women crying in despair and holding each other so tight in despair and frustration that they strangling each other till death. No, honestly it's not my part to tell people what they should be to reading into it. I am only the composer and writer and leave the film making for other people that are far more capable of doing such things.

Evilly: Well, I ask because in your performance is a very strong visual part. Tell me about these performances, this is all you invent yourself?

Thomas: Yes. I do believe that art should be all embracing, from the audio to the visual elements of a band. Bringing in different elements that it all together and combining it should making it whole. The way we listen to music at home on a CD to the way we perceive the music in a concert situation is very different. And being aware of that also makes you realize that you have to use different settings to reach out to the listener. Essentially all music is communication and all songs have from the very birth of the song the desire to be heard. Even if those songs are all only meant for the writer of the song as a way of exorcism of feelings the desire will always be there to get it out.

Evilly: At live show with you perform different interesting personalities - Kim Larsen (Of the Wand & the Moon), Rose-Marie Larsen (Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio) and others. How do you assemble band for the concerts?

Thomas: It's not Rose-Marie, it's other girl.

Evilly: How awful! How I could jumble the participant of my most favorite band?! There is no forgiveness to me…

Thomas: Ha-ha! But the funny thing is that the girl is also on the Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio covers. :) I will answer the question. Yes, over the years I have worked with a lot of different people and nearly no two concerts have consisted of the same people. I like the approach that the lineup is also always changing though it can be frustrating at times, but every challenge often just open up for new possibilities. That the lineup changes so much but it have given me the possibility to work with alot of really talented people that all of them have one thing in common despite their very different background is that I have all enjoyed their work previously. I believe that all the people I work with also all share the same artistic vision and dedicational drive as I do which is often another reason for having chosen them in the first place. Luckily I have been able to repay their favors by helping them out them one way or another.

Evilly: Interesting point of view. Why not repeat lineup? With the same people... They remain your friends and understand such concept?

Thomas: Indeed that is true. But I think it often comes down to who are able to do it on the given time. But one thing they are all capable of are to fill in the spot and often new friendships evolve from these wonderful meetings by people being brought together in the framework of DWR and its wonderful giving the torch on to new people and plant new seeds by doing that.

Evilly: Also, you work with many other projects. For example, a recently released CD Jännerwein with your participation, you have one song together - «My Prime Of Youth». Tell us a bit of this cooperation. With whom else you work or you plan it in the future?

Thomas: Yes, over the years I have been fortunate to work with a lot of different people either in the context of DWR or other bands. And I am grateful for the collaboration no matter the form it has been in. And it's wonderful to work with people whom work you admire and that is always reassure that the work that is being produced is keeping a certain standard since there are a mutual respect for each other’s work. Yes, the Jännerwein collaboration came about due to that they had central roles for «A Martyrium Of White Roses» and they have all been helping seperately or together in ways to aid DWR on several other occasions and they will surely also have their role on the upcoming album, which is coming out next year. Other people I have worked with like Kim Larsen and John Murphy or Gerhard of Allerseelen are also personal friends of mine and I know that I can rely on their input into the context of DWR and also they are indirect influence on the process of writing music. Due that I play so many concerts and also are able to play the songs before a release makes the songs get a longer life since they are processed through their filter and on several occasions the songs have been very different originally and then through the process of playing songs live they might have turned out to sound very differently in the end. So it collaboration model applies both ways for sure and it's a process that I am happy working that way. Ensuring that the material does not become too single minded, but have been filtered and perfected through the aid of others.

Evilly: How long you practice music? Have you a musical education?

Thomas: No, I haven't a music education at all. But I have always surrounded myself with music and ever since early childhood. In fact some of my earliest childhood memories are connected with music and also remember being really drawn into the fact that music was able to tell a story or invoke feelings depending on the music. Nowadays most of the music that gets released these days bore me to death to speak the truth and I am much more interested in either the traditions of music itself or the psychological effects that one can do with music as a tool. But needless to say there are still lots of music out there that is able to catch my attention if one bothers to look for it and then it's natural to ask the question why and where does that feeling come from that makes it appealing for me to listen. Not that I am analyzing all music, but some music does strike me with a immediately chord that resonate inside me with either familiarity or something "unexplained" and then it's often more interesting at least from my point of view where this comes from. But one has to remember that a lot of music is basically just a way of communicating something from the participating artists to the listener and maybe my background as a teacher in literature shines through there as a way of analyzing the motives for composing and for transport the message. Of that something!

Evilly: From music we pass to a profession. Except literature already mentioned by you, you also teach history. Is it a world history or only history of your country? Whether a sign you with history of Ukraine?

Thomas: In my profession as a teacher I teach world history in general and in connection to the history of Denmark. So it's really something that I can say a lot about. But the history is mainly in connection with Denmark. 

Evilly: Ok. Then you can write 5 facts about Ukraine which now will come to you mind?

Thomas: Some years ago I had a big interest in the famine of Ukraine and how Stalin forced the Ukrainian people to the level of starvation... and the effect that the starvation had. Furthermore I was also interested in how Ukraine's role was during Operation Barbarossa when the German Wehrmacht drove eastwards in 1941. I know about Chernobyl. Also I can say that Timoshenko is a very beautiful woman, it seems like Ukrainian women are very beautiful and I think that more women should get a hairstyle just like Timoshenko. :)

Evilly: Unfortunately, most are not. It is an ancient Ukrainian folk hairstyle and now only Timoshenko made it his trademark style.

Thomas: But women should copy that hairstyle. It looks great. Is Sevastopol in Ukraine? Most of the things I know about Ukraine is mainly associated with World War 2. I don't know any famous authors from Ukraine, or artists. What a shame! If to be completely honest.... I am not that familiar... since for me many of the old Soviet republics are very similar to me. But if and when I will go, then I will surely get well informed before I come.

Evilly: Catch on the word! Thank you very much for the interview and for such an interesting dialogue. I hope our readers will enjoy it and you will have a lot of fans in Ukraine, which will be looking forward to your show with white roses on the shores of the Dnipro. Good luck and see you in Kyiv!

Note: The first photo by Douglas Pearce, Death In June band.