Culture
Sgah’gahsowáh talks about Blackbraid’s sophomore album, nature and getting adjusted to tour life with WOUB
By: Nicholas Kobe
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PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (WOUB) – Blackbraid is one of the most promising rising acts in the black metal scene.
The project is headed by musician Sgah’gahsowáh (Jon Krieger), and it’s been growing in popularity ever since the release of Blackbraid last year. Blackbraid II was released in early July to follow up the excitement generated by the first record, and to bolster the band as they began their live career.
This summer Blackbraid embarked on their first ever tour, opening for 200 Stab Wounds, Cattle Decapitation and Dark Funeral on the Decibel Magazine 2023 Tour. Now they are returning to North America alongside Wolves in the Throne Room, Gaerea and Hoaxed. They are performing at Underground Arts (1200 Callowhill St.) Oct. 10. Find a full list of Blackbraid’s upcoming performances at this link.
Sgah’gahsowáh spoke with WOUB’s Nicholas Kobe, and you can find a transcript of the conversation edited for length and clarity, below.
If you had to describe Blackbraid in one sentence, what would you say?
Sgah’gahsowáh:
I would say it’s a mix of my own emotions and personal experience and how I relate to that through nature, that’s kind of pretty much what Blackbraid is to me.
Nicholas Kobe:
So, speaking of nature, which is a big focus in your lyrics, what about nature in particular or really inspires you and connects with you emotionally?
Sgah’gahsowáh:
I mean, I would say it’s all of it. I grew up in the country and I’ve lived in the country for most of my life, so nature’s always been kind of a huge part of my life for me. It wasn’t until I was much older and I lived in the city for a while and started traveling more, I realized that’s not the norm. It’s pretty rare for people to have that type of connection with nature. So with Blackbraid, that’s kind of what I wanted to focus on. I’m very grateful to have that, but also to bring that to other people maybe a bit through my music.
Nicholas Kobe:
What kind of made you think when you were thinking about spreading nature, what kind of made you feel like black metal was the right genre or the fit for you to do that?
Sgah’gahsowáh:
Yeah, I mean, I’ve listened to black metal my whole life. It’s not really a genre that people are casually dipping their toes into that much. I’m a huge black metal fan and nature is probably one of the biggest elements of black metal as a whole too. It’s been there from the start and it’s part of its core nature and paganism and heathenism and all of that, which aligned with my beliefs. I love nature and most of my writing is either inspired by nature or I’m out there when I’m writing. It was never even a thought for me to do another genre. I never intended it to be about anything specifically, including nature. I guess that’s just what came out when I started writing it.
Nicholas Kobe:
That makes sense. So going to the music recently, you put out your second album, Blackbraid II. What do you think were your biggest changes that you made from Blackbraid to Blackbraid II?
Sgah’gahsowáh:
In my mind, I think the changes are pretty subtle, actually. I released them so close together because they’ve always kind of been two parts of a bigger piece in my mind. They’re part of the same thing, or at least the same era of Blackbird I would say. So with the first and second, they are very similar. On the second one, I kind of just wanted it to be kind of an extension of the first one, and I felt like the songs were all kind of stronger and had maybe more development behind them. I wanted the second one kind of just to be the perfection of the sound that I was trying to develop with the first one, if that makes sense.
Nicholas Kobe:
Absolutely. Now that you’ve had a few months behind the release of Blackbraid II, at least out to the public, do you feel like you’ve accomplished that goal?
Sgah’gahsowáh:
I do. Definitely. I’m super happy with it. I’m kind of a perfectionist when it comes to recording at times. I went back and forth on all those songs for a pretty long time before I released the album, so I was already a hundred percent before it was out.
Nicholas Kobe:
Somewhat recently you guys completed your first US tour with Dark Funeral, Cattle Decapitation and 200 Stab Wounds, the Decibel tour. How was that experience?
Sgah’gahsowáh:
That was pretty amazing. I mean, it was our first tour ever and we couldn’t really have asked for something more incredible. Dark Funeral has been around almost since I was born. I’m not that much older than them, and I’ve been listening to them since I was a kid, so it was pretty surreal to be able to go out with them for the first tour ever. Then obviously the other bands on there are amazing too, so we were playing to sold out crowds every night and it was very surreal. I couldn’t have asked for a better experience, honestly.
Nicholas Kobe:
Yeah. What was something about the whole touring experience that kind of took you by surprise?
Sgah’gahsowáh:
I guess I’d say the lack of sleep. I’m in my 30s, I love my sleep and I have back problems, so I always want to get a good night’s sleep and we never got to sleep, ever. It’s not even, you’re partying too hard. There’s just so much travel and so much back and forth, so much work to do that a lot of times when you’re on tour, you’re functioning on three or four hours of sleep a night for a week or two straight, and that was very exhausting. I don’t miss that part.
Nicholas Kobe:
I’m sure you must have slept in a whole hell of a lot once you got back though.
Sgah’gahsowáh:
Oh yeah. I slept for two or three days.
Nicholas Kobe:
Yeah, that sounds pretty exhausting. So considering that you’re a solo act, what was it like going about to recruit the other members that were up on stage with you when you toured this music?
Sgah’gahsowáh:
It was pretty painless actually. They’re good friends of mine and they all have their own black metal projects that are also solo things, and a lot of them play in other guys’ live projects. They’re pretty used to learning other guys’ tracks and playing as live members and not being involved in the writing of the music or anything. They’re pretty understanding and it was pretty seamless. I mean, we love playing live.
Nicholas Kobe:
So it was pretty easy for them to just get all the material and you guys rehearsed and then just kind of took off with it?
Sgah’gahsowáh:
Yeah, I mean, they all live in LA and I’m in New York, so we’re on the opposite ends of the country, so we probably had, I don’t know, maybe four rehearsals in our entire life at this point, but we usually rehearse once or something before a show if we can. I’ll fly out there, we’ll all rehearse and then we’ll hit it. I mean, we have another tour next week, and that’s the plan for that one. They all live in LA so they can meet up and practice instrumentally without me, and they stay ready and they learn the songs. I send them files and stuff, and then when it’s time to play, we will do it once as a full band and then we usually go.
Nicholas Kobe:
When you did your very first live show of the tour, what was going through your head right before you went on stage?
Sgah’gahsowáh:
I think I was just pumped. I think it was in California in San Ana. On that day, actually, both of the headlining bands were having major issues with the sound. It was the first day and there were all these little technical hiccups and stuff, and some of the stuff wasn’t working and they were all having a ton of problems, so they were all super stressed. Getting to open every night it’s actually really not stressful because you get to play first and get your stuff over with hours before everyone else. You kind of just finish early and you can relax a little bit more. It was the same thing that night. They were all having major issues and we play pretty raw when we play live. We don’t even use a click or backtracks or anything, so there’s nothing for us to really have issues with. So they were all messing around with their stuff and we just got on stage and played. I was having a blast. Honestly. It was pretty stress free that whole time to open with those guys.
Nicholas Kobe:
That’s really good to hear. You mentioned a few seconds ago that you’re going back on tour. What’s something that you’re looking forward to in particular this time around?
Sgah’gahsowáh:
We’re going out with Wolves in the Throne Room, who’s possibly the biggest black metal band from the US at the moment. I’m not sure. The last tour was a cross genre mashup of all these amazing metal bands, and we were all very different too. None of us really sounded like each other. With Wolves we’re a very close knit lineup, and I think our aesthetics are pretty much the same. We’re very similar bands and we play really similar music, so I think it’s kind of like a more targeted audience. It’s a very pagan nature, black metal lineup. I’m pretty pumped to see how that translates instead of being out there with a bunch of death metal bands. I love death metal, and it’s awesome touring with death metal bands. I’d do it again in a heartbeat, but in the end, we’ve never toured with a big black metal band other than Dark Funeral and Wolves is so much more similar to us. I’m pretty excited about that. The new demographic.
Nicholas Kobe:
From your experience, both as a performer and just as somebody who enjoys black metal, what do you feel is different about a general metal crowd, like you guys had a Decibel versus a black metal only crowd?
Sgah’gahsowáh:
Well, the black metal only crowds are definitely harder to win over. Anyone who listens to rock or heavy metal or anything to party, those shows are usually pretty fun. Black metal is the exception to that. Black metal is usually a bunch of nerds like me, including myself, standing around being quiet, not really moving. It’s usually generally a harder audience to win over, but I guess it’s more rewarding if you can win them over too.
Nicholas Kobe:
Is that kind of hardness of the audience, is that something that you are excited for or worried about with this tour?
Sgah’gahsowáh:
I’m definitely not worried about it. It’s never really been a thing that I think about. We just get up there and do our thing and everyone really always seems to love it. I haven’t had any bad ones yet. I don’t really overthink it too much. We’re there to have fun and melt these people’s faces and we’ll always go hard no matter what the crowd is like. It doesn’t really matter too much to me.
Nicholas Kobe:
Awesome. I just have one more question before we wrap up and it’s about what’s next for Blackbraid. What are your goals and aspirations for the future of this project?
Sgah’gahsowáh:
I’m not done with Blackbraid at all, but I think it’ll probably be a bit longer before I release something else. It’s hard to say. I love where I’m at right now and I’m very proud of the album I just put out, but I think I do want to kind of change things up with the next release and I don’t have it a hundred percent hashed out yet. So I think Blackbraid will stay the same with some minor changes, I would say. It might be a while before I do anything else. At least another year or two I would think. I’m not in any rush.