After the "French Doom" and "Wives ov Doom" specials last year, it was time to introduce a new special topic in several chapters and I thought that it could be interesting, for you readers and even for each member of the team, to know a bit more about those obscure doomheads behind the Temple...
Lucas Klaukien, the wizard of writing, was 1st to answer ! Dare I say that the result is as captivating and heartfelt as his stunning reviews ? OUI !!! Don't know in which order yet, but, of course more will follow with Ulla, Andreas, Steve, Aleksey and eventually myself...
Another thing you've got to know is that two new members should appear soon (with exciting Live reports as 1st contribution), one of them will be a very surprising one... oh, well, enough said !!!)
I take this opportunity to thank you all (bands, contributors, labels, readers...) for making this adventure so cool and exciting... Doom rules eternally \m/
Hi Lucas, could you please present yourself in a few words/lines ?
Hey, my name is Lucas Klaukien, I do album reviews for Stoner Hive, Sludgelord, Temple of Perdition and my own blog Paranoid Hitsophrenic. I’m 31 years old, I live in Canada and my favorite color is Doom.
When and how did you come to Metal and more especially to Doom and its subgenres ? When did you start to write on music ?
I grew up with metal, when I was really young (and metal was still young too) hanging out with my teenage uncles and listening to their records. Stuff like Metallica, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and AC-DC. I didn’t discover Doom until a little over a year ago when I watched a video interview with Phil Anselmo where he talked about Trouble, Witchfinder General and Saint Vitus. I looked into those bands and even though it’s so late in the game, it’s safe to say that discovering those bands changed my (musical) life. I’d been told my whole life that I should do album reviews or live reviews, writing for the school paper, or whatever but my main focus was always on fiction. I didn’t see the value of musical journalism until I discovered the blogs like Temple of Perdition, Sludgelord, Stoner Hive, Doommantia, The Obelisk, The Soda Shop, Dr. Doom’s Lair and Heavy Planet among others where every day it seemed like I was discovering two or three of the best bands I’d never heard before and to be honest, that trend continues to this day. When I finished working on this one story I was writing all last summer I needed something to keep my busy, writing-wise so I decided to make a blog of my own to try to help promote some of these amazing bands I was discovering in what little way I could. It’s just expanded from there, but I’d never written an album review until I made Paranoid Hitsophrenic. Like I mentioned earlier, I’ve been banging my head basically since I was in diapers so rock n roll and metal means a lot to me. I’d given up on new music about five years before that and was only listening to the older stuff, 60s psych and 70s prog. I was ecstatic, amazed and a little overwhelmed when I discovered the wealth of great underground bands kicking around today. I still am. Who knew rock n roll wasn’t dead after all?!?
Has writing in general always been something you liked and were at ease with ?Aside from headbanging, another thing I’d done practically my whole life was draw. But when I was about 15 years old I knew that I was never going to be good enough to draw Marvel comics so I decided to change gears and start writing. Some of the writing projects I did in school got rave reviews from teachers and one or two of them really encouraged me to keep at it. When I was 17, 18 I started writing fiction (or trying to anyway) and I spent the next few years doing not much else. Learning how to write takes a long time and when you don’t start until you’re older it seems to take forever to really begin to figure it out. I love it, I have an intense passion for the creative process and I’m almost like a junkie or workaholic for it. Aside from spending time with my girlfriend, my nieces and nephew, my mom and some close friends, there’s really nothing I’d rather be doing than writing. That said, it’s always been a grind. It may seem to flow or come out easy at times, but you read it back later and usually find that when it seems to come easy, that was your worst stuff. It’s a fucking hell of a hard grind for me, but I love it.
Do you remember from when did you start to follow regularly Temple of Perdition ? Any special interview(s) or review(s) that caught your attention ?
Oh yeah I do. I’d seen it come up on Google searches or linked from other blogs but it wasn’t until I saw the end of the year stuff that I realized how special ToP is. Instead of doing your own top 20 or whatever favorite albums of the year, you asked a whole bunch of other people to tell you theirs. I thought that was brilliant and it’s obviously more interesting to do it that way. You’re damn right I want to know what Ron from Ice Dragon’s favorites from 2012 was! Then the wives of doom thing came out and I just thought that was the coolest thing ever. And my girlfriend even thought it was cool too. More importantly, she thought it was an interesting idea, and so do I. Since then visiting the Temple has been a regular part of my daily ritual.
Of course I don’t! I’m always working, writing or thinking. When I’m not sleeping, I try to stay productive every second of every day. That’s why I only sleep five hours a night. Occasionally I inspire people because they’ve never seen anyone so focused all the time. I’ve always got a note book out and yeah, it may make me look like a twat and it alienates some people who aren’t really compatible as friends anyway, but what does that matter? When I don’t have enough time to write a review before I have to leave for work, I take the notebook out and try to get as much done on the bus as possible. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t sometimes create tension at home, but I do have the ability to stop and smell the roses as they say, (i.e. spend time with the old lady). Sometimes I just need a kick in the ass to snap me back into reality. Somehow, someway I think all this work, all this writing is building towards something, though I don’t know what. I have a number of other ideas (time consuming ideas) that I will pursue in the near future so I’m about to get even tighter for time. For me, it’s a challenge, but a fun one.
Isn’t Steph a too tyrannic editor with you ?!!!
He won’t as soon as I get my first born child back from him. (hahaha, excellent answer dude !!!)
How do you see the fact of contributing in english for a French blog with a cosmopolitan team ? ( just nothing special in this web era or pretty cool and enriching ?)
Well, that’s just it. I’m constantly amazed by the fact that I’m in contact with people from all over the world. With the exceptions of Africa, Antarctica and southeast Asia, I’m in contact with people from all over the world and we all have one thing in common: the love of heavy music. So maybe, that’s nothing special in a so-called ‘global village’, but I think it’s pretty damn cool. When you consider that a physical ‘zine like this couldn’t have existed 20 years ago (there’s just no way), it’s incredible to think about. It’s incredible to think about how all these people from the far corners of the earth can get together in a common (virtual) place for a common goal, it’s really inspiring. I wonder if the current and future generations raised in an age where the internet is taken for granted appreciate that.
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