NIMHEIL Interview by http://www.galacticapublishing.com/

Nimheil is the sonic project of Padraig MacIain. A visceral exploration of soundscapes and textures, that can be seen as industrialized dark-ambient littered with fragments of noise. Night-mare realms and visions of chthonic places are given an audible form. Padraig uses the isolation of his home town of Perth, Western Australia as part of his inspiration, portraying its occasional loneliness.

Also an active practicioner of Gaelic Traditionalism, running his own Tuath (Gaelic for "Clan"), you can investigate his work with Gaelic Traditionalism here:

http://members.iinet.net.au/~draoidh/treubh/

Hello Padraig, hope that all fares well amidst the vast horizons of Perth...An intriguing tale you tell through your fascinating soundscapes of harsh noise and mysterious ambience. What led you to experiment in this provocative and unusual musical medium and how long have you been delving into the sonic rhythms of noise , dark ambient and industrial music?

Perth is good, finally moving towards Winter weather again, and away from the late but hot and dry summer. What got me started? The intitial leap into writing my own music was an offshoot of my writing. Since I was little I wrote stories, usually quite bizare ones and as I got older I delved more and more into dark fiction, at some point I got to thinking about video and sound to go with my writing, working into a whole 'multimedia' experience. The direction of this music was driven a lot by what I was writting and also to a lot of what I was listening to. I had a habit of documenting the tracks that I was listening whilst writing, so I could track any obvious influences and trends. And of course along the way I got an urge to deal with movie soundtracks, thus creating another push in the direction of the sounds that I make now. As a time frame, I wrote (in collaboration with a good friend) my first lot of music 10 years ago. Both those tracks are available on the Nimheil website, under the titles 'Psychosis'. I then had a fairly massive hiatus due to circumstance. I then started up again in 2003 I believe. So about 3 years this time around. And I hope to be writing music for another 50 years. And to finish this question off, as a cute sound bite, I'd say the summary reason for writing the music I do now is "I want to represent the soundtrack to the visuals I see behind my closed eyes".

On your home page,you mentioned that the word Nimheil "is a Gàidhlig (Scottish Gaelic) word, and it is pronounced NEEV-ayl with the emphasis on the first syllable." Out of curiosity I was looking into the etymological meanings of the word "Nim " and found in the first part of your project's title, the Gothic word niman, Old Norse nema, and old Frisian nima all meant "to take", and since heim is the Germanic term for "home" I used my own amateurish etymological guestimation and gathered that perhaps the name of your musical project, Nimheil, means something like "To take home". Is this too far from the actual meaning, or am I really way off here? :)

In any event, please explicate both the exoteric and esoteric meaning of Nimheim....What message is meant to convey to those with ears to listen and eyes to see, the dark brooding sonic subterfuge of Nimheil ?

Bear in mind, the first syllable of Nimheil is the NEEV sound, 'mh' is a letter itself in Gaelic :) The word itself means 'poisonous', and is derived from the word neimh, meaing 'poison' . Which curiously enough, has root in the Irish word 'nimh' and the Old Irish 'nem', both of which have the root sound as 'nem-' which is considered to mean 'something given' or 'distribute', which as a sense of cosmic trickery is the opposite root meaning you had found for the 'nim' sound. In all honesty, I am unsure how I came onto the name Nimheil. Originally I was going to produce music under the name 'Padraig' and leave it at that. But I felt that was a bad application of ego so I looked for a new name. It may have involved one of my dictionaries and it falling open to a page and the term 'Nimheil' catching my eye. Of course, I could wave my hands and create a story about being poisoned by a toxic spill and within my fevered dreams I started seeing and hearing my music, and once coming out of it I felt inspired. However, that would be a fib. The name just was in a dictionary and it felt right.

Lately your music has had a more decided Gaelic influence, culturally and esoterically....What inspired you to delve deeper into Gaelic Tradition and how does it influence both your music and your daily life? Is there a large Gaelic revival movement in Perth or in Western Australia?

The move deper into my Gaelic heritage and spirituality comes from the drive to make sure it doesn't die out and get replaced by socialism or just as bad shiney-thing commercialism. The culture has to move forward into the modern age, but in turn, that doesn't necessarily mean much of it has to be replaced. I am a Sinnsreachd Gael, and from there I am trying to bring back (within my family and local influence) worship of the Gods in a cultural context. A culture, religion and society all together. Slow going, but the alternative isn't really an option. And here in Australia, in particular, Western Australia there is a fair bit of interest in people's heritage. A lot of Gaels ended up here during the Clearances. However, a lot of people looking at their heritage are getting fairly mixed and ill-informed messages from neo-pagan cults like Wicca. A lot of people are convinced Wicca is a native Gaelic religion and tend to get very upset when factual evidence is presented that says otherwise. At that point, once they start with "the patriarchy and the Church covered the truth up" and then start foaming at the mouth, I leave with a wry smile and shake my head. Which is where the problem can arise, Sinnsreachd is a culture practice first and foremost, religious is secondary but part of it. Within modern paganism, that understanding of culture and society just isn't there as often as it should be. The Heathens have it right for the most part and have since the 70s.

I was intrigued by a possible Gnostic interest that you may have , based on several quotes on your "my space" homepage:

www.myspace/nimheil

In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.

Isaiah 27:1

And he asked him, what is thy name?
And he answered, saying, My Name is Legion: for we are many

Mark 5:9

How does this form of spiritually influence your work? Would it be correct to say that your music has an "Apocalyptic" ambience? What is the meaning of Leviathan and Legion to you, as both a Gaelic traditionalist and an artist?

Whilst I don't practice Gnostic thought or action, I have a very long running interest in the occult and history combined. Certain things within occult history and thought are particularily interesting, such as the the view towards Apocalypses as a liminal time and external conscious entities. Hence the Demon references. Isaiah 27:1 is one of the few references to a creature in the bible, the Leviathan, that is of water and whose function is to transform humanity. This beast is liminal in itself and its actions are meant to induce a liminal time onto the Earth. Yet, it is destroyed by its very creator. There is something about the whole passage that appeals to me on a deep level that I can't necessarily voice. As for Mark 5:9, there is something powerful about the way the passage reads. There is this one man and when he speaks, he has the voice of one thousand demons. Maybe I appreciate the efficiency of the demons at this point, making the most use of the body or perhaps it is an interesting symbol of community. As a Sinnreachd Gael, I am strongly in favour of community, and there is a modern tendency to suggest that community is a bad thing. So maybe in that context, Legion wasn't doing anything wrong, it was being a collective, and The Christ was the idea of advancement, that wanted to promote a situation where the individual is the goal. I do like the term 'Apocalypse ambience', maybe I should change my style to 'Apocalypic Ambient', and then I can be a genre on my own. However, amusing genres aside, yes, there tends to be a feel of apocalypse and destruction in my music. I think that comes from a general grimness I have felt in myself for a long time. I look at the world, even with my goals for my future and my son's future, and I only see the inevitable demise of the human species on this current course. So, I use my music a little as a means to remind myself of that which in turn lets me focus on the more important things.

Tell me about some of your tracks, such as "Terror of the Nations", "Abberation", "Desolation", "Cath Mag Tured", "R'Lyeh Rising" , "Stranger Aeons" , and "Oil Spilling From Heaven"...Any anecdotes, macabre stories, or influences in any of these compositions?

Let me start with 'Cath Mag Tured', that was one of my first forays into music (this time around) and it was an attempt mostly to capture a modernized feel of the Battle of Mag Tured. I am not entirely happy with the sound these days, but I'd rather not hide the past in my creations, having it there lets people feel the evolution of the music. 'Stranger Aeons' and 'R'Lyeh Rising' are both from a brief stint at writing a Lovecraftian themed album. I'll get back to it one day and have it done eventually. Both are very early tracks too. They need some reworking, but all in all they are not tracks I am embarassed about. 'Terror of Nations' was an adventure into doing harsh noise. An early track written as I was finding my feet and my comfort zone. The feel of it came from the vocal sample that can be barely heard in it (but can be heard in my self-remixed version). An ex-soldier from WWII was reciting a story from his life during the war in London almost in a trance like voice. 'Oil Spilling from Heaven' came from the same time period, and wanted to work some beats into a piece, and ended up making what I feel is my most laid back track. 'Aberration' and 'Desolation' have some interest to them. Initially Desolation and another track were written and ended up sounding very dark ambient. It was a style that I felt very comfortable with. They got named, and one of them was Desolation. The feel behind it came from a particularily vivid dream of a wasteland like world, almost everything flattened. From there an idea came to create a whole album based on the idea of words that are powerful '-tion' words (Yes, bizare leap). Narrowed the list down to 16 and wrote songs inspired by the meaning of the words and how they made me feel, although onto 14 made their way onto the 'Contemplation' album. Aberration itself is a bit of an experiment, I wanted to expand out of purely atmospheric dark ambient and see if I could successfully put some percussive elements in. I personally feel it worked, but ultimately the listener is the best judge.

Tell us a bit about life in Perth today, and your life growing up in Perth , West Australia. Also,we would be interested in hearing about Perth herself, what kind of city is it, how has it influenced your life , your music and your spiritual world view, and tell us a little about Western Australia, the climate, the people, and the pros and cons of this part of the world...

Perth is a relatively quiet place. Only one serial killer in the recent history, although we did have the Bernies in a slightly more distant past. Nightlife tends to be relative quiet, with only one good darker alternative club (Sin) which is going quite strong. Summers are hot, winters are cool, wet and windy. Thankfully we are close to the beaches for winter storm viewing and close to the bushland (outback / deserts / forests) for those times when the city needs to be escaped. I spent the first eleven years of my life living in Canberra, on the other side of the country, and then moved to Perth. Loved the change of environment. The pros and cons are the same. The place is isolated. Very isolated. Great for peace of mind, very bad if you want to see musicians to perform. The climate as I mentioned early tends to be quite temperate, except for the occasional summer that is beyond hot. But at least we tend to avoid humidity. And the people? For the most part it is mellow here, not too many problems. Although as with any place, there is always the occasional idiot that wants to try to make other people's lives hard. My spirituality is more influenced by those around me, rather than my location. The family and Clann is the basis of spirituality not where my feet are walking.

Who were your main influences, literary, culturally, spiritually, musically, when you were growing up in Perth? Who were your main musical heroes and who was most responsible for your first picking up a musical instrument and/or singing?

I was fortunate when I was growing up that my parents had a very extensive library and didn't restrict me from anything within it. From history, to fiction, social commentary and so forth.

Two of the most profound books I read when growing up though were Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter and Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco. Very deep and rich books to read. And now, whilst I am still growing up, I read widely. And have the ability to provide the same to my son, so he will grow up with plenty>of knowledge and words at his finger tips.

Growing up musically, my parents exposed me to a lot of classical music as well as a lot of folk music. Bands such as Steel Eye Span, Fairpoint Convention and Clannad were listened to regularily as well the prince of dark thought, Leonard Cohen.

Musical heroes didn't really exist for me til I was in my teen years and got the chance to expose myself to other music (thankfully I generally avoided the boring-rock and hip hop that my peers were fascinated with). But at that point I discovered Einstuerzende Neubauten, Nick Cave and Black Lung. Blixa, Nick and David Thrussel become heroes to me musically. They did such interesting and varied things. But in the whole scheme of things, the one band that really made me want to create music would be Sielwolf (Only one CD left to find, and I have their whole catalog). They started very loud and aggressive and their last few releases become works in dark ambient perfection. Just listening to them, I always wished I could write music like them. And now, I hope I am writing music that could have the same effect on someone someday.

What are your main objectives with Nimheil, anything thing you feel you must complete or achieve before your die, any last words to pass on to those who have been awakened in this dark age of the mediocre and superficial?

Goals? One of my goals would be to soundscore / soundtrack a movie or two. The movie I'd love to soundscore would be a big budget version of 'Tain Bo Cuailnge', but until that gets optioned by someone I'd like to do some audio work for short movies and horror films. And not for the money (as I can potentially work in that circumstance for free) but for the joy of being able to combine visuals and audio into one powerful whole. Another goal is to promote the hell out of the other bands on my label 'Uncomfortable Records' as much as possible, and make them famous. I get to see a lot of talented and unrepresented artists via my label, and unfortunately I don't have the funding to discover them all, as much as I'd like to. So with a bit of recognition of my current arists, I may be able to help others get seen. But yes, writing more music, that people want to buy (paying bills and buying new kit would be nice) and more importantly people want to listen to. That is the key goal. Perform it live where possible as time progresses. And thoughts, I'll give you three of my favoured quotes, and I hope the reader will take the time to visit my website at www.nimheil.org and enjoy what they listen to there:

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes

Tempus Frangit

Clanna nan Gaidheal ri guaillibh a chèile