You performed with your backs to the audience for most of the MDF set this year. Is that part of the overall aesthetic or were you afraid of looking us Yanks in the eyes?
There were bands at MDF intent on goading their audience, that isn’t our style. We do what we do for ourselves and no one else. That principle has been at the molten core of Dragged Into Sunlight from the outset and is integral to everything we’re about. We’ve always stated that should such a time arise that we no longer feel Dragged Into Sunlight has something to offer, we’ll stop giving. We most certainly aren’t afraid of looking anyone in the eyes.

Seriously, the set at MDF was blistering. I had heard you got your ritual stand through customs but not your gear. What’s the story there? Also, what’s the stand made out of?
Thanks. There are strict weight limits for every touring band, we prioritized. Our candelabra and goat skull were packed, other items deemed of a lesser necessity, were omitted. The candelabra is made of cast iron, it hangs either a mounted ram, goat or Sika deer skull.

Is music a ritual?
Music is music. The sound of one human eating the face of another can be music to some ears, it depends what you’re into. Your interpretation may differ to ours and vice versa. Dragged Into Sunlight focus on delivering a feeling, like a tentacle to the brain. There exists an aesthetic in which everything dismal, bleak and depressing will thrive. We’re not drinking goat’s blood anytime soon.

You separate your personal and band lives. Why is that important from your perspective? Kids like to ‘know’ who they like as musicians, thinkers, etc.
We’re not your friends and you don’t need our life story. Ask yourself whether you listen to a band because you like what they’re doing or because they look good. Kids don’t need to know who they like as musicians. It’s just the norm. It is a normality, which has undersold extreme music for decades. If people want to ‘know’ Dragged Into Sunlight—put the record on, read the interviews. Extreme metal musicians are more often than not grown men in corpse paint, so ask yourself whether its kids who like to know who they like as musicians or whether it is the musicians who like kids to know who they are. We separate our lives because we live in a world where nothing is a secret, knowledge is a thirst and everyone ‘needs’ to know everything about everyone else. We make music. Either you like it or you don’t. We’re not going to lose sleep if you don’t. How many authors or academics can you put a face to?

What do you mean by this statement, [Widowmaker] “would be a mistake to consider as a follow up to ‘Hatred For Mankind’”?
Widowmaker is very different in nature to Hatred for Mankind. The recordings aren’t related. When one recording is released on a date sequent to another, it is not mandatorily to be considered a follow up. It is simply another recording by the same artist. Dragged Into Sunlight recordings are concurrent and Widowmaker is one of several new roots.

Widowmaker is a concept album. What are you aiming to communicate via the concept? The press release said something about jumping out of a four-story building as a good idea.
We’re not telling a story. It’s not entirely clear when a conceptual piece of music became about story time. If you want a story, listen to an audio book. If we’re looking at art of any given century and there is a message to be observed, that is a concept. In a similar capacity, Dragged Into Sunlight have produced a piece of music which communicates a concept. The concept is that feeling of total isolation, loneliness and depression embedded into our music.

Was the track meant to be a single 40-minute track? I thought I had read you were pursuing that option instead of 3-4 distinct tracks.
The first part of Widowmaker was to be the first installment. The second part was to be the second and so on. Three parts, unsurprisingly, form a trilogy. Perhaps there was a more general misunderstanding; however, three 40-minute tracks were not intended.

If kids went off the first song, “Part 1”, they’d think they were listening to a horror score. Think the opening is a bit misleading, or is the intent to lead them into a false sense of security the goal?
It’s neither. It’s a part of Widowmaker, the opening in fact. It explores relatively obscure ambient and noise influences.

Did you know when to stop the writing process? Realistically, songs, as Dragged into Sunlight present them, could go on for ages with multiple variations on theme and style.
Every piece of music has an end, unless it’s an infinite static. Dragged Into Sunlight encompasses many different genres of extreme music and often our recordings writhe until the bitter end. That is not to say that our recordings continue indefinitely, each track has a life span and capacity determined at the first note.

So, are the three tracks remnants from the Hatred for Mankind sessions or something else entirely?
It is, as above, a new root. After Hatred for Mankind, we felt we’d like to explore our slower, heavier and louder influences. That is Widowmaker. We won’t be repeating the exercise anytime soon, so in that respect, it is something else entirely. It was created with intent and we have achieved what we set out to do.

How would you describe Dragged into Sunlight at this stage? Widowmaker’s more sludge-doom than, say, black metal. Actually, maybe it’s a dingy combination of both.
Dragged Into Sunlight isn’t boxed-in, our goal was to explore the many genres of extreme music. We comprise a collective of extreme musicians at best and at worst; we’ll deliver a different turn of events each and every time.

Where do you think British metal music is headed? For a while, bands were aping the American metalcore thing. I gather that’s diminished a bit.
There are so many killer UK bands delivering great music and some punishing live shows. Unfortunately, they’re submerged by whatever wave of alternative music is popular. When their wave eventually comes around, they’re often too burnt out, broke and jaded to care. All in all, the UK has always had a vibrant extreme metal scene and it’d be good to see some of those bands touring Europe and the US. Whatever is next, inevitably, isn’t something Dragged Into Sunlight will be a part of as it is very much its own being.

Where do you see Dragged into Sunlight headed, musically and as a live act? I think a lot of people into the sludge-doom/crust scenes would dig the band if it were presented to them.
We’ve had a busy year—geographical inconsistency and manic lives make Dragged Into Sunlight a continuous challenge. The US tour was a mind blowing 3 week trail of destruction, however it’s likely that we’ll begin work on new material. Eventually.

** Dragged into Sunlight’s new album, Widowmaker, is available HERE. And, trust us, don’t try to friend them on Facebook. They’ll act like you never existed. You’ll end up creating a Live Journal site about how bands are arseholes and why mom didn’t let you go to the party.