In September of 2022, the world (maybe my small world, but still!) discovered Weepers of the Moon, the first album of Lockeheart and the enigmatic project, floating somewhere between northern Vietnam and eastern Germany. 2 years after, Lockeheart is back with their second opus, more brutal, more agressive and progressive, but still deadly post-industrial, their trademark vibe !
As behind the project, there’s Nemo, the multi-talented artist who do quite everything, beside his several other artistic projects, I was lucky enough to catch him one night on the waves of the internet’s ocean and discuss with him about his musics, his artistic works and his work with House of Ygra, the wonderful young vietnamese label for extreme music.
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Hi Nemo.
Hi Dee.
Thank you very much for accepting the interview. First of all, can you tell us a bit about you, about your project Lockeheart ? And why this name ?
Lockeheart is an evolution of my previous work Lunar Haze, which is an instrumental project. After learning how to sing, I wanted to explore more vocal-focused songs, and thus the birth of Lockeheart. I chose the name Lockeheart because at the time I started writing and wanted to pick a name that I can both used for my music and my stories.
In the first album, Weepers of the Moon, I can feel that the goth vibes have a big part in the music while in the 2 songs of the second album you posted recently, the music is heavier and wilder. Will it be the vibes of the whole new album ?
Yes. Album 2 will be much heavier than the first one.
When checking for the track list of the 2nd album, I saw that you work with a lot of fellow musicians. Did it was the same in the first one ? Can you tell us about these collaborations ?
This was also the case in the first album, yes. You can see the guestlist on Lockeheart’s bandcamp page. The second album features new artists who I have been friends with for years but have never had the chance to collab with. At its core, these collaborations are more about having fun and sharing great moments with people who I love and adore, both as artists and as friends.
I saw that you shared a list of your recent influences when composing the album where we can find a lot of metalcore bands like Polaris, Humanity's Last Breath , Bring Me The Horizon, The Gloom In The Corner, and most of all, Sleep Token. Is metalcore your favorite genre ? And is it the reason why the next Lockheart’s album will be heavier with more rage ?
Yeah Sleep Token is a thing for me recently. I do like metalcore, and, erm... we can say that it contributes to the influence of the composition of this album. But it can vary as I listen to a lot of music styles. Maybe the 3rd album will be more jazzy if I’m into jazz next time. Who know ?
And how about the production of the album ? You do everything by yourself or it’s House of Ygra who did the production ?
House of Ygra is just a label and I do all the production myself, and as I do most of the production for House of Ygra myself so it’s just like I’m doing my own stuff. *laugh*
So we can say it’s a self production...
Yes, it’s self produced. And because basically, I’m the main producer and the audio engineer of House of Ygra, so ofcourse I did it.
How long have you been working with House of Ygra ?
So, Hieu and I are best friends and he started the label when we started Elcrost together, and Hieu wanted to have a music label. But I don’t participate in all the marketing and sale or the organization of live performance or anything, I just do the production. So I’m just like an inhouse engineer but I’ve been there since the beginning… So, since 2019, I belive… or around 2020.
Ok ! It’s a great project and we’re very enthousiaste about your works !
Thank you.
Let’s continue with Lockeheart. As it’s pratically a one man band project. So do you imagine that Lockheart will perform life one day in the furture ?
I daydream about it sometimes, but I don’t know if I want to… I mean, I do like the idea. But to me, If I do play live, I would want to have two or three other musicians on stage because otherwise, It’ll juste look weird with just me on stage, you know ? And to do that, I’d need people to play, and everything. And at the moment, I don’t really have time to dedicate to it to be honest because I’m working on way too many projects at the moment, as I always do !
Recently, I did perform live at a friend’s birthday. So it was just me and another friend and she was doing some backing vocals, and so I was just dare to have a mic and sing and scream. But that’s sure like the extend of my live performance. So I don’t really see myself playing live anytime soon, but if the opportunity arrives, then I would consider it, yes.
So there’s a chance that it can happen !
Yes, It can happen.
It’s nice to know !
I mean, I do think that I’d like to do that at one point, I just don’t know when.
Ok. You told me that you have a lot and a lot of projects. I saw that beside the work with House of Ygra and Elcrost, Lunar Haze, Lockeheart, you have some other music projects. Can you tell us a bit about them ?
So I have another project with Liam from Rêvasseur, and this is a new project and no one know about this yet, technicly, other than a few people. So you’re the first one other than some closed friends. So we’re gonna make a deathcore album, or an EP. We have one track finished already, we’re waiting for a logo and we’re talking about whether or not we want to put it through a Death records by Trung, the guitarist and vocalist of Windrunner. It’s still being discussed, we haven’t got time to talk about it yet, but it’s another project I’m working on with him, mostly just for fun.
And there’s another one here (in Germany) that I have with some friends (Comrade La Baguette), but, erm… again, It’s just mostly me doing everything and they’re just kind of there and being like a band *laugh*. You know, it’s basically me doing everything music, and they’re with me for presentation and say : « we do this, we do that », because, basically, it’s a comedy band, and we’re just making funny songs, so it isn’t really matters. It’s all started with me and a french friend of mine and… The whole story started with me cutting the baguette wrong and he got really mad at it. It’s mostly fun and he was over exagerating. I wrote a song about this, and things were kind of go from there.
So these’re two other musical projects that I have. But during my free time, I have other projects such as my writings and that takes also a lot of time.
So you work also on a nove ?
Yes, something like that. It make me very busy.
Then you’re a multi-talented artist ! I saw that you also paint…
Yes, I do paint also. Mostly just to put on my walls so it’s like a small gallery. *laugh*
Any exhibition project for you paintings ?
Only for friends who come get diner and listen to music. *laugh*
So back to the album, it’s released on last 29 march. Until now, we only have your music through streaming platforms like Spotify, youtube and bandcamp…
Yeah, and IPhone music, title, and all other streaming platforms.
Yes. Do you think that you’ll release physical albums like Cds or Vinyls one day ?
We talked about this so I’ll tell you… But it depends… I don’t know whether I want to do this. We talked about this with the label and Hieu want me to do a lot more promotion if we do it. Because when we have the Cds, we have to try to sell them. And me, i’m like, I don’t care that much about promoting, you know. I just want to do music and I don’t care too much whether lot of people listen to it or not many. And with the Cds, you’ll have to put money in stuffs like printing, manufacturing, etc. There’re costs and we’ll have to sell, at least enough to bear the cost. So we should talk about this. So maybe. I can’t say now.
Last question for you. Can you tell us you perception about the metal scene in Vietnam ? How you see it, how it developped and how you live it when you was in Vietnam?
When I was growing up and when I started listen to metal, I was around… fourteen, fifteen, I think, and then I moved away when I was twenty so I’d been around for five years, where I was going to shows and meeting people. At the time, I find the scene was not very strong, there weren’t many bands and non of them was constantly making music, I think.
And then, there’s something that I very much appreciate and I applause Hieu for what he’s doing with House of Ygra. Since these 3 years that he was back, he has manage to produce 8, 9 bands, and they all created music.
And the beautiful thing that I find now with the metal scene in Hanoi is every bands are inspiring each other, and they’re all creating music without competing with each other. People are like : « hey, I made this, I can show you how to do it. » You know ? A band of people who do music, who have experience and who come together to help produce and make some music. It’s something that I didn’t see before, like bands helping each other. There was already Death Records by Trung, but at the time I was not super into it and I don’t really know how things work back then… But right now I can say that the scene is growing strong and I’m really amazed of how things had grown so far. It makes me very happy.
Thank you very much, Nemo, for taking time for this long interview. We’re eager to discover all your side projects (painting, novel, bands, etc.) and we’re looking forward to hear from you, about your new project with Liam.
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Questions : Dee
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