Vödkamizer: Hey there, Skaðfükker.
Skaðvaldur: Hey Ferric-Eric, the metal cleric!
Vödkamizer: You are originally from Iceland but currently live in Estonia. Can you give a brief description of the underground scene in your home land and how it compares to the Estonian scene?
Skaðvaldur: Interestingly enough I have never really thought about it all that much. Most band activity is of course situated in the capital area and activity in smaller towns spread around the country is nearly non-existent when it comes to extreme music. Hosting gigs mostly pays off if you go to Reykjavík to play. In my previous bands back home we would have to travel 5-6 hours by car just to play a gig and other places we would do everything out of our own pockets. But in the capital area there is a little bit more unity in subsects of the extreme genre.
I would say the Black Metal scene in Reykjavík is by far the strongest with really good international ties, much more than the Estonian crowd. Come to think of it, extreme bands happen to get quite a bit of notice due to them being Icelandic by my experience. We are our own gimmick!
Vödkamizer: You have done the art for many of your own bands releases over the years. Can you give us a brief history of how you took up doing artwork?
Skaðvaldur: It all started when I quit studying electronics in the east part of Iceland and moved to Akureyri to study fine-art, what a waste of time am I right? Real talk though, it helped me a lot in learning how to approach drawing and become a bit of a more rounded person, happened to have great teachers.
At that time I was really getting into more underground death and black metal music and I discovered the Danish band Undergang and after seeing the artwork on the album cover "Søm Til Din Ligkiste" I felt the intense urge and inspiration to become an artist with the goal of illustrating album covers and t-shirts for underground bands as well as writing my own death metal music which then became Urðun.
If I recall correctly, the first commissions I got were from local Icelandic acts such as Naðra, Blood Feud, Narthraal and Skuggsjá (now Nyrst) which got the word around.
Vödkamizer: Who would you say are the artists who have had the most impact on you and your style and development and in what ways?
Skaðvaldur: The main artist that inspired me the most would in fact be David "Torturdød" Mikkelsen of the aforementioned Undergang and Extremely Rotten Productions. His style had such an effect on me of doing this 90s death metal demo approach to artwork. Secondly I have always been enamoured by the paintings of Ed Repka, Michael Whelan and Dan Seagrave which don many great US Tampa death metal album covers by the likes of Death, Morbid Angel, Massacre, Obituary and Nocturnus to name a few. I love the Italian artists Emanuele Taglietti, Frank Frazetta and Boris Vallejo. Also shoutout to Rick Melton aka Stunningly Savage. His sleazy pulp art mastery is one of my favourites. Funny enough I have also been greatly inspired by artwork seen on Magic The Gathering cards and random 70s-80s horror/pulp novels and comics. In some cases I am quite inspired by violent 90s manga and anime artwork by the likes of Angel Cop, Genocyber, Wicked City, Devilman and Legend of the Overfiend. I can't remember the artists' name by the life of me but you can guess that I'm a bit of a weeb. However, for the past couple of years I have been finding myself extremely inspired by more western comic book artists such as Bernie Wrightson, Frank Miller and Tim Vigil.
Vödkamizer: Being a musician in several bands and projects and being an artist has its perks as you don't really have to pay for another guy to do your shit and you know what you are getting. How hard is it to balance your paid for commissions versus artwork for your own bands or projects? Do you work on many projects at once or try to remain focused on fewer or even one at a time?
Skaðvaldur: You are speaking to someone who is constantly at war with his own ways of trying to make schedules. It's really hard and often I'm in way over my head when it comes to accepting commissions and finishing art pro-bono. Often at times I try and work at about 2-3 things simultaneously because I can't focus on one thing for more than 3 hours at a time tops. Many times I get overwhelmed, then I take time to calm my self, look at the to-do list and try to decide day by day what I will do. It helps so much to do things in an orderly scheduled manner, who would have thought?
Vödkamizer: I am not even going to bother asking what bands inspire you as it would take too long to list... but which movies, series, or any visual media have left a large impact on your music and song writing?
Skaðvaldur: German expressionist films such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Metropolis and Nosferatu have had a huge impression on my artistic taste. 80s Giallo films with stark theatrical lighting and cinematography are very inspirational to me and influential. Not to mention slasher and zombie films serving a big role in most of my music writing, I just love composing about sleaze and gore. I love them guts n titties! Kill Kill AAAAGH EAT PUSSY SKIN
Slapstick humor films by Mel Brooks also play a huge role on my sense of humor prevalent in my writing! Leslie Nielsen was king. RIP. Oh, and TROMA films. Lloyd Kaufman is a national US treasure as well.
Vödkamizer: Having seen a lot of your artwork over the past few years, I see a lot of stuff that I can easily identify as being your art yet here and there you'll have drawings or paintings that come out of nowhere in very different styles. Can you explain a bit of your creative process when deciding how to go about various commissions that are out of your "comfort zone"?
Skaðvaldur: Just as in life I think it's imperative to venture outside of ones comfort zone to avoid the status quo, important for self growth if you know what I mean. This is something I struggle with too, getting comfortable with the way things are and just living with it. So changes are important and good for you.
I get very bored with drawing in the same style all the time. As much as I admire the likes of Mark Riddick, I don't understand how he can continue doing the similar looking style all the time. I guess it works out fine if that's what the client wants and you don't need to spend extra time trying to figure out new approaches to the art. But when I do get these interesting new commissions I tend to do a lot of reference investigation, sometimes see what's good enough to emulate. Some may say that sounds quite like plagiarism but I disagree. I may trace loose outlines of bunch of different references but together they end up forming something else, as John Cleese said in Monty Python's Flying Circus: "... and now for something completely different."
Sometimes I happen to see a piece of art that just moves me to try something different, from whatever art direction it may be. However I tend to stay within the "confines" of something like realism, because I have the hardest time to work on something figurative and abstract. I never seem to like the outcome when I work on something in that direction. Maybe it's lack of imagination, maybe it's Maybelline.
Vödkamizer: Hellripper, who you have worked with on many designs over the years, has been gaining a lot of traction lately with the release of "The Affair of The Poisons" through Peaceville Records. James has been quite active in mentioning your art pages whenever posting anything you have worked with him on. Has there been any noticeable increase in commissions with this publicity and if so, how has the work flow been for you?
Skaðvaldur: Interestingly enough I haven't really been getting any art commissions based on Hellripper's artwork and releases except once or twice in recent time but we'll see how it goes in the near future. These things take time to culminate, making artwork won't ensure you overnight fame. It's always a pleasure to work with James though, top lad. He provides very solid information for commissions, couple of wishes how he wouldn't like the image to turn out but also gives me heaps of artistic freedom which I love. As far as I understand and gather from my impression, he is a strong believer in the organic progression of creation. Best to not get too hung up on the details, otherwise it will never be done and you never get to a satisfying conclusion if you keep being too picky. We seem to click well when working together. I'm so proud on James' behalf of releasing an album through Peaceville, what a fucking legend he is!
As for the workflow itself, it's been fairly steady for the past 2-3 years with the usual month or two of slow work on my end. I take in some commissions, if stuff goes very well I end up taking in too many and have to cancel some work which really bruises my ego. I really admire all these artist that appear to churn out artwork after artwork seemingly so nonchalantly. I know it has everything to do with discipline and planning/time management, which I mentioned earlier in the interview is not my strong suit, but I could do worse I guess. It really takes a toll on me if I do nothing but draw and paint endlessly, I need something else to keep my mind active, otherwise I will just burn out too fast.
Vödkamizer: Anyone who knows you knows your obsession for bad movies, horror, and retro trash. What are some titles you are really into lately or left an impact on you?
Skaðvaldur: Well, them being bad is what we call a wrong opinion and they are in fact fantastic! Fuck you! However I do acknowledge them being trash but hey, isn't one man's trash another man's treasure?
Some of the most impactful b-movies I've seen are the following: Maniac (1980, the remake is good too), Evil Dead trilogy, Ash vs Evil Dead TV series, XTRO, Return of the Living Dead, Savage Streets, Basket Case, RAW (2016), Draugasaga(Powder Game, Icelandic horror), Sódóma Reykjavík (Remote Control, Icelandic crime comedy) Also seriously, the title translations for Icelandic movies suck ass. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Mystics in Bali, Oily Maniac, El día de la Bestia, and of course the old Toho Kaiju films! Too many to count haha.
Vödkamizer: Besides anything rock or metal, what are some genres of music and artists or bands you are really into that common kökksükkers wouldn't expect of you?
Skaðvaldur: Now you're wading in some strange waters my dude! I love it when I'm asked about music aside from metal, since talking of metal gets really derivative in the end. I'm very much into funk inspired jazz music. I've found myself to be particularly into the Japanese variety of AOR music often dubbed as Citypop with artists such as Mariya Takeuchu, Junko Yagami, Omega Tribe, Tatsuro Yamashita, Anri, Piper, Seaside Lovers and Tomoko Aran to name a few. I am also very much into funk music in general like Earth, Wind & Fire, Kool & The Gang, Rick James and Brothers Johnson. I'm really into jazzy and odd stuff like Sungazer, Frank Zappa, Büdi Sieberth, Thomas Dolby, Fantomas, Casiopea, T-Square, Mezzo Forte, Doctor Pizza, King Crimson, Mildlife, Vulfpeck and Son Swagga. I'm really into Vaporwave, my favourite artists are Luxury Elite, Dan Mason, dawnDreamer, 猫 シ Corp. and Yung Bae to name a few. I like to put on some bossa nova jazz or muzak/lounge elevator music, helps me relax while working. Heard some amazingly smooth chord progressions in that line of music.
Sometimes I like to listen to New Kids On The Block and 30s swing. Also ABBA is unironically fucking great. Nothing is out of question, except Metalcore and mallgoth emo music. Fight me.
Vödkamizer: After working with you on our own band over the years, I know you use a lot of raunchy references for certain pieces you have done. Do you have a specific source for reference images or do you just google shit? And have you ever used live/dead reference for any works?
Skaðvaldur: I initially just google phrases and keywords but I happen to know fairly good sources of stuff like poses from movie posters. For more gory stuff I often use Documenting Reality as source. Seen my fair share of stuff on the internet that I wouldn't mind unseeing and made me more jaded towards some aspects than I'd like to be but that is a whole different can of worms that would take too long to get into. Most of the times I find some source material, trace outlines and draw over what I feel fitting! Hack-fraud number one!
As for raunchy specifically, I might look at some porno and try to find a good pose to work from a still. It's an entertaining process to say the least!
Vödkamizer: Knowing that you are a big fan of sleaze, can you give us a list of your favorite "I should be careful about bookmarking this video" wänkbänk-able startlets of the pornographic persuasion and your 1/10 rating? And if you can be bothered, explain your ratings?
Skaðvaldur: Hmm.. as it comes to specifics I've never really taken all that much consideration into remembering every porn actress or video out there but as many I do have some nice favorites. I'm not really gonna bother with rating but I'll point out some favorites: Brandi Love and Lia Lor threeway session, she also did some bangin video where she was tied up, fuck that was a good one. Almost anything with Bonnie Rotten and Anna Bell Peaks, Riley Reid is decent as well as Rae Lil Black (she likes metal) specifically "Messy Deepthroat and My Face Got Super Destroyed" really slaps. Shame both of them have had recent surgeries so they just look like most porn actresses with bolt on tits and puffy duck-faced lips. Shame they both looked fantastic. I really dig vintage Italian pornos, German ones can be good. Especially the comedic ones like "Beim Jodeln juckt die Lederhose (1974)". Also big fan of checking out Efukt every once in a full moon. If you want to see something more Kino other than bimbos and funny stuff, I recommend stuff from Hegre-art, beautiful adult cinematography!
Vödkamizer: Who are some artists in the underground you worship? Are there any rivalries, competition, or collaborations you have done or hope to do?
Skaðvaldur: I mentioned before Mark Riddick and David Mikkelsen, his artist pseudonym is "Ink Lesions". I really like the artwork of Gutslaughter, Nightmare Imagery, Daniel Shaw (Sawblade666), the legendary Chris Moyen (Thorncross), Timo Ketola (RIP, huge loss for the underground), Matt "Putrid" Carr and Nekronikon to name a few of the top of my head.
There's not any rivalry as I know of! I wouldn't mind doing some collaboration work in the near future since I haven't done much of it, can't remember if I did any at the moment. I have some ideas lined up with my friend Tiit Pähnapuu.
Vödkamizer: Are there any projects you are working on that you are particularly looking forward to seeing released? And what are some previous releases you are particularly proud of the end result?
Skaðvaldur: Unfortunately I can't say much about what I'm working on since bands often prefer it to stay under the radar until they decide to announce it. I'm sitting on some designs that haven't seen the light of day for a couple of years even! I'm proud of most of the work I've done for bands, there are exceptions which I won't mention lol. I was really happy with the work I've done for Ripped to Shreds, Nekro Drunkz, Carnal Tomb, Coffin Rot and others.
Vödkamizer: Any shout outs or acknowledgements you'd like to make before we end this shit show?
Skaðvaldur: To you autismos on Metal-Archives, I didn't do the artwork for Hellripper's "Complete and Total Fucking Mayhem" nor did I do the artwork for Slege's "Slit the Throat of Abraham".
Vödkamizer: Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions. Hopefully this will give our reader a deeper appreciation of every decent album's artwork that has come out this year. Since you do them all.
Skaðvaldur: Thank you Vödkamizer for making me use a few more of my scarce braincells than usual in order read and write, you fukko! To your diarreaders, thanks for tuning in and wasting your time reading this nonsense of mine.
Skaðvaldur's bands are:
Sküllfükk SS (vox, bass) https://www.facebook.com/skullfukkers/
Ziegenhorn (bass, vox) https://www.facebook.com/Ziegenhorn666/
Urðun (guitar, vox) https://www.facebook.com/urdun/
Igor Mortis (everything but bass) https://www.facebook.com/Igorofdeath/
Koffin (session bass) https://www.facebook.com/KoffinEST/
You can contact him at: Skadvaldur.art@gmail.com
And you can check out his art at: https://www.facebook.com/skadvaldur and @skadvaldur on Instagram
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