Interview / Time and The Hunter

Renowned Swedish guitarist and sound designer Niklas Sundin (ex-Dark Tranquillity, Mitochondrial Sun), and Italian vocal artist Enrico Longhin (The Moor) have joined forces for a noire musical project through pulsating electronic, dark synths and indelible aspects of their musical journey so far, that makes Time and the Hunter an evolving distinctive creation. Characterized by sonic exploration, their music invites listeners to rediscover the joy of immersing themselves in sound on multiple levels. Their debut album, set for release in early 2025, promises to shake the year with its originality and energy, becoming an essential listen for open-minded music fans. Bridging the gap between the soundscapes of recent Ulver and Katatonia and classic influences like Nick Cave and David Bowie, each track will be a unique journey, each with its own sounds and story to tell.

How did your collaboration begin, considering your backgrounds in Sweden and Italy

Niklas: The project kind of started by accident: Around the time of the pandemic, I was doing some artwork for Enrico’s band The Moor, and he sent some demo songs over. At the same time, I happened to be working on some music myself, so I sent an instrumental song over and asked for some feedback. The next day, he had added some fantastic vocals, and we both felt that the result was so good that we had to explore this avenue further and continue writing songs together. After years of hard work, we’re very pleased to have “Weapon pt.1” out in the open.

Enrico: Yes, I remember that day, and how the arrangement of that track struck me. I also remember that at first we were talking about a couple of songs and, at best, an EP, but here we are with our first full-length. As for the distance, nothing that the internet couldn’t bridge, considering how we structured things. In fact, it pushed us to work in the most methodical and organised way possible, which is not a bad thing.

What drew you to explore the darkwave and ambient genres in this project?

Enrico: We never decided what we would do in terms of genre. The first tracks I wrote vocals for were perhaps instrumentally ambient, but I remember at some point we added drums and bass, and we liked the result. We ended up with a spectrum of songs that even we found hard to define within a single genre.

Niklas: Yes, it all happened organically. There was never a discussion about the music having to fit within a certain genre, and I think that our sound is very eclectic, but “darkwave” and “ambient” definitely covers some of it. With that said, I expect every future album to have its own direction.

Can you describe your creative process when composing tracks for Weapon pt.I?

Niklas: Our setup probably doesn’t differ that much from a lot of other collaborations these days, remote or not - we have a shared Dropbox folder as an online board (Milanote) to collect ideas and such. We’re both pretty well-organized, so the process has been really smooth. As for the songwriting part, there’s no real technical wizardry going on - we send audio and MIDI files to each other and discuss what we like and what we feel could be improved, and at the end of the day, every song is a combination of things created in our respective home studios. When everything feels completely finished in regards to arrangements and sound choices, Enrico handles the mixing.

How do your individual musical backgrounds influence the sound of Time and the Hunter?

Niklas: I have no idea why, but I think that electronic music made by metal musicians tends to sound a bit different from the norm - maybe there’s a certain approach to the arrangements or choice of notes that shine through. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly how our respective backgrounds influence the sound; I’ve been listening to synth and electronic music for as long as I’ve been a metal fan, and most of the people in the local metal scene had pretty eclectic tastes even back in the day.

Enrico: Definitely, and historically, darker electronic sounds have always been appreciated by metal listeners too. Personally, the musical past that reflects itself in this project surely goes back to my childhood. I have an older sister who listened to the pop and synth pop of the 80s, and many of those songs I’ve continued listening to ever since. Moreover, the evolution of electronic music has influenced and even created new genres within rock and metal, contaminating the entire musical landscape. As a passionate listener, I’ve always wanted to create something like this, so I believe it was simply the right time.

What themes or concepts did you aim to convey through the album?

Enrico: There wasn’t a concept from the start, but rather a set of ideas that gradually focused while writing the songs. I never like to explain exactly what I was feeling or what the lyrics mean, because I believe they are free to be interpreted. Often, they describe things visually, so there’s room for the listener to immerse themselves. I based them on the emotions the instrumental parts gave me. There are personal themes that reflect difficult moments in my life, broader themes like space and the universe, and eventually we explored more deeply and embraced themes that inspired the group’s moniker, starting for example from some of Italo Calvino’s short stories. There are often contrasts like hunter and prey, art and brutality, life and death, love and hate… I would say I enjoy playing with the contrasts of our mind.

Niklas: Enrico wrote all the lyrics, so I'll just comment briefly. To me, the song themes are universal and rooted in our common humanity. Everything is open for interpretation and written in a playful manner with a lot of metaphors and layers of symbolism. I always enjoyed lyrics that trigger the imagination of the listener rather than declaring a set of definite truths.

How did the collaboration with Mikael Stanne on “The Following Silence” come about?

Niklas: I played with Mikael for many years in Dark Tranquillity, and he also provided session vocals for The Moor some years ago, so it was very natural to ask him. In addition to being a fantastic vocalist with a characteristic voice, he has been a supporter of Time and the Hunter since the project started and was one of the few people that got to listen to the early demo songs. We're very grateful that he not only found time in his super busy schedule to record some stellar vocals, but also to participate in the video shoot for the song.

What challenges did you face in blending electronic elements with traditional instrumentation?

Enrico: The idea of combining electronics with traditional instruments is something I had already encountered with my band The Moor, and precisely for reasons of sound exploration and sometimes the need to "play at home", it felt natural in a track like The Great Disturbance to add distorted guitars, as well as to play bass on certain songs rather than using synthesised bass. Since I had never made electronic music like this before, my knowledge only went as far as what I had explored in my recording studio and through metal music, so I often had the problem of having something in mind that I couldn’t quite create or find in terms of sound. I spent a lot of time setting up a fluid workspace, and I rebuilt my home studio to have everything I needed.

Niklas: Enrico is the one that had to deal with the technical challenges since he took care of the mixing, but in my view, it always takes time to find the optimal sounds for a given purpose - whether they’re digital or “real”. We certainly allowed ourselves to try many things out and to fine tune the individual sounds and effects and often returned to songs after they were completed to - for example - see how it'd sound with a different snare sound or with the synth bass replaced by a real one.

How do you approach live performances, given the layered nature of your music?

Niklas: We approach them by keeping Time and the Hunter a studio project, ha ha! At this point, it’d be complicated to think about playing shows since we live in different countries, but one never knows what the future has in store. The biggest challenge would be to arrange these studio-created songs to fit the live environment and allow them to be played on real instruments. Most likely, some additional musicians would be needed as well. We’ve spent so much time and effort building our musical universe to sound perfect on record, so if we play live, it needs to be something equally “magical” and not just one guy with a microphone and another guy with a laptop or a keyboard.

What role does visual art play in complementing your musical aesthetic?

Niklas: The visuals play a pretty important role. People approach these things in different ways, but - being a graphic designer by profession - I’ve always looked at bands and artists as the sum of their output; music, lyrics, album artwork, layout, photo shoots etc. Even how they conduct themselves in interviews can be seen as part of the artistery. I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with people that “only” care about the music, but to me everything is connected. Just as with the music, we spent a lot of time deciding on the visual direction of "Weapon pt.I" and planning the videos.

Enrico: Exactly, and one of the things I really appreciated is that the visual side developed in parallel with the music, following the journey from the first demos to the finished album over these four years.

How has the reception of Weapon pt.I influenced your plans for future projects?

Enrico: Personally, it’s a project that has given me a great deal of satisfaction since the very first demos, regardless of whether the songs were shared with the world or not, so in a way the foundation isn’t influenced by how the album has been received so far. That said, I wasn’t expecting such a warm welcome even from the metal audience, and that only brings more confidence and satisfaction with the work we’ve done so far.

Niklas: I agree. I don’t think that public reception ever influenced any musical decisions for me, be it for Dark Tranquillity which sold hundreds of thousands of CD's back in the day or for more obscure projects that sold very little. Time and the Hunter is already a very rewarding project and a success regardless of how many listeners we get and what they think about the album. As Enrico said, the initial response has been great, and we’re definitely happy for that, but the creative work in itself is the greatest reward.

Are there any particular artists or movements that have inspired your work?

Niklas: It’s always hard to pinpoint direct influences or inspirational sources. I believe that everything that one listens to leaves some kind of trace in one's own musical output, and at the end of the day there probably are hundreds of different artists that each exert a small role in our sound. People that have listened to the debut album have mentioned Norwegian magicians Ulver (their electronic work, not their metal albums) as a reference, which I can agree with. We've also named Nick Cave and David Bowie, as well as Katatonia, as artists whose influence might be there, but perhaps more in spirit than sound. Maybe there's an element of 90's trip hop in some of the percussion - I really enjoyed the likes of Massive Attack, Tricky and Portishead back in the day. Some of the darker and more introspective storytelling moments might have traces of Thåström or Rome in them - but on the whole, it's not easy to analyze your own work as a musician.

Enrico: I agree with Niklas, and I also think that when someone compared us to Ulver or Katatonia, it’s because those names are close to the metal scene, which is where we both come from. But even with artists like them, the result is a sum of having grown up with certain kinds of music, movements and influences. Even in past interviews, I never hid the fact that alongside listening to metal, some of my melodic influences also came from growing up with bands like Duran Duran, The Cure, Depeche Mode, Tears for Fears. I’ve had several musical "periods", I’ve always been hungry for new things, I’ve always loved progressive rock, but also more crossover acts like Faith No More, ranging as far as very different but iconic figures like Leonard Cohen, Joe Cocker (especially his late 90s material), Billy Joel.

What can listeners expect from Time and the Hunter moving forward?

Enrico: Maybe a Weapon pt.II if everything goes according to plan? I think that just like us, people can expect anything, and we hope it will be as sincere and genuine as it has been so far.

Niklas: Absolutely! The creative juices are constantly flowing, and I look forward to having new music out sooner rather than later.

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