Part II of this two-part interview finds Blake discussing his label, Battle Kommand Records, as well as addressing the likelihood of seeing your other favorite black metallers play live, and how he got involved with this ugly, abrasive genre that we hold so close to our blackened hearts.

Your label, Battle Kommand, has become one of the most respected US underground BM labels around; do you mind if I ask you to tell me a bit about how you first got started, and how things are going?

By creating the label, I was able to do what I'm doing with the band now. It took years to get a lineup together for Nachtmystium with people that could and were willing to travel and spend their own money if it came down to it, because you know there's times when we’ll need to (because we’re not getting rich doing this) – we get paid now when we play, which is nice and takes care of at least the bare bones of transportation and such, but to find people that are willing to go out and drive from Chicago to Los Angeles with a van full of gear and spend $600 on gas to play a show and hope it works out is really hard, so now we have that. For a long time I wasn’t able to do that; I couldn’t have even if I wanted to because I was too busy working and being under qualified purely because I didn’t finish college because I wanted to do my band!
    So basically I started doing Battle Kommand because I was making bullshit money. All the jobs I’d had were metal-related – I worked in a metal record store for  2 and a half years, and at one point had overlapping jobs. I was working there, and I worked at a big metal/punk bar in Chicago called Hixon [SPELLING]. It was like this place except it looked like a fuckin' vampire goth club, with fuckin' chains everywhere – it was punk downstairs, goth upstairs, and I was a metal DJ there. I wound up quitting the record store and I continued on with the DJ thing, and that did really well. For a year I ran this crazy metal night in Chicago; no one had ever had an extreme metal night before, and this place was the perfect setting – they had like bone chandeliers and gas masks on the walls, all painted black, there was a fuckin' painting of Johnny Rotten, Adolf Hitler and Ed Gacey hanging out together – just an extreme place, which is obviously what they were trying to portray. It was a cool place, and me and Macabre’s manager hooked up and started doing that, and basically by doing that I realized that I could do something within metal by myself and make money. I was making pretty good money too, it was a couple hundred bucks a week, it was a good time, and I got paid to drink with my friends for free and listen to whatever the fuck I wanted on a stereo system that would knock a small house down. It was really motivating, because as time went on, because it was such a regular thing, people stopped coming out every weekend, I stopped wanting to have to go, it got a little lame and it was time to do something, and you know, I’d gotten my finances together, I got some good credit built up, and I had a credit card with enough money on it to put out a CD, so I put one of Neil's (aka Imperial, ex-Krieg/March into the Sea/N.I.L.)’s records out, and that’s how it started. It did well, I was smart about it, I've managed my distro and website; I made a massive investment and put out a lot of records (we had like 9 releases in one year).It was a lot of money to put out there, hoping that things would work out. Now, granted, though friends and connections, I had some records that I knew weren’t going to hurt me - Xasthur and Leviathan wasn’t going to not do well. And it's done great, everything’s done great, and the Southern Lord connection – they distribute 4 of our titles, probably the best-known of the Battle Kommand titles, obvious bands that they'd want to work with. Everything’s been great, things have been overlapping as far as accounting goes with them, they’ve been very good to us – they pay us all the time and we sell a lot of records, so we wanna keep working with them! Now, the cool thing is, I've finally hammered out a deal with Plastichead in Europe directly from Candlelight, and Candlelight USA is going to distribute every single Battle Kommand title that Southern Lord doesn’t take, so you will then be able to find Cult of Daath and Ruins of Beverast and any of the lesser-known releases that we’ve put out anywhere that you can find the Southern Lord ones, and naturally if we put more product out there and do co-ops with stores – it’s cool ‘cause they set it up that you can spend like 1,200 dollars of whatever they’re going to give back to you to pay the record stores, because you’re paying for placement – if they have an end rack or some posters or a whole poster display, things that record stores do, that’s not just fans working there most of the time, that’s how they promote within the store. Now the record store’s becoming a dying thing, but that’s a whole other story!
In a nutshell, our whole catalogue’s going to be distributed now; it’ll all be available on iTunes sometime next year. Southern Lord got a deal direct with them, which is really cool because companies like Caroline, Plastichead, since obviously the sale of actual hard copies of music are going to become obsolete, they’re now becoming affiliated with iTunes and things like that. Luckily for us, something’s been set up in a way where Southern Lord basically has a direct deal with iTunes, and that eliminates the middle man, which is good for business, and it’s better for the bands, because if our labels – Greg’s label and mine – are making a turnaround on downloads, we can then split that 50-50 with the band. As much as I don’t like digital music and the idea of buying music online – I’m a collector – I know some people do, so it’s cool that we’re now going to be able to do it. It’s cool for the bands because they’re going to be exposed to a younger audience that’s only learning to have music that they download instead of going out to record stores because, well, there’s none left! They’re few and far-between these days.  
    So, basically, that’s where things are at now; they’re going really well. The line-up for next year is really interesting. There’s only a couple black metal releases; we just signed a band called Exhalted from the area of Illinois that I live in, it’s a bunch of dudes from an old hardcore/speedcore band called MK Ultra who were pretty popular in that scene about seven years go. They’re really good black metal and put out this ripping record. We’re working with a band called Gathians [SPELLING] who are incredible. They would fit more on Hydra Head than on Battle Kommand; it’s totally spaced-out, it’s not heavy heavy but they have all the psych influence of that instrumental, proggy, psychy kind of sound…it’s hard to explain, it’s just really good. It makes me think of Pink Floyd. The cool thing about thee guys for me is that their music has totally captivated me in that way that a really good metal record hits you, you know, but they’re not heavy. Heavy is so popular now, it’s so trendy to be a “heavy” band now; they’re just different enough to make them stand out above everything else. My guess is that, in about a year from now, if anybody on Battle Kommand is going to be fuckin’ flyin’ as a brand-new artist, it’ll be them, and Zoroaster, who are downstairs! That’s our other new signing.  They’re the most important band we’ve ever signed, because they were our first step away from black metal. I saw those guys when they were opening for this funeral doom band called Loss. Mike from Loss is a really good friend of mine; I went down for New Year’s last year, and they just happened to be playing a show so I came down a couple days early to see the show and hang out. Zoroaster opened, and I was like, “ Oh my fucking god, this is so good, there’s nobody here watching them, they’re obviously local, and they’re really good,” so I walked right up to them and was like, “Hi, I run a record label, I have no idea if you know who I am or what kind of music I’m into, or if you’re even interested in hearing what I have to say, but, I have a record label and I know somebody who could really help you out.” That was Southern Lord - I know Greg’s tastes, and I knew that he was going to like them, especially if he saw them live, and that’s exactly what happened. We just stayed in touch, worked out a deal that’s really good for them and really good for us, and Southern Lord got involved for distribution on it. They’ve been very much the dveloping artist, and I’ve enjoyed it so much because I like them so much as people, they’re really cool guys.

Oh, yeah, I was joking with Dan, the drummer, earlier.

They’re the sweetest, funniest guys in the world, and when they go onstage, if you have any love for that type of music, these guy are gonna do it better than anyone you’ve seen do it before live. They give everyone a run for their money. They’re also involved in the roster for next year – we’re going to do a full-length for them, and they’re planning on touring as much as possible. They’re booked until  March right now, and they’ve been booked since October. They’re a hard-working band, which is another reason I’ve got them on the lineup - I want really hard workers that will go to the next level, and because I am a musician, and started a label in part because I wanted to have control of my own music, and I understand that and feel that for our bands. When you’re on Battle Kommand Records, we don’t own your music. Any other label – and I mean any, I’m not going to name names, but really, any other label will own at least a portion of your copyrights or publishing rights; there are things that make it very much theirs in regards to the fact that if you weren’t happy one day, you could never do anything about the fact that they are affiliated with that record. With us, we license, and sure, I have exclusive rights to something for a certain number of years – generally 5 or 10 – but there is a light at the end of that tunnel and since I’m not out to fuck anyone anyway, I’m not really worried about it, but it’s comforting to them. That’s part of the reason we never signed with anybody, ‘cause no one would do the distribution deal, basically licensing a record from you and manufacturing it and putting it out, but if you look at massive bands like Motorhead, they licensed their music. They’ve probably got their own production company to handle it for them by now, but see, there are bands out there that are really smart and play their cards right. Not that money should be important, but if there’s money being made, then it should be for the band, and I try to do that for my bands. I really try to be a for-the-musician’s label, and we’ve never had anyone leave or become unsatisfied that I’m working with or have worked with in the past, so...it’s really cool.

You’re probably going to get a flood of demos after this gets published and people see what kind of outfit you’re running!

See, honestly – not that I don’t listen to demos, not to discourage people from sending them to me, but I have never signed a band off a demo I got in the mail. I go find bands – I just happen to see them, or I stumble across their Myspace page. I stumbled across that Gathiens [SPELLNG] band, and I could be completely wrong and living in a cloud, but if this comes out and it does what I've seen records that are half as good as this one do, then it's going to be huge. I found them ‘cause I was following links around on somebody’s Myspace page ‘cause I was bored, you know? And I heard it and I immediately wrote to ‘em, and was like, “Hi, you guys are probably into indie rock and all that shit and have no idea who this metal guy is,” but the coolest thing about it was that they were like,  “Yeah, we like your band! We’re into what you guys are doing”, and they’re Southern Lord guys, they know what’s up with that whole world, so that was cool, ‘cause I was pleased that they weren’t like, “Uhh, you’re some label with a gas mask in your logo and bullets and shit, we’re not really interested in your aesthetic.”
(laughs)
    So, yeah, Battle Kommand’s doing really well and I’m very happy with is, because it’s allowing me to do this, and in the next year, hopefully it’ll expand and I’ll have employees that I can actually pay all the time and take care of and have running the show while I’m gone, because it is kinda slow right now, but it’s great that these distribution deals have been coming in. The Southern Lord thing is awesome, but to have full distro for all of our titles through one source or another and have it in Europe, will allow me to stop worrying about the more petty stuff like running an online store and having a distro, you know. I can get all my stuff out there through bigger means and not have it be so hands-on, which’ll free up my time. So it’s good that all this is happening, with what’s going on with Nachtmystium – all the pieces are falling into place with this band, it’s weird. Things have been really good.

Good to hear. So, going back to your band. Nachtmystium, who is for all intents and purposes, as of a few years ago at least, a black metal band, is playing this show tonight. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but…black metal bands don’t play live!

Oh, we’ve always played live, I like playing live. I like the energy I feel when we get up in front of a group of people who are feeling what we’re doing. We’ve stood up there in front of people who didn’t like us, and it doesn’t ruin the experience of playing for me at all - it’s still cool. Recently, we seem to have acquired some fans, people that will come up to shows and put their hands up and shit– it’s a great feeling, you feel like you’re making some kind of difference. People are spending their time and their life to come and give you three hours of it, hang out at your show, watch your band, and buy your merch! It’s cool as hell. Being on the road is awesome, too – it’s fucking ridiculous. You only have to be responsible for like 4 hours a day, and the rest of the time you’re drunk or doing drugs or passed out or whatever, throwing up because you did too much of that the night before. It’s not fancy for us by any means, we’ve got some nice buses and vans and shit downstairs, but it’s not like some fuckin’ tour bus; we’re not being pampered, we have to work out asses off and move our own gear. We all love this; we’d rather be doing this than anything else.

It definitely sounds like it. Now, why do you think so many black metal bands decide against playing live?

Bands are either unorganized or unable to play live or unable to travel, or they’re just not into it. There are a lot of one-man bands and shit like that, too, but, I don’t know – certain bands, I couldn’t really see live. I wouldn’t want to watch Burzum live personally. His music is something that I don’t think would come across well in a live settling. A lot of our early stuff doesn’t come across well in a live environment. We were trying to rehearse a couple from “Reign of the Malicious” for this tour because a couple people bitched that we didn’t ever play stuff off of it. Now, I haven’t listened to that album in 5 years – I had to relearn those songs, ‘cause I just don’t like it. We were practicing it, and we put it right in the middle of the set, and it just didn’t fit. Bands that do have that kind of style, that real raunchy Darkthrone kind of sound to them, or even the slower, Burzum-esque, more agonizing-sounding ones, I don’t think there’s really an appropriate way to put that on live. That Gathering The Shadows festival out in Colorado, that they put on up in the mountains – we played that a couple years ago, and that…any black metal band that can perform live should play there, because you’re in the fuckin’ forest, literally on the side of a mountain. It was snowing on us while we were playing – it was like an Immortal video, without the dude standing there with the fan with snow flying through! It was really cool, and some of the bands I saw that night, I think if I saw them in a bar it wouldn’t have had the impact on me that it did. The band Nightbringer organizes the festival – they’re amazing, if you haven’t heard them you should check them out.

What about the production factor? A lot of the raw, “kvlt” bands pride themselves on the exceedingly rough production on their albums. I can’t imagine how that would play out live.

Yeah, a lot of our old shit, when we play live, sounds a lot more cleaned-up now that we’ve bought some decent equipment and got our tones figured out – the doom metal thing has rubbed off on us in that regard. We bought real nice guitars and amplifiers and stuff when things started getting better, and it really makes a world of difference. Live, with a good engineer working things, we can sound very full – it’s way more attacking-sounding than like a thin black metal record, it’s got more balls to it, which we like and is what we’re going for.

Will you be playing any older material tonight?

Hmm, maybe one or two…let me think about that. We’re playing stuff form the self-titled, something from Demise, a couple Eulogy songs, and the rest is new shit – Instinct: Decay stuff.

Now, to wrap things up, I’ve got to ask the Question:
How did you get into black metal, and what does it mean to you?

I got into black metal because of SPIN Magazine in 1996. I was thirteen. They ran a feature on black metal called “Satan’s Cheerleaders.” At this time, to get an Emperor CD in the US, you had to order it from Europe. Nobody here, at least my peers, the people between about 13-20 that I knew back then growing up, nobody knew what it was. I saw all these pictures and you know, I was so impressionable – I was thirteen, progressing from Slayer and shit, and looking for something more. Slayer was never enough for me, and I don’t like death metal, so when I saw this shit, I saw all these pentagrams- the way they portrayed it in that magazine is still to this day what I think of as the “grim face of black metal” – the photos they used were really awesome, and captured exactly what I wish I could still find somewhere today. The old, cold, obscurity…it was great. I read that article like 400 fuckin’ times and called every record store I could find, and finally Reckless Records in Chicago ordered  the Emperor/Enslaved split for me; when I got it, it changed my life, and that is why we’re talking right now.

What does it mean to me? In a way, it was like the ultimate rebellion to me. When I was younger, as every teenage kid does, I rebelled, and this was kind of how I voiced that. Beyond that, it’s a pretty personal thing too. When I listen to records like “Filosofem,” “De Mysteriias Dom Sathanas,” “Under a Funeral Moon” – you know,  the classics - I love that chill you get down your spine every now and then. It doesn't happen often – it happens less and less nowadays. I just remember being completely enthralled as a kid, and right when “In the Nightside Eclipse” came out, that was about 3 months after I got that Enslaved split I mentioned, and I got that the day it was out. I’d ordered it, and I was just like, “Holy fuck! this is amazing!” I remember being so captured by it, and it drew my attention in a way that no music, any type of media, ever had for me before, and I literally became obsessed. I used to write to Bard Faust when he was in prison, I used to write to Fullmoon Productions and Necropolis Records when they were just getting on their feet; Fullmoon had been around for awhile  but Necropolis was just a baby label, they’d just put out the tribute to Euronymous when I started corresponding with them. They turned out to be a not very cool label in the long run, but at the time I thought it was awesome, their early catalogue was great. I just kind of went from there, and it changed everything for me.