Dymna Lotva #Interview

For those who aren’t yet aware of this project, Dymna Lotva is the kind of band whose music and overall presentation tend to leave a pretty strong mark. Their way of blending black metal and doom metal with folk stories and history comes off as undoubtedly authentic. Vocalist Nokt and guitarist Jauhien, the duo that started it all, offer some great insights into the evolution of Dymna Lotva over time, their upcoming concerts and music, the ideas that inspire and drive their creative project, and so much more. Brace yourselves, this is really interesting!

Hello, and thank you for taking part in this interview! The past year proved to be a fruitful one, with the release of your latest single Адышоўшым (For Those Who Are Gone) along with the touring in support of your 2023 album, in the shape of the Blood Fall Tour and appearances at various festivals. What have you set out to accomplish in 2025, and how is everything coming along thus far?

Nokt: First of all, I would like to point out that 2024 also released a very important track “Live!” and the music video for it. And we also unexpectedly founded a new project “Hangover in Minsk”.

So right now everything is revolving around this new band. We postponed the recording of the new album Dymna Lotva (which is already fully composed) to record the Hangover album first. Now it’s already in the mixing stage, and we’re working on the visuals in parallel. The Hangover in Minsk live debut is set for Dark Easter Metal Meeting fest in Munich on April 19.

We won’t make any promises, but we hope to get back to recording new Dymna Lotva material soon. And we are also preparing to visit new countries with concerts!

Speaking of For Those Who Are Gone, and the music video that came with it, it is interesting that one of your lightest songs has such a dark story behind it. Could you elaborate on this songwriting choice? Also, how did you approach translating the message of the song in the video?

Nokt: Honestly, all our songs have dark stories behind them, so there’s nothing new here. I can tell you about the light sound: it fits the original 1930s poem better. It fits the sense of Valery Marakou’s lyrics better. In addition, it would be really good if not only metalheads could listen to this song. This story is important.

The video is based on the lyrics. We didn’t have a lot of time and a lot of money for it, but thanks to amazing videographer Ryncuk Vystarobski it contain all the needed emotions and senses.

Dymna Lotva has always been, as far as I am aware, a project with a great level of artistry involved, not just when it comes to music, but also in terms of visuals and stage presence. How did this artistic vision come to be, and what were the main elements that inspired it?

Nokt: Honestly, I can’t imagine working without it, and the rest of the band agrees with me. How can a particular art form or genre exist apart from the rest in 2025? How can you stand on stage and just mechanically play a part exactly as it appears on the recording, AND ONLY? It’s hard for me to imagine and I don’t see the point of it.

Our visuals are inspired by the same things as the music/text and exist inseparably with them. Usually when I write lyrics to music, I already have a whole movie in my head at the same time. It’s a pity we don’t have the opportunity to realize all that.

As for inspiration… It’s all around: books, movies, real stories, nature, mythology, dreams, personal feelings. Now I am especially interested in ethnographic materials. For example, images from old Belarusian village spells.

Slavic, and more specifically, Belarusian folklore is, in a sense, the part that brings together all aspects of the music, and not only. As a result, many of your music videos are laden with specific symbols. Some of the most poignant imagery can be found in the videos for Пахаваны жыўцом (Buried Alive), Смерць цалуе ў вочы (Death Kisses Your Eyes) and Пекла (Hell). What was it like to work on these videos, and could you delve deeper into the symbolic meaning of the visuals?

Nokt: Let’s start by saying that for me personally, working on videos is the favorite part about making music. Oddly enough, I’m a visual person by nature. I see at least one full video for every song. And I’m trying to visualise my own inner world in the music videos, even if the video is made without my personal presence (as Hell). We always add some easter eggs, some connections between the different ones. It’s hard to talk about all of them together because a lot of work and thoughts, a lot of symbols are implemented in every.
Better I tell you that the most complicated and epic video in Dymna Lotva history is now on editing.

All of these lead back to your 2023 record, Зямля Пад Чорнымі Крыламі: Кроў (The Land Under The Black Wings: Blood) which is a concept album about war, inspired at least partially from personal experience. Was this direction part of the initial plan for the trilogy it is part of, or was it more of a reaction to the events you experienced? If so, to what extent did it change the original concept, and do you plan on ever approaching this topic again?

Nokt: the whole trilogy idea with concepts, lyrical themes and cover artworks was created by me and Jauhien back in 2015/2016. We are just slow.
We don’t plan to return to this theme. We planned to make a really hard conceptual album about war – we made it. For now a lot of other concepts are waiting. Maybe in 20 years… But I am not sure.

The album also includes several sound and spoken word samples, that make the atmosphere and concept of the record a lot harder hitting, examples being found, for example in the opening track. How did this idea appear during the songwriting process, and why did you decide to go for it?

Nokt: the album is based on the Ales Adamovich’s documental book ‘I am from the fire village’. In the 1970s, he collected the memories of women and children who survived the occupation of Belarus during the World War II. The book comes with a vinyl record with recordings of the voices of the real characters of the book telling their stories. We digitized that record and used the scariest story record as a sample for the song The Pit. The same book was also the inspiration for Eduard Klimov’s movie “Come and See,” which is often called one of the scariest war movies in history. We took the sound from the very beginning of the movie as a sample to start the first song of the album. As you can see, everything is connected and it’s actually very simple.

In terms of change, Dymna Lotva has remained fairly consistent musically over the years, while evolving continuously from one record to another. What were the main moments that defined your sound, and what would you say was the most drastic, or previously unexpected?

Jauhien: It’s hard to say that any of the moments affected the sound. Probably, when it comes to the guitars and composition, the important thing was the somewhat non-standard guitar tuning. If we’re talking globally about our sound, it was influenced by the fact that Nokt and I listen to and like different music. I listened to black music to a lesser extent when I was writing music. I’m more into doom and post-metal. Nokt is more into black metal and consequently black metal vocals. And the most drastic thing to mention is that we drastically don’t have a limit. We can afford to do whatever we want. Like releasing a very light track like “Адышоўшым (For Those Who Are Gone)”.

A big part of your identity as a band is activism against the Belarusian dictatorship and raising awareness about the war in Ukraine. What convinced you to follow this path, and what motivates you to continue speaking about these issues? What role would you say extreme music has in describing world events such as these?

Nokt: Firstly, we don’t want to call this ‘activism’. It’s just our lives. Nothing extraordinary for our nation.

I understand that it’s exotic for people from wealthy countries, but for the last 30 years a lot of rock and metal musicians have been banned in Belarus. If we talk about those who are considered cult in my country – all of them. So it is an honor for us to be on the list of banned musicians.

Could it be called ‘activism’, when you just say NO when authorities kill weaponless people near your house? When the biggest war in Europe since World War II is started? When your home is burned? When your friends and colleagues are in prison?
Let’s imagine Panem from Hunger Games. Are all people who just sing The Hanging Tree activists?
We try to do at least something, even the smallest. Yes, we can’t do much. But at least we don’t keep silent.

On a lighter note, your live performances have gained a reputation for being high quality and unique, and not without reasons. You have mentioned in previous interviews that you try to make each concert stand out, adding something new to each one. What are, however, the aspects that remain the same for each one, in terms of presence and presentation?

Nokt: Honestly, this statement was 100% true only when we lived at home and played less than 10 concerts a year. That times I often made new stage costumes for festivals, we created some unique stage props for separate shows and of course, I had made new unique wreath for every single show. This month we’ve played 10 shows and, unfortunately, such a big piece of work for every show is not possible anymore. But we still change our setlist for every fest, often add something new into visuals… Emotions and the whole show are still unique for us. If they still unique for fans – it’s questions for them.

But we add all our energy to every show. That remains the same. And probably ‘The land under the black wings’ wild dancing, my favourite.

On the same line, what would you consider your most memorable performances so far, and which ones are you looking forward to most?

Jauhien: Probably the most memorable so far is the performance at Prophecy Fest 2024. Cave, big stage, great audience. It’s something you won’t soon forget! We actually have a lot of really great gigs. But as practice has shown, the bad ones are better remembered. But let’s not talk about that.

Nokt: Of course the most memorable performance is the first Dymna Lotva performance (and afterparty after it).

But if we talk about last year – I want to remember Sinister Feast. It’s our genre festival and so many people waited for us… Including some great musicians. For example, it was a big surprise when I realized that Kim Karlsson is watching our show directly from the stage hiding behind the cab. I arched back hard, he winked at me…. and I got a crunch in my spine. After our sets we got drunk together and now as a result Kim is recording guest vocals for Hangover in Minsk.

Also I want to mention Metal Mine fest in Poland. Ideal fest size for me. We rarely play at open airs and that only makes me love this format more. I love outdoor stages so much! Dear organizers, please book us more for open airs! About Metal Mine… Gutalax played directly after us. Incredible contrast. It may have been the first time in history that people waved toilet seats and wiped away tears with toilet paper while listening to dsbm under the stage. And by the way, all Dymna Lotva musicians are Gutalax fans.

At the end I also need to mention Prophecy fest. Because of CAVE.

About future concerts… I can’t wait for Dark Easter Metal Meeting 2025. We’ll play there twice – 1st fest day as Hangover in Minsk and the second day as Dymna Lotva.

Having approached numerous themes in your music, it left me, along with other people wondering, in what ways do you plan on expanding on them in future works? Are there any other subjects you wish to touch upon in your music, but haven’t had the occasion yet?

Jauhien: Honestly, we’ve already got the concepts for the next few albums mapped out. I don’t think it’s a good idea to reveal all the cards right now. But at least we plan to finish the trilogy we started. And it’s not going to be any fun.

Nokt: We always have enough topics for the future and not enough time, energy and money to realize them quickly enough.

Lastly, thank you once again for taking the time to answer these questions, I hope you found them interesting. Is there anything else you would like to add?

Jauhien: Thank you, too. The questions were really interesting. Listen to good music and come to our concerts.

Nokt: Pretty much all the shit in the world is a product of stupidity and cowardice. So I wish everyone who reads this to be brave and read good books. When you are smart and brave, you can influence the world around you. And remember, no action is too small. Too small is to be afraid and do nothing.

Interview by Ioana