(Today we present Comrade Aleks’ interview of Spyros, aka Declwa, guitarist/bassist for the UK band Unmother, whose second album was released in February of this year and was reviewed by us here.)
The second album of London-based project Unmother, State Dependent Memory, depicts a disturbing urban atmosphere of isolation and unsafety in post-black metal tones. The black metal elements used as the album’s framework are almost devoid of the genre’s extreme spirit, but the speed of delivery and screaming vocals work to Unmother’s advantage. The album’s main mood, or atmosphere, so to speak, is supported by “experimental” and melancholy deviations from the theme, embedded in the guitars’ transitions into the appropriate register and the non-trivial, noire keyboard melodies.
Unmother truly has crafted material with its own character, and the black metal component isn’t as prominent as one might expect, but that’s not particularly important. State Dependent Memory provides questions and barely answers, and an interview with the band was a question of time.
Hi Spyros! How are doing now, three months since the official release of your second album State Dependent Memory? What’s going on in your den?
Hi there! Thanks for having us! It has been a busy few months. We have been overwhelmed by the feedback on our second album, and at the moment we are preparing for live performances in the UK (Liverpool, the 18th of July, is confirmed) and also working with the new line-up on our next album.
I found not much about the band’s roots and the background of Unmother’s members. What made you gather back then in 2019 and start composing this black metal-oriented music together?
Unmother started as a need to revisit some of our favourite music/bands. We are/were huge fans of the Norwegian scene of the ’90s, and I used to write a lot of black metal in my earlier days. Some of the riffs you hear on Lay Down the Sun were in my drawers for about 15 years before I attempted to properly structure them and turn them into actual songs – I still have some of the original recordings of these ideas in a hard drive somewhere.
What kind of meaning did you put in the band’s title?
The title Unmother has multiple meanings. It was brought to us by Azoso during a time where the attack on reproductive rights was starting to increase globally and after reading an article about abortion rights in the US, however we found its meaning to characterize the overall thematic approach of our project. More specifically and using Unmother as a verb, we challenge the listener to abort the notion of nurturing and perpetuating the sense of hyper-individualism, and pathogenic idleness, that characterise today’s dystopian society, through presenting them with an esoteric view of the horrors of late-stage capitalism and their effect on our mental state.
The band is known for its conceptual connection to urban distress and misery, and you’re based, at least partly, in London. Was this [dominating] feeling of unease the core reason to start composing the songs which shaped Lay Down the Sun in 2021?
Partially, yes. Even though we enjoy living in London, it is truly a wonderful city, we felt that the darker parts of this music relate to us mostly in how actual everyday life in a voracious metropolis is. There are no trolls, elves, demonic snowstorms, or anything else from the fantasy realm here (love Immortal, though!), but poverty, addiction, the rise of the far right, institutional racism, being confined within four walls as part of the survival struggle for most of us. Ludicra described this pretty vividly in “The Tenant”: “For all within your rooms, your narrow rented tombs, within your walls of want, the frame in which you haunt, inside your restless storm.”
What do you think about the rise of such things as the far right and institutional racism? How serious is this problem in London? I used not to pay much attention to lyrics descriptions in metal-archives (it’s clearly subjective), but I guess there was antifascism among other definitions.
There is this worrying normalisation of oppressive ideologies and atrocities globally. Just see the US, the genocide in Palestine, far right parties gaining more power in Europe, and even the rise of the far right in the UK. London is a huge multicultural city and the home of many progressive ideas and communities, however it is quite sad to see such big participation in far right rallies. There has been a worrying increase in racist attacks in the last few years, particularly on people of colour, and recently there is a lot of hate towards the trans community as well. These actions are fortified by false narratives perpetuated by the media and government policies attacking vulnerable communities. People with horrible ideologies are making a lot of noise right now and this can make the world feel like a scary and hopeless place. We need to scream louder than them.
Regarding antifascism in our lyrics; it is one of the topics our lyrics revolve around, sometimes in a more cryptic personal way, sometimes in a more direct way – for example, the track “Magda” is a tribute to Magda Fyssa, mother of musician and antifascist Pavlos Fyssas (Killah P) who was murdered by the far right in Athens in 2013.
Is Unmother more London-influenced or Athens-influenced band?
Both. They are both big cities, and life can feel similar in both. However, we left Athens in quite a tumultuous time – at the peak of the financial crisis and within strong political turmoil, so, while similar, they have influenced us in different ways.
What slowed you down after the first release? It took five more years to complete a sophomore album.
Life happened! We are not professional musicians, and time or budget to properly record is not always available. At the same time, since our music is directly connected to our experiences, we believe in releasing new material when we feel ready and comfortable to do so. We do not have pressure from anyone to release music within a specific timeframe, something that is both positive and negative.
Most of the band’s members are anonymous besides newly arrived frontman Vangelis, probably. What makes you keep your identities hidden? Do the band’s other members have musical backgrounds besides Unmother?
No particular issue with keeping our identities hidden. We are quite open with who we are, we just felt our names are unimportant to the project, hence the choice to just use our initials/nicknames. I have been making music under the name Declwa for quite a few years now, and I was always a fan of the monikers used by some of our favourite bands growing up.
As for other musical backgrounds, yes. Myself, Azoso, and B. also play in “Dothe”, a London-based Blackened Post Metal group, and we are in the process of recording our first EP now. Vangelis is part of quite a few bands (Voak, Τέλμα, and Well of Souls), and I am involved in various projects ranging from boom bap to more experimental rock stuff (Those Damn Thieves, Yataghan Cuts).
How much of all this past (and current) experience helps you in Unmother? And does it make things, vice-versa, only more complicated sometimes? Like when you notice that this band absorbs more unwelcome influence from your other projects?
The more we play, make, and listen to music, the better musicians we become. Speaking only for myself, I feel more comfortable experimenting with different influences with Unmother compared to the other projects I am involved in. And if the blending of different influences is properly executed, the result can only benefit the music. It would be very easy to stick to a specific style, especially in Black Metal, but experimentation allows us to do things the way we want to and to express all different facets of ourselves.
I see that you recorded Lay Down the Sun as a trio with a guest drummer (Krzysztof Klingebein), and I see that B. joined you on drums in 2025, but was he involved in the recording of State Dependent Memory?
Krzysztof worked with us as a session musician for the two albums, so B. was not involved in the process of recording, but we wanted him to join the group, as we believe he will help shape the new material massively. The process is quite different from working with a session musician remotely, and I have seen the improvements that B. has brought to some of our ideas in our other project Dothe. In a way he co-composes and takes our early ideas in different paths that we could not have thought of.
How did the appearance of Vangelis influence the band’s work on new material? How much did a new vocalist change your approach?
In terms of composition, I would not say much for State Dependent Memory as the material was already in the pre-production stage before he got involved. In terms of performance, I cannot imagine these tracks with anyone else; I believe his performance and lyrics are stellar on this album.
He has influenced the new material a lot as well, either by actually helping us shape the structure of the tracks or knowing what he is capable of delivering, giving us the freedom to experiment with many different influences.
What do you appreciate so much in the new lyrics?
I find them very intense and very personal. They fit with the music so well. For example, I still remember how shocked I felt when I first heard the verse:
“Forty-five ants since the beginning
Keep claiming their space
Crawling, creeping through the cracks
Through my shield
Eating away”
I don’t want to attempt translating the meaning behind these as I have not written anything, but the image they created in my head is very intense.
And by the way, how do you measure your progress on State Dependent Memory in comparison with Lay Down the Sun?
I believe State Dependent Memory is a step up. Lay Down the Sun was cold and clinical and had an almost industrial aesthetic, but at the same time the song structure was very straightforward. The droney sounds we used, the experimental vox of Venla as well as some production tricks, gave the record its identity. State Dependent is more experimental by nature, by how the songs are structured. For example, the almost heavy-metal mid-tempo part on “My Armor” or the clean parts of “Bear Hug” would not have a place in the previous record.
Does State Dependent Memory serve as a conceptual development of Lay Down the Sun? What inspired you to follow the same vector?
In a way, yes. Modern dystopian societies and urban alienation have been a core part of our thematics as a band, but at the same time I believe that the concept evolves in a more granular and personal way in State Dependent Memory.
How did you find an artwork for the album? Is it connected with some of the songs or with the concept in general?
I have worked with Rania in the past for the cover of the Coherent EP of my other project, Those Damn Thieves. She is an excellent artist. There is a connection, yes; the female figure is swarmed by faceless anthropoids. It acts on many levels as far as I can understand, but I do not think I am the right person to discuss the vision that Rania had.
Which bands pushed you to experiments such as “Modern Dystopia”? How technically did you perform all these disturbing trembling themes?
Sonic Youth and the way they layer some of the noisy guitar bits are the first that came to mind. We wanted to simulate theremin via a guitar; we inverted the guitar sounds there to give you that sweeping effect, added lots of chorus, and it ended up sounding very cold/creepy.
How natural for you is it to follow this sound? I mean, did you start from black metal or from bands like Sonic Youth? Are you more rooted in both genres?
Quite natural! We all listen to quite a lot of different genres of music. I remember, if someone asked me for a top 10 list of favourite records when I was growing up it would include Mayhem, Nirvana, Pink Floyd, and Wu-Tang Clan side by side. I was mostly a metalhead growing up though, and Azoso the same but was also playing in a punk band, and V. was more into hardcore.
What are your further plans for the rest of 2026?
Record the new album – which sounds killer so far – and do some more gigs in the UK/Europe.
Thanks for the interview, Spyros! Did we skip something important regarding Unmother and State Dependent Memory?
Not that I can think of! Thank you for the excellent interview and very interesting questions. Very much appreciated!
https://unmother.bandcamp.com/album/state-dependent-memory
http://facebook.com/unmother.london