Interview with Paimonia(SER)



Hello Bojan! Please, can you introduce yourself to the readers? 

Greetings Danny, I’m Bojan (B.V.), founder & mastermind behind Paimonia, a Black/Death Metal act coming from Serbia.

Where were you born and raised and did that had influence in your way chosing for this kind of extreme music?

I was born & raised in Novi Sad, the capital of Vojvodina, which is a autonomous province of Serbia. To be honest, I don’t think that had any influence for me to start listening/playing this type of music, or music in general.


      You are quite young for your age as already making such a development with your bands/music, as maybe the enthousiam might also have to deal with it. Besides that, you are also quite active with Elsewhere Shine. Where do you find the time in this busy schedule, especially now with the new Paimonia record (released through Humanity’s Plague Productions (USA)/Exalted Woe Records (USA)) in the pocket, scoring high rates in almost every web-zine.

Thanks for the nice words. Well, it’s not so hard as it looks like, it depends on good organization a lot because, besides music, I also study & work. Elsewhere Shine is active as well, but only as a project without live performances, so basically I always have time for studio work , having in mind that Paimonia (currently) works also as a studio project. 


Now that the record is out for a while  now, what are the future plans?

Yes, it’s been almost 6 months since MC edition is released & CD release came out in February this year. At the moment, we are waiting for more reviews & few interviews as well, that’s the best way to promote the current release in my opinion. 3-way split entitled “Anti-Human Manifest” with Zloslut & Mrznja is out through Atramentum Productions (Canada) & probably we will try to promote that release as well. Also, we have some plans to perform live by the end of 2014. Those are some of the plans worth mentioning at the moment.



      Before Paimonia you played for a couple of years in the Death/Black metalband  BANE, doing even an European tour. Are there plans to do it all over with Paimonia again?

That’s right
, I was the bassist/back vocalist for almost 2 years I think, where I went on 2 european tours: European tour with Infest in 2011 & “Crossing Over The Godless Path/Keepers Of The Black Flame” European tour in 2012 with The Stone. As for Paimonia, I don’t think we will be able to do such a thing, for now, because of our obligations, both N.P.V. & me study & work, so at the moment, I think it’s not possible. Maybe we can organize something like in that in the future, who knows. 


In the period with BANE, you must have learn a lot of great of deal in the tourlife. What were for you the ups and downs?   

Of course, not just about life on tour, but also about playing live in some other country where everything is, unfortunately, better organized then in Serbia . I have only good memories from that period & at the moment, I just can’t really remember some ups & downs. We never had some serious problems on tours, guess we were pretty lucky.


-Paimonia 2014-

      How is the live line-up currently for Paimonia, and are there plans with this line-up to continue a tour, since the band itself is a 2-man formation with N.P.V as a fulltime drummer.

I can’t say anything about the line-up for live performances at this particular moment because nothing is 100% sure. The fact is, we have people interested for being session live members, but only the most compatible ones will be a part of the band, just for live performances of course.

      Paimonia opened up for bands like Corpus Christii (POR), Somrak (SLO) & Frostmoon Eclipse (ITA) in the past, on the festival ‘Festa Satanica’ as for the first official EP being promoted (released through Silent Scream Records & Bleichmond Tonschmiede) back in 2012. How was the experience ?

Exactly, at that time Somrak was promoting their “The Blackwinged Serpent Crowned”full-length released in that same year, 2012, & Corpus Christii promoted their “Luciferian Frequencies”full-length released in 2011, so they together went on European tour with the goal to promote those releases live as well. We & 3 more bands played as a support that night & that was Paimonia’s first live performance ever, also the live promotion of previously released material, “Modern Way Of Distraction” EP, like you said. I’m really satisfied with that performance really, we had rehearsals for 1 & a half month if I remember correctly & logically we wanted to sound perfect because it’s not a small thing when you open for some of the most known bands in Black Metal underground, right?


There are always different opinions if a band comes to it’s right performing live on stage. How do you see that with Paimonia, and how does it go down with rehearsing, since the rest still are session live members.  

Well, since we did just 2 shows in total, back in 2012, I can just say everything went quite well. I must admit the sound in the crowd on “Festa Satanica” was really good, there is also one video footage uploaded on Youtube. As for the second performance, done in Novi Sad, the sound wasn’t that good like on the previous one, but still, for the second show ever, it was more than ok. N.P.V. & me will start with the rehearsals in a few weeks just to see how will things go, after that we will probably practice with the session members.


      Since Branislav moved to Canada to continue with BANE, and the record was released through a US label, is there a change to see Paimonia performing live on stage overthere as well? Perhaps US most largest Festival, namely Maryland, Deathfest? Or at least for the band share stages with BANE?

I don’t think so, the costs for traveling there are too expensive for one underground extreme metal band, especially the one coming from country like ours. Sharing stages with BANE is possible of course, but only if Branislav plan to perform with the band somewhere in Serbia & region. 

Can you tell a bit more about your other band/projects?

Sure.  Besides Paimonia, I’m also a part of Elsewhere Shine like we mentioned before, where I’m in charge for acoustic/lead & rhythm guitars. Currently, Elsewhere Shine release a debut 3-track EP entitled “The Wired” which is released through Depressive Illusions Records (Ukraine) & at the moment we are planning to do a full-length album. I also did all guitar recordings for the upcoming Svarun’s full-length entitled “Завештање I: Земља (The Legacy Vol. I: The Land) which is still in the process of mixing & will be probably finished by the end of July. Just for the record, Svarun is N.P.V.’s project, a lot of different styles & genres combined in one, probably to most demanding material I’ve recorded so far.

      Coming to instruments. Any particular instrument what is your favorite one besides the guitar, or traditional instruments for a Metalband for that matter?   

In general, I’m a big fan of acoustic instruments, but when it comes to metal, I especially love to see some traditional/acoustic instruments combined with aggressive sound, you can notice a lot of acoustic guitars are used on “Disease Named Humanity”, as well as violin. Probably the best combination, in my opinion, of acoustic/traditional instruments & extreme metal that I heard is on Panychida’s “Měsíc, les, bílý sníh ~ Moon, Forest, Blinding Snow” where you can hear bagpipes, flutes, acoustic guitars etc., really fascinating! 

      Thanks for your time, and doing this interview. Your final words?

You’re welcome Danny, thank you for your interest! Keep supporting underground!

Paimonia on Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/paimonia
Current label :Humanity's Plague Productions