Following last year’s well-received second album No Holier Temple, psychedelic forest folk group Hexvessel has had a busy spring and summer. In the spring the band played SXSW in Austin and special events like London’s Desertfest 2013 and got nominated for the best underground act at Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards.

Hexvessel won’t settle down for recording the next album just yet, as in January the band will join the like-minded French shoegaze black metal act Alcest for a European tour together with the UK dream pop band The Fauns.

We had a talk with the band’s founder Mathew McNerney ahead of their show at Stella Natura festival about SXSW, future plans and living in Lapland. 

Hexvessel will be playing at Stella Natura in US this weekend. Can you tell more about the festival? 

The festival is organised and curated by a guy called Adam and it's in the forests near Lake Tahoe, by the Yuba river, up in the Sierra Nevada mountains. It’s one of the most beautiful places on earth. It's a festival for nature lovers and mystics. Basically a retreat from the modern world into the wilderness where we can feel closer to our pagan roots. All the bands are hand-picked and I would say it's a very unique, friendly and likeminded gathering of people who want to feel connected to the beauty of nature rather than the trappings of the modern society's social prisons.

You performed at SXSW this spring. Did you get any positive results from the showcase there?

We received a massive response from our shows at SXSW. People had driven for hours to see us and the hall was packed out, with a cue around the bar. We weren't prepared for that. We went to see some shows of our favorite acts and they weren't so full, so that was humbling. I guess people felt that it was a rare opportunity to see us, and that we have something different to offer.  

I would recommend the whole trip to any young band who wants to get out there and get a taste of playing the US. It's a great learning process and you really get to know what it's like to be out there, without being isolated. The SXSW community is very special. It's a time of sharing and celebrating cultures and different creative visions and the whole festival is geared toward that spirit. We found the people, the music and the city of Austin to be unforgettable. I will take that trip with me to my grave. 

In relatively short time, Hexvessel has toured Europe with acts like Sólstafir, performed on acclaimed festivals like Roadburn and soon you’ll go on tour with Alcest. What would you consider to be the best live experience so far?

I would say the best live experience for me was in Poland, playing to 20 people in a small town there. We were unknown and it was a place with a small population and many shows passing through. I think what made it special for me is that we played as much for ourselves as the crowd. We had peaked in our tightness together and were playing really well. We all got a natural high from that and really bonded on stage as we could feel the magic opening. I think that's beautiful. It's when playing live becomes what it should be. Sharing and creating with friends and feeling the love and magic that is ignited between you. 

I always think that music is about friendship. It's creating a bond between the listener and the performer and I think in this case, both were fused and inseparable. The crowd of 20 had a great and unique show from us that night! They were part of something. I would love all shows to be like that. To blur the lines between audience and band. To make people feel that they can also take part in it and to be spiritually and ritually connected.

What are the future plans for Hexvessel?

We're settling down for a bit now to try to write the next album. We have a few shows here and there, and only special performances in unique places, such as our performance coming up in Romania. But really we want to get back to writing and making new music. We'll keep on keeping on, doing our own thing. I think the good thing about this band is that we're always restless to create and push ourselves. The future is hexed. It can be nothing but magic.

According to the Quietus interview, you used to live in Lapland. How was that?

I went to study for one year at the Sami school in Karasjok, Norwegian Lapland. It was a life-crafting experience for me. I learnt to reindeer herd and to live outdoors. I was a young lad from London, far away from home and it was there that I was able to develop an immunity to the northern winter and where I started down the path to new spirituality and to discover my pagan ancestry. That trip was very important to the birth of Hexvessel and to creating music. You cannot create from nothing. I think that there is nothing like life experiences to give you the raw material to be able to craft music, story and song out of.

Hexvessel