7. A direct question... Why are your lyrics in Romanian? Do you prefer this language to express Negură Bunget philosophy better than English, which may give you a better recognition? Have you never thought to change this aspect and to propose English songs?
We based our whole Black Metal involvement on the reflection upon some local spiritual and historical contents. We used this more like a pretext, approaching something near you offers sometimes the key for a better understanding of things more distant… But dealing with such local matters there wasn’t actually but the option of doing Romanian lyrics.

8. The cover artwork of "'N Crugu Bradului" is really exotic and very interesting. What does this cover art represent? How much of a connection do you feel it has to your lyrics?
That thing from the bottom is actually the roof of a local traditional house. It’s made out of straw and moss. The wooden sticks are also from the roof, and in the cover ensemble we feel they kindda stick out of time… What we sought bringing out in the end was the ultimate reality of the natural creation, crafted in time by nature itself. That you can see from the inside cover wooden inlays, which we also used on the multimedia menu background. We didn’t try to change anything, just to deliver it in its unveiled primordial form. For that thing we actually brought with use home a 5 meters long carved tree from the middle of the Apuseni Mountains.

9. Tell us more about the video-clip of 'Văzduh'', (track recorded solely for the Code666 comp. 'Better Undead than Alive')... How long did it take to conceive the video-clip?
We composed and recorded the track at code’s request, especially for the compilation Better Undead Than Alive. After doing that we had a chance to also do the clip, so we said why not. We shoot all the images with the help of our friend Marius Danci, edited the video also with him on Bilutza’s Records studio, and in the end our friend Andrei Nica did the final touch with some special effects and post-mastering. This being our first video experience I’d say we did a fine job. We chose ourselves all the places to film the things, and it was quite of an experience going in some remote hardly accessible places (like mountain tops, caves…) with all the equipments, only the 4 of us. Almost all the images were shot in Apuseni Mountains. We were on a very strict deadline with the track of the compilation, and as we decided to also do the clip only after we recorded it, there was obviously not a lot of time we had… But we came up with the whole screenplay for it quite easy and natural, so we managed to do everything quite fast! It was nothing pretentious, but we did had at our disposal some rather professional equipments (that was of course a nice context, and we grabbed it).

10. What about your side-project, Makrothumia. Give us more info about it. How it differ from Negura Bunget?
Makrothumia is dead for quite a while… We only released a tape album of it, back in 1997… We continued playing a bit, almost did another album, but in the end we decided to put an end to it about 3 years ago. It was quite different from Negura Bunget. It was more melodic, technical and also not at all into Black Metal. Was more like some kind of Techno Death Metal.

11. I don't know that much about Romanian history, what in your opinion was the greatest triumph and greatest tragedy in the history of your country?
I wouldn’t want to see our history is such antagonistic terms… For example I always feel proud to be descendent of the Dacians, which although were conquered by the Romans, put up such an amazing fight against them it can only makes you admire their strength. This would normally be a great defeat, but we wouldn’t have been what we are today without it… A great tragedy was on the other hand without any doubt the communist plague that came around the country after WWII. Between the two wars Romania was more or less equal to the European nations and I can only wonder what a decent evolution could have meant for Romania… But with the communist it fallowed a period which not only ruined economically the country, but also destroyed a lot of traditional spirituality and mentality.

12. So, what's the positive and the negative sides with running a band from Romania?
The positive this is of course the local natural and spiritual landscapes… which very few countries can top. As a negative side I’d say there’s certain image, which tends to change I have to admit, like coming from a second hand country. At the beginning was really difficult to get noted by the media, by labels and distributors. I can’t say that was a big problem for Negura Bunget, but for other Romanian bands it’s a really important thing. 
 

13. What three books and movies would you consider essential? What Romanian books/movies could you recommend to us? It’s not such an easy choice naming 3 essential books actually… it depends on what are they essential for. But to have a generic answer: I.P. Culianu – The Tree of Gnosis, C.G. Jung – Psychology & Alchemy, Mircea Eliade – History of Religion. For the movies it’s easy… there are 3 Lord of the Rings… he he. Other than that there’s also Baraka, which is also amazing! Two of the books I mentioned are of Romanian writers, though they were written for a larger audience. More for the Romanians I’d mention Ion Ghinoiu – The Romanian Pantheon, Ivan Evseesv – Dictionary of Magic, Demonology and Romanian Mythology, Gheorghe Pavalescu – The Magic in Romania. Of course all 3 are available only in Romanian language. Some nice Romanian movies are older ones, all historical: Dacii (The Dacians – an amazing visual document about our ancestors), Vlad Tepes (about the life of Vlad, of course, but featuring some amazing landscapes as well) and Morometii (done after a book of Marin Preda, a famous Romanian writer, about the beginning of the deconstruction process of the Romanian traditional peasantry under the communist regime).

14. How do you spend your spare time? Hobbies, interests?
We don’t have that much spare time lately… We have a lot of projects thorough Negura MUSIC: Negura Magazine, our small distribution, the studio now… But we always enjoy listening to some interesting music, going though some wild nature… nothing fancy! 

15. Plans to Negură Bunget future? What are the news in your magazine and Bestial Rec.?
We are very busy these days working on a new album. We should have it ready very soon, so there’s a lot to work on. We’ll also record this album on our own now, so we are also setting up the last details on our studio. After that we’ll also record some other bands there, so you can find more details about it on www.negura.com. We are also working on the 5th issue of Negura Magazine these days. It should be ready at the beginning of next year. You can find more about it also on www.negura.com. As for Bestial Records… they are taking it a bit slow lately…  

16. Thanks for answer my interview, Negru... Your final bullets...
Thanks very much for the support! Stay Black! And may the ZSALAMOLKXISA lead your path!