where are you from?

I currently live in Salem, OR just south of Portland. It's the State capitol so the entire state's problems get sent here including: retards (which I am employed to take care of right now), mentally ill patients (mostly convicted rapists or killers), prisoners, politicians, etc etc. There are a shit load of cops and military activities as well. I was born in Frisco, TX, right outside of Dallas and my dad is specialized in computers; specifically he maintains the machines that build semi-conductors. So, naturally I have a background of computers and technology. I consider texas to be the ultra-hub of technology and filth production, and my family moved from there to the forest of Oregon due to my dad's job. Seriously, open Google earth and check out Texas. It actually looks like some sort of zombified circuit board. Anyway, my parents are of course now split and he lives in Portland where he continues his line of work. I think Oregon definitely opened my eyes to a lot of problems we face.

how long has mania been a project of yours for?

Honestly, that's hard to answer, mostly due to the fact that I have been recording my own "one-man" music since I was at least 14 or 15 and listening to it. It wasn't until I discovered Burzum, Leviathan, and Xasthur that I decided it was socially acceptable to be in a one-man band. I always thought people would think it was stupid or not want to even hear it if I talked about it. So, I just burned the cds and listened to them myself. I officially gave it a name, Mania, in about 2003 or 2004. I recorded every song using a drum-loop program and started showing people. That was about the time when I met Adrian and Andy, who loved the shit so we started Mania as a live band. After a year and a half, that disbanned. We never recorded, but played 3 shows, one of which was recorded. I tried to start it up again with Brandon, Paul, and Kyle, but we never actually practiced once. I never even showed Paul or Kyle the songs, only Brandon (though I think they partially knew them from hearing the CD). Since all the focus at the time was primarily on Leech, I decided to go back to recording alone. That was about the time I released Current Chaos.

what are your influences?

Musically speaking, my major influences go somewhat like this: Leviathan, Drudkh, Ruins of Beverast, Cold World, Todesstoss, A Sombre Boreal, Some Xasthur (though you have to wade through all the shit to find the few amazing parts), Dark Tribe, Ludicra, and a few select crust bands such as Dystopia and Axiom. I listen to a lot of music other than black metal, but these mostly influence my writing because this is how I feel most of the time. Another musical influence is my own drive to keep trying to find new riffs that sound more and more fucked up and chaotic but still original and new with a current meaning.

My lyrical influences range from anything I'm thinking about at the time. Mostly though, everything I think about ties in with my deep seeded hate for human civilization. That includes machines, agriculture, society, cops, assholes, supressed wild and primal feelings, hatred, sadness, hopelessness, pollution, and eternal, never-ending, mindfucking, terrifying chaos everywhere in everything. I should take this chance to add that my old content was written when I was just getting into this deep stance. I had been into punk ideologies for a long while but black metal ideologies just began in my head when I wrote Current Chaos. A good example is the song about veganism. I was a hard-core vegan for three years due to many reasons that at the time were really honest and true that I felt I needed to stand for. I later realized what I was fighting.. I realized I was not trying to fight one small sect of this giant world machine called Earth, I am trying to fight all of it. The meat industry is one small part of agriculture, which is one small part of the nature-destroying filth that encompasses the entire globe. Supporting some factory-made tofu instead of a factory-killed chicken doesn't do shit. Don't get me wrong, diet is definitely about balance; which is why I deeply wish I could live a wild life where I would hunt and gather, not farm or buy food. I atleast hope to be self-sufficient in my own farming and animal raising; not to save the "environment" since it's already fucked and doomed to collapse, but to survive the upcoming apocalypse due to it.

does your environment have an effect on how you write your music?

Definitely. When I think of the word environment, I think of everything in my immediate vicinity. Not just trees, the sky, animals, but people, buildings, cars. Just because we have almost completely seperated ourselves from nature doesn't mean that we aren't still a part of it. So yes, the calm parts in my music represent watching a leaf slowly fall and drop into the river. The intense parts surrounding the calm parts represent zooming out and realizing you are standing on a bridge and hearing nothing but cars and machines and then you see a plastic jug float down the river and then some cop beats you and throws you in prison for the rest of your life for picking a wild mushroom. I try to make every part of my music sound exactly what it sounds like outside. And by outside, I mean everywhere and everyone.. everything.

do you tie your own personal beliefs into your lyrics?

I think everyone does to some extent, especially one-man black metal bands. When a single person creates every part of the song you are hearing, you can almost hear their entire soul and everything they think of the world including past experiences and the effects of history and their culture on their thoughts. A good example is the Ruins of Beverast. When I hear that shit, it's like hearing so many levels of hatred and despair. You can tell the bloody history of Nazism in Germany but at the same time all of the good things about German culture that it represented. Hitler just took it and used it to perpetuate his extreme fascist goals. And now, Germans are hated for it and even wearing a Swastika is illegal, though it largely predates Nazism. No matter which side he is on, he is hated. I don't know if that's what he actually feels, but I get that feeling just listening to it. (The bells, clean vocals, slow parts, intense parts, etc). And for any leftist ones who want to jump to conclusions here, I am not a Nazi. However, I can understand the movement because it has a lot of things in common with primitivism including anti-immigration, pride in your local culture, anti-trade and wage-slavery from other countries, pro-brotherhood and primitivism, etc.. Of course I can't align myself with hatred for one single race (I hate all) or government though. (I do however hate all religions including Hebrew).

what have you released so far?

It depends on what you want to call a release.. The official releases go like this: Current Chaos (30 minute CDR), Death of Birth (30 minute CDR, in two versions, the second of which is more fancy and included Current Chaos), Endless Hunger (30 minute tape), a split with Barghest and my other one-man project River (tape), and a split with Albino (22 minutes each side).

Unofficial releases include: Old demos (at least 80 minutes of content), The demo that I gave to Adrian and Andy which includes all the songs we played live, The demo that predates Current Chaos but includes some of the songs, A live release which was recorded at the last Summer St. House show in Salem (released by summer st. and includes all the other bands that played that night), and a couple tapes that I have given to random people which include several new songs that are unfinished or in demo form.

Upcoming or planned releases: A live VHS featuring a recent Mania performance before Leech and Barghest (louisiana) at the Burial Grounds in Salem (I play guitar using effects and pre-recorded drums that I played earlier), A full-length that includes some of the newer demo songs I have given to people, and I also plan to release some of the older stuff I did before Current Chaos some day.

what's next for mania as of material?

Think of current chaos style lyrics with a more developed and deeper meaning, Death of birth style doom parts, Endless hunger style diversity in the style of music, all mixed with a more complex and developed sound reminiscent of the content before Current Chaos (which is mostly fast picking dual guitars with black metal blasts). I am currently halting any releases that are not already recorded until I get all my good recording gear together. If you want to keep up to date, please visit http://www.geocities.com/natelienn or http://www.eternalwarfare.org