GRIMM: When I hear ‘Djinn’ I’m thinking of The Witcher or Wishmaster, or if you’re feeling comical, the genie from Aladdin, but I’ve a feeling those aren’t the ones you’re talking about, are you?

Djinn is a Romanized version of Jinn from the Arabian territory that was later introduced into Islamic mythology. One of the earliest pagan beliefs if I’m not mistaken. To us in the west they’re no different than what we know as Demons or Angels. Those that inhabited the world before us and live aside us in another dimension occasionally interacting with our own. Those are the ones I speak of and possibly ones I’ve had interactions with.

GRIMM: A third album is notoriously difficult. On the debut everything is new, on the sophomore you try to get right what you missed on the first, but then comes the dreaded third. Where do you go without either repeating yourself or alienating your hard fought for fan base. How did you guys approach it?

I’m never in a state of mind while writing where I think about what someone on the outside might think or say. We are simply writing what we’re feeling and what we would want to hear, and that is really the only thing that matters to us. Of course as it starts to all come together we did think that what we are creating would be quite divisive, especially for a black metal album. Since we know that djinn are not considered good or evil, we really wanted to focus on a sound that matched that feeling. In an energy sense it has to match those fireborn but not sound evil, nor quite happy. So a lot of the riffs play on the duality just as the lyrics play on the duality and polarity we see in our own kind. We saw a lot of that in our lyric video that we released ahead of the album, and expected it to be honest. With the climate of our election year and everything we’ve seen in the last year (when the majority of the lyrics were written) it just felt like a perfect time to release it. The writing is purposely written in an ambiguous way that the listener can decide what it is about or where it is directed towards. This is an interaction I appreciate because I want the listener to be able to have their own experience and take away what they want from the song. Within minutes after the song was released we saw accusations of being a part of all political spectrums across the board as well as seeing a lot of different interpretations of where they thought the words were directed towards or about. We had a feeling that some might take offense to it and that also seems to be the case, but at the end of the day I’m just writing about what I see and have experienced. It’s what I felt in those days and what I needed to get out at the time. If it alienates people then so be it. It wasn’t made for them anyways.

GRIMM: With a mere six songs covering a full hour timespan, the songs individually cover quite a lot of ground and require a lot from the listener to stay hooked for the entire ride. What do you feel is your magic trick to accomplish that in today’s very limited attention span?

Well, being that I am ADHD and have a horrible attention span, that probably gives me a little bit of an advantage there. Since I get bored easily my own songs and albums need to be able to keep my attention, otherwise nothing would get done. So, I assume that probably plays a big part in it. But beyond that I think what Uada does so well is incorporate many different influences and styles that have influenced us over the years. We could be elitists and just put forth the straightforward typical black metal output but we can’t force something for the sake of living within the lines of genre restrictions. When writing whatever the feeling that I have is being poured out, sometimes things catch my ear and those stick with me. If I find myself playing it over and over or humming the melody later on, it’s usually something I can strongly go forward with. Melody is a really big part of this band and instead of shying away from it we fully embrace it. Melody in the form of magick can be a very hypnotic element and I think ‘Djinn’ showcases that strength.

This interview continues on page 3.