We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Derek Webster a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Derek, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

Autodidactism is fairly prevalent among us musicians, especially in the internet age where we can tap into depthless reservoirs of knowledge. There’s a certain pride it instills. However, learning from a “master” or teacher who has compiled thousands of hours of information (more than you have) into the craft is surely one of the most efficient ways one can progress. Finding multiple teachers is even better, the offering of different views and advice for you to filter through and to see what works best. Just remember that it’s your journey, the direction of which is solely controlled by you.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

We have come down from the mountain to bring you the tales of our land, where dark things haunt in the forest, and where the clangor of steel and battle are torn by the screams of dying men!

That’s a typical intro for one of our shows! We are an extreme metal band from southern Colorado (the small mountain town of Rye) and our lyrical content and themes are based on our own original dark fantasy/medieval horror stories. The Witcher would likely be the most comparable material for the readers of this interview.

Musically we are a blend of melodic black metal and death metal (battle metal for those hip on their metal subgenres).

“What we’re most proud of…” We’ll see, hopefully the album we’re working on!

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Consistent, low-cost monthly support, i.e. Patreon or any similar platform. If you really love an artist giving them a fraction of your streaming budget goes a long way.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Playing Hellfest in Europe would be awesome.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darconigan/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/darconigan/
• Other: https://darconigan.bandcamp.com/