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An interview with Emian Pagan Folk

Published by Herne on March 4, 2015

EMIAN are a Pagan Folk band from Italy, and this month we have interviewed them to find out more about their passions and inspirations, and why they have chosen a more nature-based, spiritual path.

Wyldwood: When did the band, EMIAN PaganFolk, begin?

Emain: Emian PaganFolk were born from the meeting between two musicians from the South of Italy: the harpist and singer Anna Cefalo and the multi-instrumentalist Emilio Antonio Cozza. Officially the band was formed on 21 December 2011, that is Yule day, the Celtic winter solstice. They came from Celtic/Irish bands experience; together they wanted to start with a project that could be an evolution of their past experiences with a different message. Their idea was to create a sound influenced by Celtic and Nordic trads, Italian medieval tunes, Mediterranean rhythms with tribal and shamanic inspiration.

Then, in March 2013, the band met Danilo, a musician who had played in an Irish folk band. At that time, they began thinking about expanding the line-up, introducing a new member. Danilo started to play in the band as bassist and bouzoukist.

During the filming of the second official videoclip (“The Last King’s march”, visible on YouTube) they met the drummer Martino, an old friend of Danilo, who joined the band in March 2014.

Wyldwood: What does the band name mean?

Album Art for Emian's first album'AcquaTerra'

Emian: It’s simply the union between Emilio and Anna names. The idea came from a real emergency to have a name for our debut show.

Wyldwood:What musical inspirations do you have?

Emian:At first, what inspired us was the passion for folk music. But all of us come from cultures that passed down from generations of folk songs and music belonging to specific areas of Southern Italy. Emilio comes from Salento which is famous for the Pizzica that is a dance accompanied by the sound of the tambourine and that was used as a kind of exorcism to rid the poison women who were bitten by the tarantula, a type of spider. In fact the story of the spider was just an excuse to release women from sexual energies in this sort of evocative dance of femininity.

Anna, Danilo and Martino came from Campania where it is very much the tradition of tammorriata dance which is said to come from traditional songs and ritual dances dedicated to Cybele, the ancient Goddess Mother Nature, who was worshipped by the early peoples who inhabited this land. In Naples we had the cult of Isis in ancient times and even today, with Christian Madonna, this continues to be passed down this strong culture of the Mother Goddess. In Irpinia too, the northern part of Campania, there were ancient cults of Mefite, goddess of water, which is another representation of the Mother Goddess worshipped by ancient pre-Roman populations like Samnites and Hirpini and peoples who preceded them.

Now, after almost three years, what inspires us to make music and to give birth to our “PaganFolk” is to continue to pursue this little pagan world, through sounds that evoke it, combining it with music from Celtic lands and North of Europe, that is a music we love.

Wyldwood:Paganism is a big influence on your music and nature features heavily in your music videos, especially Mother’s Breath. What drew you to a Pagan path, and to perform Pagan folk?

Emian:We consider ourselves pagans, but we don’t identify ourselves with anything. We are free thinkers, and we believe in what gives us more confidence in Nature, in animals, in the Cosmo, and that dispenses with any religion or church. Don’t forget that “Pagan” was also a term for people who didn’t belong to the civilized world. This definition follows the acceptance of a lifestyle where Pagans celebrate the important passages of the year, learn and heal with herbs are important, living in a more spontaneous and creative way far from the town approval, where people are forgetting themselves, and the importance of being in harmony with nature around us. What we would like to communicate through our music is that you have to try to get back to simpler life models, be more spontaneous.

Wyldwood:Do you have a spiritual or natural message you want to accompany your music?

Emian:We were born in contact with nature: our lands are full of mountains, woods, rivers and we live near the sea. So the message that we take is how it is beautiful, comprehensive and peaceful. Here in the South of Italy there are territories processed from illegal dumping of toxic waste, sick lands that give death to many people as a result of cancers contracted after eating contaminated food and grown alongside or in those same lands. Also they want to install oil wells. We have to awake consciences, we have to fight for the nature and for our health.

Wyldwood:Are there any plans for a second album?

Emian:We are working on some new original songs for the next album that we will presumably publish in autumn/winter 2015. The album will be composed also by some sets of traditional songs, like the previous AcquaTerra.

Wyldwood:AcquaTerra is the name of your first album, translating as ‘Water Earth’ in English. What drew you to creating a nature-inspired folk album?

Emian:AcquaTerra is dedicated to our nature. We were inspired by two female principles of life, due to the figure of the Mother Goddess. The water and the earth as vital and essential for humans. The sea, great medium between people, where different cultures met, clashed and finally creating amalgamated union rather than division. There is a reference to Mother Earth in the lyric of the track “Mother’s Breath”, which is a prayer to Her.

Wyldwood:If you were stranded on a desert island with a historical person of your choice, who would it be and why?

Emian:There are some historical people we admire and, if we were stranded on a desert island, it would be nice to meet them there. Anna would like to meet Georges Ivanovič Gurdjieff which has been an inspiration for her. Emilio preferes Leonardo Da Vinci, he thinks that on a desert island he could be a great help. Danilo and Martino estimate very much Bobby Sands, he would be a source of inspiration and courage.

Find out more about Emian:

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