Shantel Amundson is the mastermind of Illudium, a post metal project from Oakland, California, heavily influenced by 90s Grunge. On their recently released album Ash of the Womb the band impressively combines dreamy and gloomy soundscapes with heavy riffage and strong, prominent vocals. We asked Shantel a few questions about her way into music making, influences, the meaning of music in her life, and the environmental situation in California.
Let’s start at the beginning: What got you into music making? Did you take professional singing lessons? When did you decide you want to make your own music? What is the importance of music in your life?
My father is a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, so I guess you can say I followed in his footsteps. He had a home studio and I grew up surrounded by instruments way out in the mountains so, it was only natural that I gravitated towards songwriting at an early age. Music is somewhat of a necessary burden for me, something that is an integral part of my health and self-expression, but requires a lot of time for me to carve out in order to maintain that creative flow.
You started out as a solo project. What made you decide to expand your project to full band? When did Illudium become a trio? What changed in the music-making process after that?
Well, in many ways Illudium is still a solo project, but I like to think of it as more of a collective or creative hub. I have had the honor of working with so many talented musicians and engineers for recorded and live performances. I feel as though the natural progression for Illudium is to expand, but being that I do all of the arrangement, I have found it difficult to have other guitarists enter into the project permanently. Changes in the line-up have certainly had an impact on the evolution of our sound, and fans should anticipate that to be an ongoing aspect of this project.
What do you do for a living and how does it combine with music making? Is it possible to have a job, be involved with family/friends and to be a productive musician/artist?
It certainly is. I work in a pretty demanding industry in the ever-moving city of San Francisco, and you have to really hustle to thrive and succeed here. I make time for everything that is meaningful to me, but I am an astronomically busy individual. So, it just takes a certain level of prioritizing and establishing healthy boundaries with your personal life and career. I work hard to have fun.
What is the meaning of your band name? Why did you choose it? Is there something you are trying to achieve with your music, or are you doing art for art’s sake?
The name for Illudium was inspired by the phrase ‘Illud Tempus’ coined by religious philosopher Mircea Eliade, referring to sacred time. For this project it means to reflect a sort of nostalgia for a lost paradise, not just in the sense of it being a primordial place but rather as a liminal space of oneness and renewal. I chose the name because it captures a sense of what I am seeking to embody in my music, and a state of being that I implore the listeners to at least consider, if not attempt to discover through their experiences in listening to our music.
There is an audible influence of Grunge bands in your music, and Seattle is not that far away from Oakland. Do you think that location and scene have a defining influence on emerging bands? Did they have an influence on you? How so? What else were major influences?
The Oakland and Seattle scenes are quite different, historically speaking and actually pretty far geographically, so there isn’t much crossover there. But in relation to my music I guess, I have always been drawn to artists from the 90’s with grunge and alternative rock being at the forefront. Early on, bands like Alice in Chains and Soundgarden were quite influential to me. I was drawn to the often raw, and deconstructed aesthetic associated with the scene but more than that, to the prowess of vocalists such as Cornell and Stayley. The utter anguish and range of emotions that they were capable of executing in their music really astonished me at a young age. Smashing Pumpkins are also a band that greatly influenced me, I felt right at home with their fuzzed out, warm energy that reminded me a lot of the psychedelic and progressive bands I grew up listening to. Like many sad teenagers, I found myself connecting to a variety of genres that explored the darker undertones of music spanning the last several decades. Post-punk, New Wave, Shoegaze, black and doom metal, and some post-hardcore left their influence as well.
You mention on your bandcamp page that you have a degree in cultural anthropology and art history. Does the knowledge you have acquired in these fields have an influence on your music or your music making process?
As much as I would like to say that it doesn’t, I can’t really separate the way in which my passion for Art and Anthropology influences me as a songwriter. Only recently have I begun to explore more personal subject matter within my music, otherwise it has always been easier to draw inspiration from mythology and artists across the ages. Our first album was almost entirely inspired by the Mithraic Mysteries, and I often find myself so moved by art and folklore that I have to immediately sit down and interpret it in my own way musically.
Ash of the Womb was written during the 2020 California wildfire season. What was it like to wake up to a burning world, to live in a world with an orange glow, to make music while your surroundings were on fire? What is the situation today?
I have sought to clarify this in a few interviews so far, just to give readers and listeners a better perspective. The album was actually written during all of the fire seasons leading up to 2020, and in many ways reflects years of this experience; the California drought, the wildfires during these years, and climate change in general. There was one day in particular, which I’m sure anyone who lived here at the time will never forget as the ‘Day that the sun never rose.’ We woke up one morning and the smoke from the wildfires had completely blacked out the sun, the skies glowed an ominous red all day, it was truly horrifying. I have mentioned that some of the locations used in the album artwork, in particular the cover shot at Big Basin, were significantly impacted by wildfire. I had prepared this artwork and as soon as it was ready, 2020 came in all of its catastrophe. Until quite recently, I would say that the situation is still pretty dismal. We have been very fortunate to receive a lot of rain this last month, but unfortunately a solution is still far away.
The album cover for Ash of the Womb as well as the videos produced for the songs Soma Sema and Sempervirens have a recognizable black metal aesthetic. What made you choose that aesthetic?
The use of monochrome and occasional color is juxtaposing these two concepts that are not typically associated with one another, birth and mortality, of death and regeneration. All along the West Coast–in California, Oregon, and Washington–there are places brimming with new life, amidst a landscape charred and blackened by the fire. It’s a surreal thing to behold. I sought out Daniel Hart of Festering Wounds for much of the artwork surrounding the release, their visual style and preference for black and white photography really met well with the vision and aesthetic of this album.
There is an almost desperate melancholia to be felt in your music. What’s its origin?
I think part of it lies in the fact that I tend to focus on critical issues, which can be quite heavy when translated into music. But asides from that, music for me is a way to creatively release some of the sorrow I carry, at least to some degree. Loss, heartbreak, pain, and suffering have impacted my life in a way that really pushes me to create constantly. It might not take me out of the melancholy entirely, but it gives me some peace. I would say that sorrow and hope will likely always be battling it out in my music, to some degree.
Thank you for taking the time to answer our nosy questions. We have only a few left: Can you tell us something about your future plans? Have you played any live shows recently? Are you planning to go on tour?
There are plans in the future to promote the album through select performances, but as we are still navigating what appears to be the end of the pandemic, it has been too difficult to plan logistically. Instead, I’m taking the time to center myself following an excruciating year, and am pretty far into the writing process for our upcoming album. I would expect fans to see us in a few very special, unique environments and look forward to what we have in store for 2022. Big things are on the horizon.
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