Above The Abyssmal Cover Art from Judgehydrogen
Judgehydrogen is a visual artist and musician. The focus of his works are apocalyptic myths. He is best known for his song “A Body of Water,” which appears in the feature film Sinister, directed by Scott Derrickson and featuring Ethan Hawke.
Excellent question. I’m very interested in apocalyptic myths and technology and I see a culture that is very technology driven and we’re also driven by apocalyptic myths, and those are a very volatile mixture. I believe apocalyptic myths are self-fulfilling prophecies, and I believe that we’ve become more detached than ever from the nature of technology and how it impacts our lives. The name “Judge” comes from judgement, and “Hydrogen” from the hydrogen bomb. So you have the theme of apocalyptic myths and technology combined into one name.
Absolutely. I believe that a lot of humans are pretty disturbed to a certain level, and they have this thirst for destruction, and I believe we have this thirst because a lot of people are not happy with their lives; we are very materialistic. People will seek out these myths and they’ll crave destruction, and so many different people from different cultures will read apocalyptic myths which fulfill their fantasies. Having so many people believe in these things are very dangerous. When you add this element in with advancing technologies people try to speed up the prophecies by becoming the fulfillments.
I would say I’m very inspired by Dead Can Dance, The Swans, Christian Death and Coil. I believe that covers my major influences.
Ceremonial, dark ambient music with certain industrial elements and maybe some doom metal mixed in there.
That’s actually a funny story. They were trying to contact me on MySpace and I hadn’t logged on there in years. One of the producers found my music on there. They searched for dark music and the theme was a water scene, and my song came up and they felt it was exactly what they wanted, so then they had to email me. I can’t imagine a better scene for my music; I believe it really complimented the scene and I was happy to be a part of it.
I really don’t know exactly who my fans are (laughs). They find me in the darkness, buy my music and return to the shadows.
I was doing some live shows for awhile there but early on it became obvious that people didn’t really quite understand it. I felt it was too unorthodox for people. Most people when they go to a bar they don’t really want to think about anything, and my music is too heavy for that. I found that it was so much work to put a show together and not a lot of people show up. If someone asked me to perform in a venue that I felt was appropriate for my music then I would definitely go for it.
Absolutely. My latest album was meant to be much more ceremonial in tone. My first three albums (Atheistic God, Cult of Blood and Revolutionary Suicide) are the three stages of a cult. You have the foundation of a belief system, the second part is being the cult cut off from the mainstream that becomes militant, and the third part is when it closes in on itself.
Well, thank you.
I have four fully recorded albums that are going to be more like Musick of Uncertain Origin Vol 1, and I may just limit it to three more volumes. I have another album that I’m working on that’s more like Atheistic God.
Go to judgehydrogen.com for more
info, music and artwork!
