Secret Archives of the Vatican is the English sound of a great mix between ancient Orient that never was, medieval echoes, dub, dubstep, DnB, Vikings, Saxons, genre-busting cultured music. Fantasy and with myths and legends and ancient history.
I am happy that you found the time for this written interview, and we are all looking forward
to hear more about your life and your music.
First, can you tell us a little about yourself?
I’m 63 years old. My name is Vince Millett. (Al Qahira is a name I’ve used
a few times on line. It’s Arabic and means the same as my actual first
name). I was born in London, but my parents were Irish. I’ve mostly lived
lived in London but worked in North Wales for a short while in the 80s.
Your name Secret Archives of the Vatican how did you come up
with that and any special reason for the name?
The name has no meaning. I borrowed a book (which I’ve never read)
with that name from the public library back in the 70s and always
thought it would make a good band name, so when I started releasing music, it was one of the names I used.
How long time have you been producing music?
The first Secret Archives of the Vatican cassette release was in 1989. I caught the tail end of the cassette trader scene. Cassette based home recording studios had come out and the postal service was good worldwide so a whole scene existed outside the music industry with people trading or selling cassettes. There were magazines and even radio shows around the world. It all fizzled out and pretty much died by the time mp3s came out. The Dungeon Synth scene is still based around cassettes, though, for no reason I’m aware of!
How did it start for you with producing music?
I had a four-track cassette-based home studio and borrowed various drum machines and synths. I gradually acquired more equipment. I had no idea what I was doing but spent years reading musicians’ magazines and learning. I acquired a sequencer so learned a little about programming for the synthesizers. At some point I had access to a 16-track real studio so I learned some stuff there. Eventually, I had PCs, and I also had some unexpected money and bought a pro hard disk recording system and a serious digital mixing desk which changed everything, and we only stopped using those a few years back when we went fully “in the box” in a PC.
Did you produce music before you started on the medieval related music?
I had no idea what kind of music I was trying to make early on. Whatever came out. My musical partner Louis joined me in the early 90s and by then we had discovered dance music, various forms of electronica, dub, Asian Underground and more. Whenever we tried to make music that sounded like something we failed – it always came out sounding like us. Eventually we just rolled with that! There was always a little medieval in there, though. I’ve never had the skills to play it on real instruments but in recent years, computer-based instruments, VSTs, became available that had a range of medieval, pre-medieval, middle eastern and folk instruments in them so suddenly I could explore musical areas I couldn’t get right previously. Maybe three or four years back I discovered the Norse neofolk music we’re all into and we have been recording and releasing some of that but, once again, my musical incompetence meant that I’d write something, but it came out sounding more medieval than pre-medieval. So, I just rolled with it! A member of our occasional live version of the band was talking to me and said: “I like those nu-medieval tunes you’ve been doing” and I instantly had a name for it: Nu-Medieval.
Have you ever played in any bands?
I messed around starting bands but not doing much, back in the 80s. In the first half of the 90s I was in a band that played traditional Irish and British folk music. Did a lot of gigs which was fun. Other than that, just Secret Archives of the Vatican and our alter-ego, Thousand Yard Prayer. SAotV played live several times back in the late 90s and early 2000s. mostly festivals. We were an utter shambles but probably quite interesting.
Do you play any instruments and which ones?
I’m primarily a guitarist. I have a few instruments. My most interesting guitar is a fretless 11-string Godin Glissentar which I got so I could play outside of western tuning, play some middle eastern sounds. I have an octave mandola. I have a couple of tagelharpas. I have a Russian gudok. I have an electric oud. I have a couple of stick dulcimers. I have a couple of low whistles. I have lots of drums, mostly frame drums. I have no percussion skills but I’m actually quite good on the Irish bodhrán, which was as much of a surprise to me as it was to my folk band members when I got my first one back in 1992. Maybe it was my Irish ancestral memory coming through!
Any music education?
No, I’m completely self-taught. I have a fair understanding of western and middle eastern music theory but acquired over many years from books and YouTube.
Do you work with other musicians? Whom have you done collabs with?
A few aborted projects but nothing worth mentioning. I’ve played bodhrán on a couple of recordings.
Would you be open to do collaborations?
Most definitely!
Do you have a favorite track yourself/ maybe a band/musician that mean more to you than others?
A big question! I’m currently into the obvious such as Wardruna and Heilung but I also love Eldrim, Gealdýr , Sowulo, Ravn, Bjorth, A Tergo Lupi, Faun, Eluveitie …too many to list. Louis and I both grew up on rock and metal – Louis is a huge Iron Maiden fan. We both love dub. We were also quite involved in the early 90s with the global beats/Asian Underground scene and still have a lot of connections there. That’s kind of another musical scene where people were bringing deep, old, cultural roots into the modern world and creating something new. I recently brought a Sikh dub musician to see Wardruna with me. He loved it!
Do you make other kind of music at the moment than what we know you for?
I’m trying not to lose all the electronica and transglobal dub we made for years. I still like it! So, there have been one or two Dark Age dub tunes of late and more to come. A dub bassline fits with everything including Norse neofolk! Interestingly, if you listen to much of Danheim’s music, to me it sounds like mostly electronic dance music with all the electronic sounds replaced by acoustic folk instruments.
Where do you typically get your inspiration to produce music?
A desperate need to distract myself from daily life! But also films and lifetime of reading fantasy and mythology and science fiction. And all the mazing bands I’ve been discovering in the last few years.
Are you working on some new music at the moment that you would like to share a little with us, what we can expect to hear.
I work of music almost every day and release something almost every week. Music marketing people say this is too much but we’re never going to be famous anyway and tracks are of no use to anyone sitting on a hard drive. I just set them free!
Are you a believer of the Nordic/old ways or is it a big interest?
It’s just an interest. Where we’ve all come from tells us a lot about today, how we fit into the world. And how various religious ideas are expressed today tells us more about today than about their ancient versions which we don’t know very much about. I’ve lived in Wales and I’m of Irish descent, so those nations’ mythologies are of great interest to me too. A book I’m partly through reading but which I totally recommend is, Ancestral North: Spirituality and Cultural Imagination in Nordic Ritual Folk Music by Ross Hagen and Mathis Nordvig. It is an academic publication and therefore ridiculously expensive but well worth a read.
I feel when I hear your music that you are taking us on a journey and telling us a story, is that how it is for you as well, is that your idea with it?
I often have a very vague feeling of a story or a scenario when I’m coming up with a title. I like titles that in themselves imply a story. A little vagueness is good, though. Let the listener’s imagination fill in the gaps.
Can it be hard to find time for the music and the balance between music/family life and other things in life? (many musicians feel they have to little time)
My day job is good in that I don’t need to think about it outside office hours. I live alone so there are no family commitments. I train martial arts (judo, jiu jitsu) a few times a week. All that means I have a lot of time for making music.
My last question to you is what can we expect will be the next music we can look forward to be hearing from you, I saw some premieres in august and next months?
Plenty of new music in the pipeline as always!
I would like to thank you for answering my questions about your music,
and glad we could do this written interview.
Links
Link tree linktr.ee/SecretArchivesOfTheVatican
Instagram instagram.com/secretarchivesofthevatican
Spotify open.spotify.com/artist/5ckoYa0gNiRIkjeUpMlISR?si=Y-jGlDrBRz-fQ-qb71DJgQ
TikTok tiktok.com/@secretarchives
Bandcamp secretarchivesofthevatican.bandcamp.com
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SecretArchives/
Broken Drum Records brokendrumrecords.com
