Faun… The Lords of Pagan Music! Interview with Oliver Satyr

FAUN is one of the world’s leading bands in fusing ancient sounds with modern music. They are coming to Greece for the first time on Friday, December 6, 2024, at Gagarin 205 Live Music Space in Athens! A highlight for us was the interview with the leader of the band, Oliver Satyr!

Athenscalling.gr: Good morning, Oliver. It is a great pleasure to meet you in the enchanted forest… of music!
Oliver Satyr (Faun): It is a pleasure to be here.

Athenscalling.gr: The faun is a half-human, half-goat mythological creature appearing in Greek and Roman mythology, and “Faun” is the name of your band! Can you tell us on what occasion the name was chosen?
Oliver Satyr (Faun): Although we do play a lot of medieval instruments and music, it was clear from the beginning that we wanted to explore different kinds of myths and cultures: Viking, Celtic, Greek, Roman, etc. Since Pan/Faun is also the protector of nature, it was a fitting name to emphasize the pagan aspects of our music.

Athenscalling.gr: Musician, poet, and animist… Which of the three do you love the most?
Oliver Satyr (Faun): The three are very interwoven and are at the center of my work with FAUN. There isn’t a day when I don’t encounter them.

Athenscalling.gr: O.k. Oliver… You are a musician, poet, and animist! Truly, what else would you choose to be?
Oliver Satyr (Faun): The only other profession I could imagine would be a yoga teacher since I do a lot of yoga and would love the idea of working actively on my yoga for many hours a day.

Athenscalling.gr: Truly… For us, Faun is a great band! What inspires you in your music?
Oliver Satyr (Faun): Thank you. Fortunately, there are many beautiful moments that inspire our songs, like moments in nature, books about old myths, meeting people, or even personal experiences. I travel a lot and try to encounter mystical places and special people to have personal experiences behind the songs, rather than just reading about them in books.

Athenscalling.gr: The Faun band plays pagan folk, dark wave, and medieval music. What other music genres do you like?
Oliver Satyr (Faun): I personally love to listen to folk music, especially Scandinavian/Nordic folk, but I also enjoy singer-songwriters and electronic music.

Athenscalling.gr: Do you have any favorite bands?
Oliver Satyr (Faun): Uh, there are so many, like Hedningarna, Hazelius/Hedin, Nick Drake, Dead Can Dance, and even Greek music, like Ross Daly and Giorgis Manolakis.

Athenscalling.gr: Tell us, please, about the lyrics of your songs.
Oliver Satyr (Faun): We mostly aim to take the listeners into mythological worlds by singing ballads about fairy queens, water spirits, and the old gods.

Athenscalling.gr: Now, let’s travel to a big city… If you were the Environment Minister, what would be the first thing you’d change?
Oliver Satyr (Faun): For sure, more trees, more parks. They’re not only good for the climate and help cool the cities down in summer, but they also make us humans so much healthier—physically and psychologically.

Athenscalling.gr: Traveling back to the past, do you remember your first music teacher?
Oliver Satyr (Faun): Yes, I had a teacher for classical guitar, and fortunately, he was very cool and let me play Guns & Roses and similar stuff, so my motivation was very high.

Athenscalling.gr: … And the first album you owned?
Oliver Satyr (Faun): “The Last Unicorn” by America. That movie blew me away as a child.

Athenscalling.gr: Just before we end the interview, we’d like to ask… Do you know anything about Greek music?
Oliver Satyr (Faun): I spent a couple of weeks at the Labyrinth Music School of Ross Daly in Crete. There, I began to love Greek music. I also tried to play a Cretan laouto for a few years but eventually sold it since I have too many instruments.

Athenscalling.gr: Here’s the last question for you, Oliver… You are a poet. If you wrote a poem about Greece, what would its title be?
Oliver Satyr (Faun): For sure, it would be a Hymn to Pan since he has inspired so much of our music.

About FAUN…

FAUN is one of the world’s leading bands for fusing ancient sounds with modern music. They have released 11 studio albums and 2 DVDs to date. Their CDs have reached top positions in the German album charts (e.g.: “Pagan” #3, “Midgard” #3, “Luna” #4).
They have also been nominated three times for the Echo, the biggest German music award, and have achieved platinum status with their CD “Von den Elben” and gold status with their CD “Luna”.

FAUN has played more than 950 concerts worldwide and is currently on tour with various concert programs, including a seated, quieter program for theaters, churches, and concert halls (FAUN ACOUSTIC), a cultural program for seated classical concert halls and romantic summer concerts, and a rousing festival show for unseated venues.

Special Notice: FAUN – Friday, December 6, 2024 – Gagarin 205 Live Music Space – Athens!