Your browser doesn't support audio playback.
Appalachia is home to many types of music: Old-time and bluegrass, of course, but also rock and hip hop, Americana and jazz, metal and hardcore — and dungeon synth.
In fact, that genre, which spun out of black metal, will be showcased outside Whitesburg, Kentucky this weekend, June 13 and 14, at Appalachian Dungeon Fest.
Inside Appalachia host Mason Adams recently spoke with Mason Solomini, one of the festival’s organizers.
Adams: You’ve created Appalachian Dungeon Fest. It’s coming up soon, and it’s going to showcase dungeon synth music. So how would you describe dungeon synth to folks who’ve never heard of it before?
Solimini: Dungeon synth is kind of hard to explain, because it’s an ever-expansive genre. It can range anywhere from dark, moody, eerie soundscapes to more whimsical, chipper tunes. Even experimental stuff, avant garde stuff. It’s a pretty vast soundscape of a genre, like video game music or like what you would hear at a D&D [Dungeons & Dragons] session, or old retro movie soundtracks. It’s in the same realm.
Adams: So what kind of folks perform and enjoy dungeon synth? Who do you expect to show up in the festival in Whitesburg?
Solimini: Dungeon synth draws all kinds of people, like people who just enjoy tabletop games. It’s a big thing with dungeon synth. But honestly, the fan base is almost as expansive as the genre itself. We’re expecting curious locals to show up, people who interact with dungeon synth online, old friends that go to all the dungeon sieges and fests and skirmishes and all that good stuff.
Adams: I think a lot of people hear dungeon synth music and it sounds familiar, but it’s not that widely known as a genre, and its practitioners are located around the U.S., often in rural places. So what’s it mean for this community of musicians and enthusiasts to come together at this festival?
Solimini: It’s a special community. A lot of like minded people get together. Most are really well-read and well versed in sci-fi and all the nerdy, cool stuff. It’s all about escaping reality for a little bit with some friends, kicking back in nature. That’s really what makes it a fest.
Adams: For someone walking in, what are they going to see when they walk into Appalachian Dungeon Fest?
Solimini: There’s going to be people from all different walks of life. When I played and went to Florida Dungeon Fest, there were regular folks, there were vampires, there were a bunch of punks, wizards — there was a ton of wizards walking around. It’s cool, all types of people. Anybody who enjoys weird stuff, for the most part, is going to be there.
Adams: So how did you work up this festival, and why book it there in Whitesburg, Kentucky, in the heart of Central Appalachia?
Solimini: It all kind of started as a solo project. I own a small venue/farm out in Blaine, Tennessee, and it was really just going to be booked there or booked in Knoxville. Then Tony from Fantasy Audio Magazine reached out to me on Instagram, and we just started collabing together, and we found a new venue for it. We chose Appalachia not just because it’s where we’re from and it’s home, but also because Appalachia deserves a dungeon synth festival. Most of the big events are 10+ hours away, and with so many staple artists that live here, it’s the perfect place to honor both the genre and the area.
Adams: Let’s talk about some of the acts that are playing this show.
Solimini: We’ll get the head honcho out of the way. The big dog of the festival is definitely Hole Dweller. It’s definitely a central figure of the fest. The guy who owns the project, runs it, makes all the music, his name’s Tim — phenomenal guy. He’s out of Georgia. Multi-musicalist. Really a great fella. He blends melodic, somber, some upbeat stuff. He’s known from the first four albums as one of the originators of comfy synth. Really just bringing a mixed bag of vibes and keeps it interesting. A lot of people got into dungeon synth through comfy synth.
Solimini: Flickers from the Fen is such a fun project. Super whimsical. They’re out of Bristol, U.K., so they’re flying all the way over here just for the fest. They’re really fun on stage. I mean, he jumps into the audience with his violin, big old hat on, looking like a wizard, dancing around and just having a great time getting into antics with the crowd.
Solimini: And then the third headliner would be Foglord out of Virginia. Foglord is probably the most Appalachian-sounding project that’s going to be playing there, incorporating a banjo and a bunch of other Appalachian elements. His sound really ranges. It’s anywhere from ambient forest-walk-type music to melody-driven classic dungeon synth music.
Solimini: It’d be wrong not to mention Mons Mythic Synthesizer Music. He’s out of Kentucky. Seeing Mons at Florida Dungeon Fest was like a dream. Mons is a visionary live experience. I would say that his sound is best described as “visionary music,” and there’s really no other way to describe it beyond that. It’s not classic dungeon synth by any means. It’s almost just like avant garde experimental ambience, but it’s still within the realm of the dungeon.
Solimini: Then you’ve got Spife. Spife is from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Just a phenomenal project, really one of the weirdest projects that’s going to be there. It’s a one of a kind blending of noise avant garde. He does a lot of looping and improvisation, and he doesn’t just do dungeon synth. He’s got a lot of black metal records and stuff that I think is some of his best work. And plus? Dude is just cool. He makes cowls. He’ll take old blankets and sew them into hooded cowls.
Adams: What are the shows like? What is the concert experience like?
Solimini: It ranges between a lot of standing and just feeling the music and just vibing out to the ambience, to very interactive. I’ve even seen mosh pits in dungeon synth, which is just completely unexpected. For one weekend in the year, you get to escape reality, step into a little world that only exists there. Not to mention Wiley’s Last Resort feels like you’re stepping into another planet. This venue’s been around for 20 years. They’ve taken a huge chunk of forest and just terraformed it into a very unique venue experience, along with stages hidden here and there, and like art pieces hidden here and there. You’re in the woods in Kentucky, on the second highest mountain in Kentucky. So it’s nature as far as the eye can see.
As Solimini mentioned, one of the acts on the schedule is Foglord, based in Carroll County, Virginia. It’s dungeon synth with an Appalachian flavor.
Dabs: My name is Darien Dabs. I’m from Woodlawn, Virginia. I’m a musician, have played in various metal bands, rock bands through the years. I play old time music, and have a dungeon synth project called Foglord. I came across a project called Depressive Silence, and that really still to this day, some of the most beautiful music I’ve heard. I’ve actually got the Depressive Silence tape cover tattooed on my leg. It’s just a really influential album to me.
It wasn’t too long after I discovered it [dungeon synth] that I got into trying to experiment with making it. I didn’t know anything about recording music back then. You know, that’s still an ongoing learning experience with that always. I just had an old MP3 player that you know could record. Didn’t even have a mic. I just laid it on an old Yamaha keyboard at the speaker, and I recorded through that. My first album in 2013 was called New Realms and Forgotten Lands. Back then, one of the first labels that was specifically dungeon synth called Mithram Records from the U.K. He just emailed me and was like, “I want to do a tape release of your album.” So I was the first release on that label, which back then, I thought was really cool. I was like, “Dang, somebody’s wanting to release my music on cassette, of all things. That’s pretty cool.”
So this new album I’ve been working on is called Lore of the Blue Mist, incorporating clawhammer and old-time banjo with dungeon synth. That was an idea I had years ago as just kind of a passing idea. Banjo is my favorite instrument I’ve ever picked up, clawhammer. I love the way it feels to play it, just sitting for hours on end doing that. I’ve just dialed into it, and I’ve incorporated mountain dulcimer into it, and various other traditional folk instruments. A lot of it is rooted in the natural feelings of these mountains, because that’s always been something that’s influenced me with Foglord, is this area we’re in. Blue Ridge Mountains, Appalachian Mountains in general, has always been something that’s really influenced me with my music.