I recently had the immense pleasure of conducting an email interview with one of my favorite Dark Ambient artists, Mourneress. Mourneress is the moniker of Natalia Drepina, a Russian photographer and musician from Lipetsk. Mourneress caught my attention when I was beginning one of my current listening projects, a map of Russia through albums. I have thoroughly enjoyed all of her projects, and she continues to settle a disquiet in my soul through her songs. I hope that you take this opportunity to get to know her and her art, and I hope you find her as interesting as I do.

ARDENTLY Magazine: What got you started in music?

Mourneress: I never thought about doing music seriously. It just happened. I was just looking for ways to express myself. Music and poetry help to express and experience some deep feelings and find some consolation in it. Sometimes a song or a melody just comes out of nowhere and sounds in my mind and I try to transfer them into this world. Like all creativity, music is a way of communicating with yourself and with the world.

AM: What is your earliest memory associated with music?

M: It’s funny, but when I was a kid I thought music was something very annoying and unpleasant, something that disturbed the silence. There was music around me that didn’t resonate with my soul at all and I just dreamed of silence, listening to the wind, crickets, rain, anything except those popular songs that were playing on the radio. As I got older and more inquisitive, I discovered other music – classical, metal and experimental music. Among them I found compositions that were close to me and learned to love music.

AM: Who (or what) would you consider to be some of your greatest inspirations?

M: Nature is a huge source of inspiration. That is why you can hear its sounds so often in my compositions. And I guess I’m my own inspiration. Because my music is very sincere, it is based on what hurts me.

AM: What are the most important elements for you to include in your music?

M: In addition to the sounds of nature, which complement the overall mood of the composition, I like to include vocalises and whispers.

AM: What does your creative process look like? Are there any rituals, traditions, or habits you do to “get in the zone”?

M: Often inspiration comes to me during or right after a solitary meditative walk. Communicating with trees, grass, observing the natural world, enchanting sunsets and sunrises, rains, thunderstorms, gloomy clouds – all this helps me create. Dreams also have an influence, I have a lot of lyrics based on what I lived through in dreams.

AM: You have released your music under a different name, not just Mourneress. What inspired you to separate your music projects Your Schizophrenia and Mourneress?

M: Your Schizophrenia is my past. I don’t plan to release music under this name anymore. There are many things connected with this pseudonym, but at some point I realized that my music no longer reflects those moods and that this name no longer corresponds to my art. Mourneress was supposed to be the title of my album (A Rooted Sorrow), but when I found this word I realized that this is what perfectly describes my music and poetry. It is a quiet eternal mourning of losses and disappointments that inevitably accompany us on the path of life.

AM: Do you feel that your music or your photography better captures the emotions and feelings you evoke and express in your art?

M: All my art is interconnected one way or another. I don’t separate them. They are inspired by the same events and experiences, feelings. I often try to combine all this into one project, visual art, music, poetry.

AM: Your song “Salt of Sorrows” (in collaboration with Dust of Reason) is one of my favorite songs of yours – what inspired this song in particular?

M: Thank you for your love for this song. “Salt of Sorrows” is inspired by sisterhood and kinship. It is about finding comfort in the support of someone close. No matter how dark the night and how hopeless the future. Sometimes just the presence of someone who cares about your sorrows is enough to make you feel better. And it is also about some kind of escapism into a dream or imagination where you can hide from this terrible cruel world.

AM: Which of your releases (song, photo, or album) is your favorite?

M: The album “A Rooted Sorrow” and the song “I’m Numb in My Grief” in particular are very special to me. They helped me not letting grief drown me in itself, but turning these feelings into art. These are very emotional things and they immerse me in memories of loss.

AM: Where do you hope to see your music one day?

M: Oh, it would be really interesting to see my music as soundtracks for movies, for example.

AM: What is the key take-away you hope people get from your music?

M: Art (music, poetry or visual art) is therapy for wounded souls. Maybe my music is just created to be an accompaniment to someone’s sorrows. To brighten up the loneliness a little, to experience dark feelings, or to distract, or to find some comfort or inspiration.

AM: Do you have any upcoming projects you’d like to promote?

M: This fall my instrumental album “Late Autumn Lullaby” will be released. It’s a new look at the music I wrote a long time ago, when I was a teenager. Meditative melancholic melodies to wander in thoughts and memories.

Next year, probably in August, my album dedicated to Federico Garcia Lorca will be released. He is my favorite poet and I have been working on this album for several years. This is a bilingual collection, the poetry will be read in both Spanish and Russian. This album includes songs and spoken poetry.

You can find Natalia Drepina on YouTube, Boosty.to, Patreon, DeviantArt, and VK.

You can find work released under Your Schizophrenia on Spotify, Bandcamp, and Soundcloud.

You can find work released under Mourneress on Instagram, Spotify, Bandcamp, and VK.