INTERVIEW: BARIANN TUITE OF FIADH PRODUCTIONS

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I had the amazing opportunity to sit down with Bariann Tuite, owner and founder of Fiadh Productions to discuss the difficulties of running a small label, wildlife conservation, and the label’s goals for 2025. Read more below!

Reliquary Tower: Thank you for doing this, I really appreciate it! I’m actually really surprised that I’m the first one to reach out to do an interview with you. A lot of the Toilet ov Hell guys are really big fans of Fiadh Productions, both in terms of the music that you put out and of course your charity work as well. Like I said, I really appreciate you doing this, so I’ll be sure to rub it in their faces for months to come.

Bariann: That’s so sweet! Megachiles is actually in our book Discord and I think someone else from your team is too. It’s an honor! It’s always a surprise when someone wants to reach out and talk about what I do. I love your website! I’m trying to remember if, back when I was doing PR, I had you guys on my distribution list back in the day. I’m sure I did.

RT: How back in the day?

Bariann: I did PR from around 2010 to 2016.

RT: Oh, I don’t know then. I’m one of the newer writers. I just started in 2023. I know we get Fiadh Production emails though.

Bariann: Oh, this was for other labels I was working for. Fiadh isn’t that old. I don’t have access to a PR budget, so I always feel bad about the ones I send because it’s just, like, the longest list of shit, but I can’t afford HAULIX, so I just try to work with what I have and hope no one gets too annoyed with it.

RT: I actually love waking up to the mass of Gmail and Bandcamp notifications every Friday morning from Fiadh Productions.

Bariann: I wish I could turn that off. I feel horrible that every time I release something it sends an email. I wish it didn’t because I feel so bad for everyone on the email list. I get so nervous about unsubscribing because I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, but I wish that I could turn it off. But I’m glad it’s a nice thing for someone!

RT: I love it. It feels like Christmas every Friday. There’s a meme I made about it some time ago that I’ll send you.

 

Bariann: I love that! I can’t believe I haven’t seen this before!

RT: So how did you get into this kind of music? I mean, it’s not really something that somebody gets into by accident or hears on the radio. What got you into metal, or heavy music in general?

Bariann: Growing up I was really into punk and crust punk. That’s my personal background. It started when I was like 11 and I was in that scene until I was 17 or 18. I was very involved and went to a lot of shows in the Lower East Side. One of my brothers is a massive metalhead and he would babysit me a lot. He would always play stuff like Crowbar and Iron Maiden’s Killers album, which was the only one that he would play, and then some random stuff like Amebix and Pentagram. So I was exposed to it that way. One of his friends knew someone who was working at the Earache office in Long Island City and they needed a PR intern. I needed an internship to graduate, so I started interning there and that’s how it all started.

RT: So you grew up in New York?

Bariann: Yeah, I always lived outside of the city, so it was always accessible to go to shows in both Manhattan and Brooklyn. There’s not really much on Long Island.

RT: You get to claim Cro-Mags as hometown heroes then.

Bariann: Yeah, my brother is very much into Cro-Mags, old Agnostic Front, Murphy’s Law, all that stuff.

RT: And I guess you’ve got some claim to Bad Brains too.

Bariann: Less so Bad Brains. It’s funny, my brother was just talking about how everyone’s wearing Bad Brains shirts now. Like, everyone used to wear Kylesa shirts… What was that other one that everyone used to wear? It was one of those doom bands that kind of became girlfriend metal.

RT: Baroness? Mastodon?

Bariann: Baroness, yep! My brother’s saying that the new Baroness shirt is Bad Brains now.

RT: Aww, dang it. I wear a Bad Brains shirt to every show and have for years now. No matter what genre the music is, there’s always someone there who’s like “Hey, nice Bad Brains shirt!”

Bariann: Turns out my brother was talking about you the whole time.

RT: It’s alright, I’ll have to arm wrestle him or something sometime. He’ll probably win, I’m not very strong.

Bariann: No, you’d probably win. He’s the only non-athletic one out of all my brothers, but he’s an encyclopedia of metal. He was in a Black Sabbath cover band and he has all this weird arcane knowledge of Peter Steele and a bunch of other random  stuff. But it was easy to go from crust punk to black metal with bands like Asphyx, Amebix, Wolfpack, and Darkthrone. So yeah, crust punk to black metal pipeline.

RT: What about ambient music? Was that kind of a continuation of the pipeline?

Bariann: Yeah, I would say so. My other background is in classical music and I’m also in a pipe band, so there’s a lot of random musical stuff that came together to allow me to appreciate genres that may not be more mainstream. I personally don’t listen to ambient that much, but as someone who has only played Skyrim and The Witcher, I appreciate ambient soundtracks a lot and how much atmosphere that stuff provides when you’re doing other things. Like, there are people who listen to medieval music when they’re cleaning their kitchen to make it feel like a tavern and other stuff like that.

RT: Yeah, one of the things that people often say about dungeon synth, especially with the artists that lean more towards the medieval folk side like Fief, is that it sounds like Skyrim music. A lot of people will talk about it feeling like old-school video games for the ’90s dungeon synth stuff. I played this game called Golden Sun as a kid that I absolutely loved to death and for a long time dungeon synth just reminded me of the soundtrack.

Bariann: I don’t know shit about dungeon synth. I have to be totally honest with you, I don’t know any of the old-school stuff. I am extremely unknowledgeable about all that and I’ll never claim to have a really strong background there. I still feel like such a newcomer and I never got to play any of those old-school games because my brothers didn’t let me.

RT: Did they hand you the unplugged controller?

Bariann: They didn’t even let me touch anything! I don’t know if it would have been worse if they did. But I got to watch every once in a while. It was those really old-school games like Doom and other stuff that I couldn’t name because I don’t really know anything about them. So I don’t feel like I have this traditional background that other labels do in dungeon synth. And so many dungeon synth artists are so talented, so I feel like a bit of an outlier in that I don’t really have a background in dungeon synth at all. I just like it for the themes. That’s how I can appreciate it. I’m very much into fantasy literature, so I think if it wasn’t for that I don’t know if I would have really picked it up.

RT: What got you interested in doing conservationist work? I mean, I don’t think there are a lot of people walking around with an active disdain for nature, but you’ve really made your charity work a big part of Fiadh Productions’ brand.

Bariann: Well, my day job—and what has always been my day job—has been working for animal rights and animal welfare nonprofits, so I’ve always been doing that. Even while I was in college I was working for different rescues and shelters and now I work with animal rights. As a vegan, you really learn about the connection between food and the environment and how we treat animals and how all of that affects the environment. Animal agriculture is responsible for so much of the climate catastrophe. It’s so interconnected. And it’s very hard to keep shouting into the void about it, so I think by showing people things that they’re already familiar with and teaching them how to do better for companion animals like dogs and cats, that’s a very gentle way to start the conversation about larger topics like animal rights and animal liberation. Once you have someone who’s on the same level as you and realizes that a dog is a sentient individual that has feelings and then they realize a pig is not so much different from a dog, you can kind of go from there instead of the way we did it in the punk ethos, which involves a lot of slamming it in your face and being like “if you eat meat you’re a fucking asshole.” That doesn’t work. You have to show people that there are small ways that you can help. It’s important to help people understand that a vegan lifestyle isn’t super accessible for everyone and isn’t always realistic. We can help people realize we can all do stuff in our own way and show others that even a small record label can help and that they can help by doing stuff through the label. I hope to empower them to make their own decisions and to make change.

RT: What are some of the things about running a small label that are better or easier than running a larger one? And what are some of the things that are harder or not as fun?

Bariann: Well, I spent three hours breaking down cardboard boxes last night, so that’s one of the downsides. It’s a lot of physical labor. I’m only 5’1.” I’m not a big, strong person. Records are fucking heavy. I’m so glad you can schedule USPS pickups. I remember at the Earache office we had a whole lift system with special freight elevators that we used for everything. I’m really missing that right now. Packing things, keeping track of things—I have no system, I’m bad at math, I don’t track finances. Money is a concept, so whatever. But there’s no one looking over my shoulder, so I can put out whatever I want music-wise. I can put out weird stuff and know that no one can say shit to me because it’s just me. I would say it’s a little bit lonely. I question myself a lot. I really don’t know what I’m doing. The biggest downside overall is that there’s no money. There’s no big bank account. So I guess the main trade-off is “do whatever you want, have no money.”

RT: The punk ethos in a nutshell.

Bariann: Exactly. With everything I do, I ask myself “how can I do this without spending anything?” That’s how I look at stuff. Like, I will never pay a penny for PR because I could do it myself. That’s what I went to school for. That’s what I did for bigger labels. I don’t have a website. You really don’t need to pay for stuff if you can just spend a disgusting amount of time doing it yourself. You can make it work on, like, no budget.

RT: What’s the process like with finding new bands/artists? Do you usually approach them, do they usually approach you, or is it kind of a mix of both?

Bariann: It’s a mix of both. A lot of the time now it’s people referring their friends to me and stuff. I do a lot of thorough vetting, but that can be really difficult. Sometimes people have worked with bad labels in the past and didn’t realize it, and that’s not their fault. I mean, it’s happened to me. I’ve worked with people who ended up being total fascist boneheads, so I don’t want to just dismiss someone without having a conversation with them. If they don’t want to have that conversation, that’s kind of a red flag. So I have to do that before it gets further than talking with the band. I don’t have time to look for bands these days. It’s not always easy to tell if a band is sketchy, especially since there’s a new dog whistle every week. A lot of people don’t know and just want to promote their stuff, so a lot of totally innocent, well-meaning folks have put out stuff on bad labels. Goatowarex is a label that a lot of young bands go to without knowing because they produce stuff so fast and so cheap. And then a lot of labels distro to ASRAR, where everything ends in 88 cents and they don’t know beforehand that they’re an NSBM label. A lot of things like this happen. You just have to keep educating.

RT: Yeah, I’ve had it happen where I’m talking with my friends—mostly with friends who don’t listen to metal—and somehow white supremacy or a white supremacist symbol will come up and I’ll be able to give a long spiel about white supremacist dog whistles. Of course, I then have to explain that I know these because I write for a metal site and not because I support any of it. No matter how big of a problem I’ve thought white supremacy and fascism area in metal, they always surprise me by being bigger than I thought it was.

Bariann: They’re all over the place and they’re only getting bolder, more dumb, and more public.

RT: Oh for sure. Like you said, anytime you ask someone if their band/project is fascist or down with national socialism and they try to skirt the question or their answer is “it’s complicated,” that’s not a good sign.

Bariann: Yeah, and this applies to a lot of the bigger apolitical labels like Northern Silence or um–

RT: Season of Mist?

Bariann: Oh, I wouldn’t even consider Season of Mist apolitical at this point. Northern Silence now works with Northern Heritage, which… yeah, you can probably imagine. To be apolitical is to be complicit. You have to be proactive and state what you’re against or people will think that you’re for something.

RT: Do you find that working so closely with music changes your relationship with it?

Bariann: Yeah, I can’t listen to music. When I worked at Earache they used to have everything blasting at full volume from 7:00 a.m. to the time we left. My ears burnt out.

RT: Apt name for the label, I guess.

Bariann: Yeah, it’s actually really ironic. It was really rough and after that I had a lot of trouble listening to metal when I was working, so I started listening to a little bit of ambient stuff and some classical music. It definitely feels like a job to listen to it sometimes. I don’t reach for that stuff recreationally anymore, which is a little bit sad.

RT: Yeah. Thankfully I haven’t experienced the metal burnout from writing for Toilet ov Hell. One of the good things about writing for the site is that, since it’s all volunteer, you really work at your own pace and there’s no taskmaster cracking the whip behind me going “Another article, RT! Another article!” So I never get to the point where I’m like “Please, no more blast beats. I need two weeks of folk music.”

Bariann: I really like the site. I really think you guys are great and you’ve got such a great variety of stuff!

RT: Thank you! I mean, I’m a little biased, but I think so too. Of course I’m a contributor, but I’m also just a fan of Toilet ov Hell, and I really like all of the other guys. All of the other writers are really just phenomenal people, and that goes beyond just the stuff that they write. I feel like I’m reading stuff that my friends made. They don’t feel like my co-workers. I really do think of them first and foremost as friends and second as fellow writers. They’re amazing guys and I love getting to write with them. And like I said, the fact that I don’t have a quota to meet makes it easier to not burn out on this stuff. Plus we’re at liberty to write about other genres too. I really like a lot of modal jazz, so if there’s some modal jazz album that I want to do a little blurb on, I can do that. I’ve talked several times on the site about my love of folk music. I’m a big Emma Ruth Rundle fan and I also love Thou, so the album that they put out together was like a match made in Heaven. They also did a whole album of covers together, the last of which was a song by The Cranberries, who are another one of my favorite bands, so that was really exciting for me.

Emma and Thou via Emma’s Instagram

Bariann: Oh that’s amazing! I need to listen to Emma Ruth Rundle. I feel like the only person who’s never listened to her.

RT: She’s wonderful. I got to meet her a few months ago at a small show that she played. She’s so sweet.

Bariann: Is it, like, straight-up folk music?

RT: It’s definitely folk music made by a person that likes doom metal. It’s pretty folksy for the most part. Some of it’s acoustic, some of it’s electric, but one way or the other it’s a baritone guitar. I know sometimes she does shows with a full band and sometimes she does shows that are just her and her guitar, which was how it was when I saw her. I thought beforehand that I would have enjoyed the full band more, but after the show I felt like I enjoyed it more with just her on stage than I would have with the full band.

Bariann: That’s really interesting. I guess that might speak more to the roots of the music. There’s always a difference between recordings and live music too.

RT: Yeah, and it still felt full. Even with the absence of drums and bass, it didn’t feel like it was empty or like there was something missing. She has this stage presence that’s just enchanting. You can’t take your eyes off of her. I’ve been a fan for years and seeing her live was a real treat.

Bariann: I will definitely have to check that out.

RT: I watched an interview that you did a year or two ago—so maybe things are different now—but you said that Fiadh Productions’ goal is not to keep artists there against their wishes and that if an artist wants to use Fiadh as a springboard to a larger label, that that’s something that you encourage. Is that still the case?

Bariann: Yes! I never do contracts unless the artist wants to have one for the release just so they feel secure. I’ve only done that, like, twice. I will never do contracts, much to my lawyer’s shock and dismay. Nothing binding. Even with my old label Broken Limbs, artists went from us to Century Media and that was the whole plan. The point was to get them to a place where they could, if they wanted to, do this with their lives and their career and do what they loved. And what more could you ask for? I am so proud of artists that go to bigger labels and play shows like Roadburn and things like that. I love to see it. This isn’t a major label. I’m not going to pretend like I am. I don’t plan on being a major label. If I could use my experience and connections to help younger bands get to where they want to be, that’s exactly where I want to be.

RT: Do you ever feel like a proud parent watching bands grow up?

Bariann: Every day. I’m always checking in on bands and making sure everyone’s OK and that they’re not getting taken advantage of if I can. It’s probably a little bit annoying, but I definitely am a mom.

RT: Yeah, I was just going to say, that sounds like a mom when you go off to college.

Bariann: That’s me, yeah. People mention a lot that I’m like a mom, which I can appreciate now. That would have horrified me a few years ago, but I’m very happy to be in a position where I can help and do those things.

RT: Is Lust Hag still on Fiadh or has she moved to a larger label? I can’t remember.

Bariann: She is with us! She has a new album that I think is almost finished and I’m really excited.

RT: I just found Lust Hag this year and she’s fantastic.

Bariann: She’s amazing.

RT: I’ve got a CD of her self-titled. I love that album. I love the story of it. She offered in the description of the CDs on Bandcamp that, if you added a little note, she’d sign the CD. So I asked her to and not only did she sign it, she put in a patch, signed the patch, and added a couple of her picks.

Bariann: That’s Eleanor! She always does stuff like that. She’s such a sweetheart and she’s extremely selfless. She’s just the best and she’s always thinking of ways to give back to her fans. She’s always a little surprised when she gets such a positive result or positive feedback, but she’s so, so talented.

RT: She seems really sweet. Most people I’ve met or interacted with in the scene are. I’m glad that I’ve had so many more positive interactions with people in the scene than I have negative ones. People always seem so down to earth, too. I’ve never really encountered any of that “rockstar snobbery” or anything like that. And if people do suck, I feel like that tends to get out and it tends to go far. But I’ve met so many genuinely nice people and it’s nice to be able to have a genuine connection with them. It feels like there’s less separation between fans and artists in metal—and in heavy music in general—than there is with other genres.

Bariann: I agree. I think a lot of people in the scene grew up a little bit on the loner side or didn’t fit in with mainstream groups. They don’t really feel like they belong anywhere and I feel like finding that community later on, whether it starts online or in person, they find out that there are people who are just like them and have those common interests. Then people find that they have other things in common. A lot of people are parents, which I didn’t realize for a while and is really nice. A lot of people have similar life experiences that make them relate to the music more.

RT: That’s been a big surprise to me. It’s crazy how similar of life experiences I’ve had with other people in the scene. I’ve mentioned in interviews before that I’m a pretty religious guy and outside of religious settings, the only place that I have found that profound sense of community and belonging is at live shows. I feel like there’s this incredible attitude in the scene of openness and of love and understanding that really pervades the majority of the scene and it really just feels like home. I think it’s a really beautiful thing that’s been cultivated over all these years.

Bariann: That’s why it’s so annoying when people are like “Make black metal dangerous again.” They’re trying to push back against that community that people work so hard to find. Especially since we’re not all teenagers. We’re in our late 20s or late 30s or even older, so for people to try and break up that community is egregious. People have suffered so much and have worked so hard to get where they are. There are a lot of people who grew up and had to repress certain feelings or had to hide their identity and couldn’t transition until later on, stuff like that. And then once they finally feel safe coming out, having these assholes try and ruin it for everyone makes it so much worse. It really is such a loving and open scene when it is, but when it’s not, it’s really not. I get so fired up about because people have suffered enough. They don’t need to suffer anymore when they’re in the place where they’re enjoying themselves and their interests. It’s just not fair. It’s literally free not do be a dick. It costs nothing. You could just not talk.

RT: Yeah, the stage is in front of you. Look over there if you really just can’t stand it.

Bariann: It’s so obnoxious. And that coinciding with the rise of fascism in the US and countries in Europe, especially in Ireland… it’s a huge problem. Some people are just being horrible to migrants and refugees. It’s such a fraught time for these people without you adding to that. These people who are so privileged and don’t realize it decide to make life more difficult for others. I just can’t fathom going out of my way to be mean. I just don’t understand what it brings them. Like, aren’t you tired? Aren’t you so tired from work that you just want to sit and rot and scroll on TikTok? Why are you going online and harassing people? Get a life! Rot in your bed like everyone else! We’re all fucking nerds! Stay in your lane and obsess over your little niche interest like the rest of us.

RT: Exactly. Like, I don’t know if you’ve realized, but we’re all dweebs, dude.

Bariann: We don’t listen to metal because we’re popular and have a million friends and are influencing people on social media. We’re all here because we’re fucking nerds, so embrace it. We all have really obscure knowledge of books that no one gives a fuck about, but our friends do. We’ve all spent hours looking up things on Wikipedia that are so nerdy that you don’t even want to admit to it. Give it a rest and relax.

RT: You’ve talked a little bit in some of the emails I’ve gotten from Fiadh about big things coming in 2025. Is there anything you’d like to share about those?

Image via Bobbi and the Strays, one of the organizations to which Fiadh Productions has donated

Bariann: I think so! There’s a new Lust Hag album, a new Weald & Woe, which I’m very excited about, and I just want to give a big shoutout to Jeff. If you’ve ever seen any of the videos, he does the little weekly wrap-ups for me, so he’s kind of the face everyone sees. I mean, everyone knows who I am, but I don’t love getting on camera. I feel like I have a New York accent and I’m always tired, but Jeff does booktoks and reviews books on TikTok, so he has a whole setup for filming. He’s really great at that stuff. So he does the videos for me, he’s helped me actually get through all the submissions that I get, and he’s just been a really, really good friend. If I were to say that anyone else is a part of the label, it would be Jeff. He’s the main guy in Weald & Woe, so yeah, new stuff for them. I’m also putting out the new Białywilk, the new Genital Shame, the new Membrane, a Cave of Bats and Haunter split, and there’s also going to be a new compilation for Fawn’s Fortress, which is an animal sanctuary in New Jersey. I know subscriptions are a little controversial, but we used the subscription money to buy three goat enrichment platforms and a feeding pavilion for the goats and sheep. We’re raising money for a new turkey enclosure, which is fun. We want to raise money to rent a mobile clinic to do one day of spay and neuter and low-cost vaccinations for companion animals in an under-served area, but I don’t know where to do it yet. It’s usually around $2,500 to $5,000 to do it for a day, but you can help about 50 to 100 dogs. You can literally save hundreds and hundreds of lives just by combating animal homelessness so there aren’t unwanted puppies and kittens. It’s so important to spay and neuter. I want to hammer that into everyone. So that’s going to be the big goal for 2025. I was just talking to a place in Texas, but they’re not doing it right now so I’m trying to find another. I know a lot of the places that need it the most are in the South, but I kind of want to be there in person and being in New York makes that tough. A lot of vegans are weird about spaying and neutering because they’re like “What about bodily autonomy for animals?” but I think this is so much more important because it stops animal homelessness from happening in the first place, so I will fistfight anyone who says otherwise. OK, maybe not actually fistfight, but I will argue with them. I wish I could tease a big album, but my big thing is spaying and neutering all these dogs and cats.

The Jeff in question

RT: No, I think that’s great! I love that Fiadh is so open about the causes it supports and that you’re so passionate about doing it.

Bariann: I think it’s important that people see where their money actually goes. That’s why I always try to post receipts and stuff. We raised around $1,000 for the Palestinian Red Crescent and I think we have another donation to send to them. We will keep supporting Palestinians.

RT: Yeah, I absolutely loved the new Sif album and when I saw that all the proceeds from it went to the PCRF, I was over the moon. I already adored the album and to be able to have the money go to a good cause as well is icing on the cake. Well, thank you for letting me steal your evening from you! I really appreciate you doing this and it’s been a lot of fun!

Bariann: Yeah, of course! Thank you for taking the time to talk about Fiadh and stuff. It’s really nice to be able to spotlight some of the amazing artists that trust me to work with their stuff, so we really appreciate you!

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