Life, Values & Legacy: Our Chat with Simlev of Montreal

Simlev shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.

Simlev, it’s always a pleasure to learn from you and your journey. Let’s start with a bit of a warmup: Are you walking a path—or wandering?
I’m walking a path, but it isn’t a straight line. Detours happen, and some of them hit hard. Two summers ago my studio flooded, and rebuilding it myself, with almost no renovation experience, pushed me into a forced wandering phase. It pulled time, energy, fund, and focus away from working on new music. But even when the physical progress stalled, the creative path kept running in parallel. The vision never stopped, I just had to fight my way back to solid ground before moving forward again.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m an extreme metal musician and I’ve spent more than two decades in art direction and graphic design. Krokmitën, my music project is where my creative instincts run without limits. It’s the space where I can shape sound, imagery, and video as a single vision rather than separate disciplines. The foundation is death metal, but I’m always bending that metal subgenre, injecting doom metal parts, cinematic tension, and shadowy ambient textures to push the project into its own territory.

Okay, so here’s a deep one: What was your earliest memory of feeling powerful?
I skateboarded for over a decade. I was never on track to go pro, but the mindset it forged is permanent. There’s almost nothing anyone can throw at me that I haven’t already done to myself for fun, hurling down stair sets over and over just to stick a five-foot kickflip. That was where I felt the most powerful. Skateboarding drilled into me that discipline and repetition can be exhilarating and rewarding. I’ve carried that same work ethic and intensity into everything I care about, and it still drives me today.

If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
I’d tell myself to trust my instincts and stop giving so much weight to everyone else’s opinion. People love to tell you how to live you life and do things, but most of it is just a projection of their own wins, failures, and insecurities. What works for them rarely maps onto your own sensibility and personality. Your gut is usually the only guidance that actually belongs to you.

Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. What’s a belief or project you’re committed to, no matter how long it takes?
I’m fully committed to music, Krokmitën is my lifelong project. It evolves constantly, but no matter the form, it’s always alive in my mind, every single day. I can’t imagine ever stopping. My goal is to create over ten albums, something I see as solid body of work. Over the next two decades, it might take unexpected shapes, but there will always be something dark, sonic, and alive simmering in the back of my brain. Since I don’t do this full time, each album takes me around two years to produce and require quite a commitment. So, whatever it takes to keep the ball rolling.

Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. Could you give everything your best, even if no one ever praised you for it?
Absolutely, that’s exactly what’s happening with Krokmitën. Krokmitën is a niche entity; most people simply don’t get it. I fully accept that it will never be commercially successful or widely praised by the metal community. I do things radically differently than anyone else out there. Songs are too long, riffs too repetitive, too discordant, not groovy enough, too fast, too brutal, not melodic or catchy enough, solos not virtuosic enough, song structures too out there, strange sounds everywhere, no live shows, just one guy and a hired drummer… And on top of that, a visual experience that blasts you in the face for 40 minutes non-stop. It’s just too much for most people.

My fanbase is small and not really growing, but I’m completely fine with that. I get almost no views, reviews, or social media attention, I would totally love for people to love what I do but make no mistake, I do this for myself first and foremost. Maybe one day it will resonate with more people. Maybe it won’t. Either way, I won’t compromise what Krokmitën is just to get more praise.

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