Finn Akuma is the bassist, the vocalist, the man behind the black curtain for Portland, Maine based band, BÜZÊM. He is full of experimentation and excitement by decoding Black Metal.
Tell me about your band name?
It’s one of those names that I don’t really care how people pronounce because people pronounce things differently from where they are from. The way it’s designed there is the Umlaut. There’s the accent over the E so I just take it as a joke from black metal and other bands from that just do it because it’s a gimmick. It’s something to have fun with.
How long have you been together ?
Three years in June but with my drummer it’ll be about a year in February.
What part of Maine are you out of?
I live in Portland right now.
What kind of venues are you able to get into right now?
I have played at Sun Tiki and The Apohadian. I have also done backyard events. That’s how you start out with the smallest stuff you can do.
Are you looking to do more DIY shows?
So far everything starting out has been DIY, going out and literally booking everything down the road!
Have you played out a state yet?
I played at a Cannabis Cup in Rhode Island last year when I was by myself.
Was it an acoustic performance?
No, I have a left-handed Rickenbacker. It’s all wood and I have a sun rig and a drum looper. Sometimes I’m trying to get a particular tone or feeling.
Do you record yourself?
Everything that had been recorded as of now was on a zoom hand recorder. I had been plugging it out of the back of my preamp. One day I must have done something right because I fried it.
It was meant to be wrong you’re meant to hear the mistakes and the raw feeling and the pickup from what you hear in the room. Originally the project was to deconstruct what it is to be Black Metal. It doesn’t have to be that weird, super fast scream, you can’t understand what’s going on. You can actually try to put a feeling to it. You can have fun with it, you know.
Have you ever been to Norway?
Gosh one of these days! The farthest I’ve gone like that is when I was in high school we went to Germany, France, and Holland
Do you have any formal training, did you take lessons?
I mean, I was always to play acoustic guitar but didn’t really do well. electric guitar, couldn’t do it. The other thing too was that every time I was ever handed an instrument it was right-handed and I’m a left-handed player it was a completely different thing. I was originally taught music on the piano until I was 8 years old. I tried the violin but that was a mistake and then I had an acoustic guitar. On my 16th birthday I got a left handed Ibanez bass with only two knobs. Tone and volume.
Where can we find your music?
Bandcamp and Spotify.
Did COVID allow you time to make music?
I was working a job in medical cannabis so I was an essential worker. I was working 6 to 7 days a week. There were times I got burnt out pretty badly. When the world came back out was when I went and bought a bunch of music equipment and started going out and doing field recordings. I would take my bass, my zoom recorder and a pedal that had a battery to it and plug them all in together. I would go out into the middle of the field and just record with my headphones on.
Where did you record it?
The desert of Maine. I would sit there for about an hour, play, and record.
Do you have any shows coming up?
I have one December 2, 2022 in Portland Maine at The Caverns on Free Street.
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