90 • SKIN DEEP MAGAZINE
prior there was now a simple brass framed mirror propped
again the base of the tree. For some reason this scared me
even more and I began to run and the entire time there was
always that feeling that something was following closely be-
hind me. I ran until I made it out of the woods, winded and
shaken, and into the apartment complex down the street.
That experience is still fresh in my mind. To this day mirrors
make me feel uneasy. Every time I look into one I imagine
seeing that long-necked figure standing behind me smiling.
What the song is really about though is how I know eve-
rything I saw and everything I felt that day, as real as it
seemed, we’re all just byproducts of fear. It’s about how
strong fear is and it’s ability to create and manipulate our
minds and make imprints. How fear can literally shape
your reality and all the things you perceive within it. I
know that nothing was there in the woods that day but I
still had one hell of an experience.
SH: One of my favourite writers is Mary Shelley, whose
work reminds me very much of your own writing. Shel-ley’s life was constantly intertwined with the feelings of
loss, especially regarding the deaths of loved ones, yet
she kept a beautiful reflection of the romance of it all. On
the first anniversary of Mary Shelley’s death, the Shelleys
opened her box-desk. Inside they found locks of her dead
children’s hair, a notebook she had shared with Percy
Bysshe Shelley (her life love), and a copy of his most re-
nowned poem Adonais with one page folded round a silk
parcel containing some of his ashes and the remains of
his heart. At the risk of sounding morbid, what would we
find in your box-desk after you passed?
DW: A picture of my family underneath a dandelion weed
and a small stone, my Memento Mori coin and a cheap pa-
perback copy of the Hagakure. To see more of Daniel Weyandt’s work visit him on insta-
gram @danimus1977. Visit officalzao.bandcamp.com or
holymountainprinting.com to pick up Zao’s newest record,
Decoding Transmissions From The Möbius Strip.MY ROLE IS THAT OF AN OBSERVER. I AM
FOCUSED INWARD. I JUST LISTEN TO THEIR
STORIES AND SHARE SOME OF MY OWN IF
IT FITS IN THE CONTEXT