THE FACELESS - žánrová vymezení jsou hloupá a omezující

THE FACELESS - genre classes are kind of dumb and limiting

Interview with Derek Rydquist, about future primarily.

Bizzaro: The Faceless can be considered the pioneers of

interview_57_px1

contemporary technical metal production. What was it like to go on tour with such bands as Meshuggah and Cynic?
Our tour with Meshuggah and Cynic was a dream come true. Those are two bands whose music we love and respect, and to be able to share the stage with them and get to know them on a personal level was an amazing experience.

Bizzaro: In summer you had your debut in the Czech Republic at Brutal Assault festival. What about the audience at a festival and in a club? You’re not a big band, you don’t play big stages music. Do you think that even so the atmosphere at a festival can be better than in a club? Have you ever experienced anything like it?
That was the second time we ever played a show of that size, and our second show ever in Europe. It was a cool experience because we had never been there, but we had an amazing crowd reaction. It is kind of weird to play in front of crowds that big because it isn't as personal as it is with a smaller club crowd, but it is a really great experience to see so many people watching and (hopefully) enjoying what you're playing. You also don't get to play for very long at festivals, so it is over really quick, but it was the same on the Bonecrusher tour too, so we hope to get to Europe and play a proper length set sometime.

Bizzaro: You’ve been quite busy in the last two years – Summer Slaughtery with Suffocation and Necrophagist, the tour with CC and now the gigs with The Black Dahlia Murder, Carnifex, Obscura etc. Which of these tours do you consider to be the most successful? What do you think about your tour colleagues? What about the guys from Suffo, Necrophagist, Black Dahlia and Obscura?
We didn't do the tour that featured both Suffocation and Necrophagist, the Summer Slaughter we did only had Necrophagist but also featured Decapitated. Our tour with Cannibal Corpse could probably be considered the most successful of the bunch since we were playing the direct support slot. It was meaningful to know that we were held in a high enough regard to play that high up with Cannibal Corpse. We have just recently become friends with Suffocation, but the short time we've spent with them was very fun, those guys are all really cool and funny. Necrophagist are cool dudes, and extremely talented. Definitely musicians to look up to. Black Dahlia are probably the most fun band to hang out with and have no ego whatsoever, which is very refreshing coming from a headlining act. Obscura are great people, and probably the nicest band in metal haha.

Bizzaro: Do you like concerts or do you just consider them a

interview_57_px2

necessity of your existence? Would you prefer just composing music and recording?
I am almost at the point where I would prefer to just write and record music. Being constantly on tour is very tiring, and is hard to maintain a life back at home while being gone so long. Sometimes concerts feel like a chore, especially when waiting around all day just to play for a few minutes at the end of your night. That feeling generally fades once I step on stage and perform. Even if the show has poor turnout, the act of performing is almost always worth it. I might walk on stage thinking "man i really dont want to play tonight," but seconds later, I'll be having a great time.

Filipismo: Is there a difference between the audience in the USA and in Europe?
There definitely is, but it is hard to explain. I feel that Europe is more open to all styles of heavy music, whereas in the states, people like to identify with one particular genre. I think that Europeans might be more open minded.

Bizzaro: When we talked after your concert (in Prague), your hand was swollen because you hit something. :) I’d better not ask what happened and what kind of things can happen on a tour. But you’re quite young. Have you ever been to a place or have you experienced anything on your tours round the world that would truly amaze you?
I got in a fight with a wall haha. Almost every day of the Bonecrusher tour stored an amazing experience. I saw so many places and things I never imagined I would in my life. I, unfortunately, didn't get to go into Prague, but I hear it is a beautiful city and I really hope to return and do some sightseeing there. I am a big tourist at heart, so I made it my goal to go out and see what almost every city had to offer. It made more sense for me to go out and see the sights rather than sit inside a dark venue all day and not waste my time when I'm on the other side of the world.

OnDRajs: When talking about The Faceless everyone points out your technical skills and perfect instrumentation. I suppose there must be an influence of some music school or something like that. I’d like to ask you what makes you compose more complicated structures and time signatures? Do simpler riffs bore you?
I personally have nothing to do with the composition of the music, but everyone has at least gone to a little bit of music school. They are mostly self taught for the most part, but have had guidance. Simpler riffs don't necessarily bore me, but I think that in the style of music we are creating, "simpler" riffs don't really fit the bill. We have many parts where we slow down, and there are some very straight forward parts in our songs, but they serve a purpose in breaking up the technicality. I really love bands like Isis and Neurosis whose riffs are very simple, yet they hold my attention over their long songs.

Bizzaro: The Akeldama album was recorded with several drummers. What was the cooperation like? How did you choose them and how did you assign them the songs? Was it difficult to find a permanent band member after this?
I actually wasn't there for the recording of the drums on Akeldama, I was added as the singer after everything was recorded. The drummers were former members and friends of the band, so it wasn't too hard to get them to record, but it was weird editing the sounds of the different drummers to somehow make them fit together, as different drummers play with different styles and

interview_57_px3

different drums and cymbals.. It was pretty hard to find a permanent drummer though, and we struggled for a long time until we found Lyle.

OnDRajs: Are you satisfied with Planetary Duality? Compared to your debut record, the sound is slightly worse.
Musically we are extremely satisfied with PD, but we could've used more time in post production. I think it sounds pretty good, but we have received a lot of criticism, which is justified. We got behind in the recording schedule, and had to wrap up recording so we could leave for a tour, and we had to settle on a sound. We are about to record again, and don't plan on doing anything until the sound of the album is up to our standards.

Bizzaro: Or to be more accurate, it has more digital (trigger) feeling. I would also appreciate a longer footage. ;-)
I have to disagree with you here. I feel that PD is much more organic and natural sounding. In terms of it sounding more triggered as you put it, there is actually less drum triggering sound on it, as we mixed the trigger with the natural tone of the bass drum. The digitized sound you are hearing might be a result of the mixing or mastering, I'm not sure, but the recording and tracking process was much better and natural this time around.

Bizzaro: Where did you get the intro from Hideous Revelation? It sounds the same as in Konkhra’s intro of the song Religion Is a Whore on their new album.
The clip comes from a radio show called "Coast to Coast AM" and it's a show about supernatural and paranormal activity around the world. This particular sound clip comes from a guy who allegedly worked at Area 51 and was disclosing some secrets about the facility. After we released the album we were criticized for using it because Tool also used it on an album. I had no idea.

Bizzaro: Since Akeldama the music is more compact, focused and the band seems to have found its direction, the songs do not waver between genres anymore. I haven’t seen the lyrics, but Planetary Duality seems to be a conceptual album. Am I right? What is the album about?
The album is a story about aliens and the different ways they've ruled the human race through time and history. It is mainly metaphorical to how institutions such as educational systems, government, and religion have brainwashed the world into thinking a certain way. The album shows there is no set way to do anything, and that you should be an individual with their own thoughts. Not everything you hear and see is true, its actually quite the opposite, so open your mind and see the world for yourself is the idea.

Bizzaro: The new album contains less quasi death/metalcore sounding tirades and there are less keyboard tirades, for you don’t have a permanent keyboard player. Should we expect less prog and black and more up-to-date guitar tech-death sound in the future?
We don't really have anything written as of yet, but I asked Michael (guitars) how writing has been coming along, and he responded that he is having trouble writing techy death parts, and that (at that time) was only having luck writing cool prog parts. We also really like black metal, so I can see some more influence from there coming into the picture. I don't want to have any full on black metal songs, but there are definitely aspects of the genre that are cool that can be used universally. I guess what I'm getting at is that we don't plan on what comes out and what genres we wish to fulfill, we'll just put out what we feel comes natural.

Bizzaro: We’ve talked about your music several times. I personally consider you technical death metal band. Could you tell us what genre The Faceless belong to? Or what kind of a stage?
I think you've got the right idea. Feel free to add progressive in there somewhere if you want, but that should do fine. People can call us whatever they want though. We get tagged as a "deathcore" band a lot. I'm not really sure what classifies that genre anymore as I've heard tons of bands from across the board called that, but to those who put us there, I say listen to PD and then try lump us in the deathcore grouping. In the end though, I feel that genre classifications are kind of dumb and limiting, often to the point of insulting the artists involved in the band.

Filipismo: And is there a kind of a model for The Faceless, or a band you really admire?
I admire many bands, I mentioned Meshuggah and Cynic earlier. Opeth is a group that I think is very talented and does everything right.

Bizzaro: Filip has asked you about the band – there are many influences in your music. Could you name three major inspiratory sources? Even the influence of romanticism can be heard on Planetary Duality.
I'm not really the authority on musical influence, but I'd have to say technical death metal, jazz fusion, and progressive metal are the three genres we pull from the most.

OnDRajs: To be honest, I don’t like metalcore/deathcore. It sounds like a mainstream mix of all that’s been heard many times, it brings nothing new and what’s more, all metalcore bands sound alike, if not the same. I consider The Faceless (tohegether with Animosity) a band that only takes metalcore (and deathcore) as an inspiration and uses it to form a new and very specific shape. On Planetary Duality you went even further. It seems the next record shall be prog… What do you think about that? What do you think the next step you take will be? Do you like bands like e.g. Planet X?
Animosity were an extremely talented band doing insane things musically. It is a shame that they got lumped in with a style of music that's frowned upon by the musical elite. I could agree with you to an extent if we are speaking on Akeldama, but not at all when it comes to PD. I mentioned earlier that Michael's prog side is shining through right now, so there's a good chance we'll see a lot of proggy elements on the next one.

Bizzaro: Do you like the current deathcore boom? Isn’t it a bit boring to play for Carnifex and Black Dahlia fans? I may be wrong, it may not be that bad and they do care for your performance. Like I do… :)
I don't understand the current deathcore boom. It is all the same thing over and over and over again, and usually done really poorly. Why is there more than one band playing the same style and songs that every other band in the genre is playing? I'm sure the same thing could be said about any style of music though. BDM are a group that I think are unfairly put in the genre based on their fans. They are a straight up metal band, but for whatever reason, a lot of scene kids picked up on them.

Bizzaro: Sumerian Records, a young label focused on creative bands. And now LifeForce, where there are more HC bands. Satisfied? Is it them who arrange all the tours for you?
We were the first band to release on Sumerian Records, and we didn't know what direction the label was going. I feel, although the bands are fairly popular for the most part, that the label does not reflect our style of music properly. They do a good job promoting, but are they doing it to the right audience for us? Who knows, but I personally am not that satisfied, and at times think that being on the label might deter people from checking us out. I don't know anything about Lifeforce to be honest. I know BTBAM released their first album with them, that's about it. They offered us a deal to distribute our album in Europe so we took it. What I do know about Lifeforce is that they released our album in cooler packaging than it is in the states! The guy who runs Sumerian is also our booking agent, so he gets us all our tours, and we are booked through Avocado in Europe so I don't think Lifeforce has much to do with it.

Bizzaro: Do you think they will produce your next album? Or perhaps Nuclear Blast may be interested? Would you swap for a bigger label given the opportunity?
Nucleat Blast was interested, but we missed the deadline to turn in the record for them to release it. We aren't locked into a contract with anyone, so we will welcome any interested parties.

Filipismo: Both albums are above the metal average. Do you feel

interview_57_px4

any pressure because of the new album?
I felt more pressure with PD than I am feeling with this new one. I knew that the bar was kind of high in anticipation for PD, but now after writing that album, I am confident that as we grow, so will the music we are capable of putting out. I am very excited to see where we go with the new one, and I hope that everyone else is too.

Bizzaro: Michael sings – even live – pure (melodic) vocals. Is it him, the vocoder voice? And what about some new vocals – Derek, will there be a change?
Michael did the vocoder vocals on the album, mainly because you have to play the keyboard and sing at the same time. He is more talented than I am haha, and he wrote the chord changes in the vocoder voice, so he played and performed them. When we do them live, we just have a sample pad that plays the sounds, like an mp3.

Bizzaro: We’ve mentioned your tours a few times, we’ve talked about your new album, so my last question is about the band’s future. What are the plans of The Faceless in near future? What can we expect?
We are just laying low and working on new material. We'll soon be recording and hope to have the album out by summer. We will be back in Europe for some festivals this summer performing new songs, and then we have an awesome tour lined up for the summer in the US. Looks like summer is going to be busy for us haha.

Bizzaro: Thank you for your time, we’ll meet at Pilsen!
Thank you, hope to see you there!

www.myspace.com/thefaceless

aktuálně

diskuze