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Gevoelens van bewondering en verwondering wellen in me op wanneer ik eens doorlees wat The Eternal al bereikt heeft in korte tijd. De Australische band ontstond in 2003 uit de as van de cult doom band Cryptal Darkness en bracht in 2004 zijn debuut ‘The Sombre Light Of Isolation’ uit. De plaat bevatte nog enige doom metal invloeden, maar maakte ons ook duidelijk dat we met innovatieve muzikanten te maken hadden die wilden verder evolueren. Vlak na de release volgde er een wereld tournee, plots bleven er nog maar drie kernleden over (exit mede oprichter/gitarist Chris Burton en drummer Ryan Buesnel) maar toch begon de band bij thuiskomst onverdroten te werken aan een opvolger. Nu ‘Sleep Of Reason’ in de winkels ligt, is het hoog tijd om bij te praten met de sympathieke zanger/gitarist Mark Kelson.
Text: Vera
I did an e-mail interview with you for Lords Of Metal after the release of ‘Sombre Light Of Isolation’ and we met at the concert in Belgium at the Frontline when you played there on the 30th of October 2004 (together with The Prophecy and others)….
Yes! Hello Vera, nice to talk to you again, thank you for your time.
So… that makes it easier to pick up the thread of our story. You toured worldwide then and it must have been a huge experience with a lot of impressions. What were the most significant memories on this touring for you, positive and negative?
Touring last year was an amazing experience, we had only been together for a year and a half, our album hit the stores and we hit the road! None of us had done extensive touring like this before, we hit Australia, Asia & Europe doing about 30 shows in all. Touring with people and performing together all the time can be hard work because when you’re not on the stage you are basically living out of each others pockets. It is also a reality check for the band members, for this was a low budget , always driving, sleeping where you can affair. So basically the best thing that came out of the tour was the strong personal and musical relationship that James, Chris & myself have made, which makes me feel positive about the future of the band! As far as shows and places we have been, I have never been overseas before and all of a sudden the whole world was in front of me, so the first show in Hong Kong was a highlight with the crowd just being so responsive! Finland also holds fond memories, lovely place with lovely people! But every show and place we went to holds something special! It’s amazing how many emotions you go through when touring, but for me, even though there where hard times, I came out of it feeling stronger, wiser and ready to do it all again! Being in Spain in a car park at 3am surrounded by police shining torches in our faces, speaking in Spanish and asking for our passports was an interesting experience…
When you came home you immediately started to write new songs. Does it mean that this touring was a source of inspiration or that it raised you creativity anyway?
I had a lot of demo’s on the go before we came to Europe, so it gave me a good head start for when we got home, but when we got home we instantly became a 3 piece, so James Hunt, Chris Stevenson, myself and the drum machine started jamming through some of the demo’s. Most of the lyrics were finalised when the music was complete, with only 3 months before we hit the studio we worked very hard to get the songs into the their final forms. Some inspiration was from touring such as the lyrics for ‘Hollow Inside’ just reminds me of sitting in the van watching the night slip away hour after hour. I’d like to think the experience of touring helped us grow in some way before we hit the studio, but it has been such a quick few years, we recorded the first album, toured, hit the studio not long after, and here we are again! It’s hard to pin point where the inspiration or creativity came from, but I do think we are starting to get a strong idea of where we are coming from musically
It was the first time you wrote songs without Chris. Can you tell anything about the birth of new songs this time?
It was not too hard without Chris Burton, as I had still written 80 percent of the first album, it was interesting being a one guitar band for 4-5 months but I must say having Lincoln Bowen on guitar now is great! Our song writing process on this album was similar to the first, I get the idea and work on demo’s at home on my computer. Working this way for me is good, as I get to hear the idea with a very full sound and get to experiment on production ideas long before I get to the studio. As far as the birth of the songs, I find it hard to pin point the moment I get the ideas, and often listen back to the final song going ‘when the hell did I actually write that’, sometimes I think the song is just there, waiting for it’s chance to get out!
On tour, Matt Castles replaced Chris in a convincing way and I read it was planned to record the new album ‘Sleep Of Reason’ with him. Did that happen? At that time Lincoln Bowen comes in sight and I guess he was active too. So, a little confusion in my mind J : who’s playing on the album?
When Matt came to fill in, the idea was tossed around that we may get him in the band, working with him before and respecting his musical ability, I thought there could be a chance, but there were many factors, including Matt being based in the U.S.A. The last time we played with Matt was in Helsinki, when we got home he went off to Adelaide. I think one day I will record some music with Matt, but the music we create together is very different to The Eternal. So to make this clear for all, we started rehearsing the new album as a three piece. While auditioning drummers, we happened to come across a hard hitting boy by the name of Marty O’Shea and offered him the job on the spot! We then continued to rehearse as a four-piece as we wanted take time to find the right guitarist. So when recording of the album began we were still a four-piece. But not long after the drums were done a friend of mine reminded me about this guy we knew who was a great guitarist and a fantastic guy, I couldn’t believe Lincoln had not crossed my mind earlier, I had known him through friends for at least eight years! Lincoln has extensive touring and recording experience and is an amazing guitar player and one of the nicest guys I know, very dedicated to his family, teaches music to kids and also seems to be very dedicated to the band which is great! So Linc joined a few weeks before I began recording guitars, but knowing the calibre of player he is, we jammed hard and got him involved in the recording process. He has great idea’s and is very easy to work with, most of the harmony guitar work on the album is both of us. It was great to finally have a player like him in the band!
On the vocal front it seems to me you have grown too, did you do something special for it?
Endel Rivers is a very talented producer! We spent longer (about two weeks) laying down the vocals and shaping up some of the backing vocal lines, and of course we also had Ainslie Wills contribute some additional vocals again, she is now also my singing teacher! And as of two weeks ago I’m getting her to help me take my voice further. In making the album Endel Rivers was very patient and such an amazing musician himself that we all absorbed as much knowledge out of him as we could! And as far as vocals go he really pulled the best out of me.
I would like to say that ‘Sleep Of Reason’ is no doom record anymore, but dark melodic music with gothic and progressive elements. Can you find yourself a bit in this feeling?
The Goth thing is interesting, because no one in the band consider our selves gothic or are that interested in the Goth culture, our basis if more metal and old school rock. I guess the fact we are emotive in our approach and use a lot of keyboards it can be seen as gothic, but for me when I write the music its coming from so many places. I’ve always had a thing for progressive rock, things that are technical but still maintain to be understated. With The Eternal, I think it is just becoming part of our sound, having slight technicalities you may not even notice, but I don’t do this for the sake of it, if it just feels like where the song is going, I let it go their, but I do think this element will continue to pop up. On ‘Sleep of Reason’, ‘To Drown’ & “Beneath The Soil’ display some progressive elements.
A progressive touch in the music of The Eternal is new (and it suits them well!), how come these influences suddenly loom up?
I’m a closet prog rocker, I grew up listening to Dream Theater, love Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, and with the older bands I always loved the rocking’ songs with interesting time signatures and some experimentation. So I don’t know if it’s sudden or just creeping it’s way in there. With The Eternal I don’t feel any constraints by what style we are, I just like to make albums that are not ten songs of the same thing, I want people to be able to identify with each song as well, as I feel like its part of a bigger picture and theme.
My general feeling was anyway that it sounded different and that you have grown a lot in between two records. Any idea where this diversity comes from?
It’s been hard for us as we have not had much time to reflect where we are at, but the diversity comes from the fact that we all love music and all kinds, and we are also sharing our tastes with each other and talking about music we like. When we are on tour we just listen to many albums, so I guess this goes back to the progressive thing, in that we are progressive in our ideals as a band, we are willing to try things and incorporate all the things we enjoy about music. I mean no disrespect to the people who wanted a doom album or whatever, yes doom is an influence to us but there are so many great ideas out there & right now I just cant imagine restricting our selves to one idea.
How did you get in contact with Endel Rivers, the man who recorded and produced the album at Palm Studios in Melbourne?
I played in a band called Black Majesty for about a year and they had recorded with him and raved about how cool he was. Not being satisfied with the production I was getting I wanted to try someone new, so I went down to Endel’s, gave him some demo’s and explained what we wanted. Even though Endel has done much Power/Prog, he has knowledge of many styles of music, he is amazing with rock and jazz and is also a classical composer, so when you have a lot of keyboard like we do, Endel’s Ideas are endless! From the moment Endel started setting up the drums I had no doubt that I felt confident with him and we all have such a great time together. It was one of the most pleasurable and rewarding recording experiences we have all had!
Isn’t he more a power metal based guitarist?
Endel’s own music is jazz, metal, fusion, and what an experience it is to watch live!
Another striking thing is that the album was mastered by Mika Jussila at Finnvox Studios in Helsinki, a perfect choice for the more gothic allied direction of some of the songs I think. Can you tell anything about that?
Well we thought seeing we had tried a new producer why not try Mika. We were familiar with his work with Nightwish, Therion, Amorphis and many other bands and knew he would do a good job, so we spoke to Firebox and they said it would be great to get him to do it, so on a last minute decision Mika was onboard!
The artwork is marvellous too, and I think you can tell more about it, cause even the website is renewed in that style of Travis Smith…
Well I had contacted Travis Smith before we did the first album but he was flat out, so I took it on myself, but with this album I didn’t want to stretch myself too far. I was interested in getting Travis to work on it as I thought his art may suit out music. James came to us with the Goya Etching ‘The Sleep of Reason produces monsters’ and we just thought this was a great concept for the album artwork and if done in Travis’s style could be very dark and beautiful, and we were not disappointed. So Travis did all the art and background elements and I did all the layout and type setting. ...and how could we resist doing the website in the same style?
This year you also released a live DVD ‘Sombre Visions’. This is the opportunity to make some publicity about it!
The ‘Sombre Visions’ DVD contains a one hour tour doco, live footage, video clips and over 200 pictures of the past year of the bands life. It’s a very raw look at what it has been like for us and the DVD was totally produced by us start to finish. It is currently only available for order at our site, but if you’re interested in a behind the scenes look at the band then it’s worth a look.
Everybody can read the lyrics on the website too, a thing I always enjoy. So I guess the lyrics are an important factor in the songs too…
Lyrically we are not a ‘message band’, we sing more about personal things, experiences, emotions and the life that has been put before us, so I wouldn’t say the lyrics are the focal point of our songs but more part of the picture. I think if people get something out of our lyrics or can relate that is personally for me very satisfying.
Maybe some words of explanation about the making of the video of ‘Everlasting’…
We haven’t gone into production with this yet, but have been putting much thought into what we want to achieve. With our previous clips, they were produced by us, but this time we are getting a few other people involved. We plan to have all footage shot and editing to have begun by the end of this month, I was hoping to have it complete before the album came out, but it looks as though it will hit our website a few weeks later.
Are there plans for touring again?
We are hoping to go to Europe again by next June and we are currently looking at our options and where we can play. At the moment Holland, Belgium, Luxemburg, Spain, Portugal and Finland look likely but we plan to hit a few more places as well, hopefully a few we missed out on last time, but we are still in the early stages of planning and should have more of an idea of what’s going on by the end of the year.
You have a two album deal with Firebox Records. This means after ‘Sleep Of Reason’ you have to negotiate again. Are there any prospects at the moment?
We have been very happy with Firebox, they are very professional and they are also a growing label, we have not thought too much about this yet nor have we been looking elsewhere. I think if Firebox is still interested in us we would still negotiate with them but it is always interesting to know our options. I guess we wait and see how this album goes and hopefully we have a deal to start work on the next one!
‘Weight Of Empathy’ closes the album in a marvellous way as an epic beautiful track where I even hear Pink Floyd influences or am I wrong? It is a track that distinct itself a bit of the other songs. Can you tell anything more about it?
It’s funny you mention that because when I showed the demo of that song to Rowan from Australian band Virgin Black he said the same thing. At the time of writing it, I didn’t see that but at the same time I listen to a lot of Floyd so it doesn’t surprise me if that influence is there. That song is a look at the state of the world. It paints a dark, bleak picture which at times reflects where humanity is headed. I guess I wanted to leave this album on an uneasy note, leave you hanging and wondering what was going to come next, but at the same time I think it is great to doze off to and it is the most epic song in its structure & ambience The Eternal have done to date.
What are your further wishes and plans for the near future?
Well promoting ‘Sleep of Reason’ as much as we can and a good year of touring I hope. Also writing the third album is on the agenda, I would like to be in the studio again by the end of next year. So I guess you can say we are going to make sure we keep busy!
Thank you very much for answering these questions. I wish you very much luck with the excellent album and hope to see you live on tour again soon.
Thank you Vera, I’m sure we will see you next year! A big cheers to the readers of Lords of Metal, see you at a show somewhere near you soon!
http://www.the-eternal.com
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