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Interview by Sledgehammer Messiah Label: Roadrunner Records Views: 541 Printable Version |
Dååth, one of Roadrunner’s latest promising signings, is doing a European tour at the moment as a support act for Unearth. The tour didn’t come to The Netherlands so we decided to travel to Belgium to check them out and have a chat with singer Sean Farber about their latest album and how it relates to the theme that they interestingly explore.
How is your tour going so far?
‘Pretty good, this is our first day on the mainland of Europe, we were just in the UK for about two weeks, which was excellent. People seem to appreciate where we’re coming from and the style of music we’re doing.’
Why don’t you guys do a show in The Netherlands this tour?
‘If it would be up to us we’d definitely play in The Netherlands, I’d love to go to Amsterdam, but since we’re not headlining this tour we just go where the tour goes. Hopefully we will be there soon; we plan on coming back to Europe as often as possible.’
Before you got signed to Roadrunner, The Hinderers was already self released; what happened since then?
‘We recorded the album with the intention of self releasing it, but Roadrunner decided to pick it up. We got a bigger budget and could do things that weren’t possible before. We pretty much used all the same tracks, same drums and same guitars. We didn’t re-record anything; we just re-mixed and re-mastered everything. The mix is now completely different.’
I listened to both versions of the album and I must say that I like the earlier version more, because it's got a rawer sound which matches your filthy vocals better; the latest version tends to sound a bit overproduced.
‘I can see where you’re coming from, I guess that some people will like the rougher versions and some the more polished versions, it’s just a matter of taste. We feel that the production of the Roadrunner release manages to utilize our keyboard and samples more, we weren’t really able to bring those out before.’
I think that those electronic aspects really sets you apart from any other metal band and is one of your strongest points, do you already know whether they’re ever going to get an even bigger role?
‘It has always been a part of the band, so that’s an element that will always be there. I don’t know exactly how much, because we’re constantly evolving. All I can say is that we will never ditch it.’
On the Roadrunner release you left out some songs, ‘Illuminator’ and ‘Inversion’, why was that?
‘That was a decision of the label, I believe that on the Japanese release those two songs will be bonus tracks. Those are kind of our hidden songs, they will always be around.’
What a shame that you couldn’t convince Roadrunner they really needed to be on the record!
‘We had too much material for the album and we had to pick and choose, so that was another reason for leaving them out.’
Every album you make is a node of the Tree of Life, which is the theme Dååth is about, was your precious album, Futility, already a node of this concept?
‘Yes.’
Then why are there only ten songs on that album, because on your site can be read that there’s a Tree of Life within each Tree of Life, so there should be 13 songs.
‘Basically there are, there’s stuff that doesn’t make it on the album. The most important thing is the thirteen albums, within that we have 13 songs that are written for the album, but whether we use them is another thing. There are various reasons for not putting them all up, sometimes it just sucks! But we pretty much follow the road map that we set out.’
All the lyrics on The Hinderers are about the Tree of Life?
‘Yes, we use the ancient mysticisms as a way of describing the negative aspects of the human psyche. Dååth is more scientifically looking at the Tree of Life rather than from a religious perspective.’
Chesed (mercy) is a node on the Tree of Life which has to be in balance, because when you have too much mercy you will be vulnerable to the pressures of everyone else’s wants and needs, isn’t leaving a song out because the label doesn’t want it on the record a sign of weakness of the psyche?
‘Yeah that’s a good point, I’d say it’s definitely a negative side of our psyche and humanity, but there are necessary evils in life and sometimes you have to do what you have to do for the better good. Sometimes you have to sacrifice in order to gain.’
Will Dååth ever relate to other themes than the Tree of Life or will you always stick to it?
‘We will always stick to that theme, when we or individual members of Dååth will do other things it will be in a side-project or something.’
I think that’s a really strong point, because it makes your band even more interesting and I was really fascinated how you fit the theme of the Tree of Life in your total appearance.’
‘The bands that I listened to when I was much younger also did that to me, like Morbid Angel who used the Necronomicon and Sumarian knowledge. That really did something to me, there was a point to what they were doing, they were really doing it with a purpose; I think that is important. Musicians and artist have the responsibility to do things like that, make statements and be true to what they believe.’
How did your mix of metal with many electronic elements come to existence?
‘Before Dååth even existed, some of us, especially our keyboard player Mike, would experiment with electronic elements during the song writing process. He would be creating beats on the computer, then we lay guitar parts over it and he added samples and other sounds to it.’
Are you all into electronic types of music?
‘Yeah I do listen to some of it, I’m a more a black metal/death metal guy, but I do like bands with industrial and electronic elements as well.’
What are the upcoming plans?
‘We’re going to do Ozzfest in America and hopefully coming back to Europe soon.’
Be sure to tell the booking agency that you really need to come to the Netherlands!
‘We’ll do!’
If you want more information about how Dååth is using the Tree of Life as the theme of their albums and songs, you can check it out here. |