Since that point I’ve had the chance to see them in concert a couple times and get to know the band a little better. The guys are all real cool and I’m really looking forward to their upcoming studio album. When will it be released do you ask? Well you’ll have to check out our video interview with them below for that information.

The first video is a brief intro to the band; you’ll learn what their name means and why they decided to do without a lead singer. The second video will get you further inside their heads, as we go over some of the band’s musical influences and talk about their private recording studio and future plans.

Much thanks to the guys for letting us use their audio and video equipment to film this interview!

Click here to view the embedded video. Click here to view the embedded video.

Himanshu: You’re currently working on the launch of your first EP, but you are not new to Hip-Hop music. Tell me about some of the other projects you were involved with and specifically how those experiences have prepared or helped you with your current endeavors?

H: It seems like you’ve always taken the independent approach to your music, but can you provide some insight into this approach and how you’ve learned how to navigate through the constantly evolving music business? Do you have your own management team that handles the administrative and legal aspects of the business? What kind of resources are available for other independent artists that want to understand how this all works?

H: It’s amazing to see how new media and social technologies have changed the current music distribution model and how artists are able to interact with their fans. You seem to have a solid online presence (MySpace, Twitter, Vimeo, YouTube) and are leveraging these tools to spread your music. Can you talk a bit about the importance of these services for you and how specifically you plan to utilize them going forward?

H: You’re currently unsigned, but I assume you’ve done your diligence and are out meeting with industry folks. Tell me a bit about the options available to unsigned artists and the benefits of each path? At Obnoxious Listeners, we’ve featured artists and crews that are signed to a major label, signed to an independent label or are still unsigned. We’re also starting to see artists like Madonna, Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z, U2 and others sign “360 Deals” with Live Nation, MTV, etc. What are your opinions on these options and how does this relate to your future as an artist?

H: What specific equipment are you currently using to record your music? Paint us a visual of your recording environment.

H: We consider ourselves to be “Obnoxious Listeners” because we’re obsessive about finding quality music and “Save Ourselves” represents the type of quality music that transcends cultural identifications. You said it best: “I’m not trying to be the biggest South Asian artist. I’m trying to be a quality artist that so happens to be South Asian.” (from SepiaMutiny.com) With that said, what does “quality music” mean to you? And why do you consider yourself to be an “obnoxious listener”?

Much thanks to Ewa for taking the time to answer our questions, and of course much thanks to the entire band for creating such awesome music!

Indukti has a unique and somewhat exotic sound, partially because of the violin but also because there seems to be some elements of regional music from around the world. What are some of the artists/genres/styles outside the realms of rock and metal that may have influenced this sound?

There is a lot of music that we are listening to. Every member of Indukti has his own influences, and the mix of it might be the reason of the unique sound that you mentioned. Some of us love funk and classic rock, some are huge fans of Scandinavian metal (Ensiferum, Dimmu Borgir, Wintersun, Meshuggah), also original music from Australia and India. For me the only determinant for music is if it’s heart-breaking and if it moves me. So, in the same time I love Radiohead, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Sigur Ros, Mr. Bungle and Kobong, Polish Unestimated Band - that unfortunately doesn’t exist anymore.

S.U.S.A.R. has become one of my personal all-time favorite albums. Should I expect similar music for the upcoming release, or will this album branch off into a new direction? Will it again be mostly instrumental?

Yes, it’s still mostly instrumental, but as same as on SUSAR we have some guests on this new album. We worked with great vocalists (Nils Frykdahl from SGM, Maciej Taff from Polish band Rootwater, and Michael Luginbuehl from Swiss band Prisma). Also we invited trumpet player - Robert Majewski, and Marta Maslanka - genius dulcimer player. The music on the album is going rather in the same direction, but it’s more powerful and mature, I think. We are very curious how it’s gonna be received.

Speaking of the next album, when can we expect it to be available to the public?

It will be this year for sure, but we still don’t know the date of premiere. We will make it public on our website and on MySpace as soon as we know it.

S.U.S.A.R. was released in 2005; what have you guys been up to since then? Is Indukti a full-time job for each of you?

Playing this kind of music you can’t afford living. So all of us have to work, to have a regular job. That’s why we can’t be Indukted full time, and that’s why you had to wait for our second album so long. Since 2005 we played lots of concerts, mostly on abroad festivals; we traveled a lot, met lots of fantastic people and played fantastic shows. Thanks to being in Indukti we can visit places we couldn’t visit without playing. This is really great thing :-))

Mariusz Duda offered his vocals for several of the songs on your debut album; is there a relationship between Riverside and Indukti that extends beyond the studio?

Not really, we play completely different kinds of music and we are joined in minds of fans only because we play on the same festivals (but on different editions) and both bands are from Poland. And finally, Mariusz had sang on our first album. We don’t have  expanded stage in Poland, so we can’t even meet on the same stage actually.

While we’re on the subject, have there been any talks of a future Polish invasion of North America? We’d sure love for you to tour the States and bring any friends along.

We’ve been in US, we played on NearFest 2007. That was really fantastic experience. As far as I know, they don’t invite bands for the second show, but we would love to come back to America. We have some contacts. Now everything must wait till second album is released.

The music on S.U.S.A.R. is credited to the band as a whole, not just one or two individuals. Do you have a prescription for writing compositions, or does the band just get together and see what happens?

Usually it is an improvisation on rehearsals in our practice room. Sometimes Indukti guitarists bring some themes, riffs, sometimes our drummer brings a complicated phrase of the rhythm (like in tusan homichi, try it from 3:12 ;-))) ) and we play it, change it, match it, till it’s good enough and ready. It takes time, but we think it’s worth waiting :-))

When I heard Jasper’s music I felt the simplicity that is most important as well as the challenging moments. Jasper is on his way to being a great band leader as he is already a good composer and bassist. I know im going to keep listening.
     - Avishai Cohen

I first heard Jasper on his album Organic Warfare (2007) released under his own trio, Phronesis.  I was hooked immediately and promptly published a review. Jasper is releasing his trio’s second album this May entitled Green Delay (2009).  We’ll have a review of Green Delay shortly before it’s official release, but in the mean time we have an exclusive clip from the upcoming album not found anywhere else and an interview with Jasper Høiby!  Enjoy!

Download audio file (greendelay-preview.mp3)

For someone who has never heard Phronesis, how would you describe the band? What do you feel is most unique about the band?

I’d describe Phronesis as a modern and relevant acoustic jazz trio with an energy similar to that of a young rock band. The unique thing about Phronesis is the way that we emphasise equally on each instrument and it’s all about creating one strong sound as opposed to taking endless solos in turn.

Organic Warfare has received a lot of great reviews. Did you anticipate the album to do as well as it has? 

Obviously I did what I could with the resources I had to get it out to anyone I thought might listen to it, like it and more importantly write about it! 

But no, I was happily surprised to receive all the good feedback that we did. 

I hear an abundance of influences on Organic Warfare. What music has influenced your compositions that we don’t hear or might not expect?

I think anyone who decides to play music on a serious level will find that musical influences probably starts from when you are very young. In my teens I was mostly inspired by hip hop. Groups like Sugar Hill Gang and Tribe Called Quest has had a big impact on me and later Red Hot Chili Peppers, Weather Report, Headhunters, Sly and the Family Stone, Drori Hansen Furniture,and Prince were eye(ear)openers on a musical level from early on and I guess that bands like these showed me a way into jazz.

Your current pianist, Ivo Neame, has his own band and you play bass in that project as well. Aside from having separate composers, what do you feel distinguishes the two bands? Do you currently have any other musical projects?

The difference between Ivo’s 4tet and Phronesis is quite big but obviously also has similarities. I still feel like there’s an instant comunication between the bass and piano, but in general I probably stick to a more traditional role of the bass, and leave more space for the vibes, piano and drums. 

Ivo’s 4tet strives to make music on a really open level. The point is getting to know the material well enough for everyone to be able to suggest a new place to go in the music, from anywhere within all the different material in a similar way that Wayne Shorter’s new quartet might approach things.

In Phronesis we all know the material inside out too, but we tend to present most tunes in whichever way they were written and then have places to go to where we can totally break stuff up. In a way its about making a coherent statement first and then leaping into the abstract later.

While I have future plans to re-awaken my old band Qualia, apart from Phronesis my other current musical projects is currently as a sideman. I play in London based Loop Collective bands like Ivo Neame 4tet, Gemini and Fringe Magnetic and also AHR, Kairos Quartet, Compassionate Dictatorship, Triptych, Mark Lockheart Group, Jonathan Braetoff trio and Julia Biels band.

As the bands composer you likely play piano, do you compose on the piano or on the double bass? Do you play any other instruments?

I would never go as far as saying I play the piano. I write from a variety of instruments but the bass is obviously a foundation for most of my writing. 

For the rest I use the piano, singing or notation as my compositional tools. 

The tune Rue Cinq Diamant on the coming album started on a coconut mbira, that I discovered in Paris, and then finished on the piano. 

I started out as an electric bass player and still play it, mostly with Julia Biel.

I see that you have a European tour coming this summer. Do you have any plans or intentions to tour the U.S.?

It’s definitely a dream to tour the U.S. and with the amount of interest coming from there it will hopefully be possible one day. I am currently looking for some sort of management in Europe as well as in the States so lets see what happens with that.

Any suggestions are welcome!

If you could play along any band or group in a concert series, who would they be and why? 

I’d love to warm up for Wayne Shorter’s Quartet. I think those guys are absolutely amazing and playing with an openess and maturity that’s just incredible and deep on so many levels.

Phronesis is releasing a new album, Green Delay, this May. You’ve given us a 1 minute clip from the clip Abrahams New Gift on the myspace page. Do you feel this track set’s the tone and mood of the album, or should we expect the new album to sound as diverse as Organic Warfare?

When you put together an album of material there’s many factors to pay attention to. I chose Abrahams New Gift as the first track because its starts with an energy that hopefully will make you stop whatever you are doing and listen more carefully to the music. (If you are a reviewer this might mean that you’ll make it through the rest of the album!) Then, once you are drawn in, there’s a variety of moods waiting.

I definitely think that Green Delay is as diverse as Organic Warfare. The writing has matured and we are all getting better all the time.

What are some of your passions outside of music? What sort of life would you pursue if a career in music was not an option?

My passions outside music are music really but if not possible I’d probably turn my attention to something to do with politics. I feel like most politicians are caught in their own web and politics seem to be more about personal agendas then doing good things for everyone. When did this happen? 

In the past seven years or so Denmark has been in a real state politically and this has, in my opinion, changed things in the country dramatically. It’s time for a more human agenda and time to realise that we need to start working together if we want to survive. 

Otherwise I’d like to do something pro-active about the health care system in Denmark. Everyone seems to think that its one of the best functioning in the world, meanwhile people are receiving a terrible service, waiting lists are growing and people are dying as a result.

On a more cheerful and superficial level I’d just love to try skiing and surfing again. Just tried surfing for the first time the other day and it was absolutely amazing, great for both body and brain!

Did you design the artwork for Organic Warfare? Could you give us some insight about its meaning?

My friend Daniel Milan designed the artwork for the album. We brainstormed on the influences I had while writing the material and talked about what really matered to me personally. Afterwards he came up with the suggestion of the sun, penquin and bass, and then we took it from there.

I wrote the tune Organic Warfare just after 9/11 and I remember finding it utterly bizarre that people in western europe where buying organic food, while people in Afghanistan and Iraq where busy avoiding being hit by bombs from the West.

The three symbols (the sun, the bass and the penquin) refers to the trio itself. 

The conflict between the sun, and the penquin symbolises global warmning which is obviously a reality we all have to face up to on a serious level. (Politicians wake up!)

First of all, you guys have possibly the best band name I’ve ever seen. What’s the story behind it?

Before the first concert we needed a name. The best thing we came up with was things like “Rich is the new poor”, “Tips and Tricks” and “The Fantastic Plastic Woodpecker from Outer Space, Mars to be presise”. But a friend had a bandname he didn’t use, so we stole it and became The Samuel Jackson Five. we always thought we´d change it before the next gig or the first release, but never did.

What is the music scene like in Oslo, Norway? Are there a strong following for instrumental rock bands?

The scene in Oslo has actually gotten quite good, but the main focus isn´t on instrumental rock, but different variations of indie-music. However, bands like Shining and Jaga Jazzist has made some awareness of the instrumental genre.  

Who are some of the bigger influences on the band’s stylistic choices? Are there many American artists among them, as your name seems to imply?

I don´t know if you have ever heard of them, but being from a small and in musical terms, unimportant country, the biggest influence on us all is probably our natives Motorpsycho. They have touched on almost every genre imaginable, always with quality and style, and they tought us at an early stage that this was possible, when everybody else was listening to Pearl Jam. Other than that, we all liked the sound of post-rock from Chicago and Canada, most notably Tortoise, Do make.. and GYBE.

How many different instruments are used in your live shows?

That depends. Some times we have guests who play saxophone, violin and percussion. But when we play as a quartet: drums, bass, keys, guitar, percussion and PC/samples. if Thomas feels like it, he will bring along a theremin or maybe some f*cked-up radio run through a distorted amp.

Do you have any plans to play any shows in the US?

This is our one big true dream, to TOUR THE STATES! Unfortunately work and other boring facts have kept us on the wrong side of the Atlantic way too long. We are still trying to realize this dream, though.

Is Honest Abe your own record label?

Yes, it is run through our drummers basement and it has given us all the creative freedom in the world. And little of the money.. 

Have you self-produced and self-financed your recordings?

Yes. Same Same, But Different (2004) is produced and mixed by us, on the two last albums we have gotten help with mixing. We also make our own art-work. We save a lot of money on doing everything our selves, but it’s still expensive. on balance we neither make nor lose money on our music.

Could you give us a little insight to the creative process  behind your compositions? Is there a primary composer? Or do most of your compositions come out jamming and improvisation?

Both are true. The songs usually have a primary composer, but we jam around the drafts and everyone contribute to the finished songs.

Your latest album Goodbye Melody Mountain is your most cohesive album thus far. It is also much busier, and in general a little less experimental or abstract. Was there a source of motivation for this transition, or has your music simply arrived here naturally?

We experienced a writers block after our second album, Easily Misunderstood (2005). We needed to turn over some rocks to manage to make some songs. We threw away all the songs we made from 2005-2007, took a deap breath and wrote the songs on Goodbye Melody Mountain in around a year. The transition was natural, but didn’t arrive without a fight. To complete the album, we carried all our equipment to a cabin up in the mountains(yes, therfore the album-title..) and stayed there for some 13 days. it was intense

You guys mentioned “a place to sleep, a meal and some beer is the minimum” for performance. Though you probably weren’t serious about that for all your gigs, there might have been times when things got pretty close to that. Would you mind sharing one of those experiences, perhaps one of the tougher times?

We have played in Germany, England, the Netherlands and Belgium, only in the latter country did we make any profit. The desire to play our music for new people is a lot bigger than the desire to make money. The gig in England was probably the toughest, because we were just one of tvelwe bands at the venue. When we entered the stage both we and the audience was tired. All the other bands sounded like Oasis/Travis-wannabes, it was clearly not the right venue for us.

But mostly we have had fantastic experiences with playing at quite rundown venues. The best small concert was Astra Stube in Hamburg. A very damp, tiny stage under a railway track. It was intense and intimate and the reception was brilliant. You don’t need big stages to have a great time, often the opposite is true for our kind of music.

You said on your blog that you really liked Sigur Ros and Sonic Youth’s live performances. Any other bands or groups that you’ve been listening to? Any recommendation on albums we should check out?

Shining - In the Kingdom of Kitsch, You Will Be a Monster

Motorpsycho - Trust Us

King Crimson - Red

Godspeed You Black Emperor - Slow Riot For…

Refused - The Shape of Punk to Come

5 albums that might seem obvious, but if you haven´t checked them out, they are truly masterpieces.

Do members of the band have day jobs outside of making music? If so, would you mind sharing what they are?

Yes, all of us have full time jobs. Stian(drums) runs a record store. Thomas K.(guitars) does web design, Thomas M.(multimusician) is a student and Sigmun Bade(bass) does car-journalism.

If you could play alongside any band or group in a concert series, who would they be and why?

Radiohead would be high on that list. They’re in a different league and one of the bands that have been best in constantly reinventing themselves. Their songs are great, and I think we could learn a great deal from them. to start off with a major hit like “creep” and evolve to solo-stuff like “the eraser”, and the Greenwoods reggea and “there will be blood”-outings is impressive.

We’ve read a few interviews of the band over the last year. Plug In Music did a good job covering the inner workings of the band (line up changes, writing/recording instrumental album) and I really liked how Deaf Sparrow asked about the band’s relationship of music with politics. Shan answered quite extensively focusing on the aspect of human casualty vs. politicians. So with our interview, we focused on some general questions and then rolled into specifics about band’s inspiration, motivation, and recent projects. In our upcoming follow-up interview, we’ll be less general and more specific on upcoming projects + band’s future goals. For now, enjoy…

What does the name Irepress mean and is there a story behind it?

The name Irepress basically stems from the word “irrepressible.” It’s something we came up with in high school and it stuck. At the time we were probably about 16 so I honestly don’t remember. Names for things either came naturally to us or we just made up a word.

How did you guys meet? What kind of day jobs do you guys have (assuming this is not your full-time gig)?

We all went to the same high school in Sharon, MA. Everyone does something a little different as far as work is concerned. People in my band have all kinds of different lines of work in the following fields: education, journalism, clothing industry, and finance.

What is your inspiration for writing music, specifically for Samus Octology? Who are your stylistic influences?

When we wrote that record, we were all listening to probably very different music than we listen to now. Personally, I had always been a huge fan of the band Hum and that was big for me while writing most of that one. But really our tastes range from Michael Jackson to Andrew Bird, Minus the Bear to !!!.

Do you notice a difference playing live shows without a lead singer hogging the spotlight? Does crowd react differently or do you have a strong enough fan-base such that the crowd already expects it?

We haven’t played with a lead singer in about four years so we don’t really notice a different anymore. The sound has changed completely since back in our “lead singer” days.

The decision to go without a lead singer was sort of forced upon us. Jarrett, who now plays keys, used to sing with us several years ago, along with our good friend Shomik. Both left the band for various reasons before we started writing Samus Octology. Dino, Shan, Sheel and I just kept writing, always with the plan to get a new singer for the songs we were writing. We tried out a bunch of singers, we even tried to sing a bit ourselves, none of it worked and we eventually came to the determination we liked how these songs sounded without vocals. Our writing style never really changed, we just dropped the vocal element.

There seems to be a wide variety of sounds in the area, but do you feel your style and sound fit into the local Cambridge/Boston music scene? Or are you going completely against the grain?

I think there are certain elements of our sound that are similar to bands that have started out around the Boston area, but I we never wrote music with anyone else in mind.

How’s the whole band doing in terms of motivation?

We are motivated. I guess everyone has different reasons, but mostly we were all really happy with this how this last record came out. That played a big part in keeping morale high.

Did you enjoy playing with God Is An Astronaut? Did you get a chance to hang out with them?

Yeah those shows were fun. Those are great guys, we didn’t have a ton of time to hang out with them, but they were just real classy guys from Ireland.

Who would be apart of your ideal national tour?

Hum, !!!, and At the Drive In, then Irepress, then Michael Jackson in the 80s would headline. Guest appearance by Jimi Hendrix, alive.

What was your main inspiration behind this latest album, Sol Eye Sea I?

We just wanted to take what we did from the past and build on it, going above and beyond the Samus Octology record. We wanted to go bigger in every way from the production to the song writing, even to the art work. We liked Samus a lot but we just wanted to take everything up a few notches for Sol Eye Sea I.

When can we expect a show in Philly/Baltimore/D.C. area?

Baltimore is actually our first stop on our full U.S. tour. We are playing a club called The Talking Head on March 4. We hit Philly toward the end of the tour.

Do you have any suggestions (obscure or well-known) for fans that enjoy your music?

I really like this band Tigercity from Brooklyn, but if you like Irepress, we probably have some records in common already.

Related Posts:

• Samus Octology | Irepress
• Sol Eye Sea I | Irepress
• God is an Astronaut
• Self-Titled | God is an Astronaut

I read your interview with Edwin Roosjen from the Dutch Progressive Rock Page (DPRP). I gather you’re a rather shy guy and take your music very personally. This interview took place shortly after only your third show with Demians and you had stated you were very nervous on stage. Have you since found a strong connection with your live band and are you still just as nervous on stage? Or has the connection with your band helped to ease your nerves?

I see many different things in these questions, some are linked and some are not.

The first thing is I’d say I’m not “rather shy” but extremely shy, sickness-bordering shy. It was hard trying to overcome that when I started doing the promotion, so at some point I stopped trying to hide it and really felt better dealing with it. Writing music and performing it live as well as doing interviews and meeting people seriously helps, my problem had always been an overwhelming and sickening problem in the past. I still have to deal with it, but I’m way more confident now, and meet many fantastic people everyday in the process of sharing my music, so that’s the most rewarding thing in the world, and it really is worth trying.

I remember doing this interview right after the Symforce show a few months ago. I’ll be completely honest about what happened that day, I didn’t enjoy playing at all. The whole day was amazing, everyone was being nice with us, I met some great people who made sure all the conditions were there for us to have a great moment.

But I was nervous on stage for strong reasons. The first one was that I had been extremely sick for the two days before the show, and ended up performing live with fever and suffering brutal coughs for a few days that really made my throat burn each time I was breathing. It was heart-breaking, but I had been waiting for this show for such a long time that it would have been a nightmare to not perform that day. It was one of the first few shows of the band, and I would have needed more experience to be able to overcome these difficulties on stage. I’m glad so many people got into the band that day, but I’d rather forget about this performance.

We were also a ridiculously small team, we didn’t have any technician with us for setting everything up on stage, and didn’t have a soundcheck. Like yeah, the stage is empty, and you have 20 minutes for setting everything up by yourself, doing the soundcheck and monitors, and it’s a 2000+ venue so everything better be perfect. We were not ready for this.

The main problem that day aside from the sickness was that the band was not making it. Aside from Antoine the bass player that had been involved a lot both personally and musically in the band, the other band members and myself had trouble working together. The keys player was asked to leave the band a few weeks before the show because it simply didn’t work at all, forcing me to change the way I worked on the live band completely. I spent months setting up a live band with keyboards and samples parts and stuff, spent a lot of my energy and my time on that matter, for finally throwing everything away at the last minute to work with sequences and a click track and ear monitors because I was tired of always doing what other people were supposed to do. We have no keyboard player live at the moment, and I’m perfectly fine with it. I’d definitely want to find a keys player for the live band so that we can play everything live in the future. But there’s no way i’m going through this process again right now, no way. I’m not trying to put the blame on somebody, it’s just what happened. I learnt a lot from this experience, and I know who to get or not get involved now, and why.

There was no communication at all left between the drummer and myself at this point, and he was left out of the band right after this show. The situation was a dead end, period. It also was a tough decision to make at the time because we were supposed to go on tour with Anathema one month after this show, and I didn’t want to scare anyone who had been supporting my music. But people who work with me know I don’t do anything without good reasons, and they were really supportive. Since then, Gaël Hallier has quickly entered the band, and I finally got my hopes up again. He learnt the songs by himself, and joined us for a rehearsal two weeks before the supposed start of the tour. After only one afternoon of playing together, the band sounded tighter and more powerful than it ever sounded. We all connected perfectly, and it was a great first step. We rehearsed for three days, set up our equipment for two days, and went on tour the following day!! It was just a dream come true, especially after what could have turned into a nightmare. Finally the band was a real live entity, everything clicked, and everyone got along so well! All the discouraging moments, the fights and the pain in the ass were gone for good.

The Hindsight tour with Anathema was the most incredible and intense and addicting piece of my life as a musician, we learnt so much and so quickly, that now we’re at home when we’re on stage.

The connection within the band is what I cherish the most these days. I told you, I’d like to have a keys player, as well as a second guitar player that would sing vocal harmonies in the near future, but these guys will have to connect to both the music and the other guys and respect everyone, or that’s not happening.

You know, it’s like suddenly, Demians releases an album, has great reviews, and everyone expects great things of a live band. I’ve been working my ass off for the last few years, and have been doing so all my life, to achieve more than I expected. So not living up to my own expectations is what made me so nervous, first and foremost.

As far as I’m concerned, I think i’ll always remain introverted, but I found the balance Iwas looking for. At first the songs were still too personnal for me to feel at ease on stage. I’m singing about events and stories that occured through my life, not made up stories, which was not an easy thing to admit to myself at the first few shows. Now I know why I’m doing it, and what should remain inside.

I have great respect for your ambition to write and record your music by yourself. Very few people have the insight and determination to complete such a project. Did you ever feel very frustrated with the process? Did you need to put yourself on a schedule?

First, when you talk about “completing a project”, I’d rather say right now I’m at the very beginning of something! Ok, it took time and energy and it was a long and striving process to get the album out and create a live band, but now this is done, it’s only the beginning! Everything still needs to be done, and that’s the most exciting thing ever when you do something like this!

The frustration only was there when the band didn’t work the way it should have worked. That was more than frustrating. About the album, the frustration sometimes appeared during production, because everything was done with poor means, cheap gear, and I’m-broke-so-let’s-find-a-decent-cave-to-record-something-today state of mind.

The only schedule I forced myself to was “ok I need to get some sleep now”. A lot of pain in the ass, once again, and tries and mistakes because some gear broke down or I couldn’t afford decent speakers, and this kind of stuff. But once I sat behind the instruments and put my headphones on, and started recording, all I could do was enjoying every second of it!!

But the process of creating my own music by myself and bringing life into it is what I love the most in this world. I love playing music with my musicians, I love performing live, Ilove travelling and meeting the fans, I loved touring with Anathema because I love their music and they are wonderful and down-to-Earth people. But above everything, there’s nothing like creating something from square one. Having a blank tape or hard-drive space, picking up an acoustic guitar, and then many instruments, creating soundscapes, bringing everything together… I don’t see myself doing anything else with my life. The songs I once imagined, and produced with my cheap recording devices a few years ago are now bringing me on the road, travelling through countries I never went to before, and people come over and tell me about themselves and what they find in my music when they listen to it with their eyes closed. That seriously puts a gigantic smile on my face everytime I think about it. And I see no reason for changing that, by the way. In the next few months, I’ll lock myself up in my bedroom for creating a new album, and everytime I’ll have doubts, I’ll think of all the wonderful people I met all around Europe and it will remind me how much I love doing what I do.

I see that you wrote all of Building an Empire (except for Sand) in 2002, but how long did it take you to record and mix the album?

I started writing songs in late 2001, and never really stopped. But at first, I did it only for myself. I kept on writing until the will to put out a record struck me a few years ago. I selected these songs in late 2005 and did a first version of the album which I was not happy with at all. Writing songs, I can do this really quickly. The original vision is what matters to me, so I don’t spend more than an hour on demoing an original song.

I did everything again on the album after being disappointed with the results, and I think it took me like 3 months for doing all the recordings and selecting the takes, one month solely for Sand which I’m really proud of. The mixing sessions took two months, mostly because my friend Rémy mixed it with me, he was the hands and the fresh ears, and I was bringing all the ideas because I wanted the sound to respect my accurate vision of how it was like in my head. Working with Rémy was amazing because, first of all he’s an incredible human being who is always full of energy, and his involvement allowed me to concentrate on the purely musical side of things instead of the technical aspects of it. That made one very cool team, the only downside to it being that we didn’t live in the same area, and both were extremely busy, sometimes not being able to meet for two weeks for working on the mixes. It took two months from start to finish, with lots of empty days between them.

I’m glad the album sounds the way it sounds, and I’d definitely be happy to team up with Rémy for working on another project, by the way.

Do you play the drums as well, or did you use a drum machine? If you used a drum machine, did your live drummer have any issues playing it live or do you actively keep in mind what can be played live when recording the drums?  If you do play drums, did you learn them specifically for this project?

There was no drum machine. The drums were performed on the album, even though I used some techniques that drummers usually don’t use. For example I sometimes recorded overdubs for constructing the drum parts, like performing toms and kick and snare first while replacing the hihats and cymbals by silent pads, so that I could then perform the hihats and cymbals once again without the drumkit. The goal was to have better separation for the mixing sessions. When the cymbals don’t spill in the drumkit microphones, you can put the drumkit as loud as you want without it sounding washy or noisy, and I think it worked and fits the music. Some drummer work this way in the studio, but I even did it when constructing and writing the drum parts, thinking of the drums like an orchestra in itself. So sometimes there are cymbals or a few hits here and there that a drummer would not be able to play live the same way. I think it fits the orchestral sound of the music, and one thing is important to keep in mind; this was made and made sense for the production, but I’d never ask my drummer to play each cymbal the way it was recorded, it’s pointless. These songs have lush arrangements and many details, but they have a solid and tight drums/bass/guitar basis as well as strong melodies, so even before they are produced, they already work as simple songs. That’s all I’m interested in when we play live. It used to be a problem, but now Gaël is in the band, and he can play anything I throw at him, which allows me to be really confident in the way I compose and propose songs for the band to play live.

You did a phenomenal job with loops and synths on Building an Empire. Every track flows into one another seamlessly. Do you find it difficult to pull this off live? Do you attempt to recreate the album when performing live or do you try to present it a little differently?

Thank you. One thing I’d like to say because i’m often asked about the synths and textures of the album, is that I grew up with analog and tapes and tape echo chambers and real guitar amps, and stuff like that, and I never really had the chance to use a computer or modeling technology or digital audio workstations before I started producing my own music. I’m not the kind of guy wo sits down behind a computer for days playing with virtual synths, but on the other hand I love to create sounds from square one, by using anything I can find. So most of the sound textures I used on the album were a mix of all these techniques, and a great majority of them come from guitars and guitar amps. For example the sound textures at the very beginning of Sapphire, the “chord pad” that’s going on in the transition between Shine and Sapphire basically is made of an acoustic guitar played backwards and going through a tape echo chamber with a lot of feedback. That created a way more personnal and organic sound than anything I’d have been able to create with software or synths, which are really awesome tools, but I had none at the time and didn’t know how to use them. The keyboard pads used in Naive for example are a sample that I used mixed with samples that I made by myself with guitar notes. they created the fat yet open pad sound I needed, and still very organic, which is something I like because it stands out but at the same time glues the guitar tracks and vocals together, compliments them really well. Same for the loops, some of them already existed and were used because they sounded great to me the way they were, and some of them I created with old analog gear that is easier because more intuitive for me to use. I can basically plug this into this and turn knobs in a few seconds, and don’t even have to use a mouse or open a manual for figuring out how to use it. That’s the way I like to use textures and accidents as instruments instead of gear itself. I didn’t have access to such gear at the time, but there’s always a way of renting or borrowing something, and it makes a huge difference in my opinion.

I’m telling you about that to say that these textures are here to glue the instrumentations and vocals together, and the soundworld works really well that way. My music is not the kind of music where you can improvise on, I see it more like a play where an actor is not here to show off or blow the audience away with his own lines, but is rather a part of a big picture, so every little detail he puts in his performance is important to help the whole thing having an impact. Everything is written. And by the way, it works well with the musicians in the band because they respect all of this, and like the way it was mapped out and written.

We’d love to change a few things here and there at times but the fact that we use sequenced orchestrations and synths doesn’t allow us to do some of these things. But on the other hand, with the sequenced samples, it allows us to play really tight and have a lot of fun with our own parts and instruments, whatever happens. The goal of a live setting is not to reproduce an album in the details, and the energy of our shows compliments the album experience really well in my opinion.

What really strikes me about this album is the complete disregard for the canonical song structure… this goes beyond progressive rock. Bands like Tool or Opeth break the song structure rules too, but Demians takes this to a whole new level while still maintaining coherence and cohesiveness. Did you have any specific influences in terms of how you’ve chosen to arrange your music?

Yes, the main influence was Life itself. I know it sounds glamorous or something, but it really is the way I see all of this.

I’d see that as Life itself: take two events that occured at different points during your life, and tell me about them. Each event developped itself in its own way, completely different things happened, and your reaction to them was also completely different from each other. Yet, the focus point was the same, both events share something in common: the person you became once you got through them. Everything that happens in your life could seem diskointed when you take them separately, but they’re not, and make the person you are today. Well, to me, these songs are like events, and the album is the world they create, the person I was when I decided to record it. This is probably why all the songs sound and react differently, yet remain focused and the whole thing sounds cohesive. This is also why my next records will sound completely different yet exactly the same. They will tell new things, and they will discover new things, but they will all share something in common that will always be there one way or another.

I don’t listen to other people’s records when I produce an album to get ideas or to produce it. Of course, I listen to a lot of music every day, since I was 5 or 6 years old, so that probably influences me like it would influence anybody. But I never sit down and tell myself I need to record this or that. Actually, for example for the next album, I could tell you right now that I want to record a very mellow album because that’s the way I might be feeling it now, but I can’t do anything about it, really. I’ll take the first instrument that I find when I’ll feel the need, and the album will create itself in my head and I won’t be able to do anything else. Sometimes I get the feeling that I don’t write my songs, but that they write me instead. It really is the way I see it, sometimes it’s scary, but most of all it really is inspiring.

About the song structures, well, there is no recipe or formula that is respected in these songs. They go anywhere they want. A lot of them sometimes take a part and a huge buildup starts from there, it wasn’t planned that way, but afterwards, I see it the same way I said about the events in my life: I see it as taking a problem by the throat, admitting it’s bothering you, taking it as high as you can, and then smashing it to the ground and ending up moving on with your life. This is just the way I see it.

And you just compared my music to Tool’s. So I’ll just say “thank you” and laugh hysterically. That’s how much I love their music.

Do you have any plans for a US tour in the near future? If so, when can we expect to see you and with whom? By the way, we’d love to see you tour with another InsideOut favorite of ours, Riverside.

I’d LOVE to tour the US soon. It’s being discussed these days, and it will happen in the future. For the moment it’s too expensive for my band to go there with our gear and stuff, the band is still very young, but it will definitely happen and I’m really looking forward to it. The first time I went there by myself, I came back home and wrote Sand during the plane trip, that was one extremely inspiring journey!

Most of the bands I see coming out of France are much heavier. I’ve only recently tapped into the French rock scene, but do you feel out of place? How is the reception throughout the rest of Europe?

I’m really sorry, I’m often asked about music scenes and music categories, and I really tried but I don’t understand them, I don’t get the concept. I really don’t. Most of the bands I love, I don’t even know from which country they are, nor do I understand the tags people seem to put on them. It’s like people not liking an album because they expected it to be “prog” or “heavy”. Well, no it’s not supposed to be “prog” or “heavy”, to me it was just supposed to be music. I’ve always been disappointed when I expected something that wasn’t there.  I’m not trying to be arrogant about it, that’s why I’m trying to explain my views on the topic of scenes and categories.

To me an interesting band that has relevant things to say is something that will grab my attention, it doesn’t matter where it comes from and what kind of music it plays, so I don’t really know that much about any French rock band. It’s like people, everyone can have his own place as long as he’s searching for it, is trying to create it. I think no band sounds like Demians, and Demians doesn’t try to sound like any other band, so there is no competition, there is no feeling out of place, and every band deserves to be heard.

Furthermore, the bands I love, I love because they have their own thing. Neurosis is an incredibly heavy band, and I don’t love them because they’re heavy, but because they have their own incredible kind of heaviness, they don’t have a style, they are their style.
As long as you’re genuine, you can have your own place and be respected for that.

I’m being honest with myself and the music I compose and perform. I think people can feel that, and the reception has been amazing so far. I toured throughout Europe for a month and every night the reactions were different but amazing. Everyone is welcome!

Building an Empire is a very strong recording with a great mixing. How and where did you learn to record and produce music? What software do you use?

I learnt to record and produce by recording anything I could find and any way I could think of, and producing it. By myself, by listening carefully, by trying, by buying gear, selling gear, testing, not finding what I was looking for. I mean, it’s not difficult to start recording a guitar amplifier with a mic. Recording it well is more difficult. And finding your own sound with it is even more, and could ask years, or even your own life to achieve it.

This is the process that I’m interested in. I could ask a teacher or a professional to tell me what to do or what not to do, but a professional can’t know how the guitar amp sounds like in my head. Trying to figure it out by myself really is what made me start experimenting with what I had at the time.

Put a mic in front of the amp. It doesn’t sound right? Try another one, or put it somewhere else.  You could spend years doing that, and one day, well it just happens. Everything makes sense.  I’m not pretending I’m better than anyone. But I’ve been confronted to so many people pretetnding they knew better instead of trying to explain and share their experience, that I decided instead that I’d do it on my own.  It brought me a discipline in the way I work, that even relates to the discipline I put in all the other things I do in my music.  Production allows me to hold the big picture in my own hands without losing track of the details.

As far as software is concerned, I kind of told you earlier I’m not really a software guy, but they are both affordable, reliable and easy to use now.  On the album, I used a couple of cymbals from a software called DFH, there was a huge lot of cymbals that sounded awesome, better than anything I could afford. So on the record I used two great sounding cymbals of my own while recording and everything else is ddrum midi pads triggering cymbals from DFH. I used Kontakt sampling software and put most of the guitar sounds I recorded through it for creating some of the textures. And we used Cubase and Wavelab for mixing and mastering the record.

All the compressors, EQ and regular mixing devices were UAD plugins, that sound amazingly good and respect the original quality of the tracks while getting the best out of them. You basically have the plugin looking the same way the hardware looked like, so that made things very intuitive and quick.

I’m a big fan of Universal Audio’s hardware gear. Simple, effective, and lets the performance get through. Set and forget, and always sounds musical.

To sum it up, I never went into a studio for recording anything on this album. Cheap mic for the vocals, no preamp, home-made guitar cab for recording the guitars, everything was more or less done in an artisanal way. We used Rémy’s software gear for the mixing sessions to make sure the performances would be used the best way possible.

I read that Sand was written much later than the rest of the album. Is Sand indicative of the direction you’ll take your next album?

I think Sand represents the end of an era for me as well as the beginning of something new. It opened new doors for me musically and emotionally. It can be indicative in the sense that the music will be less linear, more varied than it already is, more dynamic, and will have more character and personality because through this song I admitted so many things were possible. So the answer could be yes and no. The answer is yes, if you mean that it represents something that reflects a new way of trying things for me, and the answer is no if people expect 16 minute long songs sounding the same way than Sand does.

What is the story behind the artwork for Building an Empire?

At the back of my girlfriend’s parents’ house years ago, in the garden and near the water, there was an old chair, and the spot was perfect for me to spend hours, reading, playing the guitar, or just being away from people. I really enjoyed staying there. I used to spend a lot of my time writing there, or doing nothing, sometimes all day long when I was not feeling good.

A very long time before I started writing music or any kind of lyrics, I somehow knew that it would happen one day though. My girlfriend’s father was always very encouraging, a very smart and humble man, and sometimes the only human communication I had with anybody was with him and my girlfriend because they never tried to be intrusive. He once told me “one day you’ll get up and stand proud on your poetry chair”. I always knew it would make sense at some point, and it’s the first thing I thought of when I had to come up with a way to convey the message of the music graphically.

The character itself is heavily inspired by a comic book character I once saw, and the very organic manner in which he was drawn really struck me. I love the way this character could be anybody, of any gender, of any age, and would also be made of anything, being flesh and blood, being wood, being ground, or being stone. So I thought it was relevant as the character of this music, because it really is about human feelings and behaviours, anything that defines humans.

I think the overall theme of the album, the visual art and the title all gather in an obvious way.

You asked for the story behind the artwork, this is how it happened. Now about the title, the meaning, and this kind of things, I think the artwork allows everyone to have his or her own interpretation. My stance is that Building An Empire is not about me or my empire or something pretentious like that, but the title came out of the idea that anybody can achieve what he or she wants to achieve. And if all you got is three fragile chairs, then take them, go as high as you want, and don’t look down!

What is the meaning behind the name Demians?

My best friend when I was a kid was my grandfather. He knew I was shy, and that it would probably take me a lot of time for overcoming my shyness. He never judged me. When I was visiting him, I would spend countless hours in the ceiling, reading books. He had dozens of boxes with hundred of books, and when I was like 6 I started reading the book “Demian” by Hermann hesse and I really could relate to it. The name of the band is not necessarily about the book, it was inspired by the character of Max Demian himself, one of the main characters. I would definitely advise anybody to read this book. It always remained in my mind in a special place, and at the time I started mixing the album, the project didn’t have a real name to it, and I wanted to avoid putting my own name on it because I wanted to put the music upfront and not myself. I read this book again one night, and it struck me the same way than it did twenty years before.

I didn’t want a band name because there was no band, I didn’t want to put my name on it because people don’t care about me, to me it is all about the songs. Definitely go get this book and read it! When you come see us live, the musicians are not the Demians, the songs are. And when you listen to the album, the songs are old friends of yours, they love you, they hate you, they are gentle, subtle, and arrogant, angry, they are your own memories, they are everything at once.

There are so many things behind this name to me, that  I could carry on forever. I’ll just say what I already advised you, to go read the book and find a meaning to anything in Life by yourself. Searching for your own meaning is the most exciting journey there is.

Thank you so much taking the time to read and answer these questions for us at Obnoxious Listeners.  We wish you much luck with your long music career ahead of you, and we hope to see you perform live someday!

That was very nice, I really appreciated your questions, as well as your support to the music of Demians. I’m definitely excited about everything that might be happening in the future, and am looking forward to bringing this music to the US for shows and going on the road.

See you there, until then, take care and live your life to its fullest!

Special thanks to Peter Klapproth at InsideOut for making this interview possible.

Vudoo Soul is one of the most amazing R&B and soul singers hustling out in the music industry today. He has an expansive vocal range, he writes and produces all of his music, and he knows how to break it down in front of a live audience with his keyboard at his side.

The first time I saw Vudoo perform live was at the Imagine Asian TV launch party, which Russell Simmons of Def Jam attended as well. When I saw Russell Simmons jaw drop on a Vudoo belt, I knew this guy was someone I had to keep an eye out for. I booked him for a national event to perform in front of a 1,000 people, and the audience’s reaction was the same as Russell Simmons - jaws dropped. It was a very successful event and I owe him a lot of credit for that success. Vudoo and Obnoxious Listeners have become good friends over the years as a result and he was gracious to give us his undivided attention for a chat about his music career and how he got started.

The interview is organized in the following fashion:

• Introduction: Lover Come Over
• Getting noticed by looking for opportunities and putting yourself in opportunistic places
• Going to school at MIT, a place which is not the start for many known musicians
• Explaining your artistic career choice to a set of Asian American parents
• Finding success and giving back
• The presence of doubt and skepticism when things aren’t going as planned
• Leveraging local opportunities when money is scarce and using the internet for self-marketing
• Conclusion: Ready For Love, Ready For You

Related Posts: Ready for Love, Ready For You | John Legend’s Evolver

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Obnoxious Listeners - Riverside from Dan Cutright on Vimeo.

We had the pleasure of interviewing Riverside’s lead singer, Mariusz Duda, at the Crossroads Theater in New Brunswick, New Jersey on September 12, 2008. Check out the video to learn a brief history of Riverside, insight into their creative processes, what separates them from the pack, and if/when they plan to take over the world. I had to travel more than 8 hrs each way via public transportation from just outside Boston to meet Riverside… and let me tell you, the show alone was well worth the investment. Don’t pass up a chance to see these guys live next time they come around!

The venue itself was great. The show was sold-out with roughly only 400 seats, which is just about the perfect size in my opinion. There wasn’t a bad seat in the house, but of course Nirav and I were there early and situated ourselves right in the center of everything. Although the show was sold-out, we noticed the average age of audience was mid to late 40’s. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s just that this supports our notion that Riverside has not yet really hit their key demographic in the US. I can’t tell you how many times I heard the names Joe Satriani, Steve Morse, John Petrucci, etc. I guess my point is that there wasn’t much diversity in the audience. This is just because Riverside is relatively unknown to the US. We think this will change in the not so distant future.

Riverside is the best find I’ve come across since Nirav and I started this site. Riverside formed in 2001, but we only just found them May 4th, 2008. I know this date because I was so excited before even finishing my first listen of Rapid Eye Movement (2007) that I immediately wrote a post and published it that night. Over the past few months I’ve purchased all three full length albums and two EPs. Trust me, if you already have one album and liked it… you need them all. You won’t be disappointed. These guys are only just now breaking into the US, but they’ve made a mark over in Europe between collaborations with other well-to-do musicians and opening for Dream Theater on their European tour. I’ve also learned their artwork was created by the same artist (Travis Smith) who created Opeth’s album artwork. It’s my firm belief that Riverside is going to blow-up in the US over the next couple years, and I feel very privileged to catch their first show of their own in the US as well as meet them.

We want to thank Rob Palmen (Riverside’s manager) for working with Nirav to set-up this interview and for being so helpful and flexible. We’d also like to thank NJ Prog House for managing to book Riverside for their first non-feastival show in the US.

Related Posts: Riverside | Opeth | Indukti | Lunatic Soul

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