Salute comrades! How are you? What did happen
in Locrian life for the few last months?
Terence: My solo LP came out on Shelter Press with a new
zine of some drawings. Locrian did a few
dates for when the new album came out.
So it’s been busy.
André: We’ve played some shows on the east coast and
I’ve been busy teaching yoga and getting ready to go out on this little tour
with Locrian in September.
Terence, what zine are you talking about?
Terence: A zine I did called Spectral Death which was digital drawings I did of headbanging
heads. Kind of my last series
investigating that aspect of heavy metal culture and it came with the LP.
Terence: That’s
hard to say, I would say the Plague
Journal 7” was the first studio recording and the first real set of ideas
we brought to the plate. Then I would
say The Crystal World when we first
started working with Steven, and we had this literary framework to go
around. It was a big deal especially
with the 2xCD set and the second disc was an hour long accompaniment to the
first disc.
Terence: Well we wanted it to be like two narratives
side by side, as if told through a mirror.
Then there’s also how certain songs have suites and different
parts. We also were more loosely
inspired by science fiction novels, and really sought to make our own story
about an earth that just rejects humanity and makes itself uninhabitable.
Your music has drone elements as well as black
metal touches and a lot of ambient and electro experiments, can you predict the
way of band evolution? And how long do you usually work to keep a balance
between different elements in your songs?
Terence: We are really interested in just trying to
challenge ourselves to make music we haven’t heard before, to combine a lot of
our influences and make something unique.
Whenever it feels comfortable or like something we’ve done before we try
and change it, move forward. Move
ourselves and our technique forward. We
spend a lot of time sketching and discussing and then when we start crafting
the song we really try and let each part breathe and think about the narrative
of the song.
Locrian “Eternal
Return”
Terence: It was brought to us by Mamiffer and Profound
Lore, and it was a great idea. We hadn’t
met them or played with them before we met in the studio.
What kind of experience did you get from record
session for that split-album?
André: We learned how that Faith and Aaron approach
composing music. We also got to work with Greg Norman, the recording engineer,
who we love. It was very inspiring to be able to create music in a studio that
sounds great everywhere.
Can you distinguish your personal achievements
speaking about Locrian as a composer and lyricist?
Terence: Honestly I love the new record, that tome is
the culmination of a lot of ideas and approaches working together to craft
something unique for us.
André: Terence lives in Baltimore and we really don’t
get to play together much. Kwaidan is two of my good friends that are also
great musicians. The two other guys in Kwaidan have an entirely different
approach to playing music than Steven and Terence so it’s great to learn from
them. Also, my approach to playing with the guys in Kwaidan is different. I’d
like to keep my playing in the project on the more minimalist side of things,
even more retrained than my playing in Locrian.
Andre, I know that you also run Ablution Media
helping bands with promotion and spreading the word of underground society.
What are your principles and methods? How do you work with bands?
André: I’m really interested in working with
musicians and record labels that I like. I feel like there are lots of
musicians and labels that are doing really great stuff and few people get to
hear about them, so that’s my mission of running this small business.
Agarttha is a one of those bands you did choose
to promote with Ablution Media, what kind of discoveries do you have now besides
that intriguing band?
André: I’ve been working on the new Aun record “Alpha
Heaven” as well as a group from Baltimore called “No Paris.”
What are your principles of work with bands you
promote? Which genres do you prefer to work with and what are results of your
work?
André: Ablution Media is a business, so I expect to
be compensated by whoever hires me, but I’m not taking on every project that I
am offered. I feel more inspired to work with musicians that I can get excited
about. I’m mostly working with experimental musicians, but I’m not opposed to
working with people from other genres.
I’ve been
happy with the response that I’ve gotten for the releases that I’m promoting.
Pitchfork recently did a feature on Agarttha that I set up. A lot of people
have been writing about that album. I’ve also been promoting my own music for a
while and I think that I’ve done very well with my own stuff.
Locrian “Visitation
From The Wrath Of Heaven”
Andre, I see that you really dig in
minimalistic sound discovering it in Kwaidan or promoting Aun and No Paris, how
would you describe that scene? You know – as we’re talking about heavy
experimental music it’s a bit difficult for me too judge about “lighter”
experimental scene.
André: There are a lot of labels that release more
ambient, and minimalist experimental music, such as Type, Thrill Jockey,
Kranky, Touch, Warp, and lots of others. I think with all music, you just have
to listen to it and see how it makes you feel.
Andre besides all of your musical obsessions
you also have a time to practice yoga, more than this – you’re yoga trainer. So
I would like to know more about your techniques – is your kung-fu stronger than
my? Do you practice aghori rituals?
André: Yes I do teach yoga and I’m really happy to
talk about it. I actually don’t practice any aghori rituals. I’m actually very
keen on eating grass-fed meat, but I’m not so interested in eating other humans.
The yoga
that I practice is very down to earth and influenced by modern scientific
understandings of the body. My style of yoga opens up peoples bodies really
quickly because it focuses on making muscles strong in a really long way. It
also utilizes active stretching, which means that my students engage their
muscles while they are stretching which helps students to achieve a wider range
of motion while making sure that their bodies are strong enough to support
them.
I’d love to
start teaching yoga to more musicians though. I’m going to start writing about
how musicians can use yoga while they are on tour in order to stay pain-free.
Riding in a van all day for multiple days is really crippling on our bodies.
Well, it’s a good idea, but what’s about pranayama
and mantra’s chanting? It would be very useful for vocalists.
André: Pranayama is a part of every yoga practice that
I teach. One of the pranayama techniques I teach is called Brahmari and it’s a
deep inhale, followed by a powerful humming. It’s not meant to sound good, but
it’s very calming. It gives the body a buzzy feeling all over. I think that
this technique would be very useful for vocalists in particular.
Thank you men for the interview. I wish you all
the best in your positive, negative and neutral deeds. Good luck!
André: Thanks for talking to us!
Terence: Hope to see you at Roadburn!
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