HMT: Hi Chris, thank you for granting us this interview with you. Congratulations on the recent release of Quietly, Undramatically with Woe and The Isolationist with Krieg! How have responses for each of the releases been?
Hello and thank you! Responses have been mostly positive – very positive. There are always a few people who just don't get it, a few who make remarks that are so weird that you wonder if they actually listened to the right album, but they're in the minority.
It seems that Quietly, Undramatically has been well received by most fans of black metal. Was this expected by the band?
I don't know what the other guys expected but... I tried to stay positive about it. When it was finished, I didn't and still really don't see how anyone who liked the first album wouldn't like the second. It feels like a natural progression.
You joined the ranks of Krieg as drummer in 2009. How did that come about, and how has it been working with the band so far?
I ended up in Krieg with very short notice – they needed a drummer and I live nearby – and literally no rehearsal before our first show. In fact, I jumped in a car with Neill to make a 12-hour car ride and we had never talked for longer than 10 minutes at once! Working with Krieg has been fantastic. Writing and recording the album was very stressful but a unique, rewarding experience. Live shows are frantic and full of energy. I have nothing but good things to say, which is kind of weird when you consider that we're talking about Krieg here!
Krieg and Woe recently had a few shows together at the end of last month. How were the shows, and were there any memorable experiences?
The shows were awesome! Every one of them. We only did four but each one had its own personality and significance. The whole thing was very memorable – the shows were great but the time before and after them was (and always is) where the most significant memories are made. They're the kind of things that don't really translate to paper very well, the jokes and experiences of sharing a very cramped van with six other guys for days on end.
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| Woe, 2008 |
Both the bands are currently active, as can be seen by the recent release of albums and the performing schedules of both bands. How do you manage to juggle your time between the bands?
It's not tough because neither band is extremely active. Woe goes through periods of activity – next year, we're very busy in the spring but will probably be inactive after that until the fall or winter. Krieg is even less active because our guitarist lives on the other side of the country so we have to plan things very carefully to make the best use of our time.
Let’s now talk about the music of Woe. Quietly, Undramatically was certainly pleasing, with emotional guitar lines along with the fast paced drumming. The album even included clean vocals on the title track (which reminded me much of Ihsahn!). What are some of the influences and inspirations on this album?
The influences are all over the place, I think it's safe to say that everything I listen to has some sort of impact. I hear influences from different bands depending on the song. Dawn (Sweden) was a major influence, as was the American rock band Failure. I was listening to the first album by Tears for Fears, “The Hurting,” almost constantly, which is probably why there are clean vocals on the record. The old school black metal sound and feel is close to my heart and there are echos of that throughout the recording but I wanted something that felt more fresh, more American.
The lyrics are also extremely emotional and depressing, in contrast to what most black metal bands write about. What was it that made you decide to write on such topics, and where do you draw the despair and desolation to write such lyrics?
Since the first album, I've wanted to create something that is more real and human than what we're used to seeing in black metal. That meant a hybrid of black metal delivery, subjects appropriate for black metal, while still being personal and written with honesty. I write in such a way to keep the lyrics meaningful to me but still open-ended enough that the listener can interpret them as they wish. I draw from personal experience, mostly. A lot of the songs explore ideas and philosophies that I have about the world and reality.
The album is also the first one to feature a full band, as opposed to the debut, A Spell for the Death of Man. How was this lineup assembled, and how has it been working as a band, compared to releasing music as a personal project?
The other members of the band started as live members but we work so well together that it didn't make sense to exclude them from the recording of the new album. Working as a band can be challenging, dealing with schedules and personalities and things like that, but it's rewarding when the music comes out better than it would have otherwise. Compared to releasing music as a personal project, well... The whole reason I started Woe was because I wanted full control over the music. I didn't want to compromise the vision, didn't want to write songs for anyone other than myself. I'm still handling the compositions so really, this hasn't changed. With the last album, I brought full demos of every song to Shane and Evan and we went from there. On the next one, I'll probably work more closely with the band to develop the songs beyond what I can do while composing by myself.
I personally got to know of the band through Krieg, since you are the drummer in the band now. Known more as a drummer, what was it that made you decide to play guitars live instead of drums? And how has being a multi-instrumentalist made it easier or different in terms of songwriting?
There were a few reasons that I wanted to play guitar live. First was ego: I wanted to front a band. I've always been the drummer, always in the back, and I wanted to be up front for my own music! More than that, though, I did tend to get very anxious about drumming live when the material is challenging. If I was drumming for Woe, I wouldn't enjoy it because I would be too tense, too nervous. Beyond that, I'm not really a great drummer. (I'm not a great guitarist either but that's another story! Haha.) Evan, on the other hand, is unreal. He's just incredible. Hearing him play the material live... If I could rerecord “A Spell for the Death of Man” with him on drums, I would do it in a heartbeat.
Having experience as a drummer makes songwriting much, much easier. I write with drums in mind. When I write a riff, I picture it being played by a full band and let the drums dictate the feel of the riff immediately after it. The energy of the drums dictates the flow of the song, controls the momentum. By paying attention, it makes the writing process much easier.
What was your musical journey like?
My parents are musicians so I was encouraged to create from the time that I was very young. My mother taught me some guitar when I was very little and I got into simple punk stuff, teaching myself by ear. I got more into punk, then hardcore, and gradually looked for more intense stuff until I found my way to extreme metal. Grindcore was what got me first. Assuck, Terrorizer, Spazz, Pig Destroyer... Those are the first few that I remember really falling in love with. I got a Nile CD in high school that changed my life. Black metal took some time to grow on me. I didn't have many friends who were really into it so I, like so many, first discovered the more popular stuff and just kept digging until the more raw, underground stuff really started to make sense. All along the way, I was playing a little guitar but mostly drumming. I played in a post-hardcore band for years, followed by an At the Gates-type metal band, then a black metal band called Algol, a hardcore band called Near Dark, and finally Woe.
Quietly, Undramatically was also self-produced and engineered. What are some of the advantages doing this, compared to having a professional producer or engineer?
I'm a control freak with a DIY punk/hardcore mentality, meaning I think that I can and should do everything myself if I want it done right. On “Quietly, Undramatically,” we had a studio budget from the label but it was small so to achieve the level of quality I wanted, I had no choice but to do a lot of it myself. I learned a ton in the process. Even though I did everything myself, much of it took place in a real studio where I do some freelance work, so... Ya know, don't get the image of me trying to record a whole drum kit with a couple of SM57s and a DIGI 001! I poured money into putting together a project studio at home to record vocals, bass, and mix, so even that was done with decent equipment not unlike what you'd see in a commercial studio.
Advantages? It's cheap, first and foremost. I can also work at my own pace. That's... about it.
The recent shows also featured bands such as Infernal Stronghold, a metal band with a punk edge to it. What are some of the non-metal influences that you have, and that goes into the writing of Woe’s music?
I listen to a lot of stuff that isn't metal. My non-metal playlist lately: Smashing Pumpkins, Tears for Fears, Depeche Mode, Failure, Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Klimt 1918... That's basically all I've been listening to, plus some Opeth and the new Agalloch. After nearly a lifetime of listening to music that is guitar-driven, I've developed a love for music that is vocally-driven. As for the non-metal influences and how they go into Woe... It's hard to say. I try to keep Woe focused on black metal because I really hate bands who genre-hop, bands who just don't know what they're trying to be. There's room for experimentation and stepping outside of the lines but for me, the majority of the music needs to adhere to certain stylistic guidelines. That means that while I listen to a fucking ton of Tears for Fears, you'll never hear a Woe song that sounds like it came right off of “The Hurting.” At the same time, you might catch some chord progressions that are reminiscent of that album. There's a profound sadness in that album and others like it that has a lot in common with the deep existential longing you feel when you listen to a band like Nyktalgia or Burzum. I can't describe it, it's just the way it hits... It all resonates the same way.
We have come to the end of the interview, the last words are yours!
Thank you for your thoughtful questions and support!
Thank you once again for taking the time off to answer the questions, we wish you all the best for your upcoming shows and endeavours! \m/
Woe on the internet:
Official website
MySpace
Candlelight Records
©2010 Heavy Metal Tribune | Hong Rui
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