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The Imminence Cinematic Universe ft. Imminence · 78 Amped

• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Samuel.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: I was about to call you my dad's name, then that was weird.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if I like that.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I I know I don't like that.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: Daddy.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: How are you doing on this fine Tuesday?
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Good.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's rare that we podcast on a Tuesday.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: I feel a bit naked.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: I don't have a laptop in front of me because I forgot it.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's okay.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's nice.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's nice to see actually I won't say that.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: I won't finish that sentence.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's nice to see your waist down, Sam.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Everything above the belt, mate.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: We are here on a Tuesday, though, because we are chatting uh via Zoom to Eddie from Imminence.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: The lead singer.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: And violinist.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: And violinist.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: They dropped Axis Mundi, their latest record, uh, a couple of days ago.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: So we thought we'd sneak this one in to uh to get a little chatting about the record.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the the the accompanying like video cinematic world they're putting together.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the universe, as you call it.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the imminent cinematic universe.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: The ICU, which I think they've avo intentionally avoided.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: The ICU, yeah.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: It sounds a bit more serious than it needs to be, I feel.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, we did have a good yap with Eddie about all those things and sort of how um the I guess the creative process started between you know, do you start when you've got a movie and an album to create, where do you start?
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's what we imagine to be incredibly overwhelming.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it was a good chat all the way from Sviden.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: I think no time to waste, really.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: Let's uh let's get stuck in then.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: Maxwell, to celebrate the release of their new album, Axis Mundi.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: I really hope I pronounced that right.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: We are joined on the line by Imminent's vocalist Eddie Berg.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: Mate, welcome to the show.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for having me, guys.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: Did I get the album right or did I get it wrong?
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's right.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not sure.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_02: I would say Axis Mundi, but it's in Latin, so maybe I'm also wrong.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_02: Who knows?
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like if we're aligned, I'm in with a good shot.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: If the vocalist of the band is saying that, we're sweet.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um look, Eddie, we start the show the same way with every guest we chat to, and that's just to get an idea of what's spinning in your playlists as of late.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_02: Ooh.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, I'm I actually went analog.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_02: So I I bought a record player not too long ago, and I've been buying records.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um I got most of the Bonavere records, of course.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um I got some Nova Amor, um Dijon McGee, John Mayer.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: Hell yeah.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's interesting you say physical media.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna dive into the album and sorry to cut you off, Maxi.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: I know you're chomping it a bit to get some questions in, but um just on the album, I've seen just the the variety in the variance you guys are dropping in the records.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's incredible.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: Is that sort of a push from you guys to really spread out, I guess, the collection within the release?
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_02: I think people nowadays they they love different versions and variations on on vinyl.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um and obviously uh us partnering up with Sumerian um for this, like it's something that they wanted to do as well.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm still caught on the fact that uh Boniver and John Mayer and Dijon are the uh the artists that you've been spinning the most lately.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, yeah I wouldn't have necessarily picked those to go with the imminent sound, but I mean they're all bangers, don't get me wrong.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, congratulations on the album drop.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's such a a big album, both thematically and sonically, and it explores you know sounds that are obviously familiar for the for fans, but also you guys are sort of taking it in a new uh direction as well.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: I suppose how are you feeling now that it's it's out in the world?
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Listeners have had a chance to sit with it for a moment and uh and listen in.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_02: I'm super excited because I always felt like we put so much effort into making this uh cohesive album experience.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_02: So like releasing singles of a of a work like that, it's like it's it's really not telling you the full story.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm I'm just excited for people to experience it.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: There's there's a lot to unpack.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, before we get into the nitty-gritty you know details in the songs, it it feels like there's a lot of depth as we follow for for listeners who don't know, we kind of follow this night's journey throughout the uh throughout the album.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot of sort of depth in in that narrative that you've built.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: When you were first sitting down to to start this creative album process, was it story first, music first?
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Were they both kind of coming along at the same time?
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Which which started out the uh the whole album?
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_02: So this is um not a thematic album in that sense that this was a plan from the start.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_02: Like we we were just writing music, and it's really important for us to stay free in the creative process and not limit ourselves.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_02: So we just did as usual, and we started writing songs, and we kind of picked up that there's a new direction, there is something new and exciting about this.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_02: And um when we went into the studio, we actually had 16 songs because we couldn't pick, and uh we wanted to give those songs a second chance.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_02: As you know, like a lot of stuff can happen in the studio.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um then we boiled it down to like what we thought was the very best, and what is making this an interesting and diverse record emotionally.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um, the story came later, so it's it's not the songs are not themed around the night.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_02: It's rather that the story is a metaphor for for the album and what you're going through when you're listening to it.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: The album is so balanced and it's got so many light and dark moments throughout that, like you said, sort of um create that that storyline.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: Every breakdown and every dynamic choice feels really intentionally placed.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: Was that you know really considered by you guys in the process of writing the album?
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, when you're writing a song, you've you write the song for the sake of the song and what you feel is the best version of that.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um I think there was there's definitely an intention in these songs to not make anything unnecessary or to not carry meaning.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_02: And then it's it's just a matter of the composition of choosing the right songs for the album because you want to tell one story, but you also want to have different moments and ways to tell that story.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, we you know, I kind of fell in love with False Light as as a single, but the track on the album that sort of stood out to me was Exodus, which is kind of this big closer to the album for the for listeners who don't quite know yet.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: Can you tell us a little bit about that song?
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because it feels like it it sort of brings the whole album thematically and sonically together, it ties it all together.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: Was that always meant to be the final track on the record?
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_02: When we had the songs, like all the songs, we felt like this is probably gonna be the closer, but it wasn't a song that was written like later in the process.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_02: It was uh, I would say before halfway through.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um it just felt like you know, we we found this new kind of sound, if you will, uh, while we were writing, and this song was one of those where it's like we felt encapsulated that feeling.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and it's it's one of my personal favorites uh from the moment we wrote it.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's interesting you say you found this new sound because as well as Exodus, twisting in the wind was one that kind of stopped me in my tracks in a great way.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: And it was such a cool way to start, I guess, the album.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: When you you know, when you look at the album as a whole, are you really excited by I guess the new sound you guys have discovered in the process?
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, I'm I'm really excited.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_02: Like I I think there's I love how it is different from our previous record.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_02: And I love that like for me the the heavy moments on this record are all so much more like raw and almost desperate and unforgiving um compared to our previous record, where it's more like structured and um and I don't want to say clean, but I I think you guys know what I mean.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: It feels like you've now the the dynamic so much, like the the things that feel heavy feel heavy because there is that light part to it as well.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like it it it's it's almost you know you have to you have to have the good time to have the bad the bad time to have the good time kind of thing.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: Is that is that something that was like specifically built in from the ground up, or did that kind of emerge later in the process?
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_02: That might have come from that I just wanted to utilize more of my singing voice on this record, like write a lot more melodic parts and softer parts and having a bigger range in the vocal production than before.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so that kind of came naturally, but also the it was almost like Harold found a new way how to hand like play and and uh treat his guitar work on this record, which really resonated with me too.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_02: So I do feel there's a there's a different level of aggression in in that playing that hasn't been there before.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: As well as uh the the music itself, you're also bringing uh things to the big screen and kind of giving fans this kind of cinematic journey with the with the album as well.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: What's the process been like sort of taking this project as it exists and adding that extra layer to it?
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that was a very big project.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_02: Uh we we got um we got pitched to do that for for this album, like to make a short film instead of just uh regular music videos.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean we loved it right away because it's we we've always been a very cinematic band and treated our music videos very seriously, and that just felt natural in a way of how do we take this aspect of Ebonus and take it to the next phase or stage?
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_02: Because that's the way we treat everything in and if it's music, if it's videos, if it's touring, whatever.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_02: Like, we're always looking for like how do we just take another step on this ladder, and um yeah, that was very exciting.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_02: We we uh wrote this outline of the story, um, I mean Harold, and then we were like, how are we gonna get this?
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_02: You know, um, I mean, we cannot write a script for a film, so we need help on that.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_02: So uh we we worked with a brilliant screenwriter for this um to help us bring this story to life and to make it make sense to the audience.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but it's been a really cool process of you know, we've been watching audition tapes and looking through so many versions of scripts or remove boards.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_02: It's um yeah, it's been really cool.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: That's sick.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, creatively, it feels like the I guess the cinematic world and the music world are very similar but different.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: Were there, you know, any hurdles you had to get over in that creative process when you're trying to adapt this album you've just written to the screen?
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, what what were sort of the standouts for you in that process from a creative sense?
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, uh I think the biggest challenge was for our director, honestly.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_02: Like he's never done a film before and he was waking up from nightmares every every day uh throughout this process.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_02: He was so stressed out.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I think we put a lot of the weights on his shoulders.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_02: Uh but yeah, we I mean obviously we've never been that engaged before in in the whole process as well.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_02: So um yeah, it's it's definitely been a different level of challenge.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_02: But we had so many great people helping us to realize this thing.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: I suppose um Immince has always been quite a cinematically minded band, but now that you're actually putting something on film to tell the story or to be a like a uh you know accompaniment to the story, has it changed the way that you feel about the songs?
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: Has it kind of retroactively changed your your feelings and your your emotions about how the songs came together?
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know necessarily if they changed them.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's a different for me, it's kind of a different experience of listening through the album and then watching the film with with the songs playing in there.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's another great experience, I think, but I don't think it takes away from that.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, I'm I'm in the middle of all this.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_02: I don't it's hard for me to look from from the outside on something that you've been working on for one and a half year or something.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um but I I I think I believe that people will experience this in a very special way and that it will elevate their experience about the album.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, going forward, coming from the experience you've had with the album and and the I guess the visual side of it, do you think the the imminent cinematic universe is gonna be built out across future releases, or it's you know been a stressful process that you're happy to leave in the in the dust?
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_02: No, I I mean I think that we would love to do it again.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um but it's it's hard to predict the future, just like you don't know how our next album is gonna sound.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um I think it's important to keep an open mind.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_02: So even though we'd love to do it, who knows?
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_02: Like maybe we just do something completely different.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um we'll we'll just have to see.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, I would I wouldn't mind doing it again.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: That that to me says that the Imminence video game is gonna be on the horizon for the next release.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, maybe.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: Well, listeners, by the time that you're hearing this, uh Axis Mundi, the latest album from Imminence, is out now.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: So get it wherever you get your music.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: For European listeners, catch them live across the continent with August Burns Red and House of Protection from January 8th to February 6th.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: Eddie, thank you so much for taking the time to have a chat to us today.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you guys.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_02: It's been a pleasure.