Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Rough Terrain With ANDRE, TERENCE & STEVEN From LOCRIAN

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Rough Terrain With ANDRE, TERENCE & STEVEN From LOCRIAN · HEAVY Music Interviews

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  Oh, I'm Stephen and I play drums and electronics. I'm Terrence. I
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  do vocal synthesizers and some electronics. And this is Andre and I do carves
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  and uh, you know, curtique, critiques, critique. Good morning,
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  gentlemen, these stalling vices again. Good morning. You also a luxury and
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  releasing your album and Cherain on April the fifth, guy, So how we
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  felt about it? Feeling great, really excited to get it out there for
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  sure. Yeah. Absolutely, Yeah, It's been a long time, so
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  we're I'm I'm stoked. Yeah, can you tell us a bit more about
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  the album from musical point of view, guys, and what you've gotten for
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  with it. You know, it's a much more direct record than our previous
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  effort with New Catastrophism, so it has love news things for us. We
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  kind of challenge ourselves just with our song structure and you know, and the
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  overall kind of concept album of it too. But yeah, it's it's a
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  little bit more concise than maybe are other releases, kind of more direct,
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  but still has kind of the you know, big concepts throughout it. Yeah,
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  anyone else, I think each of us pushed ourselves in new ways.
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  I know. It was I think the first time that Stephen brought in granular
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  synthesis into our sound, and so that was something that he could talk about
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  that was new and also for me, I was using some different types of
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  delay pedals which allowed me to get to a lot of like different kind of
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  textures and tones into my sound. And it's just the most concise, in
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  structured album that we've done so far. So I feel like as songwriters we've
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  developed and ways that I think are really interesting. So I'm excited to share
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  this statement with the world. Wow. Yeah, I agree. I agree
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  with both of them that it it's probably our most structured record to date,
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  especially after the last one. It's kind of kind of the the polar opposite
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  of it, and that's kind of what we were going for and just to
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  push ourselves a little farther than we had before in the past, and I
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  think and I think we have it. Yeah, we're we're very proud of
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  the record. So yeah, all right, between the three Avians, use
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  guys have used the word concise and structured about ten times already. Can you
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  can you elaborate on that and tell us what you made by that? Uh?
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  So, our previous record was improvised and more ambient, and I think
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  the idea being that there be these kind of reflections one that would be this
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  ambient, experimental kind of We kind of went into it with no real idea
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  of like what we were going to do outside of that We're going to improvise,
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  and then on the contrary, I wanted to make a next record that
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  was more like focused song structures, like specific parts, just kind of the
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  mirror of it right the way my brain, my brain was like looking through
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  my physaurus for other ways. Yeah, I mean, they were just like
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  we had these ideas like I'm gonna have to use the word a little bit.
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  I'm sorry, but the little little bits and pieces like a little uh
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  that go back years that you know, for for this record, and uh
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  so we just it's more ship I'm sorry, it's a little more uh it's
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  more structured. Yeah, no, I think, I mean, it just
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  it just was the opposite of the previous record. And I think it was
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  intentional just to like like really focused and kind of concentrate like all the all
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  of our energies, where maybe in the past we would allow like a ten
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  minute kind of intro for a track were just were like, well, what
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  if we just touch on these themes in a shorter frame time frame of time
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  and then get to kind of the the meat of it, the big the
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  big riff that we had or where the song was going. So I think
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  that you know, that was no no drone out. No, it's just
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  like you know, just straight to the point. Is it too late to
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  chine the album Night Destructed? And yeah, uh yeah, alright, alright,
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  I'm noticed that there isn't a song on the album called Enterrain, which
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  means it's got some sort of significance. Yeah. I think, you know,
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  we were kind of looking, you know, the concepts of the album
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  were about, you know, kind of I mean another shift was writing lyrically
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  kind of from kind of like from my perspective, from like a first person
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  perspective about this kind of environmental catastrophe in a way, and you know,
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  kind of thinking of like the end of the earth or the ends of the
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  Earth or what would that mean. Like I think we think of it like
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  a map that ends like in like you know, the you know, like
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  a flat earth kind of idea or whatever, you know, And I think
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  like the idea of it, like there would be like the end of the
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  Earth or whatever, the end of Earth or the end of terrain or terror
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  or whatever, which is kind of where I was thinking about it. But
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  yeah, so it kind of fit into the theme of the whole album.
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  Yeah. So now the pressure release calls that your proper follow up to twenty
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  fifteen infinite Disillusions or dissolutions A right, So what does it mean by that,
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  Well, essentially, up until Infinite Disillusion, we become we've moreh from
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  the fan that created music more extemporaneously, where we would jam on ideas for
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  sometimes a long period of time, and we would embrace more kind of like
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  temporal or different tones in our music. And by the time we had an
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  Infinite Disillusion, we were creating more complex pieces of music that still had some
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  spontaneous aspects for them. And really, like if you think about having a
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  pre planned album, like most bands I think go into the studio and they
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  have songs that are already written. Whereas we go into the studio and we
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  have ideas that are already written, and we sort of us the studio to
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  create the the full piece out of them, the full songs out of them.
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  And so when we went into the studio. This time, it was
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  really amplifying what we did an Infinite Disclusion, like having more pre planned pieces
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  of music with some room for spontaneity, and we just did that even more
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  so, we made things even more concise. We did things where we like
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  even repeated some of the lyrics in different places, and typically we haven't done
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  that so much. And so I think we've evolved as songwriters. Uh,
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  and we do it in our own unique way that that has you know,
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  some very unexpected aspects to it. I guess Terrence and Stephen, what would
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  you like to say? Yeah? I think I mean, like again,
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  there's a lot of time after Infinite Dissolution and then we kind of sprung on
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  everyone that it was like more of an ambient or minimal kind of you know
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  record. So I think we want people to maybe know a little bit ahead
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  of time that it's not going to be like that record and uh, and
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  that we were consciously going to that kind of mindset that we have when we
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  wrote like Infinite Dissolution or Returned Annihilation, but that we were going to be
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  having like you know, song structures and multi part you know, kind of
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  probably referencing songs and stuff like that. So I think that that's kind of
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  what we were thinking of with with the continuation, and that was that was
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  what we wanted to do. That would be fun to return back to that
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  and creative to kind of go back to that way of writing. Yeah.
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  Yeah, listener through the album, Gods like Iod to be very atmospheric in
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  places like how it it sounds right? But how difficulty is it to create
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  that feeling about mispherics through music. I mean, I think that we're you
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  know, I think it's our goal is kind of like we want you to
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  get into a world, you know, like that you're you're like entering for
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  us. I mean, it doesn't have to be like linear narrative, but
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  it's like a story that we're trying to craft, or like a movie or
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  something or something that is very visual. You know that you're all that you're
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  being told like a story or something. And I think so atmospheres are really
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  important, and you know, we you know, that's definitely a lot of
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  the music that we enjoy and our influences. But I think, you know,
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  for us, it was going to the synthesizers and different pedals and different
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  effects and stuff, so we can kind of expand it, so you know,
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  there's this three of us, but we can make it sound like it's
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  bigger. It's a bigger space that we're in, and working with the engineer
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  Jay Robbin for sure. That was that was another part of it. We
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  were sort of touched on this a few times guys, but I wanted to
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  go a bit deeper for me. Now, like our band Namer experiment on
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  each album. So what sort of things did you add or do differently or
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  experiment with this time around? Uh A lot, actually, I mean I
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  think every song has something Steven go ahead. I'm just trying to think.
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  I mean, I I used, yeah, like this granular synth, and
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  I would I use sound samples from say, like environmental sound samples, some
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  falling you know, hurricanes, fires, just like all the well just some
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  of the you know, terrible things that are happening around the world, and
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  uh, you know, I use us I use sound snippets from the war
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  war in Ukraine, which what, yeah, was disturbing, but there everything
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  is uh manipulated enough words kind of it's really hard to tell and just becomes
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  kind of a sound layer. And so yeah, that was one thing was
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  just with the with the synth creating layers, textures, let's see. Uh
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  yeah, I mean that that that's that was a new one for me for
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  this album. I think also like just the like having like moments of like
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  thrash or having these like being like being more inspired by like death metal and
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  kind of letting those go. We're a big part for us. Yeah,
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  I wanted to do that too. That was for sure. Weird sounds,
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  all the weird sounds and all the thrash, you know, and I wanted
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  some like uh some beats and some some parts that were like heavy you know,
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  like old rash days or like early death metal stuff. You know,
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  just like even if it was only for like five seconds, you know,
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  I just want I want, you know, like in certain parts throughout the
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  album. I wanted that because it was you know, it's a big part
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  of it was a big part of me growing up, and it was a
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  big influence for me. And you know, I still listened to it,
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  you know, not as much as I used to, but I still it's
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  still there, and uh so I wanted that to be more more upfront on
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  this record, you know, and instead of like past records where it's not
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  so obvious, and we'll be like, oh, yeah, you know,
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  we were inspired by you know, death metal and you know, like suffocation
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  and you're like deaths and stuff. But people are like, what, like,
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  so we are we are? Yes? Yes, yes, so yeah.
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  Oh you're on your cameras flashed on a few times. Mate. Are
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  you in a pinball machine? A video game? You're like a in a
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  casino or something? Right, Yeah, I'm not like a video game arcade.
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  Yeah, you're right. Caught out big time? Right said this time
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  might be a bit difficult to answer, guys, but how would you say
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  that your music has grown or changed from your debut Drenched Lands in two thousand
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  and nine up until Entrain? Wow? Yeah, I think I would say
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  to me, everything's changed. Every record is a new approach or a new
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  idea, and I think we tend to move towards that, like that we
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  should do something different. And I think, you know, so that was
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  kind of set at that time. I think that we're trying something, you
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  know. It was like, you know, we're gonna try these ideas that
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  we had. That kind of set the tone. Pretty quickly after that,
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  Steven joined the band in the scope of things, so that changed the sound
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  a lot, and you know, I think it's been kind of like a
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  maybe restlessness, I don't know. I mean that we're always kind of like
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  moving. I mean I think we're very we have a lot of conversations about
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  it, how we move in this sound forward? Where is this going?
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  What's the idea like? So, I mean that's that's my opinion is I
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  think the the the I mean, I can't speak for you know, like
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  the early I mean I've listened to it. I was a fan, but
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  uh, I think that the themes are kind of always there and they they've
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  continued like this kind of like the same you know, like the same yeah,
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  same themes. I think since I've been a part of the band,
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  I feel like it's, uh, we've just become better songwriters and maybe musicians
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  and just like learning the whole learning process, you know. I mean,
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  as every every band is going to say that, well, I mean,
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  you know, not every band, but yeah, most most bands. You
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  yeah, h yeah. Andre Oh he's not even because because all we could
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  hear was his background. But there you go. Okay, sorry, I'm
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  back so again. In the beginning, we were like we worked on creating
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  this atmosphere so with Drenched Lands, it was like, all right, let's
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  create these X number of tracks. That creates this very like dark and brooding
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  and ritualistic atmosphere. And I think we've tried to like keep creating an atmosphere,
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  but in new ways. And so with this new album, it's like
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  it wasn't like from Drenched Lands was a an ad train that b It's like
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  there had to be a lot of different steps in between there in which we've
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  evolved in very different ways. And so this new evolution I think it also
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  I hope that it creates this sonic environment, but I hope that there are
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  also these these short stories that are you know, each of the songs constitute
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  those short stories, and I hope that together they may make this coherent kind
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  of pull. And so I guess that's how it's changed. We've become more
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  intentional. We've thought a lot about what we're bringing in as well as what
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  we're taking out. Uh, when we do new albums, we're you know,
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  a c DC might be one of my favorite bands, but they don't
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  tend to make different albums, so, uh, we're not in that sense.
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  It's just to say something for your Australian audience. Thank you, thanks
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  for clarifying that that that's the headline. We are not ECC, but we
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  love a CDC. All of us actually love if I if I don't put
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  into but we love a CDC part of that it reads better, all right.
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  So, like loosely described, like your music blends black metal with thrash
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  metal, with ambient sounds and experimental elements. But is it is it a
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  difficult process creating new music? Like it's sort of they don't all go together,
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  well, so is it difficult to put them together into one COHESI body
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  or no, It's just what we do normally. I mean, I think
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  in the last interview we talked about how in the nineties we'd go to shows
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  and there would be bands that would play together that would not their music would
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  have very different styles. And today that doesn't really happen so much anymore.
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  But I mean, when when I grew up, it was like, yeah,
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  let me go to the show where there would be like, it's five
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  bands and they would all sound totally different. And to me, like putting
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  those elements together, it just feels really natural. And so I think creating
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  what we do, it's you know, it's it's what we were interested in,
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  it's what we like, and you know, maybe our next album will
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  not quite different. It's all experiment. Experimentation too. I mean sometimes it
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  doesn't always work, you know, Yeah, some of the things that we
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  try to put together, you know, like, but we just keep we
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  just keep pounding at it and we make it work. No. Yeah,
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  sometimes sometimes it'll be like a left field idea, but then we're like,
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  all right, well, what would it you know, it'll be like but
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  what if we try it? It might you know, it might fit this
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  mood. And to us, I think we look at it as like a
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  palette, you know, like the black metal brings, you know, like
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  it's kind of you know, like you know, like this intense kind of
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  like tremolo picking and like really interesting vocals that are buried in the mix,
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  kind of like a shoegaze record or something. There's a lot of these,
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  Yeah, how Like to us, it's like a sonic palette that we're just
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  like, there's this idea. What if we borrow from that and we bring
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  this in and we'll give it a shot, and then from that we'll become
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  oh no, this other idea will be like, Oh, that's where it
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  really needs to go, like from like the attempt and the like brainstorming and
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  like take that rift. But and we kind of always do that, like
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  we'll take this really nasty noise part, but we're gonna put singing to it
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  or this like slow part with you know, kind of like race of noise
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  or something. So we're always trying to like mess with even when we have
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  something that's very like like standard, we're like, well, what if the
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  element that shines is what you wouldn't expect like from that, Like whether if
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  we try that and that that leads us like a like a like a like
• 21:18
  a blast speed over like a Depeche Mode part. Yeah, I mean that
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  sure, my gods. Well, thanks very much for prtography The pleasure Spaking
• 21:36
  with you once more and chart is the fifth and I've heard it and she's
• 21:40
  a fucking cracking consense. Graduations from you