www.metalblade.com
www.myspace.com/asyoudrownsweden
Hi guys, Congratulations on your Album Reflection which will be released through Metal Blade Records on July 7th 2009.
Q: Can you tell us how Reflection takes the listener on a journey of aggressive, anger, hatred ruins and dead ends?
A: Well, it's basically a mix of all the things we enjoy in brutal and heavy music. Aggression is an important part of it, but so is atmosphere and groove. We try to meld the brutality and fury of modern death metal with the dark atmospheric feeling and catchy songwriting that the old-school bands pulled off so well, while throwing in an outside influence or two to keep everyone on their toes. Top that mixture off with some seriously pissed-off vocals and what you've got is "Reflection".
Q: What motivates the band to write these powerful lyrics are they based on political, religious, and social attitudes plaguing our society today or are they issues the band members have experienced and did all the band members contribute to the catchy song writing of Reflection?
A: The lyrics are mostly written from a personal perspective, rather than being explicitly political or religious. However, the distinction isn't always that easy to do, since many of the personal issues that we write about are inevitably intertwined with social, political and religious issues. It's mostly open for interpretation though, rather than telling people what and how to think.
As for the songwriting process, the music is usually written by guitarists Mikael and Simon, while vocalist Henrik writes most of the lyrics. Some of the lyrics for the album, however, were originally written by Simon and then heavily edited or rewritten by Henrik.
Q: The sounds from this Album are full of energy and brutal. Was there any challenges in the laying of the song tracks to the recording while producing Reflection at AYD Studios, and is this studio in Sweden?
A: Yes, we had quite a lot of challenges during the recording process, to be honest. Almost a third of the album was put together in the studio, which was a whole new approach to songwriting for us. It's never easy to write the tracks, record them, work as a producer and at the same time see things objectively. To exemplify: When the recording process was almost done, we realized that we had recorded three of the songs in a faster tempo than we wanted them to have, which resulted in us having to re-track every single instrument on those songs. The frustration level at that time was EXTREME.
That said, it's still pretty sweet to have our own studio in our hometown, since there is no pressure to record as fast as possible to save money. It also gives us a lot more time to test any ideas that we might come up with while recording.
Q: How did you land the opportunity to work with Christian Silver for the mixing and mastering of Reflection at Studio Mega?
A: We recorded Marionette's (Listenable Records) debut album in the AYD Studio early 2008. They wanted to track the album in the AYD Studio, and leave the mixing/mastering to Christian Silver. So this was the first contact we had with him, and the co-operation was great. He was an easy choice for that task, and he said he'd love to work with us on mixing/mastering Reflection.
Q: Will you be producing any music videos from your song tracks off of Reflection?
A: It mainly depends on how this album goes. As much as we'd love filming a music videos, they can be very expensive, and TV airtime is very hard to get. Many Hard rock/Metal TV shows don't exist anymore, which is too bad. The best way to promote your video today is over the internet of course, and if "Reflection" gets good response from the audience, we will probably do a video sooner or later.
Q: Do all the band members share the same influences for their music, and do they like to try new things or ideas to their sound?
A: We share many influences, but we also listen to a lot of different things individually. Polish and American death metal is obviously common ground, as well as MESHUGGAH and some other stuff. When it comes to trying new ideas, everyone is on board for pretty much anything that we agree sounds cool.
Q: What’s the music scene like in Sweden is Metal a popular genre or is there lots of clubs to play at?
A: That kinda depends on what you compare it with, but it's pretty popular, yes. Gothenburg has a couple of metal-oriented clubs to play at, as well as Stockholm and Malmoe. As long as the club serves alcohol, it's pretty much crowded those nights. Sweden has a great tradition when it comes to metal and hardcore music, and hopefully things will continue that way.
Q: Par Olofsson did a awesome job in creating the cover art for Reflection will he be designing the bands merchandise?
A: We're very satisfied with Pär Olofsson's work on the "Reflection" cover, and of course we'd love to work with him again for merchandise. At the moment we have some other cool people working on our merch, but hopefully we'll see one of Pär Olofsson's awesome designs in our merch collection soon.
Q: I’m curious which song track from the Ethereal’s 2007 Demo made to the Worlds Collide compilation CD?
A: None of them, actually! We choose a demo version of the last track on Reflection, called "Needles". The title of the song was different at the time, though. Both Hellbent Records and ourselves thought that the song would fit the CD perfectly, so it was an easy choice.
Q: Whats As You Drowns focus for the remainder of 2009, will you be concentrating on a major tour to promote Reflection or are you writing new songs at the moment?
A: We're currently working on new songs actually since there's a lot of downtime before the album arrives. As soon as the festival season is over we'll try to do a tour somewhere in the world. Touring USA/Canada would be a dream come true for us.
Q: Before we wrap up our interview do you have any shout outs to friends or fans?
A: See you somewhere along the road...we'll be the drunk drooling guys with Cannibal Corpse t-shirts that set fire to your home. Accidentally. Again. But you'll forgive us because we brought beer and we speak a really funny language. Keep supporting good music dudes, and buy our album! Hehe.
Thanks for the interview, HMTV Canada! / As You Drown
I want to thank As You Drown and Metal Blade Records for this interview. Horn’s High. You Rock. HMTV Canada.
