Q: How was it like to play the Waggon?
A: Playing at the Waggon was really an experience: The place is not only called Waggon, it IS an old waggon. The room is small and completely made out of wood. - The atmosphere on this evening was truly magic, more a journey than a rock concert. The people were so much into the music, they forgot to buy drinks! Not good for the purse, but good for the biography! It reminds me on what rock history tells about early VANILLA FUDGE concerts, so it was quite an honour to go home with empty pockets.
Q: Who involved? Who played what?
A: Peter Prochir: Drums
Roger Eckhardt: Bass
Me (= Maxim Engl): Guitar
Q: Where exactly are you from?
A: Frankfurt, Germany.
Q: Since when are you into recording music?
A: The band was founded in the end of 2003 and started recording in early 2005.
Q: Any previous bands/side projects that you've been involved in worth mentioning?
A: Time for namedropping! – Our most famous band member is Peter. In the early 80ies he played with Heiner Goebbels, Alfred Harth and Christoph Anders in the avant/jazz/punk band CASSIBER. When he decided to leave because of other musical aims, he was replaced by former HENRY COW drummer Chris Cutler. – In 1989 Peter formed the industrial band SIELWOLF who worked with Mick Harris (NAPALM DEATH, SCORN, PAINKILLER) and with Carlos Peron (YELLO). – Roger played in the 90ies with house DJ C-Rock and jazz singer Claire Dietrich in DIET. – Me, myself & I played with THE JANITORS OF LUNACY, ORANGE, and PAN AMP. Music of these later bands aswell as more information about them you'll find on this blog here.
Q: How'd you "label" your music?
A: Noise/Drone/Experimental. – Fact is, I am responsible for the sound design and the musical direction of ephemeroL. ephemeroL came out of the ashes of PAN AMP. The sound design was the same: heavy guitar, heavy bass, heavy drums, but I was not longer interested in writing MOTORPSYCHO-influenced indie rock songs. I thought that the band should have more strange and psychedelic elements that should not be based on 60ies and 70ies rock. – When Peter joined the band, we had two band members with an industrial background. So I thought it was more interesting to have an open, modern concept that combines post rock, avantgarde, noise and drone. I liked the idea of writing tracks, but we didn't want to become one of the thousands of MOGWAI clones that drown in all-too-sweet melodies. The balance of melody and harshness is an important factor in our music.
Q: How do you "write" your songs? How much is arranged, how much improvised?
A: For ephemeroL there are two ways to structure music:
1) A tune comes out of an idea or an improvisation during practice. In a second step we try to find out how much arrangement the material needs to satisfy the band.
2) I come up with complete tunes and guitar arrangements. Then we arrange the rest (bass, drums, maybe soundscapes and samples).
Q: How do you record your albums?
A: For the first album, we had complete tunes that we recorded in Ike Anger's practice room in Frankfurt. Vocals, overdubs, mix and mastering happened at his studio. – The second album "Plenk!" was recorded only by me. I came with nothing to Ike's studio and went out 7 weeks later with lots of guitar and organ tracks. I needed two weeks more for sorting out and for edit instructions, then Ike mixed and mastered the album. – The third album, which will be released in 2011, was recorded at Klanghaus studio in Frankfurt by Andi Kunze, but will be mixed and mastered at Aleph studio in Seattle by Randall Dunn and Mell Dettmer, a dream team in sound (SUNN O))), EARTH, ASVA, SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE, GRAILS, EAGLE TWIN etc.).
Q: What are the future plans for ephemeroL?
A: The master plan is to find a proper record label for our new album.
Q: What are your main musical influences?
A: The real influences lead back to the basics, the past of us three. They don't reflect directly what we're doing now. – Peter is influenced by: Mark Stewart/Swans/Brian Eno/Steve Reich/Black Sabbath – Roger is influenced by: Abba/Beatles/Black Sabbath – I am Influenced by: Black Flag/Hüsker Dü/Black Sabbath/Motorpsycho/Robert Fripp/Keith Levene (PIL)/Derek Bailey/Wolfgang Spelmans (DAF)/Denis D'Amour (Voivod)/Charlemagne Palestine.
Q: Favourite band at the moment?
A: My favourite band for the last years is BORIS from Tokyo, although I don't like any of their 2010 releases.
Q: What was the first record that really blew your mind?
A: Peter: BLACK SABBATH "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath"
Roger: GENESIS "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway"
Me: JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE: "Electric Ladyland"
Q: The last five records you bought/downloaded?
A: SUNN O))) "MONOLITHS & DIMENSIONS"
BORIS "AMPLIFIER WORSHIP"
HARVEY MILK "LIVE AT THE SUPERSONIC 2008"
MASTER MUSICIANS OF BUKKAKE "TOTEM ONE"
MASTER MUSICIANS OF BUKKAKE "TOTEM TWO"
H Remains
Every Man's Albatross
Bad Eastern
Zero Hole
asleeP
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1 comment:
Great post, thank you Mike! This was one of the most exciting gig we ever had in the waggon (- and we have quiet a lot exciting concerts here!). And it's one of my favourites!
Here's a photo from that gig:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/waggon/4520192167/in/set-72157622979346725/
You can browse the complete waggon-archive for more exciting concert recordings here: http://waggon.blogsport.de/category/archiv/
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