Press - Interviews

Metalist webzine

Interview December 09

1. Hi Jamie, and thanks for doing this interview! I'd like to start with your new album – Everything Is Fire, first – what does the title relate to?

The title is a quote from the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, referring to all things being in a constant state of change, evolving at every moment, rather than any chaos notion. So, a huge theme for the album was how humanity and culture kind of ignores this ideal and separates a lot of things into strict black and white, us vs them thinking, which inevitably leads to conflict and intolerance.

2. Musically you're mostly defined as Brutal death metal, but I have to say there's plenty more in the music, what elements do you try and incorporate into your music?

Yeah we've never given ourselves that tag, I think it's enough to say we fit under the death metal envelope and leave it at that. I certainly don't think we play orthodox death metal by any stretch of the imagination, but I hate sub-labelling bands to try and fit them into a pocket.

I don't think we actively set out to incorporate specific sounds into our music, it's just kind of evolved this way. We've always had it on our minds that we wanted to get more and more dynamic as our albums progressed, more atmospheric and ambient whilst still maintaining a very bleak and crushing backbone. So this album utilises a lot of different elements to paint the picture we're after. First and foremost we use a lot of counterpoint melodies across the 4 instruments. Orchestration is a hugely untapped resource with rock bands, and I think it really can make your sound huge and forceful having the instruments work off each other and not always adhere to unison or harmonization. We also use a lot of melody layering to build very heavy sections and put them through the roof almost into the sphere of white noise. The other side of this is our very minimalist approach in some sections giving breathing room and space, as well as setups for climax points.

3. One thing about the album's tracks, is that they're longer, and seemingly more complex than the ones in your last album – Of Fracture and Failure, how would you compare the two albums?

I think that this album is a more involved listen, and is certainly more mature for us in terms of structure. It's more and less complex at the same time - with 'Of Fracture' we were experimenting with some very linear song writing, the songs took a long time to put together, and sometimes when I listen back it feels like some of it is convoluted for the sake of it. We were very intent on creating a mindfuck of a listen, something that steamrolls you first time round. But with the second album, we've learnt what things work and don't work for us, so there's a lot more rhythmic and phrasing restraints, but I think within this the string and drum melodies are a lot more complex and individualistic. But I think that mostly comes from improving as players over 2 years and getting a feel for what we want to play and listen to.

4. You changed labels with the new one, why did you decide to move from Neurotic to Willowtip records?

We had communication issues with Neurotic at a crucial time and it was hard to know what they were thinking as there were no replies to emails etc. The album would have come out on Willowtip anyway due to them licensing Neurotic's albums for the States, so it was a natural choice.

5. I just read that Metalreviews chose your album as one of the essential metal albums of the decade, what did you feel about that and their review of the album?

Well that's flattering that people think highly of the album for sure, both with the review and the nomination. Its certainly a cool thing for us that so many people seem to respect what we're doing, as we really have no intention of compromising or pandering to what people would like to hear or what's in vogue. I would be very happy if we can continue in this tradition for sure, a huge fear of mine is being a part of a project that caters to what sells / is popular.

6, with music as complex and extreme as yours, the writing process is always something I'm interested in, how do you write your songs? Who writes what and how long does it take to get the complete piece together?

Guitarist Mike Hoggard and myself write and have always written every Ulcerate song as a collaboration. We flesh each part out 'acoustically' with practice amps and drum pads. This lets the initial ideas come out a lot faster as we can talk as we play around with ideas. We'll record these initial ideas then take them into the rehearsal room and start actually playing them, orchestrating drum parts etc. After a few weeks of this we usually have the shell of a song, so we'll very roughly record this for an objective listen. The final stages involve semi-decently recording scratch tracks of a rhythm guitar and drums, which we'll use to then write the second rhythm guitar and bass parts, as well as embellished guitar overlays. Lyrics are written (handled by vocalist/bassist Paul) to the final product and constructed in such a way that the tone of the lyrics reflect where the song is going musically.

7, your drumming is definitely one of the standouts in the band, and as with most bands as technically proficient as yours, the drums are a major instruments in the music. First – who are your idols as far as your style of drumming is involved?

Cheers man, appreciate it. As a teenager I was more or less exclusively listening to extreme metal, so that's where I got my introduction to guys like Derek Roddy, Tony Laureano, John Longstreth, Kai Hahto, Dave Culross, Alex Hernandez. So from a metal perspective those were the guys who I thought were doing really stand-out work within the style. The older I get the more I'm into drummers like Gavin Harrison, Benny Greb, Mike Mangini, Marco Minneman, Virgil Donati, Jojo Mayer, Aaron Spears from a purely drumming perspective. Musically speaking a lot of the styles that these guys are involved with I don't find myself listening to too often, but their ideas behind the kit are fucking ridiculous.

8. Looking at extreme metal as a fan, not as a musician, what would you say are the most important albums in the genre? Which ones influenced you the most?

I think something to bear in mind here is my first listening experience with metal is around '98, so I'm going to be bias towards albums of that era

Immolation - Failures... and Close to a World Below
Cryptopsy - Whisper Supremacy
Deathspell Omega - All latter albums
Angelcorpse - The Inexorable
Gorguts - From Wisdom to Hate / Obscura
Rotten Sound - Murderworks
Eucharist - Mirrorworlds
At the Gates - Terminal Spirit Disease
Nasum - Human 2.0

9. What's the idea behind your kind of drumming? What's the main thing that your consider when deciding on a certain drum line in a song?

I think the biggest things I focus on is diversity and dynamics, making sure that no 2 parts across individual songs are too reminiscent of each other, and that everything is not just full blasting or double kick for an entire song. Obviously we have a lot of cleaner sections where that kind of approach wouldn't even remotely work. But overall I try to write in a more ostinato fashion, to give the parts breathing room and hopefully be a lot more melodic than just keeping time for a riff. I've gotten to a point with my drumming that I'm no longer trying to prove anything with speed or anything like that, I just want to create drum parts that are unique and hopefully something that are distinctly Ulcerate.

10. There's a school of thought, certainly with old-school and more traditionally oriented metal-heads, that technical and extreme metal such as the one you guys play – lack soul, and is overly technical and cold, what is your approach to that?

I agree, because 90% of extreme metal is very sterile and clinical, and we're guilty of this in the past too. But what we're into as of late is steering away from that school of thought, the complexity for complexity's sake and trying to out-do other bands with playing abilities. That's sporting bullshit that needs to be avoided.

11. You guys are from New Zealand, what kind of a metal scene is there right now?

It's pretty dead at the moment, or at least in terms of quality bands that have drive and an ounce of ambition. There's a handful of bands doing great things though - Diocletian, Witchrist, Creeping, Vassafor

12. Did the fact you guys leave there hinder you in any way, mainly with gigging in Europe, the US Etc.?

Leave NZ? We haven't left NZ...

13. I noticed you have a tour with Nile coming on, what countries will it include, and how do you feel about touring with them?

Well as I'm writing this we're two thirds of the way through the tour, and things have been really fucking awesome. Nile and the other 4 bands are killer to tour with, couldn't have asked for better personalities on a tour. The countries we're visiting include Poland, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, The Netherlands, UK...

14. I noticed that both you and Paul are active in a band called Abystic Ritual, what's the story behind that?

A black death side project that we worked on in this past with Ulcerate's old vocalist James Wallace. We released a demo ep just for laughs, nothing serious, and the project is defunct now.

15. Finally, what's next for you guys? What does 2010 hold in store for you?

We'll be working on album no. 3 this year, so that's certainly the main priority. Asides from that we're doing a small run of headline shows in Australia early February.