Press - Interviews

Zann's Music

Interview December 09

Zann: Hi Jamie, how are you doing? I want to say that Ulcerate´s album "Everything Is Fire" was one of the surprises of the year. You are just not a copy of traditional Death Metal bands, you managed to build your own sound. How have the responses of the new album been ?

Thanks man appreciate it! Response has been great so far, think I've only seen one or 2 luke-warm reviews. So it's cool that people are connecting with our music, especially since we really only write to satisfy ourselves, its a fairly self-indulgent album! But then again, all my favourite albums are like that anyway.

Zann: You guys have been compared to Immolation or Gorguts but Ulcerate´s sound incorporates other darker elements and killer atmospheric passages. I imagine it must be difficult for the band not to repeat yourselves so that the songwriting is a very important step. Tell us something about the songwriting process for "Everything Is Fire".

Yeah we certainly fit in that bracket of sound, but we're not trying to merely emulate either of those bands, they're masters of their own sounds. I guess what we've mostly been trying to do is literally come up with parts we've never heard before. We certainly dump anything that remotely reminds us of other band's parts, that shit is unacceptable.

Our process is fairly simple but very thorough, myself and guitarist Mike iron out the rough guitar and drum parts with practice amps and drum pads to work out the overall arrangements. We then take this into the rehearsal room to flesh out the drum lines and work out embellishments for all instrumental sections. Eventually we'll track the song roughly into Protools which we'll use for writing counterpoint bass and guitar lines, so we can begin to hear everything as a whole. Tracking so early in the process really helps with getting a sense of the song, rather than just focusing on your individual parts.

Zann: I`ve noticed "Everything Is Fire" production is much better than past albums. The guitar sound is shocking and the mix is just perfect. I imagine that the experience of your previous albums has helped to find that sound. Jamie, how was the recording process?

Yeah I mean we were certainly going for something a lot warmer, something which smoothes out the edges of the 'Of Fracture' sound. The process was very simple, as we'd been doing the aforementioned pre-production trackings for each song, so it was just a matter of finding the right tones and putting down a satisfactory performance, without worrying about any song structuring. Drum tracking was a couple of days, guitars were 4 or so, bass and vocals were probably a day or 2 all up each. We mixed and mastered this one ourselves, and we really don't do to much in fhe way of 'studio magic', just try and find space for each instrument and balance everything out. The mix is definetly not perfect per se, but it's balanced enough that the instruments don't fight for sure.

Zann: Let´s talk a little about the past. Tell me about the band history, how has it begun? Was it hard to find skilled musicians to play such extreme music?

Myself and guitarist Mike Hoggard started the band in high school, and we went through various line-ups until the first album. We worked with vocalist Ben Read and guitarist Mike Rothwell for a number of years before the decision was made to part ways for various reasons. We released 'EIF' as a 3 piece, then shortly thereafter recruited Oliver Goater as second guitar. It's always been difficult to maintain a consistant lineup with this band, both in terms of playing ability and dedication, but the core song writers are always consistant, so there's no issues with quality control or direction.

Zann: So you are from New Zealand, tell me which bands from your country do you think you can recommend us?

Jakob, Creeping, Diocletian, Vassafor, Witchrist...

Zann: Jamie I´m curious about your musical tastes. What bands are you into these days?

Craft, Jakob, Exmortem, Antaeus, Arkhon Infaustus, Deathspell Omega, Immolation, Sigur Ros, Katatonia, Gorguts, Today is the Day, Bohren und der Club of Gore, Creeping, Isis, Rotten Sound, Cult of Luna, Disavowed, Hate Eternal to name a few...

Zann: Your drumming style is amazing, the tempos change and the slow parts you build guys are awesome. Which drummers have influenced you? Which is your equipment?

Thanks man, appreciate it. I think a mixture of great metal drummers and the higher profile clinic / pro drummers is more or less where my style comes from: Benny Greb, Marco Minneman, Aaron Spears, Jojo Mayer, Gavin Harrison, Dave Weckl, John Longstreth, Kai Hahto, Romain Goulon, Derek Roddy.

Equipment wise, at the moment I'm using PDP drums and mostly Sabian cymbals. Fairly straight-forward setup, two kick drums, two rack toms, two floor toms. I use a pretty symmetrical cymbal setup, 2 of each syle of cymbal either side of the kit, and just try to have a mix between dense/loud and delicate sounds, for example AA rock hats with HHX groove hats, Raw ride and an HH Duo ride. Just to cover all bases for what we're doing dynamically.

Zann: Have you noticed a creativity stagnation in Death Metal and a revival of old school style? What’s your take on the scene at the moment?

Yeah for sure, it's been like that for years. This whole decade has only really produced a couple of metal releases I'm really sold on, most of which are black metal. A lot of death metal seems to be heading into more sterile clinical sound which just does nothing for me. The old school thing is kinda cool, but it's just re-hashing ideas done 20 years ago

Zann: Let`s go on with the previous question, in your opinion, in what does Ulcerate differ from other technical Death Metal bands?

Well for starters I really hate that term as it implies we write music for the sake of being hard to play and to show off our chops, which couldn't be farther from the truth. I think where we differ is we're very focused on atmosphere, regardless of how difficult a part is to play. We also have a very strong emphasis on capturing a sound for us that is very organic, we're not at all interested in sounding cold and clinical.

Zann: Jamie, have you made all Ulcerate covers? Please let us know the idea behind the cover artwork of "Everything...'?

Yeah I handle all our visual design and artwork. The cover piece is purely a visual represention of the music and lyrical themes. The album's overall context is that everything is in a consistant state of change and evolution, how this relates to the human condition, and how it affects our daily interactions. So the cover is a metaphorcial depiction of this, asides from the torso imagery, there's nothing figurative abut the art, it's just an illustration of an overall idea.

Zann: Are you guys involved into other bands or projects besides Ulcerate?

Not a this point, no.

Zann: Jamie, thanks for this interview. If you want to give a message to your listeners and fans here in Argentina this is the moment.

Cheers for the interview and support man. Cheers to anyone who listens and appreciates what we do!

Jamie / Ulcerate