Psycroptic
Wywiad przeprowadził Wouter Roemers
Tasmanian formation Psycroptic have possibly delivered one of the most interesting technical death metal records of the year. "Symbols Of Failure" sees the band maturing drastically in comparison to their earlier outputs. With Psycroptic being freshly signed to Neurotic Records and a strong new album to back them up, everything aligned splendidly to get Psycroptic over for some questions. I got in touch with Neurotic Records mainman Ruud Lemmen and a great in-depth interview with The Amenta/Psycroptic drummer David Haley resulted from that.
Hi! Thanks for talking to us. How's everything with the band as of late?
Thanks for the interview! Yeah, things are going pretty well - a new album, tours coming up, all is well. We cannot wait to hit the road and play these songs live.
Your new record "Symbols Of Failure" is to be out in a matter of days, how have the reactions been thus far?
From the people who have heard it, it's been excellent. For the most part people have been saying it's a more mature album, and a bit more catchy. We're very happy with the (limited) reactions so far - it's all been very positive.
"The Scepter Of the Ancients" is by many considered somewhat of a underground death metal classic. Did you expect the album to hit as big as it did?
Not at all! It did quite well in the underground, but we never expected that at all. We just recorded the songs we'd written, without thinking another thing about it. Again, that's what we did with the new album, just doing what we do, recording the songs we had written.
I must say that I've been listening to this new record a lot over the last days. Do you fear that it will be too complex for some listeners?
Not really... we just play what we want to play basically. I don't really view us as a technical band so to speak - we just try to write stuff that we like to play, and that is interesting to us. Of course it would be great if everyone liked us (haha), but we're not all things to all people... people seem to either love us or hate us. But yeah, we don't really think "oh maybe this is too complex for people"... we just play it if we like it.
When I quickly scanned the tracklist on the promo I got, I noticed that, lyrically, Psycroptic doesn't tread the known paths either. Can you tell us something about the narrative of the new album. I am under the impression that's all quite sci-fi based.
Yeah, that's right. The new album is pretty sci-fi based, and we like to do things that are different. Matthew (former vocalist) used to write all the lyrics, but after his departure we weren't sure of what to do. I had a goat writing some lyrics, the other guys liked them and encouraged me to write more so I did. I actually quite enjoyed writing them in the end.
The artwork of Par Oloffson is breathtaking. How was it working with him?
It was so easy. We sent him sets of the lyrics, and within days he had completed the cover art. We gave him total freedom to create whatever he liked, and it worked very well. The artwork is some of the best stuff I have ever seen! We are some honoured to have his work on the cover.
You'll soon embark on another European tour with Hate Eternal, Belphegor and Prejudice. You must psyched to tour with such a strong package of all mainly technical oriented bands?
You cannot imagine how excited we are... I'm counting the days (haha). We toured with Hate Eternal last year so it will be excellent to catch up with those guys, plus I'm really looking forward to meeting the guys from Belphegor and Prejudice. I'm sure its going to be a killer tour.
How was it touring Europe for the first time in 2004? I understand you toured with genre veterans Dismember, Anata and Sanatorium back then.
It was amazing! The guys from Dismember really looked after us, and the guys from Anata and Soul Demise (not Sanatorium) were super cool. We had a great time and got to play to some killer crowds. We still keep in touch with all the bands, and hopefully we can catch up with them when we're in Europe for this tour.
Tell us something about how the vocalist switch came about?
To put it simply, if the change didn't happen the band would be no more. Our previous vocalist didn't really like to tour and things were quite tense in the band. Everything is cool now with the new line up, and we can tour a lot (I hope!).
Are there any plans to invade the US at this point?
As soon as the opportunity arises we will be there. Getting onto a US tour has been a major challenge for us, as we cannot simply go and do a couple of shows, due to the high costs involved in doing so. But yes, we must get to the US!
David Haley is involved in Ruins and Psycroptic, which coincidentally are also on Neurotic Records. Can you tell us how you got in touch with Neurotic Records?
Yes, I do play in both bands. Basically, Ruud from Neurotic heard the Ruins MCD "Atom and Time" and really liked it. He offered Ruins an album deal based on that recording. Ruud at one time worked for Unique Leader, so this is how we got to know him.
Are there any plans for Ruins to go live sometime in the near future?
Yes actually. We have a live line-up, and will be playing out first gig at the Psycroptic CD launch show in our home city. It should be fun. Hopefully when time permits we can do a full tour.
In the past you were under contract with Unique Leader Records. How does your new record deal with Neurotic Records compare to Unique Leader?
The new deal will hopefully see us tour a lot more around the globe. Neurotic has quite good contacts with touring, so I'm hopeful on this front. We just want to tour everywhere for this release. We've signed for 2 albums with Neurotic, so we're hopeful things will go well... I'm sure they will.
David and Joe Haley are both in The Amenta, a band that has quite a load of touring. How's it dealing with two up and coming bands that require a lo ton the live front? Doesn't that inevitably bring on scheduling conflicts?
Well, the guys in the Amenta know that Psycroptic is our priority band. So far nothing has clashed and we've been able to do both bands without any worries at all. Things may become a problem this year with tours scheduled for both bands, but we'll have to wait and see, I guess. We like playing in both bands, but Psycroptic is our priority.
How's the record deal with Listenable Records working out for The Amenta?
I'm not too sure, as I don't do anything business-wise for the band. Its going Ok I guess... haven't heard of too many problems.
What's exactly your position in The Amenta? Are you involved on merely a session/recording and touring level - or do you have creative input into the writing process as well?
I'm a member at this point, but I have no creative input, and I kind of like it this way. It gives me the opportunity to be in a different band environment where I'm pretty much told what to do in the way of playing. Its challenging as a lot of the playing isn't my usual style.
Alright, that pretty much cover it, I think. Thanks a lot for your
time. If you have anything else to add, feel free to do so...
Thanks very much for the chance of the interview, and I hope that we
get to play in Poland one day soon! For those who haven't heard us check out: www.psycroptic.com or www.myspace.com/psycroptic
