Textures
Wywiad przeprowadził Wouter Roemers
Dutch progressive metal act Textures has skyrocketed to the upper echelons of the international extreme metal scene with their stunning 2003 debut "Polars". Recently, the band released their second album "Drawing Circle" to critical acclaim through French quality label Listenable Records. "Drawing Circles" takes everything that made their debut so spectacular and then some. After hearing this amazing new record, we just had to get Textures over for an interview. Drummer Stef Broks was the one to answer our arsenal of questions regarding the band's interesting history and future ambitions.
Hi, thanks for taking time out to talk to us. How's everything in the Textures camp?
Great! Our new album "Drawing Circles" got a lot of attention from the media and the audience all over the world. It seems like we did a good job creating this album and that gives a comfortable feeling when we promote the album live. Like last weekend when we played a show on this huge festival (115.000 people) in Holland. We were the only rock/metal band on the bill, so all the rock/metal minded people were in front of the stage. The slam pit was one big chaos. A lot of people at the first aid service, so it was quite hyped up.
Your new record has been released shortly. Are you satisfied with the press and fan reactions is has been getting so far?
The responses are amazing and sometimes a bit over the top. We got a lot of 9 out of 10's and even a few 10/10. What the hell is going on, haha? Especially in U.K., France, Germany, Scandinavia and Holland of course, we got a lot of reviews and interviews with mags, ezines, radio and television. It feels very good to get the respect for the hard work we delivered with "Drawing Circles". As you might know we did the whole artistic concept ourselves; production, engineering, artwork, website design, merchandise and we even built a studio to record the shit.
"Polars" - your self-produced 2003 debut - got some pretty rave reviews back when it was first released. What was your first reaction when you received all this incredible feedback, had you anticipated it to hit as big as it did?
No, it just came out of the blue for us. I think it was mainly because people liked the fact that we did everything ourselves and that we had kind of a business strategy we worked out to get the best promotion. In short: we released the self-produced debut "Polars", the website, stickers, flyers, posters all at the same time. We never played live before the release. Immediately when we got the first reviews we toured across our native country Holland. The effect of that blitzkrieg strategy was enormous. People were like: "hey, where the fuck are those guys coming from?!" In the first 6 months we were invited to play with Sepultura, Machine Head and Dillinger Escape Plan. What a weird experience is that?? When we look back at that time back in 2004, it's sometimes hard to believe we achieved that in this short period of time.
Listenable Records re-released "Polars" in 2004. How did the record deal came to be?
Very funny. Our booker said to us that he spread a few copies of "Polars" amongst European metal labels. Amongst them were Listenable, he told us. But after a month of waiting without reply, our booker called him on the phone. Listenable said they received the copy, but it was still on the big pile of demos. "Well", our booker insisted, "listen to it tonight! The first press responses are great, so don't miss it!" haha, Next morning at 10 o'clock Listenable was on the phone. They listened the album the whole night through. They were so hyped up, that they called us immediately the next morning.
This is your second record for the label, are you satisfied with the cooperation thus far?
Yes, Listenable became one of the biggest non-major metal labels in Europe last years. Take a look at their signing list. Soilwork, Gojira, Scarve, Hacride, Incantation, Textures. Gojira, for instance, sold more than 10.000 copies of their last album in the first release week. That's almost absurd. What about Soilwork? They became of the leading metal acts in the entire metalworld. Listenable has this fine feeling of finding talent. Well, we hope, haha.
Under what circumstances what vocalist Pieter Verpaalen dismissed from the band? Were his vocal abilities no longer measuring up with the progress the band made as a collective?
Exactly, along with the fact that his musical ambitions were a bit different from the rest of the band. That's it.
With an album like that to your name, did you feel much pressure from fans and label to top that album with "Drawing Circles"?
No, not at all. Especially with our new singer Eric we felt really comfortable in writing songs and working on the concept of "Drawing Circles" We knew Eric was the man to push the quality levels for "Drawing Circles", and so he did. But besides that the whole concept and the songwriting is a huge step forward compared to "Polars".
Musically you sound more mature and accessible now with "Drawing Circles". Have you done anything differently with regards to writing or is it just a result of natural progression?
After "Polars" we did a lot of reflection to the album, the way we wrote songs, the concept etc etc. We talked about what we wanted for a next album and how we wanted to do that. The awareness of what we exactly wanted to do on the next album was of major influence in the writing process of "Drawing Circles". The ideas and the sound were almost set immediately. Of course, we did some experiments with songs but all bandmembers shared the same vision and ambition.
What kind of music forms the primary source for inspiration these days in Textures? It clearly doesn't sound like you solely rely on progressive and technical metal?
Exactly! The funny thing is that most band members don't listen to metal at all, haha. We use rhythm, speed, melody, harmony only as tools to compose a song. Just like Tool does, or Jeff Buckley, Pearl Jam, Necrophagist, Pat Metheny, Pink Floyd, Yes, Strapping Young Lad. Our influences go beyond every boundary. But if I categorize it; we listen to soundtrack (John Williams, Philip Glass), rock (Foo Fighters, Radiohead), metal (ALL kinds of stuff!), soul (Otis Redding, Janis Joplin, Amos Lee), singer/songwriter (Nick Drake, Peter Gabriel, Tom Waits), classical (Debussy, Wagner, Chopin), fusion (Dave Weckl, Alan Holdsworth, Pat Metheny). Just a few names. They all influence our music. Therefore; the music we create is a direct representation of the guys we are and how we think about aesthetics.
How long have you been working on the new album?
The songwriting started somewhere around December/January 2005. In a meanwhile we built the recording studio. In September and October we did the pre-production. That means we added the last ideas to the songs and we made a schedule for the recordings and get everything arranged to work. In November we started recording the drums. The mastering was done in Sweden accompanied by Bjorn Engelmann (Dimmu Borgir, Soilwork) in the beginning of January.
I would say "Drawing Circles" has the central theme of 'analyzing and shattering patterns' as a lyrical and musical focus. Can you elaborate a bit on what made the band decide to take that as the concept for the record?
It's right that our lyrics deal with patterns; patterns in all kind of shapes and on all kind of levels. Just like "Polars" the theme is very much related to the topic ‘consciousness'. We talk a lot about that last topic if we hang around with the band. We consider consciousness as a key to progression in life. But to become conscious we have to be aware of patterns in life. Patterns emerge for example in history, psychology, physics and also our own social and mental life. For ages mankind study patterns of processes to learn something from them. This also counts for our own beings. We have to zoom out to look at the overall structure and to face and reflect on our beings and to let us ask the right questions. "Drawing Circles" is about these patterns, not only lyrically, but also musically. An example: the 5th song ‘Stream Of Consciousness' deals with impulsive living and the moments of enlightenment we experience. The following song ‘Upwards' is representative for this very moment of clearness; the melodies, harmony and rhythms flow into each other and strengthen each other to a climax; a symbol for positive energy and life in general.
You also shot a promotional video for the track 'Millstone' - tell us something about that.
We watched the first final version this morning. We worked together with a couple of people to get the result we wanted; a dancer, a guy for animation and some dudes for shooting live material and for editing the video. We froze our asses off on the shooting day. Although it was quite nice weather, the temperature never touched zero, haha. But that gave an amazing effect to the shots. You will see it in the video. I think it will be released by the end of May.
With "Polars" the touring activities were mainly in the Benelux. For "Drawing Circles" you have several release shows scheduled in Holland, followed by some dates with French technical metal combo Gojira and various promotional activities up until the end of the year. I take it you guys are a full-time touring band now, no longer jobs on the side and such?
Well, no. We have to work or study besides the band. We don't receive any money personally. All money we earn will be invested in merchandise, fuel or something else. It's quite hard sometimes to plan our personal lives with a busy band like this. But it's worth it! We go on tour with French maestros of Gojira this month. In July we will head for UK to do a 2 week tour with Twin Zero. In the meantime we will do separate shows in Holland, Belgium and France. We play on Hellfest (France) and on huge Brutal Assault Festival in Czech Republic, for instance. Aaah, we're going to perform with Alice in Chains on Hellfest! But the question is; who will be the singer? ‘Cause their former one died of drug abuse. Oh, by the end of the year we will do a few more tours across Europe. We'll keep you informed.
Apparently, Chilean technical metal act Coprofago studied your music, I heard. Tell us something about that. There's a funny anecdote related to that, I believe.
Yes, some guy was downloading stuff from my computer. I didn't tag the names of the songs, so in fact that guy was downloading nameless songs. But he was just downloading at random, he told me. He was a metalfanatic, so I asked him if he knew Textures (I didn't introduce myself so he didn't knew who I was). He was acquainted with Textures. He was not a fan of "Polars", "But the new songs are very promising. ‘Regenesis' is genius", he said. "Where are you from", I asked. He told me that he came from fucking Chili! It's unbelievable that our music is spread so far over the world. Almost hilarious! He knew the guys of Corpofago, he said, and he was sharing Textures with that guys. That's the story. Afterwards I told him I'm the drummer of Textures. His answer: "You're kidding!" hahaha
I guess many people have been wondering about this, did the band take its name from Cynic or Brian Eno?
No. It was just a word that is very representative for the music we make and the personalities in the band.
Thanks a lot for your time. If there's anything else you want to add, here's the place.
WE'RE SO DAMN HYPED UP TO PLAY ALL OVER EUROPE!!!!!!!! Thanx for being interested in Textures. We hope to meet you all, one day. Check out "Drawing Circles" or our website www.texturesband.com
Band info:
Site: www.texturesband.com
Booking: bookings@texturesband.com
Photo credits: Tim Van Veen (www.fototim.nl)
