Dan Marsicano: What kind of progression did you see the band make between Dwellings and Metazoa?
Arthur von Nagel: We got a lot darker and tighter and more focused. That was a band-wide decision. We did Metazoa, and we were really proud of it, but what we ended up doing with that record was that we were just so excited that it was our first full-length and we were working with an incredible producer with Billy Anderson. We were all jacked, like ‘Man, we’re going to throw everything in the pot.’ We put a cello here, a violin here, a piano; the works. We made this big, massive orchestrated record, and we’re happy with it, but I think with Dwellings, what we really wanted to do was focus on a strong, singular statement.
Although we have all these different genres still, I think the styles have really come together on this record from all the musicians involved. We got really into editing and writing for the piece as a whole; being very restraint. It’s a progressive album, but it’s not progressive just to show off how great of a musician I am. It’s more progressiveness as a philosophy.
Did you find once the band went out on tour in support of Metazoa, that some of the songs were hard to perform because of all these different elements thrown in for the studio versions?
Absolutely. It’s interesting because Metazoa, just like Dwellings, was recorded mostly live. The core elements of the bass, the guitar, the drums, the vocals; it was more or less live on both the Metazoa and the Dwellings recordings when we were in the studio. Those aspects we can pull off, but there definitely was something missing in the live element for a lot of the Metazoa material.
We didn’t have that cello or we didn’t have that keyboard for extra ambience. We made a conscious effort that for Dwellings, it’s just guitar, bass, drums, and vocals; that’s it. There’s one mellotron part as a transition between two tracks and there’s like six notes of piano that you can barely notice at the end of “Funambulist.” The whole record is just pure honesty; real, straight-ahead metal instruments.
What do you think a person just hearing about the band for the first time will get out of Dwellings?
I hope what they get out of it is that they get transported into their own world. I hope that they would get a feeling of getting lost in the music, escaping to these little universes with these crazy characters in them. I’d like them to melt in with the guitar solos and lock in with the drums and just forget themselves and fade away into this weird music. That’s the best; when you’re listening to an album and everything just goes away and you’re lost in the waves of sound and the stories that are being told in the songs. That would be the ultimate listener right there.
A lot of attention is put on the music, but the lyrics themselves have a lot of depth to them, more so than most metal bands. How much time do you spend on the lyrics, compared to the music?
Everyone contributes equally to the music. We spend so much time writing and re-writing all the music. We spent about two years writing this record, so the music is definitely incredibly important. The lyrics are sort of my little obsessive baby (laughs). That’s my own obsession. I spend about 20 hours per song just on the lyrics. I do ridiculous amounts of research.
I’ll read several books per song so that I can get all the facts right. I’ll write and rewrite. I map out a sort of schematic of the format of the song and map out all the syllables as different rhythms and then I map out the rhyme schemes. I build it as a skeleton. To me personally, I look at them with equal importance to the music. It’s really a group effort. Without the incredible music, I couldn’t do the lyrics. They go hand-in-hand.
How was it working with Justin Weis on Dwellings, compared to Billy Anderson?
They are both awesome. They are totally different in the sense that Justin is precise. He is a laser. He’ll tell you when he doesn’t like something. That’s the thing I appreciate the most as a vocalist. He would work with me on the lyrics and go, ‘Okay, who is your character in this song?’ It was almost as if we were acting. When he felt that the performance wasn’t matching up to the character that we had agreed upon for that song, he would say, ‘Nope, stop,’ and we would have to start again, until delivery was up to what we had seen in the lyrics.
Billy is a real artist. He won’t tell you no. He’ll just say, ‘Put more stuff.’ We would layer eight guitars on top of each other and put in crazy amounts of different effects and weird instruments. Billy is just a blast to record with. It’s just totally different styles. They are actually both friends with each other. Billy recommended Justin to us. So it was a really nice contrast and I think they both really worked well with what we were doing with each of the two records.
There are seven excellent compositions on Dwellings. However, if only one song could represent Dwellings as a whole, which one do you think it would be?
The one that has the biggest scope of sound is the last track, “Unearthly Dreamings.” That has basically every style we use. It has clean vocals and harsh vocals, doom and black metal and progressive metal and jazzy elements. I like to think it holds together. It’s just a massive behemoth. I feel like if you want to get a good chunk of what the band is about, that song would do it.
Dwellings was recently named the top metal album of the year by NPR, and you have received a ton of praise and critical acclaim for both albums. Do you still get surprised by the type of attention the media seem to be giving to you?
It’s really flattering and an absolute honor. I don’t think we’re the best metal release of the year or anything like that, but it’s really flattering and very kind. Am I surprised? Well, we have a few things that are working for us. We have one of the best publicist in metal at the moment in Kim Kelly with Catharsis PR. She is just a monster. She gets the word out to all these different press outlets that, as an unsigned band, we have no business being a part of. A lot of that comes from her tireless devotion to what we’ve been doing. We’ve been working with her for almost three years now and she’s just fantastic.
A lot of it comes from that. I think on some level, the press kind of likes our weird DIY story. Maybe I’m crazy there, but I think people are interested to see how far this little experiment will go. ‘Okay, these guys are stubborn idiots and they won’t sign and they put out their own releases and they do crazy artwork.’ I think it’s the element of surprise in what we’re going to try to pull off next.
The band has a presence in various online avenues, including Bandcamp and Facebook. However, you don’t seem to be anywhere on Spotify. Is there a reason for that?
It’s just that it’s new. I really like Spotify. It has its problems; the ads in the middle when the album is playing is annoying, but I understand why. It has some problems with the payment structure and the advertisements, but it’s really convenient. Dwellings is going to be on Spotify within the month of December.
Do you feel like a program like Spotify is where the future of music will be heading?
I personally think it’s a breakthrough. I’ll even go further. I will say please pirate our music. I’m totally fine with pirating. Go ahead. I think it’s great. I’m just happy that people are listening to our music. That’s what it comes down to me. YouTube, Spotify, LastFM; whatever, have at it, enjoy and listen. I don’t see it as a lost sale. I see it as more exposure. I see it as people talking and telling other people and sharing their experiences with the band.
Maybe music isn’t really sellable. You’re either doing digital products through Bandcamp, and Bandcamp is fantastic, or you’re selling what is essentially an artifact (vinyl, CD). I think it’s great. I love people being able to have access to music. 20 years ago, you would have to fight for that tape-trading thing. That was great, but now it’s just so instantaneous. There’s so much music you can access. It’s great and I’m happy. If someone pirates it and they buy a T-shirt, we’re happy. I’m all for piracy. I’m all for streaming. I’m all for people getting access to music.
To make any type of money nowadays, fans have to buy T-shirts and go to live shows to support the band. How important to you is perfecting the band’s live show?
That’s one of the difficult things for an independent band. We all have full-time day jobs. It’s difficult to consistently have live shows going. We have to turn down a lot of shows because of scheduling. I run a recycling center. One of my bandmates is a manager at a solar company. Another guy is a managing editor for a PR company. We have real, 50-hours-a-week jobs, so it becomes difficult.
When we have live shows, we buckle down like crazy and we rehearse. We do the songs over and over again until they are perfect. The live shows are very important and it’s a chance to really reach out in person to people. I would love to be able to do more shows and more touring and more festivals. It’s a little difficult with the way our band is set up at the moment.
Do you think there will ever be a point in the band’s career where you can tour for longer periods of time?
It’s definitely possible. If the way Dwellings has been doing is any indication, and if we keep on this track, we’ll definitely be able to fund a tour or take the necessary time off of work. Maybe even down the line, do part-time jobs versus full-time jobs, and actually have the hours to put into real touring. It’s definitely something that’s possible. You just have to keep going at it. I don’t want to force it because we’re at a pretty good place right now, but that definitely is the one black mark on us; we haven’t been touring enough. That’s definitely the one thing we would want to build on in the future.
With 2011 nearing its end, what would your year-end list look like?
There’s a lot of great albums. We got the new Giant Squid, the new Grayceon, and the new Disma is fantastic. The new SubRosa, YOB - Atma came out this year and it was really good, Portrait's album was great; that one didn’t get any hype, which was unfortunate. I really like the new Hammers Of Misfortune. There were tons of really good albums this year.
If you could tour with one band, past or present, who would it be and why?
For me personally, I would kill to tour with a reformed Celtic Frost or a reformed Mercyful Fate. Those are my heroes. The rest of the band would say Enslaved most likely. I love Enslaved too, but I’m the one who is absolutely gaga for first-wave black metal. I’m crazy for that sound. Master’s Hammer, Root and Venom; I love that raw, grimy...before black metal was really black metal. It had the attitude and it didn’t have the aesthetics. It was a messy collection of different sound; I love that. Celtic Frost and Mercyful Fate used to represent all of that to me. It was just so out there and so forward-thinking for their time. Those are my heroes right there.
