Interview:Jamie Saint Merat
Lords of Metal
http://www.lordsofmetal.nl/showinterview.php?id=1859&lang=en
To start off, congratulations with the release of your debut full-length 'Of Fracture And Failure', it seems to kick more ass with each listen! For our readers that have not checked you guys out yet, could you provide them with the most important reason(s) why they should run to the shop and buy your album now?
Well thanks a lot Richard! I think we appeal to anyone who is into death metal with an emphasis on a bleak atmosphere and a suffocating execution, although we have fairly atypical and complex structuring, I really don't think we fit the 'technical death metal' tag too well, we don't focus on an ultra clean sound, and I think we'd really appeal to people who think that bands like Cryptopsy/Immolation/Wormed/Gorguts/Deathspell Omega/Gorgoroth/Shining have and are still really doing good things for this genre.
Ulcerate play death metal, but it is obviously not the ordinary kind. What inspired you to play death metal in the first place and how did you arrive at your current interpretation of it?
We were just inspired by the bands we started listening to - we've all been listening to extreme metal since 13/14 years of age, and after a while if your playing an instrument, you generally end up playing the music you like... So early inspiration was stuff like Nile,Cryptopsy , Decapitated, Suffocation - the bigger name acts that really appealed at a young age. We've been doing Ulcerate for 7 years now, and I think its only really been in the last few years that we decided upon a sound and have fleshed that out to a great extent.
In terms of arriving at our interpretation, we've always had the goal as a band to take a non-uniform approach, and we've been honing our sound trying to get all the elements to fit for a while now. The two key writers are guitarist Michael Hoggard and myself, and we take a very disciplined approach with writing, as we're 100% not interested in writing to genre conventions, we're focused solely on writing material that sounds very unique. This approach transcends the melody, every rhythm, lyric and counterpoint part is methodically worked out so that we're writing stuff that people hopefully won't have heard before. Of course you will hear our influences and the general conformity to the style, but we want to expand what is possible within death metal. I personally think it has a lot more potential than what it is given credit...
The lyrics are also not your typical blood, guts and zombies affair. They seem to convey quite a bleak outlook of life and humanity. What do you guys actually sing about? Is there some sort of band philosophy which lies at the basis of the lyrics?
For sure... The lyrics for this album follow a loose chronological concept detailing man's carelessness and eventual downfall at the hands of ourselves. The opening of the album is documenting our efforts to enhance and progress our species and the ignorance that comes with it, leading through to tracks such as Failure (self explanatory), The Coming of Genocide (man killing his own kind) and Defaeco, which resolves the album and lyrically documents our end... I don't necessarily think of these lyrics as taking a specific standpoint, they're more a 3rd party documentation of events and actions and how we perceive them.
The band name, on the other hand, is relatively of the gory kind. Why did you guys choose to name yourself after the process of forming an ulcer? Does it (still) represent what you guys stand for with the band musically?
When we named the band Ulcerate, the angle we were taking was more metaphoric, the concept of infection of anything negative, rather than a literal 'ulcer'. Our lyric concepts haven't really changed at all, even though stylistically we've shifted by virtue of having 2 different vocalists.
'Of Fractures and Failure' is released through the Dutch label 'Neurotic Records, how did a bunch of New Zealand metal heads end up on a Dutch label?
Well, from day one we were sending out promos of our demos, and through various means, ended up getting one or two to Ruud (head of Neurotic) when he was running his Quintessence zine... So they were aware of who we were for a while. Then we were recording the album, a good friend of ours from Finland Timo Hakkinen (drummer for the awesome Sotajumala) name-dropped us on the Neurotic website forum, to which Ruud replied positively... so we prepared some unmixed mp3 samples to send through, they liked them, and we were signed for the album the next day. It was total chance, as at the time we were preparing to release the album on Italy's the Spew records, but we knew we needed a better label behind us for the material.
The promo sported a November 2006 release date, this date has obviously not been met. What happened? Are you guys still happy with the work of the Neurotic guys?
We've been told that there were printer difficulties in pressing the stuff, all of this completely out of our hands... We are of course very happy with the work they do for us, our international fan base is growing rapidly, and its awesome to be a part of a label that supports the material and gets it out there. Plus, the bands we share the roster with are perfect in terms of promoting ourselves within a niche. Plus the recent conglomeration with Willowtip is fucking great news for us and all the Willowtip/Neurotic bands, so we're looking forward to what happens there too.
As I said, Ulcerate come from New Zealand. I do not know a lot of metal bands that come from your home country. Actually, I only know Dawn Of Azazael. What is it being a metal band in New Zealand like? How would you describe the scene (if any) in your home country?
The scene has produced a number of notable acts that are getting international recognition at the moment, Dawn, Vassafor, Diocletian, Creeping, Akaname... Basically, we're a tiny country, so we have a small metal scene. Its frustrating and rewarding at the same time...
There are quite some examples of Australian (extreme) bands immigrating to Europe to pursue their musical career. Is this something that Ulcerate would consider as well?
Yeah, this is one of our long-term goals eventually. At the moment, we're writing for a new album and preparing to get overseas and tour first, then we'll further our ideas for relocation. Its just too hard being so far away from the epicentres of where everything is happening.
Your drummer Jamie Saint Merat is responsible for the artwork and he did quite a good job, I must say. Is it in any way thematically connected with the album's contents?
Thanks a lot man! The cover art is a depiction of how I interpreted the meaning behind the lyrics and concept, this more or less translates into the idea that we as a species are doomed at our own hands, and that from our extinction will rise the next governing species.
Practically all the reviews of 'Of Fracture and Failure' have been positive, how important is the opinion of the press to you guys?
It is definitely very humbling to see that the majority of our reviews have been positive, and 9/10 reviews I've been reading are very in-depth, and have really taken the time to listen and understand the album, which is great. These opinions are very important, so long as the reviewer has taken care and approached the material with at least an ounce of intelligence. I like to look at it like this, there are 2 kind of reviews - constructive reviews and bullshit reviews. Good and bad reviews fall in both categories, but regardless, constructive (whether good or bad) are fucking great to read, so long as the review has taken the time to analyse and deconstruct the music, regardless of opinion, it helps both the reader and us as a band. But the 2 sentence reviews that take all of about 2 minutes to write are worthless and serve no purpose at all...
With good reviews from all over the world, this may also offer quite some perspective for doing live shows all over the world. Do you guys have any ambitious touring plans?
We're always in talks with our label trying to get on tours, at our stage our best bet is to land some opening slots, and we're trying our best. We have long-term goals in regards to us becoming a 'touring' act, but we're still in baby-steps in that regard.
Ok, that is about it for now. Thanks a lot for your time and I wish you all the best with Ulcerate.
Thanks a lot guys for the support, we certainly appreciate your efforts!
Jamie | Ulcerate
www.offractureandfailure.com
www.myspace.com/ulcerate
ulcerate@gmail.com
www.neurotic-records.com
www.thefloodrecords.com
