Interviews : Karnivool (Drew Goddard) – 17/06/2009

Metal Obsession recently had the chance to get some answers from Karnivool guitarist Drew Goddard, about the new album, Sound Awake, and their upcoming tour.

Metal Obsession (Scott Boelsen): Drew, thanks for taking the time out to have a chat to MetalObsesson.net. Firstly, Congratulations on the release of Sound Awake.  Are you guys happy with the overall reaction sound awake has been getting so far?

Karnivool (Drew Goddard): Thanks! Yeah man, we’re really happy, it feels good to finally have it out there, the response so far has been very positive.

MO: 4 years is a long time between albums, but from the incredible interest of fans for your upcoming tour, it doesn’t seem like you’ve lost any fans over that time. Did you guys get to have a break, or was it pretty much just touring, writing, then recording?

DG: We never really had a break, well, speaking for myself, it’s very hard to switch off in the downtime, so the creative process never really stops. It was a very elongated and laboured process, but I’m glad it happened that way. We were still touring and promoting Themata in the midst of it all, so there were lots of stops and starts. After the Aeons tour in last April, we stopped playing shows and focused solely on finishing the record. Lucky about that it was looking like it could have stretched on forever!

MO: What was the recording process like on sound awake, and how did it influence the sound of the album?

DG: We recorded the majority of the tracks at Blackbird Studios in Perth, except Goliath and Deadman which were recorded at Kingdom studios, for the bigger live room vibe. We went for a much more live feel all around this time and really tried to roughen up the edges. On the Themata record, we went for that polished and prestine slick kinda thing with everything close miked and up in your face, with not to mention 6 billion guitar overdubs. We wanted to let the sounds breathe a little more this time, less layers and more room sound so that all the subtleties could come to the surface it really gave it that band in a room vibe, a more honest sound if you like.

MO: I had heard about tension in the studio during the writing process, what’s the key to keep to the differences to the music, and not create tension between band members? Do you think this writing process is something you’ll try again in the future?

DG: The whole writing process was extremely unorthodox, and the more I try to explain it the more confused I get about it. There was always tension, but nothing that was really destructive, in fact in was quite the opposite, all tension and the difficulties during the writing and recording process, as much as it didn’t seem like it at the time, contributed in the way that we had an outlet for it in our common purpose of writing a record. A band is essentially a relationship, and like every relationship you need those tensions and those negative, tough experiences to act as a catalyst to spin it around into something strong and postive. However, in hindsight there were definitely some things we learnt through the process and we know we will be approaching the next writing phase in a different manner.

MO: Was it a concious decision before the writing started to have such a change in sound from themata, or was it just how it turned out while jamming out the album?

DG: It was definitely a conscious decision to make a different album from Themata. Karnivool is always going to be a band that will constantly evolve, we always need to keep things interesting for ourselves. When we set out to write the album, no one had a fixed idea of how they wanted the album to sound, just general ideas about what sort of sonic territory we’d like to venture into and general overall scope. I guess it was like a big blurry tapestry that slowly came into focus over four years, as we worked on the minute details we had to take a few steps back every now and then to see how the overall picture was panning out as it came into focus.. It was still quite a blurry picture well into the recording process, we went into that process with some songs still open ended. I’m only really seeing the whole finshed picture for the first time now. It’s months after the completion of the record and things are still coming into focus. We definitely set out to challenge ourselves, take some risks and create something big, with lots of space and dark colours and I think we succeeded in that sense. I guess we consciously try to keep our decision making on the subconcious level, (if that makes sense in a paradoxical kinda way!?) I love not really knowing where you’re going but just trusting that you’ll end up in the right place. The jamming method of writing is a great way to do this.

MO: The progression from the persona ep to themata included more dense, ‘shorter’ songs, where as from themata to sound awake the music seems more open, and the tracks more epic, and longer. When writing a song do you aim to create a long epic beast, like deadman, or change, or does it just keep expanding while jamming?

DG: We don’t set out to write a piece with any kind of agenda in mind. We just try and let the song dicate to us where it wants to go. Deadman was mostly built around the whole middle sprawling section which was born from a jam that we recorded. We had already written a rough version of the opening verses and a couple of surrounding sections, we just started jamming and pretty soon it careered off into a polyrhythmic, droney Floyd-esque kinda thing. We listened back to it, cut out a few bits and changed a couple of parts here and there, and then recreated the jam, mostly as it was and shoved it in the middle of the song, then built the rest of the piece around it. This was a new thing for us, but this was also the very first time we had written a record with a full line up in the jam room, so it just felt like the natural way to go about it.

MO: The album comes in at over 70 minutes in length. Did you fear at all that with an album of such length, and that as the band has said the album is a grower, that some fans might not give the album the chance it deserves to grow?

DG: No. We didn’t think about it at all. I think it’s pretty clear now that we have some of the most patient people in the world as our fans, so I don’t think we have to worry about that.

MO: One thing i’ve noticed with Ian Kenny’s vocals on sound awake is it sound like he’s singing on a birds of tokyo album with his higher pitched vocals, as opposed to the less higher pitched, more aggressive vocals on themata. Is this just a natural change over 4 years, or was it a case of this vocal style fitted the music better?

DG: We have the same singer as Birds of Tokyo? Fuck me! I thought he sounded familiar.

MO: Whats the story behind the track change? Did you ever plan on having a smooth transition from change (Part 1) to Change, whether as the final track as you have it now, or as the opening track on sound awake.

DG: Change came about toward the end of Themata writing period, we could see what kind of course the song was going take and we didn’t have the time up our sleeves to make it happen, so the transition to part 2 was already written in those days, but we just chopped it and added it to the end of Themata as a part 1. It was always going to be the last song on Sound Awake.

MO: What are the touring plans for Karnivool in the foreseeable future? I was crushed to see Birds of Tokyo, as much as I like them, announced for Splendour in the Grass and a few other headline shows, fearing another delay between karnivool tours.

DG: After this run of Aus capital city shows, we are looking at going overseas, before coming back home for a much more extensive Australian tour where we will visiting as many parts of this here sunny island as humanly possible.

MO: How is it going chosing the setlist for the upcoming tour? With the more musically open and emotive tracks getting a sizeable feature on sound awake, can you see something like sewn and silent getting a  slot on the setlist on the upcoming tour, or is it more important to play a bigger chunk of sound awake, as its fresher/newer to the band and the fans?

DG: Sewn and Silent won’t be finding its way on to this setlist unfortunately. We’re trying to showcase as much of Sound Awake as we can while not neglecting the oldies. 🙂

MO: What does the rest of the band get up to while Ian is away on Birds duties? Is it time to relax, or are there other projects the band members are in?

DG: We write music.. no time to relax!

MO: The band signed to sony recently for spreading sound awake to the rest of the world. Was it important to have sound awake finished before entering talks with labels to avoid any changes they might want on the album?

DG: We would never sign a deal with a label who would want in on the creative process. We’re extremely protective about that. We write the music, the label releases it. They’ve got a job to do. The folks at Sony understand what the band is about and where we’ve come from. We’re all very excited about this new relationship. It’s essentially an overseas deal, we are still indepedent in Australia and are just distributed by Sony over here.

MO: With the rest of the world getting sound awake in early 2010, is sound awake the album where karnivools focus shifts from australia, to making a name for yourselves in the US and europe? And is it hard to commit to long tours overseas with Ian having to focus time on Birds as well?

DG: We are definitely going to push things as hard as we can overseas in the coming years, which is the extremely exciting next chapter for the band, but we’ll always continue to tour Australia as much as we can. As far as Ian’s commitment to Birds, there undoubtedly will be lots of uber-planning and shuffling of dates and people’s lives, but we will take it as it comes, we just have to be thinking 18 months in advance at all times, but everyone is keen and ready to make it work, so we can minimise any possible clashes of dates.

MO: Finally, can you see Sound Awake getting a vinyl release?

DG: We have thrown the idea around.. I’d like to say yes, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

MO: Thanks a lot for taking the time out to answer some questions for MetalObsession, best of luck on the upcoming tour, and hopefully next tour i’ll be back in the country and can see you guys play!

DG: Thank you and no probs!

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Band: Karnivool
Date: 17/06/2009
Origin: Perth, Australia
www.myspace.com/karnivool

Questions: Scott Boelsen (Metal Obsession)
Answers: Drew Goddard