Interviews : “MORE STAGE DIVES!” – an interview with sludge gods Rosetta

As  you can probably tell from the title of this post, we’re pretty big fans of Rosetta. Their first Australian tour blew minds and probably quadrupled the amount of Australian fans they have. Well now, with another brilliant album under their belts in the form of A Determinism of Morality, the US atmospheric sludge band are returning. Do not miss the tour. Do not.

—————–

Your first Australian tour was as unexpected as tours come, but it was no less suprising to see you returning again. Your shows are crammed into a fairly small time frame. Will you guys be taking any time off before or after the tour for a bit of a holiday down here?

Matt Weed (guitar) : Timing ahead of the tour is super tight because we’re coming off a three week European tour with only five days buffer time at home in between. It’s insane but that’s how it needed to be to fit everything in. We usually try not to have too much down time in our tours because it’s a sinkhole for money, and we like to push hard. That said, I will be staying in Australia after the tour is over so my wife and I can hike the Larapinta for 6 days. Seemed like an ideal opportunity to hit a spot we’d probably never get to otherwise.

From a band who seems to do quite tight tours, what are three pieces of touring advice you would give to an aspiring band?

Matt: Save money, save money, save money. Bands don’t need all the stuff they think they need to tour. Then again, they DO need things that are often hard to get. Food is always the biggest concern. Who cares about free booze, let’s eat! Take care of yourself and eat well, get the needed sleep. Be careful about routing so you’re not wasting money on gas. Essentially, it boils down to being the opposite of what a rock band is stereotypically supposed to be. Stay healthy, be a cheapskate, keep it punk rock. Do that and you can tour forever.

How’s the van situation going?

Matt: In an ironic twist of fate, Vansetta got totaled when she was rear-ended by another car during a bad storm. We haven’t heard from the insurance company what the situation is, but she’s done. We’re trying to save money right now for a new van. Fortunately, that issue doesn’t affect our ability to tour overseas.

Matt: Galilean has been out of the live rotation for about three years now. We’re pretty tired of those songs. Last time we were in Australia, we hadn’t written any songs from ADOM, so the focus will be on that material. We’re stoked to play those live in Australia for the first time. Some Wake/Lift material will be in there too. The other thing is that we don’t choose our setlist until right before we play, typically after we’ve had a chance to gauge the feel of the room. It’s different every night. Sometimes we incorporate requests or throw things in on the fly.

A while ago I saw a list of songs that you guys said we’ll never see live. I tried to find it again recently but failed, so while I have the opportunity, what songs won’t/can’t you guys perform live? 

Matt: The cover songs we’ve recorded are studio pieces and we don’t do them live. We’ve also never played So Warm a Solitude live. We said once that Monument would never happen live, but then we pulled it off a bunch of times in 2011. Pretty much everything else was or is in the rotation.

I read in another interview you’re recording a new EP later this year, that is a bit experimental for you guys. Can you give us any more information, or hints as to what new influences you’re bringing in?

Matt: It’s almost more of a retrospective of the different sounds we’ve worked with over the years. There’s some really nasty heavy stuff that’s faster, as well as some more reflective quiet material, and a weirdo track with lots of bizarre instrumentation. I think it will be a transitional exercise for us to help us investigate where we might go for the next full length. In some ways it also reflects an acknowledgement on our part that we’re a hardcore band and not really a metal band. That’s evident in our live shows more than in recordings and we want more of the live energy to make it into the records, while still being able to explore new sounds in more studio-oriented pieces.

hat’s happening with that Rosetta documentary at the moment? I haven’t noticed any recent updates.

Matt: The goal is to have it done by June of next year, so it can be screened along with whatever we do to celebrate the band’s tenth anniversary. It’s not up to us though, since we’re not making the film. It’s independent and ultimately the vision in it is someone else’s understanding of what we’re about, which is a main part of the appeal. We didn’t want it to be a two-hour commercial.

What’s on the cards for the rest of 2012?

Matt: Write and record, that’s really it. Practice a lot, which is not something we’re good at.

Moving away from Rosetta, what albums have you recently had on regular rotation?

Matt: I have been listening to a ton of Thomas Köner for the last year or so. I can’t get enough of his stuff. We’re all pretty stoked on the new Meshuggah. A lot of noisy hardcore has been playing in the van. Think Ken Mode, Unsane, that type of thing. Botch gets played all the time because it’s one of the few things we all agree on.

A question for Mike Armine: back in 2010 you released “Verse”, a series of ambient tracks (and I believe it was rereleased recently coupled with “Cleansing Undertones of Wake/Lift”?), which was absolutely fantastic and still a regular listen for me. Will we see any more releases like that? Or was it a bit of a one-off.

Mike Armine (vocals/electronics): By no means is that type of experimentation going to be a one off. However I feel that I’ve accomplished what I set out to do with those two releases. My next move will be to take that style of ambiant drone and apply it to elements in hip-hop that I’ve grown to appreciate over the years.
Once I compose a beat oriented EP, I’ll start looking for an MC. Its going to be a while for sure.

Any last words for your Australian fans?

Matt: MORE STAGE DIVES.