Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Deconstructing Sequence Interview


1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?
Tiberius: First of all, thank You having us on Blackened Death Metal Zine and the opportunity to speak about our music. Coming back to Your question, Deconstructing Sequence is a band playing music which we describe as Extreme Progressive Art. This is a hybrid of Death/Black Metal and Progressive/Post Rock Music. It is also a cooperation between two polish black/avant-garde groups- Northwail and Shadows Land. All this results in an unique sound and ideas which break borders and forces the listener to listen to the music several times in order to get the full picture.
Morph: Yeah, we like to have things a bit complicated! We get bored pretty easily with music…

2.So far you have released 2 ep's, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on both recordings and also how do they differ from each other?
Tiberius: That's right. Our first EP "Year One" which we release in 2013 was an experiment, a search for new ideas for making music. After the split up of Northwail we felt we had to refresh the formula and "Year One" gave us much needed freedom and happiness in making music. We always were really into science fiction and used some ideas in Northwail, but with Deconstructing Sequence we created a completely new approach on this matter. After the recordings of the first EP our eyes opened wide, we have seen a huge potential this music brings and created our own style of playing, arranging music. Our new EP "Access Code" shows the whole spectrum of what we want to do and which way will our music develop.
Morph: Basically “Year One” was a testing ground for our ideas. We had a lot of unused ones and our cooperation with Nerexo, who is a superior drummer allowed for some previously unexplored extreme prog areas to be explored. First EP wasn’t perfectly coherent, we wanted to include as much creative output as possible, starting the new project was like releasing from chains, we wanted to try so much new things! A lot of sick breakdowns, rhythm patterns, harmonies. Approaching “Access Code” we had more precise view on what we want to achieve. We have concentrated our efforts on tuning selected elements.

3.2/3rds of the band members where in Northwail, what was the decision behind splitting up the old band and starting up a new one?
Morph: Well… It wasn’t an easy decision in the first place. We were achieving something, our music was great, very satisfactory, evolving towards something very innovative, but internal struggles started to be too serious for us to continue our activity. It was that bad, that I’ve decided to disband the group just after the first show promoting our 2011 album “Cold Season”.

Tiberius: Me and Morph though, felt still very strong to continue Extreme Progressive Art under a new, non black metal name and brought Deconstructing Sequence into life. Also with new drummer J.Nerexo from Shadows Land we gained much needed aggression and whole new way thinking about on drum arrangements. Right now we have a lot of satisfaction with our music and want to see how far we can push it  

4.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?
Morph: In Northwail there was no clear lyrical concept, I’ve sung about things going on in my mind at the time with more or less metaphoric shroud. With the new band I wanted something distinct, that will immediately set us apart from other acts. There are not that much sci-fi oriented bands and I was always a great fan of the genre, my stage name comes from Ripley’s main foe – the Xenomorph, so… why not? On Northwail’s 2008 album “Enigma” we had a song called “Shadow Of Oblivion” inspired greatly by 1994 “Stargate” movie. Lyrics were about some ancient godlike creature who comes from the darkest depths of space to kick everyone’s ass!! Well.. at least in general… I really like this song for it’s cold atmosphere, so… why not take it even further? I’ve talked it over with Tiberius and he agreed with the idea. The main lyrical concept of Deconstructing Sequence so far is about a Stellar Fleet leaving devastated and poisoned Earth behind in search for a new homeworld. Opening track of “Year One” – “Departure Of The Stellar Fleet Marks The Year One” is about this very event and is a clear metaphor for us leaving Northwail and starting our own musical journey towards the unknown. After receiving very positive feedback we felt that “We Have The Access Code” and “A Habitable World Is Found”. The latter is the opening track for our EP and is another great utilization of the sci-fi concept. In this one a starship approaches world that seems to be habitable, it gave us opportunity to create a series of dialogue between the mothership and a landing pod… very bizzare, very interesting… Listen for yourself!

5.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Deconstructing Sequence'?
Tiberius: The name Deconstructing Sequence is a result of looking for something that is gonna to describe the music we play. Listening to our music You get this huge mind-blowing sequence of riffs. This sequence is then deconstructed through odd time signatures and unconventional ideas. The name stands also for mixing Extreme Metal with Progressive/ Post Rock Music. Extreme Metal deconstructed through Post Rock music! How does that sound???!!!
Morph: Yeah and we also wanted it to be hardly catchy and hard to remember, haha!!

6.The band was originally from Poland but now resides in the United Kingdom, what was the decision behind the move?
Tiberius: With Northwail splitting up, in 2012 I decided to emigrate to England and work there and look for new inspirations. Cause most music was done in Taunton/Somerset we decided to have the base there. Although Morph stayed in Szczecin/Poland we knew it won't affect the work on our music. Luckily modern world gives You a lot of possibilities to make music on distance. First it's always the ideas, then arranging and me coming to Poland for recordings. Last part is for J. Nerexo to arrange the drums and record the tracks. We created our own system of work and till now it works very well.

7.has the band been able to do any live shows or is this a studio project?
Tiberius: Cause of the distance between us any live acts cannot take place. This takes three people to gather and practice and for now it's not possible. What I can say now though, is that future shows are possible. Next year I'm going back to Poland and there are plans to start playing rehearsals again!

8.Currently the band is unsigned, are you looking for a label or have received any interest?
Tiberius: It would be nice to have a label but it's not a must issue for us. Labels in most cases mean having  a pressure of time and we like to have a time freedom. If we feel like releasing a new material and feel it's gonna be good we will do it. In other case we just press delete and wait for the correct moment and ideas. We are more interested in cooperation with distributors an promoters. Currently we cooperate with DEWAR PR and it's going great, we reach more and more listeners and this is our main goal.
Morph: Yeah a major label would make some things easier.. and probably some more difficult. Exposure is the main thing. Being a studio project and not playing live shows means we have to wait some more time to make serious impact.

9.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of black and death metal?
Tiberius: The feedback is really good! We are getting more confident on the thought that the world needs our music, that there is a lot of people that are absolutely hungry for this kind of music. The scores in different reviews and the comments give us satisfaction. The best part though is reading or hearing that this music is something that these people didn't hear before. They cannot attach this music to anything they heard. Our recent review on one of the metal webzines says "Deconstructing Sequence sets not only apart from the rest but as a template for others to find inspiration in". What other reward we need???!!! Just Brilliant!!!

10.Are the band members involved with any other musical projects these days?
Tiberius: As for me and Morph there is just Deconstructing Sequence. J.Nerexo is obviously still Shadows Land drummer playing also in projects like Illness and Hell Ov Heaven.

11.When can we expect a full length album and also where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
Tiberius: We have plans to release a full length album in end of 2015. Right now we got an hour of riffs and we gonna start working on arrangements very soon. This will be followed by two or three recording sessions next year and J.Nerexo’s working on drum parts. Musically the full length will be a continuation of ideas that we created on "Access Code". Obviously we don't want to do the same music and we demand a lot from ourselves. We have no doubts we will surprise You and probably ourselves as well! Expect nothing else than a waterfall of great ideas!
Morph: The most fun factor of creating our music is pushing our own personal boarders. Very often during recording or composing session we come up with an idea that seems like a total nonsense, after the creative frenzy we calm down thinking “shit, what we have done??!!!”. Hand staggers between “delete” and “save” buttons and something inside tells us that we should take the risk and leave it. So yeah, we will definitely surprise ourselves, let alone our listeners! We don’t know what our future creations will sound like. Will it be more extreme? More progressive? Maybe we’ll eventually end up as a progressive industrial pop group? No, seriously we’ll always stay metal…ish… Whatever it will be, it will sound like Deconstructing Sequence – a starship ejected towards the darkest of space, a comet speeding straight into your head!

12.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
Morph: Wow, definitely too much to mention! Deconstructing Sequence is one big cauldron  of ideas, from Akercocke, Aborym, Arcturus, Anathema, God Is An Astronaut, to 80’s synth pop! We are keen on everything that is innovative or atmospheric, be it metal or not. And we are blast beat whores… we listen to everything with insane blasting! Right now I’m fascinated with polish black metal band Odraza, which means Disgust in English. They are creating music with lyrical concepts around alcoholism, lack of prospects in life, numbness and misogyny.. very polish! I’m very glad that our BM scene slowly moves away from forests and devil worshiping… seriously, who believes in this shit anymore?

13.What are some of your non musical interests?
Morph: When I’m not vomiting my guts in front of a microphone or shred the strings I work with environmental protection. I was raised with great respect to natural environment, I believe that we owe to the planet who is our cradle and home, it nourishes us, is the source of life and it should be cared for. If you don’t respect your home, you cannot be a fulfilled man. So remember kids… protect the environment or Captain Planet WILL kill you!
Tiberius: My main interest is guitars. I always spend loads of time on them, trying different settings and listening carefully how they effect the sound. Hopefully one day  I will have a collection of guitars like Karl Sanders from Nile. Recently I also became a huge fan of drinking Rum! Deconstructing Sequence a Extreme Progressive See Shanty? You never know???!!!
Morph: And we always like to have a nice rest at 4:20!

14.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
Morph: Stay open-minded! No great progress can be made without crossing borders fencing you from the places you would like to go, but are too afraid! And for the all young bands out there wanting to make something worthy – don’t try to sound like your idols, they got famous, because they came up with their own idea for music and doing once more the same thing won’t lead anywhere…. it’s always a real shame to see bands that advertise themselves as FAMOUS BAND X sound alikes…. Wanna succeed? Get your own personality, be yourself, be confident about sounds you create. And get a  drummer that can blast over 250bpm and use keyboards!!! No, kidding… just don’t make crappy music, the internet is already full of it. Thank you for bringing us into spotlight! We are glad to have the chance to share our thoughts!

Bandcamp
Facebook
Myspace
ReverbNation
SoundCloud

No comments:

Post a Comment