Ipp
Till Deaf Do Us Part
Aus gegebenem Anlass, das AHAB-(Kurz)-Gespräch mit Cornelius aus dem aktuellen Feed the Beast. Mein Hauptaugenmerk lag auf der "Live Prey"-Veröffentlichung, weil das Gespräch hier, Teil des etwas umfangreicheren LFA-Interviews sein sollte.
Ich glaube, ich rede noch mal mt ihm, später....
Shalom Cornelius, after almost 17 years of existence, Ahab released it´s first live record last year via L.F.A.
Let´s handle the basic information at first: The show was recorded 2017 during the Death Row Fest in Jena, Germany and your set list consist of five songs, which all could be found on your debut “The Call of the Wretched Sea”. So much for the facts, let us dig a little bit deeper. At first, I want to mention the phrase “fortunate coincidence” as those recordings were never mentioned to happen at all?
Well, yes, nobody ever thought about making a live album of this particular show. When we were asked by Walter to play Roadburn we thought about a special show. Because all bands playing Roadburn do something special there. I am the one in the band who was never satisfied with the first album. Because of my drumming, in the first place. And as we know every show is being recorded on Roadburn, things came together. Simply re-recording an album is kind of a no-go. But having a live-recording of a whole album is something different. Due to technical problems (yes, my very own fault!) we could not use the files we got from the dear Roadburners. The absolute bottom of my life as a musician, so far, believe me.
So, when we played Deaf Row later in 2017 and some weeks after the show the soundguy of that night, who happens to be a friend of mine, as well, approached me with “hey dude, you got an USB drive for me? I got a show for ya!”
Unfortunately, we shortened the set by one song that night, due to the length of our slot on that festival. but I saw a glimpse of hope appearing when I finished listening to this recording. No severe fuck-ups, a pretty decent sound. For it was just a stereo track I got, and no separated tracks for each instrument, it was a hell lot of work. But I really like the result. That´s how I incidentally got it my way.
Amusingly, one part I read out is that you recorded your first live-album (at the second attempt, yeap)... without knowing it, ha. This might also has helped you as it took the pressure from you. Beside the normal stage fright, of course.
This is probably 100% true, yes. But we´ll never know. I am just very glad, this one turned out as it did.
Let´s sum up again: You were never happy with your drumming on the debut - by the way, why? - and when you have the possibility to correct this mistake... you botch it – what happens? Sounds like your debut is cursed, at least for the person on the drum throne.
Haha, yes, and it didn´t end with the complete useless Roadburn recording. The layout of the LP is a total disaster to put it straight. I have no fucking clue what was going on with our label. The pictures inside are out of alignment, our logo on the backside is placed somewhere out of the centre. It seems like a stupid prank just annoy me even more, haha… But yeah, in the end I am glad that the record sounds the way it does. And this has been my main concern from the very start of the project. To continue this ego trip of mine, please go ahead and compare the drumming on “Call...” with the drumming on “Live Prey”. On “Call...” you can hear a drummer who tries to play the music of Ahab, and on “Live Prey” the drumming is part of the music. No overplaying, no redundant fills and no misplaced cymbal hits, a.s.o. … but these details are rather interesting for drummers, probably. The important thing for the “average” listener is the fact, that the drumming now is like what the music demands.
As I only have the LFA-tape-version here I had to check the photos on Discogs. What Napalm Records published is… somewhat less than perfect, to call it diplomatic. “Prank” is too nice for it, haha. Didn´t you as a band get the chance to see the layout before it goes to the printing house?
I didn´t think that far, to be honest… I saw mock ups which looked pretty decent and that was it. But especially considering the minimalistic approach of the whole layout I was pretty shocked. Clear lines, some pictures, some songtitles, that´s it. It´s not like a hidden picture puzzle you become dazed by after watching for a while. How high has your amount of disinterest to be to fuck up so heavily? A record label would probably know how to handle such a task, I assumed.
Sometimes it´s only work – sometimes it´s pure passion.
Sometimes it´s the “industry”-way – sometimes a hobby.
Sometimes you see the possibility to make a quick buck – and sometimes simply not.
Just presumptions of course.
Yeah, kind of. Sometimes it is only work, I can tell you. But the keyword here is empathy. It absolutely doesn´t matter how much work you do, as long, as your bandmates see what you are doing. It is also very important to split work. Split work according to who is best in what. In Ahab we have strictly separated purviews:
Stephan is responsible for the merch. Which is a keystone, because he is our “moneymaker”, so to say… His house is full of merch, his evenings are full of packaging stuff. He is very famous at the local post office, haha. He is just very good at organizing stuff. So, no quick bucks here, just very solid moneymaking. Christian is the manager and the booker – needless to say how important his work is and how many emails and phone calls come along with this “job”.
Daniel is the silent, quirky mastermind behind our music. Even more needless to say what Ahab would sound like without Daniel: We simply wouldn´t sound, at all.
My job is recording Demos, caring about the technical facilities in our rehearsal room, nagging and criticizing, talk to our engineer by knowing studio-language when it comes to recording an album, and so on… So, appreciating each other´s work is crucial for a functioning band.
I only disagree with your statement in the “sometimes a hobby” – part. I totally despise this term. A model railway is a fucking hobby. Or going to football games. Things you´re sometimes not doing in your daily life. As long as I am not asleep, I am “inside” my music. Music is merely a coalescence of passion, religion, addiction and delusion, at least on my behalf.
It´s interesting what you call a “pretty decent sound”. What I hear is a voluminous and heavy sound. It is almost like “live recorded in the studio”.
Well, yes, as I mentioned, what I got had a pretty decent sound. If it hadn´t had sounded that way I probably wouldn´t have come up with the idea to use that recording for anything more than just having it stored on some drive and listen to it again in a hundred years…
It felt like I have been fumbling around this project. And then Stefan, who plays bass in my Black Metal band Raptvre brought his expertise into this project. And, as always, when Stefan is involved, there´s no doubt things will sound awesome in the end. Needless to mention Role (Tonmeisterei Oldenburg), who mastered it.
But a fun fact here is, in fact, the only thing I got was all instruments and vocals in one stereo track. Not track one Kick, track two Snare, track three whatever, a.s.o. Just one stereo track. That was the main reason why it took me ages to set up a project somebody more experienced could mix, in the first place.
I´ve heard that you were also unhappy with the bass-sound on this record?
No, you must have gotten something wrong. In the first place Stephan wasn´t in the band back in that time. It might be a little confusing that the old bass player´s name was Stephan, as well. Yes, exactly this spelling, with “ph”.
It´s merely like, you can´t hear any bass guitar at all on “Call of the Wretched Sea”. And that was one major point, why I wanted to have this one revised. Besides my drumming, for sure. We wrote some proper basslines for this performance. So, in the end there is one whole new instrument on “Live Prey”, so to say.
… and not only a person on stage who caress his instrument, ha. I guess, we reached the end for this short conversation. Thanks a lot for your honest answers. I was actually a little bit taken by surprise by them – to be honest, haha.
Pretty cool, right? To be honest, it has been a while that I was so heavily involved in this album. As we speak my work on our upcoming regular studio album has been done for some weeks and guitars are being recorded. Therefore, it was a little strange to have this in-depth talk about a different album than the one I am more or less constantly thinking about, these days. So, thank you very much for this experience, hope to meet you once the “usual” mode of playing shows has been switched on again.
Ich glaube, ich rede noch mal mt ihm, später....
Shalom Cornelius, after almost 17 years of existence, Ahab released it´s first live record last year via L.F.A.
Let´s handle the basic information at first: The show was recorded 2017 during the Death Row Fest in Jena, Germany and your set list consist of five songs, which all could be found on your debut “The Call of the Wretched Sea”. So much for the facts, let us dig a little bit deeper. At first, I want to mention the phrase “fortunate coincidence” as those recordings were never mentioned to happen at all?
Well, yes, nobody ever thought about making a live album of this particular show. When we were asked by Walter to play Roadburn we thought about a special show. Because all bands playing Roadburn do something special there. I am the one in the band who was never satisfied with the first album. Because of my drumming, in the first place. And as we know every show is being recorded on Roadburn, things came together. Simply re-recording an album is kind of a no-go. But having a live-recording of a whole album is something different. Due to technical problems (yes, my very own fault!) we could not use the files we got from the dear Roadburners. The absolute bottom of my life as a musician, so far, believe me.
So, when we played Deaf Row later in 2017 and some weeks after the show the soundguy of that night, who happens to be a friend of mine, as well, approached me with “hey dude, you got an USB drive for me? I got a show for ya!”
Unfortunately, we shortened the set by one song that night, due to the length of our slot on that festival. but I saw a glimpse of hope appearing when I finished listening to this recording. No severe fuck-ups, a pretty decent sound. For it was just a stereo track I got, and no separated tracks for each instrument, it was a hell lot of work. But I really like the result. That´s how I incidentally got it my way.
Amusingly, one part I read out is that you recorded your first live-album (at the second attempt, yeap)... without knowing it, ha. This might also has helped you as it took the pressure from you. Beside the normal stage fright, of course.
This is probably 100% true, yes. But we´ll never know. I am just very glad, this one turned out as it did.
Let´s sum up again: You were never happy with your drumming on the debut - by the way, why? - and when you have the possibility to correct this mistake... you botch it – what happens? Sounds like your debut is cursed, at least for the person on the drum throne.
Haha, yes, and it didn´t end with the complete useless Roadburn recording. The layout of the LP is a total disaster to put it straight. I have no fucking clue what was going on with our label. The pictures inside are out of alignment, our logo on the backside is placed somewhere out of the centre. It seems like a stupid prank just annoy me even more, haha… But yeah, in the end I am glad that the record sounds the way it does. And this has been my main concern from the very start of the project. To continue this ego trip of mine, please go ahead and compare the drumming on “Call...” with the drumming on “Live Prey”. On “Call...” you can hear a drummer who tries to play the music of Ahab, and on “Live Prey” the drumming is part of the music. No overplaying, no redundant fills and no misplaced cymbal hits, a.s.o. … but these details are rather interesting for drummers, probably. The important thing for the “average” listener is the fact, that the drumming now is like what the music demands.
As I only have the LFA-tape-version here I had to check the photos on Discogs. What Napalm Records published is… somewhat less than perfect, to call it diplomatic. “Prank” is too nice for it, haha. Didn´t you as a band get the chance to see the layout before it goes to the printing house?
I didn´t think that far, to be honest… I saw mock ups which looked pretty decent and that was it. But especially considering the minimalistic approach of the whole layout I was pretty shocked. Clear lines, some pictures, some songtitles, that´s it. It´s not like a hidden picture puzzle you become dazed by after watching for a while. How high has your amount of disinterest to be to fuck up so heavily? A record label would probably know how to handle such a task, I assumed.
Sometimes it´s only work – sometimes it´s pure passion.
Sometimes it´s the “industry”-way – sometimes a hobby.
Sometimes you see the possibility to make a quick buck – and sometimes simply not.
Just presumptions of course.
Yeah, kind of. Sometimes it is only work, I can tell you. But the keyword here is empathy. It absolutely doesn´t matter how much work you do, as long, as your bandmates see what you are doing. It is also very important to split work. Split work according to who is best in what. In Ahab we have strictly separated purviews:
Stephan is responsible for the merch. Which is a keystone, because he is our “moneymaker”, so to say… His house is full of merch, his evenings are full of packaging stuff. He is very famous at the local post office, haha. He is just very good at organizing stuff. So, no quick bucks here, just very solid moneymaking. Christian is the manager and the booker – needless to say how important his work is and how many emails and phone calls come along with this “job”.
Daniel is the silent, quirky mastermind behind our music. Even more needless to say what Ahab would sound like without Daniel: We simply wouldn´t sound, at all.
My job is recording Demos, caring about the technical facilities in our rehearsal room, nagging and criticizing, talk to our engineer by knowing studio-language when it comes to recording an album, and so on… So, appreciating each other´s work is crucial for a functioning band.
I only disagree with your statement in the “sometimes a hobby” – part. I totally despise this term. A model railway is a fucking hobby. Or going to football games. Things you´re sometimes not doing in your daily life. As long as I am not asleep, I am “inside” my music. Music is merely a coalescence of passion, religion, addiction and delusion, at least on my behalf.
It´s interesting what you call a “pretty decent sound”. What I hear is a voluminous and heavy sound. It is almost like “live recorded in the studio”.
Well, yes, as I mentioned, what I got had a pretty decent sound. If it hadn´t had sounded that way I probably wouldn´t have come up with the idea to use that recording for anything more than just having it stored on some drive and listen to it again in a hundred years…
It felt like I have been fumbling around this project. And then Stefan, who plays bass in my Black Metal band Raptvre brought his expertise into this project. And, as always, when Stefan is involved, there´s no doubt things will sound awesome in the end. Needless to mention Role (Tonmeisterei Oldenburg), who mastered it.
But a fun fact here is, in fact, the only thing I got was all instruments and vocals in one stereo track. Not track one Kick, track two Snare, track three whatever, a.s.o. Just one stereo track. That was the main reason why it took me ages to set up a project somebody more experienced could mix, in the first place.
I´ve heard that you were also unhappy with the bass-sound on this record?
No, you must have gotten something wrong. In the first place Stephan wasn´t in the band back in that time. It might be a little confusing that the old bass player´s name was Stephan, as well. Yes, exactly this spelling, with “ph”.
It´s merely like, you can´t hear any bass guitar at all on “Call of the Wretched Sea”. And that was one major point, why I wanted to have this one revised. Besides my drumming, for sure. We wrote some proper basslines for this performance. So, in the end there is one whole new instrument on “Live Prey”, so to say.
… and not only a person on stage who caress his instrument, ha. I guess, we reached the end for this short conversation. Thanks a lot for your honest answers. I was actually a little bit taken by surprise by them – to be honest, haha.
Pretty cool, right? To be honest, it has been a while that I was so heavily involved in this album. As we speak my work on our upcoming regular studio album has been done for some weeks and guitars are being recorded. Therefore, it was a little strange to have this in-depth talk about a different album than the one I am more or less constantly thinking about, these days. So, thank you very much for this experience, hope to meet you once the “usual” mode of playing shows has been switched on again.
