German experimental metal band The Ocean have just released the fantastic Heliocentric. Guitarists Jona Nido and Robin Staps recently answered a few of our questions.
The Ocean
DistortedNews: You have just released Heliocentric and are going to release Anthropocentric nearer the end of the year.What made you choose to release them this way?
Jona Nido: Heliocentric was written in a rather short time frame by Robin and he really had the whole record in mind. I had a few songs written too, but we didn’t want to add them to Heliocentric, as that album just felt right & ready as it was, we didn’t want to add anything there. So, apparently we just had too much material that we were happy with and decided to make it two albums.
Robin Staps: We also decided to release them separately because we didn’t want to overstrain people. Precambrian was almost 90 minutes of complex song material, it was a bit too much at once and Robin had the feeling that some people were giving up too early, not giving the album enough time to really dig it and get it. So this time we wanted to offer something that is still complex, musically and conceptually, but not too much at once. It seemed like a wiser idea to release the two albums separately.
DN: What can you tell us about the story of these albums?
RS: The songs, art and lyrics of this album tell the story of the rise of the heliocentric world view – the idea that the earth revolves around the sun, and that the sun is stationary and at the centre of the universe. Copernicus and Gallilei were the first popular ambassadors of this idea, although ancient Greek astronomers like Aristarchus had already posited this theory centuries before. The effects that this discovery had on Christian belief and occidental culture are at the base Heliocentric. Throughout the course of the album, the lyrics are orbiting around an astronomic and a philosophical / religious subject, whilst always keeping an essentially personal perspective.
The Ocean
DN: What was it like working with new vocalist Loïc Rossetti?
JN: Loïc is an amazing singer and a really hard working man. He’s never satisfied with himself and that makes wotking with him really smooth,
because he’s not the typical “this is my vocal line, take it or leave it” kind of singer. He’s never giving up and always wants to give his best. Robin recorded vocals with him in Berlin and I remember him telling me that he had never worked with such a singer before. Loïc’s physical condition is amazing, he is able to do 50 takes in a row, at times they were recoring for 6-7 hours a day and finished the day with screamed vocals… His ability to cover a really large spectrum of different vocals has opened new doors for us. He is also really creative and gave a lot of input during
the recording process. He auditioned with the song Firmament, and his vocal lines there are actually what you can hear on the final version now…
DN: What are your main influences when making music?
RS: The one album I have listened to while writing Heliocentric was Trent Reznor’s Ghosts double album (Nine Inch Nails double instrumental album) at that time. It took a while until the subtle beauty of this album unfolded in front of my ears, but looking back at it now it was the most dominant influence at the time of writing. If you can’t hear that when you listen to Heliocentric, well that’s good. Inspiration is a mysterious process and if influences are too obviously audible in your sound, then it is not a matter of influence anymore but a matter of copying or stealing. It works like a black box, even you as the artist don’t know what’s really going on inside. You have a number of influences, past and present, that manipulate your songwriting, although you may not even be conscious of that. What comes out of the black box is hopefully something new and rather far away from the original influences, athough certain details may allow to draw conclusions…
JN: I was together with Robin in a nice big house by the sea when he wrote Heliocentric and I was writing some tunes for Anthropocentric at the same time… at that period I was personally totally into The Mars Volta… but same here, you’ll barely realize that while listening to Anthropocentric.
DN: The band was formed in 2000, ten years ago, do you think you will still be here in another ten years?
JN: Who knows? It took Robin ten years to build up this band and find the right people to play with. I guess he’s not gonna give up anytime soon. We all have this great passion for music and I really think it’s still gonna be there in 10 years. We’re definitely not the linkin park type of band anyway, we’re trying to build something up here and it takes time, probably a lifetime…
The Ocean
DN: What is your opinion on current chart music?
JN: I’m not really paying attention to the charts…The only thing I don’t understand is why some of those big sellers still reach a fairly large
amount of people who buy their record and why on the other hand it is so hard for underground bands to sell records to a crowd that is supposed to be much more dedicated and supportive than your average mainstream crowds…
RS: I guess this is the reality everywhere. Maybe it’s a matter of age, too. The young scene kids are the torrent-generation, while older people are more used to the idea that music comes as a physical product…
DN: What’s your plans after the release of Anthropocentric
RS: We’re gonna release a live DVD some time later this year on Metal Blade. We just recently filmed our record release show in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland for that matter and we will also be shooting the Friction fest show in Berlin on May 7th. For both these gigs we had/are going to have additional musicians on stage with us; a string trio, brass section, piano player…
JN: Apart from that we will be playing a European headlining tour in May/June, a bunch of Festivals and then hopefully a US tour later this year. We’re going to tour Australia in February 2011 but that’s as far as our planning is ahead a this point… I personally have lots of material on my harddrive that I cant wait to work on with the whole band.
Check out the bands official website and Myspace page.
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