Welcome to MHF magazine.
Fasten your seatbelts as we are about to enter the world of NEÀNDER.
You’ve managed to evolve your very own blend of heavy music that draws on musical elements of doom, ambient and black metal. That’s rather unusual in a genre that typically follows the same compositional formula. We want to know how you mastered that. Was it intentional or it just came naturally as all band members from different backgrounds came together?
It all came very naturally to us. All of the styles you mentioned before belong to the great field of Heavy Metal, still they are very different. What they all have in common is a certain atmosphere. Dark, bleak and heavy. We tried to combine some of the musical elements with each other. Of course there are formulas how to write a song. Every songwriter learns these formulas but sometimes it’s important to forget about and just to do your thing. That’s what makes music interesting.
A bleak and desolate atmosphere casts its shadow on “eremit”. Does one have to be in a dark personal place to be able to create such an atmosphere? Does your own psycosynthesis affect the synthesis of each album?
Everything that you experience will take influence on your writing. I mean you grap your guitar and start playing out and suddenly something pops up that seems interesting to you. And you just go and follow that thing. When we are in this process we try not to overthink too much. We just let it happen. Next step is to track the idea, with a laptop or a handy so you can analyze it better. There’s one part that’s very spontaneous and naive and one that’s more analytic. Try to get everything in the right order so that it makes sense to you. It’s head vs. gut feeling.
Magnus Lindberg of Cult of Luna mastered the album in Stockholm. Where you present during the process of mastering? Is it easy to handle the control to others?
No, we weren’t present. Magnus did the mastering in Stockholm while we were back in Berlin. For me it’s not easy to give the control away but there are a few people we work with in which we trust 150 %. So that’s fine.
Let’s get to know the band members a bit better. Who is the funny one, who is the responsible with deadlines, who’s the one that nags about everything? How would you describe the dynamic of the band members?
We’re all pretty down to earth, I guess. Within neànder there’s not one big ego and that makes it really easy and enjoyable to work with each other. Everyone has his expertise. One is good with writing songs, one with sound and all the graphic stuff and so on. Most of us work in a music related business so we can handle the business side too.
What is the most enjoyable part of being with each other and what’s the most annoying one?
I like most of the aspects of being in a band. From writing songs to rehearsing and recording. But the best thing is to play live and get in touch with the people. So the most enjoyable part is being on stage. Of course there are some things that suck but that’s pretty normal.
October 9th is getting close. Are you ready for the release date? Would you do anything differently if you could go back in time?
We’re really looking forward to the release date. I’m pretty curious how the people will like the album. So yes, we’re ready to go. I wouldn’t do anything different. We’ve done all we can for this album and I’m very satisfied they way it turned out. Of course there are some things you would do a little different but that’s the same within every creative process. It’s all about learning. Finish one thing and then head out for the next and try to make it even better. An album is a snapshot in time.
We all have high hopes for this release and after hearing the promo material I guarantee we’ve also got good reasons to support our high hopes. If you could ensure one goal for this album, what would that be? Thank you so much! This is much appreciated.Ourplan was to dig deeper into our own sound. To make everything a bit slower and heavier than before. We wrote our first album over a period of three years. EREMIT took 6 months. And this really sticks it all together.
Neander Online: https://www.facebook.com/neanderhorde/
Until the next one,
Chelf
