Dr.Doom: Since Uzala is fairly new shall we start this interview by introducing the band and its members?
Chad: The lineup on the album is Chad Remains (myself) vocals and guitar, Darcy Nutt vocals and guitar, Nick Phit on bass, and Stephen Gere on drums. Stephen has left the band since this record and we welcome Chuck Watkins to Uzala on drums. We look forward to working together in this new year towards some killer recordings and touring. There are three more songs that we recorded with Stephen in other sessions that will be coming out later in the guise of 7" vinyl splits with some killer bands including PALLBEARER, who we are stoked to work with. One of these songs was penned by Nick, and it's quite different to any of the other UZALA material, although we feel it is wholly us in sound and vision.
Dr.Doom: I see that you (Chad Remains -guitars and “hellish vocals”-) and Darcy (Nutt -guitars and vocals-) are a married couple! Does this involve epic fights about solos and vocal melodies? And do women always get their way on a band as they do in life?
Chad: Ha ha! Our communication is very direct since we have been together for a long time, so we don't bother to beat around the bush. We just say what we want to say. The song tells us what to do anyway, so there is very little ego involved in the decision making process. Quite simply put, Darcy plays rhythm guitar and I do the leads. When the song calls for a female voice and beautiful singing it's her responsibility, and when the song requires more aggressive vocals it's up to me to make it work. We both share lyrical duties as well as writing the riffs and structures. One exception is PLAGUE which was written by Stephen on piano and then Darcy and I arranged it for guitars with him. It is funny to think that people expect us to fight though - I didn't get to be this advanced age by not learning how to choose my battles! ha ha ha! I know when she is right and she knows when I am right. We don't compromise for the sake of it since that would compromise the songs.
Dr.Doom: I see you completely neglected a CD version and an MP3 one! Your debut will be released in vinyl and tape format only right? Was this some sort of an anti-MP3 statement from the band?
Chad: We only haven't done a CD release because no label has stepped forward to release it YET. Of course I prefer vinyl for it's many intrinsic qualities and I don't view CDs as a must, but I don't have a vendetta versus the format or anything. Cassettes are just cool and I can play them in my car more easily than any format. I grew up on tapes and vinyl, so it feels natural to me. I don't remember having CDs until almost my senior year in high school and then I was fairly disappointed by people asking to hear "song 4" or whatever. There is no "song 4"!!! These artists gave the song a title! Use it for fuck's sake!
I would be glad to talk to labels about releasing this on CD, though. I know for a lot of people it is their preferred method of listening - so it doesn't bother me. MP3 release though? Like buy some MP3's? Sure! I'll get right on it! I have been told that it is terribly "old fashioned" to only have physical manifestations of the recording for sale - so we will correct this anachronism by having paid mp3s available on our website which is being finalized at this time. It should be fired up by January or February once the details are complete. We will have mp3s available as well as shirts, patches, posters, etc. for those who wish to support our endeavours.
Dr.Doom: Darcy is responsible for the album cover art if I am not mistaken. Has Darcy done anything for other bands?
Chad: Darcy is a full time tattoo artist so most of her focus is on making huge and elaborate pieces for people's skin collections. She has done a little bit of art for bands in that she has tattooed some band members that you may know. She has created some images for gig flyers in the past as well. The last one was for a WITCHCRAFT gig.
Dr.Doom: In the copy I have, the production is a bit inconsistent. For example “Death Masque” sounds a bit louder and clearer than the rest. Was the album recorded in two different times?
Chad: That was MY mistake! Sorry about that, amigo! "Death Masque" will NOT appear on this record at all in any plans we have at the moment. We have recorded a different session of it which is a different arrangement entirely for an upcoming split 7" we are doing with a Chicago band. We may release that song on it's own. But right now we don't have plans for it. Blake Green (WOLVSERPENT) still did the production on that. But it was a slightly different kind of sound we wanted for that take.
Dr.Doom: Most of the album has a dirty, lo-fi kind of sound. I’ve always considered that kind of production a trademark for black metal bands. Do you agree? And do you see it fits well in a (mostly) doom band like Uzala?
Chad: Well we certainly didn't go into the studio with a preconceived notion to make the album sound lo-fi. I think it is more of a matter of working with the equipment available to us to make it sound as good as we could. We also did not intend to have a crystal clear and polished kind of shiny sound either. If it sounds black metal to your ears, that's fine. I don't hear this much low end frequencies usually associated with black metal. It sounds more like early Sabbath studio stuff to me - or maybe I suffer from wishful thinking with that one!
Dr.Doom: There are two songs “Fracture” and “Wardrums” that have a quite different aesthetic from the rest of the album. Weren’t you afraid that you might lose something from album consistency and do you feel like Uzala’s sound is a work in progress?
Chad: Those songs reflect a different viewpoint of despondency and grief in that they are outwardly focussed rather than introspective sorrow. The riffs and the vocals are different because of that.
Of course our sound is a work in progress and we hope it will always be so since stagnation is the enemy of creation. So far as consistency goes I'm not sure that it is necessary other than this very recent idea that has come to be in these genres that any deviation of tone or structure is unorthodox or even heretical. If you dig through your old records you will find huge variations in sound, stucture and instrumentation especially Masters like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. We'll leave having all the songs sounding the same to those who wish to toil under such orthodoxies themselves and we wish them well with it!
Dr.Doom: Do you believe that vintage equipment and vintage production has become a necessity for the doom genre?
Chad: I believe that many will tell you so, but I don't think that obsessiveness of these details is a necessity, no. If a guitarist can make great doom riffs with a cheap catalog guitar and a digital modelling amplifier combo it is the riffs that matter. I do, however doubt the efficacy of this course of action since I haven't heard it done convincingly yet. If one desires the tone of a Les Paul through a Marshall Plexi stack, the easiest way to get there is not by pretending, but by acquiring the tools. A huge percentage of a bands' tone comes from their fingers and sweat anyway - I revealed to a friend recently that a "famous" band had all Marshall stacks for "the look" and that the actual amps used were cheap Peavey gear found used! So the road goes both ways. Experimentation is key - but don't expect for me to suddenly sound like Van Halen because I bought gear to match his. My personal obsession for the old amplifiers has a lot to do with the quality and craftsmanship with which they were built and designed. We have lost this in our modern and disposable consumerist society. So I collect the obsolescent dinosaur gear whenever I can afford it. The amplifier I use live and for this recording, however is a LANEY gh100s TI which was manufactured in the 90's - so hardly a vintage amp in truth, but capable of the tones I seek and has been trustworthy on the road.
I'm not sure exactly what you mean by vintage production although I assume you mean eschewing modern conveniences such as Pro Tools and digital boards. Recording to 2" tape has always been a very expensive proposition and now that it is such a rare commodity and digital processing is ubiquitous many bands feel it is in their best interest to record in a modern equipped studio or even in their own rehearsal space on a laptop computer. I had very little to do with the methodology of our recording, but I can tell you that from what I have heard from the output of some recordists with today's technology I believe that most listeners would be hard pressed to tell you whether an album was recorded with a digital process or with an analog one. A bad engineer with a bad ear is going to make a bad sounding record no matter what he uses. We believe Blake Green (WOLVSERPENT) did a KILLER job with this one and I think you'll be hearing more bands recording with him soon.
Dr.Doom: Jex Toth, Devil’s Blood, Blood Ceremony, Windhand, Ritual of the Oaks, The Wounded Kings, Wooden Stake all are doom (or related) bands that appeared in the last few years and all have female vocals! Do you think it’s a coincidence or maybe a bit of trend? What was the reason that you decided to adopt female vocals in the first place?
Chad: I imagine that is is because of a shift in our culture, really. It is no longer generally acceptable in the West to tell someone "you can't do this because you are a woman" or it's not "feminine" to do such and such, and so on. There are definitely genres where females may never be accepted, but I like to think that folks who listen to classic styles of doom and such to be a bit more enlightened in this area than the general populace. I may be very biased here because of meeting some really great people in these circles - so count me out if I'm wrong! I have had death metal fans tell me that "women have no place in music" and they are welcome to their (fucked up) opinion. But I'll bet they have a Jefferson Airplane record hidden in their collection at home or at least the mighty THORR'S HAMMER or BOLT THROWER!!
It was quite simple for us to decide to have Darcy sing. She has a KILLER voice and she plays mean rhythm guitar, why not have her do both? She and I formed the band anyway and we run all of the decisions by each other because we are very respectful of each other's opinions and abilities. It would be a shame if my ego was so fragile that I was afraid to have Darcy sing for whatever imagined reasons on unreasons. Each song takes its own identity and calls for the correct voice. THE REAPING would not be what it is if I were to do vocals on that one, for instance.
Dr.Doom: I am sure that most fans will be wondering already for future releases of the band! Any plans for EP’s, splits etc?
Chad: We have three songs already recorded for upcoming split 7" releases with such killers as MALA SUERTE, PALLBEARER, and BONGRIPPER. The labels have not received these yet but I hope that most of the three will see a Spring release in 2012. UZALA is also planning a 10" EP with two songs that are being written now which will be the debut of our new drummer, Chuck Watkins. We plan to record that one this Spring in Seattle and I have been in talks with Tad Doyle (Boise/Seattle legends TAD) about engineering that piece for us. Nothing is final on that yet. It will see press by KING OF THE MONSTERS when it is finished, though. Darcy and I are writing new songs constantly, so we should have enough for another studio album by Fall.
Dr.Doom: So are there any plans for touring in U.S. and possibly Europe?
Chad: For now we are planning a Western States US tour in May/June - get in touch if you can help out with gigs and such. We are looking at Seattle, Portland, Eugene, Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Tuscon, Las Cruces, San Antonio, Austin, Norman, Denver and Salt Lake City. I may have missed something in the list. My apologies. Currently we have no plans to tour Europe, although it is not out of the question for us and we do desire to play the UK as well as Scandinavia and mainland Europe especially given the fucking fantastic festivals there like ROADBURN.
Dr.Doom: O.K. this it from me! The epilogue is yours!
Chad: Expect more fuzz, more despair and more thunder from us. Nick Phit (bass) has become an integral part of UZALA since he joined us last year and we look forward to collaborating with him to a greater degree in future recordings. Our creative fires are lit and we have plenty of fuel to burn. New ideas are fomenting and fermenting and more realizations and revelations are forthcoming. Thank you to all who have supported us. Thank you for reading.
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First of all, since Uzala is a new band, give us a short bio of the band so far.
Chad Remains – UZALA started in Spring of 2009 with Darcy and I deciding to drink a bottle of vodka and play music rather than go to an overpriced theater for more of the same Hollywood entertainment pablum. Darcy had a couple of songs she had been playing on acoustic guitar and I had some riffs in my back pocket. We stayed in the Bombshelter playing and drinking until the sun came up and we decided together that forming a band would be a worthy pursuit. We asked Stephen a week later to join us on drums and then went through several bass players. The lineup seemingly solidified when we played a MELVINS afterparty with ATRIARCH and Nick Phit volunteered his services as bass slayer for the recording of our debut full length. Tim “Hammerhands” Harris had sat in for several live gigs while Stephen was on tour with another band and he unwittingly helped us write Wardrums – so we felt it fitting to have him record that one with us as well. Stephen left the band to pursue other activities shortly after our first small tour and we are happy to welcome Chuck Watkins into our family. The lineup feels complete right now even though the history of such a short time seems convoluted. In summation, UZALA is Chad Remains – guitar and vocals, Darcy Nutt – guitar and vocals, Nick Phit – bass, and Chuck Watkins – drums.
As far as I know, “Uzala” is the Hunter in Russian, and most people know the word due to Vladimir Arsenyev’s 1923 book “Dersu Uzala” which was the basis of Akira Kurosawa’s 1975 film of the same name. Is that the story behind the band’s name?
CR – We had all kicked around a bunch of ideas for the name of the band, including some that are not worth mentioning in print. Suffice to say that Kurosawa’s film was indeed the inspiration for naming the band since we all loved it and found it to resonate deeply within us – the expansive and breathtaking imagery of the Siberian wilderness, the incredible beauty and unbearable sorrow of deep friendship, the harsh reality of nature’s cruelty and the insignificance of the individual in the world other than on a purely personal level. The film also shows a stark contrast between those who exist in harmony with their surroundings and live in peace and those who attempt to subjugate and control to satisfy their ego urge.
I have ‘labeled’ Uzala under the new wave of underground doom bands along with the Wounded Kings, Pallbearer etc. Do you place yourselves in any scene? And are there any other new bands that you feel you share the same vision?
CR – Being placed in such esteemed company is an incredible honor for us and we are happy to count these bands amongst our allies for as long as they will have us. Personally I have considered that what we play is traditional doom metal. I have been told by others smarter than myself that our other influences show through. Be that as it may we do not wish to pigeonhole ourselves too early as we wish to grow as our songwriting gets stronger and hopefully our skills are honed. I don’t feel qualified, however, to speak of any other artists’ vision or whether or not we share anything other than an aesthetic sensibility or stylistic similarities. The visions I see listening to another artists music may be entirely different than their intention and that is one of the wonderful and terrible pieces of the human condition and our disconnectedness.
The impressive cover artwork was made by Darcy if I’m not mistaken, and both she and you are tattoo artists. Can you give us a few details about the symbolisms hidden? Do we see a female augur or a Cernunnos druid? Are you guys into pagan/Celtic mysticism?
CR – It has been reported more than a few times that I am a tattooer, but I am making the world a more beautiful place by NOT TATTOOING motherfuckers! Darcy has more talent tattooing than anyone really has a right to have. There is no need for me to tattoo as well. Besides, I am so slow at drawing that I would probably be the most expensive tattooer in the world and hence unemployed.
The runes around the image of the quail eater on the vinyl cover are a simple transliteration of some of the lyrics from the missing track Cataract and the witch woman to me shows the inner beast hidden in beauty. Beauty is only a mask - even though it is very inviting it can hide a real threat.
Since my copy is on its way to my mailbox at the moment, I haven’t read any of the lyrics yet (apart from the “Gloomy Sunday” cover of course, we’ll talk about it later). So, what are the lyrical concepts of Uzala?
CR – Most of the lyrics are metaphorical and I think they are best left interpreted by the listener. Though I think it’s safe to say that most of my lyrical inspiration comes from War and Death and Darcy is more focused on Sorrow, Loss, and Sorcery. We do collaborate on lyrics though, so there is some cross-pollination of ideas as well.
What impressed me most on the album is the variety of directions your music draws. From the avant-gardism of “Batholith” to the proto-death of “Fracture” and “Wardrums” and from there to the threnody doom of “Ice Castle”. Is this due to a variety of influences trying to find their way into your music, or a result of endless experimenting?
CR – Batholith started out as just a guitar ditty that I thought would sit nicely between some “real” songs and I had worked out the entire arrangement by myself. When we got into the studio everyone had ideas flowing about lyrics, vocal melodies, bass parts, and on and on. At first I thought it would be a total nightmare since I was unwilling to let go of what I had created, but it ended up being one of my favorite pieces to record BECAUSE of all of the collaboration. Blake Green (producer) played the tremolo picked guitar and the feedback solos on that one and it really worked for me to have him share in creating this with us.
Fracture is an early one for us as it was written right along with The Reaping, Cataract, and Plague. The difference between the demo version and what we recorded for the LP is not just in distortion and velocity, but also the aggression and spite of it. The lyrics were inspired from Conan stories by Robert E. Howard and the music was very much inspired by Celtic Frost and Dark Throne. It’s anyone’s guess where Ice Castle came from… it’s still a mystery to me. It seems like one day we didn’t have Ice Castle and the next day we were working out the small details of it. It’s a strange one. We do try different arrangements when things don’t seem to be working quite right, but other times the song just seems to write itself – for example a new song which has only been played live, Burned. We have scrapped a couple of songs in our short existence as well, and we may do so again if the emotion isn’t there for us anymore.
“Cataract”. How can such an enormous song be ‘dropped’ as a cassette-only track? Personally, it’s my favorite Uzala track.
CR – We felt we had to make a tough decision with that one. We cut another song from the record as well just because of the time constraints of the medium. Sequencing the record in the right order was something we felt was just as important as making a setlist for a live gig. Cataract was cut in favor of making the sides of the vinyl flow properly and also we felt that since it was also on the demo that maybe that would be okay. But we’ve heard a lot of people say that they aren’t happy with that decision and that they want Cataract on vinyl! So we have chosen to do a 12” 45 rpm single from At War With False Noise that will feature Cataract on side A and Death Masque on side B. Both songs are from the same Visual Arts Collective recording session. It will be made in a special edition and we are working on the details as quickly as possible.
Tracks like “Plague” bring Earth (the band) to my mind in a strange way. Do you consider this band as part of your influences?
CR – Earth has been a MASSIVE influence on me since 1991 or 1992 when I first heard them. They have been a mainstay for Darcy and I for our entire time together. Earth was the first live show I took our daughter Freya to in Seattle. She was three at the time and Earth was just Dylan and Adrienne. We had pizza after the gig and they came in to the place to eat and Freya was FLOORED. I think she thought she was in the presence of the gods! For about six or eight months after that any music she heard she would judge by whether or not it was “as good as Earth”.
I even owned one of Dylan’s old SUNN 6x12” guitar cabinets for a time, so yeah… Earth is a big deal for us. I hope to hunt elk with Dylan one day like we’ve discussed in the past.
The cover of “Gloomy Sunday” is simply amazing. Why did you choose it and how was working with one of the saddest tunes ever and a song ‘bigger than life’? And why did you choose Desmond Carter’s over widely known Sam M. Lewis’s lyrics, was it because of the Diamanda Galas cover?
CR – Exactly. Listening to Diamanda Galas changed forever my perception of what can be done with the human voice. We were not trying to even touch what she had done with that song, but we wanted to make an attempt a guitar based arrangement of it to express our deep love for the tune. The Desmond Carter lyrics are gorgeous and in any version the song is in the status of a standard and I think it is important for bands to trace their roots in a deeper fashion than to just do a cover or two of songs that are popular only in the framework of their very specific genre. The myths and legends surrounding the song are also absolutely fascinating and it’s worthwhile to dig up all of the different lyric versions to explore how a song is crafted. The original lyrics are crushing and horrifying. It’s no wonder so many suicides leave some form of the song in their farewell notes or leave it playing on the phonograph next to their shuffled coil.
Uzala’s plans for the near future? Some touring or upcoming releases maybe?
CR - We are in the midst of planning our Western Lands Tour, which will stretch 21 cities in 22 days across 13 states. We have a few releases scheduled for later this year, including a 10” vinyl pressing from King of the Monsters and three split 7” vinyls including a very special one with our friends PALLBEARER – and a couple of surprises.
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Dan McGarry - How did Uzala form?
Chad Remains - Darcy Nutt and I decided to get a bottle of vodka and go to my rehearsal studio in a Cold War era relic bombshelter one night rather than go out to see a silly movie, eat at some overpriced restaurant, or sit in a bar filled with people and drink watered down whisky. We tried out some songs that Darcy had been playing for a bit and we threw out some new riffs, drank some more vodka and stayed up until sunrise writing music and getting very excited about the idea of forming a band together. Cataract and The Reaping both were conceived on that evening. We called Stephen (Gere, drums) later that week and asked him if he would be interested in drumming. We got to work writing and rehearsing since we felt like this was something worth our efforts and time. There was a tumultuous start in that several bass players came and went. Even on the four song demo there are three different bass players, including myself. We played a MELVINS afterparty gig with ATRIARCH and Nick (Phit, bass) expressed interest in playing with UZALA. He and I have been friends for quite some time – about ten years now, so I was sure that it was the right thing to do. We felt that the lineup was secured then so we made plans to record the album after a few gigs together as a “real band”. Everything has seemed to travel very slowly for us, but when I look back on it we are still quite a young band and who knows what will happen next? Stephen left the band right after the first tour and we immediately hired Chuck Watkins (Anon Remora) to play drums. It has it’s own set of difficulties since now half of the band is in Idaho and half of the band is in Oregon, but we just keep writing new songs and we have no intention of letting geography dictate to us our productivity.
DM - What is the concept behind the S/T Uzala album?
CR - We are not aware of any underlying concept to the album overall, although you may find a thread of interrelatedness in the lyrical content and song structure. We are interested in writing from the darker side of the psyche and exploring the undercurrents of emotion that burn and twist the senses. The atmosphere evoked is more important than the literal meaning since every listener is bound to have their own interpretation of the stories based on their experiences and emotions.
DM - How would you compare prior releases/demos to the most recent album?
CR – The demo was done on a shoestring. We recorded two of the songs in a basement studio and the other two were pieced together at our bombshelter. The demo only really existed to get out the word that we existed, although we feel we progressed beyond it’s limits within a short time of releasing it. The original intent for At War with False Noise was to do a seven inch single so he could “try us on” as it were. When we started recording the ideas kept flowing and the songs kept stretching in time and space. I contacted Iron Al (label boss) and told him we had a couple of seven and eight minute songs. “Have you ever owned a seven inch?? You can’t FIT seven or eight minutes on a decent vinyl!” I think Al was rather annoyed with us at this point. I asked him if he wanted to do a ten inch or twelve inch single and then he really thought we must be nuts. He asked if we had enough material for a full length record – which of course was our wicked plan all along (sorry Al...) We recorded in a live venue over the course of a couple different sessions, flying Nick out from Portland and rehearsing for some days before the recordings each time. We tried to do separate tracking at first, playing the drums to a click track and then adding the other layers in after. That didn’t work out too well for us as it felt very sterile, so Blake (Green – engineer, producer) suggested we just do what was natural for us and record “live” all together in the room and playing off of each other. We set up the drums and guitar cabinets on the stage of the Visual Arts Collective the same as we would if we were playing a gig there. It was a very familiar space for all of us which made the ideas flow much easier. There were of course minor technical difficulties that would rear their ugly heads from time to time, but overall it went smoothly and unhurriedly. We had a much better selection of guitars and amplifiers to use for these sessions and I had built a few more fuzz and overdrive pedals to use to achieve various textures for solo overdubs and such.
DM - What sparked the transition from tattoo artist to lead singer of Uzala?
CR – It has been incorrectly reported in a few reviews and such that I am also a tattoo artist, but I am making the world a more beautiful place by NOT tattooing motherfuckers! Darcy and I run Chalice Tattoo Studio together – so I can see where the confusion lies.
Darcy Nutt - Something different, I suppose. Music and tattooing go hand in hand. They are both great outlets of expression.
DM - The down-tempo doom displayed on the Uzala album is absolutely mesmerizing, is this a sound the band tries to perfect?
CR – We just try to make songs that we want to hear, and the wooliness of the guitar sound contributes to a hazy, syrupy feel to the riffs added to the fact that we don’t attempt to be “metronome tight” as the riffs should be felt and not surgically delivered. Darcy has presented some riffs that just have this little “slip” to them that really makes them work, I think. When we discuss tempos it it generally framed in terms of a physical object moving through space. For example – when we discussed PLAGUE the best description that came to my mind was a similar tempo to when the autoreturn on the phonograph doesn’t work and you get this “wooosh cl-click, wooosh cl-click…” type of rhythm. It drags a little there. The idea of playing with the EQ of the amplifiers and the way the speakers react to the riffs is important as well to get a sound that “feels” deeper tuned than it really is. Building our pedals is important to me simply since if something fucks up I know who to blame and I don’t think I can stop at this point, really! We will most likely continue to experiment with different fuzz sounds and different amplifiers even though we aren’t tech heads by any stretch of the imagination. Most of the circuits involved in shaping these tones are 40 years old or more. I have an affinity, or maybe an obsession with the quality of the craftsmanship involved in building these old amplifiers and such. We have a few pieces of equipment that are older than me, and possibly in better working condition! I dig the way an old all tube amplifier will “sag” a bit when you really dig into a riff. That and slightly bending certain parts of a phrase really make an atmosphere that is psychedelic and sometimes there appear to be notes that aren’t played, but are rather an interaction of each other’s notes crashing together in the ether.
DM - What are the biggest musical influences behind the band?
CR – I cut my musical teeth on Led Zeppelin, Queen, Electric Light Orchestra, Black Sabbath, Cream and the like. By my teen years I was listening to Motley Crue, W.A.S.P., Iron Maiden, Metallica, Slayer and some punk stuff like Black Flag, Misfits, G.B.H., the Exploited, Rudimentary Peni, etc. Death Metal from the likes of Napalm Death, Carcass, Bolt Thrower, Morgoth, Obituary, Morbid Angel, Terrorizer then came along and I was floored by the intensity of the atmospheres they were creating. At that same time I was listening to Grieg, Mahler, Wagner, Stravinsky and I was finding more and more similarities than differences and trying to incorporate all of these divergent styles into a cohesive view towards music. Even seemingly “non heavy” music such as Tibetan chanting was all being rattled around in my head and processed toward a vision of how I wanted to hear heavy music. All of that aside, I feel like the main influences for me to writing UZALA songs has to be the masters Celtic Frost, Black Sabbath, and Bathory. I concentrate first on creating good riffs and then the structure tends to reveal itself through playing and dissecting the riffs.
DM - How do you feel the contrast in vocal styles between Darcy and Chad add to the overall style of Uzala?
CR – Well I think it would be easier to swallow if only one of us was the vocalist. We each have a different approach to songwriting even though it’s sometimes even difficult for us to say who came up with what riff and when. Perhaps there is a simple distinction in that Darcy’s vocals are more focussed on esoteric subjects and my vocals are expressed outwardly as aggression. If we tried to switch, let’s say that I did the vocals on The Reaping, for example – you can be sure that I would direct the song much differently.
DM - What is the most gratifying experience about going on tour?
CR – Easily for me the greatest feeling is playing in front of people that have never heard the band before at all. Maybe they came to see their friend’s band, or they just came for “something to do” and have a drink. Those are the ones that you must “win over” by a good solid performance. If you don’t have good songs and a good tone, it’s probably not gonna work. I like seeing new places and meeting great people, so that is very rewarding for me as well.
DM - The track “Plague” has to be my favorite from the album, was this originally written as a ballad?
CR – Stephen wrote that tune on piano and brought it to us on a little cassette recorder. Darcy and I asked if we could arrange it for guitars and we got to work on it immediately. I was pretty floored by the way the song moved through time. It’s a fairly oppressive atmosphere on Plague, so playing “too many notes” would have been a mistake with that one. It really makes a chilling effect live as well, and it’s important to place it in the setlist properly for us, although it changes all the time. Darcy’s lyrics are great and build the song or rather tear it apart.
DM - Are there any upcoming releases in the foreseeable future?
CR – We have three songs that have been recorded already that are slated for splits with some other killer bands. These are the last songs that we made with Stephen on drums and he added some piano and organ work to one that Nick penned for the the band. They will be the first songs for us that were recorded in a studio (Type Foundry in Portland, Oregon with Alex Yusimov at the helm). A shorter version of Death Masque which is planned for a split with Bongripper, a new song Burned with Darcy singing on a split with Mala Suerte, and Nick’s piece The Hunt which has both Darcy and I on vocals. That one will be for a split record with Pallbearer. It is very different to all of our prior material with some instrumentation which may be surprising to some, but we don’t want to settle into a formula. It is definitely an UZALA song, make no mistake. At War With False Noise has had quite a few people make contact to express their disappointment that Cataract didn’t make it on the vinyl version so we decided to make a special release 10? single that will have Death Masque on side b (which does not appear on either the vinyl or the cassette version) I believe it will be a fairly small run for the killer supporters who have preordered the vinyl and a few other maniacs. We will record two longer songs for King of the Monsters as well later this year in the form of a 10? record and this will be Chuck’s debut recording with us. Some amazing artwork will don the coversleeve for this one and we plan on making it a very special release indeed.
DM - What would you like to say to all the Uzala fans out there?
CR – We hope to see you on the road soon! UZALA is making tentative plans for a late May/early June western states tour and we surely could use the support. We will have this amazing looking slab of vinyl with us and we’d love to get one in your hands. Thanks to everybody who has helped us in any way. We have a raft of new songs boiling in the back kitchen and with new blood in the form of drummer/lifer Chuck Watkins we feel revitalized and hungry. THANK YOU
Взято отсюда.
Есть у меня на старой кассете пара-тройка их ранних демо:
, т.е. со временем станет ясно, что кассета звучит как "предыдущая неликвидная версия", а пластинка - как данный VBR-релиз.
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