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Havaard: - First I must start off to
make congratulations with having made so far one of the most memorable
Doom albums so far this year. Is the band pleased with the result of the
new album?
OT: - Thanks for the compliment. Yes we are
very satisfied with the outcome of the new album. That’s of course
something a band usually says after a new release. We said the same with
our previous album, but after a couple of months we knew that album just
didn’t get the production it needed. So for this new album we recorded
and produced it all by ourselves and we can only say we’re proud of the
result.
- I have not really before been a huge fan of Officium Triste, as I
found your previous albums okey but maybe lacking the little extra. What
have you done differently this time around, do you feel to have expanded
the bands horizon or approached the music in any other way than before ?
Basically there really hasn’t changed that
much concerning the composing of the music. I feel we still play the same
style of doom/death as when we started. Of course over the years you learn
a lot especially in the arranging the songs. So we’ve grown on that
department. And you always pick up new influences that sneak their way
into your songs. Furthermore I think we had an advantage of owning our own
studio now. In the past we had to record and mix our albums in just a
week. This time we could spread the recordings over a longer period and
that helped a lot.
- I noticed that it took the band 4 months to
get the album completed in the studio with recording and mixing... That is
a really long time! How come it took so long ? Was it all worth it ?
Like I said in the previous answer we own our
own studio now and basically it looks like we took 4 months to record it
but in “real time” it’s much shorter. We did a lot of work in the
evenings and weekends, you know just bits and pieces of the recording
process over a longer period of time. I guess all in all the recordings
took about 2 to 3 weeks based on an 8 hour working day. We just did it in
an easy relaxing way although in the end we had to hurry a bit because
Displeased Records had set a deadline for us to come up with the final
product.
- I suppose alot of people instantly will make
comparisons in your sound with My Dying Bride and Anathema's older works.
Do you feel a bit bummed out to always be compared to such bands ? Do you
feel to take inspiration from these bands, and in any case, what bands
would you say inspires the music of Officium Triste ?
We really don’t care that people compare us with
these bands. Those bands you just mentioned together with old Paradise
Lost, Celestial Season and Katatonia were the ones that inspired us to
start playing this kind of music to begin with. Besides that a lot of
people already know MDB so if we get compared in a positive way all these
people might want to check us out you know. But I have to say we do think
that we are no rip off, just inspired by them, we’ve managed to create
our own sound in my humble opinion.
- What lies behind the title of the
album, "Reason", and also the very doomy coverwork ?
The title is kind of the red thread that runs
through the lyrics of this album. The songs are mainly about the question
“Why?” Why do some things happen to persons, what’s the reason for
these things to happen to that person and so on. That’s the basic idea
why we called the album Reason. As far as the artwork is concerned we
tried to have something dark and mysterious that goes hand in hand with
the album title and the lyrical content, so this picture fitted the
concept really well.
- Where do you expect the new album to take
the band ? Do you think this one will strengthen the Officium Triste name
?
Hopefully we will get some more recognition,
both in Holland and abroad. In the music bizz the third album very often
is the make or break album for artists so we do hope we can move to the
next level with this album. You really have to rely on what the magazines
write and what the fans think of your material, all we can do is promote
our stuff as much as possible and work our butts off to get some more
recognition.
- In the Officium Triste history there has
also been a few vinyl EPs and "Reason" also seems to be issued
on vinyl in a limited press, is this something you consider important for
the band ?
As far as I know Reason won’t be out on
vinyl. Our debut “Ne Vivam” was recently re-released on vinyl through
a small label called Badger Records. (hh: det stemmer ja, mine filer var
litt korrupte - som hodet en gang i blant...) Besides that LP we did 2
7” EP’s in the past. I guess it’s mainly my “fault” because
I’m totally addicted to vinyl and within the metalscene you still see
there is a small but dedicated audience for vinyl releases so if an album
or EP can be released on vinyl we’re totally into that, even when it’s
a limited amount.
- It always seem to take a lot of time in
between the albums of the band, is the band rehearsing regularly and do
things in a organized way when it comes to progressing, or is the writing
process of the band really on a individual and inspirational basis ?
Well, we used to rehearse every week but some
things have changed the last couple of years. Guitarist Gerard moved to
another part of Holland and Martin our drummer even moved to Germany, so
at times it’s quite hard to get it all together logistically. But
usually we rehearse every 2 weeks. When we need to write new songs and
rehearse them we do that quite intensively but when we released our last
album we had quite some gigs so in that case the rehearsing was mainly for
those gigs. You know getting our shit together and playing the songs as
tight as possible. When it comes to the actual writing I guess we are a
bit of a slow band. It really depends how we compose the music. For
instance the new album was mainly composed by Martin and we just adjusted
some other parts to it and arranged it all as a band. But we have written
songs in a different way in the past as well. There’s not really a
blue-print to the way we write songs. Basically we do rely on our personal
inspiration whether we come up with decent songs, we cannot write on
command so to speak.
- What occupies the bandmembers time when they are not in Officium
Triste ?
We all have a daytime job, so that takes most
of the time of our lives. Gerard and Martin both have little kids so that
takes a lot of their time as well. In our free time most of us like to go
to the pub or visit shows of other bands and drink beer and all that.
Quite a regular way of life I suppose.
- The Dutch metal scene seems to go always a
bit up and down, but Doom Metal is something that seems to catch people
really well there. Why do you think so ? Are there now upcoming good bands
that people should take notice of from Holland ?
In general I would say that the Dutch scene
always has been quite strong no matter what style of metal. There are
loads of bands and you can visit dozens of gigs every weekend. Concerning
doom metal I’d say it isn’t that popular at all yet. There aren’t
many bands but lately a lot of new ones are popping up. Most of them need
to grow some more I think but it’s moving into the right direction. I do
think that this genre is on the rise and not only in Holland. As for the
reason why doom is getting more popular; I have given it some thought but
haven’t come up with the answer yet. I guess music moves in mysterious
ways. At this moment I’d say you have to look out for Bunkur from
Holland when talking about doom, in other genres there are lots of
promising bands in Holland. Bunkur is an Ultra-doom band as they like to
call it. Slow Winter-like stuff and they write extremely long songs.
- I heard at one point that there are some
harsh feelings between musicians and people from Rotterdam (where you come
from) and Amsterdam. Is this true ?
Nah, it’s not really true. There are not
really any hard feelings at least not between musicians or normal people I
guess. The main reason where this comes from is because of football. The
supporters of Feyenoord Rotterdam and that one club from Amsterdam, which
name I cannot get out of my mouth haha, (hh: hørte jeg Ajax ????) do not
like each other that much. There’s quite a history in fights between the
two supporters groups. This grudge has something to do with the fact that
Amsterdam is the capital and the people from Amsterdam come across as
arrogant, know it all people. In Rotterdam the people have an attitude of
working hard and not talking about things that much. It’s a bit like
“No words but deeds”. I think it has been like this for ages and its
not really a big deal I guess. People from both towns like to make fun of
eachother.
- Are you now happy that you are on a Dutch
label as well ? Does it make it easier for the band to be on Displeased
Records ?
We haven’t had any experience with foreign
labels so far so it’s a bit hard to compare but of course it’s easier
to get in touch with your label when you need something when they are
located in the same country. We haven’t got any complaints about
Displeased, it seems like they do as much as they can.
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For Doom Metal in general it seems to get quite
much attention again this last year and I must say that it also looks very
prosperous for the near future within the genre. Do you notice this from
being in a band that there is in general more interest for the genre ?
Have just checked out some of the newer names within Doom recently ?
Yeah, it seems the genre is gaining some more
popularity the last couple of years and it looks like it’s getting even
better. I do have my doubts if doom will ever become as popular as death
metal was in the early 90’s or black metal after that. Anyway, that’s
fine by me as long as there will be quality doom there will be fans as
well and it doesn’t matter if it’s a 1000 people or 100.000. But like
you said there is more interest in the genre and that’s okay of course.
I keep focusing on the scene all the time because I really like this music
and I try to keep up with the new releases. I really like the Swallow the
Sun album and Mar de Grises is okay. Also bands like Orodruin and reverend
bizarre are pretty cool although that’s a different style of doom. As
for an upcoming band I have to say that people should check out Doomshine
from Germany. Their debut album is very great, a bit along the lines of
Solitude Aeturnus. Man, thinking about it there is so much going on right
now and a lot of really talented bands getting out there with killer
albums.
- What music is currently rolling out from
your speakers of the stereo ? Are you a real Doom freak or is there other
styles that stands close to your heart ?
I would classify myself as a metalhead. I listen to
all genres. One of my all time faves is Thin Lizzy but I also like a lot
of death and thrash and even some black metal as well. I just love metal
in every form. So I wouldn’t consider myself as a doom freak
exclusively. Like said I’m a metalhead. Currently I’m spinning the new
WASP album quite a lot. Of Empires Forlorn from While Heaven Wept is quite
often in my stereo as well. I try to listen to as much music as I can.
- And what's your top 3 all time favourite
albums ?
Now this is a question I really hate. Even if you
ask me my top 50 I would have to think for ages I guess. I mean just think
about early 90’s death metal and I can come up with 20 albums that are
essential recordings to me and the same goes for doom metal or thrash for
that matter as well. But let me give it a try to name 3 albums that are
not necessarily my all time faves but are essential. 1. Kiss-Destroyer
(because this was the first album I ever heard by a band into hardrock/
metal) 2. Thin Lizzy-Armed and dangerous (A classic live album by a band
that in my opinion was responsible for incorporating the beauty of melody
into heavy music) 3. Katatonia-Dance of December Souls (for being one of
the albums that inspired us to play this type of music because of the
atmosphere and feeling in their songs that really got to me)
- So where does now the path go for Officium
Triste ? What will be the next step in the bands history?
Right now we’re rehearsing the new material
because we have some gigs coming up amongst them our CD presentation
overhere in Rotterdam and a small German tour coming up in September in
Germany. We try to play as much as possible the coming months to promote
this album. In the meantime we try to work on new stuff as well although
that will be hard but we’ve said to ourselves that we don’t want to
wait that long to record a follow up to Reason. We already have some ideas
for songs but none ready yet. That’s basically what the near future
holds for us.
- Allright, thank you very much for taking the
time to answer my question and good luck with the new album! It really
deserves all the attention it can have! If you have something else on your
mind, feel free to inform the readers here.
Well Haavard thanks to you for your interest in
Officium Triste. We appreciate it a lot because we can use all attention.
Hopefully our album will be a success. Of course everyone interested in us
can check out our website. We’ve got some mp3’s available of our old
recordings and so on. A lot of new merchandise and so on. Talk to us on
our forum and tell us what you think. And we hope to meet everyone out
there on the road.
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29/06/2004
OFFICIUM TRISTE:
Interview with Pim
Niederrohrdorf
- Switzerland