Ancient VVisdom – Down On the Chain Gang
By: David E. Gehlke
Blistering.com: Then they’re mad because how dare you interrupt them using their phone while they’re at your show.
Opposition: People watch the show through their phones.
Blistering.com: Oh yeah, I see people spending more time on their phones than watching the show.
Opposition: It’s pretty crazy how big people’s cell phones mean to them. It’s a much more personal experience without it than we’re your drifting off in phone-land. I didn’t have a cell phone until about two weeks ago. I had all of these gigs coming up, so I figured I’d get one.
Blistering.com: As for the new album, one of the best parts of it is the tonality of your vocals that lend to these great melodic sections, like on “The Opposition.” What does it usually take to bring out this side in you?
Opposition: It starts with one thought, actually. It’s really natural for me, I just come up with one line and build from it. I can put a huge melody to it and it starts from there. I think for songwriting, you have to let the song write itself for you to a certain degree. If you try to control it, you have to let it go. That’s one of the things we do – when we record, we try out different sounds and just let it happen.
Blistering.com: If you listen really closely to the album, there’s such a natural feel to it, like you’re actually there in the room.
Opposition: The way we recorded it was weird. We recorded with in an analog way, but with digital equipment. I’m thinking we’re going to do an analog recording for the next one we do. We put drums last, just to mess as much as we can with the drum sound. There was some bamboo lying around the studio and some stuff in the parking lot, so we got that primal thing going on [laughs].
Blistering.com: So are you always pumping out material?
Opposition: Well, I’ve had a lot of songs written that I’ve had to backtrack through my mind to get [laughs]. I got a title, then lyrics…it’s all in my head. I don’t write too much down, but in the studio, I have to figure out what I need to say. I like to write all the time, I just keep playing and it’s often when I’m inspired. If I’m walking down the road, I’ll let my mind come up with something, or I’ll see something that inspires me. You can’t write something without being inspired. You can’t force your will upon that.
Blistering.com: It sounds like at this point, you can go in any direction you want. That must be a nice option to have.
Opposition: Everything is open to our interpretation; whatever we want to do. Whatever is around us, we run with it. We see where can take it.
Blistering.com: To some degree, you fall in with the current wave of occult rock bands like Ghost and The Devil’s Blood. Are you comfortable with this?
Opposition: Yeah, those are great bands. I like the content, it seems be recurring in this style. It went away a couple of years ago, but there’s always been occult bands like Christian Death, Bauhaus, so for me, there’s some good bands that are underground, whether they’re industrial or just occult-oriented. Seeing it take flight is pretty cool. I think the fact they preach being an individual no matter what you do is cool. The trend is always for people to be a follower, but I’d rather not follow anyone. It’s just the way people give to labels to everything, but I enjoy those bands. I think there’s a lot of good music being discovered because of that, and content-wise. It sure beats music that has no substance.
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