RWAKE (Eng.)
– Hello, thanks for your time. What are you currently up to?
my daughter b-day is coming up on the 14, and getting ready for tour with my film. slow southern steel with bands Zoroaster and Hail!hornet.
– How did you come up with the band’s name? What does it represent?
in the beginning the bands name was WAKE, so it had awesome meaning behind it. like the wake from water, or another wave of power. also when we came up with the name an irish friend of ours had just been to his uncles wake, and that kinda set in as well. the «R» came to years into the band. we added the «R» as a dedication of «first man» or the beast within us all. like a werewolf or a caveman trying to pronounce the name wake.
– And what are the band’s main musical influences?
all kinds of stuff really since there are 6 members in the band,but i would say we are really influenced by instrumental stuff, lots of clean channel guitar stuff, atmospheric. like the score of a movie. the guitar is mostly our focus when it comes to songs.
– You have recently released «Rest». Why such title? Does it represent how have been these last years for you guys?
im not sure, our drummer came up with it, but i know it feels right. we usually have long titles and we felt something simple was in order for this record. its his concept.
– Have been 4 years since your previous «Voices of Omens». What have you been up to in the meanwhile?
having more kids, touring, writing songs, i made a movie, we are all in other bands as well. we are usually very busy even when we are laying low.
– And how was the songwriting for this album? Have you been writing stuff for it during these 4 years?
we started working on it by middle of 2009. we had it written by april 2010 when we went into the studio, but it took us a year to get back into the studio in feb 2011. the actually writting process was very fun. the songs were much longer than they are on the record. it seemed very epic as we put the songs together. this was probably my favorite album to create songs for.
– What are the main lyrical ideas behind «Rest»?
same ol stuff. lots of personal stuff twisted in words so no one can understand it. and more dreams.
– And whas does the artwork represent?
not sure, that again is all Jeff the drummer, and main song writer. it looks cool tho
– How could you describe this new album in just a few words?
not waking up from a nightmare
– And how has been its feedback so far?
the feedback has been better than any we’ve had. we thought folks wouldnt like it as much as voices because the songs are long and only 4, but everyone seems to like it.
– I found this album specially varied, with many different dynamics and complex compositions. Was this something you aimed for or just a result of how things came?
we aimed for having more clean channel such as in The Culling. i would say the first two songs just came out naturally with no effort, but The Culling, and Was Only A Dream we focused on making them perfect not so much like songs but more like its own piece of art. like they could be released alone not being surrounded by other songs.
– I’d dare say this effort defers a bit from your previous record in sound terms. Could you say this is just a natural evolution for RWAKE?
well the first time Relapse put out a lot of $ for us to do the drums at electrical audio. this time they did not. that is one difference. the other is i did not double any of my vocals for the first time in rwake. that was a conscience decision on my part. i been wanting to stop that for a while, especially since me and B have gotten so tight together.
– «Rest» was enginered by well-known Sanford Parker. Are you satisfied with the result?
i like it, except for the drums not being done at electrical audio, but what can you do. we are not one of those bands that makes money for relapse. we the artist band that costs a label money… i think
– You’ve been around with RWAKE for many years now. What have been the best and worst moments so far?
honestly that is really tuff, we ave had so many worst moments, but they werent that bad. we are still here. same goes for the best. it was real cool when Alabamba Thunderpussy asked us to go on tour with them for 45 days in summer of 2004. wow so many fights we have had. i love it all!
– And finally, what are your near-future plans?
playing SXSW, going on tour w/Pallbearer in may around the deathfest and Chaos in Tejas. also hopefully playing Hellfest in June. plus writing more songs!!!
– That’s all, thanks again for your time. If you now want to add some final thoughts, take the last lines.
i just want to give a shout out to our new bass player John. this dude is so down to earth. when we want to kill each other he makes us all laugh and he’s a righteous dude. plus he destroys the bass!!! i cant wait to write songs with him! Thank you John for being such a righteous guy.
