USURPRESS (Eng.)
– Hello, lots of thanks for answering our interview. How is everything going into the USURPRESS’ camp right now?
Hi Tania, everything is well here. We played gigs in Gothenburg and Stockholm in December and now we’re taken time off for the holidays. We’re working on some new material and also getting some good gigs going. I guess I’ll elaborate on these things further down the road. We have printed some new shirts as well, should be shipped to us next week.
– Though the members involved are not new at all into the Death Metal scene, USURPRESS is a pretty young band, and I guess also unknown for most of our readers so, first off, could you please share some history of the band? How did an act like such get together?
Yeah, we’re still a pretty new band. I (Steffe, vocals) was thinking about starting a new band as my old one (Diskonto) was seriously running out of steam after 18 years. Then I went to see the instrumental progressive band Klotet play on a lawn (!) here in Uppsala on April 30:th 2010 and started to talk to their guitarist Påhl about forming a new band which was supposed to play a mixture of death metal and crust. Since Påhl is a technical and skilled guitarist I wanted a drummer with a primitive punky style to balance everything up. I had known Calle (drums) for 15 years but never really got to know him but I decided to ask him anyway. Then we had a meeting and talked about music in general and what we wanted the band to sound like. We wrote the material to Demo 2010 very quickly and then we asked Lawrence from FKÜ if he wanted to play bass on it and hang around until we found a permanent bass player. Which we did a couple of months later, Danne from Iron Lamb (ex-Dellamorte, Insision, Tyrant, etc.)
– And what’s the story behind the band’s name?
We wanted a name that no other band had used before and we didn’t just want to throw together a couple of cool words with no meaning behind them (like Bestial Conqueror or something like that). I came across the word “usurpress” by chance, it was a discussion between to scholars of the English language where one said that it was indeed a part of the English language since it’s been used in literature while the other argued that it was an unnecessary word and that the word “usurper” should be used on both men and women since there had been so few women throughout history that had been a “usurper”. It made me think about how our view of the world reflects in our language and how we perceive male and female characteristics. I thought it was an interesting word.
– You released your debut album, «Trenches of the Netherworld» some months ago so, now that the year has almost finished; how has this year been for USURPRESS?
Quite good, I’d say; we have released our first album and made our first tour. We’re still a very obscure and unknown band but we’re much more well-known now than we were one year ago, that’s for sure. The fact that SelfMadeGod released our first 12” In Permanent Twilight on CD in April really helped us a lot.
– Prior to this full-length album you released several split albums with bands such as BOMBS OF HADES among others, beside some EPs. In fact you had a lot of activity so, after releasing «Trenches of the Netherworld», do you plan doing any other short-length release?
We have in fact not released any split albums, the two splits we have made (with Bombs of Hades and Pyramido) are both 7”. Apart from that, the only EP we have made is Tales of Possessors which is our only demo pressed on vinyl. The demo was sold out pretty quickly so Doomentia Records wanted to make it available again. We will actually record material for another split-7” quite soon. I think it’s a bit too early to reveal which band we’re going to split with but it’s not a Swedish band this time. The song on our side is a new one called “A Tidal Wave of Fire” and it’s a long song (for us) which consists of three different sections. It’s the most experimental stuff we have made so far.
– Moreover everything seemed to happen really fast; you signed with Selfmadegod and with them you released «In Permanent Twilight» and then «Trenches of the Netherworld», so I guess you may be happy with the work they are doing for USURPRESS…
SelfMadeGod did the CD-version of Trenches (and also In Permanent Twilight as you said), Iconoclast Records did the vinyl version. We have not signed any contracts with either one of these labels but they are doing a great job for us so it’s not at all impossible that we get in touch with them again when we’re ready to do the next album. However, that will probably take at least another year so I have no idea how things will turn out in the future.
– You are playing a nice blend of «old school» Crust and Death Metal with Punk, D-Beat or even 70’s Rock elements I would dare say but, what have been some of the most influential bands for USURPRESS?
I think you’re right there, our influences are death metal and crust punk from the 80-ties and also prog and psychedelia from the 70-ties but we’re not a pointless “retro” band. I think our main influences are Autopsy, Voïvod, Sodom, Celtic Frost, Anti-Cimex, early Paradise Lost, King Crimson, etc.
– There’s no doubt the album provides a certain «vinyl classic feeling», and precisely feeling is something missing in most modern-sounding releases. Was to, somehow, make come back to life this aspect old DM/Crust releases had something you were striving for?
No, not really. We did record the guitar and bass through real amplifiers and not direct into the mixing desk, we used no triggers etc on the drums, we allowed ourselves to play “wrong” on a couple of instances, and so on. We want to sound like a band, not a machine. Having said that, we were not hell bent on sounding “old” or “necro” or whatever people wishes to call it. There is no point in trying to sound like an 80-ties band as the recording equipment is so different now. When I did my first records in the early 90-ties we recorded on tape and mixed totally analogue and it is not something I want to do today. The only thing we did on purpose to make Trenches sound “old” was that we mastered it the way records were mastered in the old days; I think that helped a lot actually.
– In fact the mix between both music styles is superb, and I personally think helps creating a more enjoyable result, the album has a whole feels really honest. That makes me wonder how the songwriting process is for USURPRESS, is it something planned? Because, as I said, is surprising (in a positive way) the good contrast between different elements, but also the whole honest and passionate feeling.
Well, thanks a lot for your kind words! What I think works in our advantage is the fact that we all have a deep understanding and appreciation for both styles (metal and punk) and that way we are able to mix elements in a natural way. We’re not afraid of using a complex dissonant riff right after a simple power chord-riff. We don’t analyze so much, if it’s sound good than it is probably good. We try to write short songs with traditional rock arrangements, our songs are always build around verse and chorus. Påhl comes up with most of the riffs and then we just jam on them, adding things if we feel it’s necessary, taking away things if they are unnecessary and doesn’t fulfill any purpose in the song. If a song takes too long to finish, it was probably not a very good song in the beginning. Good music comes naturally, bad music you have to struggle with to make it sound good. Danne is good with arrangements, dynamics and harmonics so even if he does not write that much, he’s an important part of our song writing.
– As I said, «Trenches of the Netherworld» is a really enjoyable album with different dynamics and touches. Each song is world of its own. Is this sense of versatility something you were looking for?
I think that is something every band should strive for. If I remember correctly, when we had written most of the songs for the album we were sitting down and thinking if there was some sort of songs we were missing. That’s why we wrote “Seduction Through Bloodshed” which is a pure crust song. I think that was the last one we wrote for Trenches. It’s also the only song Calle has written all by himself. Well, except for the lyrics of course, I write all our lyrics.
– You have even included a traditional Swedish instrument, the keyed fiddle on the track «Dethroned by Shadows». Could you please tell us how did the idea arise?
That riff is another one written by Calle actually. Initially it was meant to be played on guitar and it sounded a little bit different back then. I came up with idea of having the riff played on keyed fiddle (“nyckelharpa”) instead since I like the ghostlike sound of the instrument. The other guys probably thought it was stupid but I brought my friend Magnus to our rehearse place and he played his variation of the riff on his keyed fiddle and they thought it might work after all. Magnus plays a variety of strange instruments so he might appear on some other song in the future as well.
– Lawrence Mackrory took engineering duties for the album. Why did you decide to go for him? If I’m not mistaken he was the band’s founding bass player, so I guess he may understand the band pretty well.
That is correct, he played bass on our demo and also our first gig. I think he enjoyed our music and thought we were cool guys but he simply didn’t had time to be in the band. He also hates punk music… But since he’s a good friend of the band and also has a really good studio, Maskinrummet, he has been the obvious choice for us. We will try to record our new split-EP in another studio though, Calle has a small studio in our rehearse place and we recorded demo versions of the Trenches-songs there and it sounded pretty ok to us. It’s going to be interesting to see if we can handle the recording ourselves. Should be fun.
– Besides having a great and fitting production, the cover artwork also fits your style perfectly, and if I’m not mistaken the artist, Rafal Kruszyk, has also worked with bands such as INTERMENT or PAGANIZER among others. Could you tell us how did you work on it? Did you give Rafal free hands?
Yeah, Rafal is great! He did the cover for our split-EP with Bombs of Hades and we liked it so we asked him to do the cover for the album as well. He basically had free hands to do whatever he wanted but we gave him some restrictions such as “no gore, no chainsaws, etc”. He will do the cover for our new split-EP as well, I’ve seen the sketches and it looks fuckin’ promising!
– All this about «Trenches of the Netherworld» being said; how could you describe it in just 3 words?
Dissonant d-beat deathcrust. Or something like that.
– Taking a look at the band’s members, your music style and the fact you guys are hailing from Sweden, I guess most people would be expecting hearing another revival band, with that typical old school Swedish sound. But I think you are doing your own thing. Was this something you had in mind when you started the band?
We had a pretty clear idea of what kind of music we wanted to play and we were not at all interested in sounding like a clone of Grave 20 years too late. Even if I think we would have been more popular if we had gone down the clone road since people like to hear stuff they are used to hear. Some might think we can’t play guitar or drums because we don’t rely on double bass drums, blast beats or guitar solos. That is not the case.
– Anyway nowadays there are alot of Swedish bands doing that «revival thing» so, what are your feelings on this late «hype» for old school Swedish Death Metal? Is it something positive both for the scene and for bands like you, so maybe due to this you get easily more attention from metal fans?
I don’t know to be honest. I prefer the old style of death metal when it was still influenced by hardcore and thrash so I guess it’s good that people pick up that style. Having said that, I don’t shit my pants in awe every time I hear a new Swedish band that sounds like Autopsy like some people seems to do. For us it’s a mixed blessing, some people might like us because we’re a “cool old school Swedeath band” while others might shun us because we “sound exactly like old Dismember/Entombed, but with a drummer who can’t play”. I think both these statements are invalid though, I don’t even know if we are a death metal band. I have said once that we are not self-righteous enough to be punk and not pretentious enough to be metal and I stand by that.
– Talking about such; how do you see as an insider the current extreme Metal scene in Sweden? Even just in Uppsala itself there are a lot of interesting bands.
There are a lot of good bands in Sweden, no question about that. Uppsala also have a lot of quality bands like Watain, Degial, Invidious, Die Hard, In Solitude, FKÜ, Reveal and so on, also some good hardcore bands like Obnoxious Youth, Undergång, etc. The complete discography of the old Gods Damien have been released on two 2-LP’s this year as well. Killer stuff!
– As 2012 is about to end; could you please tell us what are your 3 favourite albums of the year as well as the least favourite one?
This was a hard question, to make it easier on myself and also to connect to the previous question I decided to tell you my 3 favourite Swedish records of 2012 instead. Rust: Damned Hellish Voids, Utanförskapet: Vildhjärta and Pavement Saw: Glabella Astrala. Least favourite? Well, I’m pretty sure that, for example, the new Sabaton sucks putrid shit but I have expected it to so I can’t really be disappointed. The biggest musical disappointment of 2012 is probably that Ättestupa didn’t released anything this year.
– And finally; what are your near-future plans?
Trying to set a date for a rehearsal and hopefully record the stuff for the split-EP soon. Waiting for some gig promoters to confirm our gigs. Right now I’m going for a cup of coffee.
– That’s all, thank you once more for answering our questions. If you want to add some final words; feel free to do it.
Thanks a lot for this very in depth and insightful interview! If anyone wants us anything, please feel free to contact us at: usurpress666@yahoo.com
Also check out: http://usurpress.com/
and/or: http://www.facebook.com/#!/Usurpress
