DEW-SENTENCED (Eng.)
– Hello, thank you so much for answering our interview. How is everything doing right now with DEW-SCENTED?
D-S: Hello there…very welcome! It’s all good here right now…actually pretty much the calm before the storm. It’s another 2-3 weeks until “Icarus” comes out, so it’s a busy time and I am currently doing a bunch of interviews for the album. Also, we are about to start playing shows again, so that’s something I really look forward to!
– First of all, how did you come up with the band’s name? What meaning does it hold?
D-S: Uuurgh, this is a really ancient question and one I don’t love to answer anymore, after such a long time, to be honest! I guess we wanted to have something enigmatic and different from the rest of the bands. We felt the name was original and would set us apart. Maybe it’s not the most suitable one for an extreme act like we are, but we didn’t realize we might confuse people with it after many years later. I guess we just take it as a fact by now, haha.
– You have a new album coming out soon, “Icarus”, what are your expectations with it?
D-S: Well, in many ways it feels like another new chapter for the band’s history. A lot of things happened in the last 1-2 years and I am glad we managed to persevere and to march forwards, despite all the obstacles. “Icarus” to me came out sounding fresh and varied, which is something that allows us to see it as the next logical step forwards for the band. We managed to stay true to the trademark DEW-SCENTED sound but at the same time add some new elements and present an up-to-date vibe. We are a classical Thrash Metal band when it comes to the structures and attitude of the music, but don’t feel like doing a retro or nostalgia effort, so we keep trying to push the boundaries…
– This is not a conceptual album, but rather a thematical effort about Icarus. Why and how did you choose this concept?
D-S: When we were brainstorming for a possible title and visual concept for the record, this idea with “Icarus” came up as one of a handful promising options and after some consideration we ran with it. It allowed us to give the songs some interaction as far as the overall atmosphere of some of the lyrics, but also, we managed to get inspired for a really striking artwork feature. We sort of tried to do a crossover between the spirit of the ancient Greek saga and then the typical band’s modern-age apocalyptic and very negative real-life matters. It made an interesting combination and helped me push forwards when writing the lyrics…but yeah, all in all, it is NOT a concept album, so it shouldn’t be overrated either. All music was finalized without a relation to the title. Only the album’s opening track / intro “Hubris” was sort of themed into this direction to mark a suitable opening for the album!
– And does it have a link to the cover artwork? What does it represent?
D-S: Yes, it does…very obviously. I guess we wanted some graphic elements of the saga mixed with some elements that link it with DEW-SCENTED and our previous releases as well. Three is some symbolism there and I feel it came out looking awesome. It does present a great visual introduction for this album and hopefully will wet people’s appetite to find out more about “Icarus” and the band’s music it contains…
– “Icarus” is, as always, a really heavy album, but I’d say is heavier than usual. Was this how you envisioned this new opus since the beginning?
D-S: Oh really? Heavier than usual?!I actually have heard different opinions about this topic but I will agree when saying that it definitely is a very heavy record and it comes with an extremely dark vibe overall, which I am sure adds to this heaviness!? Yeah, we definitely wanted to create an extreme album that goes towards the limits of what’s playable and still catchy within our style. We always try to challenge ourselves when writing and not settle for comfortable arrangements or “the easiest way” when writing. “Icarus” wasn’t a very tactical record to compose and due to the line-up changes before we went into the studio, there was a good amount of spontaneous creativity involved, which I feel helped add a fresh edge to things. We simply tried to write the best possible DEW-SCENTED effort we could around this time and out guitarist Marvin did an awesome job with taking all the material to a level where I feel it represents the band 100% and makes me look forwards to things pretty positively…
– Talking about such, how important is the overall atmosphere for this new record?
D-S: Oh very important! We always aim to write a compact and deep album! “Icarus” to me sounds full of interesting details and quite a wide variety of elements…but at the same time it is catchy and reliable in style. I think that shows the easiness we felt when writing the songs and even though we had the impression that the material was a bit “dark” overall, this is an album that contains a lot of melody and also some small surprises along the way. To me it sounds like a really entertaining effort and I was personally challenged to be part of it. I hope people will give it a good chance and manage to agree after a while of checking it out!?
– In fact we can notice this atmosphere thanks to a really clear production. Jörg Uken took such duties; are you satisfied with the work done by him?
D-S: Yes, very much so! We returned to Soundlodge for the album recordings because we liked the results we achieved on the 2 previous albums, but this time around Jörg really managed to grow things on all fronts. I mean, the vibe during the studio session was very focused and creative, so it was amazing to see it help add power and intensity to the final production. Jörg seemed to like the new guys in the band and their performances a lot…and I think this helped pushed everyone to the next level. I can definitely say for myself that I was motivated and challenged at the same time by the materials and the other guys’ flawless delivery. I think “Icarus” is one of the best sounding releases I have heard of Jörg and obviously I feel the mix of modern approach, yet an organic edge to things fits to DEW-SCENTED in a pretty excellent way! I am really happy with how “Icarus” came out all in all…
– You’ve got a brand new line-up for this recording. What was the main reason behind this? What do the new members provide to DEW-SCENTED other artists can’t?
D-SW: Well, to cut a long and somewhat tough story short….the previous “Invocation” line-up simply fell apart piece by piece after some final touring in early 2011. When we finally started writing and working for “Icarus” we realized that the other people involved weren’t available to commit fully help move forwards with the band, so a change was necessary. I think all the guys involved with “Icarus” did a great performance and definitely added freshness and focus to this new album! I am very happy with the band’s current situation and look forwards to the next steps we are to make together…
– And with such changes; how has this affected the new album? Has the songwriting process changed?
D-S: Well, yeah, actually the most straining part about these changes was that it happened while we were working on “Icarus”. That was unnecessary drama and something I wasn’t too happy with, but in a way it fuelled my fire also. I think things like these line-up changes happen for a reason and also hopefully for the better in the end of a day. I felt relieved to have found the new guys who are now to be heard on “Icarus”. Marvin wrote all of the music on “Icarus” and we kept bouncing ideas for riffs and songs back and forth to make sure the arrangements and final set up of the songs was as good as we can make it. It was a very productive and quite smooth process sin the end of the day, as we didn’t have much to discuss once things started running. Marvin and me are longtime friends and have a similar musical background and preference. I think he knows exactly what DEW-SCENTED is best all about and therefor I was more than happy to finally put the band in his hands. I was blown away by his inspired and skilled musical suggestions for “Icarus” and think he did an awesome job with the writing of this album!
– You have also had some guest appearances by Rob Urbinati, Dennis Schneider and Dan Swanö. Would you mind to tell us how did everything arise and what have they brought with their cooperation?
D-S: Well, it was actually just a last-minute idea to invite some artists that mean something to DEW-SCENTED to be part of “Icarus”. Things progressed pretty quickly in the studio while recording so we simply reached out and were glad to see these 3 guest appearances work out. Rob and Dan are some of my favourite extreme metal singers of all time and I think their appearances add a nice icing on the cake in terms of vocals. Dennis is a great shredder that had previously rehearsed with DEW-SCENTED and I am happy to see him be part of the album at last with 2 kick-ass lead guitar parts.
– This being said; how could you describe “Icarus” in 3 words?
D-S: “dew”, “scented”, “now”!
– This has been your first release with Metal Blade, one of the biggest and most important labels in Metal. How is everything going with them so far?
D-S: No, this is not correct. “Icarus” is the second album we are doing with Metal Blade. “Invocation” was already released by them in Europe. We have other labels for other parts of the world also. We feel Metal Blade is a suitable home for us and they are doing a good job for us on all levels. We are realistic and faitrly easy to please as band, since we have been around for a while and know what to expect. Asfter so many albums that we already pout out, I am happy to see people give the album some attention and a quality ear. I hope that whoever kliked oiur previous efforts will agree that “Icarus” is a logical next step forwards for us…
– Moving to another topic, I’ve always been curious about your album titles, as they always start with “I”. Does this have any hidden meaning?
D-S: Yeah, I guess that’s our trademark and we will keep pushing it until we
manage to write a real “classic album” that represents the letter well, haha. Seriously, it was an idea that was meant to give some unity to the first 2 albums we released and after a while of sticking around we noticed that we keep releasing more and more albums, so the air is getting thinner with album titles in this style. Oh well, let’s just wait and see what happens next time around…
– Finally, what are your near-future plans?
D-S: Playing like and be able to showcase the music on “Icarus” to a possibly large audience, as I definitely feel this album deserves to be heard! We have some first festivals and touring with Six Feet Under happening early August, so that should be a cool introduction to the band’s new set-up….
– So that has been everything from our side, thank you once more for taking your time. If you now want to add some final words; feel free to do it.
D-S: Well yeah, thanks a lot for your time and for the support! Ojala vamos a poder a volver a Espana y tocar algunos conciertos por alla!? Thanks to everyone who has helped DEW-SCENTED become what we are and hopefully “Icarus” will be a tribute the long years of work as well. Check out www.dew-scented.net and/or www.facebook.com/dewscented for news and tourdates. Take care and keep it heavy…Thrash till Death, tíos!
