CRAFT (Eng.)
– Hello, thanks for taking the time. What are CRAFT currently up to?
We’re currently looking around for a drummer who can take care of the drumming on our next album and maybe also live. Beyond that we’re answering interviews and taking care of band related stuff.
– Let’s start with your beginnings; if I’m not wrong you started as NOCTA. what kind of activity did you have during that time?
We rehearsed all the time. We recorded a few things as well but we never got around to releasing anything. I don’t know why the old name has gotten so spread out, we didn’t release anything back then or did anything worth noting.
– And why did you change your name to CRAFT? What does «Craft» mean»?
We wanted knew we wanted to change our band name because it didn’t have a good ring to it. We thought about it and chose Craft because of it being Our craft, if I recall correctly. It twelve years ago now so I don’t remember much about it really.
– For those who don’t know you yet, hope you don’t mind making some history of the band since you got this current name…
We changed the name in 1999, while our old drummer Daniel and I were recording the drums for the demo tape. We released the demo on tape through Carnal Records and also put the tracks on mp3.com if I remember correctly. We got approached by a label with a record deal shortly after we released the demo and we signed with them for “Total Soul Rape”. Recorded and released it in 2000. Shortly after the release of the album I got a call from Kvarforth of Selbstmord Services who wanted to sign us and we signed with Selbstmord and released “Terror Propaganda” in 2002, and later re-released “Total Soul Rape” on his label as well. We weren’t really satisfied with the way some things on Selbstmord were handled so we decided to sign with Carnal Records for “Fuck the Universe” to support him in establishing his label since we got pretty much attention from “Terror Propaganda”. We released “Fuck the Universe” in 2005. We kicked the drummer out of the band after the release of the album because his dedication to the band was lacking, and for a while we thought about putting the band on hold, but got a kick again when we started writing “Void”. This album took a lot of time to complete but it’s finally out and this is where we’re at now.
– You have just released «Void», 6 years after releasing your previous «Fuck the Universe»; what have oyu been up to during that time?
We were seriously thinking of ending the band for a while after we had to kick our drummer who was an original member since 1994, but we got the feel for it again when I wrote some pretty good stuff for “Void” about a year after “Fuck the Universe” was released, so we decided to go ahead with the band without him. We have written songs that would be enough for several albums but we were fed up with the trendiness of black metal and distanced ourselves from it personally. We didn’t really long for coming back but we can’t stay away. But that’s why it took such a long time. We’ve found the spark again for creating black metal.
– And why did it take you so long? As, if I’m not mistaken, you were already working on it back in 2008 and past 2010 was already almost finished…
We probably started writing it in 2006 or so, and we started recording it around 2007/2008, but we started recording it in a pretty dumb way. We started out with recording the guitars and we recorded the guitars twice because we decided the guitar sound wasn’t good enough the first time around. Then we found Dirge Rep to do the drums, and I went to Stavanger to be there for his studio session, but when I got home we started messing with the tracks again to change more things and then the drum session couldn’t be used. And so on. I have a habit of changing things until I am completely satisfied but we had to stop at some point to actually get the recording out, so
instead of recording the drums and guitars again we ran with the demo version of the drums which was a drum machine, and focused on making them sound as real as possible to not disturb the general feeling of the album. Then on with vocals and bass. We really want an organic sound but couldn’t waste another year making it all over again. We have a lot of new tracks which we’d rather work on now.
– So if there’s any other future album, will this period of time be a normal basis?
No. The next album will be out in 2013 at the absolute latest. Unless something really unexpected happens, like someone cuts off his hand in a freak accident or something. We haven’t really figured out the details of the next album yet, like who’s going to release it and all that, but we don’t think we’ll have a problem in that department.
– Now getting a bit into «Void»; why did you pick that name for the album? Does it fit your lyrics?
We have had this album title in our heads for a few years and I can’t really remember how it came to be, but I think it fits the general style of the album lyrics perfectly. The man who greets a big nuclear explosion who’s about to wipe him and everything out of existence is what this album is about. When the end comes we will stand there just like him.
– And now that I have mentioned the lyrical part of the record; what are the main ideas behind it?
Total destruction of the world. Misanthropy.
– Anyway, your lyrics have always showed hatred for this whole planet; do you think this reflects your sound?
Yes. If we’d been people who were satisfied with society and humanity we’d probably not want our music sounding the way it does either, because in my ears this sounds twisted and dark. It certainly wouldn’t fit with “positive” lyrical themes.
– This is your first album with Dirge Rep and Phil Cirone; what have they brought to this effort?
As my answer to a previous question has already revealed, Dirge Rep does not play on the album, but he has still brought some ideas regarding the drums. When we recorded the (unused) drum session he played most of it like I’d originally written, but there were a few places where he showed me things that could be done technically with the drum tracks that I hadn’t figured out, so we ended up changing a few places to reflect his drumming from his studio session, even though the final drums weren’t real drums. Phil Alex Cirone is an awesome instrumentalist and musician in a lot of different areas. We had done bass lines to the songs which we couldn’t have played ourselves and we needed a guy like him because he’s very a very skilled bass player. We’ve known him for many years and he’s easy to work with. Whatever we came up with was a piece of cake for him to play.
– Musically I think this work is quite dynamic and it has elements from different music styles, from Punk to Death Metal, and «I Want to Commit Murder» is a tune that shows this perfectly. Is this just how things flow?
Yeah, we don’t do much of this with a pre-established intent to sound like a certain music genre. I stopped listening to new metal many years ago which is a good thing musically. First of all we keep the older vibe on our stuff which we like, and secondly, whatever twisted stuff we come up with is our own ideas.
– Another track I could stand out off this CD is «Void», quite varied and dark, I think it express really well what is this album about; is this why it’s the title track? What could you comment on this tune?
I think this is the darkest track of them all. Its lyrics are related to the album
cover too. It’s probably my favorite track on the album.
– I think this album shapes the definitive CRAFT’s degree of maturity, specially in the songwriting; what are your thoughts on this?
Let’s not forget we’ve had a lot of time between “Fuck the Universe” and this one, and we’ve grown a lot during the last 7-8 years. And also consider that all the tracks of “Void” are at least a few years old by now. We have tracks for the next album that are two years old now. I think we’re beginning to get song writing. We’re no longer just putting riffs after each other but we’re actually putting a lot of thought into the arrangement as well. In my opinion, we’ve known how to write pretty good riffs for a while, but just recently started understanding arrangement properly. This will become more evident in the future.
– Southern Lord are handling the album’s distribution in the US, something quite funny as you’re not the kind of band Southern Lord tends to release. How did this start?
I don’t know actually. I think they contacted Carnal Records around when “Fuck the Universe” was released. They are into black metal but I guess they aren’t a black metal label as such. I think Craft appealed to them because our music is largely riff-based when a lot of black metal seem to have abandoned riffs and instead does the same old chord progressions that every other black metal band does.
– Sweden seems to be a good house for extreme Metal, into BM we can find great bands as ONDSKAPT or ARCKANUM but, what bands could you suggest? And which ones have influenced your sound?
In my opinion, Ondskapt is Sweden’s best black metal band. They make fantastic music and have an extremely vicious sound. Hmmm… We had a great band once called Funeral Dirge, that created a few awesome tracks and then disappeared off the face of the planet. As far as musical influences goes, I think the only Swedish band which have directly influenced us would be Bathory. I got most my influences from bands of other countries.
– And finally, what are your near-future plans?
Answer interviews, finding a session drummer for next album and/or a drummer for playing live. Start working on the new album. Re-release “Fuck the Universe” as I recently found out it’s been sold out for ages.
– That has been all, thanks once again. Now feel free to add some final words.
Check out Omnizide, it’s Nox’s new band which does death metal/thrash/black metal. And I’ll have to plug mine and John’s new metal project, it’s gonna be Celtic Frost and Bathory worship deluxe. It’s called The Eternal Void.
