Interview with Will McEvilly of Castevet

Alright so Castevet started when exactly, and how did you all meet each other? And what bands or projects had each of you done prior to this masterpiece?

Castevet started about three years ago with me and Nick writing out like a seven minute long version of "Beating Highschoolers...", and Ron joined like two days after to play bass after we played the song for him.

We all knew each other through playing and seeing shows together in Chicago and the midwest. Nick and I met at a Lawrence Arms show at the Fireside Bowl in Chicago in high school and kept running into each other all throughout college. We always talked about playing together but it didn't really happen until we both graduated from school and were living closer together.

Nick, Josh and Ron had both played in a bunch of bands but Castevet is the serious band I've ever been a part of. Nick played bass in a hardcore band called Big Ten Football and then drummed for Oceans, which were a really good post-rock band. Ron had played in a tech metal band called In The Wake Of, and is also currently playing in a doom band called Bongripper, who are also probably the loudest band in existence. Josh is a super busy dude, too. He's playing bass in Dastard, who do really catchy pop punk, and he also drums for a powerviolence band called Sea of Shit. He's always practicing his blast beats in between Castevet songs.

And how does Castevet fit into this picture? Is it the main band for all you guys?

Speaking for myself, Castevet is the only band I'm involved in so it's all I focus on. Nick is pretty much in the same boat since Oceans broke up a little while ago. But he did just start playing drums in a band called Stay Ahead of the Weather. Our friend Evan who plays as Into It. Over It. plays guitar and sings, they just played their first show two weeks ago and they were awesome. And because we're not a full-time touring band Josh and Ron have time to devote to their other bands without too many schedule clashes or any one band taking over as a priority.

Where was the first Castevet show played if you recall and how was the experience? Who was it with? Any covers played at that first show?

We played our first show in Urbana, Il on March 1st, 2008. We played with Mans, who were playing their first show after becoming a three piece, and with Oceans, who were playing their two-year anniversary show. It was a great show, too, Nick had gone to school in Urbana so a ton of friends in the area came out, and a few good friends drove out a few hours from Chicago to see us play. It was my first time playing live in a band too, so I was really stoked when someone I didn't know would approach me and tell me they liked the set. That's still the best feeling. No covers at that show, but we have been working on covering Cringe by Alkaline Trio a little bit between older songs at practice.

Did you have a demo for that show? When was the first time you guys recorded?

We played our first few shows with no recorded material, it wasn't until we had finished writing the 8 songs for Summer Fences that we went to record with our friend Dennis at Comatose Studios. Dennis plays guitar in Bongripper, too, and he recorded our new record a few months ago in his new studio.

We had a three-song demo which had unmastered versions of "between berwyn..," "plays one on tv," and "i know what a lion is".

Was this the same version of the demo that was made downladable on your myspace in November 2008?

Yep, we also gave it out at shows and I snail mailed a bunch of copies to people who were nice enough to give us a chance and listen to some tracks on our myspace site. Punknews ended up reviewing our demo, which was really awesome because a bunch of people were able to find out about us who otherwise might not have been looking out for noodly Chicago punk bands.

How did you hook up with Count Your Lucky Stars Records to release your full length "Summer Fences"?

Nick had gone to an Empire! Empire! show in Chicago and met Keith, who plays guitar and sings and also runs cyls. They talked about music, and Keith is a huge mineral fan, so nick gave him a copy of our demo to check out. The next day Keith sent us a message telling us he was really stoked about the songs and wanted to put out a cd for us. He released a cd for our friends in The Reptilian, who had a lot of really good things to say about Keith and cyls, so we were all for it.

Empire! Empire! played a release show we put together for Summer Fences last year in Chicago, too, it was a really fun show.

I think its a brilliant record, and I seriously played it to death last summer. It was really comforting in bad moods and motivating in happy moments. How do you guys work on lyrics? Does someone principally work on them?

Nick writes most of the lyrics. I've written a few song lyrics for Summer Fences and The Echo & the Light, and Ron wrote the lyrics to a song for the new record, too. We'll usually hammer out the instrumentals for a songs for a long time, and once we're happy with how everything sounds Nick will write the vocal melodies and Ron will help out with the back up vocals. Ron also does a big chunk of the vocals for one of our new songs and absolutely kills it, his voice was pretty wrecked afterwards though.

Who came up with the idea of the artwork for Summer Fences?

The artwork was done by our friend Ben Sears, who also plays drums in Mountain Asleep. We tossed in a few ideas here and there but it was primarily Ben who brought everything together. Aa friend of ours told us that she met a dude from the UK who had the grumpy deer from Summer Fences tattooed on his arm, too! I wish that dude would message us, I'd be stoked to see that.

So you guys did a short tour after that. how did you find the reception of people who had never heard your stuff on record and heard it live for the first time then? was their special merch made for this tour? By then you guys were already playing Midwest Values at some shows. Was this the first song composed for the new record?

“Narrow Hallways” was the first song we had written for the new record, we were actually playing it live around the time we recorded summer fences. We toured at the end of the year with Grownups, that was our first time playing out for more than a weekend.

The original, 6 song version, of “The Echo and the Light” was supposed to come out on Big Scary Monsters Records, but after much delays it was totally dropped... What can you tell us about this?

The 6-song version was supposed to come sometime in February of this year [2010] on Big Scary Monsters. We definitely hit some speed bumps trying to get the record out, it was going to be the first US release for the label and there were a few hiccups getting everything up and running. I think throughout that process we figured out that the label wasn't the best fit for us and we split amicably.

You then went on tour with cdrs and tape versions of the 6 song version. How was that? Approximately how many tapes and cds were made for the tour?

I think we made 60 CDrs and around 50 tapes. We sold most of them on tour and at a few shows in Chicago afterwards. Our friend Harrison, who runs Kid Sister Records in Chicago, helped make CDrs for tour, and our friend Kris, who runs Ice Age Records, made tape versions. The reception on tour was always really positive, Baltimore was especially amazing, a ton of people came for the show and went totally nuts and had a blast. During our set, I ended up getting lifted through the ceiling while I was playing guitar.

We were mostly playing newer songs on tour, which are a lot shorter and have a lot more energy live, so it was really cool to get positive feedback after a set because the songs were still pretty new at the time.

You then re-recorded the six songs plus two new ones...

Not releasing the record on BSM did work out really well for us in that we were able to re-record the 6 songs along with two new ones. We weren't entirely happy with how the mix turned out the first time around, and there were plenty of parts that I could have played better or changed altogether. We're all pretty big perfectionists though, so it was really cool getting a second chance to record the songs exactly as we wanted them to sound, or at least closer to how we wanted them to sound. Dennis did a really good job with the new recordings, the guitars and bass tones ring out so much cleaner and are just massive sounding.

Well, for a first, i noticed that the intro for “Narrow Hallways” wasn't on the re-recorded version. What was the reason for the change in that?

“Narrow Hallways” was the first track on the 6-song ep, so we recorded a short ambient segue before the drums started to start off the record. We're placing one of the two new songs at the start of the new record and took a similar approach, so I guess it's sort of the same concept but with a song that kicks off the record a little better.

We recorded some short ambient portions for both recordings as a way of tying the songs together and creating some cohesion, I'm really hoping that it's something we keep focusing on with newer songs.

How did you end up working with Tiny Engines and StiffSlack this time around? Was CYLS not available or did you want to expand to new grounds?

We ended up with Tiny Engines through Chuck, who co-runs the label and also works with Beartrap Pr, who helps promote bands on cyls and a bunch of other labels. Chuck liked the 6-song version of the record, and Tiny Engines put out records we really liked for Look Mexico and Tigers Jaw, so it seemed like a good fit. Tiny Engines also does a great job with the presentation for their records, that was a big thing that stood out for us, they work with a smaller crop of bands and put a ton of work into their releases. The new record is being pressed right now and we've worked really closely with the label every step of the way which is important to us, too.

BSM helped put us in touch with Stiffslack Records. After we left BSM, we told Tak, who runs Stiffslack, that we wouldn't be releasing the 6 song version of the record and were planning to re-record. He was still really excited about the songs and was willing to put the new recordings which is really really awesome.

Any plans to tour UK or Japan with those labels supporting you now?

We all have really busy work and school schedules so touring for an extended period, especially out of the states, is really tough for us right now. I'd absolutely love to, though, we've talked a few times about touring in Japan or the UK sometime in the next year or so when we all have a little more time to devote to touring. I studied Japanese in college too, so it'd be nice to finally apply it.

How would you compare the new record to the old one? What influences have seeped in for you guys and how is the future of Castevet's song writing looking like?

I think the biggest difference is the length of the newer songs. When we wrote Summer Fences our quality control filter was a lot less strict, we tried to take every idea we had and find a place for them in the songs. This time around I feel like we took the parts or directions that worked best on our last record and streamlined them.

Nick's vocals also play a bigger part and are much more prominent and really drive the songs now. We also embraced distortion a lot more on the newer record, which fit well with the more high energy songs and really bumps up the dynamics. We've also gotten much better at writing as a band, working out parts together when we practice as opposed to throwing everything we've worked on independently into a single song and trying to make it fit.

You're now working on a split with Into It. Over It, which themselves also just finished a split with Pswingset. What is the vision for this split? Can we expect a 7" or 12" length split? Any label you're planning on working with for this?

Topshelf Records will be putting out the split with Into It. Over it. They just put out a record from Pianos Become the Teeth and recently released a full length for My Heart to Joy. We tried to reconcile our atmospheric side with our collective love of pop punk. The first track is very much something that would fit on our first record and the second song has a really upbeat Saves the Day and Mock Orange kind of vibe to it. It'll be a 7" split, so we tried to do all of that in under five minutes.

How bout shirts, stickers and music videos?

Our friend Tony just finished designing the art for two new shirts. We'll be paying tribute to two of our favorite Chicago idols: Bill Murray and Michael Jordan.

Music videos might be a ways away, we're still doing our best to avoid ever having a real promo photo taken for the band.

You are planning another tour right now for the summer. Where do you hope to go to this time? Any hope for people not fortunate to be living in the midwest, like Canada?

Our window for touring is still pretty small so we'll be playing a short tour through the midwest in the summer. We're really hoping to go out for 2-3 weeks this time next year though and play at a good deal of places we haven't had a chance to see yet.

The new record “The Echo and the Light” should be out for this summer's tour. So definitely pick that up!

Castevet's Myspace
Castevet's Twitter
Pre-order "The Echo and the Light" on black or white vinyl

Interview with Alexandre Julien of Vision Éternel

Hello Alexandre Julien, can you introduce yourself and let everyone know what your musical repertoire is?

Hey! My name's Alexandre Julien. I've been playing guitar since 2001, stating my first band, in 2002, a band which I don't actually care to discuss much because looking back on it, it was pretty corny. My first serious band was Throne of Mortality in 2005. I then had short stints with a variety of bands incorporated under the Triskalyon banner, including Vision Solitude, Vision Lunar, Vision Sufferance, Gallia Fornax, and of course Vision Éternel.

Since then, I've had Projection Mina, Lanterns Awake, Human Infect and Vision Sufferance has since been revamped into Soufferance. From 2006 to 2008 I ran Mortification Records, and since the folding of that label, I now run Abridged Pause Recordings.

Since this interview is trying to focus only on Vision Éternel, we'll try to keep the questions focused only on the perspective of that band, even if a lot of the other bands you were in connect closely. Can you tell us how Vision Éternel started out?

VE started out in January 2007 by pure accident. At the time Triskalyon was already in progress, and had been for about four months. I was recording some jams for Vision Lunar, and recorded this part that was just too smooth to fit under Lunar. I think that I could have incorporated it in Lunar, but during that phase of my life I would actually separate every different type of composition into different bands (something I still make the mistake of doing). That short song was recorded and later took the name of Love within Beauty, the first song on the first ep. That's pretty much how the idea originated.

How did the recording of the first ep "Seul Dans L'obsession" take place? How was working at Mortified Studios?

Well Mortified Studios is actually just what I call my home recording studio. The songs were recorded on my computer, and slightly better produced than the Lunar material of the time. So that's why I mentioned it was recorded and produced at Mortified Studios. The recording was pretty laid back. It has always been for VE because I never force myself to record or write unless I really feel inspired. Art for arts sake is a bullshit expression.

The first single of the ep was "Love within Narcosis". You also made a music video for the song, and it was very similar to the artwork of the album. How was this received when it came out? How did you promote the single and how was Mortification Records implied?

Narcosis was in the first half of songs I wrote of the album, and from the moment I showed it to my close friends after it was recorded, they loved it. So it only seemed natural for me to release it as a "single" for promotion. It was really only a digital single, because there never were any cds pressed of just that song, but it was used on a compilation by Mortification Records, which also released the album digitally. As far as promotion it was mostly Myspace, Last.fm, PureVolume, YouTube, occasional forum posting. that sort of thing... It was well received actually. People loved it and thats pretty much what put Triskalyon on the map (along with the two Lunar songs released at the time). People weren't sure how to react to Éternel and I even gave an interview back then with this girl from Cali and simply trying to explain to her the difference between Lunar and Éternel was difficult (she wasn't very intelligent either).

The music video was what helped VE the most I think. I filmed it in the backyard of my parent's house, where I had recorded the album, on a dusk sky, and with this Lantern that I had bought at a garage sell. I love that lantern, it still has that nostalgic Narcosis feeling to it. I took the pictures the previous night actually, and it was the same dusk sky, setting over the forest. At the time my monitor was dying out and it was super dark, so I couldn't really tell all the mistakes of the video while I was editing it. I'd have to go back to it and remaster it to make it darker and fix up some cuts. It was my first music video though, and i still feel 85% happy about it, so it's not that bad.

You then released "Love within Isolation" as the second single. Can you elaborate on the state of the band at that time? How was the ep doing by then?

Well to be honest, it wasn't huge. But I was doing a lot of promo. And Isolation was my second favorite song off the album. It was also on the compilation from Mortification. I guess that's the reason it was considered a single, and also because we used it for the myspace. We had an edited cut to it that took off the extended ending that was on the album.

Now around this time Triskalyon ended. You also stopped doing music for a while. What was going on in your life at that time? Did you not want to continue doing Éternel or any other music?

It's a difficult situation to explain because with me I have a lot of downs. Not ups and downs, just downs. And some people really got to me at that time, and pissed me off, so I just decided to take a break from the music. I had written so many poems and songs in the last year that I felt it was what I needed. It was emotional but in the way of relief. Weird to describe it. Anyway, it didn't take me long before I started to write music for VE again. In fact at the time it was the only band I actually kept going. Soufferance later came back, and Lunar has spurts of creations once in a blue moon, but Éternel is really the only band from Triskalyon to have really taken off. That's why I decided to keep the myspace only for it.

How was the composition and recording period for your next album "Un automne en solitude"? Did you feel you were comparing it to the first, or did you worry how it was gonna turn out?

That album actually happened naturally, at the beginning at least. One day it just happened, and I wrote "Desperation". The came "Neglection". I did compare it at times. I wanted it to be in the same theme. It had a different mood, but it was the same idea. Another breakup, yet this one was more hopeful. That's the feeling I get when I compare them. "Un automne..." is more hopeful. The last song or two to be composed on the ep were a bit hard, and were dragged out for a while. Took me longer to complete it. I still self-recorded it at Mortified Studios. Just about when the ep was done being recorded I moved back to Montreal. The artwork took forever to do because I had no access to a camera. I ended up taking pictures from my cell phone in negative of this construction site outside my window in the winter at like 3 a.m. I really wanted to do a music video for "Absence" but I never got to because of a lack of camera. Some fan in Europe did a video of it though (I don't think it was very good). But right now, over two years later, I'm finally in the post-production phase of the official music video for Absence.

Now the album was released March 14th, 2008, and you then decided to recruit band members? How did this come about, was it to play shows?

Well I actually had been trying out members here and there since summer 2007. My friend Phil, who was in Triskalyon as Darklink, used to jam out solos over Eternel songs when we would hang out. That's where the idea originally came from. I just wanted to record some b-sides. Then when I moved back to Montreal I jammed with Josh from MadParish who I worked with, a couple times, but it didn't last long. By then I was considering possibly doing some shows so that's why I tried him out. Then in like January/February of 2008 I had Adam and Nidal come in from the school I was going to at the time. Nidal played rhythm on acoustic and Adam did solos. It was really cool, and the ep wasn't released yet, so I had the idea to put off the ep's recordings as just demos and redo the whole album with us three. It had a much more indie and full post-rock sound to it. I loved it. However we never got to record anything with us three on it. Nidal left because he was bored, and Adam naturally gave up after I was bummed out. I ended up releasing the ep as an ep in the end, again on Mortification Records (it ended up being the last thing released on the label).

Through out 2008 and 2009 a lot of plans were talked about concerning VE, including a split with Ethereal Beauty, a split with Tasharg, a compilation album, re-issues of the eps on tapes, a full length album, a third ep, and even of ending the Eternel name. Can you elaborate on the things that happened and the ones that didn't, up to about where the new ep comes in the picture?

Wow. A lot happened during that time. You've listed the majority of them. The first of them that came about was the split with Ethereal Beauty. I found the band because they had actually listed VE in their influences on their myspace, and upon checking it out I loved the music. I got a long great with Jordan and we decided we would do a split on vinyl, that I wanted to self-release on my new record label. EB has been sort of hiatus for a while, but that split WILL happen some day. It is a promise.

The split with Tasharg came a bit later when I considered doing a series of VE splits on 7". I think I kinda wanted to do the same thing that Poison the Well did with the recent series of 7", and then release them all on CD on a foreign countries label. Tasharg kind of went under and disappeared for a while... I haven't talked to her since the proposal (I'm not even sure there was an official proposal actually), but now shes back under another name. I wouldn't say that idea couldn't ever happen.

The idea of re-releasing the material comes from almost the beginning. Initially I self-released the two eps digitally on my own label because I didn't think anyone cared enough about the band or music to actually put money into it (I should of looked just a bit further because there were). So after the second ep came out in 2008 and more people started to once again ask me where they could buy the CDs, well I wanted to get them released on CD. Except I didn't want to do it myself because it wouldn't have added much more fame to the band because no one new would of heard of the band. A label was needed to bring new ears. Then I started thinking about the third ep... Everything kind of happened at once. I wanted to write new material for a third ep but it wasn't working out so I thought that maybe the band may never end up releasing another one. So when I came in contact with Frozen Veins in Japan, what we decided to do was a compilation of both eps with some unreleased material. It was in sorts a discography (though even at the time incomplete). Then in the summer of 2009 I decided to find someone to re-issue the eps on cassette tapes. I spoke to a few labels, and finally set up a deal with Winterreich Records. The eps were supposed to be released in 300 copies each. I did brand new artwork for them, with professional pictures, i got the songs remastered, i sent everything to him. The guy never got back to me, and ignored all emails and messages I sent him. I guess he lost interest. But the plan will happen, I'm conceptualizing a box set for all the eps to be released on Valse Sinistre Productions on tape. And Valse Sinistre is a great label that you can depend on (one of my other bands is currently signed with them).

You then released to the public a Rehearsal from November 30th, 2009, for free download on Bandcamp. What was the deal with that?

I really wanted to release "Abondance de périls" in February. I had a schedule in the past to always release the VE material in either February or March. And I really wanted to get this one out in Feb. But me and Adam worked on the masters a bit longer and I ran into some delays with Abridged Pause. In the past I also liked giving the fans something extra, whether it was to send them the upcoming single a few weeks ahead, just so long as they asked me, I've always been open to fans. So when Feb was almost over I decided to find something to release to get the hype going on the new album and start up the promotion.

I had recorded this rehearsal in November right between takes of the the album's recording session. I often jam around Eternel songs like that at home, but I never recorded a full rehearsal before. I thought it was just gonna sit in my collection forever. But in mid February I made a VE page on Bandcamp, and I really liked their ideas and way of handling things, and I wanted more people to check out the page I had on there, because for a first, you can download all of VE's releases for free, in high quality. So the rehearsal was released exclusively on Bandcamp. I'm not sure exactly where it fits in with my releases, or if I consider it an official release, but all I know is that I've gotten good feedback from it from fans (except in Poland, haha)

Why Poland?

Well I really don't want to discuss it because it had nothing to do with VE to begin with, but some polish individuals decided to take out their personal disagreement with me out on my music and spread around bad reviews. That's all I'm gonna say.

The third ep "Abondance de périls" was for you a huge step up from the past releases. It was also the one that took you the longest to write and release. Can you tell us more about all the changes from the past releases and about why you decided to have external help for the first time?

That release was really hard for me finish up. I set myself to compose new material four different times (in four different phases of my life, in other words, over four different girls). I just couldn't get anything out. The very first session was in October 2007, and produced three songs, one of which made it on the album, the other two were combined into a single one, re-recorded and b-sided. The second session, i can't remember if I kept any. The third brought two and the last one brought five. At some point I even wanted to make a full-length album, but decided against it. It just wouldn't of worked.

Now in the post-production phase of the album, I already knew that I wanted this album to be mastered. I sent it to Adam to get it mastered. When it came to the artwork I was totally clueless this time. The album had gone through so many moods since it's original incarnation that I didn't know which fit. My roommate Marina is a photographer and I was borrowing her camera to take pictures but they were all horrible. One night she wanted to show me pictures she took that may suit VE and that I could use. The very first one she showed me i fell in love with. I didn't need to look at any other ones, I wanted THAT one. Later on I found out that she didn't actually take the picture, she simply found the negatives in a garbage can while visiting Europe and decided to say it was hers. Whatever, it looks good. The album is now out on Abridged Pause Recordings for free digital download. I wanted to keep this in the digital format because of the last two eps. I feel like that's the proper format for the music right now. At least for the eps.

Will there be any music video for this album? Or any merch that will be made?

You know it's funny you should ask because we are in the process of creating shirts with Abridged Pause Recordings. As far as a music video, once again I would like to, but I don't have the equipment. I am thinking of something though. Video promotion is always really good. That's why Narcosis is still the most famous song from the VE catalog, because of its video...

Can you tell us about the concepts within all your releases? How do you go about doing them? Each are about past relationships?

In general the concepts of the albums are based on a specific girl. So far each has been based on important girls in my life. Each song takes you through the phases I went through with the girl, from the meeting to the post-breakup sentiments. There are more concepts within the albums, and they are easy to figure out, so I like leaving some things for the fans to discover.

What are the future plans for Vision Éternel?

Things are bound to change... But since you asked... The split with Ethereal Beauty WILL happen some day. The cassette tape box set I hope will happen some day. There WILL be another compilation in the future. It will be a discography CD (or whatever popular physical format will be around then), but that will only be once VE is fully over with... If that ever happens... And it will also have the videos incorporated.

But the current and immediate plans are to do a lot of promotion. I want to have as many new ears that I've had for the last two eps combined just for this one. Abridged Pause is a great way to get to all those new ears that are just waiting to stumble upon Vision Éternel. Thanks for this great interview!

You can check out Vision Éternel on myspace
And also check them out on Bandcamp Vision Éternel Bandcamp
And the new ep is out on Abridged Pause Recordings
You can see the music videos here: Vision Éternel Videos

Interview with Garry Brents of Parabstruse

Hey Garry. Will you quickly introduce yourself, and mention your musical background to begin with? The bands you've been in, including collaborations.

Hello, first of all I would like to thank you for the opportunity to be interviewed. My musical background started when I was at the age of 7. I started playing piano for a few years. I didn't enjoy it at first, but I grew to like it. I'd always try to make up something instead of learn how to play other songs. A few years later, I learned how to play the trumpet but only played for 2 years. I wish I still knew how to play. When I got into High School is the time I started thinking about writing my own music. I took bass guitar lessons for 2 years, but continued to teach myself and learn more on my own. So I've been playing that instrument the longest for about 9 years now. I self-taught myself guitar based on some of the knowledge from bass lessons and just feeling it out, maybe 6 years ago. The list of bands that I've been in (serious or not) are the following in chronological order: Ghastrah Proxiima, Garrsinn, From a Residence of Stars & Gnosis (changed to smoosz in '08), Lunarian Sea, Darkphone, Semen Across Lips, Synthetic Onslaught, Sugar Highlands, Parabstruse, Cara Neir, They Mostly Come Out At Night, bunrage, Writhe.

So Parabstruse originally started out from an idea you had with Semen Across Lips? This project was around from 2004-2007. What can you tell us about the early states of the band? How did you take the music you made with S.A.L. back then?

That's correct. The early stages of S.A.L. wasn't based on anything with serious intent. I honestly just wanted to have fun, whether it was silly or not and to just go with it. People began to think it was serious, because I denied that it was a joke, but that was the point of it all. It was just to poke fun, the music and idea. I obviously grew out of it over the years.

The first time i heard the band name I almost refused to think there was any connection with Parabstruse lol. Where was the name inspired from?

At the time, I was trying to come up with an album name that was just one word. I have always liked using combined words or meanings, and I came up with Parabstruse. Abstruse is already a combination of abstract and obtuse and para is a prefix.

The first demo, "Leporidae Libra", was self-released (as most of your releases ended up being in the future). How many copies were made of this? Was this just for friends/promo or was it pushed as an actual release at the time?

I believe there were 100 copies released. A label by the name of Wolves Fight Good pressed these back then. I never really saw it as a serious release from the beginning.

What was the music to you back then? The music itself is rather technical and shows how an incredible musician you are, but it has the experimental/funny twist to it, that leads a first time listener to wonder if this was a serious project or not.

The music was about experimenting, whether the results were silly or not. It was not a serious project, even if it were portrayed as one in ironic fashion. Prior to S.A.L., my From a Residence of Stars & Gnosis was a project that I had serious intent with - writing music that was very similar to what Parabstruse had become, but obviously more primitive due to inferior equipment at the time. So I was going back and forth between the two projects - one serious and one not so serious.

The next release was a split with Psychiatric Regurgitation. Even at the time SAL was pretty death metal oriented. This would explain the choice in the grindcore band. How did you come to work with them?

One of their members is/was an active member in several metal bands in this area and I had always wanted to release something with one of his bands.

You guys self-released this split CD. How many copies were made?

I don't remember exactly, maybe 50-100.

You then hooked up with Bastard Son Productions out of Ohio. How did this happen? They released your full length, entitled "Parabstruse". Is this still in print?

They were supposed to release it physically, but due to financial issues it never came to fruition. So it was never pressed.

There were also a split with Xrin Arms, and a compilation "Dumped Down the Toilet". What can you tell us of those lesser known releases?

The split with Xrin Arms was something he and I had planned for awhile, but I don't think any copies were made, at least none that I know of. The compilation was something I had been a part of several months after S.A.L.'s first demo was released.

How did the band name change occur here? What does the name Parabstruse mean?

I lost interest in trying to portray that S.A.L. was serious and lost interest in the idea/image/music as a package. So I started as Parabstruse, wanting to start something new. It roughly means "beyond unfathomable".

You then had two demos released under the new name, still in 2007, marking a total of four releases that year. Were those two demos composed under Parabstruse, or were they just composed period, and ended up being released after the name change?

Yes, they were composed completely under the idea and name of Parabstruse at the time.

The demo is in a form of post-metal. What were your influences at the time?

At the time, the following would sum up my influences well: Ulver (but they always were and are still a primary influence), Agalloch, Drudkh, Yndi Halda, Mono, Explosions in the Sky, Do Make Say Think, and Red Sparowes.

By the release of the second demo, "And I, the Cape of..." you had acquired a strong post-rock sound in the music that had evolved to black metal. What were the influences within this change?

The influences were the same, but I just felt like involving more of that post-rock style into my sound. I felt that not a lot of 'one-man' projects were involved with that at the time. So it was a combination of trying new things and evolving my music.

In February 2008, your best known work was released. "Old Sentimental" is considered by many a masterpiece, and is solely a post-rock/ambient album, with very little connections left of the metal movement (except maybe the guitar sound at certain points). The artwork was created by Ham, who did a marvelous job, and you self-financed to produce CDs. Lets elaborate about this album and this period in the bands history. I'll let you ramble on...

This was a time when I was going to a recording school to learn more about production/audio engineering. I recorded all of this music prior to finishing my time at school, so I sometimes regret in not waiting to finish the album after I had more experience and the knowledge that I had after graduating. I would have made it much better, but I guess every artist says that about their own work, especially their first album. I was and still am proud that I was able to self-finance/produce and sell the album myself and make a profit. I put the money right back into what I was doing by buying more equipment that would help me later on in my endeavors. So "Old Sentimental" was a nice start to my musical journey, if you will.

You didn't waste much time after that because by September of that year you had also released an ep, "Back and Forth", which once again had a limited CD pressed by you. Who designed the artwork for this?

My friend Kortis Kerst (photographer) took the pictures and I had arranged the design of the booklet and layout on my computer.

Both of those CDs are now sold out? So you left them for free download all over the net, which got you even more fans. How would you describe your "digital fan feedback" concerning Parabstruse?

Certainly. I felt that giving the music for free was the best option at the time. I still think giving music for free is truly invaluable, bringing in more than twice the listeners a band would have if the only option was selling physical copies. I like the best of both worlds. The fan feedback was rapidly growing after releasing my music for free and positive for the most part.

In January of 2009 you recorded a new exclusive song, Turning Back, for a compilation, Diluvian Temperals. This was also your first record label collaboration (even though the compilation only came out in August, a month after your final ep). Why did you chose to work with Abridged Pause Recordings, and how did this come about?

This was a song that I had solely worked on for this compilation. It was something that was different for Parabstruse at the time. The title says it all. It was a bit of a homage to my older project, From A Residence of Stars & Gnosis, but executing the songwriting and production with more current knowledge and equipment. I felt this compilation and label was the perfect situation for releasing this song.

Being that it came out in August 2009, it was actually the last released work of yours. Was this the only compilation appearance you had? Were any of your songs featured on other compilations, even if not exclusives?

I believe this was the only compilation for Parabstruse and very fitting as the last released song.

Your final ep, "An Unconventional Future" was digitally released on Dedicated Records in July 2009. Your ep is somewhat of a concept album, being "dedicated to sleeping" and also to "help a friend". What exactly was the story behind that? Did the label have this idea or was this coming from you?

It was the label's idea and concept, so I put the music to it. It sort of followed the writing after "Turning Back", so I had the same mindset in creating almost purely ambient pieces; something that I hope helped Brad's (label owner) friend in relaxing and sleeping. I won't go into detail about the disorder, but she had a rare disease where she had trouble sleeping.

The final Parabstruse output was indeed the Diluvian Temperals compilation song, Which was released only six days after you officially announced the ending of Parabstruse. In a single word question, Why?

It's sort of a similar situation with the decision to end S.A.L. I felt that I did everything I could under Parabstruse. I wanted to have a fresh start in my music and ending Parabstruse to begin a new project was the next step.

The last news of Parabstruse were that you were looking for female vocalists to add an element to a new album you were working on. Have you had guests on your past releases, either from S.A.L. or Parabstruse? what did each do?

My friend Michael played the Violin intro to the beginning track on S.A.L.'s Parabstruse album. Another song on that album featured a vocal spot by a friend who shared projects with me before (Ghastrah Proxiima and Lunarian Sea). There is also one song on the Parabstruse myspace that featured drums and piano by my friend Jose. I basically just played guitar over it. It was the second song under the name of Parabstruse.

What happened to the material you were working on towards the end? Has that been reused into one of your new projects? Any demos of it exist with any female vocalists?

All of that material is being used; there is a finished version of one of the songs already and more to be finished in the near future.

Was there much more material recorded than what was released? Do you plan a compilation of this material, or a general Parabstruse compilation in the future?

Not much more, maybe 3-4 songs. I probably won't release a compilation in the future.

It has been mentioned from people talking with you that it was sort of a relief for you to end that project. Was that in a manner that it was starting to become too serious? Or that it was becoming too big for the little time you dedicated to it with all the other bands you were doing at the same time? How do you feel now, half a year later?

All those questions are pretty much the answers themselves. Although it wasn't becoming too serious, I just didn't have the same feeling for the project and idea. I didn't see myself having fun anymore in the long run, for Parabstruse.

What are your current and since musical plans?

Since then, I've been working on another solo project (using some of the songs I had started while still pursuing Parabstruse and writing new material already). I also have been involved with another project for a year and a half now: Cara Neir. I had a brief stint in another project called Writhe, but it came to a halt and we never finished mixing our first release, as the members left.

Whats the word with Bunrage? This space is yours to introduce the band to all new readers of your output.

It is my current main project now. The idea is just to write songs without hesitation, without too much thinking in the process. Just having fun again, yet balancing it with the serious intent of having a following for it. Obviously the production part takes more thinking, but the songwriting process and the regard to the style of music is much more open and spontaneous. I don't want to put too much thought into describing the project. Feel free to check it out yourself, readers: myspace.com/bunrage

I wish you the best of luck with your projects, and thanks a bunch for taking your time with this interview Garry!

My pleasure, and thank you once again for giving me the time and opportunity to have an in-depth interview about my music and past projects.


You can check out Parabstruse on myspace : http://www.myspace.com/parabstruse