Von rohem Stoner Doom direkt in den Progressive-Rock-Olymp: Elder entziehen sich seit Jahren erfolgreich jeder Genregrenze. Mit komplexen Riffs, epischen Melodien und ihrem brandneuen Album ‚Through Zero‘, wir haben uns mit Georg hingesetzt um zu erfahren, wie song writing sessions aussehen und wie schwer es fällt einer legendären Band beizutreten.
Frontstage: Thank you so much for sitting down with me. I have a couple questions about the band’s itself, especially, for example, Elder songs often balance heavy riffs with long atmospheric passages how do you decide when a song needs complexity vs simplicity?
Georg: I cant really speak about that too much, because Nick writes most of the songs, and we get the demos, and then I’ll try to make the drum part my own. So he has the overarching idea of the whole thing.
Frontstage: What does your drum writing process look like if you get the demos?
Georg: Okay, that’s always fun using Nicks programmed drums. Usually for everything I think it does, kick and snare first and then the cymbals, so sometimes there are parts you can’t physically play. So the first thing is, I go through everything and try to think of a sticking like do I start with the right hand, left hand, how do I play the crash at the same time as the snare and the bass drum and all of that and try to get close to what is in the demo, just play it a bunch of times, record and then send it Nick or he comes over. We did it like that for the last records. He has some parts that he wants to be exactly like in the demo, and then some parts where I’m a little bit more free to do whatever I want, and then we talk about these things, and just get down and play as many times as I can and so it becomes muscle Memory so I don’t have to count while playing.
Frontstage: If you could write songs, like the drums first. Would you write them very differently from how Nick writes or do you have similar styles?
Georg: Probably. That’s the good thing about working with Nick, he comes up with stuff that I wouldn’t, which is fun to figure out because I would do it differently, just because I learned it in a certain way and approach. So, for me, it would be more structured. Like stuff that I write is usually more.. we use this polyrythm, and then we go in and out of the subdivision, very mathematical and Nick, is a better composer.
Frontstage: So, hes more sound focused rather than technical?
Georg: Yeah, or he’s got a better feel for the dramaturgy of a song and sometimes I need him to guide me through certain parts where I feel like, okay now, this part should be a little quieter and he’s like, oh no, no, we actually ramping up the volume and intensity there and I was like, okay, I didn’t think about that, but cool, and that’s fun, because I would do stuff differently, so I get to play stuff I wouldn’t normally play.
Frontstage: Totally, and I mean, like, your sound, has evolved significantly over the years. Looking back, what are artistic risks were the most rewarding ones, and which were the hardest ones to commit to, whereas you’re like, okay, we thought that would kick off more than it actually did.
Georg: You mean in terms of compositions? I joined the band in 2019 and then we did omens right after. So that was a kind of a bigger cut in an effort to make more proc oriented music, so that was definitely a bigger gamble, because before that the band kind of produced itself, or Nick was the one with the vision. And for Omens, we did a record with the producer pretty much, and it was his studio, his sound, and we had some input, but it was more of his record, which was which was cool. But I think there’s a couple people who didn’t like it that much, because it wasn’t as heavy, but I still think it’s a great record and has a sound of its own, which is fun. And that’s a cool thing about Elder, that every record is a little different. So, there’s always some kind of change in the approach but I would say, omens and innate passage were the biggest challenges with new band member, COVID…. So, when we recorded Omens in a passage we hadn’t played a live show together, because I joined the band and we did omens, and immediately COVID happened. We sat around for 2 years at home. The new record Through Zero that came out a couple of weeks ago is actually the first one where we, as the band, worked together, couple hundred shows under the belt, its just a different feel to it.
Frontstage: How difficult did you find it to learn all the s***, well not s***, but the songs you didn’t take part in writing?
Georg: Yeah, okay, so that s*** was very hard to learn. Not from a technical standpoint, but it’s hard coming into a band who’s been together for so long and then you play stuff that they have been playing live for like 10 years. And I’ve seen them a couple of times before I joined the band so I know roughly the live version, but mostly practiced and know the recorded version that was old by then. But stuff evolves over time playing it live stuff gets faster slower parts, change a little. And then there’s this version that I listen to on the record, then there’s the version that they play live after 10 years of playing live, and then there’s the version that Nick has in his head, and then there’s the version that I would play, and then getting that all together took quite some time yeah, actually harder than expected, but it was always also the first time I joined a band that has been together for that long, so it was more feeling out, but I think after a year of touring, we were pretty good on the old stuff. And we did Lore last year, the whole record for the 10th anniversary, and it felt good.
Frontstage: What would be your dream lineup for the next tour?
Georg: How many bands?
Frontstage: Lets say you can chose 3 to 5
Georg: Okay, 4 bands, lets take 4. And Extra Life, Oranssi Pazuzu, Elder and Tool.
Frontstage: Oh, yes. can we make that happen, please?
Georg: I’m doing my best.
Frontstage: Since he joined the Band in 2019, if you could revisit any of the albums as a drummer, what would you change? And why would you change certain sounds?
Georg: Ah, that’s hard. I’m just never satisfied with these kinds of things, so it’s kind of hard for me. But then, after a couple of years, I listened back to a record and I’m pretty happy with it. I listened to omens a couple of weeks ago, and actually, it feels pretty good. The one thing I thought about lately, like rehearsing the stuff from an Innate passage I would make the kickdrum louder but I think that’s about it.
Frontstage: That’s it?
Georg: I mean, its what we did at the time, the decisions we made, and it’s just like at some point, I’ll come to terms with it. But there’s always stuff you can do better, once it’s recorded, you cant
Frontstage: Yes, and I get it as a photographer’s perspective, because sometimes I look at my old photos, and see so much I would have change. But at that time, I didn’t know different, so I understand that, but I still think it’s essential to look at old things that be like, okay, this is how I see it now. Thank you so much for taking your time and having a chat with me.
Georg: Yeah, thanks for having me.
Fotocredit: Offizelles Presse Bild
