JT: First of all, Mother Teacher Destroyer is surely an instant classic. It is blowing people away! Divine Propaganda was an excellent album too, but MTD takes it all up a notch. What would you guys attribute that to?
Bruce: Well, thank you for the praise. It came as a bit of a shock to us, especially Wino, when, soon after we had assembled the final sequence master of MTD, we all realized we had made a really good record! I, personally, was not that surprised. We had been a band for close to two years by the time we started working on the album, and had vastly improved our musicianship and chemistry. We wrote the record in a relatively short and intense burst � from March �04 to the first day of studio time with J on May 1, �04. We had been incorporating a lot of jamming and improvising in our rehearsals and performances, and were starting to get really good at it. We used this as the springboard by taping all of our rehearsals. I would review the material and find the good parts which we then developed into the songs that became the bulk of MTD.
JT: Six of the tracks on the new album are credited to the whole band. Did everyone in the band write these tracks together, or did you each have demo work that you brought to everyone to work into finished songs?
Bruce: Pretty much every song was developed by the whole band. I gave Wino credit for the tunes where he had most of the parts and arrangements prepared. But Dave and I would usually tear the tunes apart and then put them back together again! Examples would be �Half Mast,� �Black Ribbon,� and �Coffin Lily.� There were definitely no finished songs, and not much demo work before J hit the record button. I don�t really like demo work because once you have something on tape in some sort of fashion it tends to stick, even if it is not the best way the song should be, or even if the song itself is not that good. Conversely, the material that is really good and worth pursuing we tend to remember from one rehearsal to the next as it develops. Sure, some stuff tends to vanish this way, but the cream floats to the top.
When J joined us we had very rough demos, some just crude edits of various parts. J and I sat around the first day and found tempos for the parts, mapped out click tracks, and discussed the arrangements and production ideas.
The discussion continued with Dave and Wino until we had very crude maps of what the songs might end up being. It was not until we had full drum sounds and decent rough guitar and bass tracks that we knew what was working and what was not. And of course, there were no lyrics yet! We would then do some editing, fool around with the tempos, move some microphones around and hit it again, until we had a solid foundation.
Wino and I would then discuss who was going to sing where and write the lyrics, along the lines of �Do you have any ideas for this? I want this one.� J would make us rough mixes at the end of the day and we would take turns working on the vocals. While Wino was doing guitars I would be at home with books and dictionaries piled all over the place working on my lyrics, and then I would come in and work on my vocals while he did the same thing at his place the next day and so on. We didn�t even have titles until the mixes were almost finished!
JT: Sonically and lyrically this album is very doom inspired, yet tracks like �Currents� and �Half Mast� seem a little more optimistic than some of those found on Divine Propaganda. Is there any particular reason for this?
Bruce: I think on DP we were trying to get something out quick. Our first batch of tunes again was written fairly quickly, and I think subconsciously we were trying to �fit in� a bit. DP is more of an introduction to what we are all about musically, and what kind of potential we possess. Keep in mind that we put DP together just as the US was about to go to war in Iraq, so obviously our lyrics and motivations were influenced by this.
I felt like we had a lot more room to explore on MTD, especially me. Instead of trying to write a doom classic (�The Crossing� actually had the working title of �Doom Classic�), I chose to focus my lyrics on subjects near and dear to me. And Wino always tries to leave his audience with a positive vibe. I would not say �Currents� is all that optimistic though. Sure the main riff is majestic, but in the lyrics I tried to convey a sense of foreboding for the future of the New World from the perspective of a 17th century seafaring explorer. Yar! All in all, the vibe of the album is still critical, but should leave the listener with a sense of hope.
JT: Some have said that this album resembles prog rock or just straight ahead rock �n roll more than it does a doom album. Do you think that�s accurate, or is this just a new direction for the doom genre?
Bruce: I do think this is accurate. We never set out to be a doom or stoner band, and I do not think we really are. I think there are an awful lot of bands in the so-called genre sticking to a certain framework and tonality that can be characterized as �doom� or �stoner rock,� and I think this is rather limiting. Why not try to write a pop song but use thick Model Ts and experimental arrangements? That has been our goal all along � good songs, great tones, and always pushing the edge of what we are capable of. If this ends up sounding a bit proggy or straight up rock, all the better.
JT: A ton of bands have latched on to the current political climate and created inspired music lately, however, it doesn�t seem like very many of those bands have popped up in the stoner/doom genres. What makes you guys different?
Bruce: I don�t know if and why we�re that much different. What I do know is that right from the beginning our conversations always steered towards recent political and world events. I think we all feel it is our duty to try to stay informed and speak our minds. We made a conscious decision very early in the band�s career to use this rare and fleeting forum to express some of our political views. We have been given an opportunity to be heard, so we should not waste it on meaningless redundant garbage. Isn�t that what rock should be all about? It should be dangerous and challenging. However, with that in mind, I think with careful and repeated spins of our material, the listener will find much more going on than just overtly political material.
JT: Has the political dimension contributed to the instrumental side of songwriting in the band or do such lyrics just work well with the music you guys write?
Bruce: It depends on the song, when we write it, and what is going at the time. The music for �Rebellion� was written just as the insurgency in Iraq was really starting to heat up, so the lyrics flowed logically. I know personally I have been trying to be a lot more subtle with my lyrics � I want to leave room for the listener�s imagination like in �Black Ribbon� or �Sons of Kings.� And Wino has been getting more historical and spiritual in his lyrics as well. Take �Magdalene,� for example, or �Sunblood,� which stems right from the heart of Wino�s interests and personal spirituality.
JT: This album seems to be more complex than a lot of Wino�s previous work, with lots of layers and textures, is that a reflection of Bruce and Dave�s influence or just a natural progression?
Bruce: I think he would argue, and he has numerous times previously, that the complexity of the album is a direct result of our influence and interaction over the past two and a half years. I think it is arguable that The Hidden Hand is a band of equals all contributing the most they can possibly give. We are not one man with a great rhythm section, but indeed friends and a true band.
I think Wino has been so revered by so many in the scene that those who have played with him in the past tended to bow to his wishes or not question the direction of his material, whereas Dave and I don�t give a shit about his past, and treat his input equally with ours. I think Wino enjoys this very much, and feels he has a lot more freedom as a musician with us. We can be proggy, jazzy, poppy, or just plain weird. The farther out we go, the happier he is.
JT: The production work on this album is near flawless, yet the album has plenty of �live� energy. How smooth was the recording process this time around?
Bruce: As discussed previously, the recording was challenging. We booked the studio time and made our initial deals with Exile on Mainstream and Southern Lord way back in January �04 with release dates for the summer, even though at that time we definitely did not have nearly an album�s worth of material. I knew that if we locked ourselves away for two months in the woodshed and got J at the helm, we could pull it off successfully. The recording was hard, but really fun. There is nothing quite like being able to focus as a group on a serious creative effort for weeks on end, and be fully satisfied with the final result. The actual technical aspect of the recording was smooth as pie. We did it at my studio, Phase Recording, in College Park MD, where we spend a great deal of our time, so the environment was very familiar and comfortable. I chose J to produce because he has done a lot of stuff at Phase over the past few years, he knows the studio, and we do a lot of stuff together and share ideas and techniques. I also had seen him work with bands and musicians to craft the best performances and songs possible. We are both huge fans of the live performance.
Our first experience with J was on �Rebellion,� and since it is a bit of a technical-almost-metal tune, I wanted a detailed Protools grid/click track production, which he delivered in spades. While we were working on �Rebellion,� I gave J a copy of the newly released split Night Letters with our bros Wooly Mammoth, which was totally live except for a few overdubs. He was blown away. As soon as I asked J if he wanted to produce MTD, he told me that the production vibe should be somewhere in between the tight grid of �Rebellion� and the sludgy live feel of �Five Points� and �Sunshine.� So MTD ended up just that way, smooth but still mostly live.
The first two weeks were nerve wracking, because we definitely were not confidant in the material yet. Wino was especially concerned, having never made a record without solid live-tempered songs. But we stayed focused, and gradually the songs and album emerged as testaments to what we are really about as a band.
JT: It seems that Wino is finally getting the attention he deserves after his work in Probot, as well as with the ascent of The Hidden Hand. Is this a welcome change?
Bruce: I can tell you he is overjoyed at the attention and recognition he has been receiving. And he certainly deserves it.
JT: Is there any new stuff out right now that has really tripped you guys� trigger?
Bruce: I am anxious to hear the Om recordings, which I think Billy Anderson finished recently. We played with them and Sunn0))) out in SF, and I was devastated and inspired. There are a handful of bands bubbling to the surface in our local punk scene that I am excited about as well, namely Flowers In The Attic, Bison, and Baroness, who by the way have my current favorite drummer. I just finished mixing an EP for Black Manta that I cannot wait to see out there. Awesome. And of course, I would like to see Wooly Mammoth get some much deserved label finding for a proper recording. Unfortunately, there is a ton of stuff out there right now that deserves more of our attention, but we don�t listen to music that often because we are self-centered bastards. Ha.
JT: The album has been out for a little while now, how has the reaction been at live shows when you play the new material?
Bruce: It is difficult to tell, and I think it is mixed. Some folks like the raw energy of our earlier material, while others really appreciate the direction we are trying to go with the new stuff. We have played about half of the new songs live. �The Crossing� and �Currents� are becoming major cornerstones in the set with excellent audience reaction. I think the record is still too new to really judge how people are taking it. Is it stunned silence or lack of interest? I think it will be several months before people know the songs enough to really appreciate them live, and we can play them with enough confidence to really drive them home.
JT: Do you guys have any big tours/shows coming up in the near future?
Bruce: We have been getting some cryptic messages about doing some dates with Blue Cheer in the spring! No joke. Our goal is to continue doing strategic hits to various parts of the country where we know we have a fan base, such as New England. There are also some rumors floating around that we might team up with mighty Mastodon in the spring as well. And of course Europe always beckons, especially Scandinavia. Stay tuned for more details as they arrive.
Thanks! |
