ZERO TOLERANCE AUG/SEPT 2011

  1. First of all many congratulations on An Immortal Creation, it’s an excellent piece of work.

 

RICHARD - Yeah, it sounds amazing! It’s a totally different sound to the last album - crisp, more mature, full, and with an increased intensity. This album was produced in a different way to the last but you'll have to ask Rob for the technicalities cos its’ all way above me! The guitars and bass we're re-amped again so Rob could spend time to get the right sound and I think he did a great job. It’s just so 'in your face' clear. We didnt bother to double up all the guitar parts in order to keep it all cleaner, and it’s worked too cos more of the detail of the riffs can be heard. The vocals are much clearer, all the words can be heard and the clean vocals are pretty impressive for me as well! Rob got me to work on the harmony and eventually we pulled it off. He has a keen ear for quality and works to a high standard.

PAUL – After Rob produced the last album he said it was his best sounding album that he’d done to date so we didn’t think he could get any better but he’s obviously learned a lot since then and the production on this one is definitely a step up.  Even at the mixing stage we knew this was gonna be a better sounding record.  It’s the fact that every instrument is clear but the whole sound is so full and intense, in your face.

 

PAUL – We’ve only posted the album out during the last couple of weeks to magazines and webzines so we’re currently waiting the reviews from them.  The people who have heard the album have been blown away really.  Everyone has commented on the production and the general musicianship, which is nice!

  1. Can you tell me a little bit about the recording process for the album?

 

RICHARD - Rob is a genius and he's great to work with! He's a classically trained musician and teacher and he's probably studied nearly every style and technique so he shows us different ways to play and introduces new ideas into the music. He's like another band member when we're in the studio! He knows how we want it to sound, he experiments with new ideas, he's enthusiastic, the list just goes on. I couldn’t imagine working with anyone else now.

PAUL – Yeah, he doesn’t just sit there and engineer the record, he actually gets involved in the songs and want to make them sound even better, either by suggesting an effect he may use during the recording process or recommend to add or take away a particular guitar note/lick for example.  He really is like a fifth member; he cares about the music as much as we do!  Being a musician himself really benefits any band that he produces.

 

RICHARD - Listening to clicks drives you insane but it’s got to be done, and it’s frustrating when you play a song in your own time and every note sounds perfect, but as soon as the record button is on you start messing up and forgetting stupid things!
If Rob heard a mistake he'd stop recording straight away and say 'Again..'
 There were points when he'd be saying 'Again, again...' every ten seconds! I don’t know how he kept his patience. We had so many funny out takes. If it was me recording I'd be getting ready to throttle someone! But he never let it get to him, he'd just stay chilled out the whole time.

PAUL – Militant and the title track were the only songs that we didn’t demo before we went in to record and only really finished them a couple of weeks before, so when we were actually recording them we were slowly hearing those songs come to life.  When they were finished, it was the first time that we heard those songs!  Those songs were exciting to record and turned out even better than we imagined.  The difficulties happen all the time!  Even the songs that have been written and played for the last year.  As Richard said, once the click starts things go wrong!  It’s like a different way of playing, mentally.  The abiding memory for me had to be when Richard’s throat started bleeding near the end of the vocal sessions!  That was surreal.

  1. How would you describe the progressions that the band has made musically from Ashes Of The Fallen Throne?

 

RICHARD - We're always trying to experiment with new ideas and keep the music diverse. We think more about harmonies, licks, drum fills and signatures - things that make the songs stand out, particularly with the drums. We let Rich experiment and throw in some jazz fills. It keeps it interesting. 

PAUL – I wouldn’t say we have drastically made any musical progression but we are always looking to add things to our sound that we haven’t done before.  I suppose the biggest musical progression on the album was Militant.  We’ve never written anything as technical as that before.  That’s a slightly different style too, more Behemoth meets Nile.  We don’t discount any style of guitar or drum playing, if it fits the song, it goes in.  We even used a few samples this time, which we haven’t done before.

  1. The vocals on the album are divided between Richard and Paul. How do you decide who is best suited to tackle each song?

 

RICHARD - Whoever writes the song usually does the singing. It means that the vocals are gonna have the writers intended feel. It’s the same with the riffs too, if Paul's singing, most of the riffs in that song will be his. I don’t like to interfere too much cos I end up changing the style of the song. Paul's influenced by the old school death and raw black metal sounds and I'm into the fast, technical death and black metal and iI think those styles can be heard in our respective songs.

  1. I was interested to see the use of the traditional lyrics in the Hymn Of Agincourt – where did you get the idea for this?

 

PAUL – I was reading a book about the battle of Agincourt last year and I’d already decided that I was gonna use this as a lyric idea for a song that I’d written.  On the final page were two poems written just after the battle.  One was called The Hymn of Agincourt and the lyrical pattern followed most of my song exactly!  It was as though these lyrics had been written for my song!  I thought it would be cool to bring an old poem back to life, so to speak, complete with the original old English and Latin words.  I used a verse from the other poem for the chorus and it turned out awesome.

  1. How does a Belonging song typically get written? Do you have a set way of working?

 

PAUL – Most of the time either me or Richard will have a song 80% complete and then present it at a band practice.  We usually change or add to each other’s songs and Levi & Rich will pitch in with ideas too or tell us if something sounds good or not.  Live demos are then made so we can all listen to it in our own time.  From then on, the song gets improved on a week by week basis as parts are added or changed.

 

RICHARD - We both write the lyrics and the topics are mostly history based at the moment. Archangel, Hymn of Agincourt and A Fearful Bloody Lesson In Slaughter are all battle based. Then comes religion – Procreation of A Demigod. And then good old murder, death, blood and vampires are always good topics – An Immortal Creation and Slave. You can never run out of ideas with that lot!

 

RICHARD - Anywhere from history books, films, dreams, even the daily news!

 

  1. The Belonging are quite unusual in the UK metal underground in the fact that you’ve managed to keep a stable line-up together for a long time now – what do you put this down to?

LEVI - We’re all good mates but we don’t spend too much time together. It’s almost like a business sometimes! Maybe that’s why we haven't had time to fall out yet! But we respect and value each other.

PAUL – I think that we all feel that we can contribute to the band instead of it being a dictatorship like some bands are.  That’s when people get pissed off and don’t feel as though their opinions are valued or don’t have a creative input.

 

  1. It’s been ten years now since the first demo was released – when you look back over the decade what have been some of your best and worst memories, the highest and lowest points for The Belonging? Is there anything you wish you could go back and change?

LEVI – The highest point for me was playing the Koria Festival in Finland.  Playing at an outdoor festival abroad was something really different.  It’s not something that happens all time.  It was a great experience.  The worst had to be when we lost our first drummer, Colin.  It felt as though we were back to square one again.  Every band has been in this position and knows what it feels like to have to first find a new member, then teach him all the songs.  Luckily it has only happened once and we found Rich pretty quickly but at the time it was a real worry.

RICH – I there’s one thing that I’d change it would to record the first album again.  We had a three day window opportunity to record and mix that album and naively we went for it.  So obviously we didn’t spend nowhere near as much time as we should have on that album.  We’re still proud of the songs put the production lets it down.  Just wish we had Rob to record it at the time!

PAUL – Another high point for me was supporting Enslaved a couple of years ago.  They’ve been one of my favourite bands for years so it was an honour to play with them, nice people too.  I wouldn’t change anything because you must always learn from your mistakes but I suppose I’d liked to have spent more time on the first album as Rich said.

RICHARD - One of the best memories was when we played a gig in London supporting Ensiferium. The gig ended up starting earlier than scheduled and so the doors had to open early. I thought we'd be playing to just a handful of people but to my surprise there was a good crowd of about a hundred people that came straight to the front to see us. They were asking who we were between songs and the vibe just felt good, I walked off that stage feeling great! There's been lows where you walk off feeling like shit. Like where you feel like you've made loads of mistakes, when hen you've wailed during clean vocal parts or forgotten riffs. But the good nights, when you connect with crowd, they make up. If just one person comes up to me and says 'hey, that was an awesome set!' then I feel like it’s been a success. There's been plenty of ups and downs but i wouldn’t change anything cos they're the things that have made us who we are today.

 Have you had any interest from labels as yet? Are you actively looking for a label or do you think you can achieve just as much without outside involvement in the band?

PAUL – We’ve always had complete control of everything we do and we’ve just got used to it now.  It’s a lot easier these days to manage your own band with the internet.  Everything from booking gigs, liaising with bands, creating the artwork, printing shirts and CDs is done by us. Everything is geared to the bands making all their own decisions and running the band how they want.

RICHARD - Labels don’t really seem to be interested so we decided not to bother. We wanna just carry on doing what we want to do and doing it the way we wanna do it. So right now, we don’t need a label.Iits just self-promotion and word of mouth.

  1. Do you have any live dates lined up currently? Is there any chance of you venturing down to London in the near future?

 

PAUL - We’re playing The Parish in Huddersfield on 30th July.  We’re just in the middle of sorting gigs out for the end of Summer and beyond.  We’ve played London four times but it’s been a few years since the last one but I would be nice to get back down there again, so any London promoters like what they hear, give us a shout.

  1. What’s coming up for The Belonging over the next few months and what are your long term hopes and goals for the band? Have those hopes and goals changed since the band started out?

 

RICHARD -  Our hope and goals have never really changed. We want to get a worldwide fan base, sure and we want to be respected. I just want to see people having a good time when we play, enjoying the music. To have a good crowd turn up and appreciate what you do, a pit would be nice sometimes too! But money and fame don’t matter. We just wanna make some quality albums, play some good gigs and come away knowing that people enjoy it.

PAUL - On a personal level we’ve a house move and baby arriving so it’s gonna be hectic to say the least!  We’re just waiting for the reviews to start coming in and booking gigs to support the new album.

 

Interviewed by Chris Kee.