There’s no secret that Mourning Beloveth still holds the place of one of the best death doom metal bands in Europe. The band was born in Ireland somewhere in 1992, and it’s very good that they are still with us since that time. More than this – Mourning Beloveth is an active band, and as some of you already know Grau Records have released their new full-length “Formless” at February. Do you want to know more info about new stuff straight from the tin? Then take a look here – it’s a brand new interview with Frank Brennan himself!
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Hello Frank! How are you? Let me congratulate you with another chapter in Mourning Beloveth history! You’ve released new full-length album “Formless” at 22nd of February via Grau Records. First of all mate how will you promote the album? Mourning Beloveth is enough well-known to start a tour in support of the release, isn’t it?
Hails and greetings to all, Frank here to answer your queries, well as far as promotion for the new release we usually just try to do as many gigs as possible, we love to play live and have some cool festivals coming up for us including ROADBURN in Holland and a few other gigs in Europe and of course MOSCOW again. We have done our own tours in the past and will again maybe at the end of the year when the festivals season is over, but for the moment we are just concentrating on the festivals we are booked for..
Last albums of Mourning Beloveth were released by Grau Records, a label with good taste in all what concern of qualitative doom music. But I remember that “Dust” and “The Sullen Sulcus” were produced by another label. Do you feel differences in methods of working with various labels? Did your demands to promotion and other things change?
Yes we have released 3 albums with GRAU so far and of course every label has a different approach to marketing and promotion, in fact DUST was originally released by ourselves, we created our own label just to release it, and then a good friend of ours had started a label SENTINNEL and he rereleased it, and sulcus was picked up by AFTERMATH in Norway, but to get back to the question workin with GRAU gave us more time to concentrate on the music end of things, we don’t have any specific demands for promotion only that who ever we work with does their best to get our music to as many people as possible… every label has their own methods of how they operate and I guess GRAU has done some good things for us.
New album always means new promo sessions, don’t you tired of all these interviews with similar questions? :-) What kind of questions do you hate the most?
We like to do interviews I all seems to happen around new releases, it seems to be late night when I’m replying and usually a bit stoned so it depends how mundane the questions are, I done one a few weeks ago and the same question was asked in 8 different ways, that annoys me but I try to give my best to answer with truth and honesty…but the one that bugs us all is when we get questions regarding some my dying bride similarity or shit like that. Other than that ask what thy will…
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Frank, after 20 years of playing death doom, what did change in the band? Let us start with changes of your approach to songs composing – are your priorities same now as before?
Fuck, has it been 20 years already… oh I'm old, haha, but for us it's still the same as in the song is more important than anything, we still have the same procedure in song writing as we did in the beginning… but in another way we are different than the early days, our sound has changed a bit, in as far as to say we have matured a lot and our world perception has evolved and it transfers through the music…
Well, now about “Formless”. “A Decease of the Ages” was released 5 years ago – in 2008, so it’s obvious that Mourning Beloveth followers want to know more about new songs. What’s new have you prepared for public?
Well DISEASE FOR THE AGES was a very course and cold album, dry harsh guitars and the feeling throughout is very desolate, not to say FORMLESS is not desolate, it is but in a different sense, theres a warmth to the new album that is both enlightening and smothering at the same time… just like existence,
Yes, I’ve got your point, but what are real reasons for such changes? Can we separate personal life and experience of musicians and their work in the band? Look, man, Anathema had problems with girls when they were young and they were playing death doom, then things went better and their change the style, but MDB plays same stuff as always for damned lot of time and… Oh, well, okay, just bring it on!
No to be honest, I don’t think you can separate them from each other, your music is the feelings and thoughts that occupy your mind and what make what you are and we need this music to vent all that emotion away. To expel all pains and fears so as to feel free if just for that moment.. it’s a kind of therapy…
I wonder how much time you spent in a studio recording new songs… You know it’s an old stereotype: metal guys go to a studio, drink there, crush the equipment and then have a brand new full-length! So how did record session of “Formless” go?
It was a strange thing to be honest because I had some idea of how to approach the songs and at the same time I had no idea, first time writing with Pauric I was curious and nervous of how it would work but once we started structuring and raping the songs apart until we felt there was something working, some of the songs came together a bit easier than others, even transmissions riff parts were in so many different arrangements but I always knew it would sound different on its own merit haha there was no crushing of our valued gear, sure don’t you know were all starving artist struggling to get our art out there for the kids…
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What is your favorite song of “Formless”? Yeah, I know the story that “each song is like a child” :-)
Well they are like children their yours nobody gave birth to such monsters, haha but really you never really have a favourite song per say, but there's certain sections that are great to play or passages that feel so good to sing it gives you this sense of completeness you feel whole in those instances, but I have many of these on this album I have to say that nothing has a centre which was the last song we arranged in a few short weeks I may add I just came together, it was an old riff and felt right and I love that vocal harmony which was a bitch to do. But every song has something that holds you into its life….
I see that “Formless” is released as vinyl and double CD edition, and second part has only one song. What is this song?
This track is still in the same vain as the rest of the album but it has a different flavor compared to the rest of the songs, so it kinda needed to be separate for a simple reason, it’s a strange song even for us, it based around the fact of we are all overwhelmed with propaganda and surreal messages being churned out for the human mind to be flooded with sound bites and news bulletin being washed over us to confuse and distort our views, everything being sold and re-wrapped and resold and tryin to obscure our perception of the world, the idea sprung from an idea I had of some guy sitting on his porch picking at his strings and these new bulletins sprouting from a tv or radio in the background as a tolling bell rings ominously in the distance giving the feeling of being separated from reality but also being caught in the trap set by the powers that control society….
What kind of topics do you raise in your new songs? New art-work is non-typical for doom genre, it’s quiet cruel and brutal, didn’t your change band’s conception?
We feel the artwork suits the message we try to portray in these songs, the formless pupa having no real shape or construct, nailed and tied to life, having no release of free movement…
As I was just pointing out in last question the lyrics deal with the view that we no one seems to listen anymore to make their own view of the world, that our livelihood and futures are bought and sold back and forth all wrapped in a different plastic, wars to keep man at bay, to control the masses, propaganda to keep revolution and change from uprising…. Keeping mankind down with a very powerful control…
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But mankind seems to love the control… We got trends and most of us follow them gladly and blindly, someone tries to break the ties yet he catches another trend of being mindlessly “against the system”. You’re a musician, you’re an artist, you’re old – you’ve said it by yourself – do you see a way of breaking this circle? Does music really help you to deal with that?
No man is ever free of control, his worst control is his own, we hold ourselves back from basic living our own life, even family, work and other aspects of our social intrigues are a control, we need them to feel a part of something and trends are things that humans vaguely attach themselves to see if they fit into certain groups of society or even certain scenes, but I’m still the same I just wanna play my guitar and sing a doom to the world and that’s not trendy..
Man, I remember that you recorded “A Disease of the Ages” with Brian, and now Pauric Gallagher takes his place. Did he take part in composing of “Formless”? And where’s Brian now?
Having worked with Brian the longest, with us being in one of the first bands I played with before Beloveth formed, I was a pleasure to have had him being part of our journey, it was a difficult transition to lose him, I won't go into the semantics of that split. All hails to him for his contribution over the years. I don’t really see Brian that much around, I dunno if he has some other music interests going on at the moment. It took us a while to figure out who would replace him, we had a couple of guy's in mind, but when we found Pauric, we knew we had found something good, he fit in with us so naturally, even with him being so much younger than us he has the same views of how music should feel and he adds another aspect to our style that is only going to grow into something better in the future..
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By the way, you made a diagnosis for a humankind bringing it in the title of your previous album. So dare I ask – what is this disease? And what is your “prognosis” for a “patient”?
Humanity is the disease, a disease upon itself, we wallow in a drunkenness of ignorance and hate, we strive to crawl through life and we poison ourselves in a toxic haze to get through the pain.. we medicate ourselves in whatever we can, let it be drugs, drink, music or whatever we can to make sense of it all….
One of most intriguing news for our Russian readers is return of Mourning Beloveth in Russia for taking part in Moscow Doom Fest VI! How long were you thinking before agreed to play a gig in Moscow? And do you have some other plans for Russia besides making a killer-gig?
I was an instant decision to return to Moscow, we enjoyed ourselves so much there last time, couldn’t believe the warm welcome for us there, a long way from home but feeling at home with all those dedicated fans… I was a pleasure to play there, and will return many times again… the fans were amazing there… this one guy travelled days on a train just to see our show… what a legend… and I have to say, Russian women are so so fine we just want to return to look at them and hope they are not shy to come chat to us when we return…
Oh, I would like to ask you about most crazy gig of Mourning Beloveth – get this question like you want! :)
Oh we have had many crazy episodes throughout the years and met many a crazy fan or two along the way, but for me one gig always sticks out in my mind for craziness is when we toured America in 2003, we had played some strange venues but one in particular sticks out, we played in this venue called the junkyard and as many venues have cool names this place was in fact a junkyard with pickup trucks and cars everywhere, no stage, just a garage floor, and it had gigs 5-6 nights a week, but they were usually crusty grindcore gigs and the place filled up with crazy crusties, moshing and drinking and one guy climbing under the drumkit asking our drummer to hit him with the drumsticks during our set… it was such a fun show to play, dunno if I would want to go back there again but I was such a laugh…
Frank, thank you for the patience which you were demonstrating answer my questions. I wish you and the band all the best on your way to Russia and back. We’re waiting for you. Already. Really. Right at the bar.
Thanks to you and your readers for takin the time to listen to my ramblings, and I hope to see you guys soon….. Doom on my friends…
Interview By Aleks
Official Website
Facebook
Hello Frank! How are you? Let me congratulate you with another chapter in Mourning Beloveth history! You’ve released new full-length album “Formless” at 22nd of February via Grau Records. First of all mate how will you promote the album? Mourning Beloveth is enough well-known to start a tour in support of the release, isn’t it?
Hails and greetings to all, Frank here to answer your queries, well as far as promotion for the new release we usually just try to do as many gigs as possible, we love to play live and have some cool festivals coming up for us including ROADBURN in Holland and a few other gigs in Europe and of course MOSCOW again. We have done our own tours in the past and will again maybe at the end of the year when the festivals season is over, but for the moment we are just concentrating on the festivals we are booked for..
Last albums of Mourning Beloveth were released by Grau Records, a label with good taste in all what concern of qualitative doom music. But I remember that “Dust” and “The Sullen Sulcus” were produced by another label. Do you feel differences in methods of working with various labels? Did your demands to promotion and other things change?
Yes we have released 3 albums with GRAU so far and of course every label has a different approach to marketing and promotion, in fact DUST was originally released by ourselves, we created our own label just to release it, and then a good friend of ours had started a label SENTINNEL and he rereleased it, and sulcus was picked up by AFTERMATH in Norway, but to get back to the question workin with GRAU gave us more time to concentrate on the music end of things, we don’t have any specific demands for promotion only that who ever we work with does their best to get our music to as many people as possible… every label has their own methods of how they operate and I guess GRAU has done some good things for us.
New album always means new promo sessions, don’t you tired of all these interviews with similar questions? :-) What kind of questions do you hate the most?
We like to do interviews I all seems to happen around new releases, it seems to be late night when I’m replying and usually a bit stoned so it depends how mundane the questions are, I done one a few weeks ago and the same question was asked in 8 different ways, that annoys me but I try to give my best to answer with truth and honesty…but the one that bugs us all is when we get questions regarding some my dying bride similarity or shit like that. Other than that ask what thy will…
Fuck, has it been 20 years already… oh I'm old, haha, but for us it's still the same as in the song is more important than anything, we still have the same procedure in song writing as we did in the beginning… but in another way we are different than the early days, our sound has changed a bit, in as far as to say we have matured a lot and our world perception has evolved and it transfers through the music…
Well, now about “Formless”. “A Decease of the Ages” was released 5 years ago – in 2008, so it’s obvious that Mourning Beloveth followers want to know more about new songs. What’s new have you prepared for public?
Well DISEASE FOR THE AGES was a very course and cold album, dry harsh guitars and the feeling throughout is very desolate, not to say FORMLESS is not desolate, it is but in a different sense, theres a warmth to the new album that is both enlightening and smothering at the same time… just like existence,
Yes, I’ve got your point, but what are real reasons for such changes? Can we separate personal life and experience of musicians and their work in the band? Look, man, Anathema had problems with girls when they were young and they were playing death doom, then things went better and their change the style, but MDB plays same stuff as always for damned lot of time and… Oh, well, okay, just bring it on!
No to be honest, I don’t think you can separate them from each other, your music is the feelings and thoughts that occupy your mind and what make what you are and we need this music to vent all that emotion away. To expel all pains and fears so as to feel free if just for that moment.. it’s a kind of therapy…
I wonder how much time you spent in a studio recording new songs… You know it’s an old stereotype: metal guys go to a studio, drink there, crush the equipment and then have a brand new full-length! So how did record session of “Formless” go?
It was a strange thing to be honest because I had some idea of how to approach the songs and at the same time I had no idea, first time writing with Pauric I was curious and nervous of how it would work but once we started structuring and raping the songs apart until we felt there was something working, some of the songs came together a bit easier than others, even transmissions riff parts were in so many different arrangements but I always knew it would sound different on its own merit haha there was no crushing of our valued gear, sure don’t you know were all starving artist struggling to get our art out there for the kids…
What is your favorite song of “Formless”? Yeah, I know the story that “each song is like a child” :-)
Well they are like children their yours nobody gave birth to such monsters, haha but really you never really have a favourite song per say, but there's certain sections that are great to play or passages that feel so good to sing it gives you this sense of completeness you feel whole in those instances, but I have many of these on this album I have to say that nothing has a centre which was the last song we arranged in a few short weeks I may add I just came together, it was an old riff and felt right and I love that vocal harmony which was a bitch to do. But every song has something that holds you into its life….
I see that “Formless” is released as vinyl and double CD edition, and second part has only one song. What is this song?
This track is still in the same vain as the rest of the album but it has a different flavor compared to the rest of the songs, so it kinda needed to be separate for a simple reason, it’s a strange song even for us, it based around the fact of we are all overwhelmed with propaganda and surreal messages being churned out for the human mind to be flooded with sound bites and news bulletin being washed over us to confuse and distort our views, everything being sold and re-wrapped and resold and tryin to obscure our perception of the world, the idea sprung from an idea I had of some guy sitting on his porch picking at his strings and these new bulletins sprouting from a tv or radio in the background as a tolling bell rings ominously in the distance giving the feeling of being separated from reality but also being caught in the trap set by the powers that control society….
What kind of topics do you raise in your new songs? New art-work is non-typical for doom genre, it’s quiet cruel and brutal, didn’t your change band’s conception?
We feel the artwork suits the message we try to portray in these songs, the formless pupa having no real shape or construct, nailed and tied to life, having no release of free movement…
As I was just pointing out in last question the lyrics deal with the view that we no one seems to listen anymore to make their own view of the world, that our livelihood and futures are bought and sold back and forth all wrapped in a different plastic, wars to keep man at bay, to control the masses, propaganda to keep revolution and change from uprising…. Keeping mankind down with a very powerful control…
But mankind seems to love the control… We got trends and most of us follow them gladly and blindly, someone tries to break the ties yet he catches another trend of being mindlessly “against the system”. You’re a musician, you’re an artist, you’re old – you’ve said it by yourself – do you see a way of breaking this circle? Does music really help you to deal with that?
No man is ever free of control, his worst control is his own, we hold ourselves back from basic living our own life, even family, work and other aspects of our social intrigues are a control, we need them to feel a part of something and trends are things that humans vaguely attach themselves to see if they fit into certain groups of society or even certain scenes, but I’m still the same I just wanna play my guitar and sing a doom to the world and that’s not trendy..
Man, I remember that you recorded “A Disease of the Ages” with Brian, and now Pauric Gallagher takes his place. Did he take part in composing of “Formless”? And where’s Brian now?
Having worked with Brian the longest, with us being in one of the first bands I played with before Beloveth formed, I was a pleasure to have had him being part of our journey, it was a difficult transition to lose him, I won't go into the semantics of that split. All hails to him for his contribution over the years. I don’t really see Brian that much around, I dunno if he has some other music interests going on at the moment. It took us a while to figure out who would replace him, we had a couple of guy's in mind, but when we found Pauric, we knew we had found something good, he fit in with us so naturally, even with him being so much younger than us he has the same views of how music should feel and he adds another aspect to our style that is only going to grow into something better in the future..
Humanity is the disease, a disease upon itself, we wallow in a drunkenness of ignorance and hate, we strive to crawl through life and we poison ourselves in a toxic haze to get through the pain.. we medicate ourselves in whatever we can, let it be drugs, drink, music or whatever we can to make sense of it all….
One of most intriguing news for our Russian readers is return of Mourning Beloveth in Russia for taking part in Moscow Doom Fest VI! How long were you thinking before agreed to play a gig in Moscow? And do you have some other plans for Russia besides making a killer-gig?
I was an instant decision to return to Moscow, we enjoyed ourselves so much there last time, couldn’t believe the warm welcome for us there, a long way from home but feeling at home with all those dedicated fans… I was a pleasure to play there, and will return many times again… the fans were amazing there… this one guy travelled days on a train just to see our show… what a legend… and I have to say, Russian women are so so fine we just want to return to look at them and hope they are not shy to come chat to us when we return…
Oh, I would like to ask you about most crazy gig of Mourning Beloveth – get this question like you want! :)
Oh we have had many crazy episodes throughout the years and met many a crazy fan or two along the way, but for me one gig always sticks out in my mind for craziness is when we toured America in 2003, we had played some strange venues but one in particular sticks out, we played in this venue called the junkyard and as many venues have cool names this place was in fact a junkyard with pickup trucks and cars everywhere, no stage, just a garage floor, and it had gigs 5-6 nights a week, but they were usually crusty grindcore gigs and the place filled up with crazy crusties, moshing and drinking and one guy climbing under the drumkit asking our drummer to hit him with the drumsticks during our set… it was such a fun show to play, dunno if I would want to go back there again but I was such a laugh…
Frank, thank you for the patience which you were demonstrating answer my questions. I wish you and the band all the best on your way to Russia and back. We’re waiting for you. Already. Really. Right at the bar.
Thanks to you and your readers for takin the time to listen to my ramblings, and I hope to see you guys soon….. Doom on my friends…
Interview By Aleks
Official Website