In the last few years the international underground heavy scene has been seeing many many doom-sludge-stoner bands popping up like “magic” mushrooms, and, I must say, it’s nice. Many bands are really really heavy, and, well, this is also nice. I dig heavy and sick-sounding music. However doom is not just wild distortion and rough sluggish sounds luring you with black magic and hash or beer paradise. Doom has something to do also with root heavy metal as well as with clever, prog to epic melodies able conquer your mind by sincere intimacy and introspection or else by just contemplating, struggling or coping with life straightaway. Several doom bands from the British scene have been masterfully embodying this approach to doom in the past years, or, I shoud say, decades, and a few of them still bravely stick to the style.
One of them is Unsilence, a long-lived band active since the early 90s and, it’s no secret, one of my (Mari’s) favourite melodic heavy doom bands.
I had had the opportunity of interacting with members of Unsilence over three years ago (here), in a rather long interview some time after the full-length album Under A Thorn Sky had been released (here). That was also the occasion for outlining the long history of the band and the variable connections of Unsilence’s members with other cool bands of the British scene, like The Human Condition, The River and Misericorde (among others).
In the last years Unsilence have been transferring and made their whole, or almost whole, early production (from the 90s) available on Bandcamp. I am proud and jealous of those old-looking CDs of mine bought from the band years ago, but I must say it’s cool to have an easier access to those doom gems! Moreover last year Unsilence released their new, intense, beautiful full-length album, A Fire on the Sea (here) and so a new, second interview was due!
That was also, and again, the opportunity for listening to musicians who practice music fully as diy activity, and to people who fight, literally, with life’s ups and downs for keeping their passion for music and for doom alive. Surely not the only case of musicians and/or people fighting with life issues, but still it’s good to listen to/read what these musicians and guys have to say. This time too there came the additional excuse for questioning Unsilence’s members about their other involvement with band The Human Condition. Their debut EP back in 2011 was greatly promising (here), so it’s good to see that things are back into action there as well, with new music and gigs coming up!
So thanks to Kieron Tuohey, guitarist and founding member of Unsilence, to James Kilmurray, intense vocalist and guitarist, and James Moffatt, bassist, for taking part to this new interview. And also thanks to Kieron and James for telling about their experience and the things to come, soon, in the other band where they militate, The Human Condition.
What inspired you in making this new album involving the sea?
JAMES KILMURRAY - That's a good question. In my case I can remember a specific day which really set the ball rolling. It was on a road trip holiday along the west coast of Ireland. I've always loved the atmosphere of the coast and the sea so for me the whole trip was amazing.
On one of the days we caught a boat to one of the Aran islands out in the Atlantic. The island itself is covered in a patchwork of ancient stone walls and the atmosphere of the place was just mind blowing. It may sound clichéd but it was on the island that the song "A Fire on the Sea" started coming together. We already had some of the riffs for that song and in my mind the whole raw elemental atmosphere of the island completely resonated with the atmosphere of the guitar sound.
For me personally that was the start, where something inspiring took shape. A lot of my contributions to the album came from that mood and it definitely influenced the sound and atmosphere.
MARI - And how has the response from the fans been so far?
KIERON TUOHEY - Mainly positive from our fanbase. This album has had some of the best reviews we've ever had. But a few of reviews have been the worst we've ever received. There was also one review from someone who preferred us on "A Walk Through Oceans" and was very negative about Kil's vocals and the general direction. That was a new but inevitable phenomenon for us. We'll say similar things about bands we like and hear others doing the same. But I was a bit unprepared for us to be scrutinised in a similar way.
MARI - I personally appreciated the album very much and I found it more “metallic” and slightly less, let’s say, mourning than what I was expecting. Is it just my impression or did you actually “hit” heavier?
KIERON TUOHEY - Absolutely! This is a point which I think has been a little overlooked. Many will mention the melancholic beauty in our music, which is an important feature. But also important is the heaviness, power and aggression. With the latest album, we felt a need to consolidate the different elements better than before. With the previous album, the two tracks which we wrote, "Winds Of Enlightenment" and "The Burning Midnight" saw us moving towards this approach. The last album was written over a long period of time and with two major line-up changes. So we had to take on some of the roles of the guys who had left as they were also involved in the writing. In particular when the old singer left, there were a number of new options as to where we could take the songwriting. So maybe we got a bit too excited with the possibilities. The writing personnel for the latest album, namely me and Kil, was more settled and those new possibilities had become a regular fixture.
MARI - Album A Fire on The Sea came after a while following the debut full-length album Under a Torn Sky (2009) and with side projects (e.g. The Human Condition) plus demanding life/work issues in between. However in our previous interview, back in December 2011, Kieron had announced that the songs for the upcoming album had already been largely written. So, did these last plus two years change anything in the attitude, execution/performance etc. of the first drafts/versions of the songs? Was there anything “musical”, “inspirational”, technical/line-up-related, etc. that acted decisive for influencing the final results of this long process?
KIERON TUOHEY - I think it was only finding the time to do it around other commitments. We had hoped to record it in the summer of 2012 but we weren't rehearsed in time. But it worked out better for us to do it the following year. The album was recorded and mixed in stages over five months which was quite a good pace for us. Once the album was complete, we shopped it round to labels. Nine Records had already made us an offer but we kept our options open. It was quite a positive response although most had other releases planned. Along with the Nine offer, another one made an offer, which was a first for us. We decided to go with Nine Records as we felt they were more focused towards our style. When the album was released in June, it wasn't too long a wait.
MARI - On the other side, which features/facilities did you appreciate most for the making of the new album? For example, how was the experience at the Full Stack Studio?
KIERON TUOHEY - I first met Matt from Full Stack when we did a gig with Bastard Of The Skies back in '06. And they sounded really heavy, so when Matt told us afterwards that he had a studio, we were interested. But our paths didn't cross after that and we'd forgotten about him when we were looking for a studio to record the first album a few years later. I heard about his place again when looking for a studio to record the first Human Condition demo, as there was no way we'd again use the studio we did the Unsilence debut at. The Human Condition demos managed to capture the sound of the band so I knew that Unsilence just had to record there. Everything just effortlessly fell into place when recording this album. Matt used a lot of outboard gear, preamps and a real desk rather than just doing everything on the computer as these have a more natural sound. Whereas the previous studio did it all on the computer, probably out of convenience. And they had a Behringer desk. We were also able to turn up the guitar amps when recording them, as the studio was better soundproofed and away from disturbing anyone. On the last album there was a limit to how loud we could turn up as the engineer was worried about disturbing other businesses in his unit. Which makes you wonder why he chose them premises? But then your average ten-pence sound engineer doesn't appreciate that you have to crank up a valve amp to get a quality sound from it. But Matt is into guitars and understands that. But whilst the heavy guitars were obviously taken care of, the clean guitars also sounded really lush.
MARI – Well, it's cool to see how the experience with another band is addressing towards resolution or better management of important technical issues such as those about sound quality! And actually you are giving me a further excuse for asking about that other band, that parallel project, The Human Condition, which is involving a good part of the Unsilence crew. We had already discussed about this project in the previous interview but right now the "further excuse", a sound one, is the recent official post of 22 years, the teaser track from Pathways, the upcoming album by The Human Condition! So, you guys are back into action, isn't it?
KIERON TUOHEY - Yes. We have been inactive over the past six months as our drummer Phil has had a hernia. But we've started practicing again this week and we have a gig in Liverpool at the end of March with Coltsblood, Mael Mordha and Ninkharsag.
MARI – Cool! When did The Human Condition crew start working on the new music? And, most important, when will the new album come out?
KIERON TUOHEY - The music on the forthcoming album of The Human Condition features one of the demo songs (The Gifts I Gave), the first song we ever recorded which was released on our Myspace page (The Tempest) and another song we had early on but didn't record (My Will Has Gone). The rest of the material continued on from the demo in the intervening years. We're presently looking for a label to release our debut album. Hopefully soon …
JAMES MOFFATT – The Human Condition has had a few false starts over the past few years. After the demo EP came out things seemed to happen in fits and starts. I was in and out of work for about 18 months and over the past 10 months or so I haven’t had a job. Money has been really hard to come by. I haven’t had any transport and there’ve been times where I haven’t been able to eat very well or afford gas and electricity, so doing anything with the band has been out of the question. With us all living a fair distance apart it’s hard to do anything without at least some money to travel. I’m back in work now and I’ve got transport again. I’m still struggling for money for the time being, but I really wanted to get back into things as soon as I could.
MARI – Eh, I must say that reading about the economic crisis on newspapers everyday while comfortably sitting in one’s office does not give the actual sense of how hard life can turn until “real” people tell about their struggles for survival that sound like something belonging to a distant past or to a distant place … I’m so glad to hear that things started getting a bit better for you, James!
Well, let’s go back to music and to your bands which share a few features in style. I'm curious ... Did somehow the work on Unsilence's album also influence the contribution in terms of composition, or at least mood, to the new music of The Human Condition, at least for those of you involved in both bands? What are you putting into The Human Condition in addition or in alternative to Unsilence?
KIERON TUOHEY - Both Human and Unsilence operate as separate entities. And those who are involved in both generally have different roles. In Human, Jonathon plays guitar and writes most of the music, although Jay has made some contributions. I haven't written anything yet as I had been working on the last Unsilence album. But I have contributed a riff for a new song and I think Jonathon is using something I wrote but didn't use when he was a full-time member of Unsilence. I would like to write more for Human but it's a case of the riff just sounding right for the band.
In Unsilence, it's now Kil and I who do the writing. Jonathon just plays the drums but has made a few suggestions for arrangements. We asked Jay if he's do bass on the last album when we knew the old bassist wasn't coming back at the end of 2012. It's possible that he might write for us in the future. The only thing I have contributed to The Human Condition is the guitar solos. And it's been asked to do a guitar solo for every song in the classic metal/rock tradition. Whereas in Unsilence there would be songs where I don't play solos. We would see how the song develops before deciding to put a solo in. But on our latest album there are solos in all but one song (or two if you count the clean guitar track "Old Tides"). This might have been influenced by what I've done in Human. If you look at legacy of guitar solos in metal, there must be some pre-conceived idea of having a guitar solo in every song. And they sound great. So this time round I was thinking of accommodating solos more. After all, the idea of going against a pre-conceived approach can become formulaic in itself.
JAMES MOFFATT – As far as writing goes, I’d like to do a lot more. I want to get more out there. I’ve been in bands for a while now but the only song I’ve really had a writing contribution with has been Misericorde’s Sub Rosa on the last demo. That song was built around a bassline and riff I came up with, and I wrote the lyrics for that. We got that song pretty much finished in one jam session. I’ve got one riff on the new Human Condition album, right in the middle of Chrysalis and I’m quite proud of that one. I seem to find writing stuff pretty difficult, for some reason.
MARI - On Facebook I saw that The Human Condition took part to a gig during last January. Cool! So maybe it won't be too long before Unsilence too will go back onto the stage...
KIERON TUOHEY - The last Human Condition gig was actually last May. Then there was a lull in our activity due to reasons mentioned earlier. We had looked into doing some Unsilence gigs last summer when Kil was on holiday from college. But we didn't get anything organised. Kil has now become a father for the first time so there won't be any gigs this year. But we're hoping we can organise something from summer next year onwards.
JAMES MOFFATT – Despite some gear problems, the last Human Condition gig went pretty well I thought. I’d love to play some gigs with Unsilence. The new stuff deserves to be heard live. And I’m really looking forward to the next Human Condition gig. It’s in Liverpool, which is where I’m from and where I still live. It’ll be the first time I’ve ever played here.
MARI – Oh, James, that’s great! I’m sure it will be a blast! [And by the time this interview got posted I saw from the band’s FB page that the gig was indeed a great success!] OK, I have a final question: are you guys already planning or working on new music for Unsilence? And, if so, are there any specific sources of inspiration, at least music/style-wise?
KIERON TUOHEY - We have started working on new material. There isn't too much written yet. So far, it's difficult to summarise the nature of the material. But I think it will be something moodier without forsaking the heaviness gained with our last album. That's something we want to achieve.
MARI – Heavy, moody, doomy … That’s sounding cool enough! So here we are, ready for new doses of “trve British Doom”, via The Human Condition first and then via Unsilence in due time … In the meantime we have your previous, beautiful albums to plunge into, again and again … Thanks, guys!
KIERON TUOHEY - Thanks for the interview and continued support for Unsilence.
Interview by Marilena Moroni
Unsilence @ Facebook
Unsilence @ Official Webpage
Unsilence @ Bandcamp
The Human Condition @ Facebook
The Human Condition @ Bandcamp