THE
ETERNAL INTERVIEW
Although having enjoyed
both critical and commercial success with their first full-length releases (2004's
'The Sombre Light Of Isolation' and 2005's 'Sleep Of Reason'), Melbourne based
outfit The Eternal decided the time was right for a change of direction, with
their 2008 release 'Kartika' showcasing their move towards a more rock orientated
sound, without straying too far from the dark atmospherics that had initially
brought much attention in the first place.
The move was a daring
gamble, but one that definitely paid off , with 'Kartika' going on to become The
Eternal's most successful album to date, which in turn allowed them to spend much
of 2009 on the road with extensive touring throughout Europe, the U.S. and Australia.
For
the first half of 2010, The Eternal (Comprising of vocalist/guitarist Mark Kelson,
bassist Dave Langlands, drummer Marty O'Shea and keyboardist Maria Ilmoniemi)
have maintained a low profile, with much of that time spent putting the finishing
touches to their long awaited new album.
Two years after their
last release, The Eternal has finally returned with their fourth full-length effort
'Under A New Sun', which is without a doubt the band's most diverse and accomplished
effort to date, and an album that looks set to eclipse the success of their former
releases.
With the announcement of tour dates, and the album
just days away from its official release, I caught up with vocalist/guitarist
Mark Kelson to talk about his experiences working alongside producer Jeff Martin
(Ex-The Tea Party/The Armada), the lengthy process behind putting together 'Under
A New Sun' and the group's upcoming tour plans. But in order to fully understand
how The Eternal came to be where they are today, Kelson takes a few steps back
to 'Kartika', where the band were only just starting to discover a sound that
finally put the past to rest, and signalled a new era for The Eternal.
"I
think we found a sound that we were finally comfortable with on 'Kartika'. I think
with the first couple of records we were searching for our sound, and it wasn't
until 'Kartika' that we started to really find that sound. I think we initially
started off with a strong doom-influenced sound because of my old band Cryptal
Darkness. I was trying to get away from that toward the tail end of Cryptal Darkness,
but then that band broke up before I was able to fully do that. I think that's
why there are still some of those elements heard on 'The Sombre Light Of Isolation'.
It wasn't necessarily what we wanted to do at the time, but more a case of getting
an album happening. I mean half the songs on that album were actually leftovers
from my old band, and the other half was new material. By 'Sleep Of Reason', we
started to focus a little more on the rockier stuff, but I was still scared to
completely let go of the doom-like stuff. So we definitely still had some of that
sound in there. But with 'Kartika', we really pushed for that whole dark rock
side to our sound to the surface, but without forsaking that strong emotional-type
edge to it all. I think we succeeded on that album, but it's with 'Under A New
Sun' that we can finally say that we really know what our sound encompasses, and
who we are musically. It's strange, because no one in the band listens to doom
at all. We don't associate ourselves with the doom sound, and we find it funny
when people say that we play doom metal. We don't play slow, and we don't have
those kinds of riff structures within our songs. We've always found ourselves
to be a bit like a heavier version of Anathema. We're essentially a heavy and
dark sounding rock band, and I think 'Under A New Sun' really shows that."
While
the success and critical acclaim that followed 'Kartika' proved that The Eternal's
decision to further develop their sound beyond that shown on their first couple
of albums was the right one, it wasn't without its price.
"Making
'Kartika' was a really hard time for us. We had released 'Sleep Of Reason', which
helped take us overseas with some big tours, as well as some shows here in Australia
with HIM and Opeth. But then we lost three of the members in one go, not due to
personal issues, but due to family commitments and getting married. The whole
situation was quite sad really, because they were my best friends. So that pretty
much left me and the keyboard player Chris Stevenson to work on 'Kartika'. I was
pretty scared at the time, and I remember wondering if I had a future with this
band that I thought we had laid a solid foundation for. 'Sleep Of Reason' had
done pretty well, and the song 'Everlasting' was really popular, and the label
liked it a lot. It was a solid record, and people liked it. I really wanted to
follow it up with something epic and beyond anything we had done before. We went
into this pit of multi-tracking madness and went crazy. We were working on the
album ourselves, but it got to a point where we couldn't control it any more.
Not helping the situation either was finding that Endel Rivers, who produced the
album, wasn't in Australia at the time to mix the album. So I had to fly over
to Estonia to mix it. It just felt like this big push just to keep the band alive
at that point. We also weren't getting advances anymore either, because we weren't
making the label enough money. So all of the expenses to make 'Kartika' was coming
straight out of my pocket. Adding to those woes is that our all of albums were
leaked all over the net, which directly affected our sales. But after the dramas
of putting together 'Kartika' were behind us, the band started coming back together
when we brought New Zealand bassist Dave Langlands into the band (Who at the time
comprised of Kelson, Stevenson and O'Shea). Having Langlands join The Eternal
was probably one of the best things to ever happen to the band. So while 'Kartika'
didn't quite take over the world straight away, we realised it was a really solid
album, and in some strange way, helped keep the band alive. Given the strength
of the album, I was able to book a fairly comprehensive world tour, which only
helped us believe we would still be around for some time. 'Kartika' was a difficult
time, but I'm pleased with its aftermath. Listening back to it now, I would have
perhaps stripped it back a little bit, but otherwise I'm happy with the album.
In the end, 'Kartika' may have been the hardest album for us to make, but it sure
helped cement us as a band."
Having overcome line-up dramas
and the difficult phase that was the making of 'Kartika', you would have thought
that the process of putting together 'Under A New Sun' would have been a relatively
painless process. Not so according to Kelson.
"Making
an album with The Eternal is not a quick process, or a simple one! (Laughs) It's
a very long and drawn out experience. Because we do everything ourselves, and
are in complete charge of everything to do with the band, it does take a long
time. I guess when Jeff Martin first got involved it would have been back in early
2009. The start of 2009 was taken up with touring, so we only started to record
the album around December 2009 through to February 2010. That part was relatively
quick. Then we sat on it for a while to think about it. We didn't want to shoot
it out there and find that there were things about it we didn't like. And there
were some things I didn't like about it, so I did some additional mixing here
in Melbourne around May 2010. It was just some fine tuning really. Mixing in an
expensive studio here in Melbourne meant that we didn't get to spend as much time
on the mix as we would have liked. So fine tuning the mix was a good idea. It
was around this time that the album was mastered as well. So with the album finished,
we set about seeing what was available for us in terms of new deals. So we talked
to a few labels, had a few meetings and sent out a bunch of promo copies of the
album. And unfortunately, nothing really eventuated that we were really happy
about. So it was around November 2010, more than a year and half after we first
started the album that we finally came to the conclusion that we couldn't sit
around on this album forever. If we left it too long, people wouldn't really give
a shit about it. We're not the sort of band to release singles, but we thought
releasing the single 'Under A New Sun' would be a good reminder to fans out there
that we were working on a new album, and that it wasn't too far away. So as it
stands, 'Under A New Sun' will be released in Japan through Stay Metal Records,
who also released 'Kartika'. We don't have a deal in Europe currently, but that's
O.K. because at this stage, we're really looking at distribution rather than being
signed. Once our current tour is complete, then we'll focus on getting the album
released in Europe, the U.S. and Canada as well. But right now, Green Distribution
is handling the distribution of the albums here Australia, and we'll help out
by making all our albums available through our own webstore. So while it may appear
like its taken forever getting 'Under A New Sun' to a release stage, it's probably
not overdue in terms of when we initially thought about releasing the album when
we first started working on it."
Although a long time
in the making, it would appear that by the feedback so far, the time spent on
'Under A New Sun' has been worth it, even if Kelson says so himself.
"Over
the last year, we've played the album to people from behind the scenes, whether
it's the mastering guys, those involved in the mix or industry people in general,
and they love it so much that some have gone as far as call people on the spot
and tell them that they have to sign the band up now! (Laughs) The response has
been great, but there's no one from a label banging down our door with a deal
just yet. But we should start getting a bit more of a vibe about the album from
others now that the album is starting to make its way out there. I hadn't listened
to it for a number of months, and I put it on the other night, and I feel that
it's a pretty strong record from start to finish. For me, it doesn't dwindle into
uncertainty, or wander off. Instead, the album sounds like we're really sure about
what we were doing this time around. We've always been a band that likes to push
our sound into new areas and experiment with each new album, but I think this
album is a more coherent version of 'Kartika'."
The one
song that fans have heard for sometime however is the title track 'Under A New
Sun', which happens to be the first single lifted from the album.
"Again,
it's been a pretty positive reaction. I haven't seen that much negativity. I don't
think the single represents the album as a whole, but more of a taste of what
some of the album sounds like. The song definitely has Martin's trademark more
than some of the songs on the album, which is probably why he was pushing for
it to be the first single! (Laughs) I originally wrote 'Under A New Sun' as far
back as 2003. In that time, it's been reworked a couple of times, and at one stage
was actually called 'Sunburn'. So it went through a couple of lives, and wasn't
necessarily intended for The Eternal. But when I pulled it out of the demo vault
in preparation of putting the album together, it seemed to fit in with what the
band was putting together. As a producer, Martin certainly brand things with his
mark, and he's very strong in doing so. I went with it because I wanted the outside
input after recording 'Kartika', which was so internal in a lot of ways. I don't
think it's a bad thing to show Martin's mark on the album, but when we get around
to releasing the second single, I think it'll be a song like 'Collapse', which
is a little more The Eternal sounding if you like. We don't really want to get
lost in his identity."
It's no secret that Kelson is a
fan of Martin's work, whether it's his work with The Tea Party, The Armada or
his own solo work. So it comes as no surprise to see Martin helming the production
on The Eternal's latest album.
"Getting Martin in on this
project happened quite quickly actually. I've always been a big fan of The Tea
Party. I mean I'd seen the band something like fifteen times, so I was a big fan.
He's my favourite guitarist, and I love the way he managed to bring classic rock
across with this overwhelming darkness. I mean an album like 'Transmission' (1997)
is just some of the darkest and heaviest rock I've ever heard. I just love it.
I heard that he was doing a bit of producing, which initially sparked the idea
behind getting him to produce us. I guess it was around Christmas 2008, and I
said to my girlfriend that I was going to get Jeff Martin to produce the next
album. She was like, 'Really? O.K.' The band also said the same thing when I told
them. So I got management to send Martin a copy of 'Kartika' and one new song
called 'Eclipse'. About a month later, he called me up from Ireland where he was
living at the time, and in his big deep voice said, 'I want to work on the album
with you'. I was taken a bit aback. But really, it was as simple as that."
With
a producer onboard, and schedule in place, it was now down to the band to put
together the songs. And while the bulk of the song writing has primarily been
Kelson's realm of expertise, 'Under A New Sun' was very much a collaborative effort.
"The
timeframe for making 'Under A New Sun' wasn't all that long, but Martin could
only produce the album in December 2009. By this stage, it was January. So at
that point I had one song, and we had to go on tour for three months. It was good
in the sense that I had a deadline, I knew who the producer was, and we knew what
sound we were trying to achieve. The material really did come together quite easily.
I had written a lot of rock sounding material in the past that didn't quite fit
into The Eternal mould. But when I reviewed some of that stuff for this album,
a couple of those demos resurfaced, got reworked and ended up on the new album.
We then added three or four songs from out of jam sessions, which was also a first
for the band. Usually I record some demos at home, and give them to the rest of
the band. We wrote two songs in L.A. when we were touring, which were 'Cast In
Stone' and 'Collapse'. We then had two weeks off, so we spent a bit of time jamming
there, which produced 'Control' and 'The Sleeper'. I have always wanted to relinquish
control of the band. I didn't necessarily want to be in control of the band, but
I had to keep it afloat. I had to keep it going. But now I don't feel like that.
I mean we jam, but then I take it home and kind of knock it into shape. And the
guys are totally happy with that. They know my role is songwriter and lyricist,
and that their role is to help that process out. And we all have roles within
the business side of the band. So it's all really balanced. No one is pushing
for any really difference these days. I've had guys leave the band in the past
because I wrote all the songs, but then they never contributed to the songs. I
was always encouraging people to contribute, but they never did. And I think there
was a bit of jealousy amongst some because I quite regularly and freely write
a lot of material. So we had a lot of problems with that in the past, but now
it's really balanced. I write the songs, we like the songs, we jam, play them
live. And it's good, because the guys feel like they've contributed something
musically. And I like that."
So with songs in tow, and
Martin manning the controls, the creative process to produce 'Under A New Sun'
was well underway. While the results speak for themselves, Kelson best sums up
his experience working with Martin.
"Working with Martin,
all I can say is that he's intense! (Laughs) I think he's one of the most amazing
guitarists and singers. As a human being, he's very intense and very much what
you would expect him to be. He's a rock star of the old school variety. He carries
the flame of Jimmy Page and people like that. He's a really big character too!
He's like seven foot tall! (Laughs) I guess he wanted to come into the studio
and show that he was in charge as a producer, and he wanted to shape us in some
ways. That was fine up until around the third day when I said that I wasn't willing
to go through with some of his suggestions, and instead follow through with my
own ideas. After all, I am a producer, and I was putting my own hand up for production
things as well. He was taken a bit aback by that early on in the recording process,
because I'm not sure if he was used to people talking back to him! (Laughs) But
I felt pretty strongly about what I wanted on this album, and the things that
I was fighting for to bring to the album. I wasn't about to allow the album to
become his, and his alone. But in the end, we found a happy medium. He does play
on the record in places. When you're doing sixteen hour sessions playing guitar
by yourself, sometimes it's good to hand some things over. And it goes without
saying, the guy can definitely play guitar. He was happy to contribute some stuff,
and I was happy to let him do so. I've never been all that open to contributions
to The Eternal in the past. But in terms of producers, I've always been, 'I'm
the boss. I'm in change, and this is how it works!' But with this album, I did
want to let go a little bit, and let someone else's influence in. This is also
the first time where the whole band is making decisions, rather than me making
all the decisions. We make them altogether. I still have the final say on the
music side of things, but I'm very much interested in hearing the other guys input
as well. The reason we hired Martin is because he is a rock producer and a rock
musician, and we wanted to focus more on the eastern/classic rock elements that
first showed up on 'Kartika'. We were comfortable with that, and we really liked
it. Being such a huge fan, I thought he was the right man for the job, and I think
the results speak for themselves."
Outside of the title
track, it's 'The Sleeper' where Martin's contributions stand out most of all,
with Martin providing lead vocals alongside Kelson. Interestingly enough, 'The
Sleeper' wasn't written with collaboration in mind.
"'The
Sleeper' came about from a jam session initially and came about quickly, both
musically and lyrically. There was a point during the making of the album where
we had finished recording the album, and before we started recording the vocals,
Martin and I went away for a week to a studio/house type complex in Sydney to
fine tuned the lyrics. It was there that we added the most to the album. A lot
of the song structures and riffs didn't really change from my original demos,
but sonically, we added a lot of things, and Martin brought in a lot of ideas
in terms of guitar sounds, and in particular the vocal melodies. And that was
great. I know I write good hooks and stuff, but I never really considered myself
as the stronger singer. I actually ended up being the vocalist by default. Nobody
else wanted to do it! (Laughs) I've got better over the years, and I can hold
a tune, but I never considered myself the best singer in the world. Now I was
working with one of the best singers in the world, so that was cool. We went through
each of the songs, and talked about what the song was about, and what I was trying
to say in the lyrics. 'The Sleeper' was one of those songs that was far more suited
to his kind of voice. It was an off the cuff thing that he ended up singing on
it. I was planning to sing on it, but my voice is a lot higher, and it didn't
quite sound right. It was good, but it sounded a lot better with his voice on
the lower parts, and mine in the higher parts together. In the end, it gave the
song a nice colour. It happened very naturally. Lyrically, we worked on the song
together. In the end, we condensed my verses to just the best ones, and we worked
on the rest together. That was probably the biggest musical contribution that
we did together. He helped out a lot on the lyrical front, and helped pick out
the strongest parts and strengthen the hooks. I'm actually at even levels with
him, but because his voice is so bass heavy and resonant, it kind of overrules
the song. The song simply needed a deeper voice, and I wasn't about to mix my
voice higher to satisfy my own ego. My voice needed to blend with his voice. Of
course I was happy to do that, and then I would take over on the chorus. It worked
well, and it's just one song. I wouldn't have done that on the whole album. I
was happy to do it on one song like that. Not everyone gets to work with their
heroes, so it was nice to do that. I got to sing a duet with who I consider is
a truly phenomenal singer. I think 'The Sleeper' is a nice result of our work
together. It's a pretty song."
With 'Under A New Sun'
hitting the shelves in little over a week, it's now the road where The Eternal
will spend their time. And the first set of scheduled dates takes place on here
in Australia, with dates lined up for the east coast and South Australia.
"It's
always really hard to tour Australia. Sometimes it's the part I look forward to
least, because it is a hard slog and a struggle sometimes as the numbers can be
good and bad. But I am expecting the East Brunswick show in Melbourne to be really
good. But it's all interesting, and we'll see what happens. Right now we're compiling
a set list, which is also interesting. We've been playing the songs from 'Under
A New Sun' for two years now. I mean we recorded the album over a year, sat on
it for awhile and have been rehearsing for four nights a week in that time. And
even then, we were playing the songs for about a year before we went in to record.
So they're not that new to us in some ways, but we still enjoy playing them. It
will be a bit hard to let go of some of the older songs, but it's proving just
as hard to choose what'll make the set list, and what won't. It's hard to chose
when you have a large body of work to choose from, and only an hour to play them
in. And given that some of the songs are quite lengthy, we can't always play what
we consider are some of our favourite songs either. But we're now working out
a cohesive set, and one that works. One thing we do know however is that we're
enjoying playing the new material more than some of our earlier material. It'll
be fun at the album launch, and the rest of the tour for that matter, because
we'll be focussing a lot on the new material. There are a couple of songs from
'Sombre Light Of Isolation' and 'Sleep Of Reason', and perhaps a little more from
'Kartika', but the main focus will be on the new album. It's also fun to be playing
the new songs in an updated way too as a three piece band after playing them for
several years. They're a little more spacious and energetic, and I think people
will hear that."
After finishing up their national dates,
the band then head over to New Zealand for three dates…
"It'll
be our first time in New Zealand, and that's looking pretty good so far. Our bass
player (Langlands) is from New Zealand, so we're a bit like Crowded House or something!
(Laughs) But New Zealand's looking good, because it's a small enough place that
everyone knows where someone is coming over to play there. So the response has
been great, and we're getting a lot of airplay over there. I had never thought
of touring New Zealand before, but I'm really enthused by the prospect of playing
over there with this tour. I want to see what its like, and get to see a bit more
of their culture while I'm over there. They're not exactly like us, and the people
I have met through Langlands are lovely people. They're loyal and genuine people.
I really get a sense of that family and community from the people I've met from
there, and I think that shows in the level of enthusiasm there is about the tour
over there already. And one of their own coming over here and doing well for himself
is something they really like. And we're actually playing in his town as well,
so that'll be really cool. It's going to be different, and really cool."
…Before
closing out the tour with a string of six dates in the land of the rising sun
- Japan.
"Stay Metal Records are great. They're investing
a lot of time and money into us. It feels a little weird having somebody so supportive
of us, but it's good. They licensed 'Kartika' from us after we played over there
in 2009, and they had it in every store. That was followed up with a lot of promotion
in a lot of good magazines such as 'Burrrn!' magazine. They really pushed for
it. We have a lot of contact with the owner of the label, and we're always discussing
what we want to do, and the plans we have to make in order to achieve that. So
we have six shows lined up there this year, and they'll look after us while we're
there. They see us as a long term investment because they see us as a hard working
band. And that's what a lot of labels don't see. They're usually looking at how
big your fan base is, how many friends you have on Facebook and your MySpace.
But while Stay Metal Records is looking after us, we still have to work hard.
Our upcoming tour of Japan is not a holiday, and the day after we arrive, we'll
be doing six shows in a row before we leave again. They're taking a financial
risk taking us over there, and making us work hard for that. But it's really good.
We're looking forward to that tour because we were really amazed last time we
went over there. It was a shock when the curtains opened and there were a lot
of people there. We'd sit down later and they would all put out C.D.'s that I
had made, so as far back as when I was nineteen when I made it! So there was actually
a fan base for my body of work over there. That took me aback a bit, and I was
honoured to find that my musical work hadn't gone unnoticed after all these years.
Some people do know that I've made a lot of albums, and appreciate that. It was
nice. In terms of future touring plans, we'll just have to wait and see. We're
hoping to jump on some other tours and keep this thing going fairly solidly, and
we have some options we're looking at as we speak. I'd love to get back over there
and do another decent support tour in Europe and move some albums that way. But
in the meantime we'll be on the road until April, and we'll see what follows next."
Aside
from touring, the band also has some tentative plans to devote some time to focus
on some other projects under The Eternal banner.
"We're
hoping to do a live album while we're in Japan to capture that live vibe. We'll
play a little something off every album, but with a greater focus on the last
two albums. After that, we're thinking of doing a sort of mellow album. We're
thinking it'll be this retrospective type of album, with reworked songs that have
nice string sections, with our Finnish keyboard player Ilmoniemi playing all the
analogue keyboard stuff. It's not necessarily an album of new material, but it's
something that we would like to do sometime this year. It's more for us than anything
else. We just wanted to update some of the older songs. Another idea is an album
that really highlights the beautiful melodies that I can come up with, but with
a real Pink Floyd tripped out like vibe to it. But that won't really be a new
record either. I think our next album will be quite heavy. I have three or four
new songs already, and that's the direction it seems to be pointing towards. They're
not really in any real solid shape, but they're definitely rocking. Of course,
there's some melodic stuff as well, so I don't it's something that's going to
stray too far from what we've done in the past. But all these are just vague plans
we have. At this point, we have our solid line-up, we have our touring behind
us, and we have 'Under A New Sun', which in some ways is our tribute to all the
great classic rock bands. It has all the things that I love about classic rock
in a sort of Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin way, but produced via our way of doing
things. Everything everyone likes about The Eternal is all in the new album."
I
would like to thank Mark Kelson for his generous time, and making the interview
possible.
For more information on The Eternal, check out
- http://www.the-eternal.com/
©
Justin Donnelly - justindonnelly@ozemail.com.au
