SOURCE – Let’s start off by talking about the hiatus. This far into a career, it seems like it’s something that can be tremendously beneficial to a lot of bands to just unplug for a bit and reboot. How did Withering Surface first enter the conversation about taking a hiatus in the first place?
Allan Tvedebrink (Guitars) – When we split up in 2004, quite a few bands got back together already. I guess we’d reached a time of the metal scene where enough time for bands to get big, spilt up and get back together had passed. Some – if not most – of these reunions were more or less irrelevant.
I remember stating, that a reunion of this band would never happen. Things had just gone bad, you know, both musically and socially we wanted different things and I guess we’d grown tired of each other and the whole band thing we had to share. In other words I didn’t see myself getting back together with the same people to make music. But we’ve grown old, some would call it mature, and we have quite different lives now. With technology and all kinds of present tools makes playing music and planning a lot easier than back in the days where we would meet in the rehearsal room three days a week and play, create, discuss, argue.
To answer your question, the first seed was planted when the latest Thorium album was released. Several Withering Surface members through time has a history in that band and Jakob Gundel, who is the original drummer of Withering Surface did the production on that album. I got a copy as I’ve been in the band for the first three albums and in the thanks list Michael wrote that it was nice to work with Gundel again and maybe it was time for a Withering Surface reunion. I thought it was an awkward thing to put in a thanks list, rolled my eyes and thought nothing more of it until Michael called me some months later and asked if I would be interested and that Jakob was on board if I was. At that point I was in a position of my life where I needed something to happen musically and as we were close to the original line up which was appealing to me, I promised to give it a go.
So I sat down with this weird feeling of getting back to creating some music I love listening to and have always loved to play. It was like coming home after all these years of being in different bands with a more simplistic approach. So before I knew it, the first song was written and it was awesome. Michael and Jakob loved it and we decided to go ahead.
SOURCE – Meet Your Maker is a tremendous, tremendous leap from Force the Pace. Are you aware of how much the band has improved?
Allan Tvedebrink (Guitars) – Thanks man, that means a lot to us! I haven’t really compared our new stuff to the old material. I guess you don’t do that as an artist…? But it got me thinking about it. In a lot of ways, Force the Pace was indeed our swan song. The whole vibe of the writing, the recording, the release, the shows that followed just felt wrong and doomed. I’m still proud of that album, but there was a lot of bad energy and we as a group were warn out and you can hear that. On the new album, I’ve written all the songs by myself. In my own pace when it suited me. If there was any bad energy, it would come from me and I could deal with it or hang it up for later. It is really easy to ret rid of riffs, songs, ideas when you are the only one involved with it and I think that is why the album sounds like it does. There are no compromises at all. When I was done with a track, I’d send it off to Michael and Jakob and they’d be really enthusiastic about it and start working on their parts. They didn’t want anything changed or had any complaints, it was just pure positive vibes and lots of synergy the whole way.
I also think that a very important factor is that we are hungry again. We wanted this to be awesome and we wanted to prove that this reunion is justified. We wanted to create music that had the Withering Surface DNA and make it present and relevant in 2020, not jumping on any bandwagon or forcing it to me modern or something that is not us to please the masses.
SOURCE – It’s very common for bands to write much more material than they actually record. So how much material do you think you need to go through before you get a Withering Surface record?
Allan Tvedebrink (Guitars) – Hmm… It’s tough to say. All the tracks we wrote, we recorded. We didn’t want 11 tracks on the album, it’s just too much, but we did record everything leaving us with a few tracks to spare. They might end up on a licensed release in Asia or maybe a b-side type thing at some point. They are not left out because they are the weakest songs, they are left out because they were the ones that least fit the rest of the songs to make it an album. But We didn’t do like 20 tracks to choose from. For me, when a track is done, it’s done. And if it made it this far, it’s worth recording and releasing, if you know what I mean. I don’t want to spend a lot of time and energy on something that is not worth releasing. If it’s not worth releasing, it will not reach as far as being done. I think I use most og the stuff I come up with. Sometimes it just needs some love before it works, but I do discard A LOT of riffs and ideas or half songs that are not working.
SOURCE – The mastering on Meet Your Maker really showcases the music’s aggression, speed, and character. What approach to the production process did the band take this time around?
Allan Tvedebrink (Guitars) – We initially wanted to have the album mixed and mastered at Studio Fredman. I have a lot of respect for Fredrik Nordström and it would be a cool journey back to where it all started as he did the first two albums from 96 and 98, when Jakob was in the band. He did a great job with a test mix of the track Alone, which we all instantly fell in love with. But as we were mixing the rest of the tunes, it didn’t quite meet the quality of the test mix. On top of that a loooong process with miscommunication and misunderstanding made it hard to finish the mix properly, so we decided to drop that idea.
So we turned to Jacob Hansen. Not that he was our second choice per say, he was definitely in the pot from the beginning, but he’s so damn good at what he does and he is a bit out of our league economically. But he is also an old friend of us and Gundel is drumming in his band Invocator, so we took a chance and asked him if he could help ud out with the limited means we had for the mix.
He was happy to help us out, so we were delighted! It’s hard to compare Hansen and Fredman. Hansen is more polished and Fredman is the dirty guy in that company. We knew that Hansen would do a phenomenal job and that we could feel the safety and comfort we needed and as the whole album mix unfolded, it was obvious that Hansens mix would fit the music perfectly and we are thrilled with the result. Not to bash Fredamn at all, I would have loved to hear his A-game on this album, but in rear view, Hansen was the perfect fit.
SOURCE – Now with all the issue that the Coronavirus has raised, hoping it will be solved soon, how do you think this affects the music industry, and in particular the world of Metal?
Allan Tvedebrink (Guitars) – Oh yeah, this is obviously a big blow to everyone. Not everyone, as ourselves, are dependant of the earnings from playing music, but even then it’s horrible times. We had lined up several festival appearances and headlining shows during the spring and summer to support the new album, but that is of course cancelled. It’s not a big economical problem for us, but it would have made a really powerful come back. But we are not alone and now everybody is sitting at home writing new music waiting to get out on the road again. So imagine what happens when everything is opening again. It will be impossible to get your small ass band out playing anywhere as everything will be booked and the concert offers with established artists will flood the market. I hope there will be a place for the metal bands and especially the small and middle sized bands, who will have a hard time finding their place in all of this. In the meanwhile everyone will release a new album in 2021. Well, maybe not Metallica, haha. And here it will also be very hard to get attention as a small metal band. I really hope that this drought of concerts will mean that the concertgoers are HUNGRY for live shows and that they’ll have enough taste in new music to support the small acts.
SOURCE – How important do you think are singles and EPs in this era in comparison to full length releases?
Allan Tvedebrink (Guitars) – I think singles are super important in this time and age. Everybody are streaming a crazy amount of music, movies, series, live shows, news and so on and the attention span is almost zero. When I grew up a thousand years ago, you would have to consider which record you wanted to pull out from you limited collection and you’d know what to do for the next 45 minutes, only interrupted by flipping the record to the other side. In present times you don’t even need to make up you mind of what you are going to watch or listen to. Everything gets thrown in your face, and as you are listening to some thing, you might be watching a video with fail clips on youtube while reading the latest news about Covid19 while textning your friends or buying stuff online. The supply is overwhelming and if you don’t throw a teaser of what you are doing in the mix, you’ll never have a chance – IF you don’t have fans waiting for your outputs, which is a whole different thing!
Of course I think albums are relevant today, I would never just release a track, I’m an album guy. I love listening to albums and I don’t see how people can consume music as I just described it. But I’m an old fart, så what do I know…? I can’t see me expressing my creative output in only one song or an EP. For me it’s a journey. Hopefully a single or a video clip will tease the attention of people wanting them to buy or stream the full album as it is intended. It works for me in that way.
SOURCE – How supportive has your country been towards music of your kind?
Allan Tvedebrink (Guitars) – In Denmark metal is pretty much accepted. But officially and in the public. There are still some prejudice towards the genre, but the awareness and acceptance is growing. We have small internet/radio shows and we have a lot of metal festivals and concerts all over the country and I feel that people outside the genre are also pretty supportive or think that it is cool when I talk about my bands. The government actually support all kinds of cultural events and even our album is supported with means from the state. It’s pretty awesome. On the public radio they play a lot of mainstream music and I always wondered why a broader panel of genres and artist were not exposed more on radio and TV. But with the internet TV and radio is almost irrelevent and at some point, I think we’ll see an end to broadcasting.
SOURCE – What’s next on the Withering Surface roadmap?
Allan Tvedebrink (Guitars) – We have lined up a hand full of concerts including two festivals in September and November. Right now we have a ban on large crowds that will end September first. I really hope that it is not extended as we are playing our home town September 4th! We have five headlining shows in November and I do hope and believe that we are at least able to play them as it is in smaller venues, but we’ll see… We are planning a European spring tour. As I mentioned earlier, I really hope that there will be a place for us in the enormous supply of concerts I expect for 2021!
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