SOURCE – Exit Plan is the 6th and latest studio album for Withering Surface. Tell us how the songwriting and recording process went this time around – do you believe the additional down time due to the pandemic allowed the band to dig deeper and refine certain details more than ever before?
Allan Tvedebrink (Guitars) – I wrote all the music for our comeback album Meet Your Maker which was released in 2020. We didn’t really have a full band before the album was already done, so it was just a matter of having a few inputs on keyboards and leads… Obviously, we had to cancel everything we had planned following the release, so yeah, I had a lot of time to start writing for the new one. I thought that now we are a band again, let’s do all of this together, but as I went on with the writing, it was pretty clear that I would probably just have to do it on my own. We didn’t rehearse as we had nothing to rehearse for and no-one had ideas to share or they had their own little Covid-thing to deal with. And as we were scaling up things after the pandemic, it didn’t take long for some of the members to throw in the towel. So all in all, it’s the exact same writing process with Exit Plan as with the predecessor…
But yeah, I had a lot of time to think and evaluate since we were doing nothing gig wise, and we all kinda had the feeling that we had done a great album but also that we could do better. And so we did – added a little more sharpness, focus and energy and I generally put a lot more time and effort into the song writing.
SOURCE – What are your goals and expectations for the new album?
Allan Tvedebrink (Guitars) – First of all, we hope that the metal heads out there will receive Exit Plan well and give it and our music in general a chance. Of course we also want to hit the road and make up for all the gigs we couldn’t play after the last release. We are so proud of this album because everything just succeeded in the end even though we had a lot of line-up struggles and wasted time because of this. And we are very happy to see, read and hear that almost all of the reviews we have had so far honors that. People can really hear that we have given it our very best and that we obtained the goals we set for ourselves with this on. So, we just hope that everybody will stream the shit and see if it’s worth their time – and hopefully come see us live sometime during the summer, fall and beginning of 2025 where we have lots of stuff lined up!
SOURCE – How do you think the additions of guitarist Marco Angioni and drummer Troels Lund-Sørensen have changed or improved upon the sound and outlook for Exit Plan?
Allan Tvedebrink (Guitars) – Luckily we joined forces with Marco before we started recording the album. He didn’t contribute anything for the song writing, obviously. But his input on the sound and sparring with him regarding the keyboards and leads has been really valuable to me. And also, his solos which are (give or take) more than half of the ones on the album are great and have added a lot to the final result. Marco is a great guy and besides him being a way better player and musician than me, we are very much alike in the way we see and explore music. I’m very curious and looking forward to writing new music with him in the near future. It’s a clean sheet but I feel that in the way we cooperate we have already reached far.
Troels joined us half a year ago, so he has had no part in the recording of Exit Plan. But at the moment we are recording the bonus track for the Japanese release and it’s shaping up really well. Troels is a totally different drummer than Jakob, but he is super skilled and easy to play with, so also that endeavour I’m looking forward to take on.
SOURCE – How would you assess the growth or advancement in your abilities to express yourself as a guitarist and songwriter from the early stages of Withering Surface to where you are today?
Allan Tvedebrink (Guitars) – It’s funny, I’ve actually been thinking about that lately… Back in the days, we were in the rehearsal room all the time, rehearsing for maybe 4-5 hours three times a week. Besides that, I was playing a lot at home, coming up with riffs and songs, memorizing them to be able to present the ideas to the guys. Also, we obviously had to learn a lot of riffs and ideas from the others and remember song structures that would constantly change from day to day. So I had a lot of muscle memory and we were a really tight outfit when we playing live, as we did it all the time.
Fast forward to present day, where we almost never see each other. Everything is done online and we rehearse two or three times before a gig. Talking for myself, I’m rusty in a band relation. Rehearsing by myself, playing along to an mp3 is not the same and not for me. Of course I now have a lot of experience and I’m a way better guitarist now than 20 years ago, but preparing for a gig is tough, haha! I’m lucky I have another fun jam band playing Motorhead-like rock tunes frequently to keep my chops up.
But as a musician I find it much easier to write music and not be limited in expressing what I want by writing music at home when I’m inspired, have time and want to. It’s super liberating to be able to do a full demo with drums programmed and hearing and exploring everything with multiple guitar layers, keys and bass added. Trying things out that I would never have come up with in the rehearsal room and challenging my own abilities is so great! In my present life I couldn’t imagine even trying to get a track done with all of us in the room.
SOURCE – Several artists have recently been talking about issues with streaming services and losing money, while others have been defending it. What are your thoughts on this evolution of the music industry?
Allan Tvedebrink (Guitars) – First of all, I would love to have more streams on the services we use. But there are a lot of bands out there and it’s tough to break through to a lot of people. For me as an amateur musician, it’s not the money that drives me. At all. I’d rather have 50.000 streams at 0 revenue than 500 for 10 bucks each. For me it’s about getting our music out there and have people come to our shows and spend their money on a ticket, a t-shirt an album or just having fun.
It’s 2024, only the really big artists can sell enough albums to live from, and of course they can also live from streams that in a large count pays well anyway. For me streaming services are a blessing and you should just embrace it and be happy that people have a great chance to discover and listen to you and that your music get spread throughout the world in a manner that you’d never had the possibility to, if you were just selling CDs. It’s the best promotion tool for your music in my opinion. Granted, the streaming services earn a lot of money on the music we create, but if they had to pay more to the artist, they’d just charge more from the subscriber or add more advertising, which would probably lead to people finding the music somewhere else where you wouldn’t get paid at all… We have seen that before with file sharing.
SOURCE – Who would be a band that is really talented that isn’t currently getting the attention they deserve, to you at least?
Allan Tvedebrink (Guitars) – Oh, there are so many great bands out there who don’t get noticed. As I touched on before, it’s really hard to get the recognition and even to get people to know you exist. And speaking of streaming services, I do enjoy the benefits of finding new acts everyday. Artists I would never have encountered, even if I went to a music shop every day. But there are many fish in the pond! So quite a lot to mention. But to keep it short, I’ll keep it local and name a few Danish bands that deserves a lot of attention: Mother of All, a semi-technical death/thrash band with intellectual lyrics and universe. I’m especially fond their debut “Age of the Solipsist”. Then we have Sylvatica, a kinda folky (without being annoying) symphonic melo-death band with a Finnish vibe. Super skilled musicians and song writers. Check out Ashes and Snow from 2021. Lastly, Blazing Eternity who – like us – recently reunited after many years. Their new album “A Certain End of Everything” is one of the best albums I’ve heard this year. It’s goth-like doom/black with a lot of mood and atmosphere. Common for all of them is that they don’t tour much and they don’t make much of themselves on social media, which I guess is more or less key to being discovered these days.
SOURCE – How has your relationship with your fellow bandmates evolved over the years? How do you maintain that balance between the music and business activities this deep into your career?
Allan Tvedebrink (Guitars) – Well, getting to know people through music and by playing together is great. You get to know each other like no-one else, as you are going through a lot of stuff glued together by the band, the partnership and the creativity you unfold together. Back in the days we were really close and spent a lot of time together, but at some point the business side of things took over and that is a huge part of the reason why we split 20 years ago. I didn’t see the meaning of playing in a band when it was more about practicalities and spending time on budgets, planning, media and so on.
When we reunited and sat down to talk about what we wanted to do with this, it was like being with old friends you never left. The way of talking, the dynamics and the general understanding with or without spoken words was there right away. We had all matured, tried all kinds of different things with our relationships, kids, careers, other musical directions and were more focused on what we want in live and how we want to this. It’s also a huge part behind the concept of Exit Plan. We are very aware that this is going to be fun, otherwise we don’t want to spend all this time on the band. And from our past experiences we are – at least I am – very aware that the business side of things is not taking over the music and the creativity. We are grownups now, we can talk freely without having our feelings hurt and most important of all, we are all aligned about the roles and expectancies of everyone. So I’d say we have the best time in the bands history.
SOURCE – What’s next for Withering Surface?
Allan Tvedebrink (Guitars) – As I said earlier, we have a lot of exiting things lined up. We are trying to make up for all the gigs we couldn’t do with Meet Your Maker in 2020. We recently played a successful and sold-out release show and we are looking forward to playing some festivals during summer and fall + a couple of weekend tours in a few countries abroad. We also have three shows in Japan in October, a huge bucket list thing for years and years. Besides that we have a pretty extensive tour in Denmark in the beginning of next year and we are planning to do a European tour during 2025. In the meanwhile we will start writing material for the next album which we would like to release some time late 2025. I’m really exited about writing new music with the – hopefully steady – lineup we have now.
Next on my bucket list is playing in South America, which would be another dream come true. Now that we will have Japan checked on the list, I think we will work on something like that next.
Thank you VERY much for your time and your interest in Withering Surface. We appreciate it highly!
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Photo Credit: Lena Angioni