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Danish outfit URKRAFT are on the verge of releasing their first album for Earache. ‘THE INHUMAN ABERRATION’ showcases a band who aren’t scared to drag metal kicking and screaming to a higher plain.
In URKRAFT’s first interview for the upcoming album, earache.com gets some serious insight into what drives the band, hopefully with a full licence these days!
Thomas Pedersen opens up and let’s you in to their tangled world of juggling academia and high art with getting old school down n dirty shitfaced heavy metal drunk.
Introduce yourself?
My name is Thomas Pedersen, 28 years old from Copenhagen, Denmark. |
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I am originally from South Denmark, from a small island called Taasinge, which is merely forest, beaches and big areas of fields of all kinds! Great place to grow up! You would probably be referred to as a redneck if you tell people you are from these areas! Together with Mikael I am responsible for forming Urkraft and have been the “manager” since the beginning!
What was the reason you signed to Earache?
In 2004 we released our debut album “Eternal Cosmic Slaughter” through a German label “CartelMedia” and got some very promising reviews and attention from the metal media, in – and outside Denmark. But the best was that we got an email from Earache Records, who somehow had got their hands on our album and asked us where we were as a band, if we were still playing and what our future plans were. One thing led to another and they offered us a record deal. We have heard a lot about Earache, both positive and negative, but if you check through my CD collection, more than 50% of my metal albums that means a lot to me, my life with metal and my past, is labelled with Earache’s name! For us it was a dream come true. |
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I have wanted to be a metal musician since way before my teenage years, so this record deal was pretty easy to sign! This is something we have been working for since we started the band and as individuals since we started in musical schools – some of us before we were 10. We will try and create some good metal music and Earache will do their best to let the world know about it.
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Tell us what we should expect from ‘THE INHUMAN ABERRATION’?
The whole process when Birk (lead guitar), Mik (drums) and I meet up and start up new tracks is a mixture of all human feelings. We are very much 3 different individuals and all extreme perfectionists. Of course we have the same “red line” and the result is normally that we try out what mostly Birk comes up with and Mik and I throw in our opinions and suggestions for changes. In the end we try out some details, put riffs together and record the whole track. Afterwards we sometimes rip it apart again and try something else! We are not the kind of band that just does a new track in one rehearsal. We can sometimes use up to 14 days on just one track or even more.
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We might be too critical – especially on each other and that slows the process of course. But when we get started and have made a few half-finished tracks, things usually start to speed up and we get more creative and more daring.
“The Inhuman Aberration” album was made in about 4 months! We already had the Antfarm Studio booked; we just waited a long time to really kick it off, because we were signing the new deal with Earache. So when that fell into place, we spent 3 – 4 days in the rehearsal room every week and wrote the rest of the tracks. Compared to when we recorded the “Eternal Cosmic Slaughter” album, which was a mixture of old and new tracks, this album is all new tracks and besides 2 tracks we demoed for Earache before talking more seriously about the contract, all are made within a scheduled period. We tried to make this album have the right amount of varieties and riffs that would secure a whole, which would make the entire album more dynamic and at the same time show Urkraft as we are and as well as exploring a new musical side, we think has come through really well. It is difficult to describe, but we have worked a lot with more chaotic and noisier elements in the music. We want to express a wider and bigger wall of sound and fill it with melodies and beautiful combinations between keyboard and guitar. Not what melodic death metal or black metal usually presents or stands for, but we’re trying new ways to combine the elements we usually use and expand those to something wilder and – just more noisy!
I think one thing that has been very successful, compared to my expectations, is the build-up in every track and the sense of darkness / sadness in it. We have worked a lot with middle-pieces that only shows up once or twice in a track and are meant to change the theme of the song. It doesn’t have to be a riff – it can just be guitars, bass and keys playing within the same note, but not the same thing and being supported by Mikael’s drums and maybe some vocals, creating that chaos I talked about!
I think people should expect a combination of our own sound and some more noisy elements, just more chaotic and especially more than 50% death metal and 50% trash metal, with a more dark feeling to it over-all. Just check it out!
Ok, the album title we know but name me 5 Human Aberrations?
IN-human aberration - but hey, same difference, right...!?
You could copy paste aberrations from the lyrics, because basically that’s what they're about...
I know that, I have trouble spelling it. I was trying to be clever but, hey, let’s fly with this…
1. "Flagellation, amputation and disease - you all brought me back to me"
2. "There are ghosts is this fist, malfunction in my heart, my blood runs in the wrong direction, if I could I would rape the whole world - machine of conceited fornication"
3. "You can rape yourself a thousand times, still you can't escape God's will, always the beating of those ancient rhymes to kill, kill, kill"
4. "Behind sunshine, stars and skies glows a red light unnaturally. Every season, day and night I see that red"
5. Fill out this one as you wishes... going nuts and setting the world on fire over some stupid drawings, perhaps?
- We want to know what you did last summer (track 3 is called “This great summer”)
Yes, it is. Last summer we rehearsed, recorded and then went on holiday. The lyrics have got nothing to do with this, though. They are always separated from our own lives. We don't write and we don't like real-life or social-realism lyrics. The title is a picture - no summer lasts forever:
"This is the great summer of our kind, brought upon us in conspiracy between a burning lord and the ruminant monster called Earth"
There seems to be a productive metal scene up there in Denmark?
Yes, there definitely is! It seems as if everyday new bands show up on the Danish scene. As in any other country we have a few good, a few really bad, and a lot in between! I guess when you have a productive scene, the “competition” or the relations between local area bands, provides a certain eagerness to be better and work harder than your neighbour, which I think in the end results in bands that are able to go far on the international scene!
Even though there are a lot of bands in Denmark, not all work equally hard for it and therefore some disappear after a year or two! So the really productive part of the Danish Metal Scene are those bands which names you see and hear about, when ever there are events or international media talks about DK.
What touring plans?
We have many! Which means we are looking forward very much to touring and each one of us has our own opinions on who we want to tour with, where we want to tour and what we are going to play…; )
http://earacheshop.com/store/severe_torture.htmlouring outside Denmark. We have spent a lot of time on the Danish scene and are eager to cross the borders. We really enjoy playing live http://earacheshop.com/store/severe_torture.html has come to be more about the way you look or run around on the stage – you get a fashion show review, instead of a live bhttp://earachestore.com/store/severe_torture.htmlng plans we are looking out for everything, hoping both Earache and other big labels will see us as a suitable support act… We would especially like to tour the U.K. – which is an area our first album wasn’t really distributed in at the beginning, but when it was finally released there, the feedback was just fantastic!
Maybe explain the connection with Tue Madsen? - He’s famous in Denmark, right?
Tue Madsen is a good friend of us and one hell of a producer. I guess nobody doubts that anymore, since his name is printed on every second metal album released in Europe. Back in 2004 when we recorded the “Eternal Cosmic Slaughter” album he really found our sound from day one and he was of course the natural choice for us when we got ready to record “The Inhuman Aberration”. Hopefully we’ll get to work with him again… He is a good guy!
He has his very own way of getting the best out of your music when you work with him. He can seem very “I really don’t care about these crappy tracks” at first, until you have tried being de - motivated by him a few times and finally understand that he is just being very constructive and very honest, to get the best out of you and the music. He has some seriously fine tuned ears and is mostly the 6th flat tire in Urkaft when we record in his garage!!
What jobs do you have outside Urkraft if any?
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Mikael is finishing up his university thesis. He'll be a M.A. in Scandinavian language and literature. That's his major. His minor is history. He hopes to become a high school teacher eventually, but right now he’s freelance teaching Danish to foreign business people which is more flexible and more easily combined with playing Metal.
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Tander (bass) is working with children and has been for the last 5 – 6 years. He is married to a nice girl and of course spends most of his time with her. He has been an important part of Urkraft since the beginning and you should really check him out on stage – he really kicks it off…
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Eg (keys) has just finished as a programmer and is very much into the IT business. He got a job right away and is of course working with that everyday! Eg eventually joined Urkraft as a session-keyboarder and only participates when we are playing live and recording, but since we often have something we need to do as a whole band, he has become more and more a full-member. Not that we really care that much about the details. He actually has a long history in metal bands. (Blazing Eternity & Manticora)
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Birk (lead guitar) used to study Philosophy at the university, but changed halfway and is now doing really good at the Institute of Geography. He teaches some here and there and also used to teach some martial art from Brazil a few times a week. Can’t remember what it’s called. Other than that he spends a lot of time with his guitar and always has some cool riffings up his sleeve.
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Me, myself, I finished as a technical architect / building constructor at Copenhagen Technical Academy in December 2004. 6 months later I was working as a promoter and with booking in the mainstream music business – hehe, I’ve been booking for Bombay Rockers – I got accepted to the Royal Danish Academy for Fine Arts and Architecture. So I am looking at another 5-6 years in school! But it is flexible when playing music. Besides that I have my own company working freelance for drawing offices and have a few house / building projects on my own.
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You must really love Metal because with your academic achievements it sounds like you could make a fair living in your chosen fields.
For us, playing metal and doing what ever we do on the side is all a combination to live a meaningful life, I guess. You could always wonder what things would be like if we weren’t playing music and just concentrated on educating ourselves and the other way around of course. Personally I have this idea that I put more of myself into the music and get a way bigger kick out of it, if the rest of the day has been progressive and I have accomplished something in school or at work! I think it is mutual for all of us to move forward all the time in both our personal lives and also very much in our music. What is a fair living anyway – money?? Fair living for me is to be happy about everything I do, and I just need to do more than one thing to make a fair living. Although I can tell you that money of course is an object for me and therefore I have made the choices I have in education – I have been working hard for it and later in my life I will be able to afford much more than a fair living!! - while thinking back on the period where I kicked some ass on the metal scene…
We definitely love metal. No doubt about that! This forthcoming release through Earache is also an accomplishment for all of us, which contributes to our personal lives. It has never been for the money or the fame. I can’t speak for everyone in the band, but for me it is an opportunity to do something wilder and less “normal”. The rock ´n roll-star feeling has been placed deep inside me since I was a kid and that feeling still remains – now more than ever! Once a metal head – always a metal head!!! It is a way of life (for me anyway), which I think most people will agree with. You don’t put on your rock ´n roll attitude when you are leaving the office, it is there all the time and influences everything you do and say!
Any interesting gig/drinking anecdotes?
There are plenty of drinking anecdotes, of course! We really “enjoy” having some serious rounds of beer and booze. It is all a part of playing rock ´n roll. None of us do drugs though and personally I don’t understand people who do! It doesn’t make you creative and it doesn’t help with professionalism or your personality. Fuck drugs!!
Other than that I don’t think we are that much different from so many other people. It is not possible to pick out and highlight one drinking session, because there are so many! I think it is mostly me and Birk who are the really active drinkers, or going out people, in the band at this moment. I usually go out and party every Thursday, Friday and Saturday and always get very drunk! I am not too keen on smart ass disco’s, I am more into places where people come in all kinds of shapes and you can show up in whatever you wanna wear!
On the gig anecdotes we always kick it off backstage after concerts and besides Mikael, we also have a few rounds before going on stage. In the earlier days we didn’t touch alcohol at all before playing live, but I guess we have found out that we can actually do both and still play tight and energetic. It is an individual judgement – it is up to how much you can drink without messing up your performance.
Mikael and I have a history of being seriously drunk and showing up at private parties and behaving in a way most people would call out of control… It is not that often anymore, we are getting older, but we still know how to drink a lot and party hard and are always the last to leave the party/venue!
What do you do in your spare time besides music?
What’s spare time?? (See working, drinking…) I’m playing as a session musician in other bands, both rock ´n roll and metal. Mostly for a new all-star band from Copenhagen called “The Downward Candidate” – you should check it out. They are a seriously down tuned and aggressive bunch of fellows!
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Have any of you ever been arrested or in trouble with the law, if so why?
No, I don’t think so. We are not troublemakers and we always stay on the right side of the law. In my teenage years I got a bunch of tickets for illegal driving – mostly motorbikes – or got thrown into a police car and driven around when I was out partying. Usually because of fighting…but nothing serious. I guess when you come from the countryside; you go through these things, like driving around without a license and getting into fights… We used to be longhaired, which of course many red necks look down on and then provoke you into something… Today these things almost never happen and the whole metal scene is very non-violent luckily. People want to have a good time…
Who’s the main writing force behind the band?
Mikael, Birk and myself. Birk and Mik also usually split up the lyrics.
Which of your idols have you met?
My father. |
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