Show Of Bedlam (Interview)
Show Of Bedlam just released a new album, Transfiguration, and they are busy with it. The band is featured on CVLT Nation, Noisey and Invisible Orange. The new album of doom, experimental metal, is great and is available through Sentient Ruin Laboratories, Dawnbreed Records, Désordre Ordonné and PRC Music. While listening to their music you can now read this interview to learn a bit more about the band. I have to say that they are very nice to take the time to answer the questions, thanks again Show Of Bedlam. Rezine: How do you feel about the release of Transfiguration? Show Of Bedlam: Well, it definitely feels good to have this come out after so many years. It was a lot of work for us and it sometimes felt like it would never end since we recorded it by ourselves and had lots of issues along the way. It’s a kind of relief in a way. Rezine: How hard is it to let go a song after it being recorded ? SOB: It depends. Some of us like to play around with them live while others like to play them exactly the way they are. We've been looking forward to work on new material and mess around with new ideas for a while now. Rezine: How was the process to create this album?
SOB:It was a very long process, as I’ve said earlier. We started working on some of the songs on «Transfiguration » even before « Roont » was out. We had many issues during the last 5 years like lineup changes and technical problems during recording, etc. and that’s why it took us so long. But in a way, it allowed us to really work on our songs and record what we thought was the best tracks we had in our hands. Also, we really took our time to record the whole thing. If we thought something could be better, we tried something else. It gave us an opportunity to work on our thing at our pace until we were satisfied enough with the result. Rezine: Does the music comes naturally or it takes a lot of time to put together?
SOB: It really depends. Sometimes it just flows naturally and we can almost come out with a complete song out of an improvisation. Other times, we bring 2-3 riffs that fit well together and take a lot of time to build on those. In the end, the amount of time is really dictated by the quality of what comes out. If we like it, we keep it even if it was made in 5 minutes. If it’s shit, well, we try to find something better. Rezine: Were you influenced musically for this album?
SOB:We are all huge music fans so we are always very influenced musically. We like to keep a real opened mind regarding arts and especially music. Anything could influence us. From old field recordings of world music to old school death metal, from psychedelic to industrial, we like all of it. But it doesn't mean we want to bring all these styles into our music, we can just be inspired by them. Rezine: What are the themes you explored in the songs?
Paulina: We don’t choose specific themes. The inspiration is drawn mostly from personal experiences and also from certain literary genres like magic realism (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) and the classic fairy tales from Hans Christian Andersen and the Grimm brothers. I don’t pretend to be even half as talented as a proper writer (let alone those writers), but the tone and atmosphere of the works like One Hundred Years of Solitude or Eva Luna (Isabel Allende) fascinates me, and of course, inspire me so much. Reality becomes mingled with fantasy to a point where there’s no telling which one is which. And that’s the way I like to narrate my reality. Rezine: Did you have the words for a while or they came with the music?
Paulina: The words definitely come with the music. At first, when the song is still in the works, I sing with the band in a sort of made up language, a bit like Elizabeth Fraser used to do with Cocteau Twins. But as the writing of the song progresses, I start hearing what I’m supposed to be saying. There’s a part in Easter Water, one of the songs in the new album, where I just left the made up words there. I just thought it sounded like I wanted it to sound, and it wouldn’t have sounded the same with actual words. Rezine: What does the album mean for you?
SOB: To us « Transfiguration » is like a passage, an evolution, a change of face or of phase in the band’s life. Rezine: Any stuff left out from this album that might become songs later?
SOB: Yes, we actually have an extra track from the « Transfiguration » sessions that’s all recorded and just needs to be mixed. We also have some other tracks that we had the chance to record in an awesome studio at McGill University and we still need to do overdubs on them. We should finish those this summer. Rezine: Whats to expect from show of bedlam with this album (shows, tours, any fest)?
SOB: We don’t have a tour planned yet, but we would love to tour (any opportunity would be welcomed haha!). We have a three shows booked for this summer though, in Montréal : June 9th (LP launch), July 22 (Unleashed metalbash fest/CD launch), and august 27. We are also working on a video these days which should be out soon. Rezine: Do you guys have other projects?
SOB: We do not have many active other projects right now, only Trauco which is on and off. We did 2 shows, but its more a space for experimentation really. We have many past bands. Nick used to be in Towards Darkness. He also played in Seized, the former band of our new bassist, Wag. He used to play in The Black Hand, Shitfit and Human Greed too. Also, Ari, who was the bassist at the moment of the recording, used to be in many bands all the time. He had all of these other projects like Boneblack, Xothogua, Saw Mass, etc. He is in a new project now, but I don't know its name.