interviews_slumber

Music Interview: SLUMBER

SLUMBER

English Version:

FALL OUT AFTER THE NEW TEAR

Exclusive interview with Ehsan Kalantarpour (Swedish Dark Metal band SLUMBER)

Interviewer: Demogorgon

First off, please take my congratulations on the great release of your debut album Fallout! Although its an album full of melancholy, I say Happy new year here! :)

hehe thanks man, since it's too late for me to wish you a happy new year, I'll wish you a happy next year. 

Someone said that Fallout combined your two demos, and it "is Seclusion + Dreamscape, and 1 new song called 'Fallout'", is it true? How do you decided to use the title of a new song for the whole album? This song must mean quite a lot to you...

Yeah, the cd is our two demos re-recorded and somewhat changed. The change since the demo-recordings are the keyboards. I started all over again from scratch since I had developed at my instrument alot since the demo-recordings, I also rewrote them so that the songs from the two demos would sound united.

The reason we chose to name the album after the new song is because we feel it represents the feeling and atmosphere we wish the listener takes part of when he or she listens to Slumber. The intense form of melancholy, the contrasts and the haunting atmosphere. 

Fallout is one of the most emotional records I've heard in quite some years, besides Doom / Death metal, can I link it to any Emo-core / Post Hardcore music if you listen to that music genre?

No I'm sorry, I don't know anything about those two genres you mentioned. 

There is something remarkably and noticeably fresh and new about Slumber's style, which is rare to find in nowadays Metal scene. Such as the balance between Siavosh Bigonah's death growls and circulation and development of atmospheres created with riffs and weaving keyboard, as well as the beautiful choir on "Rapture". The end of "Where Nothing Was Left" reminds me of Tiamat's Wildhoney, even Tiamat has used the word "Slumber" as a part of one of their album... Listen to this album, it made me feel that we are blackened by night, blinded by night; we are blackened by light, blinded by light. With this feeling, which fans do you what to write music for or face? The same as Paradise Lost, early Opeth or Katatonia?

Lately I've been thinking alot about what kind of people are attracted to our music. I mean, I'm totally obsessed in the music of Slumber. All I can think about in my everyday life are new riffs, concept, lyrics and so on. I have really dived with my whole soul into the music. We all have. Hence, the music becomes very personal, and the tunes tells alot about us as individuals. So I wonder, who really likes our music ? What kind of a person is he/she ? Do you and I have anything in common ? What kind of persons do you think we are by listening to the music ?  I have no clue whatsoever what kind of people are drawn to our music, therefore we do not write the music for any specific fanbase. We mix alot of different elements in the music, so I don't think it is pointed to fans of a specific sub-genre. 

How can you create such emotional music? Is it a "must" for you to immerse yourself in sadness or sorrow?

For me it is. I strongly believe that honest and colourful music must come from some kind of suffering or struggle. Happiness is not very interesting, it's a narrow path without much colours in my opinion. I'm fascinated by failiures, tragedies and the beauty these phenomenons contain. I do not mean they are good in any way, but if you can't see the beauty and purity of the feelings in a woman who just lost her child for example, is having, well all I can say is.. You and I have very different perspective at things. 

Do you think your music could help those ones who have met or will meet many troubles in life? Whether positive or negative effect this grey music could bring?

I do not agree that our music is "grey". In my ears the music is a spectrum of "dark" colourful emotions. I do not care if it helps people or the opposite, as long as it affects them I feel we've done our job. 

I notice Slumber have more band members than regular lineup. Since I am also in a band, I suppose more members might cause more differences and problems in writing music. Have Slumber ever met them? If there were any, how do you solve them?

There are no problems right now. The core in the band is me, Jari and Siavosh. We write all the music together and when we have written the songs the rest of the group come and learn what to do. Me, Jari and Siavosh are best friends since way back and we are doing what we want to do the rest of our lives right now. Writing music together and work hard to achieve our perfect sound. We have many differences but we always manage to convince eachother.

Could you reveal any secrets about the forthcoming 2nd album of Slumber here?

You will hear the true essence in Slumbers music. We've found our exact style and feeling. It is slowly turning into a real masterpiece, let's hope it stays this way through the whole writingprocess, wich will be over june. We are on fire right now !  There will be real string sections involved next time. There will mayby even be an orchestra performing all the synth-strings and a choir, if all goes well.

Thank you for your time, any last comments? Although it's a miserable task put on our back to make a living; it's still an old Existentialistic question which we have no answer when we asked to be or not to be. So it's better for us to leave other things alone, begin a new journey for ourselves and those ones we care the most. Let all Dreams and Hope buried with Love and Peace, for all those Brave Murder Day in the Fallout area... All the best wishes to Slumber.

Demogorgon

Thanks for the interview, take care

Regards

/Ehsan 

Chinese  Version:

新年后的放射尘埃

——瑞典阴暗金属乐团SLUMBER（沉眠）独家专访

Demogorgon

    瑞典新兴乐团层出不穷，但是能够真正吸引我们的注意力的实属不多。而就是有那么一支新乐团，依靠他们的一张唱片就打动了我们。作为他们的首张专辑，《放射尘埃》（Fallout）所表现出的悲天悯人与伤感情绪绝对是和乐团成员的年龄所不相称的。也许乐团不擅言辞，他们的情绪化音乐已经说明了一切。

乐团队型：

• • Siavosh Bigonah – 主唱

  • Jari Lindholm – 吉它

  • Daniel Albertsson –吉它

  • Mike Brunkvist – 贝司

  • Ehsan Kalantar – 键盘

  • Daniel Beckman –键盘（现场）

• Ted Larsson – 鼓

被采访者：

• Ehsan Kalantarpour（键盘手，与Jari和Siavosh一起是歌曲创作者）

首先，请接收我的祝贺——为了你们精彩的首张作品《放射尘埃》（Fallout）！尽管这是一张充满哀伤的专辑，我依然会在这里说新年快乐！:)

呵呵，谢谢，兄弟，尽管现在说新年快乐已经晚了，但是我会祝你新的一年里快乐。

有人说《放射尘埃》结合了你们的两张小样，它们是“《隔离》（Seclusion）和《梦境》（Dreamscape），以及一首名为‘放射尘埃’的新歌”，是真的吗？你们是如何决定选取一首新歌的标题作为整张专辑的标题呢？这首歌一定对你们意味深长……

耶，这张CD是重新录制的我们的两张小样，稍微有点变化。自从小样录制后，变化出现在键盘上。我擦掉过去整个重新开始，因为在小样录制后我的乐器更换不小，我重写了这些，两张小样的歌曲就能听起来一致。

我们决定使用新歌作为专辑名的原因是我们感觉它代表了我们希望听者在听SLUMBER的时候参与其中的感觉和气氛。强烈的哀伤，对比以及难以忘怀的气氛。

《放射尘埃》是我近些年来听过的最情绪化的唱片之一，那么除了厄运/死亡金属，我能够把它和Emo-core / Post Hardcore音乐联系到一起吗？假如你也听它们的话。

不，很遗憾，我对你提到的那两种音乐类型一无所知。

在SLUMBER的风格之中有着一切尤其值得注意的新颖之处，在今天的金属圈子里已经十分难得。例如Siavosh Bigonah的死亡唱腔与重复乐段和浪潮般的键盘所创造出的循环变化的气氛之间的平衡，还有“Rapture”里的美妙合唱。“Where Nothing Was Left”的结束让我想起TIAMAT的《野花蜜》（Wildhoney），甚至TIAMAT曾经使用“SLUMBER”这个词作为他们一张专辑名称的一部分……聆听这张专辑，它让我感觉自己为夜色所黑暗，为夜色而盲目；被光明带来黑暗，为光明而盲目。带有这种感觉，你们想为哪类乐迷创作音乐，或是你们想面对哪类乐迷？和PARADISE LOST，早期的OPETH或者KATATONIA一样？

近来我一直在思考哪来人会被我们的音乐所吸引。我的意思是，我彻底着迷于SLUMBER的音乐。我在每天的生活里所能想的只有新的重复乐段、概念、歌词等等。我和我整个的灵魂已经全都冲到了音乐之中。我们全都是这样。因此，音乐变得非常个人化，曲调带出有很多关于我们个人的东西。所以我很想知道，哪些人真正喜欢我们的音乐？他或者她是哪类人？你和我有哪些共同点？听着这种音乐，你觉得我们是什么样的人？无论如何我还得不到关于沉浸于我们的音乐中的到底是怎样的人的任何线索，所以我们并不为任何特别的听众群写作音乐。我们在音乐里混合了大量并不相同的元素，所以我认为它并不指向于某一特定亚类型的乐迷。

你们为什么可以创作出如此情绪化的音乐呢？是不是“必须”将自己沉浸在悲哀或者忧伤中？

对于我，是的。我强烈地相信真诚和多彩的音乐必须来自于某种折磨或是斗争。快乐并不怎么有趣，在我看来它是一条狭窄的通道，没有什么色彩。我为失败、悲剧以及这些现象内里带有的美丽而着迷。我不是说它们在任何意义上是好事，但是假如你不能从诸如一个女人失去孩子的感觉中看到所存在的美丽与纯洁，那么我能说的只有……你和我对于事件的看法非常不同。

你是否认为你们的音乐可以帮助那些在生活中曾经遇到或者即将遇到困难的人吗？这种灰色的音乐能够带来正面的还是负面的影响？

我不同意我们的音乐是“灰色”的。在我听来，这种音乐的频谱是“阴暗”的，有着丰富色彩的情绪。我并不关心它是否可以帮助他人或是正面的，只要它还能影响到他们，我感觉我们就完成了我们的工作。

我注意到SLUMBER比通常的队型有着更多的成员。因为我也在一支乐队之中，我猜想更多的成员在创作音乐过程中可能引起更多的分歧和矛盾。SLUMBER曾经遇到过吗？如果有的话，你们是如何解决的呢？

现在没有问题。乐队核心是我，Jari和Siavosh。我们一起写所有的音乐，我们写好以后，乐队其他成员再来学习该怎么做。我，Jari和Siavosh以前就是好朋友，而我们现在正在用我们剩下的生活来做我们想做的事。一起创作音乐，努力工作来完成我们完美的声音。我们有很多分歧但是我们总能够成功说服彼此。

能在这儿透露一点即将到来的第二张SLUMBER的专辑的秘密吗？

你在SLUMBER的音乐中将听到真正的精髓。我们已经找到了我们的明确风格和感觉。它逐渐地成为了一张真正的大师级作品，让我们希望它在六月完成之前，整个创作过程中保持住这一方向。我们现在情绪高涨！下次将包括真正的弦乐部分。甚至可能有一支管弦乐团来演奏所有的合成器弦乐以及一支合唱团，如果一切顺利的话。

感谢你接受采访，最后说点什么？尽管生活是一个被加到我们身上的痛苦重担，当我们被问及生存或是毁灭的时候依然除了一个古老的存在主义的问题之外什么答案都得不到。所以我们最好只能抛开其它一切，为我们自己和为我们所关心的人开始一次新的旅程。让所有的梦想和希望、爱情与和平一起被埋葬，为了放射尘埃区域中的所有美妙的谋杀日……祝SLUMBER一切顺利。

Demogorgon

谢谢你的采访，保重

此致

/Ehsan

附2006年新闻，乐团即将更名：

Copyright © 2006, DEMOGORGON