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Caliban: Drummers are no musicians…

A really unusual encounter: Not too long ago messrs Marc and Patrick from Caliban met messers Marc and Patrick from STALKER magazine in the Roadrunner office in Cologne. A relaxed and interesting conversation developed. The identical names of the four was much to the amusement of the Roadrunner crew but let`s start with the beginning...

Can you already pay your bills with your music?
Patrick: Yes, it works for some years now. Before we signed to Roadrunner, it was arranged in a way that it somehow worked. Nevertheless timing was a bit more difficult because we all had part-time jobs. I, for example, had a part-time job at Europcar and drove cars from A to B. I`m a trained wholesale and foreign trade specialist and have worked in that job for five years. But the band just occupied too much time. When you are on the road for 200 days per year then you can`t do a job anymore and then I also quit my part-time job and thought that I have to do it so that I can spend the time that I`m at home more intensively with my family and girlfriend.

Speaking of touring, do you have anything planned?
Patrick: We will only play festivals this summer, not like last year when we played over 30 festivals, I think. We don`t do that this time. First we go to the US and then towards the end of the year we go on tour in Europe and then probably the States again. Bleeding Through will take us with them as an exchange deal because we played with the guys here at the beginning of the year.

How do you make contact to bands…?
Patrick: Messenger, Email and myspace or calling.

Things are going really well for you, right? The people are waiting for your new record “The Awakening”! We already had a listen….
Patrick: ….yes?

Kicks ass and is definitely a progression of the band - we liked it a lot. Eclectic… (buy, buy!!! from Marc & Patrick) How do Caliban write songs? Jamming?
Marc: For the new record most of the stuff was done on computer, at home. Because we all live quite far away from each other (Koblenz, Bonn and Münster) we don`t rehearse that often.

Did you listen to some musical stuff like for example Kreator during the pre-production?
Marc: I tried not to listen to other music this time, with this album and also after the pre-production I didn`t listen to albums from other bands to make sure that there are no similarities to other bands. There shouldn`t be any influences from outside on the record. But if you take, for example, Kreator then I can agree to a certain extent and I think that`s an influence that not many Metalcore bands have in their sound. Slayer and this and that but not so much Kreator.

You definitely managed to progress. Your info sheet reads: „More aggressive, more shouts, less singing – all in all there are some heavier sounds coming your way.“
b>Marc: Yes, thank you. For me personally, it`s also by far the best album we`ve ever produced. Benny Richter (producer) definitely did an awesome job! There are some parallels to the last album and I think those who liked the last album will also like the new one.
Patrick: I think, that also those who liked the third last album will like the new one. With the new album we try to get those kids back that didn`t like our last two albums
Marc: We put the best from the last four albums plus some new elements onto „The Awakening“, which was actually my intention. It was a lot more intensive than everything we`ve ever produced before. Some songs had to be changed three or four times until they were like we wanted them.
Patrick: It was a bit annoying for me because Marc and Benny tinkered so much with the sound and so we never really rehearsed and when I went to the studio wanting to do the songs that I was sent, that I had prepared it was like “Oh, by the way the song sounds now like this...Listen!” And then you`re panicking...

Did you accept that without protest?
Patrick: I didn`t want to be the third or fourth person to butt in. That`s Marc`s thing and he does it pretty well. I concentrate on my drumming.
Marc: Drummers can`t write songs anyway...
Patrick: (self-deprecating) Drummers are no musicians! Hahaha
Marc: Rarely a drummer comes and says: „I got this cool groove here…” (drums a groove on his legs)

The clean vocals sound very fitting on the new record. A lot more fitting than before.
Marc: That`s what he was aiming for, a little less but more fitting. It was more important for us that the things stand out better.

Why didn`t you do the record with Andy Sneap?
Marc: We would have had made the record later then because he didn`t have time. On the other hand, we already did two records with him and they sounded pretty similar – they sounded like Sneap! The last one sounded a bit fatter than the other one, both had their typical sound. And secondly we recorded with another producer and so we played the songs in a different tone, on B and not on C anymore.
Patrick: I was sceptical at first.

Why were you sceptical?
Patrick: I don`t know, I`m just a Sneap fan and his productions sound just like they should. It`s pure hate! I didn`t know so much from Adam D. (Killswitch Engage). What I had in my head was the Unearth CD and I didn`t like it that much. I had doubts. But if you then listen to Killswitch then you know it`s a completely different thing and why not! He really wanted to mix us.
Marc: Adam is a real perfectionist and you can hear that also with Killswitch – you can hear how he pushes his band. He`s very variable with his sounds. We sent him our stuff and he knew our old stuff but we agreed that we didn`t tell him how it should sound. We liked the idea to not say: “We`d like to have that bass drum or that snare, that kind of guitar or singing and so on…”, but we just sent him the stuff and said: “Check, what you can hear.”

Like I said earlier, the end result is very coherent and spot-on. We wish you good luck with the new record and a lot of fun with Bleeding Through on tour. Thank you for an interesting conversation.
Marc & Patrick: Thank you, the same to you.
Author: Marc Hoek & Patrick Pagliaro, transl. K. Weber, photos Caliban
Date: 2007-05-21

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