PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
Planetmosh tracked down Lehmann, bass player and founding member of Italian Thrashers Neurasthenia to get the low down on the bands history, the decision to re work old tracks for the new album, and the bands future plans.
Firstly, hello, ciao, and welcome to Planetmosh.
I’d like to begin by asking you to take us back to the start, how and where did the band get together?
Hi there, this is Lehmann bass player and co-founder of NEURASTHENIA. First thanks to you for this interview.
In 2004 myself and Neil decided to continue the previous project that for some years Neil had tried to save, being the only member.
In that time I was the bass player of one of the best Symphonic Black Metal bands in Italy called Mourn In Silence but for a long time I’d wished to create my own music, and in particular in this genre. So here we are…
Getting straight down to business, the new album “Possessed By Your Omen” is an amalgamation of two of your earlier albums “Possessed” and “Your Omen”. Why did you feel the need to re-visit these albums and how did you approach re recording the material, did you strip the songs back down to basics, or was it a more gentle kind of fine tuning?
Well, as you can image this was not a simple decision to take, firstly because we already knew that a major part of the webzine community would dismiss this album as a pointless exercise but from the very start we wanted to be satisfied from our work, and this was not the case in the past, especially on the production side of the previous two. So for us it was clear that we needed one album that can say “Hey, this is our music, and also this is what we can produce alone in our studios” and now we are absolutely sure that we can walk tall!
So this it was a challenge for us!
You took on a lot of the mixing and mastering work yourselves for this release, was that something that you were determined to be involved with from the outset?
As I said before we were not entirely happy with the previous work. So because I’m also working in my own studio I took the decision to work on it, and also with the help of the other guys, because they obviously knew what they wanted as well, like Neil for the guitar sound and Rudy for the drumming mode…we finally reached what we wanted to do with the production sound.
You chose as a single the great track “I’m Walking With A Zombie” which I understand had only previously been released on a demo, why did that track get chosen?
Because for a long time that we planned to set this song into one of our new albums, so this was the perfect situation to release one of our best “demo songs” from the past.
The single is also accompanied by a video, how did the band enjoy doing that?
Ah Ah! Well it was so difficult to record that video, because in that day it was one of the warmest periods here in Italy, so we were sweating every second of the clip but on the other hand we found some new great friends that helped us to make this new video and for them as well it was the first time, so now we will work together again and make even more kickass videos!
The album also sees appearances by guest musicians on a number of the tracks, how difficult was it to get hold of everyone you wanted?
So, for sure when we planned this thing it was a bit difficult to have all the tracks and try to have the best sound for every one but at the end I didn’t spent that much time on mixing all of these. I’m pretty sure that for the next one it will be like that as well, maybe with some bigger names?
What plans now, if any, do you have to take the new album out on the road?
Yeah sure, we’re also working on the new album since 2011, so now we have half of it ready, we were only waiting for the release of this one, then we will start to finish to new one. Then some shows to follow.
Is playing live still the best bit about being a Rock star, or do you love the studio side as well?
For sure the live scene is where we’re at our best but in these years we have learned how to work alone in our studio, also together in the rehearsal room, so now we love both the things.
Now that you’ve re worked the previous albums, have you any plans yet to start writing any new material?
Yes, I think that if we have the chance to stay every day of our life in the rehearsal room and in the studio we can plan one album each 6 months! but as always we like to put our best songs in to one album, so we will choose with care all of the new material and see what fits best.
When your composing , which comes first, lyrics or music?
The first thing for us is the music, the mood and the sound, then myself and Neil will meet and we choose which are the best riffs and together we make the chorus, then we find the right way to have the perfect result from our ideas. Then , with all of the new songs I start to work on the new lyrics but also Neil and Rudy have a lots of great ideas, so at the and it is a real band effort where everyone has contributed his part on the material.
Finally, for the benefit of those not yet familiar with the band, give us a description of your sound.
It’s really simple, try to listen our new album…then listen to it again and again…well now you know that if you want to listen to that kind of music you have to buy our record and continue to follow us and support our music, because we play NEURASTHENIA’s music, nothing else!
Many thanks for your time, and best of luck with the new album.
Thanks to all of you! Walk with the Zombies!!
http://www.facebook.com/neurasthenia?ref=ts&fref=ts
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qse_5qb7dQg&w=560&h=315]
