PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
We grabbed a chat with the most excellent Illdisposed to talk about their current album, the state of the music industry in these troubled economic times, and the bands future plans.
Firstly, many thanks for taking time to talk to us. Illdisposed can
trace their roots back way back to ‘91, tell us a bit about the early
days and how the band began.
It all began with a passion for metal music and the urge to party all the time. Playing in a band equals free drinks and tons of parties.
Over the years you’ve released a steady stream of albums, many of which
charted in your home country of Denmark, what do you think appealed to
the fans so much? I’m guessing you don’t really see yourselves as a
‘chart’ band.
It shows that people are actually buying our album up here. That’s not too bad in times when music is something you don’t have to pay for anymore.
The bands sound is pretty full on, take no prisoners Metal but your not
afraid to throw in some haunting melodies as well. Is the bands sound
constantly developing as time goes by?
We’re developing as musicians. We don’t have the typical death metal approach to music, telling us to be true, telling us not to use melodies. We’re just trying to write some good songs. We’re not just piling riffs on top of each other.
Your latest album ‘Sense The Darkness’ has just seen its release, tell
us a bit about how long the album took to put together.
It took almost a year to write the songs but songwriting isn’t a 9-5 job so it’s hard to tell exactly. I’m usually just writing the songs, tracking them in my studio and sending mp3s to the other guys. We’re not creating anything at the rehearsal room. We’re just practicing there.
I was able to review the album here on Planetmosh, and what struck me
was the strength of the vocal delivery, backed by some seriously good
guitar work. How do you feel it differs from the performance on some of
the earlier albums?
We were definitely excited about the songs this time and I guess you can hear it. The songs fit the band very well. Everything turned out exactly the way we wanted it to be. It wasn’t always like that on earlier albums – but in general we’ve always been happy about the work we’ve done.
The album was produced by Tue Madsen, who I believe you have worked with
before. It must make the recording process a lot easier having someone
who knows and understands the band at the controls?
Yes – exactly. There’s no need to get to know each other, you’re already there. It’s relaxing. And his studio is quite close to where we live, that’s comfortable as well.
What are your plans for touring with the new material?
We want to tour as much as possible. Unfortunately we had to cancel the release-tour because the music scene doesn’t look too good at the moment. It was too difficult to fill out the dates. We’ll give it another shot in the beginning of 2013. And the summer festivals are beginning to show some interest as well.
Are you a band that is always thinking of new ideas for songs, or will
you not be thinking about new material just yet?
I’m constantly thinking music and I’ve already tracked a few new ideas. That’s probably why we don’t need 3 years to write an album. The songs are just coming to me and all I need to do then is the translating to the guitar.
In the troubled economic climate we find ourselves living in at the
minute, how much more pressure does that put on a band to keep the costs
down but keep the bands profile high?
It has been tough the past few years and it seems it’s still getting worse. As a band you’re having a lot of travelling costs, crew costs, rehearsal room rental etc. and they keep going up. At the same time your income is going down because of collapsing record sales and people neglecting concerts. So it is kind of hard to keep your profile high at these days.
How do you feel the Death Metal and Metal scene in general is at the
minute?
I think it’s doing ok. The bad situation that’s pulling down the music scene at the moment is the same for everybody; it’s not just heavy metal. Metal music is mainly based on passion, not money. That will keep it going forever.
To those readers that may not be familiar with the band, give us a
description of what Illdisposed are all about.
We are all about doing what we feel like, instead of going with the flow. It has been putting us in trouble sometimes but at least we’ve been having a good time.
Many thanks for your time and best of luck with the future plans.
Cheers.
‘Sense Of Darkness’ is out now via http://www.massacre-records.com
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z3vMJl_OIE?rel=0&w=420&h=315]
