by Morgan Y. Evans
LINKS:
France’s hypnotic prog wonders The Old Dead Tree have been around since 1997 and have several releases under their belts, including 1999’s mini CD The Blossom, their debut The Nameless Disease (featuring the invincible track “It Can’t Be”…[fucking horns!]), plus 2005’s well praised effort, The Perpetual Motion. During the touring cycle for the last record, the forward thinking, artistic, and yet tuneful-while-also-very-metal band hit the road alongside Paradise Lost and Opeth, among others, winning over even more fans. It is a triumph of The Old Dead Tree that they can write an epic song and still have it be a good song, unlike many strictly stuck in noodle Heaven or growl/vomit Hell. Not only did the four-piece hold their own, but they came off their biggest tour yet and delivered one of the best records of last year, 2007’s The Water Fields.
Released in mid-September of 2007, the record deserves more Stateside attention. The Water Fields is a majestic examination of the places people retreat to in their minds to cope, a study of mental retreat and the avoidance of pain when swimming in doubt.
The opening bombast of “Start the Fire” could almost be a heavier side of Siebenbergen before a gigantic tempo changeover near-Indie Rock welcomes in a beautiful melodic vocal from the bands leader, the talented Manuel Munoz. A contemplative, near Radiohead pre-bridge then gives way to a long, cinematic metal climax that leads directly into the second, just as strong track. The record is full of great moments and segues like that, all of the albums calms, like the brief A Perfect Circle-esque intro of “Dive” offsetting complex death and thrash elements to great effect. Marching down picking and thumping chug-riffery co-exist with lush string arrangements with confident results you’ll want to revisit, such as on the song “Hey!” [Not a Pixies cover]. That song features walking bass lines and tight accents to just the right, tasteful degree. It would make John Paul Jones proud, if only he didn’t mind death metal vocals. There’s even a fun, carnival music riff thrown in.
If the intellectual words or the sweeping instrumental outro of “This Is Not Farewell” don’t make you excited, intrigued, want to pump your fist or play air guitar by the dizzying end, you are either not a fan of metal or have a very limited emotional range. But wait, just when you think the trip to The Water Fields has given you a safe and permanent refuge in Elysium, it all ends with a discordant, symphonic hangover that could be a still-drunk-the-next-day revel or an out of tune re-awakening back to the cold side of reality where your flaws show in the light of day. Fantastic shit and a top notch concept record.
I interviewed vocalist and guitarist Manuel Munoz about the flip sides of reality, denial and perception, on crafting the record as well as how he learned to be such a confident singer on par with some of metal’s best.
MORGAN Y. EVANS: How did you learn to sing, Manuel? Your voice
has a great dynamic range. I love Queensryche and old Soundgarden and
singers with range and yours is definitely very powerful like that. Some
songs almost sound delicate in a Jeff Buckley soulful sense. I know a
band like Soilwork who are metal has sometimes been criticized for melodic
singing, but I love that in metal, or like Joey Eppard of the band Three
singing like Stevie Wonder over a progressive riff for another example.
When it is done right like The Old Dead Tree and the other bands I mentioned,
I think it is so powerful.
MANUEL MUNOZ: We toured a lot to promote our second album The Perpetual Motion in 2005 - 2006 and I realized that my voice couldn’t stand playing too many gigs in a row. So I had to take medicines like cortisone. Let’s agree that it's not a good way to manage such a problem. I've been meeting singing teachers, doctors and finally I had 30 sessions with an Ortophonist who taught me how to breathe and speak correctly. Along this 8 months period, I totally stopped singing during the rehearsals in order to forget my bad habits. Today I feel much more comfortable and confident. I think that both my voices, clean and screamed, sound more natural and human, less controlled. I'm really proud of the result you can hear in this album.
MYE: Tell me more about the concept behind your newest (2007) release, The Water Fields. In the press release it talks about how it is about avoidance and the urge to hide from reality. Can you elaborate?
MM: Before writing the lyrics of our new album The Water Fields, I would have definite lyrics as a very “selfish” way to deal with my personal questions and problems. But things were different this time, as I tried focusing more on the people around me: my relatives, my friends, and my family. Maybe it is a bit silly, but after the release of our second album, The Perpetual Motion, I realised that too many people I never met before knew all about my intimate feelings and pains. That’s why I wanted the The Water Fields lyrics to be “other people” oriented. Observing them, I tried to analyze the way they react to a serious problem. I realized that, the first reflex people have when confronted to pain is to hide or to run away from it. That’s how I imagined this common imaginary place, a kind of safe haven where we can rest: The Water Fields.
MYE: Avoidance is an interesting theme, as well as a world to retreat to in the mind. Re-shaping reality is common in mental illness but even in the sense of having an imagination to use during hard times. In some senses avoidance could mean how some people think they can’t participate in politics as much as they’d like because they are so busy living hard lives of poverty or when, for example, people who have been abused mentally or sexually can go to a deep place of suppressed memories. It is denial of some of the worst things in their past, sometimes, so they can function. It’s interesting because sometimes avoidance in cases like that is how the psyche preserves itself, until it all crashes back to the surface. Any thoughts on this?
MM: I must admit that I am not a psychologist so I am not able to explain a phenomenon which consists on different basis, perceptions and criteria for each one of us. Anyway, I would say that it corresponds mainly to the need we have to always choose the easiest way in the short run. That is definitely linked to human nature…
MYE: How has it been working with Season of Mist records for The Old Dead Tree? Can you tell me about your overall experiences?
MM: Since the beginning, our label Season Of Mist strongly support us and gives us the opportunity to benefit from efficient worldwide promotion and distribution. We feel very confident! Season Of Mist is an international record label with European and American offices and they already work successfully with bands like Mayhem, Septic Flesh, Christian Death…
MYE: The newest Christian Death was a lot of fun and I also love The Water Fields album so much! I hadn’t heard of The Old Dead Tree before this and now The Water Fields ranks among my favorite releases of last year, alongside The Red Album by Baroness and my other faves of 2007. Your record is so good, I will have to check out the back catalogue! But tell me, I think you can listen to this album all the way from start to finish, which isn’t always true with some of your less talented peers in prog or metal. How much attention do you pay to track order or making this possible for the listener? Obviously The Old Dead Tree care a lot about dynamics.
MM: Thank you very much for your kind words! Of course, we do care about dynamics... And track order was the result of both songs lyrics themes and dynamics. All songs do not deal with a one and single history. Some of them are linked together, but the majority describe various situations in which the characters are confronted by a problem. For example “What's Done Is Done” tells about someone making his “coming out” – and about the way this situation is seen and prepared by the main character and how it is perceived by his parents. Also, we gained more experience in the songwriting. The songs sound more mature to me. We also worked very hard on adding many details. Some songs are made of 60 tracks because of numerous guitar overdubs and strange sounds. We tried to superimpose many different melodic lines in each song and we also used new elements like classical instruments. I think that this kind of details can make the difference between an album you’ll forget straight after listening to it and another one that will stay in your mind for a long time. This album is much heavier and darker, but also more diverse and full of sheer emotion! Even the production of Andy Classen outdoes the job on our previous material.
MYE: Tell me about the cover art. It depicts a fragile looking girl with a sort of glow about her head and hair who sits amidst wreckage and surreal clocks and objects from life (with the band’s picture hidden in the background). Who designed this striking graphic and how did you come up with it? I like how the border of the image is sort of dissolving into clouds and other watery dream images.
MM: I sent the title and the general concept of the album to a lot of designers around the world. We received many propositions, but Eliran Kantor’s job was definitely the most original. He created a kind of “vintage” cover standing apart from the current metal artworks. All the other designers focused on the idea of water. Eliran was the only one who tried to figure the real sense of the concept. He imagined this character surrounded by problems, everyday life, and family affairs, looking into a reflecting ground representing the Water Fields. I think that Eliran is very talented and has a great future as a designer.
MYE: It’s a fucking great cover. How was it touring with Opeth in your experience for the last album, 2005’s The Perpetual Motion? Also, what are some bands you are loving these days and what are you looking forward to that is planned for The Water Fields touring cycle?
MM: It was an incredible experience! We were invited to tour with Opeth but also with Epica, Paradise lost, Katatonia. A real honor I must say! It helped us a lot to improve ourselves, as we had to rehearse intensely in order to be ready to enter the professional scene this way. Anyway these shows enabled us to perform in front of very receptive big audiences in several European countries. During last autumn we toured a lot in Europe especially with Dead Soul Tribe. Now we are doing a couple of shows in France and a mini German tour with Germany’s premier medieval rockers Subway to Sally. This summer we will do some of the biggest European open air festivals, which is always very exciting for us.
MYE: How do you feel you’ve grown as a band since you’ve started and what would you like to accomplish still?
MM: The Old Dead Tree was the meeting of four boys attracted by the dark side of the music. We all were fans of Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride or Type O Negative. But I think that, from the beginning, the special thing about us was our will to bring something new to the scene, to avoid copying our “fathers”. I think that growing old we focused more and more on the music itself, trying to become better musicians and, for my part, a better composer. We became really exigent regarding the composition process. The main goal for us is to be satisfied with our work and let me tell you that it’s not easy. My personal goal is to be able in the future to look back to my discography and to feel no regret. “Conquering the world” still ranks number 1 in my “things to do before I’m 30” list… but I think I won’t have enough time for that! More seriously, I can say that touring and promoting this album remain our top-priorities right now.
MYE: How much of The Water Fields was written in the studio and how much outside of it? What was the studio environment like where you did the album? Parts of it are so dreamy they could’ve been written in the fantasy world of the animated film Howl’s Moving Castle. But then you have these crushing, heavy and screaming epic metal parts! Is it hard fluidly combining subtler parts with the epic metal and more violent sounding material? Psychologically it works well.
MM: Well, composing an album is a kind of painful process because we're incredibly exigent towards ourselves. So we have to work and work hard again and again... Every cymbal hit, every guitar note has to be approved by every band member before entering the studio! The Stage One Studio is located in the middle of nowhere, in a small village surrounded by German landscape... a perfect place to relax after such a hard composing process and also to stay focused on the recording of an album! At the end, Andy Classen’s production job just does the rest!
MYE: Thanks a lot. Love the album, Manuel.
MM: Thank you very much for your interest and support.