Interview With Reclusion
Interview By Arto
When being at the Swedenrock festival last summer, I got a pleasant and surprising
opportunity of finding out an entirely new combo called Reclusion. I became familiar with
the band damn well. When checking out their Shell Of Pain release, I was utterly blown
away by their aggressive and tight and excellent played technical thrash with the modern
elements tied up. It was more than reasonable to get the touch to the band’s drummer
to find out more about the band.
Hi! What’s up there in Sweden? Has it been snowing a lot there?
Has it ever stopped snowing you mean? [laugh] No, actually we had an incredible summer
this year. It hasn’t been this hot ever since they started recording the
temperatures, and that was the beginning of 1900 sometime. Global warming?
Reclusion may be an entire unknown outfit for most of readers, even though the band
has been together for about 4 years. Despite a great deal of gigs done all around in
Europe and the killer release Shell Of Pain has been out for over a year, I was entire
unaware of the band’s existence until seeing you on the stage at the SwedenRock
festival. Could you shed a little bit light on how everything started out in the first
place ?
All of us have played together previously in different bands and settings.
The fact that led to the start of Reclusion was that the band that Rune and me previously
played in broke up. We felt the need to start a new band where all of the members shared
the same musical goals and ambitions. So in 1998 Reclusion was formed, but then under a
different name. Drowned. Toni joined soon after that and then Pasi. Both of them where
available at the moment and we knew they would have the right ambition.
Although being a Swedish band, you guys are basically not pure blood Swedes at all
as all of you have roots to either Finland, Norway and Poland ?
Yes that is true. I’m Polish, Rune is Norwegian and Pasi and Toni are from
Finland. I personally think that is a cool aspect to us being a Swedish band. Maybe we
should promote us as a Scandinavian Metal band with a twist of Eastern Europe. [laugh] It
has an advantage when we do interviews in those countries. One thing stinks though, that
is when Pasi and Toni always start to speak Finnish after a few beers. haha
The first demo of Reclusion called ”A Force Of One” was carried out at the
Los Angered studio with Andy la Rocque doing the production job. Were you satisfied with
the working methods of Rocque for the debut demo? Did he give a lot of tips what to do and
how the stuff should sound?
We have been always recording our stuff with Andy, even with our previous
bands, so we knew how he works and what to expect. I think that “A Force of One”
turned out very good. It is always an asset to work with people that have been around in
the business when you record your first demo as a band. He did produce the demo. Andy has
an enormous ability to squeeze the best out of each musician, even when you feel like shit
and everything is working against you in the studio.
The demo led you to have a deal with Loud And Proud records. First off, what is that
label anyway, because as far as I can remember I have never heard of them before?
Loud nī Proud was a Swedish label that had bands like Morifade, Freternia, Satanic
Slaughter and Persuader among others on their roster.
Loud And Proud unleashed a mini-CD "A Force Of One" having two tracks
taken directly from the demo. Did you re-record both the tracks all over again for the
mini-CD, or were those tracks released with the same approach as on the demo?
It was actually a vinyl single with the same recording as for the demo. We decided that
since the quality was so good we might as well release it prior to the album.. The label
would use it as a promotional tool to the distributors and for us it was a dream come true
being recorded on vinyl for the first time.
What sort of deal did you sign with them? Did they just give you a certain amount of
CDs for free in order to cover all the costs? How did you work with them?
The deal was that we didn’t get any money for the single since we used
it for promotion. As for the record the deal was really good, regarding royalties and
recoupable money. We had offers from a few American labels that were interested as well.
But their deal was not as good. Also we felt that being on a Swedish label would be better
for us. It is always easier dealing with people face to face that over email or phone. But
we didn’t know how it would turn out by that time.
After the mini-CD you entrenched the Los Angered studio to work with La Rocque for
the full length album Shell Of Pain consisting of nine tracks with a tight and aggressive
grip with some attitude metal elements popping up here and there. How would you
characterize the stuff on the cd?
“Shell of pain” is a sheer dose of brutal thrash. Combining the
80’s bay-area thrash metal sound with the modern clean edge.
After listening to the stuff you recorded a year and a half ago, do you think that
you succeeded in doing everything perfectly, or are you capable of finding some unexpected
failures and mistakes which could have been done better?
There is always room for improvement. One should never be 100 percent satisfied,
because you’ll never improve and develop. You need to find a balance between the
amount of time given to you in the studio and how high you set the standard. I believe we
achieved that on “Shell of Pain”. We learned a lot and gained experience during
the “Shell of Pain” recording sessions.
The album was about to be released by Loud And Proud, then something got fucked up
and the whole plan went up in smoke?
Well yes, the label didn’t play it fair with us. They promised a lot but were
never capable of living up to their promises. Eventually they went bankrupt. So we ended
up having a newly recorded album and no label to release it on.
The releasing of the album was obviously delayed more or less as you started looking
for a new label. How did you get hooked up by Listenable records, which is more dedicated
to the more brutal death metal stuff?
Actually we had been in contact with Listenable before, regarding a previous band, so
we knew of each other from back then. We sent them a sample and they provided the best
deal. I guess they wanted a wider spectrum of bands on their roster. They signed Pale
Forest shortly after us. Their rumor was very good regarding being honest and fair. Having
fresh in mind our recent experience with labels we valued that fact really high. So we
signed with them.
The whole album had to be re-mixed to gain the more aggressive sound quality. I
can’t help asking if the chief of Listenable suggested the new mixing of the album,
or did you just decide to re-mix the whole release?
He suggested the re-mix and we felt that it gave us an opportunity to freshen the album
up a bit. Clean start with a new label so to speak.
Has Listenable given the more needed support for promoting the album in Europe? Have
you been satisfied with Listenable, so that the next Reclusion album will be put by them?
Listenable has been very good for us overall. I believe that they did everything they
could regarding promotion. However we are a very “demanding” band. So there has
been times our ideas and visions regarding our development didn’t equal the
label’s. We feel at this point in time that the next Reclusion album should be
released at a label that equals our development. Therefore we are currently looking for a
new one.
Reclusion has done a bunch of gigs in Central European countries, Holland, Belgium,
and Germany. How have you managed to get those gigs arranged? Has Listenable been helping
out you getting Reclusion booked, or have you picked up your stuff and drove through
Europe and asked the local gig organizators for having a chance to play?
We rented a van and got a big sign saying “GIGS WANTED” and honked the horn
and just drove through Europe. [Laugh]. Sven from Aborted arranged the first mini tour.
Since they are on Listenable that is how the contact was made. For the second one we got
an offer from the guy who arranged gigs for 013 in Tilburg, Holland.
What sort of places have you been in and have you mainly supported some local and
obviously bigger names there?
First tour we went as support for Aborted, playing in France, Belgium and
Germany. On the Holland mini-tour we went as headliners. We’ve done support gigs with
The Haunted and Evergrey in Sweden and recently played a festival in Denmark with was very
cool. And of course our appearance on Sweden Rock festival this summer was a great
happening for Reclusion. In December, we and Transport League are doing a 3 gig tour in
Sweden. We hope however to do a bigger tour supporting a major band for the next record.
Speaking of The SwedenRock festival; Reclusion happened to be the only extreme
metal band on the bill. Did you have to pay some certain amount of cash to get a chance to
play there?
We played on the Orange stage, which was the showcase stage. That means that the label
pays some money to promote themselves and their bands. In our case we did all of that. We
represented Listenable on the festival. We were selling merchandise for the other bands,
taking demos from unsigned bands and so on. We were both artists and label those days. We
had a great time during the whole festival and the gig went good as well so we are very
happy with the whole deal.
Have you done any other big festival dates in either Sweden or elsewhere?
No, Sweden Rock Festival is up to date the biggest event for us.
As for the newer material, how much have you got finished and does the newer
material differ a lot from the Shell Of Pain album?
We have about 8 or 9 songs finished with the ambition to have 11 songs ready for the
album. The new stuff is a bit more aggressive and powerful.
Can you reveal some tracks and a possible album title?
The working title of the album is “Inventory of the Morgue.” It will be a
concept album dealing with different ways of dying and the events surrounding it. Some
track names are Five Clicks (And You’re Dead) and Eaten From Within.
I am pretty much sure you will be recording the new album at Los Angered, or have
you been thinking of getting to another studio? When will you start working on the follow
up to Shell Of Pain?
The sessions are set to begin in mid February and we’ll record at Los Angered
recording again. So hopefully by late spring or early fall the album will hit the stands.
It all depends on when we find a new label.
I for one thank you for this short and rapid interview about Reclusion for
www.metal-rules.com, and I guess you may have something to add to conclude the interview?
You’re welcome my friend. For all of you not familiar with Reclusion go to
www.reclusion.nu and check us out. See you out there.
Band Website: www.reclusion.nu
Label Website: www.listenable.net