METALSHRINE - Intervjuer

Intervju - Lee Dorrian, Cathedral

N: What can you say about the new album? I´ve been listening to it for the last three weeks now and I find it quite different from "Endtyme". That one was really heavy and dark. The kind of stuff you want to listen to in a dark room.

L: If you´re a bit sadistic...

N: But this one is more melodic and more classic hard rock, doom stuff. How come you changed that? Why did you make "Endtyme" that heavy and...?

L: I guess...I mean, Cathedral as a band, we´ve been together for like twelve years now and "Endtyme" was like...our sixth album and by the time we did five albums I kind of started feeling that it was getting a bit too nice and a bit too safe and why are we doing this, you know. Which I think is only natural. You probably start thinking like that after so many years and there´s a lot of bands that I´ve seen around over the years that have kind of been an inspiration to me and by the time they´ve done five or six albums, they´ve kind of really lost touch with what they meant in the first place. And to stand up doing albums just for the sake of doing albums...if we´re in a position where we got the chance to do albums, they have to be very important to us. We´re not just gonna do one for the sake of one. I think with "Endtyme" we just wanted to get back that feeling of what the actual band meant to us in the first place, the reason we started the band in the first place. We wanted to do something that was purely for our own satisfaction more than anything else. We wanted to, like...escape, well not escape, but break the kind of tradition of production that we´d had on the previous albums to that. It´s hard to say and I´ve said this in another interview... when we did our second album "Ethereal mirror", the production was like, very big budget. I mean, it was for a major label, it was for Columbia Records in the States...they were kind of financing it. So it kind of got to the stage where we kind of set a standard for ourselves with that production and like an invisible pressure with trying to keep that standard consistent. And it got to a stage where we just wanted to do something more raw and more from the gut and more from an underground perspective, really. So that´s one of the main reasons the album, "Endtyme", sounds like it does. Plus I missed a lot of the doom aspects of what the band was about. I think it´s a very important part of what we do. The more extreme doom stuff is very important to our chemistry as a band. And I guess "Caravan beyond redemption" and to a certain extent "The carnival bizarre", were kind of missing some of the real heavy doom stuff that we used to do. There were elements of it on those albums, but there wasn´t like an out right kind of statement of doom. I think that´s what we had to do on the last album, for many reasons and I think, after we did that last album the way we did, I guess we could´ve carried on along the same lines with the new one and I think that was probably the intension to start with, but when we started coming up with ideas for the new album we just noticed from the start that the vibe was different. The songs were a lot more varied in tempo changes and style and they were a lot more melodic from the start for instance. So we just decided to go with that really. There was no kind of specific reason why this one is basically different to "Endtyme". It´s just naturally how this material came together and because the material sounded the way it did, we wanted the production to be a bit more dynamic. Because, I mean, the production of "Endtyme" is deliberately kind of dirgy and kind of hellish, so this time, musically, it was a bit more vibey and a bit more rocky. Just wanted the production to suite the actual style of the music.

N: There´s a bit more of a 70´s vibe as well. Especially in "Aphrodite´s winter". There´s a hammond orgain in there and I really like the guitar in the beginning of it. A really good song!

L: Oh really, well thanks! A quite proggy, folky typed track I guess in a way, like early 70´s kind of influenced. Normally if we do a song like that and we have done songs kind of similar to that before, in a more laid back vibe, but they normally end up to be second to last on the album. But this time, it´s like...we thought, well this is kind of a different track and we should bring it more to the front, because we didn´t want the album to be instantly obvious from the start. We wanted the more unusual tracks to come more forward this time. So it so much the other way around, because the heavier tracks are probably the last three, so it kind of gradually builds up to the heavy parts at the end.

N: It´s a good record and I like it and I´ve got some favourite tracks like "Phoenix rising", "Empty mirror", "Black robed avenger" and "Aphrodite´s winter"...

L: That´s cool! I think..."Empty mirror" is probably my favourite one...

N: Yeah, so I personally find it a lot easier to listen this one than to "Endtyme".

L: Sure, I understand that. I mean...Do you like extreme stuff anyway or...?

N: Well, it depends on the mood and what style, but sure absolutely. I like stuff like Ministry and stuff like that so...

L: I mean...definetely it´s a lot more easier to listen to and maybe more accesable, I don´t know. I wouldn´t exactly say it´s a dilemma with Cathedral, but certain people in our audience like certain styles of what we do and not certain styles of other stuff we do. It´s like you said that you´re not so much into the last album and some people would rather hear the last album than the new one. Some people like the more extreme dirgy doom stuff and some people like the more groovy stuff, so you have like a split audience in a way. And I think with this album it´s probably a combination of all those things, but it´s nowhere near as extreme as the last one...but there is moments of, like, heavy doom on there.

N: And you´re on a new label now as well. How come you´re on a new label and why not on Rise Above (Lee Dorrian´s own label)?

L: Well, I like to keep both things seperate really, the band and the label are two seperate things. I think if Cathedral was on Rise Above I´d be faced with too many dilemmas and too many conflicts within the band, because it would be like me controlling everything and I wouldn´t like it to be like that. I´ve gotta give the other guys in the band their own kind of freedom to be what they want to be. It would almost look like the Lee Dorrian Show or something like that and I just don´t want that to happen so...I mean, we finished with Earache last year and "Endtyme" was our last album for Earache. And personally speaking, I was involved with Earache since 1987, so it´s fourteen years and it´s a bloody long time to be associated with one label. I think it´s quite safe to say that we had a few conflicts with Earache, as I think a lot of bands do and after all that time you just kind of felt trapped in that situation and luckily we managed to be free of the contract last year so...I mean, we signed a new contract not long after that, but it was nice to be free for at least four or five weeks or something like that...ha ha! Forgot what that feeling was like.

N: So, what about Rise Above? You´ve got Grand Magus on there. A Swedish band that I love and the singer is now in Spiritual Beggars. How long has Rise Above been going on? For how many years?

L: Since early 1989 or so. Thirteen and a half years.

N: And you´ve got a bunch of bands on there like Orange Goblin and...

L: Orange Goblin "Coup de grace", their last album, that was the last one on Rise Above. I guess they´re gonna go check a new label out now and hopefully they´ll get something good. A good deal! Electric Wizard is probably the band that´s been on the longest. Their first album was back in like ´93 or ´94 I guess. Yeah, and Grand Magus is one of my favourite new bands that we´ve signed. Killer band I think. We´re always looking for new bands. We´ve got like three releases coming out soon. A new album from Sheavy. I don´t know if you´ve heard them before?

N: Nope!

L: Well, it´s their third album for us and it´s coming out in November. There´s a band called Sally and their second album should be coming out later this year, if not early next year. And there´s a couple of bands we´re gonna be signing. There´s a band called An Earthly Trance, they´re from New York and there kind of more extreme, kind of droony type stuff mixed with black metal and stuff. An unusual band, but really cool. And also, there´s another band from Sweden called Witchcraft and we really want to do some work with them. They´re a killer band.

N: Are they from Stockholm or...?

L: No, they´re from...I can´t remember the name of the town, but it´s south of Stockholm. They´ve got like...an 7" album on Primitive Art Records and as soon as I heard it, it´s like...shit man, we gotta sign this band because sound killer!

N: Primitive Art, that´s the label for The Coffinshakers! Do you know them?

L: I know the name and stuff and think I might have actually seen them once.

N: Yeah, they play a kind of country...there´s a country vibe to it with lyrics about vampires, blood and Dracula. And the guy sounds like Johnny Cash. But you´re actively involved in picking bands and finding new talents or?

L. Oh, yes of course. I mean, it´s my label so...There´s a label manager, Will, me and him talk about bands we´re gonna sign, but essentially it´s down to me who we sign.

N: I was thinking about the guy...is it Dave Pratchett, the guy that does the cover art. What kind of a guy is that? Does he do just record covers or is he a full blown artist?

L: He really doesn´t do much art work at all. He´s a self taught artist and he went to art scholl and lasted for like ten days I think, because he was such a rebel. He started a riot ha, ha, ha...and walked out. A big mess or whatever and then he just thought, well, screw art school. I´m just gonna learn myself. But no, he doesn´t much at all, because he´s not really recognised. He´s only really recognised for our album covers. I guess the art work he does, he´s style is classic surrealism and if you know anything about art in this day and age, surrealist style is not poular at all. So he´s probably one of those guys, that in a hundred years time, someone will recognise him and say - Wow, who´s this guy? When he does one of our album sleeves, he normally takes about four or five months to do it. And he occasionally does paintings for himself, but not so much these days, but he´s got a job now in a hotel and he doesn´t have time to paint.

N: Is it a guy you´ve known or how did you find him?

L: Well, he´s from my town and ...basically there´s a gallery in the city where i live. It´s like a glass kind of gallery and local artists put their art work on display there. But it´s always really boring, bogus stuff like bowls of fruit or their pet dog or the virgin Mary or something...It´s normally real garbage and no inspiration at all. And one day...at the time we were just gonna record our album or I think we might´ve already recorded it. I was just walking past this gallery and I never look in it...sometimes I look at it from the corner of my eye, but this day there was some of his stuff on display and I just caught it in the corner of my eye-This looks interesting! And there was like, twelve of his paintings on display and I just got really interested in them and really looking in to them and seeing things that I´d really never seen in art before. So I went in to the gallery and just left a message in the comment book, saying "I´m really impressed with your art work, I´m in a band and looking for an artist to design our sleeve and would you be interested?" And it turns out the guy lives like, bloody two, three doors away from me and he´s like one of my neighbours ha, ha, ha! So that was quite ironic. Ever since then we´ve had a cool working relationship.

N: And the art work on your album covers is like, perfect for vinyl releases. Do you release stuff on vinyl or...?

L: Well, the last album that came out on vinyl was "Carnival bizarre" and that´s like ´95, so unfortunately the last couple of albums haven´t. But with our new contract, we put a clause in there that specify, that we wouldn´t sign the deal unless we got assurance that the album´s gonna be pressed on vinyl.

N: Ok, because especially the "Endtyme" cover would be perfect on vinyl. It would look really good as a gatefold.

L: Well, there´s actually...Have you seen the Japanese version of "Endtyme"?

N: No I haven´t!

L: The Japanese one is different. For the Japanese version, Dave did the art work. Earache wouldn´t pay for him to do it in Europe, because it was two or three grand. So our Japanese record label were so pissed off that he wasn´t doing it, that they payed him themselves to do it just for Japan. Well, the new album´s definitely gonna be on vinyl.

N: I´ve read that your a big fan of vinyl and I am as well...

L: Well it´s kind of hard for me now because I´ve moved house a couple of times last year and I´m back living with my dad at the moment. Just temporarily, but all my bloody records and all my stuff is like, in different peoples houses and it´s doing me bloody...so collecting records has become a bit of a problem. In the last few years I´ve actually gotten into cd´s.

N: What´s the latest vinyl records you´ve bought?

L: The latest vinyl I´ve bought, hmmmm...let me see. It´s actually an old record. A German progressive folk band called Carol of harvest? (hard to hear what he says). A really rare album in the 70´s. ´74 I think. Somebody reissued it, but they only reissued like, two hundred copies so it cost me fifty quid or something. I had to get it.

N: Are you looking for rarities or do you just buy any kind of vinyl?

L: Anything I want. Not necessarily just rarities. I´m quite happy to buy rare vinyl stuff on cd. In actual fact I prefer it. If it remastered and stuff and has better sound quality it´s just convenient.

N: What kind of influences do you have, besides Black Sabbath? Is there any new stuff that you listen to or do you get influenced by books and movies?

L: Just everything. Life is like a film sometimes and you can draw inspiration from just general life. Musically it´s the same influences we had when we started. As musicians I guess we´ve kind of changed, but we still carry the same influences as we always have. Our initial influences were like Pentagram, Trouble, Saint Vitus, The Obsessed...Black Sabbath obviously, Candlemass. They were our initial influences and they still are. We don´t really listen to new music to get influenced by. Especially new metal sucks. I don´t really get it. I don´t mind hip hop music by itself, but when it´s crossed over with real shitty metal riffs...how´s that supposed to be cool? Just because it´s not been done before it doesn´t mean to say it´s gonna be good. It doesn´t mean to say that everything that´s come before it, is invalid because it´s older inspired. Basically good music is when somebody puts themselves into it. Bass, drums and guitar can last forever as far as I´m concerned. As long as there´s people with new ideas and new perception and new individual ways of playing things. To me, rock and roll is all I want to hear really. I do listen to some electronic stuff sometimes. Stuff like Aphex Twins and...

N: Oh, that´s one of the scariest videos I´ve ever seen.

L: "Come to daddy"! I think what he does is really interesting and part from that it´s still pretty much my old records. Of course you discover new "old" bands all the time...

N: Ok, I read somewhere that you´re a big fan of Elvis!

L: Yeah, when I was a kid Elvis was my first love really. Apart from...I guess the first band I ever got into was The Bay City Rollers...

N: Yeah, I think they were pretty big in Sweden as well.

L: Oh, I think they were.

N: Them and The Sweet!

L: I was into The Sweet too and Gary Glitter and all that stuff. I just remember getting into Elvis and becoming obsessed with him when I was seven or eight years old. I thought I was a teddyboy until I was about nine or ten or so, and then I discovered The Sex Pistols and that was it.

N: I guess we can expect a tour now and I guess you´ll be coming back to Sweden?

L: I really hope so. I mean there´s nothing planned for the moment. If we do I guess it´s gonna be early next year. Maybe February time, hopefully. We´re just working on ideas for touring at the moment. We´re gonna do a UK tour when the album comes out. About five or six shows and then do a full blast tour in the new year.

N: And what about The Teeth Of Lions Rule The Divine? Will there be another album?

L: That´s like an open book with that band. It´s something that´s not really specific. Nothing is written in stone with that band. We might come back together in thirty years time if we´re still alive and do a record. It might be next year. It´s like, one of those situations because we all live...you know, Greg and Steve live in America. Greg lives in LA and Steve lives in New York. For us to actually get together is kind of rare. It´s only one of those bands that exists when we´re all actually together in the same place.

N: So, how did you come up with this stuff, because that´s really different from Cathedral? I think at least...

L: In some ways, having done that album, was one of the reasons that I didn´t mind the new album being a bit not so extreme. Because I got all that hatred and darkness out of me. Well, basically Steve and Greg are good friends of mine and have been for some time and they were both over at the same time, like new year last year and we just thought it was a too good an opportunity for us not to get together and just jam. So, we booked a real shitty little recording studio, for like two days and it was the day after new years day and we were all completely smashed. In completely bad states of mind, all hung over from drugs and booze and it was like...a not really healthy environment. And then, the kind of music we were coming up with was completely destroying our heads, it was so painful to play and so punishing. By the first day that we actually rehearsed the songs, we were just like walking home to our mates house like walking corpses and it took any sense of life out of us. And then the next day we just recorded everything that we had written the day before and again that just completely drained us. Completely punished us.

N: You haven´t played that stuff live, have you?

L: No!

N: Will you ever or...?

L: Maybe. Well, Greg and Steve are coming over next year to England, because they´re both in Sunn o))) and they´re gonna play "The all tomorrows parties" in England, so I guess we´re gonna have a bit of time together and we might be able to work on some new stuff and hopefully...it would be cool to do at least one or two shows.

N: Well, the first time I heard it, I was just standing there with my mouth open, but a friend of mine found it brilliant. Like the coolest thing ever!

L: And you thought it sucked...ha, ha, ha!

N: No, it was just so different from anything I´ve heard recently with Cathedral or anything...

L: It is just one of those things...that I mean...we had no idea how it was gonna be. We just got together and wrote the stuff and recorded it. It´s as simple as that really. I suppose it could be seen as quite self indulgent and it probably is. We didn´t think of an audience. We just thought about making an unholy racket. Doing something that killed us to make. If you´re gonna do that kind of stuff, I think you really have to feel it. You really have to make yourself feel desperate. I mean the song "He who accepts all that is offered" is a drug song, but it´s not like a happy stonerrock drug story. It´s like a complete satanic nightmare drug story... ha, ha, ha! It´s called "Feel bad hit of the winter" opposed to "Feel good hit of the summer" (Queens of the stone age).

N: Well, I hope to see you live in February and thank you for taking the time.

L: Yeah, I hope to be here. Thank you!

Cathedral - Official website

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