Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Interview With Mika From Beaten To Death

Categories: Interviews

Originally Published on: January 31, 2012

Some time ago Alternative Matter’s William Graves was very impressed by Xes And Strokes, the latest album by Beaten To Death. On the behalf of the band bassist Mika was mora than happy to share some light on the recording process of Xes And Strokes, the writing process and much more..

Thanks for letting us grill you with a few questions.

You’re welcome, really cool of you to show such interest in what we do!

I was really impressed with the album. Was it recorded in a big, pro studio? How long did you spend in the studio? Who produced it/mixed it?

Thank you! Well, we actually recorded the whole thing 100 % live, standing in a circle in our rehearsal room during one weekend (except for the vocals, which was done a few days later), neither editing or adding anything except the “e-bow”-guitar in the mid-section of “A soulless alarm”. Our guitarist Tommy both recorded and mixed the album, but it was never mastered. We all think it sounds like.. well, like us. So none of us felt the need to go nuts in post-production, we all wanted the gritty, unpolished sound we feel a recording of Beaten To Death should have.

I also really appreciate that the dynamics of the music were spared over compression. Choosing to have breath and range in the music rather than simply going for ‘the louder the better’. Was that a conscious decision or was that left to whoever mixed and mastered it?

The way we did it, was that Tommy mixed the whole thing at home, sending the rest of the band a couple of rough mixes now and then just so we could all agree on the sound. It was a pretty straightforward process, and it didn’t take more than a few days before the entire album was finished. He did of course use compressors, EQ and what not on the tracks, but not at the cost of the pretty naked and slightly crummy sound of the recording. Also, the guitars have kind of a twangy sound, not the heavily distorted sound one might expect on at album such as ours, and this probably opened up the overall sound quite a bit.

The songs are really well crafted, and so is the album. Did a lot of thought go into track order and the arrangements in the context of an ‘album’?

Again, thank you! The track order is pretty much identical to the set-list from our debut-gig, and it felt natural to keep that same order when it came to the album, both because of the individual dynamics of each individual song and the way the tracks work back-to-back, but also – since both the live and studio track order is the same – the album reflects how we sound live, with quick transitions to the next song and little or no time to stop and think, until the whole ordeal is over 19 minutes later.

I love that you managed to put into 9 songs in less than 20 minutes, what loads of bands can’t manage in a career. I actually have to argue the point and benefits of the short song quite often. Could I ask you to defend this ideal for me? Why not make the songs longer?

We’re all used to playing longer and more complex songs in other bands, so Beaten To Death is the band were we can feel free to cut everything to the bone. A “don’t bore us, get to the chorus”-kind of thing, I guess. So, a typical discussion while building a new song at rehearsals would be: “do we need to repeat that twice, or can we just skip the last four bars?”, or “why not make that drum fill one bar instead of two?”, and we always end up with shorter songs than originally intended. Of course, this is in no way a new thing, as most grindcore acts do pretty much the same, so it’s definitely a genre we feel very much at home at.

Is there a main songwriter, or is it a collaborative effort? What do you want listeners to come away with after listening to the album?

The guitarists Tommy and Martin write most of the music, while the rest of the band contributes to the arrangements (if any given member has a better idea, the old idea is thrown out without mercy!) and Anders writes almost all of the lyrics. Tommy usually presents his ideas as 90 % finished demos, while Martin brings his ideas to the rehearsal room, shows us his ideas for us to try out together and maybe combine with other ideas to arrange into a complete song. Also, we have our own little “riff pool” online, where everybody can throw in ideas for riffs, songs, lyrics and what not.

We hope the listener would consider listening to the album again after listening to it the first time, as we believe there are a few hidden gems here and there in terms of arrangements, but if they don’t, we hope they had a fun and bumpy ride the first time.

One of the things I really loved about the album was the multidimensional aspect of it. There is great use of tension/release and cool dynamics. It seems like you draw on a good variety of influences to build your own thing. Are there any influences (musically) on the band that might surprise people?

It’s fair to say that Beaten To Death is influenced by other bands within the grindcore and death metal genre, especially those who has been around for some time, but some of us also enjoy the indie rock scene, as well as melodic – and perhaps melancholic – pop music. You may or may not hear that in our music.

Your tones are pretty brutal. Would you like to tell us about your equipment, for our gear geek readers?

Both guitarists play custom baritone Telecasters through an Axe-FX with very little gain. I play a cheap OLP bass through a Music Man HD130 amp, a Fender Bass Man 2 x 18 cabinet and a Boss OC-3 stomp box (obviously without the octave effect on, just the overdrive, which I like a lot). We use a drop G#-tuning. Bartender plays Yamaha drums and Paiste cymbals.

I’m glad to see there has been some updating of your website since I reviewed the album. I see from that update that most of you are also in other bands, with Mr. Svendsen beating the skins in 4 (FOUR!) others. How do you all manage the demands of musical multitasking? How is Beaten to Death unique from those other bands?

Mr. Svendsen is a drum-a-holic, who has always juggled bands to keep himself from getting bored. Tommy and Martin spend most of their energy on their main band Insense, recently touring with In Flames and Trivium, nominated for Best Metal in this years Spellemann (Norwegian Grammy Awards) and with several gigs coming up, but still seem to have a little left for some quality grind-time with the rest of us guys. Anders recently released an EP with his band She Said Destroy, but – like me – he has plenty of time to spread the gospel of Norwegian melodic grind.

As to your second question, I guess the short answer would be that Beaten To Death is the easiest of the bands to be a part of, being the (more or less) just-for-kicks side project that it is. That said, even though the band manages to steer clear of typical obstacles more “serious” bands have to deal with, we never take lightly on the songwriting process or the level of energy we put into playing concerts. If something doesn’t feel right, we work it out, as we all want the songs to have substance and our concerts to be a friendly smack in the face you wont soon forget.

I know you have a gig coming up on February 11th and it looks like you’ve already had at least a few from the photos. How are the crowds reacting so far? Have you played outside of Norway yet? (If yes, how was that?) What do you want your crowd to come away thinking/feeling after your gigs?

We have a few gigs booked for February, which we really look forward to. The crowds so far have reacted like we sort of hoped they would do; with a huge smile on their faces and a feeling of “what the Hell just happened…?” From what we hear, the audience seem to appreciate both the brutal and catchy (if that’s the appropriate word for it) side of the band, and we always get a great response from both metalheads and from pretty girls who normally couldn’t care less about the metal scene but tell us they simply love the Beaten To Death live experience.

Any plans to hit the road and spread the message to the rest of Europe or beyond? (If not, why not? If yes, details, please.)

No gigs neither played nor planned outside of Norway yet, but if’s definitely something we discuss.

How is being on Mas-Kina Recordings? What can you tell us about them? Are they treating you guys well? Do you do a lot with the other bands on the label?

Well, Mas-Kina Recordings is actually just two guys; Christian Hansen and Martin Rygge. And yes, the latter is the same Martin who’s in the band… So as you can imagine, we have a good dialogue with the label. It’s very convenient to have a band where one guy edits all our videos (that would be me, by the way), another records and mixes the album, and another releases it. To us, it has worked out just fine, the album is out, people hear about it, like it and come to our concerts. And that’s all we want.

There aren’t that many bands on Mas-Kina at the moment, so it’s definitely a small and cozy label, and to make matters even more cozy and within the family, Mas-Kina have released (a weird) EP with Defender – a project I did with ex-Motorpsycho drummer Gebhardt – entitled Avalanche Pour L’Amour, and recently also unleashed the quite fantastic She Said Destroy EP Bleeding Fiction, which I highly recommend.

Finally, what is next for Beaten To Death? When can we expect another record?

This year, for sure. We already have like 10 songs to choose from, and as soon as we have 10 more and can dispose of all the crap, we’ll record another – probably just as short – album!

Thanks a lot. For the interview and the great album! –William

Again, thank you so much for taking your time to check us out! Hope to see you and other friends of the grind on tour some day soon!

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