Rockezine.com interview with Born From Pain on Apr 07, 2005

with Karl Fieldhouse on Apr 07, 2005

The new Born From Pain album will see the light later this month, they signed a record deal with Metal Blade and there is a big European tour coming up. Time to have a chat with guitar player Karl.
		First of all congratulations with the new album and the Record deal with Metal Blade. Are you satisfied the way the record turned out? Thanks a lot for the kind comments about the new album and deal with Metal Blade, it’s much appreciated. Are we satisfied with the new record? Hell yeah!! Everyone in the band is really pleased with In Love With The End from the way the songs are to the production to the label we’re on now and to the way the album looks. I think this album is the best thing we have done because it encompasses everything Born From Pain have done in the past and yet also added new sounds and ideas on top of that making it 100% Born From Pain but with more stuff going on and with interesting ideas coming through. I’ve listened to the album an awful lot of times since it’s been finished now and I just feel very satisfied and happy that we’ve been able to top our previous releases. And evolved without losing the initial blueprint of what the band is all about.
		How long did it take to write and record this album? Was it different from the procedure with the other albums? Well, writing for us always takes quite a bit of time really because we want to make sure everything is right and so Stefan and I pretty much started writing for this album not too long after everything was done for Sands Of Time, but that’s not to say we really went at it then, it was more a case of if we came up with a good riff we’d record it somewhere or tab it so that we didn’t forget it, but I guess the real writing for this album all happened in pretty much a 4 – 6 month spell during 2004. We decided it would be a good idea to take some time off from playing shows and touring in order to concentrate on writing so we did that from around September, although we still did a handful of shows in that time. We felt we would get the best results if we took time off so we could focus solely on the song writing. It proved to be a very good idea. I think probably 75% of the songs came together totally in the last couple of months of 2004, so it got a little tight. For recording purposes we went to Antfarm Studios again and worked with Tue Madsen who was also responsible for sound duties on Sands Of Time and we think he did an amazing job with In Love With The End. We really like working with Tue, he’s got great ears, knows what we want and how to get it and he’s also really fun and relaxed to work with. We spent a total of around 3 weeks in the studio which was just enough time for us to get everything down that we wanted in a comfortable way and without too much stress.
		Who wrote the music for In Love With The End and who the lyrics? Rob writes all the lyrics for Born From Pain and I think he does a great job of writing lyrics that people can identify with and also have a theme in them. With the lyrics for In Love With The End Rob has dealt with a lot of stuff that is about how people have a state of mind to want to self destruct in a way, in the sense of destroying things and know that they’re doing that, but not being able to stop themselves. It shows all around the world with how we treat the environment, in politics, socially and also in our personal lives. I guess the ultimate image of this is used in the album artwork of a nuclear explosion. It seems to be something that could happen, even though we know what the consequences are. Although there are some more upbeat moments on the album like “Raging Heart” which focuses on seizing the day and taking advantage of a situation in a positive way and not letting life just pass you by. As for the music, well Stefan and I wrote all the music for this album. We wrote finished songs at home and recorded them on a studio program Stefan has on his computer so that they had drums etc, so people could get a good idea of our overall thoughts, rather than just having a few riffs here and there. Then as a band we changed things we didn’t like or kept things the way they were or re-arranged stuff until we had an end result that we all were happy with. It was a long process at times, but the end result is totally crushing. It’s really interesting going from initial ideas of songs and riffs to the finished end recording and the difference can be quite big sometimes. The songs on In Love With The End are totally devastating though so we’re all super happy.
		Why did you choose for Metal Blade? Where there any other labels? Why did you not stay at GSR Music We chose Metal Blade because they made us a great offer and were really enthusiastic about what we did, what we were about and where we could go. We did have interest from other labels, but we felt that Metal Blade was the best choice to take us where we wanted to go. We’ve been at GSR for all of our releases and the label and Theo are great and have been great to and for us, but we started getting interest from numerous bigger labels and we decided that now would be the right time to leave GSR to try and build on what we already have.The only way we could do that was to go to a bigger label as we really want to reach a wider audience. GSR was always really supportive of this for us though, right from the start and Theo always said he’d be the first to wish us luck and want us to move on if we got the right offer and we did so it was time to move. Theo and GSR have been really supportive so it’s all good.
		Are there any future plans besides touring throughout Europe. Release a DVD or back to the United States? Well, In Love With The End is going to be released on the 18th April in Europe and the 19th April in the States and now all the hard work of writing, recording, getting everything done has been done, the hard and fun part of it all comes, which is touring. I guess we’ll be spending the majority of 2005 and 2006. We’re gonna be on tour from the 28th April – 29th May all over Europe and we’re taking Zero Mentality with us. Dates can be found on www.bornfrompain.com. Other than that we have plans to go to the UK, some festivals and a ton of other shows lined up. We do have plans to go back to the States and elsewhere, but these are just in the planning stages at the moment and we have no confirmed plans. As for a DVD, well, we’ll see, but there is a limited edition DVD that comes with the first 3000 pressed CDs of In Love With The End which has the “Day Of The Scorpio” video clip from Sands Of Time and some live footage from the With Full Force Festival in 2004. But like I said, it’s limited, so if people want that they best be quick, haha
		How is working with the new drummer? Are you happy with him? Roel is fitting in really nicely. He’s a good dude with a great sense of humour and is an awesome drummer which I’m sure you’ll hear on In Love With The End. He had a very busy first few months with the band as he had to learn like 15 songs for the 5 or so live shows we had left for 2004 and also had to contribute to writing and learn those songs, so he has been very busy, but he’s done a great job and is a great asset.
		What is your favourite classic? What is my favourite classic what? I’m gonna make this into my own question, so it’s gonna be what’s your favourite classic HC and Metal albums. Ok, for HC, I think there are a couple that fit the bill for me in some ways and are definitely important for me for sure. They’d be Sick Of It All – Just Look Around, Unbroken – Life. Love. Regret., Earth Crisis – Destroy The Machines, Converge – When Forever Comes Crashing and Madball – Set It Off. As for Metal releases, well the first 5 Metallica all helped to define me and I’m a huge Metallica fan. Pantera – Vulgar Display Of Power, Slayer – Seasons In The Abyss and Faith No More – Angel Dust are all classics in my eyes and are important albums to me.
		You guys are always on tour, what is the weirdest thing you’ve ever seen on a tour? Yes, we’re always on tour, which is awesome, we love playing, so I guess it helps. Weirdest thing we’ve ever seen on tour. Hmmm, I’m not really sure actually. I’m sure there have been numerous things, but nothing really springs to mind right now and I’ve been thinking about it for 5 or 10 minutes or so. Not sure at all
		Thanks for this interview and have fun on the upcoming tour; do you have some last words for the world? Thanks for the interview and kind words. Last words, just make sure you check out In Love With The End out April 18th through Metal Blade. If you like crushing hardcore with a sharp metal twist then you’re bound to love it and the tour will be awesome. So come to that too. Thanks to all our friends and fans for their continued support. Oh, and listen/go see Rise & Fall. That band kills.
(Jeroen Habets)