Rockezine.com interview with The Ocean on Mar 01, 2006

with Nils and Robin on Mar 01, 2006


		Can you briefly introduce the band to our readers? N: THE OCEAN is a musical collective of an ever-changing number of members, founded in Berlin in the year 2000. The collective has a fix core line-up of seven members, also referred to as “the band” and an additional pool of classical musicians, designers and visual artists that partake whenever expedient and possible: “the collective”. In summer 2002, we had our first public appearance. The next year we got signed to Make My Day Records and released our first record "Fogdiver”, which was entirely instrumental. 2004 saw the release of our sophomore record "Fluxion", featuring vocals and big scale orchestrations with cellos, flutes and trombones. Now it`s 2005 and our new record "Aeolian" was just released through Metal Blade Records.
		“Aeolian” has recently been released, how have the reactions been so far? N: It`s been great and the sheer amount of interview requests we`ve gotten, more than 80 in these past 4 weeks, is beyond anything we`ve imagined. On the other hand, we`ve read a handful of reviews whose authors complained about the “metal” component in our music. Those people loved the post-rock flair of “Fogdiver”, were sceptical about “Fluxion” and feel let down now by what they consider a change of our style towards metal. I don`t have a problem if some people don`t like our record, it`s not our goal to make music for everybody, but some people are just ignorant of the fact that “Aeolian” represents a facet of our sound that`s always been there. As a matter of fact, some songs on “Aeolian” are even older than some songs on “Fogdiver”. There hasn`t been any change in our style. It`s just that each one of the three albums we`ve released so far demonstrates a different face of THE OCEAN -- and to us that is a great challenge and an essentially positive thing. The interesting thing is that this criticism seems to be an all-German phenomenon. I mean, our album is doing pretty well in German magazines (those voices are a minority), but abroad, the reviews are even better. The album went “Record of the Month” in Sweden`s Close-Up Magazine and got 4K in Kerrang Magazine...
		What was the worst thing you’ve read about “Aeolian” and what’s the best? R: Worst: "The Ocean n`en restituent qu`un résultat fondamentalement édulcoré, s’asseyant sur une polyrythmie bon enfant, incapable de rattraper la pauvreté musicale de l`ensemble" (Lords of Winter Webzine, France) Best: "The Ocean is de toekomst!" (Rock Tribune, Belgium) "The Ocean sind wahrlich eine Ausnahmeband, für die eine 10/10-Punktewertung eigentlich nicht ausreicht." (Burn Your Ears, Germany) "... some of the biggest riffs known to man" (Metal Pigeon, UK)
		How did you get in contact with Metal Blade, and how hard was it to get a contract signed with them? R: It was a pretty quick and easy thing. They approached us, made us an offer which was at that time the best out of the few serious offers from bigger labels we got, and so we discussed some details for a few weeks and then signed the deal. Actually there were some issues with the publishing, but we got it all straightened out. They were fast and reliable and replied to all our questions quickly and reasonably, something that was not the case with some of the other labels we were dealing with.
		Are you satisfied with the step to Metal Blade and what differences are there in promotion compared to your old label? R: We`re perfectly satisfied with the work they`ve been doing with the promotion of this record, it was actually beyond the scale of anything we had imagined. We`re getting interview requests from Portugal to Belarus, it`s just amazing to see where this record is being released and received! The difference to our old labels is that there simply was no promotion at all done for our previous records... well, no, I`ll have to admit that MMD Records did good work in Germany, they got us into all the magazines at least, but outside of Germany, our albums were not available through major distribution, just through certain underground channels, and there was almost zero promotion to support the releases. That was one of the main reasons why we were looking for a bigger label, it was just a frustrating perspective to release another record which wouldn`t be available in many European territories, not even talking about the US or Japan. "Aeolian" is being released worldwide now and we`re very happy with that. We`re already getting some very positive feedback from the US, too, although the record won`t be released there until March 2006.
		The Ocean has a very unique style. How would you describe your music in your own words, and what bands have influenced your style the most? N: Our music comprises a wide variety of styles and brings together things that are often seen as opposites. It`s technical and highly emotional, empathetic and vile. Our songs are of epic dimensions, sometimes exceeding ten minutes; there are a lot of weird time signatures and odd harmonic changes. The arrangements seem chaotic at first glance, but in fact the music is entirely composed. Nothing`s arbitrary, nothing happens by accident, and the overall picture is a very coherent one, to us. You don`t lose your way in the music, you`ll always get the feeling, there`s always this red thread leading you through our records. They`re all conceptual in a way. It might take a while though to absorb the whole thing – our music is anything but easy-listening. We draw upon many influences, not restricted to the metal context and contemporary artists, but from a larger horizon including film-makers such as David Lynch or Andrej Tarkovski, poets and writers such as Rimbaud or Lautreamont and surrealist artists like Breton, Dali. As for what Metal/Noise/Hardcore in the broadest sense is concerned, bands that have really had an impact on us are Unbroken, Groundwork, Absinthe, Coalesce, Converge, Botch, Dillinger Escape Plan, Neurosis, The Melvins, Refused, Meshuggah, Lightning Bolt and more than anything, the mighty Breach.
		How hard is it to transform the atmosphere of your music on CD to a live setting and do you feel the music loses something when performed live on stage? R: We can perform each and every song from "fluxion" and most of the tracks from "Aeolian" in a live-environment without any compromise. We play entirely to a sequencer, which controls not only all the samples of the classical instruments and the click for the drummer, but also our midi-triggered light-show and custom-cut videos, and it even switches our guitar effects. So what you get live is what you get on record, 1:1. Apparently, we can`t take an entire orchestra on tour with us. This wouldn`t work for many reasons, the size of the venues only being one of them. It`s very hard to get a decent sound on stage for these people, with thundering drums and raging guitars around them. You have to keep in mind that they play acoustic instruments that need to be mic-ed, and can`t take much low-frequency vibration. Unless you`re Metallica it`s really hard to do that live. Plus we tend to go pretty nuts on stage, throwing around guitars, kicking over oil barrels that we use as percussion instruments, etc... Once, our cello-players instrument got damaged by a flying mic-stand, and these instruments are really expensive, so I guess we`d be broke after the first 2 weeks of tour if we took all these people along! Our classical musicians do play with us live at times though, but mostly in Berlin. We are 8 people in the band without them already, plus our sound engineer... there is simply no room in the van. But sound wise the samples work just as well, so there`s no compromise here.
		What album is currently playing in your CD-player? N: We all dig the new Burst album a lot. The latest Knut and Gojira albums are awesome, too. And there`s a few records from earlier this year that are still hot, Bohren und der Club of Gore, Buried Inside, High On Fire or Cursed for example. And then there`s our all-time classics such as Tom Waits, Diamanda Galas, Frank Zappa or the Geto Boys. R: I listen to nothing but ULVER these days... and a band from Iceland called Solstafir. The new In Flames Record, "Come Clarity", kicks ass, too.
		What was your best concert and what was your worst? N: We`ve played a lot of shows that were all awesome in their own way. One of them was the Riotfest in Antwerp two years ago. It was cool to play with Dillinger Escape Plan, and also for the first time, we had the chance to hit a stage that was big enough for us. Usually, we`re seven people on stage, often there`s more. Even in average-sized venues, space on stage is very limited for a band this big. In most cases it`s no problem to pack all members and their equipment onto the stage, but that doesn`t mean we all have room to move around, and we are pretty physical on stage... if there`s not enough space to even move, that`s kind of hard. At the Riotfest, the stage was big enough for that, big enough to let it all out. And it felt great. Luckily, the situation has improved a lot during the past two years. Today, our stages are bigger than they used to be three years ago. Not as big as the Riotfest one, though, but big enough to realize the mighty spectacle that The Ocean is all about. As for the worst things, there have been some catastrophes on stage in our earliest days. We`ve seen fuses blown, our computer crash, tubes explode, things like that. Once, during a show, we had a problem with one of our guitar amps – it just went mute in the middle of our last song and we didn`t know why. We tried to continue playing – so no one would notice – while at the same time trying to locate the problem and fix it. We didn`t succeed. After the show, with the lights back on, we saw what had happened: one of our drummers` cymbals had fallen to the ground. That sometimes happens when it gets rough, we`re used to that (it`s actually become part of the show). But this time, it had cut through the guitar cable like a knife. It was the most precise cut of a cable we had ever seen. Things like that happen more and more rarely these days. We`ve taken control of our equipment while back in the days the equipment was in control of us. However, the worst things tend to happen when you least expect them. So I guess there`s still some of those miniature catastrophes to come... R: By far the worst fucking gig ever took place in Holland, at the W2 venue in Den Bosch this spring. It was just a complete disaster and I don`t even wanna talk about that. I was about to quit the band after that gig. The best for me was just a few weeks ago in Spain... they invited us for a single festival show and treated us like medieval kings, it was amazing...
		Where would you like to see The Ocean five years from now? N: In a decent tour bus that offers enough space for nine people, driving through Patagonia, Manchuria, or Transylvania. We all love recording music and putting out records, but the touring part is the most exciting thing about the whole project. We could spend an entire year on tour, but not an entire year in the dark catacombs of Oceanland. We`d love to tour odd parts of the world, go to “difficult” countries. I mean, we wouldn`t say no if we were offered a US tour, that`d be awesome, but then again, what`s Louisiana compared to Labrador, New Jersey compared to Nubia, or South Dakota compared to Siberia? We might still be a bit far from that – we haven`t even been offered a US tour yet – but five years... I guess that`s feasible. We`ll write you a postcard from Burma or something.
		Thanks a lot for the interview! Is there anything left unsaid? N: Yes! We have a split 7" with Sweden`s Burst out on the Garden of Exile Records featuring exclusive artwork by Seldon Hunt (Isis, Pelican, Neurosis). There`s another 7" out on the Danish Futhermocker label (limited to 220 copies) that features an exclusive version of the song "Queen of the Food-Chain" with Tomas Hallbom of Breach singing. And then there is a 3xLP in a double-gatefold cover comprising both "Fluxion" and "Aeolian", available through Throne Records. We`ll be on tour in March/April 2006, and chances are we`ll play a place near you. Check our www.theoceancollective.com for further info.
		(Frank van de Voorde)