Ne Obliviscaris interview: «Our next album will be more complicated and technical than "Portal Of I"»

One of the most promising new arrivals in the extreme metal scene in 2012 is without any doubt the Australians Ne Obliviscaris. They released an incredible debut album, called "Portal Of I", demonstrating their huge talent as well as their ability to reach to new highs. This release in comparison to its ranking in Rocking.gr's Top 30 for 2012 consist a very good chance for us to talk to the vocalist Xenoyr, about the past, the present and the future of the band.

Hi Xen, how are you?
Very good.

You released "Portal Of I" in May. What is the response of the press and the fans so far?
It is very good. Since the time that the album has been released the reviews are very humbling. The response is good and we have got a lot more fans from that. All the reviews have been very good and we have received nice things and I don’t think we could get anything better, really.

You have some months since then. Would you like to change something on the album?
When we created the album, it took us quite a long time. In that time we dissected it enough and refine it enough to be happy with it. We put different engineering and we changed program in order to do the mixing and mastering. We spent a lot of time and work on every aspect on it. We are very happy and we don’t have something to change at all.

How much time did you actually need to compose the album?
There were some trivia songs that were released on the demo in 2007. They have been rerecorded and retouched for the album. Some of the songs were written in a few weeks, some others in a few months. During that time we refined the songs a little bit. It is quite hard to say.
    
You have formed the band in 2003. Why did it take you so many years to release an album?
I formed the band in 2003 with 3 other people (a drummer, a guitarist and a bassist). Tim joined us in September 2003. There was a period from 2003 to 2007, when we released our demo. Besides we had many member changes and drama tragedies and other things until we release the demo. Once we had released the demo in 2007, we lost the guitar player and we spent about 18 months or so trying to find another guitarist. I have got off trying for a little bit. Then we had to write the music and record the new album. We had a lot of member problems, before we go on.

Listening to "Portal Of I", apart from black and prog metal, there are elements from jazz, folk and even classical music. What are the major influences for Ne Obliviscaris?
Everyone in the band listens to a wide range of music. I listen to a lot of music from black metal to classical music. I grew up with black metal so I have influences from black metal. Tim grew up with a classical background and heavy influences from composers like Moller, Shostakovich etc. All are influenced by other metal bands like Emperor, Devin Townsend, Opeth and bands like that. We have a big range of influence and I think if all in the band listen to the same kind of music, the album would be sounded in a way that we did not want to.

Where would you categorize your music? I know it is not easy.
Vaguely, I would say progressive metal. You could say progressive extreme melodic metal. People would say dark artists, with which i don’t necessarily agree, but i am happy with that.

In the review I wrote you play progressive metal on a black metal basis.
Ok, this is similar to what I said. I agree with you.

Your music is adventurous and complicated and it is hard to reproduce this original feeling in a live show. What are the reactions of the fans in your live shows?
Whatever we play from our album in a live setting is really no different. We can play everything in a live. We would not write something and put it in an album if we could not do that on a stage. I think this is the professional way in order to be able to replicate everything. In regard to the sound it could be different because of the way that you are mixing at the time. Everything we play basically is what you hear in the album. In a live setting it is completely different in regard to people who see what we are doing. It is another avenue for us to express our music.

Do you prefer playing live or the entire process of writing and recording an album is more exciting for you?
I have always wanted to write music and at the same time I wanted to play live. I guess recording an album is more rewarding. It is like a monster in your life. You say that i did this once upon a time. On the other hand, playing live is also rewarding when you get to travel and meet people and show people your music and what you can. It is automatically on top.  When you create an album it takes a long time to do but when you play live it is special that you can see the reactions of people.

Have you played outside Australia?
Unfortunately, no. We are looking in 2013 to travel abroad.

Are you going to plan any live dates for any European festivals next summer?
We hope to. We are in the process of. We will have something to announce in the next couple of weeks and we will know how soon we are going to be over to Europe. I think Europe will probably be the first place to visit in regard to a live show. There is a good chance to play in Europe next summer, but we have to wait and see.

This is the only chance for me to see you on stage, in a European festival.
We want actually this, touring around. Being a part of a festival is actually amazing. Our friends Belpheghor have played in a few festivals. Every time they fly around we are pretty jealous.

"Portal Of I" is an astonishing album. How do you imagine your next album, because from now on it is difficult for you to compete with yourselves, due to the fact that you have set the standards very high?
I guess in regard to do something better to what we have done, a lot of bands when they release their first album and as the time passes this is the fans favourite album. We don’t want to be a band that our first album will be our best album and we are putting a lot of pressure on us in order to make it better. We want each album to be better than our last one and I think our next one will be as good, if not better, than our previous one. At the same time someone can say that the first album is better than the next ones. Every time we do something, we want to put the best of our ability. On a personal level I think our next album will be better.

Have you started writing new songs?
Yes. We are working at some new songs for the moment. In the new year we are going to concentrate in writing and hopefully by the end of 2013 recording and early 2014 we will have a new album released.

This sounds good. We will not have to wait for nine years this time.
Exactly (laughing).

Can you give us a clue about this new material? Is it going to be in the same direction as the one of "Portal Of I"?
The new music will be similar in a sense and when you hear it, it will sound like that, but at the same time, it will probably be more technical. Some of the songs that were from the demo are influenced by the old guitarist, who left the band. The new guitarist gives more technical aspect on what he does. What we have done so far for the album, it is varied, but I think it will be a little more complex.

How do you imagine Ne Obliviscaris in the future?
In the future, I hope that we are touring regularly. We started this band with the aim to tour all the time. It is hard for every musician to live from what he is doing. We don’t do pop music. With metal music is a lot more harder, because it is such a niche sort of music. To live off from music is what we want from the band. In the future I think we will be touring a lot, we will have more albums. Hopefully, we will have more fans.

You mentioned the fans. How the sales of the album are going so far?
I don’t have any figures at the moment but the response is pretty constant. I guess we really haven’t touched the European market at the moment. We have a lot of feedback from US. Europe seems a little bit quieter. I do believe once we have something rewarding in the next few weeks, the Europeans get to know us a little better.

Personally what kind of music do you like to listen to? You said before black metal.
I grew up with black metal. I like to listen to classical music, Mozart, Shostakovich. I like alternative music like Alice In Chains, Nick Cave & The Badseeds. I listen to a lot of underground German, gothic, dark wave, goth-industrial scene. If something sounds good I listen to it, but I don’t have time to listen to pop music and country-western.

Do you have any support from Greece?
We have a little bit. I am not entirely sure in comparison to the rest of Europe. In a way Greece is an untouched area for us. I think Rotting Christ fans will probably enjoy us. By the way I am a Rotting Christ fan.

Would you like to say something to the Greek fans?
I would like to thank you for taking the time to listen to us and appreciate what we do. Hopefully we will be able to come to Greece perhaps next year.

Just to let you know, "Portal Of I" is in the Rocking.gr team Top 30 albums for 2012.
Wow. This is very humbling for us to be compared to all those other big bands out there. It is great to comprehend that a new band is regarded at this position.

I would like to thank you very much, Xenoyr.
Thank you and Rocking.gr.