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Ulcerate - Jamie St Merat

28/12/12 || The Duff

ulcerat-tdoa

Ulcerate were an unusual tech death band mixing Hate Eternal, Neurosis, Deathspell Omega and sporadic rhythms and staggering drumming. They’ve since, over the course of four years, honed their style into a dark, twisted mass of drone, black, death and post-rock. Next year sees the band releasing its fourth and probably most important record having released two of metal’s most outstanding, innovative and interesting releases. Jamie has very kindly given in to every request to feature with us here at GD, so please be humbled once more by one of death metal’s pioneering rhythm sections.

Global Domination: You’ve probably become one of the most talked about death metal drummers alongside George Kollias. How does this affect how you approach your style for the next record?

Ulcerate: Not really too sure about that man! In any case I don’t really feel any sort of perceived status, so I don’t feel like I have to live up to any expectations, except for my own. Style-wise, I’m just happy to be able to iron out parts of my playing I’m not happy with and come up with parts that I think are unique to our music. I’ve got a never-ending pool of ideas that I want to incorporate, so I’m pretty happy with how things are turning out. Not at all interested in the speed-war and hyper editing going on with a lot of the drummers in this style, so that’s something I definitely want to stay as far away from as possible.

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On “Destroyers of All”, you had a very, very slick drum tone, almost featherweight in comparison to those more natural on “Everything is Fire” and before. With this new record stated as being more visceral, do you intend to return to that livelier, more expansive sound?

The actual drum production isn’t a whole lot different than Fire to be honest – it’s how everything else is sitting in the mix against it. One big difference between Destroyers and the previous 2 albums is that we upgraded our audio interface, which gave us a lot more headroom and a lot less noise – generally an advantage but possibly made the final product a little too clean and tidy. I actually never use a lot of post-processing – barely any compression and EQ, no quantising, editing to fix parts etc, no sound replacing except for the kick drums… so what we track in the room is what we’re left with essentially. But yeah, the production style we have in mind for this next album is thicker, more fuck-off if you will.

Why hasn’t your touring 2nd guitarist become a permanent member of the band?

We’re actually not working with him anymore for various reasons. He was brought in as a live guitarist, with a vague aim of him becoming a permanent member if things worked out, which after a only a year and half just wasn’t the case. It was his first experience in an internationally touring band, and the reality of consistent rehearsal, financial investment combined with some personal issues was apparently not something he anticipated. We actually toured Australia in September as a 3-piece for the first time, and things went a lot better than expected, and actually felt the most ‘right’ in the sense of only having the individuals on stage who are truly invested in the band. So that’s certainly an option for the future.

Four tracks so far over 35 minutes. How is this going to go? Have you realised you’re writing probably the most anticipated record of 2013? Is there a theme developing? Could this be an epic concept album, just five tracks long with a twenty minute closer? (please do this)

That comment I realised after it was made is a little misleading – it was 4 complete tracks, and then the 5th incomplete totalling the 35 minutes. The tracks are all weighing in at 6-7 minutes each, so I think we’ll end up with 7 in total again. We don’t really want to exceed 50mins really due to the nature of the material.

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The album won’t be any sort of concept album, and definitely no 20 minute songs unfortunately…

You seem to have been honing your sound to something more streamlined over the years; why this decision to rough it up a bit? Was it conscious? A reflection of decaying times?

To me the only conscious streamlining we’ve ever done was with Destroyers, where we wanted to trim away some of the more rhythmical side of the guitar parts. When we started writing that album we just let everything flow in a totally linear fashion (writing every song from the first riff to the last), and for what we were going for that really makes a lot of sense, kind of removes some of the more angular sections. The other result of that approach is that from song-to-song there’s a really consistent tone, whereas this time we’re really focusing on each song having it’s own identity. In terms of pushing the violent sound this time round, it’s just another avenue for us to explore – as I mentioned earlier Destroyers came out a little on the ‘clean’ side, so now is a chance to really push things in the other direction. In saying that though, already I’m finding these new tracks to be really fucking interesting to listen to, melodically it’s all over the place, and really fucking caustic.

Will we hear at least one new track in case of the likelihood of the Mayan predictions becoming a reality?

Nothing before the end of this year unfortunately, we’re looking to track late January at this stage.

“Destroyers of All” was lauded as the best thing you’d done, but some became medically depressed because there weren’t enough riffs as compared to the masterful “Everything is Fire”. The beginning of “Omens” was the first time it felt you were being unoriginal, uninspired even, but the whole album has a very languid feel to it. Why did you push so hard for atmosphere then at the expense of tearing ear-drums? There were no sections as with the beginning of “Drown Within” or 2:45 into “Caecus”, or the respective endings of “Soullessness Embraced” and “Everything is Fire”, which all essentially melted faces.

We never started this band with an aim to just release the same kind of album again and again, so when it came to write Destroyers, after two very ‘riffy’ albums, it was time to step back and see what else we could do. And I think for a death metal album we definitely succeeded. Holistically speaking, we want our whole catalogue of albums to be something that has very clear landmarks, and is never content to sit still. Downside of this is of course pissing off people that are attached to a certain aspect of the band, but that’s inevitable.

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Regarding face-melting – that is actually our #1 priority this time around, it’s really important for us to create songs that really overwhelm and steamroll the listener. I do think people who are fans of Fire are going to find a lot of interest in this next album.

How do you feel things are developing? You seem to be riding high in terms of forming your own sound. Do you fear you might lose that in making the music more abrasive and reverting to a style you had where your influences were more apparent?

The new material honestly doesn’t really sound like anything I’ve heard before and there’s definitely no reverting to a previous sound, that’s the last thing that we’d ever want to do. It’s just bringing back a more caustic approach to the overall tone and structure of everything. In terms of influences, it’s kind of impossible for us at this point to have other bands sounds dictate where we’re going – every song we write we get a stronger and stronger direction for our path of development, and external forces just really don’t play into it at all. That’s for the listeners to decide and interpret I guess.

How, where and when is the recording going to take place?

The actual tracking at this stage is still up in the air, we might go with our usual studio, or we may go elsewhere. Either way we’re confident we can get the tone we’re after anywhere.

*Any working titles for the new album?
Here are my suggestions:

Molesters of Soil
Barren to Nothing
Bringers of Hate
Molesters of Hate
Hating the Molesters
Molesting the Nothing
Soiling the Molesters*

Not at this stage, no.

I know it’s early, but when can we expect this record? I think it’s the one I’m looking forward to the most, yet 2013 is shaping up to be insanely good.

The only indication I can give at this stage is 2013 sometime, I would say second half of the year at least.

What are you looking forward to the most? How did the 2012 Malignancy record shape up for you?

Release-wise? I’m still really hanging out for Luc to get the new Gorguts out, our French buds in Svart Crown will have their next album out, from what I’ve heard so far it should be fucking great, I know that the German Ascension will have something out maybe next year, Mitochondrion’s 3rd album, the new Cult of Luna sounds great, and always interested to see what both Immolation and Deathspell Omega produce, hopefully both bands turn in something a little filthier this time around haha. No idea about Malignancy, not a fan sorry.

Why did you leave Willowtip? That label has lost some incredibly talented bands over the years, and it seems like an enormous shame considering Tipton appears to run a business with his heart 100% in the music and the fans.

We didn’t leave Willowtip out of spite, or because he didn’t deliver on anything – we had been in talks with Relapse since Fire and for us to turn down an opportunity that could possibly be very positive didn’t really make sense after 2 albums on a single label. We don’t want to get complacent and comfortable with our situation, we’ve always got to be progressing – and if a move to a larger label means that our music reaches more people without having to compromise on how we write and produce everything, then that’s only a plus in my eyes. The deal we have with Relapse is very modest, and I think great for both parties.

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Would you say you stick out like a sore thumb with Relapse? Atmospheric drone-sludge-post-rock death metal is a label reserved mainly for more underground artists; has your popularity surged with “The Destroyers of All”?

No not all, Relapse has always had a hugely diverse roster throughout it’s existence. Maybe there’s less death metal bands nowadays, but that’s not really an issue. I can honestly say that even if I’m not into some of the bands on the label, there’s still an overriding aesthetic and attention to detail that all the other bigger metal labels lack.

Popularity – not really surged per se, I think ever since Fire there’s just been a solid growth.

How did the touring in support for that record go? Are you expecting to increase your touring schedule now that you’re with a major label? Do you want to? Are you living the dream?

Yeah for sure. This is exactly what I have been wanting to do since I started playing drums, in my mind (and the others in the band) the combination of travelling and playing music every night for a month is incredible. In terms of touring, it was our first time in North America, and our first time ‘headlining’ in Europe, so we had incredibly realistic (read: pessimistic) expectations that were definitely exceeded. Some of the best shows we’ve ever done have happened this past year. In terms of increasing our tour schedule, we’re still wanting to remain pretty DIY with everything, so the advent of moving to Relapse won’t necessarily facilitate that, but they have a much wider reach that we just didn’t see with the other labels we’ve been involved with. In the States the Relapse crew were really fucking incredible in lending a helping hand, and really made things alot easier for us.

At the moment you are releasing an album every two years and comfortably so. Do you foresee this changing, or do you feel confident in how devoted and inspired you are in your craft?

It’s not premeditated at all, it just seems to have worked out that way – ie release the album, tour it as much as we can over the next year or so, and then we just naturally start jamming new stuff. No idea if that routine will change or not, although I guess if more touring opportunities are available that might push that time-frame out a little. In terms of devotion to the craft – 100% on all fronts.

I take it you write a lot of the music too; what inspires you to write such harrowing material? Christ man, it’s like you’ve never seen bunny rabbits making love. (please don’t say two girls and one cup)

All our music is written as a collaboration – almost nothing is pre-written and brought to a rehearsal. Guitarist Mike and myself flesh everything out together, and we just have the exact frame of mind when it comes to this stuff. Bassist/vocalist Paul as well.

In terms of harrowing material – why play death metal at all if that isn’t the end goal? We all listen to other styles of music, but when it comes to death and black metal, there’s only really one direction to point in – that’s what makes it so unique. This music should be a total sensory overload, the aesthetic has to be unified on all fronts, total fucking immersion. The older we get and the more experienced we’ve become this ideal just rings more and more true. I listen to other styles of music to be uplifted or have a laugh – this style is the antithesis of that, so we as practitioners and listeners should revel in that! Besides, within these seemingly narrow constraints there’s infinite territory to explore.

You’ve done all the artwork for your previous efforts; again, your sources for inspiration would be welcome – for the last two, “The Destroyers of All” especially, the work has been truly exceptional. It’s like horror, beauty, mixed with “D-. did I just see a penis?” Do you take after Giger much? That’s all the sci-fi-based horror art I’m aware of, so please list your muses.

I definitely don’t really find much sci-fi in my work, or at least that’s not where I’m coming from at all. I guess I dig Giger on some level, but the whole aliens/dystopian future thing isn’t really up my alley. Artists that I like that have left an impression on me and my approach to visual work are Francis Bacon, Stephen Kasner, Zdzisław Beksiński, Dave McKean, Dali/Bosch to some extent. Others doing incredible work: Sect Metastaziz, Timo Ketola, Manuel Tinnemans, and a buddy of ours from Auckland Alexander Brown who’s producing some of the most iconic work around. These last 3 guys are all hand illustrators so thematically I’m very much into what they do, but there’s not really any influence stylistically.

Which do you pursue more, your artwork or drumming? And if it weren’t for Ulcerate? Have you ever tried selling your artwork? Does it fetch a price?

Drumming for sure. If it weren’t for Ulcerate, drumming would still be my first passion, no doubt. My 9-to-5 (front-end web design/development) takes up most of my creative energy, so outside of the occasional projects I don’t do a lot of art at all. I’d like that to change at some point, but for now it is what it is. I don’t sell my work, I have no interest in that to be honest.

What are your hopes for 2013 releases?