1. Hello my friend, pleasure to have you on Rotten Pages ´zine. How are you doing today? Let us set the scene first. Where do we find you right now? Please describe your surroundings.
Hello, thank you very much for hosting me on Rotten Pages. I am doing well at the moment. I'm currently enjoying the first days of my Christmas break after quite a stressful time at work. I'm in my apartment/home studio at the moment, guitar and mic by my side in case inspiration hits, but preparing to fly back home tomorrow to celebrate the holiday season with my family.
2. Let’s start with the boring basics. Care to explain to the unknowing precisely where in the world you emanate such an umbra aura?
Umbra aura, I like it! I've been living in Warsaw, Poland for the past 4 years due to my job, but my nationality is Dutch. “Where I am from” however, has always been a tricky question for me to answer. I had an expat childhood which saw me living in several countries from China to Italy, and only moving to the Netherlands at the age of 14. I have therefore never really had a national identity or a true place to call home, something which I touch on in my lyrics.
3. As an emerging band in the metal scene, what are some challenges you've faced, and how have you overcome them to pave the way for your future?
The most significant challenge I personally had to overcome was putting myself in the mindset that I was going to “go for it”, which I overcame thanks to the support of someone close to me. I don't have expectations to become the next big thing in my scene, and so my main goal was to make music that I would want to listen to and to express myself the best I could, by myself. The decision to do everything by myself lead to a number of challenges along the way. For example teaching myself, without any prior knowledge, how to mix metal music. This took a lot of effort and is something I am still trying to get better at. Overcoming production-related challenges such as this really just came down to sinking a lot of time into it and finding a healthy balance of being critical of yourself while not being overcritical to the point that you cannot get anything done.
4. What attributes do you think that a new Metal Band should have in order to gain identity and be unique?
I believe the best thing you can do, which goes for many things in life and not just creating music, is staying true to yourself. In terms of music, that means expressing YOUR tastes, emotions, and ideas, and not trying to conform to a certain formula or to the “rules” laid out by others in the scene. Everyone has a unique taste palette, so allow that to make it's way into your music. If that means putting breakdowns, piano interludes and black metal riffs all in the same song, go for it! That applies to the music you choose to listen to too. I believe one of the worst things you can do is limit the music you listen to to just a couple of genres. Don't be afraid of putting on some pop or EDM if you're in the mood for something light and different. For music writing specifically, inspiration can be found in every genre of music out there. A fun technique I use in my own writing is taking a very non-metal passage/melody from an existing song, altering it to make it your own and trying to incorporate it into your song. The end result is often very interesting and unrecognizable from the original inspiration.
5. What prompted you to explore “post-metal” musical direction, and how do you feel it enhances the overall listening experience?
I only got into post-metal quite recently, around 5 years ago when I saw Harakiri for the Sky for the first time live. That concert had a big impact on me and planted some seeds for my future music in my head. I found it to be an incredibly powerful sub-genre, specifically in its expression of emotions and that there is much less of a “formula” that other sub-genres suffer from. As someone who's always felt emotions quite deeply, this really connected with me and I therefore found it to be a fitting sound to what I was trying to express. That being said, it wasn't really a conscious decision I made to go post-metal, but rather a development that happened naturally.
6. Your music includes some different styles of music such as shoegaze, melodic death metal and even some progressive elements. How do you balance these different influences to create a cohesive sound?
Having a direction or a mood you want to have per song or for your album in general is a good starting point. In more practical terms, that can be a main melody or chord progression your song follows. From there you can incorporate different styles and passages that mix things up but still work well with the main melody/mood you have set up. Its a delicate balance between satisfactory predictability and pleasant surprises. I enjoy experimenting with different ideas but favour the flow of the song above all else. When writing music, I will always listen back from the top time and time again, and if anything sounds jarring, I rework it.
7. As the sole member of Drifter, how do you handle the songwriting and recording aspects? What challenges and advantages do you experience as a one-man band?
My writing process is almost completely separated from the recording process. I personally like to have songs fully written before I start recording them with the exception of guitar solos which I improvise while recording. During recording and subsequent mixing I will then make minor tweaks here and there. I feel that separating the two, allows me to focus all of my attention to the job at hand which leads to a better end-product.
The creation of a song starts with writing the music, which I do fully in tab software. Here I can write all of the instruments from the guitars to the drums. Writing like this is hugely beneficial to me, as it allows me to hear all of the different elements come together in real-time and to play-back, slow down or change instruments very easily and as often as I want. If I can make some computer beeps and boops sound good, I know I have a good song on my hands.
Lyrics will come only after all of the instrumentation is finished, and sometimes even after recording all the instruments, depending on how inspired I feel. Lyrics are definitely the more difficult of the two for me to write, with many evenings beings spent resulting in just one line being written. The instrumentation sets the mood of the song, after which its a matter of writing how I feel. Often I will have a lyrical topic in mind while writing the instruments which I then work off of when writing the lyrics. A trick I incorporate is writing my own version of lyrics to existing songs, just to get a structure and rhyming pattern going to then use in my own music.
As for recording, this is always the most stressful part of the process for me, as it requires you to play your instrument as perfectly as possible. Vocals are an exception for me though, as I find it very freeing and satisfying to finally put the lyrics to the music and to express myself even further through my own voice.
While the challenges of a one-man band are fairly obvious (a lot of time, a lot of work, a lot to master the best you can), the advantages are there too, in that I have all of the creative freedom and no pressure from outside sources. When it all comes together in a result you are satisfied with, its a very rewarding feeling and its something I am very proud of.
8. Your compositions evoke a wide range of emotions. What drives you to explore such diverse emotional landscapes in your music, and how do you achieve that balance within your compositions?
Above all else, making the album is something I wanted to do for myself, as a new pursuit in my life and to prove something to myself. As such, I've used it as an outlet for the emotions I was feeling, serving almost as a kind of personal therapy. The last couple of years have been difficult for me, with feelings of heartbreak, loneliness and being lost, feelings I'm sure many can relate to. But I've had moments of clarity, vigour and vitality as well, and as such wanted to balance out the expression of negative emotions with a message of hope in most of my songs. I find ending on a hopeful note to be very powerful, as it reflects how we should see life. No matter how dark the night is, the sun will rise again.
9. What is the spiritual ideology or philosophy that drives you as individual? Do you think it can become a limit to your creativity?
While a part of me would like to be a bit more spiritual, as I think its a nice notion, I am unfortunately a very pragmatic person. Contrary to my music, I generally live a rather stoic life, enduring hardships and not allowing emotions to get in the way of everyday life. I believe this restraint in showing emotions is what lead to my music's conception as an outlet for this. My music, and my decision to release it, is therefore an attempt to shake up that stoicism and to dare to dream a little. The song 'Cornflower' actually deals with this topic. My philosophies and views on life are constantly evolving, as I believe it should be, and so my music will follow that evolution.
10. Let´s talk about your debut album “Seas Between”, I can't really imagine the amount of work involved, but as a one-man project it's certainly huge. Is it worth it that you can implement your own ideas 100% without making compromises with other band members?
To me it is worth it, as expressing myself the way I want to without interference from others is my main goal. That's not to say I am not open to some form of collaboration with others in the future, but for this album specifically, having full creative freedom and gaining experience in every aspect of creating and releasing an album was exactly what I wanted. With a full-time career next to music, other goals I was working towards, and general responsibilities that come with adult life, not having any external pressure during the creation of this album suited me very well.
11. Are there any kind of particular points of inspiration for these 10 tracks that you would like to discuss?
Thematically, this album explores the past 4 years of my life, since moving to another country to escape the worsening state of my mental health and build a new life for myself. Lyrical inspiration is therefore drawn from key emotional events in my life that occurred in these past 4 years.
In terms of sonic inspiration, a progression in my musical taste, and therefore songwriting, can, to me, clearly be seen between the beginning and the end of the album, with the first few songs being more melodic death metal with a touch of metalcore, inspired mainly by bands such as Insomnium, Erra and Threat Signal, and the last few having more post metal and shoegaze influences, drawing inspiration from bands such as Alcest, Heretoir and Sylvaine. Apart from metal influences, a number of non-metal artists helped shaped the sound I have such as Hans Zimmer, Sarah McLachlan and Alan Menken.
12. The production on your album is really clean and solid. What can you tell me about the mixing/mastering process and what kind of sound you were going for? Are you satisfied with final results?
That's really nice to hear! I personally think it could be improved upon still and is something I plan to keep working on with future releases, though for a first attempt, I am quite proud of what I was able to achieve. I must admit that I am limited to the software and hardware I own, and getting a better sound will therefore also be dependant on making upgrades here. A professional studio typically has all of the state of the art tools you would need, something I unfortunately do not have access to.
The mixing process was a long one and the one I had the most to learn about still. There's a reason its a dedicated profession with just a handful of recognizable names! I would say around 90% of what I learned was through simple trial and error and the other 10% through YouTube videos. Above all else though, it required listening to my music over and over again, to the point of insanity almost! The entire album went through 7 versions, meaning 7 times I thought the album was mixed well, but after a week or so of listening to it went back to my DAW to make more adjustments. It was quite gruelling but I learned so much during that whole process. Being highly critical of your work is key here. As for mastering, I can take little credit here as this was done by an AI!
The sound I was going for was a fairly modern one but with enough of a human touch still. A lot of time was spent on the drums; the snare and the kicks in particular. I wanted these to be very punchy and with a bit of a modern “click” sound on the kicks, as opposed to a more muffled thump sound found on older records. Some fun heavy echo and reverb effects were added to certain snare hits to make them sound more massive during hard hitting moments. Certain guitar lead sections incorporated a lot of echo and reverb to make them sound very ethereal, which was a vibe I was going for in a number of songs. The added string sections and harps in certain songs helped add to that vibe as well.
13. Can you tell us more about the recording process? Do you have some specific piece of gear or software that greatly facilitates your job?
The primary DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) I use where I record directly into is Adobe Audition, which is actually very unconventional. While I tried a number of DAWs before, Audition was just the most intuitive one for me to use and so I stuck with that, despite its clear shortcomings. The secondary DAW I use is FL Studio, which I use purely for working with MIDI files exported straight from my tab software, as this cannot be done in Audition. It's a bit of a convoluted workaround, but I've grown used to it and made it work well enough.
My base guitar tone was achieved through POD Farm 2 with the Line 6 UX1 as the guitar interface, and small tone adjustments such as added reverb and echo was done post-recording within the DAW. In general, my equipment is not as high-end as I would like, but hopefully I can make some upgrades in the future.
14. What have you been listening to lately? Any new and upcoming bands that might have caught your attention? What about literature and movies, much of a fan?
According to my Spotify Wrapped, my most listened to band in 2023 was Driveways, a punk/hardcore band, which came as a surprise to me. Nevertheless, it reminded me of the band and I've been listening to them a lot in the last weeks again. Next to that, Draconian and Imminence are two bands I can think of that I've been listening to a lot recently. Next to metal, I like to throw in a good dose of punk, EDM, DnB, classical and new age to my daily listening.
In terms of upcoming bands that have caught my attention, apart from some names I've already mentioned, I think Paleface (Swiss) and Enterprise Earth will become huge in the near future. In fact, I see Paleface has already blown up quite a bit since the last time I checked their numbers. Looking more at the scene where my music resides in, I hope to see Aetherian, Nephylim and Eternal Storm get some more attention as they are all fantastic bands.
For other media, I've been attending a weekly movie night with some friends the last few months and have seen some great movies thanks to that. 'Parasite' immediately comes to mind as a great watch. Nothing will beat The Lord of the Rings though, which I am a huge nerd for. In terms of consuming media other than music, I am more of a gamer though. I am currently playing the Resident Evil 4 remake in VR but have a whole list of games still to play including Baldur's Gate 3, Alan Wake 2 and Diablo 4.
15. How do you define “underground” and where do you see yourself and your band in it?
To me “underground” means not in the mainstream or public eye and functioning largely independently. Some of the best music I've heard has been unfortunate in never penetrating through to a larger audience, which is of course a shame. I believe Drifter is very much underground, which I don't mind. Were my music ever to reach the mainstream, I would need to rethink my whole life plans!
16. Are there any plans for collaboration with other artists or musicians in the future, and if so, what excites you about the potential of those collaborations?
I would love to collaborate with a female vocalist in the future, as I find female clean vocals nicer than male ones and it would add a nice dynamic to the music. Adding more dynamics and variety to my music is something I definitely want to do more of in the future, so any kind of guest vocals or guitar solos would be really exciting.
17. On an international level, how has your music been received? Do you try to promote your music on a large scale?
My music has found most of its listeners so far within Europe and North America, which I believe makes sense as those regions are most popular for the genres my music is a part of. It would be
amazing to reach an even wider audience outside of these regions however. I've been doing some promotion work since the album's release but have been very busy at work recently preventing me from dedicating as much time to it as I would like. I do have plans on making a music video for one of my songs in the near future, which I am excited for and will use to promote my music further.
18. Last but not least, what are your biggest hopes for the upcoming year? What do we need more of, and what do we need less of?
I hope to see the war in Ukraine end soon as I have close ties some Ukrainians here in Poland and want to see them be able to breathe easy once again.
I hope to see more sympathy being shown to one another and for people to see each other as equals. And I hope to see more attention being given to real, honest and good-hearted people, and less to fake, vain and selfish ones.
19. Thank you all so much for taking the time to chat with us. Honestly, it means a lot! Any final words?
Thank you so much for showing an interest in my music and helping to spread the word. And thanks to anyone who made it to the end of this interview for reading! I'm very happy I took the decision to put in the work for my music and release it to the world. I plan to keep making more and have in fact already almost finished writing 2 more songs! If anyone reading finds themselves in a similar situation as I was, being unsure about releasing your music, I hope what I had to say helps you.