here (stroll down halfway to read the English version), or read below:
Hi, I have to admit that I wasn’t familiar with your music so far, but now listening to it a couple of times I got to really like it. Could you tell me some basic information about the band? What are you doing these days?
Kevin Hufnagel: Sure, we started in 1998 with me and our original bassist Clayton Ingerson. It took us until March 1999 to find the right drummer in Jeff Eber. By this time we had most of our first album ‘Contradiction’ written. Since then we’ve released 5 studio albums, 1 live record, and 3 split releases. In addition, we added bassist Colin Marston to replace Clayton when we parted ways with him in 2004. Currently we are preparing to start playing live again to support our new release ‘Psychic Maps’ and have already begun working on new material for whatever we do next.
What type of music did you play at the beginning? What has changed since then?
Kevin Hufnagel: I think our band has had a smooth and steady progression since the beginning. I don’t feel like there have been major, radical changes in style so much, but more of a constant refining of sound and arrangement. However, I think even just comparing our 2003 album ‘Pretest’ to our newest ‘Psychic Maps’ you can hear a big difference in the “sound” of the band... like in our tones and the density of the material. I think the music just keeps getting more intense, and maybe a bit darker as we go on.
More or less three years have passed since the release of your last album. What could you say about this period?
Kevin Hufnagel: We were all quite busy those three years between Dysrhythmia albums. Besides writing the material for ‘Psychic Maps’, Colin released a few albums with his other bands Krallice, Behold… the Arctopus, and Indricothere. Jeff’s band Zevious put out a record and has another on the way in September. I also put out a solo record under my own name called “Songs for the Disappeared”. Colin and I also put out an album called “Viscera” which was collaboration between our ambient guitar project called Byla, and vocalist Jarboe. The two of us also recently joined Gorguts and have been working on that. We stay active.
When did you decide to put new songs together?
Kevin Hufnagel: The whole album was written over a 3 to 4 year period. The song “Triangular Stare” actually dates back to 2005. However, “Iron Cathedral” was written just a few months before we recorded the album. In general though we like to spend a lot time with the songs and play them live a bunch first before recording them. This allows us time to find the right tempos and work on the little nuances.
Where did you record „Psychic Maps”? What did you aim at when composing
the songs?
Kevin Hufnagel: ‘Psychic Maps’ was recorded at Menegroth, The Thousand Caves in Woodhaven Queens, NY by our bassist Colin. This is also the building we all live in, so we recorded at home more or less. It was a pretty relaxed environment. For this album I wanted a more dense sound, more layers and textures on the recording. Guitar-wise there are a lot more overdubs and layering with different tones/amps. A good amount of acoustic guitar and 12-string electric guitar was mixed in as well to give it more depth and to further emphasize certain parts. Even bass-wise there are parts that were doubled and in one case (ending of “Lifted by Skin”) there are two different bass parts at once. We weren’t as concerned this time with having to pull off every single sound on the album in a live situation, because even without the extra parts the songs still stand on their own.
Could you describe the musical style, since it is very versatile and there are so many things in it. I don’t really know what it reminds me of...
Kevin Hufnagel: I find that when you try and describe music to people and start throwing around genre terms like “progressive”, or “metal” or whatever, that each person has their own idea of what those genres sound like to them based on their own musical experiences and knowledge. This is the reason I try to avoid describing our music to people. In this day and age (in most places) it is so easy to just look a band up on the internet and hear and/or see them instantly and decide for yourself what they are to you. To me I just think of our band as “instrumental rock”.
When I listen to the music carefully, I find it very exciting, it never gets any boring, but some listeners might miss the vocals. Do you plan to have vocals in the future?
Kevin Hufnagel: Absolutely not.
The album cover is pretty unusual too, what can you say about it?
Kevin Hufnagel: It was done by our artist friend Karlynn Holland. She also drew our new logo, which looks fantastic. It’s exciting to finally have a logo and not have to use some stock font. Basically we just gave her the album title and just let her do what she wanted. Jacob Speis over at Relapse added the blue color to it.
Tell me something about your concerts! How big is your audience? What makes your music unique?
Kevin Hufnagel: The audience keeps building for us, but it has been an extremely gradual process. We still have never been over to Europe and that bums me out. I’m really curious to see how people would react to us over there. I would describe our audience as “cult”. I guess that’s just a cool way of saying “small”. Ha.
I guess music is your life. What other things are you interested in? What else do you enjoy?
Kevin Hufnagel: Music is certainly my life; it is for everyone in the band. Personally, outside of music I’m interested in film, art, the dark side of humanity, human interaction (sometimes), nature, fishing, bowling, and trying new foods and beers. Writing and drawing are two things I dabble in once in a blue moon. I used to keep dream diaries for years and was looking through them again recently and there is some bizarre shit in there.
Are you interested in the apocalypse?
Kevin Hufnagel: Sure. I think everyone is... all humans are fascinated by death and the concept of the world ending whether they want to acknowledge it or not. The idea that we can all be wiped out in an instant is terrifying but I believe we will be witness to a more slow-motion version of the apocalypse than a flash in sky and we’re over.
What plans do you have for the future musically?
Kevin Hufnagel: Five full-length albums is a lot of instrumental rock songs. To be honest for a moment I was wondering if there would be another record after this one. I never want to be one of those bands that continue past our prime. It’s hard to step outside of yourself and look at it objectively, you can only base it on how you’re feeling inside… if you’re inspired and still hungry or not. We do this music for ourselves; we don’t make any money doing it, so really there is no reason to keep doing it for that reason. Overall, I think the feeling that something could’ve been done better or expanded upon keeps us going. We’re just never really satisfied. It will be exciting to see how the next record sounds.
Thanks for answering, all the best?
Kevin Hufnagel: Thanks, same to you as well and to all of those reading.