Interesting insight into the entire process of the ..Urfe.. release.
Completely agree with your take about creating music. Do for self.
Great to read the follow up to ..Urfe.. isn't far behind.

 

....Links and transcripts for various other interviews are available here if you're interested: ..

http://hospitallounge.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=talk&action=display&thread=138&page=1..

We've probably had more to say about "Urfe" than any release previous.
....
 

It's true that we feel our first duty is to push The Axis and make the albums we feel are artistically necessary to express its essence better each time, rather than to satisfy fan expectations. There are very few bands who don't deliberately isolate themselves from expectations when composing in order to keep their minds clear and focus purely on the expression.

Our attitude to the text of Urfe, however, isn't deliberately antagonistic. We didn't simply want an audio-book-esque experience where words float easily and distinctly above the music; we wanted a more psychedelic experience wherein the sounds provide sub-text, counternarrative, textural reinforcement. The words are sometimes 'buried' because the textures they demand in turn express the semantic content as a different kind of sensory information that sometimes, by necessity, overrules the text altogether.
This is not, however, one thing hiding behind the other - the "music" and text are inextricably linked. The non-verbal aspect of the narrative was composed as an emergent property of the content of the text. We laid down the text, and then wrote music around it as the text seemed to demand, bound together tightly, working together constantly. In turn, Les wrote much of his narrative with musical sensations in mind, choosing words, sentences and cadences as much for their aesthetic, rhythmic and purely sonic qualities as for their semantic. The intended result was a synaesthesic experience where music and text intertwine and it is the decision, and the responsibility of the listener to determine their own meanings and conclusions. 
Consequently, even if the text is not always clear, it controls the ebb and flow of the music completely, and one without the other would be stilted and incomplete. 

Within the band, we all have our own interpretations of "Urfe", and we wouldn't insist to each other or any individual outside the band that our versions, or any versions, are canonical. We're interested in raising questions and allow ambiguities and mysteries for the listener to engage themselves in and personalise the listening experience, and hear it, feel it and enjoy it more deeply as a result. If we printed the words, we might as well say "this is the definitive version." The listening experience would become more passive and part of what makes "Urfe" what it is would die.      

You might say that, ambiguous as they already are, printing the lyrics would still leave ample room for personal interpretation and engagement. That may be correct, but in Axis we have a compulsion to push ourselves as much as our listeners and to do something with a bit more artistic thwack. Everyone seems to have their own point where they think we've gone too far, and I can respect that for many, "Urfe" is that point. It is what it is. There are plenty of bands out there, excellent and artistically unimpeachable bands, for those who prefer easier answers than we provide. Even in other projects we do, we provide more content than this. We just make the decisions we feel are best for the Axis. If very few other people agree with us, well, we're used to that. 

As for changing our sound, well, we'd never want to make the same album twice anyway. Whether the next album will meet any expectations is another matter.