Interview The Ocean

Nils: Precambrian is our fifth record, or let's say, our fourth official one (the first one was self-released). It is a concept 2x-album about the first chapter in the evolution of our planet, the Precambrian. Its beginning is set to about 4,5 billion years before now. Geologists subdivide the Precambrian into two or three eras, Hadean/Archaean and Proterozoic, and in the case of our album, the two discs carry these names. These eras are further subdivided into geological periods, which function as song titles here. So the whole concept evolves around the early days of mother earth, which was then a terrifying place devoid of life and reigned by sulphur and red-glowing streams of lava... During the Proterozoic, the earth started to cool down a little bit and the atmosphere started to build, and first simple forms of life sprang up. All this is reflected in the music: The ｻHadean/Archaeanｫ part of the disc is raw and brutal, continuing where Aeolian left off, with a basic instrumentation of drums, bass, guitars and vocals. The ｻProterozoicｫ part of the disc is much more multi-layered and complex, more mellow and vast, still crushing and heavy for the most part, but with plenty of atmospheric moments that give the listener space to breathe in between the eruptions.

Nils: It was a huge undertaking. We recorded drums in a barn in remote northern Finland in three weeks in April this year; everything else was recorded at our own oceanland studios in berlin, guest vocal contributions were recorded in LA, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, the album was mixed in NYC and mastered in Helsinki again, where everything began and ended... so the production process took us about half a year. There were a few delays towards the end: first of all, we were waiting for some guest vocal contributions of an unreliable guy for a long time, in the end we decided to let him go fuck himself and not wait any longer. Then the album had to be remastered, since we were not satisfied at all with the result of the first mastering. Last, realizing the packaging turned out to be extremely difficult. We have a double-layered digipak with die-cut holes, special printing colors and two CDs with matching label art sitting on top of one another, the upper one being a mini-CD with a see-through plastic frame... we had to order the trays from china, and the digipaks and the booklets had to be manufactured by two different printing companies... but its all done now; the album is in stores and we're extremely happy with the result.

Nils: As always, at least 95% of the music on the album is Robin's brainchild—not just the guitars, but also everything else: drums, lyrics, string arrangements, you name it. The difference between Precambrian and our previous albums, however, is that this time we worked together with an ｻexternalｫ producer and did parts of the recording outside Oceanland. But the actual songwriting took place way before we entered the studio. We're not a band whose records are the products of studio jam sessions. Actually, we don't really like the ｻjammingｫ approach at all. Most of us, including Robin, have been in several jam bands before The Ocean, but none of these bands ever really got anywhere. In The Ocean we've got a creative despot who composes all the music from scratch by himself and records pre-productions of these songs. We then listen to the stuff and talk about it, discuss which songs we're gonna realize and which not, and then we start rehearsing them and playing them live. Some things are fix, others might be changed when we realize they don't work the way they were intended. That's why many of our songs have evolved over the years. ｻQueen of the Food Chainｫ for example, which is the oldest song in our current live repertoire, is pretty different now from what it sounded like when we first played it live five years ago. In case Robin comes up with a weird idea that we don't like or that simply is impossible to play, someone else might have have better idea which is then implemented. But it remains composed music, all the way, and we really like that approach for you just get more in-depth that way; you're able to realize a high degree of intricacy as for what the arrangements and actual parts are concerned, a degree that you wouldn't be able to realize with a contingent jam-approach.

Robin: It was a long, tiring process. There are so many different elements and layers on the album, there are 21 drum tracks, and the song ｻRhyacianｫ for example has heaps of guitars, three different vocalists and then cellos, violas, violins, samples, percussion... with all the different panning it came up to 84 tracks. Andrew Schneider had to rent a second mixing desk to handle this amount of tracks... the mix was a huge challenge; to master this huge polyphony and at the same time maintain the heart, the essence of the song... but in the end it worked out pretty well.

Robin: The format is basically the product of the wide musical range we're covering. We wanted one album to encompass the full spectrum of what this band is about, and since this range goes from calm, atmospheric moments to fast, brutal parts, the question was how to combine all this in a way that makes sense. The idea of a double-album, consisting of two very different halves appeared interesting to us. We tried to make the contrasts between those two halves as large as they can possibly be—a risky undertaking, an enormous stretch, with the risk of tearing your muscles... but I am really happy with the result. Both albums can stand alone as separate entities, but the songs also work in shuffle mode on the iPod—which, however, isn't really the medium we can recommed for the reception of our music.

Robin: Every song on this album has its specific meaning and its place in the great scheme of things, especially on ｻProterozoic.ｫ I would not want to pick a few tracks as key tracks and assign a higher priority or meaning to them than to others. ｻProterozoicｫ is a flow, a progression, from one state to another state, with many different emotional transitions along the way. In order for this to work you need calmer pieces that build and take a few listens, as well as more direct, more spectacular pieces. The effect of any individual song would not be as strong and grabbing-you-by-the-throat if it wasn't for the more mellow moments inbetween that give you room to breathe.

Robin: In our musical evolution, Precambrian is our most advanced album. I think the songwriting is better than ever before, and the arrangements not just within the songs but also of all the songs on the album and their specific order and how they work together in the context of the whole is much better here, we spent a lot of time on that aspect, actually. The sound is also much closer to what this band actually sounds like, it is huge, heavy, yet airy and has a lot of ambiance to it. But of course it is a change in continuity. You don't make a decision and go with it with these things, you just have an idea and then you start working on it and with it and see where it takes you... this is what happened with this album as well.

Nils: We don't have a specific strategy for preparing ourselves for shows. Over the years, however, we've realized that we play much better shows if we get drunk after and not before we hit the stage. Sleep is also of vital importance, and of course there's kind of a conflict here—you can't just party from after the show till five in the morning, get on the van at noon the next day, spend the trip trying to sleep, and expect to be perfectly fit for the next show; that just doesn't work in the long run—for the sleep you get on the van is not exactly the most efficient one. Needless to say we don't always live by these rules, even though we ought to know better...

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