Interview: Lugubrum
May 30 2008 at 05:16:14 AM
The legend continues. Five questions with Lugubrum’s guitarist, Midgaars.
Taking Black Metal to Africa…you’ve really done it now. Whose idea was it to go to the Congo and why? What expectations did you have and have any of you been there before?
Midgaars: It was our great king Leopold II’s idea to bring Belgian civilisation to Congo... and to bring Congo’s wealth back to Belgium. Our histories are entwined; so it was kinda inevitable that we would eventually go there for inspiration. We’d never been there, but I had read a lot about the history of Congo, got engrossed in art from the region and we talked to some veterans, who told us their bizarre experiences. Nevertheless our trip was beyond anything we could have imagined.
As strange as the idea sounds, it’s probably the best sounding album you’ve ever put out. Can you talk a little bit about what it was like recording in Kinshasa with Noctiz producing / performing, how long you were there and what it was like being able to take advantage of some new instruments like the thumb piano as well as incorporate some local music and create more “ambient” material? How much of Kinshasa outside of the studio did you get to see?
We were relieved when we finally made it to the studio (shack), after much hassle and bureaucracy and waiting in ‘offices’. Diarrhea had already kicked in after a diet of very spicy bush meat (roadkill). Still conditions were ok, and we even had it comfortable for most of two weeks. We recorded all of the tracks there (not live as
De Ware Hond, with only four members we had to do overdubs + the generator failed on us more than once) except the vocals. The locals were already quite nervous by our playing, but when Barditus started crooning they actually went berserk, attacked the shack and accused us of sorcery. Project manager Antoine managed to prevent a public hanging and we had to bribe local police to get us out of there.
A local musician had taught me how to make a thumb piano from bits of rubbish and to give it a ‘soul’ (apparently the trick is to soak it in urine). It’s the only instrument I took back to Belgium, my guitar was left behind in the turmoil (not that I minded, it too was soaked in piss).
As much as the album feels influenced by the location, it’s really only a piece of what’s going on the album...The sense of foreignness and variation; I’m talking about the guitar tone, the Carmine Coppola-like synth scores, the chilled out river lays, halting clambaked sessions, fat p(l)unky bass lines, warped thrash riffs. It sounds absurd on paper but somehow it holds together.
What else were you listening to that maybe influenced you and what is being talked about in the spoken word pieces cut into some of the tracks?
It is indeed our most coherent album, I don’t know how, but it sounds just like I had imagined / hoped, perhaps because I took some distance from the recordings and just played my parts. I listened to a lot of Afro music the past months, not because I wanted to study it, but because I have developed a taste for it. The synth parts were done at home by Svein and contrast nicely with the natural sound of the guitar tracks, for me this industrial element represents the colonial machine.
Slosse’s poetry was, due to his poor health, recorded on his boat in Gent, he talks frankly about the colonial era.
Did you record the album with a largely improvised style as you stated you would from now on after De Ware Hond? How would compare the two sessions and how did the traveling affect the chemistry within the band when it was time to record? Did it feel in some way more “important,” if only because you were trying something so different and do you think selecting other places to record outside of Belgium is likely in the future?
Even though the album sounds very organic we basically used our old way of recording, but because we always forget how Noctiz proposed to handle the knobs. And he did a very good job, it sounds just like we’re playing live or rehearsing. Like I said earlier, live recording was pretty pointless due to the small line up. When I started writing the material we were only a three - piece, I put a lot of structure in the songs so we could at least have the songs ready when a bassist would be found. Noctiz has a lot of experience so he mastered the bass lines in no time.
Albino de Congo really can not be compared with
De Ware Honde. The only improvised parts are the solos.
There are no new travel plans, neither am I starting on new material soon. If we do another recording it will most likely be in our favourite bar in Gent, without informing the landlord. Just show up with our gear and start playing. Perhaps they won’t notice because everyone will be drunk as usual. We can record anywhere I think... except in a recording studio.
As far as performing live, will you be playing the album in its entirety or do you plan to mix it up with some of the other material? Are there any plans to video-record any performances in the future?
This summer we will be playing
Albino de Congo entirely, with exception of the synth parts. We shot some footage in the past but it was way too boring, as long as we don’t get the midgets we always ask for we won’t bother. (Perhaps we should stop playing live until our demands are granted)
[Todd DePalma]
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