By John Sturm
Norwegian progressive metal band Leprous is about to release their new album Coal. Besides working on own material Leprous is also known as Emperor's Ihsahn's backing band, when Ihsahn performs solo. John Sturm asked Leprous co-founder, guitarist and lyricist Tor Oddmund Suhrke a couple of questions.
(((o))): How would you describe your music/sound for readers who have never heard you before
Leprous is a "progressive" metal band that blends many different influences into what is described by many as an interesting mix. Our sound has evolved much during the years and on our upcoming album Coal the sound is a bit more dark and serious than our previous releases. We try to avoid to confine ourselves to one specific genre, but among bands we've been compared to by others I can mention Opeth, The Mars Volta, Porcupine Tree, Emperor, King Crimson, Devin Townsend, Dillinger Escape Plan, etc..
(((o))): You have a heavily populated YouTube channel and well maintained Facebook page. How important do you think social media is in the music business in 2013?
I think the most important thing should be to have something interesting to present musically and expression wise, but the reality is that there are many great bands out there that are completely unknown to the public because they lack the ability to reach people with their music. Having a good organization backing you is of course an important and helpful factor, but the promotional ability that easy access to social media gives you is a helpful addition. That being said, due to the extreme amounts of material being published on social media these days you have to give people something extraordinary to get their attention. We use social media mostly to communicate with our fans and followers, but of course we also appreciate the possible advertisement we get out of it.
(((o))): What impact do you think the internet/social media has had on the music buying public?
I think that the easy access everybody has to both music and videos from bands online makes people less willing to pay for the music in physical formats. This forces bands and labels to do something special for their physical releases. This can be positive in the way that bands must be more creative in their productions, but it can also force bands to do things that doesn't necessarily serve their music best. I also think that for many people it will become more and more interesting to buy releases on vinyl, as this gives you a more different experience compared to the digital music online.
(((o))): Your songs are very symphonic in structure, almost like mini-operas. How does the process of song writing run for the band? Are sections of songs pieced together or do they occur through jamming?
The way we make songs differ a lot. Sometimes we start out with just some vague ideas that one of us has made prior to the rehaersal and then we end up jamming something out of it, while other times we can have more specific ideas. What's always the situation is that whatever the original idea is, it ends up getting more or less molded by all the band members during the arranging process. Our way of making music is under constant alteration, and during our latest songwriting we've tried to orient the final product to fewer ideas and rather nurture the good ideas instead of throwing anything in the mix and see how it goes.
(((o))): On your site Einar [Solberg, lead vocalist and synth player] says “The term progressive music has been gradually diluted through the years”. Why do you think this dilution has occurred?
My understanding of "progressive" music is that it must show some kind of progress, meaning that you must have brought something new to the mix. As in all genres, also progressive bands take inspiration in each other, and a lot of "progressive" bands copy other bands to the extent that I don't see the progressive element anymore. I see that the term "progressive" now describes what was inventive in the 70's, 80's and 90's, and the lack of creativity in many bands today makes me feel that the term has been diluted.
(((o))): There appears to be resurgence in the popularity of “progressive” music (Porcupine Tree, Steven Wilson, Opeth, and Dream Theater). Do you think that this shows that listeners want something more challenging, something other than the 3 minute radio-rock tune?
Yes maybe, and the bands you mention are good examples of bands that have made their own sound, something that makes them "progressive" in my opinion.
(((o))): Wikipedia describes your home town Notodden as a “metal town” presumably due to it’s association with Emperor & Ihsahn. How much did the local scene influence you as musicians?
When we started Leprous as a youth band in Notodden in 2001, Vegard (Ihsahn) and his wife Heidi were the ones that really inspired and helped young people to start bands and to learn them many clever things. They also encouraged us to make our own sound and to develop ourselves creatively, so I guess you can say that we to some extent got influenced by part of the local scene, but at the same time managed to develop our very own sound.
(((o))): Speaking of Ihsahn, you were his band for a time. How was it working with him? How much of an influence on your music was your time with him?
We're still his band and are happy with this at the moment. We're booked to play at several festivals around the World with both him and Leprous this year, something that we're looking very much forward to, and then we'll see what do to further from there. Being a guitarist in both Leprous and Ihsahn I see big differences in the song writing and so I wouldn't say that we have changed a lot in his direction, but in other ways it's safe to say that he's had an influence, for example since both him and his wife has been an important part of the recording of our two latest albums, Bilateral (2011) and Coal (2013).
(((o))):You’re on tour for much of 2013, what are you plans for the future? Will you be continuing touring into 2014?
We like to be on tour both because it's a great experience, and also because we like to give our followers the extra experience that I feel we provide in our live shows. We plan to keep up touring though we may not do it to the same extent as 2013. We keep our options open, and if there's a demand for us going on tour in the future we'll be happy to do it!
(((o))): Half of the songs on Coal head towards the 8 minute + mark. How do you decide which songs (when you’re writing them) can become lengthy journeys and which ones become the more concise ones
Usually we get an idea of what kind of song we're dealing with when we've gathered all the ideas we want to use together. Sometimes though we end up with something completely different than what we imagined when we started out. We like to have the song live their own life in a way, and I think it's an important part of how we work that we're not too stuck in our original mindset and that we're open for changes able the way to the recording studio. A good example of this is the song 'The Valley', from our upcoming album, which is a song that we have changed completely at least 2-3 times before we ended up with the result. It actually started out with two different songs that we did pre-recordings of, and the we merged them to a new song which we during the recording process made changes to up until a couple of days before we sent all out raw material to Fascination Street for mixing.
(((o))): Are there any bands/artists that you would recommend our readers to explore?
If I'm to recommend a band that it's likely that not so many have heard of I would like to suggest Aiming for Enrike, a Norwegian duo that consists of drummer Tobias (from Leprous) and guitarist Simen Følstad Nilsen. Their sound is very interesting and experimental, and definitely worth a listen!
(((o))):Thank you very much for this interview. Is there anything you would like to add?
Well, thank you for being interested in us, and we hope to meet as many of you as possible when we're out on the road! For our upcoming shows check out our Facebook page or our website.
