Interview With Chris From Phased

1.First of all thanks for allowing me to have this interview.Tell us about how the band came together ? when my old band mercury 4°f split, we had an album named phased out, so I just named the next band phased 4°f. of that line-up only me survived and when we became a trio with me, michael greilinger and marko lehtinen, we re-named ourselves as simply "phased". since then it's been the real thing, that was in 2001. 2. One thing that sets you apart from other bands at the moment is how all the influences and sounds come together to make something unique. It sounds like you are influenced from everything from Sabbath,Hawkwind to total doom and even a little punk. Is this true ? he he, sure... I am an old punk and michael the bass-player introduced me to the world of doom. of course I'd seen st. vitus and had their records, but black sabbath was new territory for me, since I'd always poo-pooed the "eunuch" singing of metal band singers. so yeah, we're influenced by free jazz, kraut rock, space-rock, punk and doom, etc. we like to listen to every kind of music, as long as it's good. my favourite singer is nancy sinatra, so there you go. 3. You call yourself "Psychedelic Deathrock" which pretty much sums up the sound. Do your musical excursions take a lot of time to get together ? hmmm, not sure what you mean??? if you mean compositions, they come by naturally. we just go with the flow and whatever comes up we play and if we like it we develop the song, if not we dump it. 4.When i listen to your music i always imagine a late 60's style lightshow and slideshow with swirling images everywhere.Can you describe your live shows ? ha, no we don't do that - too many other bands already do this, so I'd find it pretty boring if we did that too. we just dress in our bonafide 60ies shirts and rock out without a special light- or slideshow. it's all about the music! 5.You have done some killer gigs with some pretty big names in the Stoner/Doom scene.Want to tell us about some of those experiences ? well, it's nothing special really. we just support these bands and sometimes we talk backstage. high on fire were nice guys, but mostly bands just keep to themselves. 6.One thing that people might know is your first release came out way back in 1998.How has the bands songs changed since then ? back then it was noise rock with an element of space, now it's heavy space-sludge with an element of noise. 7.Who writes the lyrics and what inspires the songs ? I write the lyrics and most of the riffs. together we then arrange and polish the songs. I get inspired by everything around me, mostly nihilism. I am a dark person with a wicked sense of humour, so... cynical humour is definitely in there as well. some words just come into my head and I go from there, develop a story or whatever. 8.What is your opinion of the Stoner/Doom scene at the moment ? stoner is at a dead end - when swiss bands start to play stoner rock you know it's over. the swiss are always 20 years too late. same goes for doom - I really only like electric wizard. they stand out. the rest are just copycats. we prefer not to be put in the stoner corner. it's such a lame word... 9.How has been the record companies been like to the band,are they supportive ? well, there's only been one record company so far, the rest we don't wanna talk about. elektrohasch is cool. but these days you can't expect a record company to do much for you can you? the music industry is on the bottom. we came too late for the money, the drugs and the sex... for us there is only the joy of making music. no illusions that some record company will put money into us, that is definitely a thing of the past. 10.A lot of people put down the Psychedelic Stoner stuff because they think its all drug inspired which some of it is but don't you think this attitude is becoming a real out - dated way of thinking ? I think it IS drug-inspired, always. anyone playing this kind of music and being straight edge has no idea about "space"! that doesn't mean we are stoned and on trip every day, but we do have our experiences and that is necessary to feel "space" . after all, the word is psychedelic and not pop art. 11.I have always like the 3 piece band set up.Would you ever consider adding other members ? we are not against taking up a new member, but she/he would need to fit in with the close-knit friendship to be able to play with us - we need no longer even look at each other to space out! having said that - it is cool to just be 3 people. it makes things easier. decisions are harder to make as there's always two against one other, but we know how to deal with it by now. 12.Tell us about the last album Medications as this the album most i know have heard the most of.How long did it take to put together ? actually this was even longer in the making than the new one, which we finished in 9 days. we struggled with the recording for a while and got into arguments about the mix. the thing was, our practice room house burned down and we were left without a rehearsal space (luckily for us, our equipment was about the only not to get damaged at all!), so we couldn't prepare for the recording of "medications". we just wrote 2 more songs and went into the studio and had to go from there. 13.The new album is due out soon,how does that compare with Medications ? it is better recorded, has better songs, and is even heavier. 8 songs only, so there are at least 2 really long ones. also the singing is a bit rougher and not in such a high voice anymore - back to my good old "killdozer" voice, he he... 14. Is there any plans to offer free downloads ?So many bands are doing that now and what is your opinion of that ?Seems to me the whole record industry is almost dead ! the industry IS dead, see question above - I don't care if the people download our music for free - at least someone will listen to it! but we have costs and need to make some money to cover expenses, so I see a clash of interests looming somewhere out there. but what to do? cd's suck and I understand people don't wanna pay - I don't wanna pay for lousy cd's that are unplayable and overpriced. bring back the vinyl for good!!! 15.Apart from the new album what is planned for 2009 ?A tour of the USA would be awesome ! yeah, a tour of the usa would be awesome - in fact I AM going to tour the east-coast, but with my solo-project "b°tong", which is dark ambient soundscapes... no far-fetched plans for phased though - we'll continue playing the odd gig in germany and switzerland and tour the neighbouring countries. it's so much work to organise any longer tour, since we all work and have private lives and need to rent a van, and to have all expenses covered in order to be able to move further away than a 6h drive. organisation... it's so much easier with "b°tong" - just a case with effect-pedals and one person. so... well, we'll have to see what we can do. we do want to play more! 16.Thanks again for the interview,any last words ? watch out for armageddon in 2012, he he he... http://www.myspace.com/phasedphased