RoR - I have some
history of the band in the bio, but could you flesh out the history a little
more, maybe including things that have happened since the addition of Bello?
LK - Bello has been a longtime friend of mine and we had been in two bands
together prior to forming Ninth Level. Bello and me formed a death metal band
with some remaining members of his old band which was called Obscenity, but
we soon broke up because we all lived in different cities and we couldn’t
rehearse as often as needed. During that time, we were already rehearsing
some of the material that would later become some of the songs that made it
to the Ninth Level self-titled album. Then I met Ben and we started rehearsing
as Ninth Level with the drummer from my previous short-lived death metal band
but he wasn’t working out so we fired him. Then almost three years went by
trying out drummers. During that same time we recorded the Ninth Level album
and until not so long ago we finally found a suitable drummer, Derek Ethridge.
BR - Not much has happened since. Derek, along with the rest of us, is generally
broke, so we haven’t been able to afford a practice room. Since signing with
The End, they’ve given us money for rehearsal space; But Lorenzo and I have
been focusing on writing for the time being. We should begin rehearsing soon,
followed shortly by recording.
RoR - One of the immediate things that one notices
about Ninth Level is the incredible technicality present in the songs. What’s
the process for creating music for you? Is there a basic framework to which
layers are added, or do you think of songs as a whole?
LK - I usually write a lot of the music but in a very disjointed form. Basically,
I adapt into a conceptual frame of mind to try and envision where the riff
is trying to expand and from that point I just let the riffs take their own
course adding the necessary elements of feel and texture.
BR - Lorenzo is the riff genius. He writes them almost non-stop. He then
presents them to me and I hash them out, looking for relationships with other
riffs and harmonic and rhythmic content, then try expanding them in whatever
ways are possible using all the instruments available to me. There is a basic
framework. Usually Lorenzo presents the riffs in a simple arrangement. We
then collectively work out a more complex arrangement. Once that’s done, I
take over adding layers in the other instruments.
RoR - You do give separate credit for music and
arrangements, so I'm assuming that both you and Ben play large roles in the
final product?
LK - I take most of the credit for writing the music since I’m usually the
one passing tapes to the rest of the band of new stuff that I come up with
while Ben is the guy in charge of trying to make the riffs work well with
the addition and layers for the rest of the instruments, therefore, he gets
the credit for arrangements.
BR - Yes, we each play equally important roles, but on opposite ends of the
spectrum. I couldn’t do my job without Lorenzo’s riffs, and (not to sound
too conceited) his riffs could use a bit of spicing up sometimes. I know it’s
not common to credit arrangements, but I feel that my contribution to the
band is vital, and therefore deserves mention. What I do is not writing per
se, so I don’t deserve credit for writing, but I feel my work deserves some
recognition.
RoR - At what point do you sit back and feel that
a song is complete? Do you ever?
LK - Never, so far there has always been something that ended up coming out
short in the final product.
BR - I agree with Lorenzo, the song never feels fully complete. We do reach
a point where we don’t want to make the song any longer, but there are always
ideas about ways to improve the parts we have. Several changes are already
in place for songs we will re-record for our next release.
RoR - How important do you think it is for a band
to have members with different musical influences?
BR - I believe it’s vital. Metal is stagnating, has been for years. And the
reason for that is that most metal bands only listen to other metal bands.
It’s incestuous. The only bands that are innovating any more are those who
dare to bring in new ideas. I believe that Ninth Level has an advantage in
that we have so many diverse influences; we are able to move in any direction
we choose. As long as it’s heavy, we will use it, no matter what the source.
LK - It’s a matter of diversity that helps a band to create different moods
and approaches. The way I see it, it’s like the more the chemistry gets fused
up together, the more efficient the formula will be if mixed in the right
way. Just throw anything creative into the metal-melting pot and let it burn.
RoR - Do your backgrounds ever clash as songwriters?
BR - Sometimes there are scuffles over the best approach, but in the end
we work things out. I approach music with the main goal of unity within a
song. Sometimes that means a riff will be fused with another, even if they
don’t sound the best together. Lorenzo is the opposite: sound is most important.
We go back and forth until we find a middle ground that we can both live with.
In Ninth Level, all ideas are given equal weight, no matter how silly they
may sound to begin with. Whatever the group agrees on, that’s what we use,
with no hard feelings. This approach allows all our musical identities to
be present. Ideally, we would have other members to contribute to the writing
(three people voting reach a consensus easier than two).
RoR - I hear quite a few vocal styles, who takes
care of what in that department?
LK - I did the vocals almost throughout the whole disc. Ben does mostly all
of the clean vocals and the low backing death metal vox as well as the several
black metal shrieking.
BR - Lorenzo does the main death vocals, with me backing him with either
low death or high black vocals. I handle the majority of the clean vocals,
with Lorenzo sometimes backing me. The split is around 70/30 Lorenzo.
RoR - Along those lines, you’ve mentioned that you
felt dissatisfied with previous musicians in the band, and that you had trouble
finding an adequate drummer (understandable). What was the problem before,
and how is this rectified now?
BR - Most musicians we previously dealt with were too locked into their style
to be open to new ideas. Some we worked with included a guitarist who wrote
all riffs in E, a keyboardist who could play arpeggios endlessly but with
no ideas about how the music actually worked, and another guitarist who was
pure death metal with no room for anything else. Of the drummers we found:
one had little skill and never showed up for practice; one could play absolutely
anything in 4/4, but got lost if he tried to play odd times; and one was a
brilliant jazz drummer, but kept getting arrested for drunk driving, until
he finally had to flee the state or serve jail time. With the current line-up,
Bello has been Lorenzo’s friend for years and has over time picked up on the
riffs. He has also attuned himself to Lorenzo’s style of playing, so he plays
rhythm well for Lorenzo. We are still searching for a keyboardist, so that
situation hasn’t been resolved.
RoR - This may tie in with the previous question,
but it seems that all the drums were programmed on the promo CD you sent me.
Amazing, because the drum sound isn’t that different than what you hear on
Morbid Angels Gateway to Annihilation. What I mean by that is instead of it
sounding like a drum machine, it could very easily be a drummer playing with
triggered sounds. How much time went into that programming?
BR - Most of the programming basics were handled as we wrote the songs. Things
got more complex when we prepared to go into the studio. I spent three months
working on the programming. For the keys, I had to select the optimum sound,
volume, and attack for every moment of playing.
RoR - And what did you do to make the drums sound
more natural?
LK - We ran the programmed drums though a MIDI V drum sound module to get
that real time drum sound, sort of like triggered MIDI.
BR - Many thanks go out to Ed Talorda, our engineer, for saving us with the
drums. First off, he loaned us the drum module we used for the recording.
Second, he pointed out to me that the biggest error bands make when using
programmed drums is the attack. A live drummer never hits the hi-hat (or any
other non-triggered drum) with exactly the same strength, yet a machine, with
its standard preset volume, will make all hits sound exactly the same. Thanks
to Ed, I went over all the drum parts and made sure that accents were placed
naturally, the way a live drummer would. This process took a month by itself,
but in the end, the work was worth the final sound.
RoR - One problem that arises a lot is that drum
tracks are programmed in, and then almost impossible to replicate due to a
machine being able to play things a human never could. How hard was it for
Derek to adapt what you programmed to his own style?
BR - We were very careful to avoid impossible drum lines (although a few
did sneak in). Even so, we would never expect anyone to duplicate the drums
on the CD. We would in fact prefer someone to bring in their own style, and
in so doing, expand the personality of the music. I think that once Derek
gets going on some of the drum lines, we should hear a totally new character
to the playing.
RoR - Listening to the album, I do hear a musical
dichotomy here, with extreme metal meeting something akin to like southern
progressive rock, but it all fits. Threes an epic feel to the whole thing,
and one band that did pop into my head at times was Borknagar. How much of
an orchestrated feel do you want Ninth Level to have?
LK - It all depends on the nature of the song, if we want to write a very
aggressive song it will require a more straight forward feel to it, and if
the song has more of an other-worldly feel to it, well try to make a more
vivid picture of the song with the orchestration. As far as that southern
Prog rock feel, I really couldn’t tell you since I’m not into any so. rock
bands, but my dad was originally from Oklahoma, so maybe I got some of them
southern genes messing up with my playing (hehehe), I hear instead (on some
parts) something more akin to a South American feel to it.
BR - Southern progressive rock? You must be listening to Torn By Hatred at
the moment. heheh.
LK - Maybe "Lysergic passageways"...hahaha.
RoR - What I mean is, is the aim to have the songs
be more inclusive to the listener (so they feel surrounded by the music),
or have it hit them in the chest like a hammer?
LK - Both, we try to reach both ends of the spectrums
BR - I agree with Lorenzo. The impact of the music is wholly dictated by
the song and riff we are working with. Some parts demand heavy guitars, in
which case keys are used merely as bottom end to beef up the sound. Other
parts want to be expansive, so the full synth orchestra comes out. Even other
parts are just damn strange, and that’s when we use shit like oboes and pan
flutes. Since we have so many diverse influences, we can allow the music to
flow in whichever direction it needs to go, without having to pigeonhole anything.
RoR - On their own, the lyrics almost seemed a bit
out of place with the imagery of the Aztecs, but in context, everything fits
together perfectly. Where did the idea for using this culture come from?
LK - It was my idea since I was born and raised in Mexico and ever-since
my days of elementary school, we were taught about Aztec polytheism and human
sacrifices that were held in the Aztec pyramids to keep the cycle of life
and the balance within nature, as well as the gods of war and the role they
played in the cosmos as well as significant earthly events that took place
during that era so I’m interested in the subject.
BR - Whatever Lorenzo said, he’s in charge of all that stuff.
RoR - Playing Devils Advocate, are you afraid at
all that you’ll be dubbed “Anthro-metal” along with bands like Coffin Texts,
Morbid Angel and Nile?
LK - Not at all since Morbid Angel is a huge influence and they opened up
the door for incorporating ancient folklore within their lyrics.
BR - Vie never heard that term before, so I’m not sure I care if people call
us that (I made it up, so the credit is ALL MINE, hahaha! - Ed.). But judging
from context, I guess that’s a slight concern for me. I wouldn’t want to be
confined in that way. So far though, I haven’t had to worry too much. While
we may use Aztec mythology, that’s not our only topic of discussion, which
leaves us open enough to go anywhere else we want. I think of us with the
Aztecs like Slayer with Satan: we may use it a lot, but we still leave other
options open. When it comes down to it, though, I don’t focus on the lyrics,
I focus on the music. As long as that’s working properly, Lorenzo can sing
about the shit he took that morning and I’m good. (laughs).
RoR - Since you were only two members before, I
would assume that there weren’t too many live shows? Will that change now?
Here’s the “What are your hopes and dreams” question regarding the band. What
would you like to see happen?
LK - I’d like to see us as a full working band with every member being committed
to the fullest. I’d also like to give to the metal community a new taste in
extreme metal and to inspire bands to create music from their own worlds for
the scene to not stagnate.
BR - With members being busy with other commitments, I can’t make any guarantees
about shows in the future, although we all hope for that aspect to come to
fruition. Besides, we still don’t have a keyboardist, and we can’t really
afford to buy a sequencer at the moment. So if we did play out, we’d be incomplete
anyway. In the future, I hope that Ninth Level will continue to write ever
more challenging and interesting music that is filled with emotion and that
we will be able to get that music out to more and more people. I would also
like to make metal musicians aware of the number of musical options available
to them (listen to Bartok and Penderecki and you’ll know what I’m talking
about). It’s only by branching out that metal will continue to grow and flourish.
RoR - How hard would it be to just set up in a club
somewhere? What would you need to make a Ninth Level show complete (image
wise, sound wise)?
LK - Image wise is up for the individual to decide, sound wise is just a
matter of a good soundman that is familiar with our material since we use
a lot of different sounds.
BR - First we would need A KEYBOARDIST! Second, A DECENT PRACTICE ROOM! Then,
give us a month or two, since we are out of practice at the moment. As far
as image, nothing. We are individuals and each chooses who he presents on
stage.
RoR - And so, at the end, what's on the plate for
Ninth Level that you haven't mentioned yet?
LK - We have material ready in the works for at least two albums to come
and ideally could turn out being very much more eclectic yet brutal, fast
and progressive. At the moment, we are ready to start rehearsing before we
enter the studio to record our debut album which we have planned to have released
by early next year.
BR - The material that we are currently working on goes even further than
what we’ve recorded. We have everything from a classical piano quintet to
blasting death-grind to sludge to melodic jazz. It will be a challenge to
fuse them all together, but it’s the challenge which makes it so much fun.
RoR - You just recently signed to The End Records,
what do you think that they as a label can offer you, and on the flipside,
what do you think that you can offer them as a band? Have you discussed touring
at all? I’m sure you had other offers, what made you finally decide to go
with The End? Any plans to tour Russia with Mental Home now?
LK - I’ve been following The End Records ever since they first started out.
I always thought they were (and still think they are) one of the most unusual
and anti-trend metal labels around and they seem to really push their bands
out there to get them on the map. They offered us a very relaxed deal, they
don’t rush any of their bands to put albums out and that works out perfect
for Ninth Level since we take our time to create and arrange our compositions.
All in all, we are satisfied with their contract. As a label, I know The End
has the means to expose music on a international scale throughout the metal
communities, even though they are still a fairly young label and like Ninth
Level, we are still a young band of individuals that create extreme music
without boundaries and that is our gift to the nations of metal worldwide.
So with that said, I’d like to see T.E.R to keep on expanding the scope of
extreme music and keeping its integrity as intact as it has been thus far.
We did have a few record deal offers but we just waited longer for the better
deal. As far as touring, no word has yet been discussed between the band and
the label so no plans to play with Mental Home over there in Russia.
BR - I’m personally very happy to be on The End. I don’t keep up with label
stuff too much, but I have always known The End as a label that’s not afraid
to sign some really daring bands. And they have a reputation for integrity,
so I’m not worried about being screwed over by them. I was proud that they
approached us, as that told me that they seem to think our music is something
unique and different. I trust them to handle us well, with promotions, distribution,
and financing. In return, I would like Ninth Level to provide for them albums
of unequalled creativity, musicianship, and intelligence. But that’s only
what I’d like to do, who knows if we can actually pull it off. So far, I’m
extremely proud of the new music we’re writing, but I’m not a very objective
judge, am I? So far nobody’s talked about touring. We’d need a keyboardist
(or a good sequencer, which again, we can’t afford) before we could seriously
consider a tour. Right now all our attention is focused on writing new songs
for our first official album. After that, we’ll see what happens. I’d love
to someday tour wherever we can, including Russia, but that’s a ways off yet.
We did have other label offers, but I can’t say how serious they were. We
received one offer that seemed too good to be true, and perhaps it was. The
label spoke with us for 7 months, offering a very nice advance, but never
got around to giving us a final contract. By the time The End came along,
we were pretty tired of dealing with these guys. The delays of the first label,
along with The End’s reputation, made us side with them, even though the monetary
difference was vast. Other than that, we had a few small labels requesting
that we record on our own and they’d put it out, and a few compilation offers,
but nothing we wanted to pursue very far.
RoR - Any last comments?
LK - Log on into our web page at www.ninthlevel.net for details on the release
of our debut album, and thanks for the interview.
BR - Watch out for Ninth Level in the future, as we plan on taking metal
as far as it will go. Thanks.
Ninth Level - 2001 Line-Up
Lorenzo Kemp - guitars, vocals, programming
Ben Richardson - bass, vocals, programming
Noel Bello- guitars
Derek Ethridge- drums
Ninth Level's Official Home Page can be found at: www.ninthlevel.net
