eSpudd exlusive interview, 4
Jayson: What other labels have you talked with? Have any approached TPH?
Lord K: Mascot wanted us real bad. they accepted all of my demands after I slaughtered their first contract. Eventually we ended up with Threeman, just when I was supposed to sign to them. This is not show-friends, it´s fucken show-business and you have to look for the best for the band. We sent mails to quite a few labels and had some interest from here and there, nothing as close-to-sign-with as Mascot though. I idon´t want to be a small band on a big label, I wanna be a big band on a small label. Threeman is perfect it seems. I´m not into this for the cash, then I fucken chose the wrong style to play.
Jayson: What do you look for in a contract from a record label?
Lord K: How many whores we get with each album. How much corpsepaint they provide us with for the gigs. How much blood there will be in our dressingrooms. Do we get any drugs? Small things like that.
Jayson: You’re one of the most active musicians I know when it comes to talking with your fans, or even potential fans. It really makes TPH a more personal experience. Why are you so involved? Have you always been this involved with fans?
Lord K: I enjoy it. I think it´s fun to get shit going with people who appreciates what we do. We are no Metallica you know. I have the time and interest to do it. It takes me a minute to answer a mail from some kid in Brazil or whatever, who probably went out of his way to have the guts to write his fave-band. If I can do that and make his day, I´ll do it. I reply to the christians who writes us and says we are lost and that Jesus loves us. usually with “I´ll shove my satanic cock up yer ass as soon as I see you in hell”. They all deserve a reply. The people into us brought us to the level where we are today, the least we can do is reply to fucken e-mails you know. I have made alot of friends just for the fact that I provided them with the domination, I´m glad people have good taste.
Jayson: What TPH song is the most personal and intimate reflection of you?
Lord K: The correct answer to this one would be all of them, naturally, as they are written by me, and each and every track is a part of me. We have a certain way of lyric-writing, we deal with our personal war against heaven and all that is holy, and that is reflected in our music. I wouldn´t call us satanists, but we sure have a few things to tell. Christ staying away from us is one of them. He´s invited to my place any day now, we have plenty of nails.
Jayson: Which song (off the first two TPH albums) was the most difficult to write/record/or complete, and why?
Lord K: At times it takes more time to complete a song than you´d ever dream of. I haven´t been sitting with a song for more than a week though. It´s all about inspiration. Sometimes it goes very fast and it´s only a matter of hours, sometimes it´s days. I consider the songs to be finished when they are put on tape in the studio, when all the instruments are done and the vocals are completed. Before that I´d say they are 90% finished. I change so many things in the studio as far as bass and guitars goes. Some parts of the albums are completely different compared to how I imagined and planned them to sound when I first entered the studio. The song I think I worked most on could be “The Swarming of whores”, or possibly “In Sickness and in hell”. Those two really turned out great and different from what was originally planned. As far as hardest song to record goes, “Dividead” was a fucken 4-minute piece of hell for me. I had been sitting in the studio doing guitars only for like two days and my fingers were so fucken sore it´s not even funny… I had to leave the studio and get air to be able to complete it. I was totally fucked up in the head and couldn´t hear if the stuff was in tune or not. I love to work like that and have everything absorbing you to the fullest, but it was fucken hard. Needless to say, 15 minutes later I went back, very late one night, and put the damn guitars down. The result is, as you know, brilliant. None of the stuff is really hard to play, if you have problems putting down yer stuff, you shouldn´t have written them in the first place.
Jayson: The easiest?
Lord K: That must be “Nine spectrums of impurity”. “The divine burning of angels” was also always easy to nail. I make sure I´m well-prepared in the studio. I never really have any problems with nailing my songs, that would be pretty fucken ironic if I did, don´t you think? There are some new shit that me and Petter have written that´ll be… interesting… to nail in the studio, but we´ll do it, we always do. failure is not a fucken option in this band.
Jayson: How many songs were written for both “Cyber Sonic” and “When We are done” that did not make it on the final album?
Lord K: Everything you hear is what was written. Those are the only songs I considered to be “songs”. I always have alot of parts and stuff recorded on my 4-tracker, but as soon as I get to work on a song, I complete it. I have minute-long parts and shit all over the place, keyboardstuff, drumbeats, riffs, stuff like that. You get an idea, record it, forget about it, and eventually remember it by accident and think “why the fuck didn´t I use that shit for, it´s fucken excellent”. Then I end up using it for a new song. But the things you hear on the albums is what was planned to be there.
Jayson: Will you use any of those songs/parts for the newest album?
Lord K: Most definitely. I just got my new equipment and shit so we are on a roll again here. I have old stuff that I´ll definitely use. A great riff is a great riff, you just have to find the proper place to use it at. There will be alot of older stuff on the new album, but noone will notice what is old and what is new. Hell, some stuff on the previous albums are up to 7 years old. It´s just a matter of finding parts where they can be used.
Jayson: What other projects other than TPH are you currently working on?
Lord K: Nothing metal really. We have this Devilsun thing in the plans, some songs are written and shit but it doesn´t look like we`ll ever record anything. Hell, I`m only in it to fire Leif from the band you know. We´ll see, hopefully one day we will record the planned album, it´s not in my priorities though. besides that, I have a thing going that´s too early to tell much about, but it´ll be something neat…
Jayson: Ok, we need to wrap this thing up. This has been huge, and most likely a total TPH overload for our readers. But you know what? They love it. This is the kind of interview you want to see and read. So for this part, I’ll throw out a few random questions.
Lord K: I have probably repeated myself a million times about various things here, but you know what? Your fucken readers love that too. Shoot fucker, I´m ready for the final questions, I´m on a roll here. Fingers bleeding, ears bleeding, head hurting, all due to this massive fucker, I love it.
Jayson: Are there any tabs for TPH’s music so that we can learn the art of domination?
Lord K: We have been asked by various people about this since we started. What´s so fucken fun playing other bands songs? Really? Create something yourself, it´s not like our stuff is the most complicated ever anyways. Pick out something by latter Death or Dark Funeral, that´s something to be proud of. I think we have two tabs at the site from a guy in Finland. I´m glad he took the time to write those down, though we had to correct small parts of them. I´m not going to sit down and do tabs for my shit, I can play them, I don´t need to see them in tabs. People, feel free to write them and send them in, we most likely won´t go thru them as far as busting our balls goes to get them correct, but I´d love to have them all, then I can finally be able to hear the bitching stop about them fucken tabs. By the way, the art of domination can´t be taught, it´s courtesy of fucken TPH and you know it.
Jayson: How do I get that TPH sound? How is your guitar rig set up in studio and on tour? And the bass?
Lord K: To get our sound….Basically… Use my guitars, my strings, my picks and my skills in playing. Don´t forget to tune down to fucken A. Then hire Mieszko to sort the guitar sound while I´m oking it. Very easy. I have used different gears for the recordings, but the last album holds such a guitar-sound, it´s unholy. In the studio I used a Mesa Boogie amp only for one sound and that amp and a pedal of some kind for the other. Yes, it´s two different sounds, four layers of guitars. I´m not so technically interested when it comes to guitar sounds, I just know when it´s good, that´s enough for me. I leave the details to the guys who knows it. Same goes for live-situations, I use what´s there if I can´t bring my friends Peavey 5150, I love that fucker. When it comes to bass, I just want it to sound quite clean, no distortion or anything. Like Korn, but still not like Korn. I want you to be able to hear the hits on the strings, and I want you to hear them good. The demo holds a great bass-sound, the first album too. I think the bass is a little too low on the second album but you can hear it. I´ll turn the fucker up next time, be so fucken sure. I love the sound of bass when you can hear it, not when it´s just some fucken 5th guitar playing along, if you get my point.
Jayson: What kind/type of guitars do you have (guitar and bass)?
Lord K: I have four guitars. My main one is the Jackson Randy Rhoades Ex Professional. Then I play a Jackson KE3, a Washburn Paul Stanley Signature Model and finally a BC Rich Warlock. A quite crappy one too. But I have three $1200 guitars, that is enough for me, the Warlock I bought becoz it was cheap and looked cool. And it looks good on my wall. I don´t own a bass myself, I don´t need one, I hire a 5-stringed of some kind when I´m about to hit the studio.
Jayson: Other equipment worth mentioning?
Lord K: PK6 Keyboard, Boss drummachine DR 670. A Sony DAT-player. Fostex D4 – 4 track digital recorder and a Marshall Valvestate Combo 80 watt. That´s what i use at home. I recently traded some old stuff, some of it was a sampler I don´t know the name of nor ever used. A Roland JV1010 and a W30 workstation. Fuck that crap, this new shit is excellent, domination is at hand again. Like it ever stopped when it comes to us…
Almost done… now for page five…
