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| shEver 2012 |
In my attempts to interview some of the finest bands around, it is always cool, to get such enthusiastic responses from bands and labels alike. shEver were not different and I am extremely grateful that they took the time to answer my questions. So here it is in full, 20 Questions w/ shEver. Enjoy!
Q) Hey, How are you? I appreciate you taking the time to talk to
talk to us, here at the Sludgelord.
A) Hey Aaron thank you very much. We’re fine, sitting outside of the
rehearsal room and answering your questions, enjoying the undoomy hot summer.
Q) Where are you at the moment and what are you doing, in terms of the
band? You preparing to tour?
A) We’re preparing our release-party for the new record Rituals and
we’re looking forward to some shows coming up in October.
Q) Our good friend Seb Biscoult from the band Abrahma reviewed you record for
the blog and he loved it (I really think it is great too haha). For those people who are unfamiliar with your
music, can you tell me little bit about the
history of the band and some of the bands you've played with? Where
you’re from, when shEver first formed? Current band members?
A) The band has been formed in
2003 when Jessie and Melanie started the band and Nadine joined. The actual line-up is fixed since February 2004 with Alex. Sarah replaced our former
drummer Melanie in 2007.
Alex: eve-ill brutal screaming,
voice
Jessie: down-tuned heavy riffing, voice
Nadine: drone-doom bass, infernal growls, violin, voice
Sarah: doomed drums
Jessie: down-tuned heavy riffing, voice
Nadine: drone-doom bass, infernal growls, violin, voice
Sarah: doomed drums
As we all live in different
cities in Switzerland we’re
not able to say, we’re shEver from Zurich or Bern Switzerland
Q) Is shEver a full time project, or do have other bands?
A) shEver is like a second job for each of us. We’re doing some
side-projects from time to time, but shEver is the main project.
Q) Probably a stupid question, but are you or would you like to be full
time musicians? Presumably you work jobs too, right?
A) Some of us would really like
to but it’s hard to survive without doing mainstream-music, playing birthday-
or wedding parties and so on…
Q) Are you big fans of rock/metal, if so what are you listening too at
the moment?
A) Alex: Eyehategod, Graveyard, Khuda, Skindred, Electric Wizard, Bongzilla
Jessie: YOB,
Nadine is very into French black metal: Glorior belli, Deathspell Omega,
Sarah: 13th Floor Elevator, Shining
Q) When you started shEver, what were your hopes for the band?
A) It started in 2003 and the goal was to get out of the rehearsal room
once and to play live as much as possible.
Q) If someone was unfamiliar with your band, how would you describe your
sound? Has it evolved?
A) Our sound is mostly slow, full
of emotions, brutal in a female way J, melancholy, and consequent. We rehearse twice a week for 10 years now,
so we do at least hope that our music evolved a bit yes.
Q) Why the name, shEver? Where did the name come from and why the
capital letter E in the middle? Any
significance in that?
A) Jessie always wanted to have a band called "shiver" but a
band with that name already existed. The big "E" came out of the
fact, that we’re all female: "shE".
Q) What is the scene like in your
hometown of Zurich , or Switzerland
A) We’re not from Zurich :) we’re from all around in Switzerland
Q) What made you start the band? Did you all know each other before
you formed?
A) Jessie originally started the
band with the former drummer Melanie whom she knew already. The other three
members saw the advertisements on line that shEver was in need for new members.
Q) What's it like being in an
underground band in your hometown or even in the Switzerland
A) It’s not that hard to get gigs
but there are not many locations and you have to make sure you’re not playing
in the same places all the time. Switzerland
Q) Listening to your music, it appears that there are influences of Death
metal and Doom Metal, however what would you say is your direct influences
musically and artistically? Did those influences contribute directly or
indirectly to the type of music you write?
A) We’re playing the music that comes out of our souls. Sure all music
you listen to influences you subconsciously, but we’ve never planned just doing
doom or death.
Q) What are your views of blogs
such as the Sludgelord reviewing your records, as opposed to mainstream music
magazines? Has your music reached the mainstream mags, at home or around
the world?
A) There have been some reviews
about us in so-called mainstream-metal-magazines around Germany
Q) Rituals is an exceptional record and appears to be getting universal
praise, what are your thoughts about that?
Does it have an effect on the band in terms of record sales etc? Are record sales important to the band?
A) It makes us proud to get such
good reaction from all over the world and we think it’s our best release so
far. We’re not doing it just to earn
money and get rich. The money we obtain by record-sales or gigs is re-invested
into new projects like merchandise, recording new stuff or just renting a bus
to get to the next gig.
Q) Rituals is your 2nd full
length release to date, how does this record compare to your previous records
and is it your best work to date?
A) With every new release you
think its better that the last one. But that’s okay, because we’d like to
evolve musically.
Q) Does it surprise you when people buy your music and merch?
A) It doesn’t surprise us, but it
makes as proud that there are so many people wearing our merch or listening to
our cds. It’s just amazing.
Q) 2 albums, 1 EP and 2 demo’s since the bands inception, what are some
of your highlights so far? What are your aspirations for the future?
A) Some of our highlights are our appearances at Roadburn 2010 and Doom
Shall Rise VII and of course the new record which is being released on CD and vinyl. Our aspirations for the future are a split-LP
in 2013 together with our friends of Spancer and Nocebo-label from Basel UK
Q) You’re signed to the awesome Jerusalem based label Total Rust, were
you fans of the label before you were signed and how did that come about? Did you consider a DIY approach of releasing
your music yourselves?
A) Gad from Total Rust Music was
already interested in our music when we released the first album Ocean of
illusions, but we decided to release it by ourselves. All past albums we
released by ourselves as well. Now 5 years later we got into contact with
him again and asked if he’s interested in releasing Rituals.
Q) This will sound stupid (therefore
I apologise in advance if it does), however you’re obviously an all female
band. Do you feel that you have had to
work harder in any way to be taken seriously, given that metal is predominately
a male dominated genre? Are you judged
more harshly in your experience? (We
think you’re awesome BTW)
A) It’s definitely harder to be
taken seriously as an all-female band in the male-dominated metal-scene. It’s an easy excuse to dislike our music just
because we’re female, but we’ve learned to overcome it.
Q) Do you have any interesting stories from your tours, favourite’s
places you’ve toured and bands you’ve toured with?
A) Well we have a lot of stories…a broken bus at the
end of a tour, organizing rental-cars in the middle of the night and accidentally
leaving our equipment in Germany, a singer losing her voice, running out of
gasoline in France in the middle of nowhere, unexpectedly finding strange guys
playing with knives upstairs our sleeping room, a broken car in the middle of
Belgium and some Pfeffi-stories in East-Germany…(Pfeffi is a
peppermint-liquor).
Every place has its own charm, but a few shows and bands to mention are:
Every place has its own charm, but a few shows and bands to mention are:
- Nurnberg,
- Roadburn,
- Doom Shall Rise
- Doom Over
- Doom Over
Q) Did you have an agenda or a game plan in terms of what you wanted to
write for Rituals? Does everyone contribute song ideas?
A) Rituals is not a
concept-album at all. We never work with a specific agenda in mind. As we’ve
mentioned before, it comes out of our souls. Everyone is involved in the
song-writing process.
Q) How do you feel about the digital era of music and people downloading
music for free? Would you or have you ever considered releasing your music for
free or ‘pay what you like’ to raise the profile of the band?
A) This is life and as long as it helps to spread our music we support
it, this way you can reach people who would never get into our music. However
Real Fans buy the CD or LP. We invested a lot of time, work and effort into all
our albums and that should be appreciated.
Q) What are your plans for the rest of the year and any chance you're
coming over to the UK
A) Already mentioned above :)
Q) Thanks for answering my questions, but one final question, do you have
anything you like to say to your fans?
A) Thank you for this interesting interview Aaron and thank you Seb for
this awesome review and of course thanx to all our fans who’ve supported us for
all these years!!
Doom on
shEverWell, that is your lot for this interview. I hope you thought it was cool! It goes without saying that I have to say a big thank you to shEver for answering my questions. Also give a special mention to Gad from Total Rust, total dude and he was able to hook me up with the band. So thanks man! Appreciate it. Hopefully more to come from your amazing roster of bands. You're doing an amazing job.
If you want more info about the band or Total Rust, check out the links below. Thank is it for now. More to come. Perhaps sooner than you think! Thanks again to you guys for reading. You're proper cool and youre support means so much to us.
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