WOUND UPON WOUND - ENTREVISTA

1. How did you decide to form Wound upon wound in 2008? Was there any previous band? How was the recruitment of members of the group?

The band basically came about as a two peice between our guitarist and previous vocalist, who got together to release a demo, and when the time came to play live we already had a few of our friends in mind to fill the other spaces in the band so there wasn't much searching involved. We knew who we wanted to play with and conveniently everyone had the free time, so the transition between recording project and full band was as simple as that.

2. How has the band's sound with respect to the Ep "Grievance"? Are you happy 100% of your album "Wound upon Wound"? Descararías What aspects of it and what are the aspects that I otherwise would have been improved?

Well when we recorded “Grievance” we were a relatively new band and the sound on the first release resembled that. At the time we felt the EP needed a clearer production to bring out the best in the songs.

With the self titled album we felt differently. The songs were much darker and more complex and we felt this would benefit from a darker and dirtier production. For this reason we recorded it in a different studio (The Hive Studios), which we felt fitted our needs for this album a lot better.  Of course we are 100% happy with the album, we would not release something that we were not satisfied entirely with.

3. How is the writing process within the group? Is there a leader when composing or all aportáis thoughts? How have integrated the new vocalist in the group?

The songs take structure quite naturally. Leigh will often write most of the basic riffs and ideas and then we mostly piece the songs together as a group in rehearsals. We usually jam the songs out and structure them with what feels natural and if possible we like to try and add new ideas of things we haven’t done before to each track.

Our new vocalist is with us since 2011, so he isn’t really new anymore. He has integrated very well into the band and has been a big contribution to the song and lyric writing since he joined.

I will however take this time to announce our new bassist Irene (from the bands Sodb [https://soundcloud.com/sodb] and Okus [http://okus.bandcamp.com/]), who has just joined us.

4. The name of the group if I'm not mistaken a song inspired by Gorgoroth, is left alone influence in inspiring name or beyond? Which groups are your source of inspiration?

Yes indeed the name “Wound Upon Wound” is taken from the Gorgoroth song. As far as the choice of name, we felt it represented the outlook and feeling that is portrayed in our music and as a result we all agreed the name was fitting.

As far as bands that inspire us, I think we have moved past that stage as a band. When we started out you could hear clearly the influences of others in our music but now I feel that those aren’t as obvious. I like to think we have created our own unique sound and we try not to emulate other bands or ideas. Of course people will always compare bands with other bands and so forth but we don’t really concern ourselves with that. We play the music we want to play and craft it the way we want it to sound. 

5. Your music transmits sensations sad and depressing, how would you define your musical approach? What topics you treat in your lyrics and why? What you want to convey with your music?

Again our approach to this band is to create the music we want to play and hear. It is an outlet for us as people.

You mention sad and depressing, there are definitely elements of those feelings in our music but it isn’t always that way. Some of our songs contain moments of relief in contrast to the dark atmosphere.

 As far as the lyrics go, we like to leave a lot open to interpretation and let the listener take from them what they will. Lyrics are a very personal thing, so each person will naturally take something different from them. We try however to explore things we find important and relevant in our lyrics. Singing about money and cars and material objects doesn’t concern or interest us, there are far more important things to be worried about. The decline of the human race or morality, for example. The human race is slowly destroying itself and this is a far more interesting topic to explore instead of the usual topics found in say, chart music.

6. What musical equipment do you use in the recording sessions? What musical equipment do you use at concerts?

We use whatever equipment we need to in order to capture the sounds we are after. When we record, we try and keep the live situation in mind so that we will be able to replicate the sounds on the recordings live.  A lot of our newer songs have many layers of guitars in them so we have started to use loopers live to help us build up the textures in the newer material. Distortion and fuzz also play a large part in our sound so a good loud distorted amp and fuzz pedal is our usual go to, along with delay and reverb to add to the ambience. The self-titled album was all recorded on a Mesa Dual rectifier, with delays and reverbs for various sections of the songs. Our setup is pretty much identical to that live.

7. Are you aware of the extreme bands in Ireland?, If so, what bands would you recommend? What do you think of the black metal scene in your country?

There are a lot of extreme bands here, many of which are of a very high standard. Outside of the obvious Primordial and Altar Of Plagues, we have more underground bands such as Zom, Warpath, Eternal Helcaraxe and plenty more on the rise showing a lot of talent. Malthusian are another band to keep an eye on, as far as I know the are yet to release a CD but we have witnessed their live debut and they were fantastic.

I think the black metal scene here is especially strong these days, Altar of Plagues are really putting Ireland on the map for BM and Slidhr are another great black metal band that have released a fantastic new album. A quick visit to metalireland.com would definitely give you a wealth of talented bands from the country to have a listen to, the standard is very high in the local scene at the moment. 

8. Are you satisfied with the response of the media and the public to your new album?

We could not be happier with the response we have received on the latest album. Its been getting some great reviews which is always nice to see for something you have created. We have seen it listed in peoples top 10 albums of 2012 alongside the likes of Marduk,  Anaal Nathrakh and Krallice which is a huge honour as we are fans of all these bands.

9. The disc you publish it through Underground Movement, how is the relationship with the label?

Our first EP was released through Underground Movement, but the new album we decided to release ourselves due to time constraints. Our relationship with the label is great and we are very thankful to have worked with Ian and UM. Ian did huge amounts to get us where we are and we owe a lot to him and the label. It certainly gave us the push to take what we do in the right direction and for that we're very grateful.

10. What are your goals with the band, to where you want to get with her?

Our goals with this band is to make the music we like and that we enjoy playing, It has always been that way and always will be. We play this music as an outlet for ourselves and if people can relate to that and enjoy what we do then we are grateful for their support. If people don’t enjoy what we do then that is fine also as we are not doing this to please everyone. Beyond that we just want to keep doing as many decent shows as we can and finish the follow up album we've been working on since finishing the last one.

11. Thank you very much for your time, if you want to add something for people who like Wound upon wound, this is the place, thanks. I hope the questions are to your liking.

Thank you for the questions and for taking an interest in our band. For anyone that wishes to hear more of our music, our latest album is available to download for free from: wounduponwound.bandcamp.com.

We are preparing our second album at the moment which we hope to record by the end of the year so keep an eye out for that one, and thank you for the support.

Wound Upon Wound