Subversion Interview with Kai Giritli guitarist for melodic tech metal band. He talks about the Animi album.
Subversion Interview
– What’s new in the world of Subversion?
Well we have just dropped our new album Animi, played our album launch show in London with our brothers in Xerath, and announced a UK tour in April with our other brothers in No Sin Evades His Gaze. It is looking like a busy year for us so far, which is exactly how we like it!
– How was it recording your album Animi?
It was a lot of trial and error to be honest. I have always wanted that crystal clear, polished sound, but could never attain it no matter how much I tried. “Lest We Forget” (our first album) shows just how much of a contrast there is in comparison to what we have managed to achieve production-wise this time around. Very happy bunnies with the sound of “Animi.”
– How did you go about making the artwork?
The concept of the album plays a heavy part here; is basically about how we were born on to this planet, we have now infected it and become corrupt, and nature wants to remove us and cleanse itself.
This is the idea that we really wanted to portray in the artwork too; the human mind infecting the earth, Snovonne [Drake] did an amazing job on that. She took what we described to her, and she made it come to life exactly how we described it to her.
Inside the booklet, we wanted that sort of da Vinci style, old school medical journal feel to it, she captured this amazingly well too, taking ideas from the lyrics of the tracks and adding in lots of little illustrations and notes .
– How do you build a song up from nothing to become something?
I tend to get the most random ideas pop in to my head from time to time, I can be driving along and I just hum something and it makes me think “oh that would be cool as an orchestral piece”. Next thing I know I’m on Pro Tools tracking it so I don’t forget the idea…this usually leads to me getting more ideas as I record, leading to a sort of snow ball effect of ideas, and finally culminating in a rough song structure in what can sometimes be just one night. It’s crazy.
I usually have the whole song going round in my head while tracking, so I tend to write tracks with the vocal rhythms in mind too. I lay some basic drums down just to keep the ‘feel’ of the track in place, then Ben [Atkinson, drummer] comes along and re-does it all and smothers it with ghost notes ha
– What is the strangest inspiration you’ve ever had for a song?
I think that one would have to go for the first album’s “so many so few”. I was really in to my sound design work back then, and I made a recording of me putting a jar of air in a full bath and turning it round to release a big bubble. The sound was awesome, so I built a whole track around it….granted I did kind of hybrid two different songs together to create ‘So Many So Few,’ but the other inspiration isn’t as odd; I was asked to do a soundscape for a national gallery painting, so they could put it up in the exhibit for people to listen to whilst looking at the painting….still cool right?
– How did you create your guitar tone? Do you continue to tweak it or is «old faithful» the way to go?
I do tweak a lot I must say, but it is never very complicated, it’s what you would expect from a band like us, compressed, gated, high mid’s etc. We use Line 6’s pod farm for re-cabbing the guitars so I can continue being a tweak obsessive long after we have recorded the part ha, oh and Le cab 2.0. I swear by that, nothing like mimicking the sound of 3 different types of high end cabinet!
– Could you describe some of your earliest influences in life and in music?
Haha, in life I’m not too sure, I can’t say I ever thought about it and I’m drawing a blank right now…musically I gotta give credit to Michael Jackson first, he got the 6 year old me singing with my face glued against the hi-fi speaker wishing I could be on stage performing to thousands of people.
Next it was Sum 41 that got me on the road to heavier music, (my first guitar was purchased solely for the desire to want to play along with “All Killer No Filler.” Blink 182 then became the love of my life in my early teens, followed by Papa Roach (“Infest” days), then came Linkin Park’s “Hybrid Theory.”
I was a really out of it kid, didn’t have the internet, kept to myself. So it is purely by luck that I had a bit of money to spend and I just walked in to Asda, and picked up the most desirable looking CD (Linkin Park – “Hybrid Theory”)….I HATED IT. He was screaming….why is he screaming?
For some reason I kept going back to it though, and well, they became one of my favorite bands for ages. Before I knew it I was in to Soilwork, Ill Nino, and they were really influencing the sort of music I was playing on guitar. I actually cannot believe how many years ago this is now…geez!
– In your opinion, which album would be essential to have if someone were stranded on a deserted island?
Oooo toughie, my tastes always make people go….”what, why that?!” I don’t think I’m that musically cultured ha. It would have to be “Hybrid Theory” by Linkin Park, that album just never gets old. Pure nostalgia!
– Where do you see music in general going in 100 years from now?
Gosh, another toughie… I dunno…I can’t see record labels as they exist now standing the test of time for a start…I bet you metal will still be around though…it is one of those genres that has the ability to shift, mold and combine with any other style of music and make it work. 100 years is such a long time, looking back at what’s changed in just 30 to 40 years is shocking stuff too…there is no telling what might happen…maybe Tuvan Throat singing will be the next big thing!
Check out Subversion online http://www.subversionband.com/
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