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HT: For those who listen and those who are about to, what's the protocol when entering the recording studio with you Animals?
Nightingale: The protocol is a very unique one, but first, let me applaud your use of the word "protocol." (The Nightingale engages in applause here.) The fascinating thing about this band to me, and hopefully to others, is the fact that not once to this day has the entire band been in the same room. I am really the tie that binds in the sense that I am the only one in the band that knows everyone else. This will change in August, of course, when we all will meet and hang out for the shows we are doing August 24-27. For the studio, the original idea came from the fact that a handful of my ex-touring buddies were all at home between tours, some recording albums in their respective bands, and others just on break. I knew it would still be a difficult task getting all of the aforementioned musicians into some sort of practice situation where we could all sit down and write songs together, so I decided to go with a different approach to songwriting. We started with drums. No songs were written, just one of the best drummers I know sitting in a recording studio playing his heart out for over two hours. Foundations for the songs came from that and we built the songs from the ground up. The drum tracks were sent to the Walrus who tracked guitars, and so on and so forth. All parts, except for the lead guitar, were done in one day. The vocals, for the most part, are completely improvised and done in a single session without the vocalists having ever heard the music before entering the studio. With that light shed on the songs, I feel it adds a new dimension for the listener to see what we are achieving. For the new album, the same situation occurred, but the base tracks were more electronic than live drums. Lover, The Lord Has Left Us... is definitely an expansion into realms none of us are used to, but we are very proud of it.
HT: The new album has a wide variety of musical tastes. From guitar solos to deep, melodic keyboard rhythms, was this thought out in detail when arranging the music or did it come together by fate?
N: Kind of along the lines of the process described above, these songs were done from the ground up. The difference between Lover... and the previous EP is that it was much more thought out. Still, nobody got together to write songs; nobody took more than a day to track their part, and the band still did not exist in the same room together at any point. But from a production standpoint, there was much less chaos and more tasteful planning and choice of sounds. I had a vision for this album that encompassed a wide range of musical influences, and during the recording, many thought there would be no possible way to thread them all together. I, myself, wondered often how it would come together but we really feel like we pulled off what was intended. We know it is a 360 from the last album, and that was entirely the point. The entire reason this band exists is to experiment without caring for a second whether or not other people will think it is the "in" thing to listen to. Hopefully, people just enjoy it and take it for what it is, and those that don't we have no problem with, as long as they are respectful.
HT: You have an opera singer in one of your songs! Whose bright idea was that; it makes the music so much more epic and original! Please tell us all about it!
N: Opera was a must for this album. Not enough people incorporate it into their stuff, probably because it can be tricky, but most likely because most people assume opera music is for old people and is a dated genre. That couldn't be farther from the truth. Operas like John Adams' Nixon In China, Ades' Powder Her Face and Glass' Einstein On The Beach are classic examples of what opera can achieve, and all of those composers are still alive! The opera section on this album is sung in German by a talented singer named Ash White. We put out a call for vocalists on MySpace® and she was one of the people to respond. We clicked right away and she came into the studio and essentially wrote her own part with little direction. The opera and Sanskrit vocals were two mandatory experiments for this album, and we did them both!
HT: Samples and electronic beats are another sound that animals fight with. What's more exciting to experience, the live musician or the digital desktops?
N: It is simply impossible to deny the weight and importance of digital technology and its role in modern music. I think creating sounds using digital tools is just as eventful as playing instruments. The computers and samplers don't just come up with the stuff themselves. It takes the same creative mind that writing a guitar riff comes from to come up with what is programmed on a digital instrument of a laptop. When we play live, we plan on recreating a ton of the electronic stuff with real-life musicians and instruments, because there is one thing laptops aren't and that is exciting to watch on stage.
HT: Does this album paint a picture or tell a story?
N: The album does tell a story. It tells a rather brave story. Lover, The Lord Has Left Us... is a lyric from an upcoming Planes Mistaken For Stars album and was given to us by Gared O' Donnell to use by my request to him to come up with an "epic" title for this album, while it was being recorded. He lives in Colorado and wouldn't have been able to contribute to the songwriting, but his donation of the title allowed the music, which was still being recorded, to take a different direction, especially lyrically, and moreover, allowed him to be involved in some way. That was my intention because PMFS is one of my all-time favorite bands and it just made the album more special to me... however selfish that may be. The overall story is one of a man in search of his spirit. He knows God exists but feels alone so he turns within himself to find an answer which takes him on a very lengthy, maniacal journey, one that manifests itself in the confusion of the melting pot of genres that is Lover...
HT: There's a Middle Eastern folk song that almost sounds like a lounge singer doing the vocals. We need to know who the brainchild is behind this song!
N: Again, I have wanted to incorporate this style into my music ever since I bought my first Cornershop album like ten years ago. Remember that huge alternative radio hit "Brim Full of Asha"? Well there are all kinds of brilliant stuff that band did that flew right under the radar but influenced me a great deal. I am most excited about this style being infused into the music, more than anything else on the album.
HT: Where did the band originate?
N: The band originated in Africa. All of the animals had a spiritual meeting of souls. We did not speak that night but our souls touched each other in ways that would be questionable to most. Needless to say, a master plan to take over the world through the effortless visions of a side project were created that night, and the side project has since taken a life of its own to become its own entity. Actually, not really, the band originated in my head after hearing my girlfriend read a Bear Vs. Shark interview and commenting that it was like "the sound of animals fighting." I jumped up and immediately said, "The world needs a band with that name," got on the phone and called up everyone I knew that was off tour. It really went down just like that. Two hours prior, the farthest thing from my mind was starting another band. God bless Bear vs. Shark, and may they rest in peace. I love those guys.
HT: If The Sound Of Animals Fighting could open up for some humongous band, which one would you choose?
N: Bjork. But only if we could take Chiodos, Circa Survive, and the RxBandits with us on the bill!
HT: What can fans and concertgoers look for when seeing a show from the Animals?
N: In the words of my friend Metal Joe, it will be more intense than when Mayhem toured the states back in '98! Actually, I am not sure if it was '98 that he said, but nevertheless Mayhem was involved. So, if you cross that with my pension for Cirque du Soleil (not to be confused with Soleil Moon Fry), then you know it will be off the hook. Expect lots of animals, beavers building dams, drum circles, and tribes of gnarliness.
HT: Plug your new album!
N: I implore everyone to get out to stores on May 30th and pick up Lover, The Lord Has Left Us... on Equal Vision Records. We are very proud of what we have done on this album and believe it will turn a lot of heads. More info can be found on our website and MySpace®. Thank you Hot Topic! Thank you soldiers of gnarliness!
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