Interview mit Robb Kavjian von 1476

You have up until now released multiple albums with 1476, worked on different projects, played concerts and signed a contract with a renowned label. What do you think about your artistic career so far?
It has been an amazing learning experience for me so far. Being a musician on the specific path we’ve chosen has shaped literally all aspects of my life. It has taught me humility and gratitude, it’s brought me some of my closest relationships, and it’s made me more deeply spiritual. I feel like music has been my gateway into all avenues of life. Right now, I’m filled with the deepest curiosity to see what unfolds next. I’m happy with my career so far and have a deep appreciation for all I’ve been able to experience.

Your music seems to be considered by many as particularly distinctive. How important is it for you to do your own thing, and how do you think about it when people compare you to other artists?
Carving out our own identity as a band is probably most important to us. As Oscar Wilde said, “Be yourself. Everyone else is taken.” No one can be you better than you. And you can’t be anyone else better than them. So why not be the best version of yourself? When people compare us to other artists, I tend to learn more about them than I do about our own work. For example, there are many reviews where we have been compared to bands we’re not familiar with. This tells me more about the taste of the reviewer than our own tastes. I learn what the reviewers’ reference points are instead of our own.

You have an incredible amount of influences and your own music is also very eclectic, which is even more evident on your new album „In Exile“ than on its predecessor „Our Season Draws Near“. How do you still manage to bring a certain consistency into your work?
With a hope and a prayer! Sometimes I’m not sure if we actually do bring consistency. If there’s consistency, it’s because of luck at this point. (laughs) We definitely aim to be consistent when making an album. On „In Exile“, the songs were so different that we tried to use consistency in the production and mix to make the album sound coherent. The album works for us but it’s ultimately up to the listener to decide if it sounds cohesive or not. I think when holding up all of our albums together, there’s an emotional and spiritual consistency that unifies them. From the start, Ulver has been a huge influence. Like them, we wanted to be free to fearlessly explore any artistic path we were drawn to. As different as all their albums are, there’s a spirit that unites their large & intimidating body of work. I can only hope that in the years to come, our own catalog will be united by its own spirit.

According to the description of your new album, this consistency is also reflected in the lyrics. Can you explain that and maybe give an example?
Yes! Stones have magical qualities attributed to them. We had the idea of using “stone fire” imagery as gateways into these qualities on the album. Almost every song has a reference to this idea. It’s in some of the titles: „Jade Fire“, „Lapis Fire“, „Carnelian Fire“, etc. but it can also be found in most of the lyrics as well. Each song has its own stone. We also wanted the album to be inquisitive. We wanted each song to ask a question. I didn’t force it in where it wouldn’t fit but almost every song has an unanswered question in the lyrics. Also, the album title “In Exile” is found throughout the lyrics and in some song titles.

Your albums all seem to be conceptually thought out as a whole. Do the lyrics or the concepts come first and then the music or is your process rather characterized by fluidity?
It’s different with each album. The concepts came first, the music second, and the lyrics last on „In Exile“. The last album „Our Season Draws Near“ started as a musical concept. The music inspired the album/lyrical concept. It’s always different.

How exactly does your collaboration in the band work?
It’s very organic and like your last question, it tends to be a little different on each album. We spend more time talking about the themes, ideas, sounds, and feelings we want to convey than we actually spend working on the music. We put more focus into being energetically and spiritually aligned first. The actual work ends up being very solitary. We talk about parts and then usually work on them alone until it’s time to record or rehearse. Sometimes we demo, sometimes we don’t. A lot of it depends on what’s going on in our personal lives at the time. Sometimes, one of us has to carry more weight than the others and that’s okay. It’s a different experience with each album.

„In Exile“ sounds a lot rougher than your previous album „Our Season Draws Near“. Was that your intention?
I think so. We tried a lot of things that were new for us on „Our Season Draws Near“ followed by three US tours. Through these experiences, we learned a lot about ourselves and what we could bring to the next album. I think OSDN was rather shy in retrospect. We definitely wanted to be more bold with „In Exile“ and really push ourselves into unknown territory. One review called „In Exile“ ““Our Season Draws Near“ on acid.” I think they meant this in a negative way but we agreed and appreciated the observation. (laughs) That’s exactly what we were going for!

At the same time, as mentioned before, your sound on the new record seems to be more eclectic again than on your previous album. Would you say that you have a certain creative restlessness?
Yes, I always have. As I get older, I wonder how much of that is reflection of my own restlessness as a person–like “Who am I? Who do I want to be? Do I even have a choice? What’s my place in this world? Do I even have a place?” I also have a deep love of the unfamiliar. It fills me with energy and makes me feel refreshed. After spending a year or more working on a project, it feels amazing to do something that’s the opposite. After „In Exile“, I’m really desiring simplicity so the next album may end up super short and minimal. It’s too soon to tell though.

What was the biggest challenge during the process of creating „In Exile“?
Because of circumstances out of my control, I had to make „In Exile“ mostly alone. I was also hoping to release the follow up to „Our Season Draws Near“ in 2020 but I didn’t even begin writing „In Exile“ until the beginning of 2021. The weight of starting an album a full year after I was hoping it would be released combined with having to do most of the work alone was soul-crushing for me at points… All of that combined with dealing with personal issues and a dehumanizing full time job were the biggest challenges. Sometimes, I can’t believe we actually made the album and that it’s real. (laughs)

The description of your new album on Bandcamp mentions that you no longer officially consider „A Wolf’s Age“ your debut. What’s the deal with that?
The short answer is that we weren’t set on what we wanted to be as a band yet. We rushed into it, making an album that should have remained an experiment and a demo. We were never happy with it and it demanded a lot of soul-searching for us. The conclusion is that I realized I didn’t write the songs that were in my heart. I wrote songs that I thought other people would like and would hopefully make our band big. I did this innocently and unintentionally. It came from a place of deep insecurity and the need to be accepted. To return to your earlier question, this is one of the main reasons it’s important to us to do our own thing. Every work must be examined and be true to our hearts. Someone can listen to our work and say it sucks, never listen to it again, and forget it exists. If we don’t like the album, if we are dishonest, we have to live with it forever. So we discontinued the album. The filmmaker David Lynch said he died two deaths when he made the movie „Dune“. The first death was when he sold out and allowed other people to influence his movie. He ended up catering to the needs of others instead of being true to his vision. The second death was when the movie failed critically and financially. How he feels is how we feel about „A Wolf’s Age“ except a lot of people do like the album. I would argue with David Lynch that the small success „A Wolf’s Age“ had was also a death for us. How would you like to be told that the best album you ever made was the one thing you did in your life that was an insincere lie? It doesn’t feel good!

During and as a result of the period of action against COVID-19 (lockdowns, social distancing, quarantine), many creatives processed their experiences with isolation. „In Exile,“ on the other hand, is focused on being an outcast, according to its title. Was being locked up not an issue for you?
If I’m being honest, none of that was really an issue for me. I was considered an “essential worker” so I wasn’t really subject to any of that stuff. Things were slower but I love being home so it had no mental or emotional effect on me personally.

According to the album’s description, it seems that it is inspired by reflections on the afterlife, and the individual songs each focus on some kind of personification of a spiritual guiding figure. Can you elaborate a bit on that?
I would say the album is more about exploring different paths in life instead of the one we seem to be heading down currently. It’s about creating options instead of the narrow trajectory we appear to be on. The different paths were inspired by taking a person I look up to and imagining them as a mythological figure – what would their qualities and attributes be? What would their world look like? I spent some time meditating on each of these to find a new direction for each song. The main inspiration for this was Jhonn Balance from the group Coil. After his death, his friend David Tibet from Current 93 said he had a dream about him and asked him where he was. Jhonn replied “Babylon”. This made me wonder if his spirit actually did exist somewhere and if it did, what would that world look like. And if he was a mythological figure, what would his qualities be? He’s shamanic, chaotic, has trickster qualities, etc. I began to make lists of all the people I look up to and found that they were all quite unique. This is where the album concept began.

What role does spirituality play in your life?
It plays an enormous role. I would say it’s the most important role in my life. For me, my music work was always meant to be an exploration and a reflection of spirituality. It gets deeper with each project and it becomes a more profound influence on a personal level.

According to your label, you are inspired by the Arthurian legend, among other things. What is it about this narrative that inspires you specifically, and to what extent does this fascination show up in your art?
There are themes and ideas in Arthurian legend that people may find outdated or silly today but I decided that I wanted to live by those principles to the best of my ability a few years ago. At face value, you will find the concepts of courage, honor, service, facing obstacles, and a devotion or aim towards the highest good. The deeper into it you go though, there’s more complicated and profound ideas that resonate very deeply with the troubled times we live in. An example of this can be found in our song „Where Kings Fall“. Mythic figures generally represent archetypes or ideals. King Arthur is supposed to be the ideal king, the king of kings, the best of all leaders, the ideal that we should try to attain…but even he failed in the end. That tells me that even the greatest leaders in the world are flawed at best…and 99.9% of all leaders are far from the “greatest” so we’re dealing with much deeper problems than people with a few flaws… There’s so much more I could say but I don’t want to waste space! I will just say that I’m particularly drawn to Arthurian legend as portrayed in the John Boorman film „Excalibur“. I love a lot of the texts too but this film really brings a great depth to the subject.

The photo you used for the cover of „In Exile“ exudes a strange brightness and calmness that contrasts with your often restless and somber music. What prompted you to use this, at first glance, counterintuitive image?
This is a perfect example of when you asked about creative restlessness. We always desire something that feels new and refreshing for us. So much of our imagery has been dark, muted, and drab. Mostly autumn and winter themes. I think dealing with that for so many years made us excited for sun flares, flowers, and summertime. (laughs) It felt more adventurous and lends itself well to heading out on a new journey with this album.

What’s next on the agenda for 1476?
As the year draws to an end, I think we’ll focus on getting proper booking agents for both the US and Europe if possible. We had such an amazing time at Prophecy Fest in Germany… In the US, we always hear these stories about how much better it is or how different it is playing in Europe. We finally experienced that and we really want to come back as soon as possible. (laughs) Aside from that, we’re going to begin working on new music soon. I never want 6 years to pass between albums again. Hopefully, next year will see us properly touring „In Exile“.

Thank you for your answers. I’d like to finish with a quick brainstorming session with you. What comes to mind when reading the following buzzwords?
Perfectionism: Aim for perfection. You may never get there but you may be surprised at how far you can go.
New Age: The smell of incense, older women in flowing dresses, sunlight, and peaceful music.
Escapism: A negative approach to dealing with issues; time you can’t get back.
Romanticism: Old paintings.
Refuge: Good for the heart and mind; centering yourself to deal with issues effectively; time that can be well spent. The opposite of escapism!
Tarot: A beautiful pathworking tool.

This brings us to the end of the interview. Would you like to say a few final words to the readers?
Thank you to everyone who’s supported us over the years! We don’t take it for granted.

Publiziert am 14. November 2023 von Stephan Rajchl