Interview mit Robb von 1476

To get started, please introduce yourself and shortly describe the music of your band 1476.
My name is Robb and I’m one half of the band 1476. I work with Neil DeRosa who primarily plays drums but has done some keys/composition in the past and I write and play the other instruments. The energy of our music is delivered in the spirit of metal, punk, and neofolk but doesn’t fit easily into any of these categories. We’ve incorporated elements of experimental music, neoclassical, and ambient into our works as well. Our intent is to never make the same album twice and always explore beyond our boundaries. Each album explores a different idea lyrically as well and we try to make the music reflect this. All of our albums thus far have spiritual/esoteric/heathen undertones but this is usually not the primary focus of the lyrics.

What are your strengths and weaknesses as a musician in your opinion?
I think my main strength as a musician may be honesty. I’m not afraid to be objective about the things I write which makes it easier to discard music that’s not good enough in my eyes. I would say I throw away 90 % of the music I write. It’s most important for me to know that what we’re releasing is true to our goals for our albums and to not be afraid to let go of ideas that we may have spent a lot of time and energy working on. I would say that one of my biggest weaknesses is working with other musicians. It’s almost impossible for me to open up and be creative in a room with other people. I have a very difficult time even showing Neil the new songs! I think it’s mostly out of fear that he won’t like them. I’m usually just playing him a guitar part and trying to explain my intent but this is difficult for me because, in my mind, I have a more complete picture. If I can’t present the complete picture, I fear he may not be convinced that the idea is good. As a result, most of our work is done very separately. Most of the actual work consists of us talking about the ideas as opposed to playing them. Maybe this in itself is not a weakness because it works for us but I would say the self-doubt I feel definitely is.

Accordingly to your label Prophecy your background lies in the punk scene. However, this isn’t that apparent in your music, at most in a subliminal way. Why did you evolve so far from your origins and would you still consider yourself a part of that scene or another one?
I personally have roots in a punk scene that I was involved with from the ages of 14 to 17 but 1476 has never belonged to any scene. I was 26 or 27 when we started this band so a lot of time had passed and much happened in my life between the end of my punk days and the formation of 1476. I made a conscious decision to step away from that scene and basically all scenes in general at that point. I never felt a deep connection with the ideas or aesthetic though I explored it as deeply as I could at that age. I think I was more attracted to the idea of DIY practices and being completely uncompromising and confrontational both musically and ideologically. In the mid to late 90s, I discovered the Norwegian black metal bands when their albums first started hitting American shores and that was where I truly found my home. There was no scene and there were no limits attached to it. It held much of the spirituality and imagination that punk lacked for me but also retained extremely confrontational ideas and uncompromising music and aesthetics. This was exactly what I had been searching for. This eventually led me down the path of synth music because of how some of these bands incorporated it into their albums – Burzum would be a good example of this as well as the beginnings of what is now called Dungeon Synth largely inspired by the early Mortiis records, and Neptune Towers, the synth project of Fenriz from Darkthrone. Ulver would be a more extreme example and would eventually become one of my biggest influences. All of this led to other artists like Hagalaz’ Runedance which led me down the road of neofolk and post-industrial eventually. All of these influences resulted in 1476. It probably sounds like a disaster on paper but we try to be as tasteful as possible. (laughs) Getting back to punk – though I more or less abandoned it and felt disillusioned by this scene at the time, what I learned there has stayed with me to this day and has become a big part of who we are. This is mainly found in the DIY practices we brought to 1476. For many years, we recorded, mixed, and released our albums ourselves. We handmade our own special editions, did our own artwork & photos, we silkscreened our own shirts, etc. Basically, anything we could do ourselves, we did. Now, aside from actually releasing the albums, we are still doing all of those things with Prophecy which is a wonderful thing. When we started working with Prophecy, there was no sacrifice for us. We are able to work the same way and it just feels like our team got bigger and we have more help and options now. It’s a great feeling.

Metal is also a part of your sound. Wherein lies your connection to metal?
I guess what I mentioned above would be part of our connection with metal. Neil also has roots in progressive metal and progressive music in general. We’re just huge fans of metal in general – everything from the different classics like Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, and Bathory to more eccentric or melodic stuff like Therion, Moonspell, Opeth, and Katatonia. As I said, it began for me with black metal bands like Burzum, Emperor, Mayhem, and Darkthrone but that eventually led to more obscure cassette releases from Eastern Europe as well as some of the early American bands when they first came out – particularly Judas Iscariot, Crimson Moon, and I really loved the first Krieg album „Rise Of The Imperial Hordes“ but never heard anything after that. We are both huge fans of Enslaved, Ihsahn’s solo works, and Alcest. I absolutely worship Paysage d’Hiver which was definitely inspiring for our new album in a more emotional and aesthetic way as opposed to the sound. We have a deep appreciation for bands like Deathspell Omega and Blut Aus Nord for being utterly uncompromising, completely original, and 100 % committed to the ideas they explore on their albums. This is very inspiring to me personally and it’s what we strive for in our own works. Metal has such an enormous spectrum of styles and approaches but the one thing that unites it all from my perspective is the total commitment and devotion that all of these artists have for their unique visions. That’s the common thread in metal as far as I can tell and it’s something I find extremely influential. Every artist seems to create their own world whether it’s Drudkh, Sunn O))), Mercyful Fate, or Morbid Angel – there’s always a sense of going into another world. Even though we’re not traditionally metal, this idea is where we draw a huge amount of influence from along with the energy of our performance.

Where do you spot the differences between your previous re-release of „Wildwood“ and your latest album „Our Season Draws Near“ – concerning the music and the songwriting?
I would say that there are two main differences from a musical and production standpoint. The first is that the guitars take on a more prominent role on „Our Season Draws Near“ than they did on „Wildwood“. There’s a lot of guitars on „Wildwood“ but there’s also many other sounds and instruments happening at the same time so the guitars play more of a supporting role. On the new album, they are definitely louder, clearer, and far more prominent. The second major difference is in the production of the instrumentation itself. With „Wildwood“, we wanted to make an album that sounded large, deep, and atmospheric. We recorded and mixed it ourselves with basically no experience in this realm. Due to this, our natural reaction was to add many layers of instruments and reverb in order to make the record sound “huge” but it didn’t work. (laughs) I realized afterwards that the imaginary space where recorded sound exists is not infinite – this means that the more sounds you add, the less space you have…and this means that more sounds can actually make the recording sound smaller, dense, and congested. This was the opposite of what we intended but the result is interesting and unique…and quite suitable to the mood and concept of the record so I have no regrets here. With „Our Season Draws Near“, we wanted to take the opposite approach – write very minimal parts and record only what is necessary. We wanted to use sections of near silence and places where there is only one instrument to give a sense of space and depth in the recording. We literally approached the writing and recording in a manner that was the complete opposite of „Wildwood“. Another huge difference is that „Wildwood“ was composed as it was being recorded over the course of the year. Most of the material does not exist in a demo form. The album versions are mostly first attempts at the songs. „Our Season Draws Near“ was the opposite. We wrote and demoed for a year and a half, I think. Then we rehearsed for months before we recorded. All of the material was quite practiced, deliberate, and thought out in advance. When we made the actual recordings, we did everything in about three weeks.

I feel like „Wildwood“ was more animalistic and mystical, while on „Our Season Draws Near“ the contrasts between soft neofolk and rough punk/metal are bigger. You even make more prominent use of screaming. Why did you settle for a subtly different musical approach?
There are a few reasons for this. The main one is that we were working within a different lyrical theme so the musical approach had to support that. As far as screaming, this is something I wish I did on „Wildwood“ but I was quite insecure about my voice back then. I was focusing too much on being “a good singer” – trying to be absolutely perfect, singing high, and beyond my natural range. For me personally, the result is sterile. All of my favorite singers are those who sound very human…they just simply express their feelings for better or worse – vocal acrobatics and techniques are not important in these cases. I’ve noticed that many British vocalists are like this and they are amongst my favorite where many American singers focus more on technique and theatrics. I appreciate both but there’s something about the emotional honesty of the first group that I connect with deeply. I realized I was just too insecure to “be myself” as a singer. Our last album was a soundtrack based on the life of Edgar Allan Poe that we made for an art gallery. There’s one song with vocals called „A Circle Is Eternal“. This is where I first tried to let go and be natural and I was more happy with this vocal performance than anything I had ever done thus. So, this showed me the necessity of approaching my vocals this way. When we recorded the vocals for the new album, I did everything in one or two takes in order to capture the feelings in an honest way. It was actually the most important aspect of the album to me – to give the most genuine version of myself that I can with mistakes if necessary. I think the lyrical concept of the album demanded this approach.

Which bands, artists and other things have influenced your songwriting on „Our Season Draws Near“?
We wanted to capture a certain feeling and atmosphere with this album so I surrounded myself with some images while I was writing. There were not a lot of things in this regard because the album’s theme was very focused. We really wanted this album to be a one way street. We wanted to capture the nature of winter – cold, unforgiving, introspective, and isolating. We wanted this balanced with a small flame of life, hope, and warmth. This may be a boring answer but the main imagery that influenced the writing was the album art itself which we captured very early in the writing process. The art in the album by Theodor Kittelsen also captured this feeling that we wanted. Before we began writing, I told myself that I wanted the album feel like that image. This art really sums up the album for me – an isolated person wandering out into the snow all alone and into the unknown. I also kept the film „Storm Of The Century“ by Stephen King playing in my home as I wrote a lot of the music because this feeling is also captured here – especially with us being from New England. This movie completely captures the feeling of small-town New England during winter and this idea of endurance that’s mixed with solitude and community at the same time. We all have each other but ultimately we are all alone. I wanted this album to be like the ocean during winter in New England and that’s precisely what this film is.

The record is a loose concept album about winter, right? What exactly are the lyrics about, what inspired you to write about this subject and why is winter your season?
The album is more of a concept about solitude, isolation, introspection, resignation, and alienation but the lyrics are written through the lens of winter imagery and mythological metaphors. The words on this album are quite personal to me as they were written during a very bad period of my life where I needed to be honest with myself, admit my flaws & shortcomings, and accept my weaknesses while facing them. This was mandatory for me to move on and grow. Music is the best way for me to sort out these feelings and ideas so this was why we chose this subject. Also, I mentioned the more minimal approach to the music which lent itself perfectly to the lyrical theme. Winter is my favorite season because it’s a time when people tend to withdraw and become more introspective. If you live in a cold climate like we do, the winter challenges us to endure every year and it ages us. I feel like there’s a lot to be learned here and I’ve grown to appreciate this deeply as I get older. I spend most of my life alone. I don’t leave the house much aside from work which is usually outdoors for me. I guess in a sense I was forced to appreciate winter or life would have been miserable. Maybe I’m just deceiving myself. (laughs)

Many of the tracks are linked to one another by their title („Winter Of Winds“ – „Winter Of Wolves“). What’s the reason for this connection?
It’s important to me that each album is its own world compared to our other albums. Because of this, I try to change the vocabulary for each project. You will find linked titles and language in all of our releases. I think the „Smoke In The Sky“ EP and „Edgar Allan Poe: A Life Of Hope & Despair“ are the most extreme examples of this. Usually, my ideas are more rigid when we first start an album. For example, on „Our Season Draws Near“, I only wanted three song titles that changed slightly throughout the album. I wanted „Our Silver Age“ and „Our Ice Age“ for the opening and closing. In the middle, I wanted every song to be called “Solitude” with a subtitle in parenthesis next to it – as can be seen in songs like „Solitude (Exterior)“ and „Solitude (Interior)“. To break this up, I wanted „Winter Of Winds“, „Winter Of The Sword“, and „Winter Of Wolves“ on the album. We never released „Winter Of The Sword“ as I was never happy with the music and it made the album way too long. This idea I had for these rigid titles just didn’t work. (laughs) It was too limiting in this situation. Maybe next album, I can make something like this work. The reason for the connection between the two songs you mention specifically is due to a mythological reference of three winters – these being the first and the last. The second winter was deleted from the album unfortunately. It’s more important to make an album that we believe is good than to follow the concept in a rigid fashion.

Which track on the album is the most special to you and why?
„Our Ice Age“ is definitely the most special song for me. It took the longest to write and is the most honest, autobiographical thing I’ve ever written. It’s difficult to explain. I really wanted to write a song that felt this way and I’ve never been able to before this. I don’t know why. I think I’m usually afraid to show fragility and here I finally allowed it.

„Our Season Draws Near“ ends with a longtrack, just like „Wildwood“. Was this intended and if so, why?
The last song on „Wildwood“ – „The Golden Alchemy“ – was intended to be long and have a slow building piece of music that reaches its climaxes towards the end and opens up eventually. It was definitely an experimental period for us and we wanted to push ourselves in a more progressive and avant garde direction. With „Our Ice Age“, the last song on „Our Season Draws Near“, it was completely accidental. I didn’t realize how long it was until after we recorded it. It happened naturally.

The mixing was done by Markus Siegenhort of Lantlôs. Why did you choose him to do the job and in which way, do you think, does his mixing stand out?
Prophecy suggested Markus and introduced us to him. He was a pleasure to work with and he is extremely dedicated to his craft. He spent far longer than any of us expected trying to perfect the mixes. We worked very closely. I gave him tons of notes for all the songs and he worked from those. Then we would keep making small adjustments until it was where we liked it. He mixed this album far better than I could have done on my own and it’s as close as is possible to how I envisioned the album in my mind when we first started writing it. Markus is a musician and artist as well. This was important to me as I thought it would help us communicate better about the mixes. He understood where I was coming from as a musician which made me comfortable with using him.

„Wildwood“ had a rather changing production with some parts being quite clear while others were raw and almost lo-fi. Was this intended and, looking back, are you still satisfied with it?
This was not intended actually! It was the result of how we approached the composition of the album. We recorded it over the course of a year as we were writing with almost no rehearsals. I would show Neil a very rough idea and structure for a song. He would record basic drum tracks and then I would go in and build the song on top of it. I would listen to it and get ideas, recording them on the spot. When a song was finished, Neil would write his drum parts and then he would record them to the finished tracks. Sometimes, he would record drums for two or three songs in one day and then he may not record again for two months while I worked in the same room on more songs. The seasons would change and our gear would sit in this room – an old warehouse loft space that had almost no heat in the winter and absolutely no air conditioning in the summer. This can be bad for drum heads and instruments as the wood can dry out or expand depending upon the weather conditions. I think this is why the production sounds different throughout the album. I’m not entirely satisfied with it but I accept it. It was part of the experiment and it was a huge learning process for us. I hadn’t listened to the album since we finished it in 2012 but then we had it remastered for vinyl for last year’s reissue through Prophecy. When I listened to it again, I was surprised because a lot of it sounded much better than I remembered and other songs sounded much worse than I remembered. (laughs) It was also much more experimental and eccentric than I perceived it to be at the time we made it.

On the artwork we see a lighthouse in rather cold colors. What can you tell us about it and in which way does it fit the music?
As I mentioned above, it would be safe to say that the music was made to fit the imagery. When I first took the photo, we were still at the beginning stages of writing. We wanted to try removing the wreath from the lighthouse with photo editing. As time passed, I grew to love the wreath and I find it quite endearing so we left it in the photo. Actually, I think removing it would have been a disaster. This wreath is what gives the photo true personality in my opinion. I guess the photo represents the album in the sense that this is nature unbridled and unforgiving on the verge of a storm. But lost in the middle is the wreath, the only symbol of life and warmth we can see here. This is what we were attempting to represent anyways. If we were successful or not is entirely up to the listener realistically.

The track „Sorgen“ is named after the picture that we see on the artwork, is that correct? What’s the reason for this and what does this term mean to you personally?
Yes, this song is named for the picture in the album by Norwegian artist Theodor Kittelsen. In his language, the word would mean ‘sorrow’ or ‘grief’. The connection to the song is simply because I felt it best represented by this title. In a sense, the song is about the realization that our connections to other people justify our existence. If we isolate ourselves long enough and we are completely forgotten by humanity, do we exist anymore? Do we exist or have meaning anymore if there is no one to witness it or acknowledge it?

What are your next plans for 1476?
To always move upwards and onwards. We have a live band now so we are working quite hard to get ready for our first performances in almost 6 years this May. These will be our first performances ever with a full line up. For this year, our plans are to focus mostly on this and becoming a full time touring band by next year. Also, this year, I’ll begin collecting the ideas for our next album which I can hopefully begin writing and recording at some point in 2018 as well. I’d really like to take my time with this because we spent our first five years between 2010 and 2015 writing and releasing a lot of music both inside and outside of 1476 with our other projects. I think it’s about seven or eight releases actually. „Our Season Draws Near“ was finished in the summer of 2015 even though it was just released. What’s exciting to me now more than anything else is to explore live performance where studio work is what excited me in the past. I’d like to do many types of shows where we can sometimes focus on our heavier material, our acoustic material at other times, and our experimental/soundtrack material as well at some point.

We are reaching the end of our interview. At last I’d like to go through our traditional Metal1.info-Brainstorming with you:
History: Written by the winner.
Summer: Halfway to Winter.
Prophecy: Our Saviors
Favorite album: „Wish You Were Here“ by Pink Floyd
New England: My foundation
1476 in ten years: That’s classified until 2027.

Alright, thank you once more for your answers. The final words shall be yours:
Thank you for taking the time to talk with us and thanks to everyone who has supported us thus far. We are in your debt, always!

Publiziert am 22. Mai 2017 von Stephan Rajchl