Interview mit Tony Thomas von Dawn Of Ouroboros

Could you start by telling us briefly how DAWN OF OUROBOROS was founded and what your initial artistic vision for the project was?
DAWN OF OUROBOROS was founded by Chelsea and I after we left our previous band. It was originally just meant to be a for fun studio project where we wrote songs that just felt natural to our abilities without really thinking about the direction we wanted the music to go. We then brought on David from blackgaze band Deliria for bass and gave him the freedom to approach it anyway he wished, and he did a fantastic job in my opinion. I play with Ron our drummer in my two other bands Sentient Ignition, and Botanist. Initially he was just going to record the drums for the album, but we were all happy with what we were hearing that we decided to pursue the band seriously.

What is the idea behind your band name? Were you simply looking for something that sounds cool and fitting to your music or are there other thoughts to it?
I had had the band name for a few years prior to forming the band. I had always liked the idea of the ouroboros representing infinity, and to us including “Dawn Of” implies the name means the beginning of infinity. Moreover, I think it has ended up being more fitting of the music we are creating then we had imagined. Since we are drawing from an ever evolving pool of musical influences.

Because of your style and the fact that you have a female lead singer, some would probably compare you to Oceans Of Slumber and I think one can see some parallels to Ne Obliviscaris in your music. Do you count these bands among your influences?
We are definitely fans of Ne Obliviscaris and really appreciate that we’ve received comparisons to them, but we didn’t really have them in mind as an influence when writing the album. As for Oceans Of Slumber, we were unfamiliar with them until the comparison was made. They seem like a talented band; their style, however, isn’t really what we’re generally into, musically. For our influences we have all been fans of most metal sub-genres over the years and that does play a role in our sound, however, during the writing process we were mainly listening to a lot of post-black metal (Heretoir, Lantlôs, Trna, Alcest).

As far as I know, you first released your song „Sorrow’s Eclipse“ and got quite a lot of attention on YouTube. Did this remarkably positive feedback surprise you a bit?
„Sorrow’s Eclipse“ was one of the first songs written and we did feel it was our strongest. We had shown it to several other musicians whose opinions we respected. From their responses, we knew it would be the best choice for our debut as a band. Having said that, we still didn’t expect to receive as positive of a reaction for the video as we did.

With bands like Arch Enemy or Once Human there are more and more metal acts with frontwomen who use screams as well as clean vocals. Was it this ever growing women’s engagement in metal that encouraged your singer, Chelsea Murphy, to learn screaming vocals as well?
Honestly, Chelsea was entirely inspired by male vocalists. I believe her earliest influence for learning how to do harsh vocals was Tim Lambesis from As I Lay Dying. She, of course, has had many more influences as her skills developed. Ranging from Oli Peters of Archspire, Neige of Alcest, and many others across the metal spectrum. What I think makes her stand out as a vocalist is her desire to constantly improve and outdo her previous efforts.

Your debut album is called „The Art Of Morphology“. Was it your intention to express the stylistic and thematic diversity of your songs with this title?
Not specifically, although it did end up to be a proper descriptor of our sound. Really what we were thinking was that we really put ourselves into creating this album, we wanted it to be emotional and explore our creativity unrestricted.

In fact, you take up an incredible number of different styles in the course of the record. Do genres have any importance to you at all?
We all enjoy most of the metal subgenres. From death, black and progressive metal, to even some metalcore and djent. I will say that these days Chelsea, David and I mainly listen to derivatives of black metal. Ron is still very much a prog guy.

Would you say that this versatility is one of your core musical characteristics? Or could you imagine creating more straightforward music in the future?
Due to our influences stylistic versatility will probably be a mainstay in our sound. We are all involved in many other projects (some currently announced) that allow us to explore metal in a more straightforward way, or even in some projects have a more avant-garde approach.

How did you approach the songwriting and recording of „The Art Of Morphology“? Was everything exactly planned or did you also process spontaneous ideas?
For „The Art Of Morphology“, I handled the initial song structuring. My approach is to improvise ideas while recording, and keep the ones I enjoy the most. I do believe much of Chelsea’s vocals, and David’s bass were based on improvisations as well. So I would say our approach is very much spontaneous. For the next album, we are taking a more group orientated approach to the initial song writing.

During the making of the album, did you ever get to a point where you didn’t know how to continue or where you reached your technical limits?
This album was about musical exploration without self-imposed restrictions or expectations. We just wanted to make songs that we would enjoy ourselves and didn’t think too much about the end result.

One could certainly get the impression that you didn’t set any limits to your songwriting. How does one find the right sounds in such a vast sea of possibilities?
That is correct, we just did what came naturally. For the “right” sound. I do feel we really have one, we just did what we wanted to do without much thought into what people may think. Luckily for us it seems to have paid off well for being such a new band.

In some songs you change from one second to the other between progressive extreme metal and soft ambient or post-rock passages. For some people this might even seem a bit too jumpy. What do you think about that?
I am always trying to make things go as smoothly as possible with regard to transitions, and don’t feel our music is too jumpy between ideas. I really enjoy dynamics and contrasting ideas which complement each other in music, so it is something we will likely always do. For listeners, everyone has different tastes and we can’t expect everyone to enjoy what we do. When you release music publically, you need to be prepared to hear all opinions on it; both positive and negative.

From the artwork to the production of the album and the music videos, everything you do seems very professional and elaborate, especially for such a young band. Is that all a matter of resources?
Resources are, of course, a major factor. Luckily the SF Bay Area still has a vibrant music and artist scene. So we always try to network with everyone in different artistic areas and work with people we know well. The ideas, and many of props in the music videos were thought of and were made by Chelsea and I. We, of course, hired a very talented videographer, Andy Chen, who has a great reputation allowing bands to film their own ideas and then compiling his footage into a coherent story that fits the music.

The music industry has almost come to a standstill due to the current pandemic. How hard has the situation around the Corona virus hit you?
Our album was released just as the pandemic became a worldwide issue. So we have not been able to perform live since then, which is unfortunate as we had a tour planed in June with our friends Vintersea, and Crepuscle. This has now been delayed to an undetermined date. However, we are still very much active in writing music. In fact, we wrote and released a new song “Cephalopodic Void” during quarantine.

Many bands are making do with things like streaming concerts or special merch to make it through the crisis. Do you think these measures make sense or do you think there are better options to stay afloat as musicians?
Despite the pandemic, I feel it is always important for musicians to constantly be creating and releasing new art. This allows us to continue to grow as musicians, and grow our presence regardless of whether there is a global crisis or not.

What have you got planned next for DAWN OF OUROBOROS? Are you already working on material for a second album?
As mentioned above, we wrote and released a new song during the last month or so. For the second album we began working on it before „The Art Of Morphology“ was released, so we currently have about 30 minutes of new material for it.

As usual on our website I would like to end the interview with a short brainstorming session. What do you think about the following keywords?
Hydroxychloroquine: Effective malaria medication, not enough data to support it being effective against a COVID-19 infection.
Lounge music: We enjoy it.
Video games: I am not really a gamer, but when I do play I mostly enjoy single player RPGs and point-and-click adventure games.
Wall of sound: Can really make for powerful music, especially live.
Your advice for time-killing: Try to do things that are related to self improvement, or create something.
Bandcamp: I think it is an important resource for underground bands. It has allowed us to maintain financial support for the band without being able to play live.

Thanks for your time. Is there anything else you’d like to share with the readers at the end?
Yes, thanks again for having the interest. For the readers, we hope you enjoy our music and feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions or comments. We always respond.

Publiziert am 31. August 2020 von Stephan Rajchl