interview by: Brandon Strader

Novembers Doom will be releasing their sixth full-length album entitled The Novella Reservoir. There are a few similarities in their approach this time around: (1) They've got the new album mixed by Dan Swanö, (2) Mastered by James Murphy, and (3) artwork done by the legendary Travis Smith who has worked with such prestigious groups as Nevermore and Opeth, the latter of which has been used in comparison with Novembers Doom.

The band dates a good bit before the time of Opeth, yet frontman Paul Kuhr can still appreciate the influential act of Opeth despite the band having established their sound on their own. With The Novella Reservoir, we see Novembers Doom refining their skills and putting out an album more aggressive and tinged with thrash than anything they've done before. Indeed, it should be great — and with Swanö, Murphy, and Smith on board again as well, it should be as crushing and beautiful (both visually and musically) as possible. We got a chance to speak with the beastly vocalist Paul Kuhr, and guitarist Larry Roberts for some pleasant discussion.

Maelstrom: Greetings! Did you guys have a New Year’s party?

Paul: My New Year’s was pretty low key. I spent it with my wife, my sister and brother-in-law, and a couple friends. Nothing crazy, laid back, and relaxing. It was exactly what I needed.

Larry: I went out to see a friend's band with my fiancé, at a small local bar, nothing fancy. I don't drink or party really so NYE isn't a major event for me. I just wanted to see a couple friends and hear some Beatles tunes.

Maelstrom: It took the band only two weeks to record The Novella Reservoir: Who set this harsh and unusual deadline, or did you simply finish so quickly because of your talents?

Paul: It was two weeks of actual recording time, and a week of editing before the mix. We had booked that amount of time, because we recorded with Chris [Djuricic] in the past, and know exactly how we work. We were well prepared this time around, so we had very clear ideas on what we were going to do, so the time frame was easy to keep. These were also very long days, and almost every day in a 14 day period. Recording has become easier for us with each CD, and we have learned what not to do through the years.

Larry: It's also a big misconception that you need tons of time to do a really good album. If you're prepared and you have a good engineer, as we do, then you can get it done quickly. Some of the best albums ever made were recorded in even less amounts of time than ours was, and on much more primitive equipment. It's always nice to have extra time to experiment and relax, but sometimes that can hinder a recording as well.

Maelstrom: What is the concept behind the new album, and how closely does Travis Smith's artwork follow it? What do the objects on the cover symbolize?

Paul: It's not a concept CD, but it is a theme, much like <The Pale Haunt Departure> was. It's tied together by water, using it as a form of cleansing. This can be in terms of a literal cleaning, or a baptism, used as relief, or torture. I worked closely with Travis Smith on the entire theme, and told him more or less exactly what I wanted for each illustration. I even designed a few images inside the booklet myself, because of how extensive the artwork is. It's a great overall package. I don't want to explain the cover just yet, for when the CD is released, a book I wrote will accompany the disc for a limited number, and the book is a complete lyrical explanation book, for all six CDs, including The Novella Reservoir. All your answers will be in the book.

Maelstrom: How has November's Doom evolved since The Pale Haunt Departure? Should we be expecting something totally out of character with the new album?

Paul: We have certainly evolved, as we do with every release. The one thing that never changes, is our sound. No matter what we play, being fast, slow, or a ballad, it will always sound like Novembers Doom, because we've established our sound. The Novella Reservoir is a logical step from The Pale Haunt Departure. It's a much more aggressive sounding CD, and most people will not be able to call this a doom record, but all the elements that our fans expect are still there. We still have the soft passages, and the melody, this time there's more speed. Evolution is important, as we never want to write the same CD twice. It's kept us moving forward for all these years.

Larry: I think people are sort of expecting this drastic change from us, and I hope it doesn't affect their listening experience too much, as people sometimes tend to do. I don't think there's any drastic change really, just a natural evolution. Some songs like "Rain" and "Drown the Inland Mere" are faster, yes... but they're just a logical step forward from songs like "Dark World Burden" and "In The Absence of Grace" from the last CD. There are still softer, quieter moments on the new CD, and still plenty of melancholy dark doomy parts as well. We'll always keep that balance in our music. I have no desire to go all thrashy, or totally slow, and so on.

Maelstrom: What was the idea behind the new music video for "Autumn Reflection"? How large was the production crew, and how long did it take to finish?

Paul: The entire concept was shown to us by Tony Myles, and Cage XXI in Florida. Tony came to us, with his vision and the entire video laid out in story boards, and we really liked his take on the song. We agreed to work together, and flew to Florida in May of 2006 for the shoot. The shoot consisted of five solid days, three consisting of the band and extras, and two days of shooting with Brooke, the actress in the video. After those initial days, a few more days of pick-up shots were done after we had left. The crew was about 20 people, from prop and set builders, to lighting crew, makeup, and set director. It was an amazing experience, and to see all those people work as hard as they did for us, was simply humbling. Every thing you see in that video, indoor and outdoor was a set that was built, from the collapsing cabin, to every cross, fence, and scarecrow. I'm still blown away at how much went into this. Once shooting was complete, the special effects crew took over, and did a lot of CG, to make the video look as much like the <Pale Haunt> artwork as possible. The overall concept was to make the band, and all the elements look like the artwork, being very dark, dirty, and trapped in this "dark" world. The only thing that was supposed to look bright and beautiful was the little girl. I think that captured that beautifully.

Maelstrom: Do you guys still practice even though your tour schedule is pretty tight?

Paul: Yes, we do. We rehearse at least one day a week, and add more when we're preparing for something, like a tour, or recording. Most of us work on our own at home as well, writing, arranging, or just rehearsing. Our live performance has improved greatly over the years because of the effort we've all put into it.

Larry: Because we've been playing together for so long, we're able to get by with one day a week usually. As long as people keep their chops up on their own time, things usually fall into place pretty quickly at practice. Especially when we're writing a new album, I put in quite a lot of personal time working on material and practicing on my own.

Maelstrom: What are the advantages of working with Dan Swanö and James Murphy? Are they pretty easy to work with?

Paul: They are both very easy to work with! At the end of the day, we hired them to do a job, so they are both always very quick to accommodate us with what we want. The advantages of working with these guys is an amazing sounding product. One of the things you have failed to mention, as most people do, is the recording engineer. It all starts with Chris Djuricic, and without a top notch recording, the other guys don't have the goods to mix and master. Chris is a key element in the final sound. Once Dan Swanö gets the masters, the mix goes very quickly, because little needs to be done, because the recording is so clean. This is our second CD that Dan has mixed for us, so he knows what we like, and nailed it very quickly this time. James is the icing on the cake. He's got a great ear for mastering (and one hell of a great producer / mixer himself.) We like the idea of using people other than the recording engineer, as Chris is also a fantastic producer and mixer as well, but a set of fresh ears to the material brings fresh ideas, and it's worked very well for us, so I'm sure we'll continue to use the same formula in the future. Why fix it if it's not broken?

Larry: Having Chris as our engineer makes all the difference in the world for me, really. I'm very comfortable with him and bouncing ideas off of him in the studio is easy, because we understand each other pretty well. Dan and James' input is crucial to the final sound of the CDs and I'm very happy with what they've done. The production team of Chris, Dan, and James really seems to work for us.

Maelstrom: Paul, how did you discover your beastly roar, and what methods do you perform to prepare it for action?

Paul: I remember many, many years ago, recording a demo and letting one of my best friends, Casey, hear it. He said "It's good, but your vocals just aren't heavy enough." So from the moment on, I re-structured my vocals, and worked hard on the sound. My biggest influences from back then were Duane Rasmussen from Chicago's Devastation, and Troy Dixler from Sindrome, also from Chicago. These guys were amazingly heavy, and very clear. I took this idea, and went further with it, making my voice as deep and heavy as possible, all the while putting much effort into my pronunciation to remain as audible as possible. Everyone likes to assume my influence comes from European bands, but that's not true. Chicago holds my roots, my influence, and my inspiration. I have no methods to prepare what I do, even though I really should warm up my voice, I just jump right into it.

Larry: Yeah, people are always presuming what our "obvious" influences are, and most of the time they're totally wrong, haha! We're influenced by European bands, but not the ones people usually think! Paul's clear-yet-brutal vocal style is one of the things that attracted me to this band in the first place, because I too grew up worshipping bands like Sindrome, Devastation, etc. If he had the same typical growl as everyone else, I think it would get boring.

Maelstrom: "Drown the Inland Mere," an early release from the new album, seems to incorporate more thrash elements into your style, and yes — it's heavy as heck. How are the guitars tuned for this one? What is the lyrical concept, and who wrote the actual song?

Paul: We're tuned the same way we've always been. Larry will be able to tell you exactly what were in, drop tune B-flat, I think. The Novella Reservoir will cause a lot of people to try to point fingers at where the influence comes from. It does have some elements of thrash, while remaining heavy. It's really simple... This time we drew from our original roots, which are early ‘90s Chicago-style death metal. We had one of the greatest and overlooked scenes in the United States, and this new CD has a lot of that in it. As for who wrote the song, I write all the lyrics in the band, and like I said earlier, the lyric book is coming out in February, so I won't be explaining lyrics in interviews anymore, and Larry wrote the music for “Drown the Inland Mere.”

Larry: We haven't altered our tuning or our guitar sound one bit. Any difference you hear is purely in the way we're playing it... it's all in the hands. (laughs) I guess it does have some thrashy elements to it, but that wasn't really conscious on my part when I wrote it. When I first came up with the music, it reminded me of death metal stuff from the late ‘80s / early ‘90s, and that stuff is definitely a part of our influence. As time goes by, we're able to draw a bit more from our vast influences, thankfully. Some people might think it's odd to hear those influences in Novembers Doom's music, but the truth is, it's always been there, within us. Songs like "Drown..." might cause us to lose some fans who want to only hear us play slower, doomier music, and that's okay. I have no interest in catering to other people's limitations in their listening choices. I know some people are already making assumptions about us based solely on hearing "Drown..." and all I can say is, if you know anything about Novembers Doom, you should know that you can never judge a whole album's sound based off just one song.

Maelstrom: You guys have been touring Europe a lot — when are you going to do a full-fledged U.S. tour?

Paul: I'm not sure we'll ever do a full U.S. tour, only because of the amount of time we would need to cover the entire country. I'm sure we'll do a week or two on the East Coast and Midwest, and hopefully later in the year, the same on the West Coast. Europe is also planned for 2007 as well.

Larry: Touring the States is hard because of the cost, and the distance between gigs, and the amount of time it takes. I personally feel that it'd be great to play for a lot of people here, but I have very little desire to do a long, drawn-out tour at this point in my life. I've always preferred to play the really cool metal festivals here in the States, where you get to play to a bigger, diverse crowd, and you usually get more press from doing that as well. I've seen amazing European bands come over here and do four weeks worth of playing small dives, and it got them pretty much nowhere, sadly. I have no desire to retread that ourselves. It's really hard getting a lot of people to go support these kinds of tours here... the die-hard fans will always go and that's awesome, but it's not always enough to make a tour successful, unfortunately. There will be opportunities for U.S. fans to see us this year though, so we'll just wait and see how that unfolds.

Maelstrom: Is there enough support from The End Records for you guys to release a live DVD?

Paul: Yes, We've talked with them about this, and they are into the idea. We've been talking about this for a long time, and are now getting close to making plans to actually record it. We're not sure where we will do this, we've considered doing it here at home in Chicago, as well as the possibility of doing it in Belgium. Time will tell, but with luck, 2007 will see the DVD release, most likely winter.

Maelstrom: What do you think of the recent Hussein execution, and the current state of the Iraq war?

Paul: Honestly, my political views and thoughts have no relationship to Novembers Doom, and never will, so I wish to keep my opinions out of a public forum or interview. We live in different times, with radicals on all sides, and it's not worth it to me to get myself involved in any way.

Larry: We've never been political, and prefer to keep it that way. I'll occasionally talk in private with close friends about my views on such things but that's about it.

Maelstrom: Where do you see the band five years from now?

Paul: That's hard for me to answer. I don't know where we'll be even one year from now. If the new CD takes off, perhaps we'll be touring non stop. If it's a failure, maybe we'll finally retire. We've been around since 1989, so 18 years of struggling has taken its toll. I do know one thing for sure... What ever we do from this point on in the bands career, will be for us, and only us. We're going to do what makes us happy. If we want to tour, we'll tour. If we want to write and record, that's what we'll do. We're far beyond the age of kids who can be told what to do to sell records. We all have families, and this is a glorified hobby, so we need to keep that in perspective, because as soon as this is no longer fun for us, we'll call it a day. Right now, we're enjoying the band and the recent benefits are keeping us going stronger then ever.

Larry: Every year makes this harder and harder to go on, because the realities of adult life creep in more and more. Being in this band requires a lot of personal sacrifice emotionally, financially, etc. We still pay out of our own pockets for quite a lot of what we do with Novembers Doom, and that's harder to do once you get older and have families and bills to pay. I'm in Novembers Doom because I love these guys like brothers and I enjoy getting together with them to jam, whether it's in my basement or it's on a stage in Europe. Anything else is just extras, really, which I'm grateful for but cannot sustain me forever. The day that I cannot do this anymore, or that the band decides to stop, is going to be a sad day, particularly because I'll miss just getting together and playing with these guys and creating music.

What the business side wants from us, or what the fans want from us, etc., that's important to a degree but ultimately we'll decide what's right for us and when to call it a day based on our own feelings and needs. Five years from now, we may still be playing, recording, touring.... who knows? At times, Paul and I didn't foresee us still doing this even now, but here we are. So we'll just take it one day at a time as we have been.

Maelstrom: Do you believe we are close to the predicted end of days?

Paul: Who knows. I know I refuse to live my life in fear because of superstitious predictions. The world is collapsing around us everyday, and all I can do is live my life to it's fullest, protect my family, and be thankful for what I have in life. If it ends tomorrow, I can die knowing I did the best I could, and have no regrets.

Larry: I don't know what to believe, really. I don't believe much in prophecies and predictions anyhow. The world is an extremely fucked up place, but truthfully it always has been. When the whole world was at war in the early 1940s, and millions of people were dying, that surely could've been seen as the end of days nearing. But we're still here. But I do have a pretty bleak view of the world, and humanity. I'd be sad to see nature have to end, but humans are fucked and always will be. I think nature will get rid of us before we can completely destroy it. At least I hope so. Good riddance to us. (laughs)

Maelstrom: Want to take a stab at the issue of human cloning / stem cell research?

Paul: It's a fine line. I am all for it, for organ and tissue regeneration. I'm against the idea of full body cloning. We're already overpopulated on this planet, we don't need clones running around as well. It brings up a lot of moral issues as well. Gene splicing and crossing human and other species is also wrong. They are getting into areas of research that could eventually destroy our ecosystem. They actually crossed a goat with a spider, so the goats milk produces silk that can be extracted. It's crazy stuff. It's just a matter of time before a human is born being crossed with some animal... It's just wrong.

Larry: Well as I said, humans are generally fucked, and every time we come up with something good that could help us, it only takes a couple of people to steer it into other areas that could be hurtful for us. Stem cell research is something that we probably should continue to work on, because there are very good applications for it. As for whether it's morally or spiritually wrong to do it at all, I don't care. Spirituality is a personal issue (or ought to be) for each person to decide upon. Do I like the idea of cloning humans? No. As Paul said, we have enough people as it is on this planet. Like I said earlier, I don't have much faith in human-kind anyhow, so I'm sure whatever is the worst thing they can do with it, they will! (laughs) But what do I know anyhow, I'm just a guitar player...

Maelstrom: Lastly, what is your most memorable event of 2006, and your plans for 2007?

Paul: For me, the most memorable event for 2006 was the European tour with Saturnus, Thurisaz, and Agalloch. This tour opened my eyes to a lot. I went into the tour with very low expectations, and not thinking we would draw well on our first headlining tour. I was very wrong. The fans in Europe were the best we've ever encountered, and they all gave us some of the greatest memories I've had. We made new friends for life, and shared many special moments with the fans, and I for one can't wait to go back. The plan for 2007 is to promote The Novella Reservoir as much as possible. Tour the U.S., tour Europe, record and release the DVD, and if there's time, start to write again!

Larry: 2006 had some very high highs, and some mighty low lows for me. Making the video, doing the tour, recording the album... were all excellent and I will have fond memories of them forever. But I also lost my father to cancer this year, and I've had to continue to deal with my own personal health problems, as well as some other issues to deal with. So as it's always been for me, it was quite balanced out. But 2006 took quite a large toll on me, to be honest. I hope that 2007 doesn't bring any more tragedies for me or my bandmates, and I hope the new album does well of course. I'm just taking it day by day because I've learned in these 30-plus years I've been alive that you never know what tomorrow will bring. Here's hoping that 2007 is a good year for Novembers Doom, and for all of you, I have my fingers crossed.