All Interviews
Textures
Posted on May 15, 2006
by Anders
Textures is from Holland and made quite some head spins and created a lot of fuzz about themselves, when they released their debut album "Polars" in 2003. The album was well received, it secured the band a lot of live appearances and an award as "Holland's most promising act". The band's new album "Drawing Circles" has just been released and that album blew me away to be honest. I hooked up with the band's skinsman Stef Broks and he was very eager to give me the answers I wanted!
Hey there, will you please start off by introducing yourself and tell us how you got entwined in the world of metal?
After the split up of our former bands guitarist Jochem and I launched the idea of doing something progressive. I knew about Jochem's guitar skills and I definitely wanted to play with him. After a few sessions we decided to create a mixture with members of our old bands. It was funny to discover that we all got kind of the same musical skills and ideas. Besides that we all knew each other quite well, so there was a good friendship relation base.
In 2001, one year after the start of the band, a friend came by in the rehearsal room. He proposed the idea of recording the songs and to skip the demotape crap, but go directly for a full length album. "You're nuts", we said. But he responded: "No, you have producers, artworkers, a guy to do the contacts, computerfreaks etc: ENOUGH to produce an album on your own. So, go for it". The next day we planned the whole production for our first album "Polars". The rest of the story:
We signed to Listenable Records (Soilwork, Scarve, Gojira).
We played with Meshuggah, Dillinger Escape Plan, Sepultura, MachineHead, Morbid Angel
We won an Dutch award for most Promising Act
We toured a lot through Europe (150 shows in 1,5 years) and got amazing press responses in the magazines with our first album "Polars".
You are now ready with your new album "Drawing Circles", how do you in the band feel about it?
We feel VERY confident with it! We worked on the album for so many hours in total and it feels so great to have created the product we really wanted to create. To us "Drawing Circles" is a huge step forwards after the debut "Polars". Especially because of our new singer Eric.
What do you expect of the album?
"Drawing Circles" is going to be huge. BUT, we think "Drawing Circles" is an album the listener needs to have patience for. The songs we write are catchy but not easy like a pop hit to comprehend. For a trained musician's ear they are, of course.
How did you end up with the album title "Drawing Circles", what's the story behind it?
The main theme of the album is patterns. Patterns in any kind of shape or level. Again, like "Polars", this theme is very much related to the topic consciousness. We consider awareness as a 'formula' for progression. If we zoom out on our lives we discover different patterns in our daily behaviour, social context or in the world around us. Being aware of these patterns makes us aware of our life in general. It gives us the opportunity to take choices and ask questions about our life and being.
Who's writing the lyrics in the band?
Like with the music, everybody is writing things. Sometimes one comes up with an idea and the other works it out. It often happens that we're discussing a topic and we're writing lines down immediately and it becomes the basis of a new song.
Where is the inspiration to the lyrics found and do certain things trigger inspiration?
Mainly from social life with a kind of philosophical approach. Of course some things trigger inspiration: other people, books, movies and other music. For "Drawing Circles" the structure of life was an important one. 'Denying Gravity' for example deals about a lifeline and the question if we have the guts to stick to it. "Do we have enough gravity to stick to our own goals?".
If you feel like it, you are very welcome to pull out your 3 favourite songs from "Drawing Circles" and tell a bit about the lyrics and the general idea behind the music!
In the middle of the record there are three songs that are attached to each other by music and lyrics. These songs are 'Illumination', 'Stream Of Consciousness' and 'Upwards'.
'Illumination' is a gloomy song in the vein of Faith No More. In short, it deals about a bad relationship. But, talking about music you will discover that 'Illumination' is an epilogue for 'Stream Of Consciousness'. Like the song title explains, this song is about awareness, of having the guts to break out of conservative patterns in life and the stuff that I talked about in the former question. 'Stream Of Consciousness' is a very heavy, stabby song that forms a blasting interlude between 'Illumination' and the following track 'Upwards'.
'S.O.C'. is related to 'Upwards' in the way that 'Upwards' is this very moment of becoming conscious. The song is serene. Harmony, melody and rhythm flow into each other and build up to a climax at the end of the song. This is the moment of breaking with dogma's, negative feeling, egocentrism etc.
"Drawing Circles" is your second album, your debut "Polars" has gotten a lot of buzz, though I haven't come around to check it out yet, how is it compared to your new album?
"Polars" was our musical statement: here we are, this is how we sound, deal with it. The album was quite unconventional, but professional in every way. "Drawing Circles" is a new step ahead. The combination of all our elements, taken from thrash, math, fusion, prog, rock, singer/songwriter, soundtracks has expanded even more. The most important thing is that the songs AND the album in general are more coherent than our former album. That was one of our main goals.
Besides that, 2 things:
"Polars" was the first full-length record our guitarist Jochem ever produced. He's far more experience now, and in our opinion one of the leading Dutch producers. If you speak about metal, he's maybe one of the top producers in Europe.
Second, we have a new singer who is far better than the former one. Eric sounds like a new Mike Patton, an incredible artist with his voice. He can do screams like Pantera, grunts like Morbid Angel or clean vocals like Tool. Amazing! He helped us a lot in pushing the levels for this album.
Who's the main songwriters in the band and how do you work when writing music?
We write music together. Maybe that sounds a bit weird, but musically and lyrically we share the same ambition and share the same 'language'. Remember that we have known each other since we're 16 years old or so. Partly we grew up together in the same village, even in the same part of town. With streets named as instruments. Isn't that bizarre? haha!
The music is a technical and atmospheric mix of metal, hardcore and rock, so your inspirations must be wide, how do you get it all fitted into the songs, without making it sound too farfetched and messy and how much time do you usually use to arrange a song?
I think because our personal skills and sound on our instrument makes it the Textures sound. Like with the Beatles or Queen: they wrote the extremely different songs. But it all sounded like queen because of Brian May's guitar sound and playing and Freddie Mercury’s vocal lines and temper. We don’t have a song formula. Just like you discovered, we approach every song very different. It just depends on the interaction between our mood of the day and the music. And yes, we're influenced by TONS of stuff. Soundtracks, ambient, metal, rock, classical, electro, singer/songwriter, fusion, progrock etc etc.
What do you want to tell with your music?
We don't want to tell anything. That task is up to the music itself. Everybody reacts different to our stuff and that's a positive thing. We want people to interpret our songs the way they want to. Everybody experiences music on another level, with other emotions and with another frame of reference.
Do you use mathematics when you compose your music, I see that you praise math in the tune 'Touching The Absolute', is math a way to make music absolute?
Hahaha interesting point! But looking at the former answer I explained that music is like most things in life very relative. We only strife for absolute things, because we want to hold on to something that we can grasp. Although that sounds a bit depressing, I think it helps a lot haha.
Creating our first album we used a lot of mathematical tricks to compose a song or a riff. But not with "Drawing Circles". We internalized that way of maths, so now we only listen to the impact and the catchy-ness of a riff. Only that matters and that makes the whole album more coherent and organic.
What are your thoughts behind the great cover artwork and who have made it?
Typically in the Textures do-it-yourself strategy we created it ourselves. Vocalist Eric and guitarist Bart composed the cover. The album looks like a follow up to the cover of the debut "Polars". That’s representative for the progression we made. Besides that, the birds on the cover and the movement of birds through the seasons relate to the theme of patterns.
Are you going to tour EU in support of the new album and will we be lucky enough to see you destroy our stages up here in the North?
WE HOPE SO! A Scandinavian tour is already planned, but I don't know when and where. We'll keep in touch.
How do you look upon the future of Textures?
This year we're going to do tons of shows through Europe. That will help us to spread the Textures-vibe across the world. Of course we don't know what the future will hold in store. But we're working our asses off to get the best promotion for "Drawing Circles". Playing live of course IS the best promotion.
Will you share your 5 all time favourite albums with our readers?
Of course: hold on tightly!|
U2 – The Joshua Tree
Tool – Aenima
Jeff Buckley – Grace
Morbid Angel – Covenant
At The Gates – Slaughter Of The Soul
Thanks a ton for answering my questions, if you have anything to add, feel free to add it now!
WE'RE SO HYPED TO COME OVER TO YOUR DENMARK!!! @#@^^**?>!!!!
After the split up of our former bands guitarist Jochem and I launched the idea of doing something progressive. I knew about Jochem's guitar skills and I definitely wanted to play with him. After a few sessions we decided to create a mixture with members of our old bands. It was funny to discover that we all got kind of the same musical skills and ideas. Besides that we all knew each other quite well, so there was a good friendship relation base.
In 2001, one year after the start of the band, a friend came by in the rehearsal room. He proposed the idea of recording the songs and to skip the demotape crap, but go directly for a full length album. "You're nuts", we said. But he responded: "No, you have producers, artworkers, a guy to do the contacts, computerfreaks etc: ENOUGH to produce an album on your own. So, go for it". The next day we planned the whole production for our first album "Polars". The rest of the story:
We signed to Listenable Records (Soilwork, Scarve, Gojira).
We played with Meshuggah, Dillinger Escape Plan, Sepultura, MachineHead, Morbid Angel
We won an Dutch award for most Promising Act
We toured a lot through Europe (150 shows in 1,5 years) and got amazing press responses in the magazines with our first album "Polars".
You are now ready with your new album "Drawing Circles", how do you in the band feel about it?
We feel VERY confident with it! We worked on the album for so many hours in total and it feels so great to have created the product we really wanted to create. To us "Drawing Circles" is a huge step forwards after the debut "Polars". Especially because of our new singer Eric.
What do you expect of the album?
"Drawing Circles" is going to be huge. BUT, we think "Drawing Circles" is an album the listener needs to have patience for. The songs we write are catchy but not easy like a pop hit to comprehend. For a trained musician's ear they are, of course.
How did you end up with the album title "Drawing Circles", what's the story behind it?
The main theme of the album is patterns. Patterns in any kind of shape or level. Again, like "Polars", this theme is very much related to the topic consciousness. We consider awareness as a 'formula' for progression. If we zoom out on our lives we discover different patterns in our daily behaviour, social context or in the world around us. Being aware of these patterns makes us aware of our life in general. It gives us the opportunity to take choices and ask questions about our life and being.
Who's writing the lyrics in the band?
Like with the music, everybody is writing things. Sometimes one comes up with an idea and the other works it out. It often happens that we're discussing a topic and we're writing lines down immediately and it becomes the basis of a new song.
Where is the inspiration to the lyrics found and do certain things trigger inspiration?
Mainly from social life with a kind of philosophical approach. Of course some things trigger inspiration: other people, books, movies and other music. For "Drawing Circles" the structure of life was an important one. 'Denying Gravity' for example deals about a lifeline and the question if we have the guts to stick to it. "Do we have enough gravity to stick to our own goals?".
If you feel like it, you are very welcome to pull out your 3 favourite songs from "Drawing Circles" and tell a bit about the lyrics and the general idea behind the music!
In the middle of the record there are three songs that are attached to each other by music and lyrics. These songs are 'Illumination', 'Stream Of Consciousness' and 'Upwards'.
'Illumination' is a gloomy song in the vein of Faith No More. In short, it deals about a bad relationship. But, talking about music you will discover that 'Illumination' is an epilogue for 'Stream Of Consciousness'. Like the song title explains, this song is about awareness, of having the guts to break out of conservative patterns in life and the stuff that I talked about in the former question. 'Stream Of Consciousness' is a very heavy, stabby song that forms a blasting interlude between 'Illumination' and the following track 'Upwards'.
'S.O.C'. is related to 'Upwards' in the way that 'Upwards' is this very moment of becoming conscious. The song is serene. Harmony, melody and rhythm flow into each other and build up to a climax at the end of the song. This is the moment of breaking with dogma's, negative feeling, egocentrism etc.
"Drawing Circles" is your second album, your debut "Polars" has gotten a lot of buzz, though I haven't come around to check it out yet, how is it compared to your new album?
"Polars" was our musical statement: here we are, this is how we sound, deal with it. The album was quite unconventional, but professional in every way. "Drawing Circles" is a new step ahead. The combination of all our elements, taken from thrash, math, fusion, prog, rock, singer/songwriter, soundtracks has expanded even more. The most important thing is that the songs AND the album in general are more coherent than our former album. That was one of our main goals.
Besides that, 2 things:
"Polars" was the first full-length record our guitarist Jochem ever produced. He's far more experience now, and in our opinion one of the leading Dutch producers. If you speak about metal, he's maybe one of the top producers in Europe.
Second, we have a new singer who is far better than the former one. Eric sounds like a new Mike Patton, an incredible artist with his voice. He can do screams like Pantera, grunts like Morbid Angel or clean vocals like Tool. Amazing! He helped us a lot in pushing the levels for this album.
Who's the main songwriters in the band and how do you work when writing music?
We write music together. Maybe that sounds a bit weird, but musically and lyrically we share the same ambition and share the same 'language'. Remember that we have known each other since we're 16 years old or so. Partly we grew up together in the same village, even in the same part of town. With streets named as instruments. Isn't that bizarre? haha!
The music is a technical and atmospheric mix of metal, hardcore and rock, so your inspirations must be wide, how do you get it all fitted into the songs, without making it sound too farfetched and messy and how much time do you usually use to arrange a song?
I think because our personal skills and sound on our instrument makes it the Textures sound. Like with the Beatles or Queen: they wrote the extremely different songs. But it all sounded like queen because of Brian May's guitar sound and playing and Freddie Mercury’s vocal lines and temper. We don’t have a song formula. Just like you discovered, we approach every song very different. It just depends on the interaction between our mood of the day and the music. And yes, we're influenced by TONS of stuff. Soundtracks, ambient, metal, rock, classical, electro, singer/songwriter, fusion, progrock etc etc.
What do you want to tell with your music?
We don't want to tell anything. That task is up to the music itself. Everybody reacts different to our stuff and that's a positive thing. We want people to interpret our songs the way they want to. Everybody experiences music on another level, with other emotions and with another frame of reference.
Do you use mathematics when you compose your music, I see that you praise math in the tune 'Touching The Absolute', is math a way to make music absolute?
Hahaha interesting point! But looking at the former answer I explained that music is like most things in life very relative. We only strife for absolute things, because we want to hold on to something that we can grasp. Although that sounds a bit depressing, I think it helps a lot haha.
Creating our first album we used a lot of mathematical tricks to compose a song or a riff. But not with "Drawing Circles". We internalized that way of maths, so now we only listen to the impact and the catchy-ness of a riff. Only that matters and that makes the whole album more coherent and organic.
What are your thoughts behind the great cover artwork and who have made it?
Typically in the Textures do-it-yourself strategy we created it ourselves. Vocalist Eric and guitarist Bart composed the cover. The album looks like a follow up to the cover of the debut "Polars". That’s representative for the progression we made. Besides that, the birds on the cover and the movement of birds through the seasons relate to the theme of patterns.
Are you going to tour EU in support of the new album and will we be lucky enough to see you destroy our stages up here in the North?
WE HOPE SO! A Scandinavian tour is already planned, but I don't know when and where. We'll keep in touch.
How do you look upon the future of Textures?
This year we're going to do tons of shows through Europe. That will help us to spread the Textures-vibe across the world. Of course we don't know what the future will hold in store. But we're working our asses off to get the best promotion for "Drawing Circles". Playing live of course IS the best promotion.
Will you share your 5 all time favourite albums with our readers?
Of course: hold on tightly!|
U2 – The Joshua Tree
Tool – Aenima
Jeff Buckley – Grace
Morbid Angel – Covenant
At The Gates – Slaughter Of The Soul
Thanks a ton for answering my questions, if you have anything to add, feel free to add it now!
WE'RE SO HYPED TO COME OVER TO YOUR DENMARK!!! @#@^^**?>!!!!
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