Meshuggah interview

[Cyntex]

New interview, about the writing process, obzen and playing live at Pyromusic.net

"In the wake of the release of 2008's crushing ObZen and a new DVD in the form of Alive hitting stores now, Sweden tech-metallers Meshuggah are returning to Australia as part of the Soundwave Festival and assorted side shows. PyroMusic got guitarist/backing vocalist Marten Hagström on the phone to discuss the upcoming shows, what their next studio album could sound like and whether they actually use calculators while writing songs.

Spiritech : Hey Martin, how are you?
Marten Hagström: I'm good, it's snowing like hell here right now, but it's all good (laughs). I'm at our studio in Stockholm right now.


Spiritech : Working on new material I presume?
Marten Hagström: No actually, just rehearsing; right now we're rehearsing for the tour and trying to think up some stuff in the studio. We're basically trying to set up stuff so we can get back into writing mode the second we come back from the tour, 'cause this is going to be like the last one we do off of ObZen.


Spiritech : How has the touring cycle for ObZen been going?
Marten Hagström: It's been great, it's been... we would probably have liked to make it a little bit more condensed and maybe be finished by now or maybe like late last year. But it's been really good, we've been hitting the territories we needed and all the territories have been doing great. So we're pretty happy with it. It's been as always hectic but good."

Read the rest at PyroMusic.net - Interview of: Marten Hagström - Meshuggah.

About to order the dvd, since I can't find it here in the shops anywhere :x

 

[vampiregenocide]

Great interview, thanks for posting dude.

 

[Scar Symmetry]

Marten does so many interviews, it's cool that he takes the time out to do them. Mind you, if I was in Meshuggah I'd want to do ego-soothing interviews all the time too

 

[Cyntex]

I found it funny that they dont warm-up or anything like that, considering the songs they play, is'nt that like asking for trouble

 

[Xanithon]

Cool interview.

 

[tr0n]

It's interesting what he says about Bleed, I remember him saying that when they first started rehearsing the song to go out on tour they were all cramping up. Probably why they initially only played half of the song and then eventually put the rest in. Makes me wonder how they tracked it in the studio though.

 

[Scar Symmetry]

It's interesting what he says about Bleed, I remember him saying that when they first started rehearsing the song to go out on tour they were all cramping up. Probably why they initially only played half of the song and then eventually put the rest in. Makes me wonder how they tracked it in the studio though.

Copy pasta.

 

[Bloody_Inferno]

Both Marten and Fredrik have openly admitted about writing material that they wouldn't even think be even possible to be played live by 5 guys in the same room at the same time. But it blows me away that they go ahead and prove they can anyway. Bleed just challenged them a bit more I guess.

 

[tr0n]

Copy pasta.

Huh, what? I'm not down with teh memes.

 

[Scar Symmetry]

Huh, what? I'm not down with teh memes.

Haha, copy & paste

 

[scottro202]

Huh, what? I'm not down with teh memes.

Copy and paste, as in the studio, they record each riff, then repeat them however many times they need and wherever they need. Hope that makes sense.

 

[t3sser4ct]

Spiritech: As far as Meshuggah's songwriting process is concerned, I think some people have this misconception that you sit around with your calculators and try to come up with all of these complex time signatures and the like.
Marten Hagström: Yeah.

 

[tr0n]

Copy and paste, as in the studio, they record each riff, then repeat them however many times they need and wherever they need. Hope that makes sense.

Ohhhh right yeah I get it now hehe. I was thinking I'd copy pasted something. -_-

 

[nihilist]

It's interesting what he says about Bleed, I remember him saying that when they first started rehearsing the song to go out on tour they were all cramping up. Probably why they initially only played half of the song and then eventually put the rest in. Makes me wonder how they tracked it in the studio though.

They tracked it like every metal album is tracked these days. Tracking an entire song in one take is extremely rare, because minor imperfections doesn't suit most modern metal that well. I have even heard of a producer tracking almost every note seperately.

 

[Scar Symmetry]

Yeah, I've recorded with someone who's recorded with someone who's right hand man to Andy Sneap and what I heard from him is that everyone everywhere is doing copy and paste. It's convenient, it sounds tight as hell and it gives you a model for how tight you can get if you push yourself. I know a lot of bands who write stuff they can't necessarily play up to scratch, record it, then get it up to scratch afterwards.

It's how we roll in the 21st century!

 

[nihilist]

Yeah. Apparantly for this the producer tracked close to one note at a time, and retuned every time, because he was totally OCD about stuff like intonation, pick attack, pick noise etc etc. Here's a screenshot from the In pursuit of session.

 

[Mwoit]

Yeah, I've recorded with someone who's recorded with someone who's right hand man to Andy Sneap and what I heard from him is that everyone everywhere is doing copy and paste. It's convenient, it sounds tight as hell and it gives you a model for how tight you can get if you push yourself.

+1

I was at the studio a wee while back and while tracking drums, we essentially copy and pasted the best take / fills whatever to make it ridiculously tight. The engineer was saying if you want to keep up with the big bands, you gotta have great recordings and the less time spent messing about getting things perfect in one take, the more time you have to do other things and stuff.