Interview:Light Bearer

After some talks and discussion, my good friend (whom you can find on last.fm under the name necastivi) and myself decided to do some collaboration work in the form of several interviews. This is the first in the series and it went great, hopefully we will continue doing work in the future. We both have ideas for a label, so we will most likely expand further in that direction as well.

Without further ado, we proudly present Light Bearer, a highly expected and awaited band. We were very happy that Alex accepted to do this interview, so here are the fruits of our work.

1. First of all, I would like to thank you for taking your time to do this interview and for the overall interest in this blog. Please introduce yourself and the rest of the band.

Hi, we are Light Bearer, there are six members - Lee creates soundscapes and atmospherics, Tom plays bass and sings, Liam plays drums, Duncan also plays guitar and vocals and Matthew plays guitar. We also have a guest viola /cellist called Ella who will join us in our recordings. My name is Alex, I am the vocalist and artist/lyricist in the band.

2. What is the story behind the formation of the band?

After my last band ended, I realised how important being part of a shared experience was. I had advertised a few times trying to drum up interest in a new band but to little or no avail. One of my oldest and dearest friends Lee agreed to be involved from the start, he has been in a number of noise bands over the years. We started working on a few little ideas and then eventually Matthew approached me about playing guitar.He and Liam and Duncan had played in a hardcore band called Dungeons for many years and had also started a doom band called R'lyeh, which had fallen apart shortly after its inception, and Matt had written quite a lot for that. We spent an afternoon drinking tea and playing riffs and it flowed really well. Matt asked Liam to play drums, which he agreed to, which was really important as we needed a drummer who was technically very good. Liam does a lot of session work so has become a very competent drummer. We also asked some other friends to join and went through a few line up changes and eventually Duncan, Liams brother joined on guitar which was a welcome addition. Last but not least Tom on bass, who will bring clean vocals to the music. I guess the most important factor is we all get on really well. Musically we all share a common interest, but have quite disparate interests as well, from 90's emo, screamo, hip hop, noise, black, doom and drone metal and indie, drum and bass etc. It became quite fluid very quickly, which probably stems from many of us having playing together before.

3. Tell me more about the concept around which "Light Bearer" rotates.

Light Bearer is the literal translation of "Lucifer" and in context is the story of the birth of intelligence and free will, and the passing on of knowledge, in the shadow of religious oppression. The story follows a number of story arcs, the first is the formation of the Authority , the false god. The second, the casting out of the innocent lucifer, the third, the tale of Eve and the dawn of self awareness and the forging of a knife as a weapon against that authority. The concept borrows mainly from paradise Lost by John Milton, but also from His dark materials by Philip Pullman, which is a book loved by many members of Light Bearer. The concept will flow over all our releases, we plan to keep the main story to four records, but we also have a number of side stories which will permeate splits and ep's. Its a strong narrative which will be reflected in the music and artwork. The music has been written specifically to mirror the words, with melodies representing characters and songs incorporating mood and a sense of place. When we were writing our first album, it was more about writing songs that have melodies that invoke emotions, creating highs and lows. We can be pretty heavy, but also very minimalistic.

4. How did the process of establishing that idea go?

We originally planned for the concept to follow the idea of Eve, the personification of the innocent learning the idea of self and identity, but then the story evolved and became more about Lucifer. I started reading about different versions of the first fall - why Lucifer was thrown from heaven. Liam and Duncan's uncle writes a great deal on the occult and the mythology of Lucifer so this was an interesting source of information pertaining to this, but we wanted to turn the story on its head and have Lucifer as the protagonist, the innocent. When we started writing the song "primum movens" - Matt was deliberately writing the structure to mirror the confrontation between god (the authority) and Lucifer and we decided that this was more important. Why would a benevolent god condemn his own kin for refusing to bow before anyone but himself? The idea of bowing before a graven image is a sin in itself. It was a sign of great arrogance and hypocrisy. It was this act that gave away his true form. We are all atheist or anti-theist in this band, but all enjoy the rich mythology that surrounds abrahamic religion. Its with this we play out that story, but also pay homage to the authors that took that original concept and made it their own.

5. Did you manage to entwine the concept with your real life ideologies and in which measure?

Yes, in fact they are very obvious from the beginning of the album. We were aware that sometimes certain key ideologies are lost in translation, especially considering much of the lyrics in the first half are focused entirely on the point of view of Lucifer, who loved god so much he could not comprehend his condemnation. The lyrics are exalting the authority. Our second album, Silver tongue, will be a little more obvious in out intent - like all bands before and possibly after, lyrically we all condemn religion.

6. You were a member of a band with a strong concept flowing around the book "Watership Down". I presume you aquired a lot of experience which you can also implement into "Light Bearer"?

Perhaps, its just something I really enjoy. Lyrically my last band had many flaws, so I am happy to start this project from the beginning with a specific goal. I guess this is just what I like doing and of course people will say it is unoriginal to do another book band, but this is actually the fourth book related band I have been part of so its just how I roll. Writing the concepts isn't unique to me in this band. Matt, Liam and Duncan were in a band based around the tales of HP Lovecraft. Books are there to be read, and enjoyed, and I guess we enjoy taking ideas and giving them a new dimension. I have been a comic writer and author for many years, and for me, being in a band, having a strong lyrical direction is important. What we are trying to do is create something all encompassing and enjoyable to build upon. Its hugely rewarding and after 10 months of practicing, we finally have something to be proud of.

7. Can you tell me about the very sound of "Light Bearer"? What type of sound can we expect?

Musically, there is no set style, when we sat down to start writing, we just wrote -there was a big focus on melodies and melodies representing characters. On our first record there is a specific melody, we call "Lucifers monody" which is repeated in three of the songs, to accompany this we wrote other melodies that represent other key characters which play alone or alongside lucifers monody. Each melody will gain significance over the four records, and its fun already planning how these will work in future releases. The whole thing has to be listened to like a story, so we will have to be forgiven for repeated phrases - like characters in a story they will come and go throughout the project. The album builds and falls in interesting ways, creating audio landscapes to mirror the events in the story. Its a challenge that the boys took to really well, it can be rather frantic, but we all worship the riff so there are plenty of crushingly heavy parts that really add weight to everything. It has been a lot of fun seeing things fall into place. I guess you could call it a mix of really melodic post rock, doom, post hardcore, post metal, beats and huge soundscapes. We invoke bands like Envy, Red Sparrowes, Sigur Ros, Neurosis, early Baroness, Circle Takes The Square, Mastodon, 65 days of static, Mouth of the Architect and Cult of Luna.

8. In one of your myspace blog entries you wrote: "We plan for this band to be as much about the art as it is the music." Do you plan on doing something special for the releases?

We have grand plans for artwork, the music and the story are so intertwined, we had to make sure the artwork was similarly complex. Money is the only prohibiting factor because we do not want our releases to be too expensive. I guess we shall have to wait and see, but expect a lot of screen printing, die cutting, each record will link to the last. I've been working on the LP artwork for some time and its a challenge making it open ended, so like the music, the artwork will flow from release to the next.

9. Short euro tours were also mentioned. Are those being planed already or are they just an idea for now? And do you plan to be an actively touring band?

Light Bearer will tour as much as we can, some of us have full time jobs, so this is always going to be difficult, I think people expect bands to be able to drop everything, but if you work a 9 to 5, you only have a few weeks a year to tour and to spend time with you loved ones. We shall do our best to tour as much as possible.

10.Any chance of touring Serbia with "Light Bearer"?

We will try not to miss anywhere out! This band is as much about seeing the world as it is about playing shows!

11.You are working with labels you have worked with before, was this a conscious decision?

Working with Timo at Alerta Antifascista and Cory at Halo of Flies was something important to me, I think I threw myself at them! I've personally worked with both of them for years and I think they're used to the control freak in me! They both work so hard and have a great work ethic, I consider them both friends and both share a love of awesome music, be that the best doom metal or awful pop music! Its an honour to work with those guys. But we will also be working with three new labels, TOKY JUPITER out of Japan, MOMENT OF COLLAPSE, who are an awesome label out of Germany, and FUCK HAPPY ENDINGS, which is run by our good friend Rory. We hope to build awesome friendships with all these new labels and work to create something awesome.

12. Do Light Bearer members have some side projects at the moment?

Yes, we all have numerous small side projects and other bands - Lee plays in The Mylar Blackout and Cliff Bastard incredible atmos/noise, he also plays in The Nepalese Temple ball, heavy noise/post metal. Liam, Duncan, Tom , Matthew and I play in a melodic hardcore band called Momentum, which we hope to record soon.

In the end, a little announcement of Light Bearer's future plans. Near the end of February their first album along with a single song LP will come out under the name of "Beyond the Infinite; The Assembly of God". The release will be followed by a short Euro tour in March. Stay tuned, we are in for a great new year.