ALCHEMIST
Past, Present and Future
By: Roman Temin
With the forthcoming release of Embryonics, a collection encapsulating ALCHEMIST's considerable pre-Relapse output, it was time that we sic the band's number one U.S. fan, Roman Temin (contributor to #1 Relapse fans LOTFP zine as well as Blistering.com) on guitarist Adam Agius. The two discussed the band's
past, present and future
Resound: Most people who will be reading this in the U.S. aren't familiar with the background of ALCHEMIST, so could you trace your history of the band from your formation in '90 [or was it '89?], to the time you signed your contract with Relapse?
Adam Aguis: I started the band at high school in '87, but did not get that serious until I met Rodney Holder in '89. We pursued our music along a technical thrash sound throwing in some psychedelic influence from bands like Pink Floyd, The Soft Machine and King Crimson. We recorded a demo with a bad production in 1990 and then a good one in 1991. We were then offered a deal from tiny Austrian label Lethal Records and recorded our first album, Jar of Kingdom in 1993, it was a spasticated mix of extreme metal and pschadelics , we were really trying hard to be different . Our home country then got interested and we signed a deal with Shock Records. They were great in Australia but did not export the three releases we did for them which were Lunasphere, Spiritech and Eve of the War. By Spiritech we had really developed a style that is
reminiscent of today's Alchemist. We got out of the deal with Shock and
recorded Organasm, which was originally picked up by Relapse as a license, but then we signed a deal with them and released Austral Alien. We have toured Australia constantly since '94 and went to Europe for the first time in 2004, having managed to keep a strong cult following in Australia for many years. We now have our goals set on expanding our fanbase overseas.
Resound: Why did you feel that this was the proper time for the release of Embryonics?
Aguis: We toured Europe in 2004 and played a lot of old material in the set because it makes for a great show and many of the fans asked how they could get hold of them. Well basically they couldn¹t, so we decided to put together a 'best of' our old material with some extra rare tracks to help educate and fulfill the fan's desires.
Resound: The evolution of Alchemist seems to have taken you from relatively straight-forward death/grindcore with infusions of progressive instrumentation and surf guitar to a fully-realized progressive/psychedelic metal sound. Did you consciously decide to gradually do away with the more 'harsh' elements of the earlier sound, or was it something that happened naturally? Has your fandom changed at all with your sound, or has it stayed consistent?
Aguis: It was really natural man, as we became better song-writers our style developed. Our fanbase constantly changes and grows , a lot of the old fans still come to shows but we really concentrate on educating the new fans about Alchemist. We played a show in Sydney a couple of weeks ago, there were a couple of hundred kids, and we hardly knew any of them. It was great to see we can appeal to the current metal generation.
Resound: The one thing that has always been consistent about you guys seems to be your lyrical themes. There seem to be four overriding subjects - spirituality, extraterrestrial life, human evolution, and the struggle between man and nature. I'd like to know what inspires you to write about these topics at length as you do. And also, on these latter two subjects, your lyrics seem to have an overwhelmingly negative tone to them. Does this reflect a pessimism on your part about man's future, and if so, what drives this pessimism?
Aguis: I guess coming from a natural wonderland like Australia, we see a lot of fucked up thing being done to the environment and that is what inspires the lyrics. You are right though we do tend to stick to those topics mentioned, we don¹t mean to preach I guess we are just expressing our views of man's involvement with destroying the planet. The lyrics we are working on for our new album we have tried to stear away from those topics because we have already touched so heavily on them. This time the album's theme is being built around the human condition and the way people deal with things:
their emotions their working lives, love, hatred and disappointment, things that everyone has to deal with. We are trying not to be so esoteric and environmental, not because we don¹t like those topics anymore but just simply to try and say something else, something different that everybody can relate to.
Resound: Explain how you came up with album titles like Jar of Kingdom, Organasm and Lunasphere.
Aguis: Yeah we like to make words up that¹s for sure. Jar of Kingdom was based on a TV show we saw about in-vitro fertilization and is a metaphor for test-tube babies. Lunasphere was about the moon and its role to ancient cultures, while Organasm was a metaphor we made up for evolution and the the fact that mankind is evolution's climax. Spiritech was a made-up word that represents man's involvement with spirituality and technology.
Resound:. With Alchemist's sound being as heavily layered as it is, it would seem to me that it takes you longer than most metal bands to write and arrange your music. Is this accurate? Can you describe the creative process for Alchemist?
Aguis: You got that right, about three years from conception to final recording. Its getting harder as we get older because we get very fussy about things and reject anything that does not make us happy.
Resound: Do you tend to write your songs in segments, which you then piece together, or do you project an entire composition from a single melody?
Aguis: Sometime it starts with a drum beat, other times with guitars and sometimes with a synth line or loop pattern. Generally we just jam and jam till we have something we like and then we try and develop it.
Resound: I like to think I have a good deal of knowledge of the Aussie metal scene from my dealings with people who hail from there, and I get the sense that bands in your part of the world seem a lot less susceptible to mainstream trends originating in America or Europe than those in the Northern Hemisphere are. Do you think this is a function of geography, or does it have more to do with attitudes within the Australian metal community?
Aguis: There is some truth to what you have said but rest assured there are a lot of people who are very influenced by mainstream from overseas, I think generally we are a hard fuckin' rockin' country , stemming from our past with the likes of Buffalo, ACDC and Rose Tattoo. I think the Aussie metal community still holds those old school rock values close to heart.
Resound: What kind of musical backgrounds do the members of Alchemist have, both in terms of interests and training?
Aguis: We like all GOOD music it does not have to be heavy or extreme, anything from Soft Machine to Pig Destroyer. We have world music influences and exotic melodies, we try to keep our pallet open for any ideas. As far as training we have had none except some guitar lessons, and school music courses.
Resound: How close are we to hearing the sixth Alchemist LP?
Aguis: We will record in June 2006, it a very dark sounding record and the heaviest thing we have done in years, its really starting to come together now and its going to smoke Austral Alien.
Alchemist's Embryonics double CD collection will be released in February.
Their latest effort, 2004's Austral Alien is available now through Relapse mailorder.
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