UN: I know very little about the history of Bereavement, can you go through a brief history of the band? Were any of you guys in bands previous to this band?
Jon: Before Bereavement, me and my brother Dan were in an old-school punk band, The Evicted. After that, Jeremiah started playing guitar and we formed Enamored, which was a more experimental and technical form of our current band, Bereavement. Under the name Enamored, we released two demos, "A Stolen Season", and "Black Oceans". 2006 saw the addition of our friend Ryan on rhythm guitar.
UN: The Advent of Loss is one hell of an album. How has the response to the album been? Is the band pleased with how the album turned out?
Jon: Thanks! the response has been great; to say the least. We put a lot of effort into both the writing and recording process. I can honesty say this is the first music that I am proud to have had a part in creating. Reviews have been positive, I'm glad people enjoy listening to our music as much as we love making/playing it. It seems the reviewers are pushing for us to get a deal, which is also heartening.
UN: What prompted the idea of releasing the album yourselves? Did you guys try to find a label first or was this just as easier route?
Jon: Well, some of these tracks we had been sitting on for over a year, we decided to self-release the album as both a full-length release (for our fans), and to double as a demo (to send to record labels, magazines, radio, etc.). Not being on a studio clock was nice also, I think we made the most of the tools we had at our disposal.
UN: Has it been hard to secure distribution for the album? Do you have any of the bigger distros selling copies of the album for you guys? Do you sell a lot of discs at shows?
Jon: As far as distribution, we are waiting to hear back from a couple. we only did a pressing of 1,000 promo discs in cardboard sleeves. For distro, we'd need a repressing in standard jewel cases. If anyone reading this would like to do that for us, e-mail me. Surprisingly, online sales have been great; sometimes as much as 5 or 6 discs a day are purchased. If we sell out, obviously a repress will be needed. I think we'll opt for jewel cases the second time around. Shows are great too. Fans are very supportive when they find out you don't have a label and are basically doing what you do for nothing more than the love of playing and making music. Or when we give them the pity speech of needing them to buy so we can have food and enough gas to make it home!
UN: Are there any ideal labels that you'd like to work with if the opportunity came about? I could definitely see the band fitting in one The End Record' roster as they tend to release varied metal bands with melodic overtones.
Jon: We'd like to work with any label that will give us worldwide distribution and decent advertising. Right now the most important thing for us is exposure. A lot of people don't know we exist! The End has one of our press-kits, it's up to them. I think we'd fit right in with some of the bands on their label, since we aren't one set genre of metal, and our music tends to keep the listener on their toes.
UN: Would you guys say it is important for you guys to employ a lot of dynamics in your songwriting? The songs definitely cover a lot of ground and never shy away from being melodic or mellow.
Jon: Absolutely. The music has to be interesting, if we are getting bored playing it, it's not going to make it on the album. It's that simple. We have a lot of different influences, and the key is making our music coherent and unique. Paying homage to our favorite bands rather than ripping them off. I think the main comparison we receive is Opeth, probably due to the fact that they play mellow and then go heavy, and vice versa. I do enjoy Opeth, especially the older material, but I can assure you we are not trying to be them! I think people compare us to them for lack of being able to find another band that is similar to us. We've also been compared to Insomnium, Enslaved, Swallow The Sun, and November's Doom. All great bands, I have to say!
UN: How does the songwriting process with within the band? Do you all work on ideas or does one member handle the majority of the writing?
Jon: Jeremiah and I share riffing duties about 60/40. He writes all the guitar solos and lead lines of course. I handle bass lines, vocal patterns/style, and lyrics. Dan is free to do whatever he wants within the limits of the time signature set by the riff itself. Ryan is a new addition to the band, he joined during the recording of The Advent Of Loss. But that's not saying he hasn't contributed to the album. He co-engineered the album along with Andrew Buss, a friend of the band. He also mixed and mastered the album. We have two new songs done currently, and he has participated in those as well.
UN: I was curious to ask how you guys describe the music that you play. It certainly isn't easy to pigeonhole to any one subgenre of metal.
Jon: Death/dark melodic metal. It's like melodic death metal but not as happy sounding, that's about all I can say!
UN: How often does the band get the chance to play live? How does the bands sound translate to a live setting? I would assume that the acoustic parts would be transferred to a clean electric guitar.
Jon: We play 4-6 times a month, usually. Ryan's importance in the band really becomes clear when we play live. Having two guitars makes a world of difference! One thing we are working on is backing up the clean singing with harmonies live, and having a second growler for the heavy parts where the vocals are doubled. As for the acoustic/clean electric issue, you are correct, Jeremiah and Ryan will switch to clean electric to handle the acoustic parts.
UN: Vocally the band covers a lot of ground, from growls to shrieks to even clean singing. It is important to have a vocal style that matches the different feels and moods of the music?
Jon: Well, when I write a riff, or hear a riff that Jeremiah created, I get a feel for it and it seems the riff itself dictates the vocal style. The end result is a lot of different vocal styles, but I think it makes for an interesting listen, and reinforces the music itself. The clean vocals, well, there were only clean vocals on Axis going into the recording process. But I had some time and worked out some short clean parts, with simple melodies. People seem to like it, so there will be some in the future but not too much. I'll never stop growling and shrieking it's just too much fun.
UN: What are your hopes for The Advent of Loss? Best case scenario, what does the band hope to come from the album?
Jon: Collectively, our hopes are half-fulfilled. Regardless of the future, we released something we are happy with. We would love to tour and have a label support us. We love performing our music live, and writing and recording it as well. The best case scenario would be a commercial release, with expanded artwork, a bonus track, and possibly re-entering the studio to re-record and polish the cd up; being signed as a result of this album would also work, to release our second album on a label. And of course to tour. Label or not, we will tour, you can count on that!
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