From June 3, 2009
http://www.doommantia.com/2009/06/interview-with-kei-from-desolation.html
Desolation are one of the best one man band projects you will ever hear at the moment.Very much in the Ambient Doom vein,the man behind the music (Kei) has got some great ideas and they are improving all the time.He has a healthy catalog of material already available and i suggest to all the readers to give it a listen.
1. Hello, thanks for allowing me to give this interview. Can you tell everyone when did the first idea for Desolation take place ?
A few years back, actually. I just never had the money to get this started then. Couldn’t ever find anyone to play in this sort of band in this backwards hell I live in, so I thought it better to handle it myself.
2. Was the idea to do a one man band thing something you always wanted to do or was it just a way of doing it your way without all the personal clashes ?
Both, really. People never played the way they needed to in these things. It was either too slow for them, the parts where too odd, they wanted me to sing clean, etc. I figured I had been forced to take over enough instruments for lazy, unmotivated band members that I could probably manage on my own, so I put my old ideas to work.
3. The style is very much in the Doom style but with a ambient twist. Is there any one band that influenced you in going for this style ?
Yeah, it’s not what you’d expect though. Skepticism. Very definitely Skepticism. Lately I’ve been listening to things like Fungoid Stream and Celestiial and taking a lot back from them.
4. There is thousands of one man projects out there and the internet has made it easier than ever to get your music heard but do you think the scene has become saturated with weak musicians because of this ?
Definitely. I consider myself one of those, actually. Always in need of improvement.
5. You have already recorded a lot of material. You must spend a lot of time recording to have all this output ?
Less than you’d think. The first one took a while (Misery, about 4-5 months), but after that I had a better feel for the whole thing, and I go into it with more experience and a better idea of what it is I want. Plus, no other people to deal with. So on average, for one of my albums, it takes about 2 months if there are no issues. For the splits, of course, it takes however long it takes.
6. Tell us about the label you are involved with...
About Nax Records I really don’t have much info to give. They’re releasing Misery in a limited run of around 300 I think. And Funereal Drone is my own little thing. The way things are going it may be just for me and 1 or 2 others soon. I release my split albums and my personal stuff on FD, so when Misery sells out (if it does), I’ll put it back on FD again. Right now, Anlipnes is working on their demo for FD, and Laiha has an album coming out on the 13th, in a limited run of 100 copies.
7. Doing everything yourself is never too easy.Is there one instrument you wish you could have help with or are you very confident on all the instruments you play ?
Guitar. Godawful tiny little strings. I love the way it sounds, but I hate playing it. I’m originally a bassist, so I’m just not into the tiny little razor wires on that thing. I’m working on my keyboard skills. My piano needs a LOT of work. Honestly, I’ve been very consistently shocked at how well the sound seems to come together, because I taught myself to do all this because of band lineup issues. From a technical point of view, I have no idea what I’m doing on anything but vocals and bass.
8. A lot of people have a hard time understanding Doom, Drone or Ambient style music. I blame this on a short attention span that most people have these days. Do you agree that the music world has a kind of fast-food type of mentality ?
Definitely. I’ve been told so many times by so many people that I need to play faster, or more technical. They just want something to move around to and hit each other. There’s definitely a huge attention deficit lately. Try to get people to sit down and focus on something, and they get angry. Music should mean something. It should hold your attention, force you to slow down and focus on it. The world is over-saturated with horrible little nothing bands these days that all sound the same, look the same, and somehow manage to sell millions of copies while the people doing something different languish on the outside of things with almost no recognition at all. No one is willing to take a chance on something different. Different doesn’t sell. It’s very sad, really. Hopefully things take something of a turn for the better sometime soon.
10. You are one of the few people out there that could do a 60 minute plus concept album and get away with it. Have you ever thought about doing this ?
I started with Anguish. I may do one soon to push it further. Anguish turned out too sparse for me. I like it, but I hear many things that could/should be changed/replaced. I’ll definitely do something like that sometime in the future. Anguish managed 57:14 or so, the next time I do something like that, it will be over 60 minutes.
11. You are from Alabama. What is your opinions on the music scene there ?
Not really from Alabama, just stuck here. Originally I’m from Germany. Born there anyway. So my mentality is definitely not a match for this area. And there is no music scene here. In Atlanta, definitely, and I may be going back there soon enough, but here? I’m sure there are a few things going on, but not in my area.
12. What really bugs you in the Metal scene at the moment?
So very many things……Probably better not to go into this right now.
13. Can you let all the readers know some information on how to get hold of your recordings ?
The Funereal Drone page is down and not likely to be back up anytime soon, so right now, the easiest way is to check my blog about the FD listings, and message me with an order inquiry. Perhaps sometime in the future I’ll put the page back up, but right now, I can’t really keep up with it. I’ll most likely go to a more professional disc format in the future, but right now I print them myself. I keep the pictures of the albums in my photo section, so anyone that wants to see how the releases look can see them there.
14. Thanks again for the interview, any last words ?
My thanks to you for doing this. And to anyone that reads this, as well as anyone that currently listens to my music or decides to go check it out. The few people that understand what I do are what encourage me to keep going.
http://www.doommantia.com/2009/06/interview-with-kei-from-desolation.html
Desolation are one of the best one man band projects you will ever hear at the moment.Very much in the Ambient Doom vein,the man behind the music (Kei) has got some great ideas and they are improving all the time.He has a healthy catalog of material already available and i suggest to all the readers to give it a listen.
1. Hello, thanks for allowing me to give this interview. Can you tell everyone when did the first idea for Desolation take place ?
A few years back, actually. I just never had the money to get this started then. Couldn’t ever find anyone to play in this sort of band in this backwards hell I live in, so I thought it better to handle it myself.
2. Was the idea to do a one man band thing something you always wanted to do or was it just a way of doing it your way without all the personal clashes ?
Both, really. People never played the way they needed to in these things. It was either too slow for them, the parts where too odd, they wanted me to sing clean, etc. I figured I had been forced to take over enough instruments for lazy, unmotivated band members that I could probably manage on my own, so I put my old ideas to work.
3. The style is very much in the Doom style but with a ambient twist. Is there any one band that influenced you in going for this style ?
Yeah, it’s not what you’d expect though. Skepticism. Very definitely Skepticism. Lately I’ve been listening to things like Fungoid Stream and Celestiial and taking a lot back from them.
4. There is thousands of one man projects out there and the internet has made it easier than ever to get your music heard but do you think the scene has become saturated with weak musicians because of this ?
Definitely. I consider myself one of those, actually. Always in need of improvement.
5. You have already recorded a lot of material. You must spend a lot of time recording to have all this output ?
Less than you’d think. The first one took a while (Misery, about 4-5 months), but after that I had a better feel for the whole thing, and I go into it with more experience and a better idea of what it is I want. Plus, no other people to deal with. So on average, for one of my albums, it takes about 2 months if there are no issues. For the splits, of course, it takes however long it takes.
6. Tell us about the label you are involved with...
About Nax Records I really don’t have much info to give. They’re releasing Misery in a limited run of around 300 I think. And Funereal Drone is my own little thing. The way things are going it may be just for me and 1 or 2 others soon. I release my split albums and my personal stuff on FD, so when Misery sells out (if it does), I’ll put it back on FD again. Right now, Anlipnes is working on their demo for FD, and Laiha has an album coming out on the 13th, in a limited run of 100 copies.
7. Doing everything yourself is never too easy.Is there one instrument you wish you could have help with or are you very confident on all the instruments you play ?
Guitar. Godawful tiny little strings. I love the way it sounds, but I hate playing it. I’m originally a bassist, so I’m just not into the tiny little razor wires on that thing. I’m working on my keyboard skills. My piano needs a LOT of work. Honestly, I’ve been very consistently shocked at how well the sound seems to come together, because I taught myself to do all this because of band lineup issues. From a technical point of view, I have no idea what I’m doing on anything but vocals and bass.
8. A lot of people have a hard time understanding Doom, Drone or Ambient style music. I blame this on a short attention span that most people have these days. Do you agree that the music world has a kind of fast-food type of mentality ?
Definitely. I’ve been told so many times by so many people that I need to play faster, or more technical. They just want something to move around to and hit each other. There’s definitely a huge attention deficit lately. Try to get people to sit down and focus on something, and they get angry. Music should mean something. It should hold your attention, force you to slow down and focus on it. The world is over-saturated with horrible little nothing bands these days that all sound the same, look the same, and somehow manage to sell millions of copies while the people doing something different languish on the outside of things with almost no recognition at all. No one is willing to take a chance on something different. Different doesn’t sell. It’s very sad, really. Hopefully things take something of a turn for the better sometime soon.
10. You are one of the few people out there that could do a 60 minute plus concept album and get away with it. Have you ever thought about doing this ?
I started with Anguish. I may do one soon to push it further. Anguish turned out too sparse for me. I like it, but I hear many things that could/should be changed/replaced. I’ll definitely do something like that sometime in the future. Anguish managed 57:14 or so, the next time I do something like that, it will be over 60 minutes.
11. You are from Alabama. What is your opinions on the music scene there ?
Not really from Alabama, just stuck here. Originally I’m from Germany. Born there anyway. So my mentality is definitely not a match for this area. And there is no music scene here. In Atlanta, definitely, and I may be going back there soon enough, but here? I’m sure there are a few things going on, but not in my area.
12. What really bugs you in the Metal scene at the moment?
So very many things……Probably better not to go into this right now.
13. Can you let all the readers know some information on how to get hold of your recordings ?
The Funereal Drone page is down and not likely to be back up anytime soon, so right now, the easiest way is to check my blog about the FD listings, and message me with an order inquiry. Perhaps sometime in the future I’ll put the page back up, but right now, I can’t really keep up with it. I’ll most likely go to a more professional disc format in the future, but right now I print them myself. I keep the pictures of the albums in my photo section, so anyone that wants to see how the releases look can see them there.
14. Thanks again for the interview, any last words ?
My thanks to you for doing this. And to anyone that reads this, as well as anyone that currently listens to my music or decides to go check it out. The few people that understand what I do are what encourage me to keep going.