Frantic Bleep Interview

There exists a two-fold dilemma in being a musician today. If your band wants to be recognized on a wide scale basis, it is necessary to communicate on a level that others can easily take in and connect with. Recently, for metal musicians this has meant joining a band that plagiarizes Iron Maiden riffs, with a singer that screams during the verses then gets cute on the hook. The largest problem with taking this direction is that your band may end up being the flavor-of-the-month, but it's even more likely that the group will find themselves lost within a pack of like-minded artists. The second direction the group can take is innovation, this direction being well respected by those in the know, but this direction makes the effort of getting your music out there ten times harder, because listeners don't know how to relate to it. But for those that are seeking something unusual or innovative, bands like Frantic Bleep satisfy desires to be entertained in an unconventional manner quite nicely�

The Gauntlet: Where does Frantic Bleep fit into today's metal scene?

Eywin: Well, we don't really think about where we fit, or if we fit at all. We just write the music we want to, and we've never been very concerned about fitting in. But I think this project is a great alternative to all the other bands out there right now. Most bands sound more or less similar to something else and that's not very exciting to us, so it's very important to us to be original and do something different from everybody else. We have been compared to a lot of different music so I can understand that it's difficult to put a stamp on a band like us. We've been compared to everything from Morbid Angel to Alice in Chains to Depeche Mode, so the whole thing is getting a bit out of hand. We have also been stamped as an Avant-garde Metal band, but I don't agree with this since Avant-garde art in general is very "out there" and hard to understand for most people, and our music is not strange or bizarre in any way. People should listen to a "Diamanda Galas" album or something before they label our music Avant-garde. We play contemporary Heavy Metal with a lot of different influences. There are a few other bands that are doing their own thing in the metal scene as well, and we usually get lumped into the same category even if we don't even listen to those bands. But I think Frantic Bleep is a good alternative to the 10 million other bands that sound like each other.

The Gauntlet: Is it ever a struggle for you to come up with such intricate music? Do you ever find yourselves in a rut creatively?

Eywin: The Sense Apparatus wasn't very hard to write or arrange, it was hell to produce but that's another story. We pretty much wrote the whole album in three months. But it's always a very interesting process writing new songs, and sometimes you just don't come up with anything good enough. The most difficult aspect of songwriting is arranging in my opinion. It's a big learning process and the arrangements can make or break a song. It's one thing to come up with some cool riffs, but if you fail with the arrangements, it doesn't matter how cool the riffs might be. The arrangements for the other instruments and vocals are very important as well, and it can spice up the song a great deal. We always change the arrangements a lot. The first thing you come up with might not be the best idea, so we tend to mess around quite a bit with the songs. We always strive to make things better all the time.

The Gauntlet: When you initially formed the band, did you have a specific vision of what you would like to achieve with it?

Eywin: We wanted to do something out of the ordinary, but we never thought about what kind of music we were going to write, it just became what it became. Our philosophy is to create what feels natural at the time, so all the albums will turn out different. The songs we wrote in the beginning were more technical and experimental than the songs on the album, but we were searching for a direction so it ended up a bit messier. But one of our goals back then was to try to get a record-deal, so that was something we hoped for.

The Gauntlet: At what age did you decide that you wanted to pursue music? When did you realize that you wanted to take things to a professional level?

Eywin: I started playing when I was fourteen years old. It wasn't very serious then but I played Bass in a couple of bands back then, and I also learnt Guitar at the same time. Later I took up Classical Guitar and I actually played at a semi-professional level, so it was then I started to take music more seriously since I actually had to rehearse and dedicate myself. I also took Piano lessons for a year. I learnt my rehearsing habits with that, and basically use the same approach nowadays if there's something I want to learn. I guess things didn't get serious with any bands before we started Frantic Bleep. We've all been in other bands before, but they were at a demo level at best and nothing really happened with them. When we worked on the first Frantic Bleep material we just knew that we had something special and that we should try to make something out of it.

The Gauntlet: How do you distinguish between the business aspects of being in a band and the artistic side of things? Do you find it easy to compartmentalize the two factors?

Eywin: We don't have any problems sorting those two factors out. Music is what we love to do, and it's our main passion. The music business on the contrary is very rotten and I like to compare record labels with crime families. The most important thing is to not be na�ve and think that labels want to release your music just because they like your "art". It's about earning money on other people's talents. If you do well (in other words make the label a lot of money), they'll treat you well and do a lot for you. If you fail making them enough money, they'll treat you like shit and eventually they might even kill your band. I guess you can look at the business as a necessary evil we can't survive without. It's extra hard nowadays since the record industry is having a really hard time selling their product, so they're not making as much money as they used to. If you sell 10 000 units you're a freaking phenomenon nowadays since 90% of all releases sell under 10 000 copies. You can't trust labels to do everything for you, and you have to work your ass of to get your band's name out there. The fact that labels are signing more and more bands to make up for their loss in record sales isn't making the whole thing any easier. You really have to watch the whole business side of the band, and people have tried to blackmail us in the past, so it's important to be aware of it so people don't take advantage of you. But I think we've been lucky so far since we're signed to one of the best metal labels around, The End Records, and they're a lot easier to deal with than the other labels we've dealt with. It makes the whole business side of the band a lot easier to cope with.

The Gauntlet: Do you feel that the music of Frantic Bleep is something that most metal fans can relate to?

Eywin: Yes I do actually. I think the album has a great crossover potential as well, so I think fans of other types of music can dig it too. I think certain people are putting too much into the artistic side of the band. It's not as deep as some people like to believe. Sure it has its artistic sides, yes there might be an overall concept of the album, and yes we have a weird band name and strange lyrics. But when it comes down to it, it's only rock n' roll and not brain surgery. I know a lot of metal fans who doesn't like other The End releases actually like us, since we're not pretentious and have a more metal approach to our music. Sure, you have to listen to the album a few times before you "get it", but I think that's great since it will live longer and you won't get sick of after just a couple of spins.

The Gauntlet: What types of live experiences has the band had in support of "The Sense Apparatus?"

Eywin: We played at this summer's Aurora Festival here in Norway. That's the only gig we've done after the album was released. We had a great time doing it and we received a very good response from people. They couldn't believe it was our first gig together. We'll see what happens in the future; if we'll make Frantic our touring band or be pricks and make that gig very exclusive.

The Gauntlet: Can it be difficult to replicate the vibe of the record in a live situation?

Eywin: Yes it is, and that's why we're thinking about making this project a studio only thing and play live with another project instead. If we were going to replicate the album live we would need at least 10 band members on stage. We didn't think about playing live when we recorded the album. We don't want people to be disappointed when they hear us live. It's not very practical and we want to make it a bit easier for ourselves so we'll se what happens.

The Gauntlet: I'm sure that you have been asked this question dozens of times, but how did the band get its rather unusual name?

Eywin: I was something Patrick and I came up with back in the day. We wanted an unusual name to draw more attention to us. What's the point doing the same as everybody else? If you want Anal Vomit or Anal Stench, go to the original source! We want to break down some boundaries in the metal scene and introduce some new ways of doing things. If you want gore and blast beats then look somewhere else. We're all about breaking the rules and we've been trying to make it hard for people to categorise us. Sure, you can do the pretentious thing and say that Frantic Bleep stands for "technology's interference on the human existence", or it's "an artistic expression against censorship" or something like that, but I think people can come up with something themselves and not put too much into it, if they don't want to. We have gained a stronger awareness because of the name as well, so I think it has worked well for us.

The Gauntlet: What is one thing that metal fans need to know about the group?

Eywin: Well, people should know that we're striving for high standards in this band and that we work very hard to make the best music we can. We have a lot of different influences, but the outcome's just Heavy Metal in the end.

The Gauntlet: Are you now looking forward to another album? What can you tell us about your next endeavor?

Eywin: We have a few projects going at the moment and the second Frantic album is one of them. I don't want to say too much about the new direction, but we just finished the drums in Studio Silence in Sweden and we're taking things slowly at the moment. The album will be released sometime next year, we don't know exactly when but we'll see. We also have some other projects going at the moment, so hopefully we'll get something else released next year as well.

Thanks a lot for the interview and support!