Blake has a chat to Greg Sanders via from Emperors on the release of their new album 'Chupacabra'. He discusses the departure of fellow drummer member Dane and how they are now moving forward and showing how much they respect their fans.
1) Hi, thanks for chatting to us, how are you guys?
I'm good thanks Blake. It's a bit balmy in Perth at the moment and i've been packing pizza boxes with records for the last few hours so im sweating my.... errr... box off.
2) Your second album has recently been release, how are feeling the response has been towards it?
My Mum was pretty disappointed when she heard it but our fans have been quite vocal about how much they like it, so that's great. They're obviously the most important people in this equation. We've only had a couple of reviews so far and they've done little more than acknowledge that the album exists and that we sound like the fucking Foo Fighters. One of them even said it has "solid lyrics", so there you go. There are a lot of lazy music journalists out there...
3) It seems like it is a more composed in the sense that you guys have developed a confidence in your developing sound, it seems more crisp, defined and more mature. What was the recording process like?
Well it certainly developed in the past tense. It's not developing any more because we've decided to hang up our boots. The recording process was really difficult and the end result is the band has broken up, but I think we've left on a high note. I'm really proud of our 'Chupacabra' and I hope it gets the same attention 'Stay Frosty' did.
4) Emperors first album was recorded in a handful of weeks, where your new album 'Chupacabra' was noted to be recorded in nine months, why was the process longer for the second?
Where to begin... We started the sessions by having to replace our drummer a week before we were due to begin recording. It was a small miracle we managed to not only find someone who could learn the songs quickly, but also play them so well. After the drums were done we wasted many days tracking and re-tracking bass and guitars. This was Dave Parkin's call (our producer) who was striving for a level of quality that I don't think we weren't gifted enough as a group to achieve. Then a hard drive crashed and we nearly lost everything. But by far the biggest set back were the vocals. Adam really struggled and to this day still nobody knows why. He tried vocal coaching, singing lessons and even tried using a bunch of stupid eucalyptus breathing apparatus but nothing worked. It was ridiculous, he would take a hit from this eucalypt bong looking mask thing, then blow into this straw for half an hour and then do the same takes over and over again. For some reason he just couldn't hold a tune anymore, let alone hit the big notes - it was like Superman had mainlined some krytonite. You can hear it on the record, his voice is really dry and raw for a lot of it.
5) How has it been with the lose of Dane (Your original Drummer) not being present on this second album? Was it a challenge to find another and teach them your bands way?
Yeah it was quite daunting, and was a really big distraction which made us lose track of the bigger picture. It was also very difficult on a personal level because we're very close friends, I was the best man at his wedding six months prior.
But it turns out the drums are probably the highlight of the album performance wise. I think the songs stand up and there are some nice musical moments in there that im proud of but Fraser (Cringle) really nailed those drums. They sound incredible, which I can say objectively because he was never a member of the band. I think he did an unbelievable job considering the circumstances, he just got on with the job and played everything how I wanted him to play it. Only better.
6)What can fans expect in the future from Emperors? Any exciting news you would like to share with us?
No exciting news but I might at some point release some Emperors B-sides and stuff like that our small but loyal fan base might enjoy. I've also got some new musical projects going that are in their very early stages.
7)Thank so much for the chat, and best wishes for the future.
Thanks very much
You now grab Emperor's new album ‘Chupacabra’ NOW on Gun Fever Records
Interviewer: Blake Peterson
