De Profundis is quickly making a name for themselves with their Metal sound and live performances. Although they are a young band, De Profundis has accomplished many notable achievements. In this crazed world of ours there is a time to laugh and a time to cry, a time to fight and time for play, but this particular moment is a time for Metal! And with this moment Brutalism.com is proud to present this interview with one of the UK’s finest! DE PROFUNDIS! Let us jump into the fire!
Many thanks for doing this interview. Please tell the metal world who is doing this interview and what do you do in the band?
Hi. My name Is Craig Land, and I'm the vocalist in De Profundis.
How would you describe the De Profundis sound to a first time listener?
I don't like describing music as a description is extremely subjective to my personal tastes. But to try to answer your question, I would broadly describe the music of De Profundis as an amalgamation of the Extreme Metal styles, predominantly Death Metal, but with Doom and Black Metal embellishments and a progressive attitude.
De Profundis lists many different influences. How do you incorporate so many different styles into your music.
All the members of the band have diverse listening tastes, and we all want to play the music we enjoy listening to, so those influences are inevitability incorporated into our songwriting. It's just a natural process and one we relish in exploring.
De Profundis has accomplish many things in a short period of time. Describe how you did this and what the band's success means to the individual members.
Thank you, but I see it slightly differently. De Profundis has existed for 4 1/2 years now, so I wouldn't regard us as a new band. We only started coming to peoples' attention when we released the debut in August 2007 and subsequently began playing live, but we had been working solidly up to that point completely under the radar. We have continued to work very hard and always in a professional manner, and this has enhanced our reputation, enabling us to take advantage of the opportunities that have come our way. We have all invested a lot of time and money into the band, so we wish to take De Profundis' music to as many people as possible. We measure success in how well we can achieve this.
Describe the many different crowds that you have performed in front of. How do you know when a gig was a success?
We have played to many different crowds, from intimate gigs to big festivals, from being headliners to being openers, and in various territories. They all bring their own challenges, but we always ensure that we give our all on stage and enjoy the experience. Different crowds react differently at our shows. When we have been one of the heavier bands on a bill, the people go nuts. For example, when we played in India, the crowd were moshing and going crazy from start to finish, even during the quiet moments of the songs. However we don't expect that kind of reaction all the time as our music is quite cerebral and demands the attention of the listener. Sometimes static crowds buy the most merchandise because they have actually listened and understood the music.
What was it like sharing the stage with such legends as Iron Maiden and Opeth? How did that come about?
We played the Rock In India gig, which Maiden headlined in 2009. We applied, and the promoters liked us so they invited us to play. Playing on the same bill as Iron Maiden was a dream come true for us. They are legends that have inspired us along with pretty much every Metal band born since 1980, so it was just an incredible experience. Most importantly, it offered us the opportunity to play in front of their fans, which is the most people we have yet played to (+/- 20 000 people). The funny thing is, we didn't really think about it much on the day - all we were concerned with was putting on a great show to an audience who were unfamiliar with us. We have never played with Opeth, but it is something we really wish to do one day as we feel their fans would be open to our music.
Does De Profundis have plans to tour America?
Not immediately as we have only just finished our first European tour, but yes, we will turn our attention to the US when we have established ourselves more in Europe. US tours are notoriously difficult and expensive to undertake, but it's an important market. We will take up the challenge when we are ready, or when a good opportunity presents itself. Relapse are distributing our albums in the US, so a tour would be ideal to increase our profile over there.
Tell the fans what a typical day and night is like while on the road to the many different cities that you play.
We have had quite different experiences, depending on the circumstances surrounding the gigs. When we have played festivals, we have been well looked after in good hotels. One off gigs in the UK or in Europe usually end up with us driving ourselves in a van, then either driving home after the gig or sleeping on floors whenever we have been offered a roof over our heads. On the recent tour with Ragnarok, we were on a night liner, so could sleep on the bus. Usually we try to see as much of the city we are playing in as possible, so we usually wonder around the tourist sites during the day. We aren't massive party animals as the priority for us when we are on the road is to give the best live performance possible. We won't do anything to jeopardize this.
Why Metal? Musically, you are a very diverse band of musicians. What made you decide to play Heavy Metal?
Because we all share a love of Metal. I think Metal is the ultimate music as art form as it's scope is practically unlimited in terms of instrumentation, arrangements, lyrical themes, everything really. There are no limits in what can be done, and this is particularly important to us as artists.
What influences your lyrics? Religion? Politics?
I write lyrics that are personal to me, and my opinions are not necessarily shared by the rest of the band. I avoid subjects like religion and politics. I don't acknowledge religion, so it would be disingenuous to write about it from any angle, although it would make my job easier. I tend to focus on my rather nihilistic philosophies for Inspiration. Sometimes I write about greater questions, like humanity's place in the universe, and others deal with more personal issues. I prefer people to read the lyrics and take from them what they want rather than me telling them how they should be interpreted.
How has the response to “A Bleak Reflection” been?
It's been mixed, which is what we expected. We knew that the changes to the band line up since "Beyond Redemption" would ruffle some feathers as we finally had the means to write and play what we wanted to, so we did just that. We write music for ourselves first, and we acknowledge that not everyone shares our diverse musical tastes so of course there are going to be people who don't get what we are doing at all. That's fine by us, as long as people actually listen to the album before passing judgement. People that have liked the album have really liked it though, and most agree that it is a huge improvement in all departments over the debut.
How would you describe the current state of the Metal scene in Europe and what does it mean to De Profundis?
Metal in general has been experiencing a bit of a downturn in recent years. There have always been pretenders trying to claim Metals throne. In the 90's it was grunge, in the 2000's it was nu "metal" and now it's -core which as severely undermined and diluted the integrity of Metal. Promoters have forced these trendy bands onto Metal bills, which means that Metal bands lose out, but the tide is slowly starting to turn against this sort of crap. De Profundis are fortunate in that we could quite comfortably play with bands from any of the Extreme Metal genres, and as these will always be strong, the future looks bright for us.
If you could change one thing about underground metal, What would it be?
Being a bit of an old-school metalhead, I loathe the way that the internet has changed the music I love into a commodity for dick-waving contests rather than listened to and explored. Nowdays people download thousands of albums but never invest the time needed to fully appreciate them. It's all about how big your collection is and how underground you are. Well, anyone can download something from a blog - that doesn't prove your underground credentials. Besides, a collection of mp3's don't even count. I would change the way people Iisten to music, restoring it's value.
As mentioned, De Profundis has many influences. What bands or musicians would you consider to be the greatest influence on the band as a whole.
Anathema, Cynic, Death, Dream Theatre, Emperor, Enslaved, Iron Maiden, King Diamond, Megadeth, Mercyful Fate, Metallica, Opeth, Queen, Shining, Zappa etc
Are their any nonmusical influences? Movies? Books? Poetry?
Yes, some of us are keen readers, from classics to Sci-fi, and the same goes for movies, so I'm sure there is some influence from these, but it would be slight.
Talk about the personal rewards you guys receive for creating Heavy Metal.
Well there are certainly no financial rewards! For me, writing the music we want to, without compromise, that challenges us as musicians and artists, is the greatest reward. Having an album that we are 100% proud of, and knowing that the next one will be even better. Playing live, and all that entails, like visiting new places, is also special to us.
Who is the greatest Metal band of all time and why?
That's a tough question as I cannot think of a single band that has the perfect record that the title of "Greatest ever" demands. Personally speaking, I would nominate Opeth. They have been incredibly consistent throughout their career although "Orchid" is still my favourite album. They are hugely popular, but have achieved this without compromise.
Again, many thanks and much respect to you for doing this interview. Do you have anything else that you want to add or say?
Thank you for the interview.
