photo by Brian Sayle

Earth has added several new US tour dates after their July dates in the Pacific Northwest.

Tickets for all shows are available at: https://thronesanddominions.xyz/shows

Jul 18 - Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall ++
Jul 19 - Olympia, WA @ Obsidian ##
Jul 22 - Seattle, WA @ The Black Lodge ##
Aug 22 Providence, RI - Necronomicon Convention @ Columbus Theatre <>
Aug 23 Boston, MA - Middle East Upstairs **
Aug 25 Portsmouth, NH - 3S Artspace **
Aug 26 New York City, NY - Le Poisson Rouge
Aug 27 New York City, NY - Saint Vitus **
Aug 28 Philadelphia, PA - Underground Arts **
Aug 29 Baltimore, MD - Metro Gallery **
Aug 30 Richmond, VA - Strange Matter **
Aug 31 Chapel Hill, NC - Cat's Cradle (Backroom) **
Sep 01 Atlanta, GA - The Earl **
Sep 02 Orlando, FL - Will's Pub **
Sep 03 New Orleans, LA - One Eyed Jacks **
Sep 04 Birmingham, AL - Saturn **
Sep 05 Nashville, TN - Stone Fox **
Sep 06 Bloomington, IN - The Bishop **
Sep 08 Madison, WI - Frequency **
Sep 09 Minneapolis, MN - 7th St Entry **
Sep 10 Chicago, IL - Bohemian National Cemetary
Sep 11 Urbana, IL - Ellnora Guitar Festival

++ w/ Federales
## w/ ManDate
<> w/ Elder
** w/ Holy Sons

Louder Than War represented big time at this weekend’s Temples Festival in Bristol, one of the world’s foremost heavy music jamborees which this year was headlined by Converge, Sunn O))) and the mighty Earth!

We’ll be running a full review very soon, but we also had a dedicated interviewer, Sophie Sparham, on site too who spoke to a few of the bands on site. So we start our feedback from Temples Festival with this, her chat with the one and only Dylan Carlson from Earth.

Louder Than War: So, just to bring us up to date, what have been some of the highlights for Earth the past couple of years?

Dylan Carlson: The most recent highlight would be the new record, it’s done better than anyone expect. We actually charted in the US and it outsold all the other Earth albums, so it’s done really well. We’ve been touring pretty much since June of last year.

You said in the album that you felt you were allowed to be a rock band, what did you mean by that?

Well, in the past, I’ve chosen to feature other instruments a lot. Instruments that you don’t see in a heavy rock context. We had a trombone and piano on Bees (The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull – Earth’s 2008 release on Southern Lord – ed) and a lot of keyboard and piano and toured with that line-up. Whereas this album is definitely more of a guitar record.

The guitars are obviously always there, but in this album they’re front and centre.

Did you choose to approach it like that?

It kinda ended up that way because when I first started writing for this album we were touring Japan, Australia and New Zealand and it was cheaper to bring a three piece! So we started touring as a three piece a lot with guitar, bass and drums. So the songs reflected that. Then we brought in Jody and Brett, who are both guitarists.

I’ve listened to the album, it sounds solid.

Yeah Jody does stuff that’s not guitary. He’s really good at making stuff sound organny, where as Brett is just a really good rock player and really free.

You really like England, why?

My grandmother came over from Scotland in 1948, we lived in Germany when I was a kid and we used to come up and visit relatives a lot. I’ve just always liked the countryside, the people, the culture. My wife’s English also! I feel at home here. It’s funny because I’m pretty American, but I just like England a lot. I like being here more than the states.

You said back in the day you used to prefer the recording process, but now you really love playing live. What is it about playing live that you love so much?

The live thing I like because it’s like the band and the audience are together and you’re creating this moment that’s not going to be duplicated. It’s different every time. The studio is like, you know you can correct things. Whereas live is more like a roller coaster ride and you don’t know what’s going to happen. I like interacting more. A studio can be claustrophobic. The live show is a moment in time.

What are you interested in outside the band? There’s just so much going on in your records!

I’m just really into folk law, especially stuff about magic. I love English folk law and mythology. Old mythology or newer stuff. America has mythology that’s more recent, a lot of it was brought over and mixed with Native and African beliefs. It’s all folk music and it’s all folk law. It’s not high culture which is normally really boring!

When people talk about Earth, they divide you into two phases. How do you feel about that and when you came back was that intentional or just natural?

I never understood making the same album over and over. To me that’s what’s good about the album making process, you’re catching this one moment in time that won’t be duplicated. You won’t do it again. You change as a musician, hopefully you grow as a musician, you grow as a human being. To me there’s a continuity, because it’s still me and I still write. Hopefully I’ve gotten better at what I do.

The more you listen to music, the more other influences will come in. It’s a natural thing.

Earth 2 was done for a specific set of reasons and that’s why it came out that way. When we were doing Angels, we were working with the same guy, Stuart, and we were laughing about how different we would do that record now than if we did it back then. Back then we didn’t have a plan, we were just like ‘oh let’s write this, let’s write that’.

It’s just natural! It’s not like you go in knowing what will come out.

I always find that a record never ends up exactly as you pictured or intended it when you started it. You’re working with other people and they’re going to be influential. It’s a process and it changes. It usually ends up better than what you had in mind and stuff happens that you can’t foresee. I’ve never understood super control freaks. Especially with music, you have to give up control at a certain point. You don’t have control through the entire process and you don’t have control with how it will be perceived.

The thing with music is you don’t pick your best moment. You may think you know your best track, your best show your best moment, but other people decide what your best song, your best show and your best moment is and you have to just be ok with that.

If you were a super control freak you wouldn’t be in a band! I notice that it’s been 20 years since Phase 3, but who are Earth now?

Well that album came out at a particularly difficult period of my life so Earth was just me at that point. Now I’m older, I survived, hopefully learned from my mistakes. I just think I’m at a better place, I’m playing better, I’m married, I’m happy. Rather than near death or on my way to jail, things have improved!

Dylan Carlson plays Supersonic Festival the weekend after next in a soundclash with The Bug. Titled The Bug vs Dylan Carlson it’s not to be missed. See the rest of their upcoming shows HERE.

(via Louder Than War)

“I remember hearing Earth 2 around the time of release, and just thinking, ‘What the fuck is this?’ I had no idea,” crackles Kevin Martin’s voice across the internet, still thick with a Dorset accent that’s survived years living in London and now Berlin. On another connection from Seattle, Dylan Carlson breaks his hitherto attentive silence to howl with laughter. Hearing a reaction to Earth’s 1993 opus, which pioneered what would become drone metal, isn’t new. “But if I’m honest, a lot of the music I cherish most leaves me unsure if I love it or hate it first time round,” the ever-forthcoming producer and multi-instrumentalist also known as The Bug presses on. “Then it pulls me back and I’m magnetised to it. That’s really true of Earth’s music.”

After more than 20 years of fate working round the clock, Carlson and Martin are set to cement a collaboration that started last winter with the release of Ninja Tune 12-inch Cold/Boa by performing live together at June’s Supersonic Festival. It's “a perfect opportunity” as far as Martin is concerned, while Carlson is looking forward to finally being in the same time zone as Martin, having worked on their studio collaboration over the internet following a hook-up by mutual friend and album cover artist Simon Fowler. “The way Kevin uses beats, if you’re not paying attention they do these little rhythmic turn arounds,” Carlson reflects, speaking slowly and methodically on putting his tracks down. “He organises space in a really interesting way. I remember the first time I started playing and I was thinking, ‘Oh here’s the beat’, and then it made this subtle shift and it suddenly felt very odd.”

“WE’VE BOTH BEEN THE RED-HEADED STEP-CHILDREN OF WHATEVER REALM OF MUSIC WE’RE PART OF" – DYLAN CARLSON

The parallels in both their ethos and respective careers are numerous. As Carlson was stepping outside the exploding Seattle grunge scene at the turn of the 90s by furrowing a darker, repetitious progressive sound, so Martin was similarly re-examining rock’s once-thought closed frontier and creating his own outsider scene with noise rock band God, and hosting DIY shows for Napalm Death, Godflesh and others. Martin and Carlson’s views on volume as being central to their process are obvious; yet both too have constantly sought to redefine what it is they do with it. The Earth of the 21st century is much changed from its 90s counterpart, much as Martin pushed The Bug fully clear from the dubstep connotations the project had picked up on 2008’s London Zoo, with last year’s thunderous, insular Angels and Devils. “With that record I was really aware that I wanted to keep honing my own craft away from everyone,” he agrees. “The musicians I respect most – and Dylan’s certainly in that area – are people who’ve found a sound that’s reflective of their personality and reflects them. I can recognise Earth tracks almost instantly and I would hope people would feel the same about Bug tracks. The real challenge for me in electronic music is how you personalise those machines.”

“That’s one thing I feel in common with Kevin,” Carlson chips in. “We’ve both been sort of, to use the old phrase, the red-headed step-children of whatever realm of music we’re part of.” For Martin, Earth had been on his radar since his days as a Wire magazine critic in the early 90s. Carlson, though, fully became aware of Martin under his King Midas Sound project, when they supported Om at London’s Scala in 2012. Carlson has since gone on to write favourably aboutAngels and Devils for the magazine Electronic Beats, and enthuses on its “numinous quality and timelessness, rare in a lot of electronic music” to us this afternoon; but it’s perhaps the dubbier sounds of KMS that reveal some key shared sensibilities between the duo, with Martin pointing out that Earth’s use of space between the notes is something that speaks to him as a dub fan. “I share a great respect for dub,” Carlson replies. “That repetition and space, but also the willingness to use whatever was in front of them to create something interesting. Lee Perry’s studio was like a four-track and a space echo.”

As much as The Bug and Earth have somehow always seemed meant-to-be, however, there are certain ironies in their coming together. Carlson’s mentions of Hendrix – like the 60s icon he also tunes down a half-step – and his dropping a line by Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore about not playing too much bring out Martin’s oft-repeated teenage hatred of guitars, or at least of those for whom technique ruled over emotion. “As a young kid, Hendrix was like the devil to me,” he admits to more laughter. “It’s taken me a long time to figure out guitars – and metal too, funnily enough. For me, metal records are so often ruined by vocals or guitars that are played too much, or horrible theatrics. When it’s whittled down to the purest tone or personalised intent that’s when it works. It’s why I like Earth, Godflesh and early Swans.”

It’s what makes it so fascinating that the pair have wound up on the same page; what Martin has added over the years to the minimalism and intent learned from post-punk and noise rock, Carlson has distilled from behind the more overt styles of the likes of Todd Rundgren and Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi, to meet somewhere in the middle. For both, the quest to continue to explore remains fierce too; “I think drugs become a quest to have that feeling,” says Carlson, briefly referencing his well-documented substance struggles of the 90s. “It was that desire to always have that feeling that music gave me. Unfortunately the human body is not meant to feel that way all the time. But music should be mind-altering and affect you, otherwise it’s not… I think it’s funny when all my friends are like, ‘Oh I’ve got this song stuck in my head,’ because I don’t even hear like pop music. It just passes through me and nothing sticks.” That those at Supersonic will feel every frequency of sound that two such titans emit is in little doubt. “Hey, Kevin,” Carlson quips as we sign-off, “should I bring earplugs?”

READ THE FULL FEATURE HERE

See the full gallery here

Author Guillaume Kidula

It’s only a month and a bit until Temples Festival hits Bristol! Gathering together all sorts of weird, wonderful and downright heavy sounds from every dark corner of the underground, it’s the UK’s weightiest gathering bar none. There’s the furious hardcore of Converge, Nails and Trap Them, bong-rattling stoner vibes from Goatsnake, Weedeater, Bongzilla and Sea Bastard, there’s Triptykon, Bolzer, Grave Miasma and Vallenfyre bringing death metal darkness, and then there’s headliners Earth and Sunn O))) bringing loooooooooong droooooning notes.

So, to get us in the mood, we hooked up with Earth frontman Dylan Carlson to chat about Temples, festival etiquette, and dignitaries nicking your passes.

Words: Olly Thomas

Hi Dylan. How are you doing at the moment?

Dylan Carlson: “I’m doing really good. The tour’s being going really well, the album’s been going really well (laughs). And we’re excited, cos we were originally just playing Temples and now it looks like we’re headlining! I’ve heard good things about Temples, and Bristol’s always been a good city for us. And we’re playing on the same day as Voivod! I haven’t seen them since the (mid-80s) War And Pain tour so I’m very excited! I know Converge and Sunn 0))) are the other headliners, and I’m sure there are some other people playing that I like but I haven’t had a chance to look at the (full) line-up yet! (laughs)”

How’s it been playing the new material – has that made a difference to the tour?

“I really like playing the new stuff. I mean, obviously, we’re one of those bands of hoary age that must play the older songs – I’m not going to call them hits, because they weren’t! We always try and put some old songs in the set cos, y’know, I’m a music fan too and when you see someone you’ve wanted to see for a long time, (you don’t want to come away saying) ‘They didn’t play the song I like!’ In fact, I just had that experience with Uriah Heep – it was a great show but they didn’t play Stealin’! But I guess you can’t please everyone all the time.”

“I didn’t really tour in the 90s, because I was… (pauses, then chuckles) not capable of it. We mostly did one-off (shows). There was one disastrous tour of Texas, that I’m surprised we made it out of! So we’ve toured as lot more since we came back, obviously just because I have my shit together, and I love touring. It’s funny, when I first started Earth I was really into the recording bit, not so much the live thing, and now it’s switched places, where I wanna hit the road and play.”

I noticed an England sticker on your guitar. Do you have a particular affinity with Britain?

“Yes, I do. It’s definitely my favourite country and I just married a Londoner and I’m hoping to move over at some point, if Her Majesty’s Government will have me (laughs)!”

The new album’s done really well. How does it feel after so many years of struggle?

“It feels really good. It totally took me by surprise. It wasn’t expected or calculated, you know what I mean? I mean, obviously every dude that starts a rock band has that secret little guy in the back of his head going ‘Yeah, you’re gonna be a rock star’, but luckily I had a reality filter and I knew from the get-go that we were not going to be (stars). But yeah, it’s been a long trip, and it’s been worth it. I’m surprised, and humble, and grateful.”

Do you do anything different for a festival set?

“I think for this one we’re gonna have to (laughs uproariously)! I’m not sure what yet, but I’m thinking of something. Normally, in the past, a festival has just been a date on the tour. I’ve only ever been to Roadburn for an hour! We don’t normally get a chance to hang out with everyone, but this time I think we will.”

Have you had any memorable festival experiences?

“The Roadburn we did in 2011 was really good. And we played Dour festival (in Belgium) and this guy cut in front of us and took our passes – and it turned out it was the Prime Minister of Belgium, which was really weird (laughs)! He just looked like some normal middle aged dude.”

If you had to explain to someone who had never heard Earth before, what to expect from your set at Temples, what would you say?

“I’ve always described Earth as a loud, slow, weird rock and roll band, and that’s pretty much what we do! Although maybe now I’d say loud, slow, weird hard rock or loud, slow, weird heavy metal (laughs)!”