Anubis: "Wir sind altmodisch" (Interview Teil 1)

Im aktuellen Eclipsed" (Januar 2012) gibt's mein Feature zur australischen Band Anubis zu lesen. Das komplette Interview mit Robert James Moulding (Vocals) and David Eaton (Keyboards) hier in voller Länge:

There's no big prog scene in Australia. So how did you get to play progmusic? What was your "awakening"?

Dave: My personal 'awakening', as such, was seeing Genesis, in London in 1992. My Dad took me for my 13th birthday. I remember they played the opening of 'Dance on a Volcano', and it was where that first big chord comes in, with the bass pedal, the strings, and that video of fire came up on the big screen above the stage, and the lights all changed colour to red. A huge, dramatic and completely new experience for an impressionable 13 year old! It affected me more deeply than anything else I'd ever seen. And I knew right there and then that it was that type of music I had to make.

Robert: I found I had become totally underwhelmed by the music I listened to as a teenager. Punk Rock became very stagnant after a while so I found myself drawn to Prog when I heard the first Mars Volta album, which was at the total other end of the spectrum of popular music. It was the change I needed and found most enjoyable.

Dave: When we started writing '230503', there was no plan to be anything - it really didn't matter if anybody heard it. We certainly didn't expect it. It's a record we had to make, so we made it in a style that came naturally to us. Thankfully, a lot of people are glad we did. And we're very grateful for that.

Which bands/musicians are your musical idols?

Dave: The answer would be different for each of us. I know apart from Genesis, who I mentioned already, there's all the usual suspects - Crimson, Floyd, Yes, Marillion- and I really love them all. Vocally, the blueprint for the harmony arrangements goes back to the Beatles. Rob listens to a lot more of the darker music, like Van der Graff Generator, which I don't enjoy quite as much. I guess it's summed up by Yes. I like 'Close To The Edge' best, but if pushed he normally says 'Relayer'.

Robert: Definitely 'Relayer'. Or 'Drama'.

How would you describe your music? And what is your ideal?

Robert: Anubis music is first and foremost driven by emotion. It's obviously progressive in style but our main focus is the emotion we wish to portray in our songs, based on the story and the characters within it. It's music that matters. We always place the music above ourselves.

Dave: The song itself has to take precedence over technique. Substance over style. Any of the tricky bits exist to serve the mood of the music rather than to show off our chops.

How can we imagine the creative processes in the band? Do you have a "mastermind" or is it a democratic process? Do you develop your musical ideas together?

Dave: On the first album, it literally was Rob and I doing virtually all the writing. Concept, lyrics, music. The lot. Some parts we improvised, very early on, with Steve, because at that time Anubis was just the three of us. When we formed the band, in the middle of the recording process, there was a period of arranging and Doug and Nick were certainly involved in that. Five years on, Rob and I still have a lot of the initial ideas, but now we also have Dougie bringing musical ideas and sections as well, and Dean is also a great songwriter. From there on in, much of the album was played live in a rehearsal studio, with a lot of group work on arrangements- which is a vital part of the process in itself. Dean also produced both records, and is very much a musical director in the rehearsal room too, as he can hear all the component parts individually. Whilst Rob and I, to be fair, probably still sit rather in the driver's seat, creatively speaking, everybody in the group now has a much bigger say in the direction the music needs to go.

Robert: So, there is no 'mastermind' in Anubis, as such. Just a very solid group who all have a part to play - whatever that may be - in order for us to develop our music.

Some critics call you a retroprogband (correct?) that is not really innovative. What would you reply?

Dave: We respond by completely ignoring that criticism! We do things a fairly old fashioned way. For example, on this last album, you have a 6 or 7 piece band, including our sax player - a real band of musicians who play together every week- recording in real time, with as many real instruments as possible, through analog gear into amps. It's not a studio band. It's a performing group, like in the old days. So yes, that will of course dictate the sound of the record to a large extent. These days, long-form music has pigeonholed itself so much. We write the songs we feel compelled to; from deep inside of us, and if we did anything else it would be dishonest. Disrespectful to us, our music and our fans. We couldn't play, say, 'The Collapse' if we didn't feel it. In saying that, there's no set idea of what an Anubis record has to be. The next one may sound totally different. Which is why '230503' and 'Tower' are different. Obviously there will be musical common ground, but we write what we feel is right for that moment. You use the instruments and sounds that work for the song. Tower, being very historical, conceptually, needed the sound of the mellotron, for instance. Next time, it might not appear. There's no set plan of what we are or what we have to be. Besides, you don't have to re-invent the wheel every time. Sometimes you just want to enjoy the ride.

Robert: We have had far more people tell us that they love our music for what it is rather than tell us they dislike it for what it's not.