I’m under the spell of the majestic & magical band Subrosa – their enchanting sounds can guide you away into forever. This Salt Lake City band created one of highlights in heavy music this year with the release of their album No Help For The Mighty Ones. Subrosa used unconventional instruments as they constructed a new lane for what we know as doom. Today, CVLT Nation brings you a thought-proving interview with one of our favorite bands. After the jump, travel with us into the world of Subrosa.
How are things in the Subrosa universe?
Things are going through a bit of a transition right now, and overall, things are great. Subrosa is planning a couple tours for 2011.
When you created “Borrowed Time Borrowed Eyes,” did you realize you were creating a very special piece of sonic tapestry? In my opinion it’s an anthem.
No, but thank you. In fact, the song just started out as a big, heavy riff … the guitar riff. The rest of the parts were created around it and everything just seemed to fall into place. The violin parts I think take the song beyond just caveman riffs and primal vocals and give the song a certain bleak emotional resonance that would be missing otherwise.
What was the inspiration for the lyrics on “Borrowed Time Borrowed Eyes”?
The book The Road by Cormac McCarthy was the inspiration. Cormac is a genius, not only with his use of the English language, but his ability to synthesize complex ideas through stark, unforgettable scenes. The main concept behind the The Road that I concentrated on for this song is the idea that our society is completely bereft of deep cultural roots. We are a society adrift, ready to abandon our humanity the minute some big disaster strikes.
Staying on the topic of lyrics, how do your words come to you? What are some of your biggest inspirations for what you write?
I sing a lot about current events, current issues—everything from environmental disasters to political corruption—but also, about personal experiences (“Dark Country”). I definitely see Subrosa as an outlet to express my thoughts about the world.
When I listen to Subrosa, I hear this call & response that happens between the vocals & violin. Is that done intentionally or is it just organic in your music?
Yes, some of it is intentional. I think you’re probably especially noticing it in “Stonecarver,” right? At the end of the long intro and right before everything gets heavy and fast? The violin part came first, if I recall correctly, and the vocals naturally felt “right” mimicking the violin part, foretelling it, almost. (The violins almost always are created before the vocals.) So, very little is deliberate and “calculated” with what we did with the album. A lot of it was organic and natural, as you hinted.
How important is the use of melody in what you create?
Melody is very important in No Help for the Mighty Ones. I would say melody wasn’t as important on Strega. I like this direction of having melodies play a bigger part in the music of Subrosa, because to lay such melodic vocals and violins on top of heavy, heavy riffs—well, you can have your cake and eat it, too. You can be as heavy as hell, and also have the emotional resonance that comes from well-crafted melodies. I would like to keep going even further in that direction with the next album.
Many of your songs have this old world spirit to them. Are you inspired by ancient histories?
Kind of. I love history, and I like reading about it. Right now I’m reading a history of the Vikings and a history of medieval Europe, A Distant Mirror. At the same time, I’m very grounded in the present day. I don’t want to live in any other time. There is something about old America that really inspires me, though, and the traditional folk music that early Americans brought over from Ireland, the UK, Germany, France, and other parts of Europe. There’s something about old folk music that seems to carry “source material,” if you know what I mean. Even though I wouldn’t say folk music is a direct influence, there’s something about its flavor that seems to creep into Subrosa’s music …
Your album has expanded genres, & at the same time brought them together. What genres do you see Subrosa fitting into?
Definitely doom, stoner and sludge metal. Stoner rock is my main influence. Avant garde folk or neofolk, I think. Smatterings of gothic. When people ask what Subrosa is, I usually say something like, “heavy sludge with electric violins, kind of experimental, and dark.”
Your sound definitely plays with the listener’s emotions. To me, it seems that you use different layers of instruments & play them off of each other to create a more emotional experience. Can you explain?
There was definitely a lot of layering that went on with this album. There were even more vocal harmonies I wanted to add, actually, but there comes a time when you just have to be “done”; it is possible to overdo it. But in all, it’s really exciting to me how the original kernel of emotion in a song can be exploded by adding layers of instruments and vocals to it, amplifying it, in a sense, even adding new nuances. The violins get the biggest credit for creating these melodic layers, though. They add a level of emotion that the songs did not originally have.
If this album was a time machine, where would you want to take the listener?
Deep into the Appalachian mountains, circa 1750 or so. A 16-year-old girl with two children is washing laundry in a wood tub in the backyard of a shack deep in the forest. Her husband is off hauling wood with his two brothers. She’s thinking about the dance they’re both going to that weekend, two counties away, next to a lake in a valley, and how her 14-year-old sister will be visiting and can watch the kids.
What was the moment in space & time that brought your band together?
I had a vision in my mind of starting Subrosa for three years before I started it. The summer of 2005, I felt like, “It’s now or never.” The skeleton of Subrosa started then, built from the ashes of a dark time. Sarah was learning electric violin at the time, and so we started Subrosa together. The three other members joined two years ago.
I just wanted to let you know, No Help for the Mighty Ones is a very soulful record, meaning I feel the soul of each of the members on every tune. Have you ever thought of your music in those terms?
Definitely. I see Subrosa as being the repository for my soul, and the soul of whoever contributes to it. I hope the album does reflect that sincerity and depth in the music. All the members really did put their whole heart and soul into this album.
Thank you so much for this interview! Is there anything else you need to say?
Just thanks for the interview, and your questions. Thanks for listening to the album and taking the time to really absorb it, and thanks for supporting Subrosa!
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