Uzala
Tales of Blood & Fire
Out Now On King of the Monsters
Cvlt Nation: Hi guys! First of all thanks for finding the time to do this interview, it is much appreciated! So, would you like to introduce the band?
Chad Remains: The band is Darcy Nutt – guitar and vocals, Chuck Watkins – drums, and myself, Chad Remains – guitar and vocals. Nick Phit – bass was released from his duties in UZALA after the last recording wrapped up. We have no plans to find a replacement bass player at this time.
Cvlt Nation: What I wanted to ask since I first found out about the band is where you came up with the name UZALA? I guess it is a reference to the Akira Kurosawa film Dersu Uzala. What attracted you on that film? Apart from that it is awesome!
Chad Remains: You are correct. The relationship that develops between Dersu and Captain is very moving of course, but the main attraction to the film for me is the cinematography of the great Siberian landscape and the difference between the “man vs. nature” approach of the Imperial Russian soldiers and Dersu’s harmonious relationship with his surroundings. He is not apart from nature like the soldiers believe, he is woven into his landscape and forest home.
Cvlt Nation: You have a very diverse sound including influences from different subgenres within the metal field as well as quite a few outside of extreme music. Do you find it difficult to bring all of these sounds together and still retain your own style?
Chad Remains: As far as I know nobody in the band has a difficult time with that. Honestly I don’t think anyone gives it much thought. We simply write what we write and love what we love.
Cvlt Nation: Can you also shed some light on the lyrical themes found within Tales of Blood & Fire? Is there a central concept behind the album?
Chad Remains: The songs are based on stories, tragedies, tales of betrayal. The lyrics are printed in the sleeve of the record, so I would like it if people found their own interpretations rather than to have me explain what they mean to me. I will say though that the songs are linked by themes of deception, paranoia, despair and suffering.
Cvlt Nation: If I am not mistaken you are currently signed with At War With False Music and King of Monsters released your new album on vinyl and Gypsyblood Records on cassette. What would you say are the advantages of working with multiple labels for a release?
Chad Remains: We are not signed by anyone. I haven’t signed anything. We are not working with At War With False Noise right now, although they did press the s/t LP in a limited edition of 333 and the Cataract/Death Masque 12” single in an edition of 111 which are long gone. Those will both be released in a deluxe reissue LP format with both records in one package. The songs will all comprise the entirety of the Visual Arts Collective/Blake Green recordings. King of the Monsters will be handling that reissue which has already been remastered by Mell Dettmer.
King of the Monsters released the split 7” we did with Mala Suerte and King of the Monsters is doing the LP and CD versions of Tales of Blood & Fire. There will be three different color editions of the LP. GypsyBlood Records is doing three different color cassette editions. We still retain the rights to these recordings and songs, however. I’m not in any hurry to make some big deal of signing our songs away. King of the Monsters has been very good to us and we look forward to doing more with King of the Monsters if they’ll release more for us.
The advantageous bit of having two labels working with you is pretty obvious I reckon. You have two sources putting out your gear to the world – twice the exposure. Both King of the Monsters and GypsyBlood have been conscientious of the fact that we are heading out on tour and have made great efforts to get things done in a timely manner so that we don’t arrive at a gig with nothing to put in somebody’s hands.
We have shirts, but you can’t listen to a shirt.
Cvlt Nation: The production of the new album is quite different from your earlier material, and even though I really like the sound of your debut album I think that the production of Tales of Blood and Fire suits you more. Can you give us some info on the recording, mixing and mastering stages of the full-length? Which engineer(s) did you use?
Chad Remains: We recorded Tales of Blood & Fire at Witch Ape Studio with Tad Doyle in January of this year. We laid down all of the songs with a live recording/scratch track style and then each individual player recorded their tracks separately with different amplification, etc. We had six days to do it and we really pushed the clock on the last day. Tad got a monster drum sound out of Chuck’s kit and the guitars are just massive. He was willing to entertain some of my ideas for guitar sounds and weird layering stuff. We used some really cool small amps that he had at the studio but all of the big rhythm tracks are definitely from big amps.
Darcy used an old Peavey VTM60 that we borrowed from Thomas Wilson. It has this crazy girth and grunt like no other amp out there! I used my old Laney GH100S but set up way differently than I had previously used it and with speakers I had never used before. I like to throw a wrench in the gears, it seems.
Mixing was roughed in at Tad’s place, but the mix you hear is from Mell Dettmer and her Soli Studio. I gave her the reins on this one, just a few notes here and there to get us both on the same page of what type approach the mix should take. I know my limitations sometimes, and at a point I realized that my preconceptions of the record were mostly based on my role as a guitar player and not necessarily what was best for the album.
Chad Remains: The only “problem” is that we don’t play live very often because of the distance equation. So we focus on really great gigs and touring. We are not interested in being on the road for great lengths of time, either. Darcy and I rehearse twice a week and Chuck joins us for intensive rehearsals three or four days before a tour or a show.
Cvlt Nation: How exactly does the songwriting process work in UZALA? Is it an individual effort or is it more like a collaborative work?
Chad Remains: Darcy and I wrote all of Tales of Blood & Fire. “Tenement of the Lost” was written and played entirely by Darcy except for the drone/noise part I played that drifts underneath her. The heaviest riffs on the record are to be credited to Darcy.
Probably 80% of the s/t record was written by Darcy and I. There was a bit of collaboration going on back then with Stephen Gere, our old drummer, simply because he is a songwriter and we had somewhat regular rehearsals with him.
We will write some more songs after we get back from tour, I get the feeling that the songs will become even more individual works. We don’t have plans to hurry and write another LP right away. I think we will work on doing some singles for a bit. Splits with Seremonia, High Priest of Saturn, Pallbearer and Chains would all be pretty great I think. We’ll see what materializes from that.
Cvlt Nation: You are as far as I have heard a DIY band and you even build your own guitar pedals. In a time when most “valve” equipment can actually work even if you take the valves out, that is an excellent approach. What have you been building lately? (I am currently building a Klon Centaur myself)
Chad Remains: I’m not sure what you mean about taking valves out, but yeah, I build guitar pedals from time to time. The s/t LP was all sounds from my pedals. A Rangemaster for some leads, a Bluebeard for rhythms, a DOD 250 for bass, probably some other stuff I have forgotten since then. This new record has all stuff from Black Arts Toneworks on it. I used a Black Forest overdrive on a couple of tracks and the Revelation Superbass on almost everything. The RITUAL is on every track if I remember right. It is definitely on my live pedal board right now. I love the simplicity of a one knob fuzz. Black Arts Toneworks knocked up a very limited edition of 13 UZALA RITUAL fuzz pedals for us to take on the road. They are already going fast and we haven’t even left yet.
Darcy used the Pharaoh fuzz on all of her guitar tracks except for the really clean, throbby stuff. I have used it a few times live and it can tear your head off!
My next builds will be some Big Muff variants and some Rangemaster type stuff. Never tried building a Klon, maybe I’ll give it a go.
Cvlt Nation: Is there any other gear that you build from scratch? I guess you are not big fans of most “new” equipment.
Chad Remains: I want to build some amps next as well. I think Darcy would like to have a Deluxe or a Bassman next. I would like to build myself an old Gibson low watt combo or a Supro. It’s definitely a bigger jump to deaql with high voltage stuff, but if I’m still around next year, I guess I survived the trial period.
I don’t have anything against “new” equipment, per se. It is difficult for me to justify the expense sometimes for a mass produced amplifier. We had HEX CABS knock us together some incredible new 6×12” speaker cabinets as per my design specs and I am amazed at how they look and sound. I really couldn’t wish for better from them. I prefer to get new equipment from someone I know rather than from a faceless corporation. I’m going to save pennies to have HEX build up one of their Model X amps, which is a clone of the original spec SUNN Model T.
Cvlt Nation: Do you also book tours and shows on your own? I suppose that that would be one of the most time consuming activities.
Chad Remains: It is a major investment in time to book a tour, even just a small one, when you are still building the band. People have been great about sharing information, though, which is extremely helpful.
Cvlt Nation: Darcy Nutt (singer and guitarist of the band) designed the artwork for the debut album. Darcy did not design the artwork of Tales of Blood & Fire as long as I know. Who did you use for the new album instead?
Chad Remains: Tony Roberts (blackmindseye.org) did the cover art and the layout for the LP and CD. The booklet he designed uses artwork that Darcy made that are inspired from the lyrical content of three of the songs. I will let you look and decide for yourself…
We hope to do more work with Tony soon. He is a killer illustrator and does very clear and concise layout/design work.
Cvlt Nation: You have been working quite a lot in the last couple of years. Your debut album came out in 2012 along with a split album with Mala Suerte and the Cataract / Death Masque EP. And now your sophomore album is out, so my question is are you currently working on anything new?
Chad Remains: The upcoming tour has been our main focus as well as the release of this record, I think that winter will be time to hibernate and write new riffs. Winter seems to be a productive time for songwriting to let the gloom seep in to the riffs.
Cvlt Nation: Are there any new bands you have recently discover that you would like to share with us?
Chad Remains: These are new to me. Maybe you already know them. For the sake of brevity I will make a short list. Dead to a Dying World, Pinkish Black, King Dude, BÖLZER, Rome, InterArma.
It was a great pleasure for us to share the stage recently with Esoteric, Saturnalia Temple and Velnias on one night, and True Widow and Chelsea Wolfe on the next. Maybe some of these you’ll listen to and enjoy.
Cvlt Nation: Do you have any plans for future gigs?
Chad Remains: Our US tour starts in Portland, Oregon at the Fall Into Darkness festival on October 13 with The Skull, Hammers of Misfortune, and Mike Scheidt (YOB, VHÖL).
Mike is with us for the entirety of the tour playing his solo/acoustic material and some Townes Van Zandt/Neil Young tunes. We are looking forward to playing with Black Queen in Seattle, Eagle Twin and SubRosa in Salt Lake City, Bongripper in Chicago, Satan’s Satyrs and LOSS in Baltimore for the Autumn Screams Doom II festival, Mount Salem will join us for the middle section of the tour, and three Texas dates with Sabbath Assembly and others.
We have no plans to play live for the rest of the year after the tour.
Cvlt Nation: All right guys! Thank you again for finding the time to do this interview. The album is absolutely great! Hopefully you will do a European tour soon, so I can get a chance to see you live.
Chad Remains: Thank you.
We would love to tour Europe and play a few heavy festivals in Denmark and Holland. Perhaps it will happen soon.
10/25 Philadelphia, PA @ Kung Fu Necktie with Heavy Temple (¥)
10/26 Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar with LOSS, Sourvein, Churchburn, others (¥)
10/27 Virginia Beach, VA @ venue TBA with Druglord (¥)
10/28 Chapel Hill, NC @ Local 506 with Caltrop (¥)
10/29 Athens, GA @ Max Sidebar with Demonaut (¥)
10/30 New Orleans, LA @ Siberia (early show) with Red Shield(¥)
10/31 Austin, TX @ Red 7 with Communion (†)
11/01 Fort Worth, TX @ The Grotto with Solomon (†)
11/02 Denton, TX @ Rubber Gloves with Dead to a Dying World (†)
¥ = w/ Mount Salem
† = w/ Sabbath Assembly
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