Interview with Oathbreaker 2011

By Bradley Smith

Your new album Maelstrom is sweeping through the underground packed with intensity and emotion!  Can you tell me about its creation process and how you view it as a development from your debut EP and 7”? 

Lennart: “The creation of Maelstrom was rather slow and tiring. The first song was written immediately after we had recorded our debut EP in the summer of 2008 I think. That was Thoth. Back then, the band was much less of a priority in our lives and sometimes months would pass without us actually getting together to write new songs. That’s why there’s quite a gap between the EP and the full length album. I guess the album sounds like we developed our style since the EP, but this was never something we actively pursued. We just used whatever inspired us. At some point we got tired of writing songs, booked a studio and recorded the songs we had that sounded the most right to us. That turned out to be Maelstrom and the result was actually a lot better than we had dared to hope. Since then we also actually started practicing and the first post-Maelstrom songs have already been written!”

The title-track such a different and personal style, a piece of calm after the storm.  And speaking of that, the artwork for the album is so different and unique.  Can you please delve into how the title track fits into the concept of the album and how the cover artwork was conceived and executed?  What did you want to achieve with the artwork and what does it mean in relation to Oathbreaker?

Lennart: “Caro was extremely inspired by this 1970’s occult Tarot deck she found on the Internet while writing the lyrics. She decided to pick the cards and write every song about one particular card reflecting life with its highs and lows and while writing she discovered this vertical downward spiral in the lyrics, best visualized by a vortex or maelstrom. When meeting up with Tomas and Vally of WeBecameAware she tried to explain this concept and they came up with how it would look like now. They had this vision of Oathbreaker and what would stick if people would come out to one of our shows and that would definitely involve a huge amount of hair. So they came up with the story of Caro being sucked into a vortex and washing up afterwards and that’s the main idea of the artwork with the amulet fitting right into it.

You guys have such an intense live schedule.  Your music seems perfectly suited a live environment, what are you trying to achieve when performing?  Do you ever get burnt out playing live so much or do you feed off the energy of the audience all the time?

Caro: “ I don’t think I’m ready to get burnt out yet, to me we’re just getting started. I love the intensity and energy of a live performance and I could definitely do this every day.  We’re just trying to create an intense whole package, musically as well as visually that sets some sort of vibe where everything is possible. Like the music takes over and possesses us and we hope to bring the audience that same vibe.”

For the most part the lyrics on Maelstrom seem almost spiritual in nature.  Do you think the lyrics are important and what subject matter does Oathbreaker try to convey with them?  What lyrics on the album do you think are the most personal and which lyrics do you want to reach the audience the hardest and why?

Caro: “I definitely think lyrics are an important part of the music. As said earlier I try to write about things that fascinate me and try to relate those things to my life. But I try to write them in such a way that people can draw their own references from it by layering a lot. I do think the lyrics on maelstrom are much more personal than the lyrics on our EP. I think they all reflect my life in various ways especially the lyrics to origin. It’s based on the fool chart of the Tarot deck and I wanted to subscribe the feeling of balancing on an edge. The feeling that one little breeze could make you fall into the abyss but you still try to look beyond that into the infiniteness, that feeling is the summary of my life. I seem to write a lot about giving your complete self to life but failing to get something in return. That’s why I don’t try to convince people of certain lifestyles or try to force political ideas upon them. We don’t have a straightforward message that comes with our music because we all have such different personalities but to me lyrics are like an outlet and if people can refer to them than that’s great!”

While on the topic of lyrics, one of the last lines in the title track says “Have you ever heard silence stare, I have.”  That line really captures my imagination and I was wondering what it meant to you.  How can we hear silence stare and what would it sound like?  And what would silence be staring at?

Caro: “To me it refers to the difficulties to communicate in certain relations to other people and how a silence can mean so much more in a positive as well as negative way. There’s no how to hearing the silence stare but it’s merely an image or metaphor to how some people lack the skills to make themselves understood. Silences can bear immense quantities of feelings, I think they’re intriguing.”

Being from Belgium, how has your country and local scenes helped you develop your personal views and music in relation to Oathbreaker?  I mean Belgium has a proud heritage of dark and metallic hardcore with such legends as Congress and Liar among others.  So how did the local scene and Belgian society in general affect your artistic output? 

Lennart: ”Us being from Belgium definitely had a huge impact on how we sound as a band. For me, Congress is the band that sparked my interest in metallic hardcore. Josh’s riffs are still part of my musical DNA. I know that our drummer Ivo has also been a big fan of most H8000 bands from his early teens on. Caro and Gilles are probably less influenced by those particular bands, but they’re also from an area that had a booming hardcore scene at the time they got into music. One thing all of us definitely have in common is our love for Rise and Fall, who had a great part in paving the way for bands like us.”

Let’s remain in Belgium a bit longer.  There seems to be a lot of trouble with a fractured government right now.  The king even stepped in to urge a resolution.  How do you view the current state of affairs in Belgian politics and what do you think the solution to this mess will be?  Do politics even concern you?

Caro: ” None of us are actively involved in any political party or movement, but most of us do follow the developments closely. Belgium is a country that has traditionally been strong in making compromises between different regions.  Belgian politicians of the different regions have always been able to see eye to eye and find a suitable compromise for the rather complicated puzzle that is Belgium. However, the last couple of years there’s been a political radicalization on both sides of the language barrier. To please the public opinion, which is more a product of the media than truly the ‘voice of the people’, parties have taken a more rigid attitude towards the other regions. This combination of populism, party politics and – granted – also very difficult questions concerning the current economy have lead to more than a year of negotiations without any result. We do have a government of current affairs to keep things up and running, but there’s no real policy right now. Most of the other EU countries are already in the process of implementing a long term economical policy, while our politicians are still fighting. But just to be clear, Belgium is not on the brink of civil war or something like that. It’s just that the current political landscape seems a bit like a kindergarden right now. “

After watching the video for the track Origin I am left with a definite impression of your passion for Environmental issues.  Is that the case and what do you see as the state of environmental issues across the globe right now?  Do you think governments are doing enough to hold corporations accountable?

Lennart: “ The images in Origin were not so much intended to raise awareness on environmental issues. To us, they showed the forces of nature and how mighty and unstoppable these can be. We liked the raw emotions that those images stir. We often think that we can harness these forces, but once they start manifesting, there is practically nothing we can do. Of course, these phenomena often triggered by human activity, so the video can definitely be seen as an environmental warning, but that was not our original intention.”

There is a documentary coming out here in the USA called If A Tree Falls and is about the Earth Liberation Front.  And it got me thinking, with a lot of hardcore bands espousing a positive environmental outlook and some even espousing a call to action, I was wondering your thoughts on activities such as eco-terrorism and animal liberation.  Are these issues important to you at all?

Lennart:” I am vegan and do feel sympathy for certain animal liberation activities, but as a band that is not a message we want to convey, because not all of us share this point of view. “

Being as Oathbreaker is so busy all the time, what are some of your upcoming plans?  Any new recordings?  And what activities do you have lined up to promote Maelstrom?

Lennart: “Since releasing Maelstrom, we also released a split 7” with my other band Amenra that features a new song Agartha that we’re thrilled about. No other recording plans yet. We’re booking lots of shows now and most probably some bigger or smaller tours will follow.”

I’ll leave any final words of waves reshaping life to you.

Caro: “ Thanks!”