Deadsoil founding member Boris Pracht is responsible for performing some crushing guitars on the latest Deadsoil release entitled 'The Venom Divine'. He lists Slayer's 'Regin In Blood', Firestorm by 'Earth Crisis' and Judge's 'No Apologies' amongst his favorite records and the influence of these artists shows through in the heaviness of his efforts. Here, he gives his thoughts on many factors that shape the five headed monster known as Deadsoil…
Interview with Boris Pracht
Death Metal Interviews: You have a fantastic new album, 'The Venom Divine'. Your music is brashly heavy, and the album really grabs hold of the listener and doesn't let up. How do you feel about the way new record turned out?
Boris Pracht: Great you like the stuff. We're really happy with the way everything turned out in the end. We spent a lot of time with preproduction, artwork and the looking for a suitable studio this time. Speaking about the songs itself, they were all written in a relatively short period of time with the band spending all day in the rehearsal room and fighting a lot, ha-ha. Finally, I think it was worth it!
Describe the vision that you had for the band when it first started. Do you feel that you are achieving this vision? Is it a dark force behind Deadsoil?
I wouldn't say we had something special in mind when starting Deadsoil. I mean basically it was more like we knew what not to do again. We already had experiences in dealing with record-labels or booking agents and we more agreed on stuff we wanted to avoid this time. Of course we always wanted to sign to Lifeforce Records as we thought and still think they're a solid partner and we can grow with them. The deal with Tribunal Records for the U.S. version of our last MCD came more by accident. Matt loved our stuff and we couldn't say no to his offer. We constantly set ourselves new goals, I guess like every band does, but letting stuff happen is also a great tactic – you cannot be disappointed so easily.
It was obviously to the betterment of the group when you got new singer. Do you feel that this addition completed the chemistry that is heard on the new record?
We've had a lot of trouble with singers, yeah. We started with Marcel on vocals, but he felt he has to quit after we released the MCD due to heavy schedule at his work and his will to concentrate on that. That brought us into a quite long period of trying out new singers that took a lot of our energy. Finally I talked to Friedrich at a show of his other band Since The Day and we ended up feeling he should try and fill the empty spot. Looking back from now it was a great decision as he is an amazing and skilled singer and equally important became a good friend. It's much easier to work on songs now as he is also a good guitar-player which is for sure a plus!
Your band has toured throughout Europe, what have been the highlights of these adventures? Of these highlights, what do you feel has been your absolute best live performance?
Difficult question... We have had to chance to play on so many amazing shows already, that it's hard to pick one. I guess for us personally I would for sure want to mention our appearance at the Bilbao HC Fest in Spain, some of the show on tour with Hatesphere and lately an amazing show we played two weeks ago in Muenster with Caliban in a sold out club in front of 700 kids that went totally nuts during the whole set. Great show!
What was it like while you were recording the album? Tell us about the techniques you used in the studio in order to get such a heavy guitar tone. Do you feel that the recording is an accurate representation of the band in a live setting?
Considering the fact that we didn't change a lot on the amp sound in the studio, I would say that it is indeed an accurate representation of our live sound! We went to Berno Studios in Sweden to record the CD and it was very good to work with the people there! Talking about the techniques of recording, we didn't invent anything new. We recorded the drums first with a guitar followed by the actual guitars that we doubled, added the bass and the vocals in the end.
Which of the tracks on the record was the most difficult to record? How did you overcome the difficulty and what did you learn from recording this album?
Before entering the studio we had a hard time to get all the songs together in the first place because a little over a week before we started to record, we kicked almost half of the songs and/or started them over again. We even had to finish one song in the studio, but in the end it turned out quiet good I guess, which made it a bit more difficult to record. I also figured out that it totally makes sense to use headphones while recording in order to hit the drums perfectly. If you don't use headphones and just sit in front of a speaker while adding or doubling the guitars, the sound takes some fragments of a second until it reaches your ears and you might be slightly off track.
Tell us about the circumstances surrounding the deal with Lifeforce… What do you get by working with them that you cannot receive elsewhere and how does that help you to move forward as a band?
Since we've known Stefan quite some time now, we know about the way he works and we also took notice of what he did for bands like Caliban and Heaven Shall Burn, so it was a clear thing that we wanted to work together with Lifeforce in the future. After we released our first MCD "Forever the Enemy" – you should check out the U.S. version of that on Tribunal Records – we played tons of shows, which he also noticed. We had some conversations from time to time and I asked him if he would like to release our new CD, and he was totally into doing it, so we ended up on Lifeforce Records! I think that brought us some more attention then we might have gotten on a different HC/Metal Label due to his good connections and awesome reputation, we also take profit from it!
The group has only been together for a little over two years now. The record has been getting some really good press, how does this affect the members of the group. Do you feel that you are poised to take the next step? How has the members past experiences in bands helped you to achieve these goals and to what do you attribute your apparently quick rise in popularity?
The response from press was amazing; we didn't expect it to be anything like that, really! Right now we do not think too much about the new material we're about to write; now we want to enjoy playing the songs from "The Venom Divine" live as much as we can. I guess that's also an important and relaxing time for the band to see people like the songs we perform. We will think about writing new stuff between our U.S. tour in February and our European tour in May. I don't think there will be too much pressure in the band in the direction that we have to write a better album than "The Venom Divine". We'll just see what kind of riffs will come – pretty relaxed about that now, ha-ha. Our experience with recording songs is of great help there I guess. And it was also of great help gaining interest within the hardcore and metal scene within a relatively short period of time. Of course people knew some of our last bands and with Poisonfree Booking we had a great start getting the chance to tour with great bands such as Poison The Well and Open Hand and spread our music.
Does the band intend to record another project soon? What could we expect from future Deadsoil material in terms of concept, content and sound?
Right now we are concentrating on live appearances and not that much on writing new songs, even though we already have tons of ideas and riffs to work with. The new material will definitely be more brutal and maybe a little less metal, but it's almost impossible to talk about the new material before it's done at all. No concept, just in-your-face music!
Let's talk about your songwriting process. Do you prefer to write all of the songs at once, or are they written over a period of time? How do you put it all together, do riffs and rhythms come first, vocals, drums, lyrics?
All the songs for both records have been collected through months. Whenever we had an idea we put it together and tried out in what way it would sound the best. Chris, our drummer and I basically wrote the last record. But also our singer contributed a song that he did due that he's also a very good guitar player. I guess for the next record we might do it a little different. We probably take some time off to write the new material and we won't collect it over a long period. Most of the time someone has a riff or an idea, we show it to the rest of the dudes and decide whether to take it or not, we add drums to it and try to combine it with other riffs and add a structure to it. Once done we add bass and vocals. Recently we also started doing the songwriting at home by using a drum computer, finishing the songs at home and try to see how it sounds when we play it ourselves at a rehearsal. But I think the songwriting process will be a mix of everything in the future.
Whom do you see as the most talented bands emerging in the European scene today?
There are first of all the bands you might also know in the states such as Heaven Shall Burn or Caliban, which are the leading European bands in the metalcore scene right now. But there's so many more really talented bands coming up now such as Cataract, Japanische Kampfhorspiele or Since The Day that are worth checking out.
Describe for us the types of people that attend a Deadsoil show. What have been the comments of the fans in regards to your concerts? What seems to be their favorite part of the show? Tell us about the craziest Mosh Pit you have ever had…
It's the metalcore crowd we normally play in front of I would say. There are so many new and young kids starting to go to hardcore shows that seem to come more from the independent or new-metal areas which is great because they bring a lot of "fresh air" into the hardcore scene belonging to the older kids. Nowadays metalcore shows easily draw several hundred kids who go totally crazy with moshing, doing circle-pits or so-called "walls of death" that it's hard to pick one show that's outstanding because of people moshing. The atmosphere is getting crazier and crazier at shows; people are freaking out when Friedrich tells them to, ha-ha. I guess it's the animation they get from the band that makes them start, not a special song or something like that.
What does each of the members usually do after a show? Tell us about how you usually spend your time when you are not focused on the music…
You're talking about real life? Mmh, Chris and I work as freelancers in a graphic-agency, Friedrich is a gardener, Jens studies Social Work and Stefan runs a record-label named Bastardized Recordings. The band is taking quite a lot of our energy and time, so there's nothing special we do when not being with Deadsoil – hanging out with friends, working, having a good time.
Tell us about the concert where you have had the most in attendance. What kind of feeling did their response give you? Does the crowd help you to put forth a better performance?
I cannot really say what's better, playing in front of thousand of kids or in a really packed club. Of course at big festivals it is amazing standing in front of so many kids that seem to like your performance and definitely that helps yourself playing a better set, for sure! We can't wait to perform at festivals like With Full Force this year where we're gonna perform in front of so many kids. But like 2 weeks ago we played in a packed sold-out club with like 700 kids who went totally crazy, singing along, stage-diving, several pits and stuff. I can tell you our performance was good as well that night, ha-ha.
You guys have a really great website. Do you feel the Internet has helped your band? What can we expect to see on the website in the future? Anything special planned?
I definitely think that the Internet helps the band a lot to get our music spread. You can reach so many more people by using the Internet as a platform for bands. We have an account on www.myspace.com and also on www.purevolume.com and we got a lot of emails from people telling us that they like us a lot but probably wouldn't have heard of us at all if not on the internet! As for our website, we gonna post our video that we did for "History Retold" a couple of days ago as soon as it is finished. We are also thinking about some give-away-games and fun stuff soon, but just come back checking out the website from time to time and you will see for yourself! www.deadsoil.net
Can you tell us about the gear that you use live? How close do you come to matching the tones on the record, or is the live environment different sound-wise for the band?
Jens and I, we both use the Peavy UltraPlus full tube amp head with a Peavey and a Laney 4x12 speaker cabinet plus some noise gate and effect stuff. We use ESP and Music Man guitars and basses combined with Ernie Ball strings. Stefan our bass player uses Ampeg Head and the big Cab that looks like a fridge, ha-ha. Since I have no idea about drumming gear I just can guess as far as I remember, that Chris uses a Pearl drum kit, but don't ask me which one. All I know for sure is that he uses Agner drumsticks. As you can read above, the live sound is kind of similar to the sound of the record, as far as you can compare both environments.
What influences the band, musicians, emotions, events, ambitions…what drives you to play this style of music?
An important part is of course the energy I was just talking about. I love seeing the kids go crazy because of our music. It's probably way better than playing a type of music where the audience is just standing around watching you. It's also important for us personally as band members having the chance of using the music to let out emotions on stage. I guess people can feel that we love playing this particular style of music.
What type of contact do you have with your fans? How do you interact with them and in what ways does this affect Deadsoil?
I guess we have a pretty close contact to our fans like it's the case with most hardcore bands. We like to talk to people after the show, like at our merch booth. That's also something you can take a lot of power out of – you meet kids telling you what they liked about your performance or what they preferred the last time they saw you – all kinds of reactions. Of course, this also affects you in your work as a band.
Please tell our readers about the biggest hardship you have had to overcome in order to bring your music to the people. Do you think that overcoming this obstacle was something that was necessary for the band to succeed or could it have been avoided?
I guess the hardest thing in the past was the time until we found Friedrich as singer. Of course from nowadays I can say that this was the best that could happen for Deadsoil, but like 2 years ago I was freaking out quite some time whenever we tried a new singer and it didn't work out the way we wanted it. It seemed to take forever and slowed us down quite a bit.
What aims to you strive to achieve in the music business?
Of course, we want our records to be sold. I guess that's what every musician wants because it's a great feeling having people who like what you put so much energy into. Generally of course we want to get the chance of getting a good slot on interesting tours and playing shows as much as we can. What we do not plan is the general future of the band. We know what we want to avoid in dealing with record labels and booking agents, but we do not want to plan every single step the band has to go. There's people helping the band with their knowledge and experience and it's also great to see stuff is happening without you planning every single step of it.
Who in the band has played an instrument seriously for the longest period of time?
That's really hard to say as we're all playing in bands for like a decade now. So everyone is probably playing an instrument seriously at least since then, ha-ha.
Tell us a bit about each member of the band. What are their hobbies, pastimes, likes, dislikes, skills…
Friedrich, our singer is also playing in Since The Day, is living with Stefan like 200 miles away from the rest of the band. He really loves his job as a gardener being outside all day. He is playing guitar like all the time and goes to the gym every free minute. I guess he nevertheless wants to quit his job this summer to be able to fully focus on his musical career, on vocals and guitar and studying music. Jens still plays guitar in Night In Gales as well, he is almost done with his studies of Social Work, therefore he's writing a lot of exams right now. I honestly don't know if he is doing anything else besides the music. You can hardly see him without guitar, ha-ha. Chris used to work in a graphic-agency, but he hardly had enough time for the bands' touring activities, so right now he's quitting this job and is going back to school which is quite an advantage for us I hope, ha-ha. Stefan is studying educational sciences, peace- and conflict research and psychology and is running Bastardized Recordings besides that. His main focus besides the band should be his wife, ha-ha. He loves everything connected with food. I myself work as a freelancer in a graphic-agency so I can pretty much decide myself when to work and when to tour, which is great.
Who has been the person outside of the group who has had the most tremendous impact on the band's success?
Mmm, hard to say. I would say it's for sure Stefan from Lifeforce Records and Arne from Lifeforce Promotion as well as the local promotion agencies working with and for the band and spread the word. For sure there's also the Radar Publishing team and M.A.D-Tour booking who helped the band a lot.
Tell us about some of the things you do during the performance in order to make it special for the fans. Besides in your country, where have you drawn the best crowd? Not necessarily the biggest, but the best?
That's something every one of you should check out when seeing us live! Concerning the second part of the question: I think I need to mention the shows in Spain where people totally went out of control, amazing! No experience about the states yet, but ask me again in about two months, ha-ha. The tour package is amazing; shows can't be too bad, ha-ha.
What is the craziest thing that has ever happened to the band that made an impact on the band or changed it in some way?
I guess I mentioned some of that before. No hard stories will be dropped here, ha-ha, although there's quite some to mention. It has to remain a secret!
Do the band members enjoy other styles of music, how do other artists influence the group, if at all…
Of course! We have a wide variety of music the band members listen to, starting at jazz or easy listening stuff, going through metal and hardcore, reaching hip-hop or easy dance-tunes. We pretty much listen to everything, although I think this does not influence our way of writing music, at least not directly.
If you could do just one more thing in your musical career, what would it be?
That's a tough question, really! I guess you have goals you want to achieve, always. But when you managed to achieve them you set new goals that are more difficult to achieve. It's almost impossible to say ONE thing we would love to achieve and then say goodbye. It's the whole process that makes it such a great experience when you're involved with music. The goals are the gimmicks that make it more fun doing what you would also do if you wouldn't reach a goal. To name something it would maybe be a great tour with bands we're fans of!
