Samsara Blues Experiment Interview: Going the Distance
Few bands’ demos struck a chord like Samsara Blues Experiment‘s did in 2008. The lush German four-piece — leader Christan Peters (ex-Terraplane) on vocals, guitar and sundries, Hans Eiselt on guitar, Richard Behrens on bass and recording engineering, and Thomas Vedder on percussive elements — produce a rich jam-based heavy psychedelia that echoes the creative freedom that birthed it. And yet, as we see in the interview with Peters and Behrens below, the process by which the expansive songs come together is nearly as complex and multi-layered as the tracks themselves.
Samsara Blues Experiment‘s recently reviewed full-length, Long Distance Trip, is set for release this year via World in Sound Records. The album contains the two songs that made up the demo, plus an assortment of new adventures just waiting to be discovered. Thanks to Peters and Behrens for the time and clearly-evident thought (and emoticons) they put into their answers for the Q&A, which can be found immediately following the jump. Please enjoy.
What has it been like for you starting this band after Terraplane? How did everything come together for SBE and how was the decision made to bring Hans into the band?
Christian Peters: The last months in Terraplane have been a bit frustrating, due to personal issues and all the lineup changes. Seems like with every half year we had to start all over again. We played some last shows in Spring/Early Summer ‘07 and even if most of them turned out pretty good, for me it was time for a change. Then the first rehearsals with SBE were just like one big relief, even when or because these were only free jamming sessions with my mates Florian Furtner (bass) and Rob Green (drums)… it was a heavy load of fun…
Then in August I moved to Berlin. I had to change all over again and after a long period of almost one year I found new band members. The first “Berlin lineup” has been Michele Gambararra on rhythm guitar, Richard, Thomas and me. Anyway, while recording the first demo we saw that Michele’s style (his main influence is more extreme metal) didn’t fit with SBE and decided to proceed as a three-piece. But we began to miss the punch of two guitars, so we started looking for a new guitarist. Hans was a buddy of Richard’s and fit the job almost perfectly, so he became our “latest addition” and since then did pretty well.
How did you wind up with World in Sound for the release of Long-Distance Trip?
CP: In fact, World in Sound Records have been one of the very first labels to show interest — shortly after the demo release in late Summer 2008. We also had a bunch of other offers, also Craig Williamson (Lamp of the Universe) who became one of our first fans, offered a CD release on Astral Projection. World in Sound remained with the best deal and it’s also a little advantage when everybody speaks the same language and you can catch him by the phone you know.
How important is it to you to get the record out on vinyl? With such a natural, organic sound, it seems to be a great fit.
CP: You just mentioned it ;-). It is still the best medium to release “real music.” We listen to LPs, we hardly ever buy a CD. I only buy a CD when there’s really no other chance to get the music — which should be like two out of 100 releases.
Do you feel that giving the demo away for free online helped spread the word in a way MySpace couldn’t? There’s obviously a big difference in sound quality.
CP: I think so. Who’s buying a demo from a band they never saw live, never really listened to? A very few… For instance, Terraplane never received half of this attention before their first label release. Times have changed, I think for the better and especially internet — free demos and MySpace — helps a lot to promote music. In the last months I’ve seen many bands offering their music for free, that seems bitter on the one hand because you get no money, but on the other hand we are small independent bands and happy if there’s someone to listen to our music, right?
The problem with MySpace is that our songs are too long to offer them in hearable quality. So it was only natural to put up the first demo for free. Nonetheless — and thanks to playing live — in one year we sold like 800 copies of the demo (s/t and the USA-version), which is still pretty good I think.
What made you decide to re-record “Singata (Mystic Queen)” and “Double Freedom,” and was there anything special about placing them first and last with all the new tracks in between?
Richard Behrens: The sound quality on the EP was really not the best so we decided to record these essential tracks again, as they are meant to be heard! I think the position of the songs on the album goes along with our live set, which always starts with “Singata” and concludes in the monolithic “Double Freedom” jam.
CP: These songs just had to be recorded in better versions, no question. Both songs are very personal parts of my history; “Singata” is the only song that Green Monkey — the “Bastard” child of Terraplane — ever wrote, but we never had it recorded before. Only the few lyrics have been added in the first SBE jams. While “Double Freedom” is a dedication to my wife and so one of the most important songs of my life.
Tell me about the recording process for the album. Where was it made? Did you use tape or digital? Do you think it matters one or the other?
RB: We first thought about going to a studio, but this idea was very soon replaced by the decision of just doing everything by ourselves, so we would have complete control on the musical result and of course on the costs. Fortunately I had an education in audio engineering, so we put up a little studio setup in our rehearsal room, borrowed a couple of mics and tube preamps and recorded everything live on eight tracks on my Macbook… many overdubs should follow. So we did this digitally. The big advantage is that it is cheap and you can edit and do what you want with the recording very, very easily. Tape and the maintenance of big tape recorders up to 24 tracks is expensive, man, believe me! Also when you record on tape the whole band needs much more discipline while playing and reduce the music only to its important tracks… I wished I would have a tape every time Chris came up with like six more synth tracks which he had recorded at home ;)… but maybe next time! Within the last months more and more bands have come to record at our little studio… so I am expanding it to become a real studio these days (we call it the Big Snuff studio).
CP: I think I am a bit too fuzzy for analog machines and yeah I would need tons of tapes… I think — for the final sound — it matters much more how you play — your skills — and what kind of instruments, effects or amplification you use. Surely also microphones and media have some importance, but I think that’s rather few when you look at this big fat fuzzing thing which is SBE right now. And hey of course you might use a digital vibrato-effect on your guitar, but how does that sound? Rather crappy! You can correct your vocal lines whatever. For what use? That’s surely not the thing we are thinking of by saying “we recorded on a computer”… And yeah it was a Mac anyway…
How was it for you guys playing those shows on the West Coast of the US? What was the response to the band like? How would the shows compare to playing in Berlin and other places in Germany?
CP: From the “emotional side of view” it was just amazing. I mean it’s like everybody’s dream to tour across America or at least play in some of his “favourite cities” — the ones that we know from a million movies and actually have had some pretty naive ideas before we’ve been there. Anyway, in my opinion the West Coast is one of the most exciting parts of the States. Playing live in L.A., San Francisco, Seattle, of course this is something very special. It was a great, almost overwhelming experience — not just playing, also being on that continent with all its natural wonders. I — I guess all of us –really fell in love with the Redwoods and the Pacific Ocean. Especially the area around Santa Cruz and Big Sur, but also the vibe of SF is unforgettable. I am very grateful for this big chance and just hope to come back as soon as ever possible — even if not only for touring!!!
The response on our music was mostly very good and I would not say that the audiences here or there differ so much from each other, it always depends on the people individually if they might “freak out” or just look at you from a distance and nonetheless might really enjoy the music. It’s always interesting to see how people react.
The one thing I really didn’t like in the States is how clubs treat bands. I mean most times you get no food, no place to sleep and for the little money after the show you feel like you have to beg for it. We take these things for granted in Germany, even if there are some few poor exceptions also here.
The jams on the record are absolutely massive. How much of that is improvised in the writing process? Are those parts planned out, or do they just happen as the songs are coming together? Are the jams different every time, or is what’s on the album the way it’s played live?
CP: Every song contains at least one jam part which will give us enough freedom to improvise and so — although all our songs are still structured — they won’t ever be 100 percent identical. We jammed a bit while recording the album, that’s obvious ;-). To me this Long Distance Trip feels like “floating and floating and suddenly there’s some whoaaaaaaaaaaa… I can’t get any higher…” I don’t know how to explain better, haha. Let’s say the album reflects a good SBE-concert as it could have happened in 2009. Only “Wheel Of Life” is this kind of intermezzo. We never played this one live, also because I would need to play four tracks of acoustic guitar alone by myself.
RB: I really like to play these songs live when everything around us affects the way we play… the lights, the high volume, the audience, the sweat in our eyes and so on, it’s unique every time! During the recording sessions we tried to capture this energy in playing live together. You may have less recording tracks and some guitar signals on the drum-mics, but you get to record much more energy — especially in our kind of music.
With so many influences and different elements added to the songs – sitar, synth, effects, organ, etc. – how do you know when a song is finished? Does it ever feel like too much, and how do you handle all those parts live?
RB: I think none of these songs will ever be finished! We just decided to leave them as they were at one point and put them on the record. I think everyone is lucky with it and we like the sound… maybe we would have done everything different only a few months later… but like every band, we wanted to capture the energy of the moment. We didn’t want to produce it in a rather “artificial way,” it should turn out the way we really sound!
CP: Absolutely right, in some parts I always change the lyrics and then we use other effects and even instruments and you feel like the songs will never be finished. And yeah, sometimes on some point this record really felt like too much… “Center of the Sun” had like 40 recording tracks and more than half of them were played or sung by me. So yeah, we had to delete some material. I often work very intuitive, while Richard, who had a real big influence on the final sound, works more practical. So we try to get together there for the best possible result.
In our concerts we try to integrate sitar and synths since the first time we played in Germany, but since the concert in Rome where we could take only the most necessary gear with us due to flight restrictions we became a more classical rock outfit when playing live. It’s also quite complicated to carry all of our stuff, as still we don’t own a tour van but on the other hand have a lot of gear. Sitar needs extensive sound checks and often stages are too small for all that stuff. As the result of this we concentrate on the most important issues and so can give another, in my opinion, refreshing impact of our music without too much “distraction.” Which doesn’t mean that from time to time I might play sitar and synths, if the occasion fits ;-).
I saw you’re doing a string of shows with Lucid in March. Any other tour plans, and any chance of coming back to the US in 2010?
CP: We’d like to play some festivals in Summer. There’s so many places where I would love to play, like the Roadburn Fest or the ancient Greek theater of Taormina in Sicily ;-). This year I’d love to play UK, Ireland and France, but we have not much contacts yet. We thought about coming back to the USA in 2011 and maybe do some more shows on the East and Central parts, but who knows? Who knows!
Samsara Blues Experiment on MySpace
Tags: Berlin, Germany, Samsara Blues Experiment, World in Sound
