Primordial RAW transcript Part 1

This is the transcript accompanying 'Primordial interview pt1: You took the words right out of my mouth, it must have been when you were using a smoke machine'. It includes near-word-for-word transcription of Nemtheanga and get-the-gist renditions of my questions and comments, and also includes [in square brackets] notes on noises the interviewee made, intuitions about their feelings, reflections on my interviewing and the like. I try to keep these to a minimum...


Primordial transcript #1

Schwaz: Did you ever figure out what it actually was that made you lose your voice at Bloodstock?

Nemtheanga: Well, what it seems to have been is something called temporary vocal chord paralysis. It seems to have been an allergic reaction to a certain chemical in the smoke machine. I do remember being on the stage at the time, singing fine, and literally [pauses] I remember thinking to myself: fucking hell, I’ve never experienced smoke that intense on the stage – literally, you couldn’t even see the crowd at some stages. And I remember taking a big, well [slight chuckle], breath of it basically and from one line to the next my voice just completely disappeared – well, obviously. What can you do? I guess I’ve done 400-and-something gigs and that’s the first time it’s ever happened [emphasises the last two words, frustration showing through his voice]. Sod’s law that it had to happen at that particular moment. But, you know, what can you do? You just have to take it on the chin and go: OK, well... [trails off, his last words echoing disappointment] You know?

S: Could see how much it bothered: know he’s the kind of person who is frustrated not being able to give his all. But for us watching it was kind of a special show, despite the disappointment of not being able to see Primordial in their full glory [I hate listening to this bit of the recording as I actually said, ‘Primordial in their full… whatever’, pretentiously wanting to avoid the glory cliché but coming up empty on something better - I feel like an MP, relying on Hansard to sort out my speech later on, thus this confession, a search for absolution]. It was great to be with everyone else at that gig and try to sing along. What was interesting was that it revealed how difficult it is, even when you’re quite a fan, to remember exactly where the vocal patterns go [Alan has what sounds like an understanding laugh] when there isn’t a person who knows them by heart leading you through a microphone, and all you have is the music heard out in the open air at a volume that drowns the tune of your voice [I didn’t explain all that to Alan, but that is what a former interviewee I shall call Warhelmet would call ‘the propaganda version’: covers all the logical bases, the way some musicians do in email interviews but only the least interesting to talk to in person actually produce as responses]. You know what I mean?

N: Well I mean… You know, look, the whole thing was… It was very cool, it was quite, I suppose quite touching or moving or something, to hear everyone singing, to realise that that was the level of people’s support or the popularity of the band or [he trails off with a noise like a shrug – like he feels to go on would be superfluous speculation]. You know, that obviously the lyrics or the message in the band means that much to people that they know all the words. And yeah, I mean it was, it was… it will be remembered. I’m sure that it will be remembered. Not for reasons I would want it to be. Ummm, I mean, it never crossed my mind that we should stop or stop playing or anything. To be honest, what we should have done is let our drummer sing, cause he can sing really well. But at the time you don’t think of these things. But I mean what can you do? You just have to take it on the chin and go, alright, this is sods law and if you play X amount of gigs I suppose eventually you’re going to play one where your voice gives in, you know?

S: I remember the drummer saying he could sing and you could scream. Maybe that was just too difficult to rig up at the time?

N: No it wasn’t too difficult. I couldn’t actually make a single noise. I couldn’t even whisper. I couldn’t do anything, at all. He can actually sing really well. He sings Irish Shanoh [phonetic reproduction, guessed it was Caoineadh based on a quick wikipedia search: need to follow this up, get it right] songs and he’s a very good singer. So if we’d thought of it or there was a headset he probably could have sang, actually.

S: Maybe you should have him sing some other time just because it would be good.

AN: [chuckles] Yeah. [there is a note of bitterness, on relistening I feel my laugh after the above was ill-chosen, came across almost snidy when it was meant to just express that though such a phenomena would be irregular, I’d be interested to hear ‘the drummer’ alongside Alan – I have now looked up his name, it’s Simon Ó Laoghaire]