S: So these are your
first UK club shows in quite a while, right?
N: Three or four years
I guess, yeah.
S: Is there anything
that has made you avoid that or is it just a case of what the band
has been offered and what one has time to do?
N: It really depends
on what you’ve been offered. I mean, four or five years ago, I
don’t really think there was a climate to do maybe a week or
something in the UK. I don't know, you know? I mean, look, we did...
the last time we played four or five, maybe six dates was with
Rotting Christ in 2003, and a lot of those days were, to be honest,
quite pointless, you know? Like 23 people in Cardiff and this that
and the other. It's just that now, at the age that we are, the
responsibilities that we have, that kind of thing – not that we're
ancient or anything, but we just can't do that any more. We cannot
do, we cannot do, errrr [he pauses, thinking of the best example] a
Wednesday show to 50 people any more, it just doesn't work like that
in our lives. And we also can't do a Friday or Saturday show to 100
people. It's just... We're not Marduk or Vader or Rotting Christ, it
just doesn't work likes that. It has to be... It has to be, more or
less, this way. I mean, it's nothing particular, it's just all those
tours that we've done... you know, unless they go to Paris, it's very
seldom that they'll go to London, you know? It's really not very much
to do with us, you know?
S: There is only a
given amount of time that any band has. The older you get as a band,
the more responsibilities one has outside of the band, the more you
have to pick carefully.
N: This is true, but
also the fact that we aren't a professional band, that we don't make
our living from Primordial. Maybe if we were twenty-two or
twenty-three we could have thrown our hats in the ring and gone,
'Right, let's take everything that we're offered. Let's tour for
three months...' and this that and the other. But that's just not the
way life has worked out, you know?
S: That's just
what I was thinking. If you don't mind talking about it, I was going
to ask about how it is to be in the business of being a metal band
but not to have it be a professional gig. I gather it requires a lot
of discipline, in your lives in general.
AN: Well I mean... You
know, there's no pension plan in heavy metal. [chuckles] You know? I
mean, it's different for me as I don't have [pauses] kids or family
or, you know, some of the bills to pay that some of the other guys
do. Mortgages and this kind of thing and stuff. And it's just, when
you have those responsibilities... And also Ireland is a very
expensive country to live in. You know, it's not like the money we
have goes as far as it might do for Vader or Behemoth in Poland or,
you know, something like this. It's not like in Scandinavia where you
can apply for grants from the state or anything like this. It just
doesn't work like this so, um [pauses] the balancing act between
picking the things that you're able to do, that financially make
sense. And of course, in the current economic climate in Ireland, if
you have a job you really have to hold onto it, which means that
maybe some of the, um, leeway you might have been allowed with your
job four or five years ago, as regards to like unpaid leave, just
doesn't really exist any more. So yeah, it's just a balancing act,
you know? Like anything else. We do enough, but maybe we don't do as
much as we'd like, but we do enough to be able to, you know, to make
it sort of sort of tick over, you know?
S: Yes absolutely. I
mean, would you do a lot more shows if you had the ability? Some
bands get to the point where they don't want to do shows at all. Some
people even - professional musicians: Kate Bush is an example -
actually avoid doing shows because of all the things that it
involves. I just wonder how much of your life per year would you want
to spend on the road in any case?
N: Most of it,
probably. [laughs] It suits me. You know, I mean that's what I like.
I don't really like being in the studio, you know, it bores me. You
know, people being in a heavy metal or rock band
complaining[emphasis] about being on the road I mean that's... You
know, you don't realise what sort of opportunity you've been given to
see the world. Well, maybe the toilets of the world but you're still
[breaks into laughter, as does his interviewer] seeing the world. I
would do way more if I was able. It just doesn't
necessarily work out like that, you know? Like I said, we do enough
that there is things to do, but you know, trying to get away for more
than 14 to 20 days at any one time, I mean... That said, you know, if
you were, I don't know, the Vaders or Rotting Christs of this world,
doing a hundred days, ninety day tours in a hundred days and stuff, I
don't know whether that would suck the joy out of it, you know? But
if that's you're living that's also your living, you know? The other
thing I just thought: if we were a professional band then we would
have to, probably, make an album every 18 months at least, you know,
which, ummmm, might[emphasis] impinge on the creativity of the music,
you know? If we had[emphasis] to do it.
S: Yeah. That ability
to do not be tied to the constant album cycle I think, for Primordial
at least, is certainly an advantage. I mean, 'The Gathering
Wilderness' was a pretty good record, but 'To the Nameless Dead' and
'Redemption' are really outstanding pieces of work and it's really
nice to see that you've actually got some mainstream recognition for
them and that sort of thing. But I think, if you're carrying on
making records that good, it's good that you're not having to make
them on someone else's schedule.
N: Yeah, I mean it's
not impossible. I mean the only thing is that don't forget that, you
know, when you pick up the new Primordial album and you compare it to
the new Satyricon album you have to make [pauses, wry chuckle] a
judgement there that here is a band who are professional musicians
who can... Hey, that's what they do is make music. So this is what
they can do for the whole week whereas we might rehearse, I don't
know, once every six weeks sometimes. [interviewer exclaims 'Wow']
Yeah, sometimes not for two or three months if there's nothing to do.
When you're having to juggle all the other things in your life
with[emphasis] trying to be creative as well, it's very difficult to
find that... that equilibrium, that balance, you know? So I think
that's probably something that most people don't appreciate but, you
know, that's life, what can you do, you just get on with it.
S: I think it doesn't
show, if you see what I mean. It doesn't show that Primordial aren't
practising every week. I think there's something
about what you do or how you do it that makes it hold together in any
case. It has a very strong feeling to it. That's a very weak way to
put it but what I'm reminded of is when I was lucky enough to go and
see you in Greece and how those shows went and that sort of thing. I
think opportunities like that are a wonderful thing for a band like
you to be able to take up.
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