Interview Deadspace (By Carla Morton)

Interview with Chris Gebauer, the vocalist of the Depressive Black metal band Deadspace from Australia.
Greetings Chris, how are things going?
Hey Carla. Very good thanks. I am just enjoying the winter here in Australia before it gets disgustingly hot again.

When was Deadspace formed?
Last year (late 2014) I started writing a record on my own. I wanted to play some guitar (I was playing drums in my last band). I wrote the record, in about a week. It was all ambient soundtrack style stuff. Then I went on tour with Shining (SWE) and Marduk in Japan with my old band. I was obviously a fan before the tour, I spent most of my earlier years as a teen smashing black metal records. But it was on this tour that I realised what I wanted to do with the sound. To strip everything bare from around me, create my own euphoric reality to live in and get to the very core of what it means to me to be human.

This year you have released the debut album, ”The Promise of Oblivion”, tell me about it.
So after returning from that tour, Deadspace was born. “The Promise of Oblivion” was written and recorded, in its entirety, in 4 days. I literally only stopped recording to get 1 or 2 hours sleep or some coffee/vodka/speed. The record is manically fuelled by lack of sleep, substance abuse and isolation. After the record was recorded, I roped in my good friend Drew Griffiths (Ur Draugr/Bezun/Onomy/Sadly now ex Deadspace) into the project. Well I guess he was involved a little earlier considering he handled all mixing, mastering additional vocals, bass and co-writing of lyrics for the whole record. Then I thought, this thing needs the love of good guitar players. So I gave Nish Raghavan (Xenobiotic/Deadspace) a few songs that I had deliberately left room for solos in. He had never really listened to black metal so and I think that this offsets the general mood quite well. What a lot of people don’t know is that the solo on the last track ‘In the Coldness of the Darkest Night’ was all improvised and recorded by an old friend of mine Alex Borsa. Alex never played in the band so most people don’t know about it.
Did you receive good reviews about the album?
Well that question requires an answer with a bit of context. When we put out ‘Promise’, we thought “Oh fuck, this is going to get fucking ripped apart by elitist metal fans. It’s not ‘true’ black metal (and it isn’t) or even true metal actually.” It’s got this 80s Goth Rock element to it, the solos sound like they’re off a Pink Floyd record and there is not one blast beat on the album. So we thought we were fucked but so far, there has not been one review under 7/10 or 4/5. Everybody that has reviewed it has only spoken very highly of it. Obviously this does not mean there aren’t people that don’t like it. I just haven’t read anything of that nature as of yet. I was on tour in Europe, playing drums in Earth Rot, when all these reviews started coming in. That’s when I decided that this is what I wanted to do in the immediate future.

What are the lyrical themes and who mainly writes the lyrics?
All of the lyrics for “The Promise of Oblivion” were written by myself and Drew Griffiths. The lyrical concept for the record (and foundation of the band) was to try and express all aspects, harsh truths, triumphs, failures, weaknesses and downfalls of being human. It is acknowledgement of mortality, depression, illness, hope, nostalgic longing, agony, hatred and power. The record is really a celebration of freedom. The human condition, where there is dark and there is light but there is choice. The choice to live, love, breathe, rebel, destroy or leave.

Any influences?
Every second of life is an influence. When we wrote this record, we stopped listening to music for a bit. We wanted to write something that was purely conceived out of passion and emotion. But musically speaking there are obviously depressive metal bands like Shining, Thy Light, Forgotten Tomb, Ghost Bath, Xasthur (to name a just a few). We are also into bands like Watain, Taake and Anaal Nathrakh but also bands like Placebo, The Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails, etc. Possibly what makes the band the way it is, is how the ambient/post rock elements and the 80s Goth Rock vibes creep into the sound. Bands like God Is an Astronaut and Mogwai being thrown in the same mix as Sisters of Mercy, The Cult and even newer bands like She Wants Revenge and Beastmilk (Now Grave Pleasures). Additionally, our guitar player Oliver is in his final year of a university course, studying classic music performance as a pianist. Nish is also in his final year at the same university, studying contemporary fusion guitar performance.

Are there any shows confirmed for this year?
At this point we’re only playing in Australia. We are working on a new record (actually we are already in near final stages) with Sam Allen at Electric City Studios (Perth) and establishing ourselves in our own country. We will very soon be looking at playing abroad, hopefully coming to Europe first.

Do you have a message for the Deadspace fans?
The only message we have for anyone so far is in the record. Please feel free to check it out on our Bandcamp (https://deadspacecollective.bandcamp.com/album/the-promise-of-oblivion) or visit our online store for a physical copy (www.deadspace.bigcartel.com). Thank you for all your support.

Thank you Chris for your time, all the best!
My pleasure, until next time!

https://www.facebook.com/deadspacecollective