Ludicra

MANIFESTO - You guys' switched labels for this record.  What made you go with Alternative Tentacles as opposed to a more "metal" label like Nuclear Blast or Century Media?

JOHN - They approached us.  It happened pretty quickly.  Someone who works there liked us already...

AESOP -  We had talked about trying to sign with a bigger label,  but we were also really afraid of being ripped off. Alternative Tentacles came at us, and their contract was so beyond fair-it was more appealing to our sensibilities, being from the punk scene. Dave, the general manager at A.T. approached us (Aesop pauses, talking to his four year old son, Ezra). He's been a fan of ours since the beginning, and he's into metal.  He got Jello (Biafra - A.T. founder, Dead Kennedy's Frontman, etc...) to come see us play live.  It happened real fast!

LORI SUE - People with more experience (in the metal scene) seemed to think it would be a bad idea to go with a metal label.  Ross (Sewage, bassist, also of Impaled fame) has had "experiences" with labels, and I worked at Revolver record distribution for 7 years.  I was exposed to that stuff, labels, what not.  We're kinda in the middle, as a band, about being on a non "metal" label.  I just went along with it.

A - Nuclear Blast wasn't exactly knocking on our door!

MANIFESTO - Being on A.T. must attract people who aren't necessarily into black metal...

A - A.T. has always tried to put out an eclectic mix of bands.  They've done heavy stuff before like Neurosis and the Amoebics.

J - I haven't noticed much of a difference.  We get better distribution, though.

MANIFESTO - Being from San Francisco,  how did you get into black metal?

J - I've been in all sorts of bands. I started out playing hardcore - when I was a kid. D.C. hardcore. We were really into Discharge.  I was getting fed up with all the political posturing in that scene, then Venom released "Black Metal".  When that album came out, it was my favorite fucking album in the fucking world! That record changed my outlook on music. (Jon then goes off on a wild tangent about seeing bands like Slayer and Metallica when they were just getting started! -  Witnessing Slayer at a Baltimore dive bar back in '83. Jon and his 7 friends were the only ones there!  True old school metaller!!)

A - Around '94, me and a handful of other people were discovering it (black metal).  It gave me the same feeling as when I discovered punk. Then we saw
Weakling (S.F.'s first real black metal band) and said, "Oh they're doing it, so can we!".

LS - For years, all I did was go see Aesop's punk bands!  We lived in the Mission, and had a lot of the same friends. I was not aware of black metal until someone gave me tapes of Darkthrone, Ulver, and all that kind of stuff. I said "I wish I could be in a band and sing like this!".

MANIFESTO - So had you done any singing like that before?

LS - I tried. Me and my roommate had a band for fun.  We practiced in Aesop's bands' space, trying to do doomy, crusty vocals. Ludicra was my first sense of being exposed to musicians who regard being a musician seriously!

MANIFESTO -Whereas Hollow Psalms was recorded on a shoestring budget in a rehearsal space,  ...Love Song was done at Take Root Studios with Billy Anderson (Melvins, Mr. Bungle).  How was working with him?

LS - It was great. He's a genius at what he does. It was challenging, however. Certainly more frustrating.  It got a little outta hand.  Doing so many tracks,  how do we pick and choose?

A- He's an old friend of ours.  He's real easy to work with.  He just kinda lays back and lets you play.

J - Billy is really good to work with because basically we just set up like at practice.  He came and watched us rehearse to get a feel for the material.  We basically recorded live.

MANIFESTO - Using ProTools, right?

J - Yeah.  This my first time recording exclusively in ProTools.  I wasn't prepared for that ProTools thing of being able to have like 128 tracks! I didn't think we were gonna end up with a mountain of tracks, but that's what happened!

MANIFESTO - Love Song has a sound I can only describe as incredibly dense.  Was this intentional?

A - That was the effect of ProTools.  It was kind of a nightmare for us. Tape kinda limits you. When we sat down to mix we had songs with 60 to 70 tracks. We recorded way more stuff than we needed.

J - We layered lots of guitars and vocals.  There's also a lot of overdubs.  It's so easy with ProTools to fix mistakes.  I'd rather fix the problem now, so that  in 3 years when I'm listening to the album,  there aren't any small mistakes that piss me off!  The album was actually recorded pretty quickly. It was the mixing that took forever! We really had an overwhelming number of tracks to sort through!

MANIFESTO - Anything coming up?

A - Yeah! We're doing a joint split release with The Secret Chiefs (seriously, check this band out!!- ed).  Life is Abuse and Mimicry Records are putting it out. One doing vinyl, and the other doing CD's.

J - I wholeheartedly endorse the idea of that record coming out in a timely fashion!

MANIFESTO - Finally, Aesop, how did it feel to play on a  $4000 trumpet? (Long story made short, back in the day, Aesop's old punk band Hickey got into an altercation with The Voodoo Glow Skulls and subsequently "borrowed" their trumpet as an act of retaliation!)

A - It felt really nice! I was actually getting pretty good, until we returned it! We did return it! -And we made a record about it, which was the biggest selling record I've been a part of!

LS - I heard him play it!

Another Great Love Song is available now at Rasputin's.   Check the bands' website ludicra.org for upcoming shows and news.  I highly recommend their
new albums and definitely go see them live!