David Jordan (LONG DISTANCE CALLING): art on music

BANDS : Long Distance Calling

If 10 years ago someone had told me I would become a big fan of the progressive post/rock subgenre, I would have sent him to a shrink for a quick check-up. And, since back then there was no such thing as Long Distance Calling, I would have been within my rights, because I would have never, never believed that music can evolve so much in such a short period of time. Long Distance Calling is not only post/rock (as many of us tend to believe), but a bit more. And in order to fully get what the music of this band is about, we took the matter to Dave Jordan - one of their two guitar players - who has kind enough to answer our questions.

Metalfan: Hello and welcome to Metalfan.ro

Dave: Thanks! Nice to get in contact.

Metalfan: This is your first interview for our webzine, so I would like to talk a little bit about the beginning of your band. Tell me please which was your goal when you started the band?

Dave: We met in 2005 just to jam along cause we knew each other from our wider circle of friends. As we all were pretty in to Porcupine Tree at that time, we thougt of doing some Prog / New art / Rock stuff, too. We jammed a lot and had a rally good time, wrote the first songs. Parallel to that we searched for a singer and invited some but there was no one that fitted so we decided to continue as an instrumental band and ad some electronics instead.

Metalfan: What type of rock are you playing? Some people call your music post-rock, others say progressive-rock, while some magazines call you an avant-garde metal, or even math rock. Which is the real truth?

Dave: There are in deed many opinions about that and as soon as you get a stamp you won't loose it whatever may happen... We did post-rock at the very beginning but we do some instrumental-Prog-rock. Now with a new instrument named vocals. ;)

Metalfan: All of you are very technical and innovative musicians. Do you have some musical studies or background? How did you get to this level?

Dave: Thank you! Flo studies music science. I wanted to study music but they didn't want me... So I guess it's just fun and passion. ;)

Metalfan: Satellite Bay is your first album, which was released in 2007, and even today it’s considered your best album by most of your fans. Do you agree with these fans? How was the record received when it was released?

Dave: I would agree that it is a good album because I still like it, apart from some parts that aren't played well... It's an very atmospheric album and maybe it's that what people like that much in it. I like that, too but I also like to develop and to try to add new flavoures and styles to our music. So every actual album is like a mirror of what we did like at that time and so for us it's the best album for that special time.

Metalfan: On Avoid the Light you invited Jonas Renkse (Katatonia) – who did the vocal parts on The Nearing Grave song, while on the Long Distance Calling album you’ve worked with John Bush (Armored Saint, Anthrax). How did you get in touch with John? Was it hard to convince him to work with you? Do you think you’ll do something else together in the future?

Dave: One of the dudes from our label knew him and so we asked him to make contact. He did an we sent Johns the older stuff so he could get an idea of what we were doing. He really liked it and just said “I wanna do it!” long before we wrote the song (Middleville). I love that song and maybe we'll be able to play it live with him on a festival.

Metalfan: Let’s talk a little bit about your last studio album, The Flood Inside. This time you have a split number of both instrumental and instrumental-vocal songs. Haven’t you been afraid of a negative reaction from the fans who like the instrumental songs more?

Dave: In deed! We were shure that there would be a lot of people that won't like the stuff fut for is it felt right and we're a band that only does what feels right for us. Otherwise we won't be happy with what we're doing.

Metalfan: What were the criteria for choosing Marsen Fisher a a vocal for three of your eight songs of your new album?

Dave: The most important criteria for a singer was: “Will this individual fit into the collective?” We're all very different but somehow it works really well between us so it was essentially that the dude who joins the band is able to find a position that fits for him and for Long Distance Calling. Marsen was and is that guy. It is great to have him in the band as a friend and a musician.

Metalfan: Welcome Change is a fabulous song, where Vincent Cavanagh and Petter Carlsen complete each other perfectly on the vocal part. I know Vincent very well from Anathema, but Petter is not that known to us. Can you tell us more about him?

Dave: We mat him as we joined the Anathema-Tour in November 2011. He was the first of three acts on that tour. I totally love his music cause of the emotional depth and we had a lot of fun and nice moments with him as well as with the guys from Anathema. So we decided to do a song in this special and constellation.

Metalfan: In the future, can we expect Long Distance Calling to drop the exclusively instrumental songs forever?

Dave: Everything is possible but I really love instrumental music and I'm not the only on in the band that does... ;)

Metalfan: We Romanians tend to brag about the fact that we have the pretties girls and the cheapest beer in the world. Despite these essential qualities, our country was not on the list for your The Flood Inside tour. Why?

Dave: Haha! Great arguments! We never went to Romania so we don't know it the Romanian dudes an dudettes even want us. But you're right. We have to try!

Metalfan: Where was the best Long Distance Calling show in all your career? Is there a country or an area you’ve never been to, but you’d very much like to make a show in?

Dave: That's difficult to say cause we're really lucky to have a great fanbase in a lot of countries. But one of my greatest gig experiences was in Kiev as the crowd started to sing the guitar melodies. That was a really inducting moment! There are a lot of countries that we didn't play yet and would really like to visit! Of course every european band dreams of touring in the USA... ;)

Metalfan: What are your future plans?

Dave: We'll do some festival shows in the this summer, maybe a second tour in autumn and will start to write and to collect new stuff. I think this will be an eventfull year fo us with a lot of new impressions an opportunities.

Metalfan: Thank you for the nice discussion. I wish you good luck and I hope one day I’ll see you on stage in Romania for one or several concerts.

Dave: Yeah! Thank you, too! Really looking forward to visit your place and to meet the people there! Cheer and thanks for having us!

Autor: Fantotzii

April 20, 2013 | 0 Comments | 6417 Views « BACK