LEPROUS: Bring all your friends!

Leprous: Well, thanks a lot!=) But it’s not perfect by any means. We’ve always had strong ambitions and clear goals to always improve and never “settle” with what we do. I think that’s what makes us able to still do better over the years. Many bands seem to reach a certain level, and then just sort of settle with what they’ve done so far. That’s of course fine if that’s what you want, but we’re always looking to create different and more interesting music, and also make our live shows as cool as humanly possible! It’s really difficult to be in the music industry these days so you have to work extremely hard to get noticed. Ironically it’s very easy to launch yourself as an artist today. Studio equipment is becoming very cheap and makes it much easier to reach studio quality than before. The line is blurring between the “professional” label bands and artists that sit at home producing music and publishing stuff through popular mainstream channels like Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud and Spotify. We’ve actually recorded the majority of our material from the last two albums on cheap, entry level audio interfaces. So you really need some kind of personal expression that people will remember! We’re doing our very best to try to achieve that :) 

 

Leprous: That depends on the context, but in normal routines we practice about 8 hours a week. If we rehearse toward a show or a tour like now, it becomes much more. Before hitting the road this time we practiced many hours a day the two last weeks before the tour. I have no idea what other bands do, but this works for us, and always keep us on our toes. We could also sometimes practice a lot if we’re creating new music. Coal was written, recorded and produced in a much shorter time period than the previous albums, and I remember working a lot on that. But we do it because we love playing music so it’s rewarding work :)

 

Leprous: I don’t think we will be able to sound exactly like someone else, and I don’t think anyone else can sound exactly like us. As long as you’re being an honest artist and doing what feels the most natural to you, the individuality in each musician will shine through and create a personal expression. Whether other people find that beautiful or not doesn’t really matter, but is of course a nice bonus ;) We’re very glad that people like our music, but we don’t create music for other people. We’re doing what is right for us and I think that’s the best advice I can give anyone!

 

Leprous: That depends a lot of which band member you’re asking, but personally I’ve been enjoying Michael Jackson, Tommy Emmanuel and James Blake lately! 

 

Leprous: We’ve known each other for a long time now, and it’s always been a pleasure working with him. After playing with him it became natural to work together in the studio as well, and we go along very well artistically. Vegard is a great guy, and a fantastically creative musician. He’s a guy that have always had the music in focus, and I think that’s part of the reason why he’s so successful. It probably hasn’t always been easy, but he has worked really hard and I think he deserves all the success he’s had. 
 

 

Leprous: I still think Coal is a suitable name for the music (laughs). Unlike the previous albums, where we fairly quickly after their release started disliking part of what we did, Coal seems a bit more robust from our point of view I would say. We’re very happy with the result! Personally I feel it’s a much more honest album and more detail oriented. Coal demands much more from the listener and for some people needs a few spins. The feeling in the music has become much more important on this album, whereas the old ones where very concerned with the exact rhythms etc. We didn’t care as much about those things this time around as we did before, but instead aimed to recreate a certain mood or feeling. The songs are built upon simple themes and motifs, just like the opening track Foe. That signature rhythm sets the basis for the whole song. 

 

 

Leprous: The Valley is a very interesting song because used a very different workflow. We usually just throw away songs if they give us too much trouble, because if they never seem to work, they probably won’t. But we had a few things in this song we knew we wanted to use, like the chorus and the middle section. I think the recorded version of the song is something like attempt number 4 or 5, and those changes really were drastic changes. We even played one early version of it on our previous European tour, and you can probably find it on Youtube if you look hard enough :) We felt the song really wasn’t good enough at that time, so we started a long process of improving it. It’s something we’ve done quite a few times over the years. Finish a song, and then try it out live to see how it feels. Doing it live really gives you a unique kind of feedback and it’s very, very useful. But the parts were written by several people so it’s hard to pinpoint the exact source of inspiration :) The whole experience is kind of weird since it ended up as one of the cooler songs on the album.

 

Leprous: Besides the obvious fact that we’re adding some new material to the setlist, we’ve definitely put a lot of effort into the production. I don’t wanna spoil everything now before the second part of the tour, but we’ve e.g. done a noticeable visual upgrade! As I mentioned, we’ve rehearsed a bunch too, so you will definitely see Leprous at it’s best!

Personally I’m really looking forward to the dates in France, especially Paris, because every show we’ve done there has been great. The crowd is very,very friendly towards us, and we’ve played some cool venues! 

 

Leprous: Yes, that’s correct! It will be the third time to play in Bucharest, and also the third time to play in the Silver Church:) It’s a cool venue. The stage is cool, and I like the whole layout of the venue.  As far as I can remember we had a good crowd every single time too! They treated us real nice. Hopefully there will be even more people this time, and we will be sure to give them a show they won’t forget! 
 

 

Leprous: We don’t have too much time to take a look around on tour, especially not while headlining, but from what I’ve seen I think Romania is a great country! We took a nice stroll last time we were there and it’s a cool city! Romanians are nice people too so I’m sure we’re going to have a great time yet again. Hope to see as many as possible there! Maybe we will have some more spare time this time around to have an even closer look at the city. 

 

Metalfan: Is there something in this world that it has to disappear? What could it be? I am asking this for individuality’s sake. 

Leprous: Arrogance and indifference. That’s probably the two things I dislike most in this world! 

 

Metalfan: What do you want to send in this world within your music? Of course that all of us have different points of views and we feel the music in different ways, so that’s why is very important to hear some things from you, the artists. 

Leprous: Personally what I want to convey with my music, is the feeling I had when creating it and being a part of the vision I had for what it would sound like in the end. One of the best feelings I know when I’m working with Leprous stuff is the one I get when we create something entirely new and that exact moment where you feel it just works. That’s what I want the listener to experience. The sense of something new that just really hits you. 

 

Leprous: That’s a bit of an open question, but I think today’s distribution of music is really interesting, and I’m excited to see where it will go in the future. I don’t think the current business model is sustainable at all, and I think we will see a lot of changes in the following years, even though it has already been “revolutionized”. The artists are struggling a lot, and the labels are falling apart too. I think the labels will have a much smaller and a different role in the future. Distribution isn’t what it used to be, and you can do a lot to promote yourself (which are the two most important tasks of the label). We’ll see what happens! 

 

Leprous: The world has already changed a lot, and I have no doubt it will keep changing:) But the question one should be asking is: where will it go? From a historical perspective protests and revolutions are not a new thing, but the interesting part is seeing what happens afterwards. 

 

Leprous: As some of you might know, we’re coming to play in Bucharest October 21st at the Silver Church, and I hope to see the venue completely packed! Bring all your friends and we’ll be sure to give a show you won’t forget!