Interview

Lychgate Talks New Album "An Antidote For The Glass Pill"

It should come as no surprise that Lychgate's "An Antidote For The Glass Pill" (reviewed here) offers a claustrophobic, disturbing experience considering the album's themes are based around prisons - both physical and of the mind.

The U.K. metal band's new album drops through Blood Music on August 18, with a digital version already available on a name-your-price basis via Bandcamp here.

Wanting to find out how Lychgate produced such an authentic and moody pipe organ sound across the album, we got in touch with the band for a new in-depth interview available below. Read on to find out about the band's new custom guitar, how Lychgate's sound translates to the live experience, and more.

xFiruath: It's been two years since the band's self-titled debut – what has Lychgate been up to since then and how has the band changed in that time?

In 2012 and 2013 the band worked almost exclusively on the writing and preparation process for the second album. There were only a few live appearances during that time. However, there was no change in the member line-up apart the recruiting of a new bassist. On recording there were two guests; organist Kevin Bowyer and F. A. Young, my sister, on piano (who also played organ on the first album).

xFiruath: I've been listening through the new album and I'm wondering – is that actual pipe organ, or something recreated via keyboard? How did you get that sound and tone on the album?

It is pipe organ; however, generally people are probably not used to hearing the diverse range of sounds the instrument is capable of; bearing in mind the frequent stop changes we used. At times it may therefore sound unfamiliar. The sound on recording is the result of the layering of guitar parts over this instrument, more or less replicating its melodic structure exactly. Of course there are exceptions; particularly where we decided to omit rapid notes in the keyboards from the guitar performance most of the time. The first track is an example of this.

xFiruath: On a related note, where did recording take place for this new album and how did that process go? Were there any particular challenges to overcome this time around and how long did it take beginning to end?

The recording took place in three different locations: the organ sessions in Belfast, the drums at our drummer’s studio and everything else at Greg Chandler's Priory Studios. The process was quite slow because unfortunately we could not record it all in one continuous session. As I recall the drums were recorded intermittently over two weeks: they were not recorded constantly as would have been the case if we had booked a studio and instead paid a day rate. The organ sessions took two days, whereas guitars were again recorded intermittently. The sessions could not be described as easy, particularly noting tracks such as “My Fate to Burn Forever” and “The Illness Named Imagination.” I was informed that it took our organist ~170 hours to learn all the parts, which included two other tracks which were not chosen for the final album track listing. Personally, a challenge I encountered was in getting the guitars to blend with the organ accurately in terms of tuning, which very soon became a source of aggravation – not unbearable, but annoying nonetheless. Beginning to end the recording took a few months, but on its intermittent basis I will never know the answer exactly.

xFiruath: What's happening as far as the themes and lyrics on “The Antidote for the Glass Pill?”

The album is based primarily on Jeremy Bentham's (1748 – 1832) “Panopticon,” which was a prison design concept, envisioned but never built, to allow a single watchman to observe (-opticon) all (pan-) inmates of an institution without the inmates being able to tell whether or not they are being watched; thus constantly governing their behaviour patterns ("a new mode of obtaining power of mind over mind"). However, the album is named after Zamyatin's novel “We” in which a future urban nation is constructed almost entirely of glass, which allows the secret police/spies to inform on and supervise the public more easily and Witkiewicz's “Insatiability,” where in a similar dystopian scenario, Davamesque B2 is the pill that rendered its users passive, eroding the philosophical and intellectual concerns of the individual. I was also influenced by Kafka, and these concepts collectively made up the lyrical content.

xFiruath: Who handled the cover artwork and how does it connect with the music?

The cover artwork was painted by a French/Canadian artist who prefers to call himself simply MG. All of his works affected me, so I made contact with him. For the cover artwork it was not necessary to literally show a prison scene of some kind, although we did attempt it in one way with another artist. The connection of the artwork to the music is somehow psychological, showing the struggle of mankind and the imprisonment of the soul.

xFiruath: How did you get hooked up with Blood Music for this album and how is that collaboration going so far?

Blood Music contacted us in early 2014 expressing interest, so we stayed in touch. After BM heard the mastered version of the album, the label owner said he definitely wanted to collaborate. For this reason we only sent out a few promotional copies of the album to labels. Most labels out there were not contacted. So far we are happy with the collaboration and BM is a label to watch and support, without question.

xFiruath: I saw that Vortigern just had his own custom guitar built – can you tell me a bit about how that process went and the specs on the end result?

After recording the “An Antidote…” album I decided to finally commission a guitar to be built with a True Temperament neck and 8 strings. The TT fretting system, invented by Anders Thidell, results in super accurate intonation. Initially I found that most luthiers weren't familiar nor interested in building a guitar with this technology. However, I soon found Manton Customs, based in the UK, who knew about TT and had wanted to try it for a long time. The end product has the following features:

27" scale
Bolt On
Mahogany Body
Thick AAA Carved Spruce top
5 Pc Maple and Black Walnut Neck
Matching Spruce Head Plate
AAA Grade Ebony Fingerboard
Large Inlay Spanning Lower Frets
F Holes
Chambered
Floyd Rose Bridge
Seymour Duncan Black Winter Pickup Set
CTS Pots
Gotoh 510 Tuners
Schaller Strap Locks

xFiruath: Does Lychgate have any upcoming tour dates / festival appearances?

Yes, there will be a tour in November in Europe, followed by festival appearances next year.

xFiruath: What's a typical Lychgate show like – do you have any sort of props or stage show to evoke the mood of the music?

We play with projected film visuals. For props it depends on logistics, but the stage show is a developing aspect for us. Most importantly we are hoping to make future festival appearances next year with an organist on stage. By the time the third album is finished we would hope that all performances would feature organ on stage, as well as piano, relevant props and light show.

xFiruath: What's going on in your local music scene and are there any particular venues or bands really championing metal these days?

I don't know if I have much to say about the local music scene, except that I don't find much to be interested by to be honest. That said, I do try to keep an eye on what is happening as much as possible. In terms of the UK it is now important to accept that the days of our classic metal bands like My Dying Bride, Bolt Thrower, Carcass etc. are dead, so it is a new chapter now. It's different of course, but there are some bands that I like. Grave Miasma's last album was great. I also like the project Hateful Abandon.

xFiruath: Are any of the Lychgate crew active with other bands right now?

Yes, our drummer recently played on the new Macabre Omen album, which I recommend everyone to check out. Our vocalist is also working on a new album for Esoteric.

xFiruath: Besides your own album, what have you been listening to lately and what's coming out soon you are excited for?

Within metal I’ve recently enjoyed listening to StarGazer “A Merging to the Boundless” (2014), Drowned “Idola Specus” (2014), Cultes des Ghoules “Henbane” (2013), Terra Tenebrosa “The Purging” (2013) and Gorguts “Colored Sands” (2013). Outside metal I’ve recently been listening to various works from Helen Money, Glenn Branca, Julee Cruise, Luc Ferrari, Wolfgang Rihm, Maurice Jarre and at the time of writing, León Schidlowsky “Misa sine nomine.” I’m not sure I can think of anything coming out soon that I’m genuinely excited about.