THE END – Interview with Andrew

“The End Cometh”

Hello. This is Andrew. Would you like to give us a brief bio of the band?

I am also Andrew and I play in the band The End with fellows Aaron Wolff, Sean Dooley, Steve Watson and Anthony Salajko we have been a band for just over 4 years now. In that time we have put out two recordings one being “Transfer trachea…” which was recently re-released on Relapse records and the other being a four song demo which is out of print. We are the ultimate rock machine.

Definitely your music is not a normal one. Many weird parts with paranoid rhythms and generally songs that need to be heard many times in order to be memorable. Why did you decide this style of music and not something more common?

I guess because we find it difficult to have an affinity with a more “common” style of music. The end for us is the band that whatever we feel like doing we can do. All of us have played in other bands before, some of those bands have played that more common style and that's just not what we are into. Or put plainly that's just not how we feel about music. To each his own and The End is our own.

“Transfer Trachea Reverberations From Point: False Omniscient”. What do you mean with this title?

Trachea reverberations = voice.

Transfer trachea reverberations = projection of voice

False omniscient = that's a little more up to interpretation, but I think you can see where we are coming from. Voice is a very powerful thing. It is a means by which to inflict influence on the world around us and that goes for everyone. If you take it too literally it loses meaning though. What is voice really?

With such a paranoid music and not easy memorable titles like the album's one you might not have as much fans and sells as you could. You see people nowadays (not all but most of them) are looking for some simple melodies and catchy riffs with an easy memorable chorus and that's all. Have you ever thought to change your style in order to approach more fans?

Absolutely not. Our sound does change and has definitely changed even since “Transfer…” but to change to the will of the mass market is not only creative suicide, but also something we definitely do not need any more of in this world and honestly fuck everyone that has done that and forced us to listen to their intentionally watered down refuse in the disguise of music.

I think the production of your album is very good. Do you believe that too? If you could change something from the album now that you have heard it would you do that and what would that be?

When you work for a long time on writing songs and recording them perfect doesn't exist and it's nearly impossible to satisfy yourself. Taking in to consideration that the album was recorded in 7 days and on a very low budget there are a million things that we may have like to change given we had the means, but the reality for most bands is that you don't. The album is what it is. The key is to take everything you would have changed and do it properly on the next recording. That's what we're doing. So when the new records out you can listen to the both of them together and then answer that question for yourself.

Tell me a few words about the lyrics. What are they talking about? Do you write them before music or at the same time?

Lyrics were a little different then, then they are now. Mainly because we went through a vocalist change with aaron joining the band. For the most part though they are very abstract and meant to be more of a dreamlike sequence of thoughts that fit the moods of the song. Some songs like Sonnet are a little more focused and talks about the interactions of two bodies. More so the effect of being entirely torn apart by somebody you love. I suppose there have been a million songs written about that sort of thing, but never like this.

What are your influences and in what way do you have them in your mind when you compose your own music?

Everything our biggest influence is the world we live in. If you think we are chaotic just take one look at the world around you and you may think twice. We have a variety of music tastes in the band, but mostly it comes down to very creative and influential music and that's what pushes us. Listening to the music some bands have been able to create and how its own separate thing, its own separate language. We love that shit.

The duration of your album is very small. Not even 25 minutes! Don't you think this is a disadvantage for you? If somebody do not know you won't give his money for only 23 minutes.

Given that some of our music may require repeated listening and it's not what the mainstream world would call catchy then, no. I think it's probably a plus. Instead of a minute of music being 1 in 45 its 1 in 22 maybe that adds more weight to each individual note, makes it more special. Who knows? All I know is the last thing I'm concerned about with a good album is it's length.

How will you promote the album? Have you arranged any tour within your country or abroad? Do you like performing a live show?

Our live show has always been the best part of our band. The intensity of the music is translated weakly on CD by comparison. Those of our fans that have seen us live know that very well. We are scheduled to record our new album this summer and following that we will be playing anywhere people want us to play. In the past we have played strictly in North America, but we are hoping to reach more and more countries on our tours for this coming album. Relapse will help us out a lot in that sense.

So, thanks for your time and good luck for your future plans. Give a title for the interview and close it the way you like…

If I were to title this interview I'd call it “the end cometh.” Because were coming hopefully to Greece in the next years time, that's mostly wishful thinking, but we are spreading like and infection and soon there will be many more diseased music friends sharing our affinity.