Brutus interview (Stijn Vanhoegaerden)
Interview by Davide Sciaky
Puoi leggere l’intervista in italiano qui.
Welcome to TrueMetal. How are you doing?
Very well, yeah, we’ve had a nice run so far, it’s the last show of the tour today, so we are ready for the last one, it’s gonna be nice.
I’ve found out about you, and fell in love with your music, when I saw you supporting Cult of Luna in 2019.
Oh yeah, oh thank you so much, that was really cool.
You had just released your second album, you were gaining momentum in many ways, and then COVID forced you to take a break. How do you react to that? Did you get right away into working on Unison Life to exploit that moment of calm, so to speak?
Yeah, in the beginning when COVID hit and the first lockdowns happened in Belgium, we couldn’t see each other the first couple of months, so that was a difficult one for all of us. Everybody tried to write a little bit at home, but that really didn’t work for us, we were so used to doing everything with the three of us in the same room, so whenever the moment was possible again to get together in the rehearsal space, it actually became a thing that we just got together like every free moments and started writing, that’s what we did. The cool thing is because we had so much time, because we were like everyone else, everybody had to cancel all the shows, we started talking more about what we wanted to make than just getting into the rehearsal space and starting to make music, so sometimes we had days that we just talked for like six hours and played for two, so I think for the three of us, I think I can speak for the three of us, that was a very important thing for us during the lockdowns and during the pandemic, it was really helpful for us to get through, to find this way of writing and just having the time to go deeper maybe, we had so many versions of every song and if it didn’t feel right, even if it was just for one percent, we just kept working and we had the time, so it was a fruitful period for us, thankfully, so yeah, it was a special time for us, bad and good.
So it didn’t really change the way you write in terms of you getting together and working together, but maybe you just put more thought behind it, you put more time into the songs and seeing how to develop them and this sort of things.
Yeah, definitely, we went more in depth with every song, we also had a lot more songs ready, I think we had like 30 ideas for songs, so we threw a lot of stuff away, which is I think a good way for us to work, so yeah, it was just the same way of writing, but just more in depth, more focused.
What was your mindset when you started to work on this album, like did you have a specific goal, sound wise, did you want to get into a specific direction?
Because there was the time and me and Peter, the bass player, we got really into effect pedals and different type of instruments, and Peter started experimenting with the Moog synthesiser for extra bass sounds, and a 6 strings bass guitar, I started experimenting with different tunings, Nashville tuning, total strings, stuff like that, so that was something in the beginning that we were just doing because there was time, but immediately we started writing with those things and it all got on the record, we have that stuff with us now, it’s part of our live show now, so that’s something that happened, which I think was pretty important for us, just to be able to experiment a bit, and I think it’s going to be something that we’re going to keep doing in the future, like every time we make a new record, there’s so many things instrument-wise that we’re interested in, so there’s going to be more new stuff I think.
I think for me when I listen to it, the main difference with the older albums is that it’s a bit slower, a bit more melodic, perhaps the biggest thing for me is a bit more nostalgic, that’s the kind of feeling I get, I don’t know if you agree with me.
I think that’s a compliment, because when we were writing the songs, I remember Stephanie one day, she said, writing songs, it’s a thing, you can spend hours on songs, but maybe we have to go the extra mile and try to, it’s not to sound arrogant about it, but maybe we should try to write the best songs that we can at this moment, and maybe not just write a song, but maybe a song that we hope in 20 years is still a good song, that people still listen to and everything, like, oh yeah, this is so fancy, so that was a big thing, so the nostalgic thing, I get that.
The album name, Unison Life, when I first heard it I immediately thought it referred to your life as a band, touring together, living together in a tour bus, staying together all the time, is that right?
Actually, the name comes from Stephanie, it’s a way of living for her, for us, that everybody is trying to get along, everybody is trying to live in unison, but it’s not always easy to do, it’s actually pretty impossible to do, there’s always conflict, and a lot of the songs, the topics are about the fact that it never works, it can never work, and of course it’s difficult to talk for Stephanie about the lyrics, because she writes the lyrics.
Is she the only one writing the lyrics?
She does all the lyrics, me and Peter check them and we go over them together before we go into the studio, but that’s a very personal thing for her.
You released a music video for Liar, which is very artsy, very cinematic, so I was wondering if you came up with the whole concept all by yourselves, or if it’s the product and the collaboration between you and the cinematographer?
This was actually all Stephanie, yeah, in the past we had a tendency to, we have to make video clips, but it wasn’t really our focus, and this time Stephanie was like, let’s do this right, and she wanted to write the story, and we have a friend, Maximiliaan Dierickx, he’s a really good DOP, director, he’s a good friend of Stephanie’s, and they just had the idea, let’s do this right, the idea was there, it was born, and he was like, let’s go to Morocco, let’s do it there, because he has friends there, his girlfriend is from Morocco, so she just jumped on a plane with him, went over there and she just shot the video by herself.
I mentioned before how COVID forced you to stop, at least from the live activity, but even with that you managed to keep growing and, for instance, here in Italy you passed from playing as a support act in 2019 to doing 3 headliner shows these days. How would you explain that?
I can’t. I think every band, most bands, I’m not gonna speak for everyone, but most bands I know, Belgian bands, I think worldwide everybody had a thing like, shit, are we gonna survive this as a band? Is anybody still gonna be waiting for us when COVID ends? And I’m not gonna lie, I think we had the same thing, like, what are we gonna do now? But we’re very fortunate that we have very nice people that we work with, bookers, label, and the moment COVID ended, we released the record, and there was right away a lot of people asking for us to come and play, and our booker was like, okay, let’s just go for it, so I’m very grateful for that, because we’ve been playing, the record came out October last year, or November, I’m not sure, but ever since we’ve been playing, and it’s not stopping, we still have a lot of shows to do until the end of the year, and it feels really, really nice. And we’re really thankful that, I mean, the shows we’ve been playing now the last year, it’s almost, yeah, nice festivals, nice headline shows, we sold out the AP, a famous venue in Belgium for the first time, like, full capacity, so those are all these small, for us, big things, but we’re very happy about it, it’s still working, it’s really nice.
A few days ago I was talking with Tom Warrior from Celtic Frost, and we were talking about how, a few years ago, Metallica played a Celtic Frost song, they played it in Switzerland, and he didn’t like the way they played it, so he told me specifically, I think because they are millionaires, they are maybe a bit disconnected from the metal scene, but I know you had a different experience with Metallica, I read that, like, really, I think it was 2017, so very early in your career, Lars play your music in his podcast, and he even invited you to meet him. How did it feel to get that kind of recognition, and how was the whole experience with Metallica?
Yeah, that was really crazy, there was a couple of moments, like in the beginning when we were starting out, we got to play with Deftones, they invited us to their festival in San Diego, the Metallica thing, it’s all, yeah, it’s pretty crazy, you don’t believe it, because I grew up listening to Metallica like most people.
Like everyone.
But the cool thing about that experience was that they invited us to the show they were doing then in Belgium, and it was like the biggest venue, like a stadium, we were invited with our partners, we got to eat there, there was an exhibition, we got to see, and after the show, his personal assistant came to get us, and they took us in the catacombs of the venue, and they told us to wait here, Lars is going to be here right away, so it was like, I don’t know, 40 minutes after the show, and he just walked in, and we talked for like 40 minutes, and I was really surprised by the fact that I would imagine that somebody with that status would expect us to be like, oh, Lars, Lars, but we didn’t get the chance, he just walked in, and he was right away like, how do you write songs, what music did you grow up with, how do you do it with your 3, how do you do it with the drumming and the singing, and it was just 40 minutes of him asking us questions about how we work, and we were like, great show, man, so yeah, it was really surreal, really strange, I was a bit surprised by that, so that was a really nice experience for us.
He was basically interviewing you like I’m doing right now.
Definitely, yeah, and you don’t expect that from somebody… that’s Lars Ulrich, so yeah, we had a nice experience with them.
My next question is sort of for Stephanie, but I think it’s something you can answer as well. Drummers who sing are not very common, because I think it’s not very easy to do that, to play drums and sing together, and I know that she didn’t want at first to be a singer, but she ended up there, so how did that happen? I know it was you, or Peter, who asked her to try and sing.
Yeah, I bought her a mic. In the beginning, the two of us, me and Peter had the job to look for a singer, but it took some time, and it felt so nice just playing with the three of us, because we actually started the band, not like, we’re gonna play this genre, or we’re gonna do this, but it’s just us three, and we wanna play music together, so that was really important to us, and it took a while, and we didn’t really find anyone. I have to be honest, we also weren’t really trying to find somebody, so I bought her a microphone, and I said, let’s just put a microphone here, and you can just try some stuff, and it’s easier to write songs, and she started doing it, and at that point, me and Peter were like, fuck this, we’re not gonna look for anyone. Stephanie really didn’t wanna do it, she didn’t really feel comfortable in the beginning, but now, after so many years of being in a band, we made three records, we played so many shows, I know it’s not her favourite thing in the world, but now when we’re in the studio, the drumming is done perfect, the vocals, it’s in no time, it’s done, she really worked hard on it the last couple of years, and for me, it’s a beautiful thing to see, because I couldn’t imagine any other way of playing now, that’s how it is, and she gets better every record we make, I think, I believe, so I’m really happy with her, I’m happy it turned out that way.
Her voice is very distinctive, it’s really one of the strengths of the band.
Yeah, I think so too.
Had you ever heard her singing before, you asked her to try and see, or was it just a…
No, yes and no, I was in a band with her, we started playing in bands together when she was 14, I was 15, 16 years old, and she used to be in a band with Peter, and she was always just drumming, and she has a background of piano, that’s her first instrument, piano, and she has a really good set of ears, and she comes from a really musical family, so I always knew. I think she did, if I remember correctly, she did some backings on a record when we were kids, so actually I knew she could sing, but it was not something that she was going to do just out of nothing, but really for the first time I was like, this is the way to go, and she had that microphone and she started doing it, and for me and Peter, I’m going to speak for myself, but it looked effortless to her, I know it’s not easy, she still struggles with it sometimes, but yeah, I didn’t know that this was going to happen.
My final question is, Unison Life has been out for a year, have you already made out the plans for what you’re going to do next, will you focus a bit longer on more live shows, or are you writing music or whatever?
Yeah, at the end of the year we have our last show this year, the 30th of December, in Amsterdam, the Paradiso, and January, February we’re going to take some time off, and we’re going to start getting together again, writing some new music, because it’s what we’ve been doing the last nine years, make a record and tour, and that’s what we love to do, so we’re just going to do that again.