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Covenant
by Craig Harvey
I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Covenant a few years ago
in Atlanta, on their North American Tour for "United States Of Mind."
It was an incredible experience to sit down and talk with these
wonderfully talented musicians, (actually I only interviewed Joakim
who does all the interviews for the band.) Now after the release of
"Northern Lights," Covenant has followed up with a powerhouse
electronic work of art, that shows why this band is one of the top ebm
acts around. I was not able to have a face to face interview this time
around, but I was again very happy to have Joakim answer some
questions regarding the new album, an upcoming tour, and various other
issues, even it was by email. Covenant will be playing Tampa on May
6th and Atlanta on May 7th, so don't miss out!
(note: These are corrected from the
misprinted dates in movement hardcopy)
I interviewed you guys in Atlanta a few years ago on your U.S.
tour. It was a great talk and a fantastic show. Are you planning on
returning to the U.S. anytime soon?
Joakim: Yes we do. We will tour the U.S. in May. The schedule isn't
finished yet, but it looks like we start out in Florida some time
around May 6 and we'll do about 15 shows all over the States.
The new album is really incredible! How long from start to finish
did everything take to complete it?
Joakim: Thank you. That's nice to hear. We started writing it in late
2000 and began recording in winter 2001. The actual recording took
about 4 months, mixing and mastering another 2. In total, including
pre-production it took about 9 months to make. Our little baby...
As far as the creation process goes, does Eskil write most of the
lyrics or is it a collaborative process?
Joakim: Usually I write the lyrics and Eskil writes the music. On
Northern Light it was more collaborative and slightly mixed up. Our
roles have become increasingly blurred over the years. On Northern
Light Eskil wrote four, I wrote six, and one we wrote together. But
there are so many more things to music-making than composing and
writing lyrics. We program the sounds, produce and arrange. this is
where the real "band feeling" comes in as we discuss and try different
ideas out, all three of us together.
Are you guys using more software based synths now that there are so
many new programs available?
Joakim: Yes, we do. Our own computers are not really competent
enough to take full advantage of this new technology and we have so
many great machines anyway. So most of Northern Light was written
using conventional technology with hardware samplers and synthesizers,
except Atlas that relies almost entirely on the Waldorf PPG softsynth.
When we started the recordings our producer had the latest Mac G4, so
we bought a lot of softsynths for it. NI Reaktor, NI Absynth, NI
Pro-52, NI B4, Waldorf PPG, Waldorf Attack and Emagic EVP-88 for
example. I also used the cheap sequencer/drum machine Fruity Loops for
a lot of the loops. I really like that program; simple to use but
still VSTi-compatible and you can use all your DirectX and VST plugins to
tweak the sound considerably, and when you're done you just export the
WAV to ReCycle, import it into Cubase and there you go.
What musical direction do you see Covenant heading towards next?
Joakin: Hmm. I don't know yet, to be honest. All I can say is that it
will be different again. I would like to make a harder album again.
There's a lot of very interesting EBM/techno crossbreeding going on
right now - especially in Germany - that feels inspiring. And I feel
that this future pop thing has gone too far. I know that we're in part
responsible for that development, so I guess it's about time that we
do something about it. But that's my opinion - 1/3 of the band. The
future will tell, as it always does.
Do you feel that the political turmoil going on in the middle east
will effect your touring schedule?
Joakim: I don't know yet. Unless we get trouble with our visa
applications or someone blows up our plane we'll go. But in reality
there are many things that can go wrong. A lot depends on the scale of
the conflict I guess. But we won't hold the American people
responsible for the arrogance of your government. Most of you didn't
vote for it anyway...
I am really grateful that Northern Light is available on both cd
and vinyl. Do you plan to release any more singles in the same
fashion?
Joakim: We'll see. I don't think there will be any more singles from
Northern Light, and future releases are still not planned properly.
We've got lots of positive response from DJs for the vinyl
releases and we would certainly like to keep a friendly relationship
with them. If it's up to me I'd say we do it again.
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