With the release of Tempest at the start of last year, Telepathy firmly put themselves on the map in a genre that has, to some extent, become prone to formalism. The eclectic influences coupled with the band’s electrifying performances have made the band a force with which to be reckoned and this tour (straddling a number of countries) looks set to build upon the album’s success. We had the opportunity to put some questions to Telepathy just before they head out on the road – check it out and get to a show… you won’t regret it.
First of all, could you briefly introduce the band and tell us a little about how you came together?
Hey! Yeah sure, we’re Telepathy a (mostly) instrumental metal band from Essex, UK. We got together through the usual means; the end of previous bands, meeting each other in college, etc
We all wanted a fresh start and to form a heavy band that didn’t have boundaries and that wasn’t going to be a scene or genre focused entity.
It has been argued that instrumental music, in many ways, has an emotionally purity because it allows the listener to place their own interpretation upon the underlying meaning whereas lyrics necessarily focus attention on the singer’s interpretation of the music. What was it that drew you, as a band, towards instrumental music?
When we started creating music together we quickly realised that there wasn’t a lot of room for vocals in the music and that we were all steadfastly against the typical frontperson approach to most mainstream rock and metal.
We enjoyed our music sans vocals and wanted to keep that pure energy and intent that the four of us had.
When you’re writing the music for Telepathy, do you have images, or moods in mind? What inspires the directions of the songs?
Usually the first riff or idea that peaks everyones interest will dictate the mood or vibe of a song. We tend to go from there, letting the music guide us to what the next part will be and what feels most natural and hits us the hardest.
On Tempest, once we had a couple of songs down we felt that the album was going in a particular direction and that we all shared certain feelings and mental images which lead us in the direction of the records concept.
In sounds very cliche, but it is all a very organic process!
One of the elements that makes instrumental music difficult to do well is that the focus is placed very much on the instrumentation – are there specific elements that you look for as musicians and as fans that help you to develop each piece into a journey for the listener?
At this stage i think this is just how we write as a unit. As individuals i dont think any of us are particularly interested in writing in a conventional verse-chorus-verse structure, so the way we write really lends itself to that feeling of a ‘journey’ type scenario. Thinking about it now we’re all quite into soundtrack work, and that has probably had an influence on this aspect of what we do.
How do you feel you developed as a band from your debut, 12 areas, to your second album, Tempest?
Well, we toured a lot for 12 Areas and became much tighter as a unit because of it. I think we all knew we wanted to make a more emotional and hard hitting record after spending a year in the frenzied attack mode of that album. I think we became able to say more with less on Tempest, and able to connect with the listener in a better and more pure and honest way.
Jaime Gomez Arellano has an amazing resume (not least Paradise Lost and Ulver), how did you come to work with him and how do you feel the collaboration impacted upon the writing and recording of the album?
Gomez is an old friend of Ted, our bassist, and once we had all the material written, we invited him to a show to hang and decided to work on the record together.
Working with Gomez didnt impact on the writing of the album, that was all done beforehand, but it certainly impacted on the studio elements; tones, drum sounds, performance.
The guy has an impecable ear, and really brought the best out of us in the studio. He got us to focus on having less guitar tracks and making the tracks that were there have as much sonic weight as possible.
The artwork for the album is just amazing, who was responsible for it and how involved were the band in its development.
Thank you! The artwork is a piece called Tempest by the artist Siena Reilly from the USA. It was made by dipping a canvas into liquid charcoal, and manipulating the results. Im a fan of her work and spoke with her regarding doing something together for the album. She was super into it, amd felt this piece, which she had kept to herself from a gallery series would really suit the album. We’re honoured to have her work be a part of the album!
Given the diversity of your music, I guess you’re influenced by a number of artists, but are there any particular acts that are common across the band?
Sure, there are plenty! Some stuff we all agree on:
Depeche Mode, Black Sabbath, Fever Ray, Tool, The Cure, Fall of Efrafa, Darkest Hour.
You’re out on tour at the end of this month and you’re heading out for a number of dates in Europe – it must have been a considerable amount of work to arrange the details and logistics of such a tour?
It is, but most of the work these days is handled by our agent Flo at Doomstar Bookings. We found that after 12 Areas we were on the road so often that dealing with certain aspects of booking tours was going to better left to professionals and were over the moon to be invited onto the roster of Doomstar, who look after the likes of Abbath, Godflesh, Disfear et al.
For independent bands, getting a label can be both challenging and vital, particularly in terms of distribution – how did you come to be involved with Golden Antenna?
We had a wishlist for Tempest and Golden Antenna were one of the labels interested in putting out the album. I spoke a lot with Timo who runs the label, getting to know each other personally and our ethos towatds the ‘industry’. Its been an absolute pleasure working with GA and getting to realise an album and physical release that really is exactly how we envisaged it as a band.
Do you have specific goals for Telepathy’s future? Are you working yet on new material, or are you still focusing on Tempest?
Right now we are focused on this upcoming tour, and finishing the Tempest touring cycle in the best way possible! We’re looking at some options for the Autumn tour-wise but most of this year we will be focusing on new material!
Thanks for your time and we hope to see you on the road!
