Interview with Shepherd

Congrats to a excellent debut album, how has the response been so far to Laments from dedicated doomsters and media ?

- Thank you for the congratulation. To be honest, we're quite surprised how people seem to dig the record. We got a killer response so far, especially from the international doomster crowd. All the websites dedicated to doom such as doom-metal.com, Hellride, GL Productions to name a few found damn friendly words about the album. But also print magazines especially in Germany seem to dig our stuff. We got a one page article in Germany's leading music mag VISIONS which was a huge surprise for us as these guys usually don't have space between Staind, Chilli Peppers and Deftones for a truly underground doom newcomer. And the crowd also seems to dig the album, even if there could be some more buying the album. But we don't care, it's our first one and nobody knew us before. We're satisfied I would say and happy...

Fill me in on the origins of Shepherd, how was the band formed ?

- It was the same as with other bands. Me and my friend Nico decided to form the band a couple of years ago. We've been out searching for people to share our vision with and found'em. That's the whole story. The rest is kinda corporate crap: rehearsals, some gigs, recording, album release. Nothing spectacular. Except for our bass player Nico who played in a band called Payola and another one called The Sissies none of us has got experience from a known band.

First the cover of Laments, it's a very doomy cover. Where did you find the cover and how pleased are you with the cover and the booklet of the album ?

- The cover was done by myself. I also took the front picture by myself. There is a benediction monastery on a hill in Southern Germany where I spent a vacation some years ago. This monastery has got a brewery enclosed where you can drink the original beer brewed by the monks. On the highest point of the hill are these app. 10 meters high crosses. I took the picture, started Photoshop and here it is. Also the whole booklet contains images frome pictures done by myself, a very close friend of mine and my father. F.i. the derelict ocean liner is the American Star and lies on the banks of Teneriffa. My father took it. It's kinda metaphoric and symbolic if you know the name of the ship. Some of the pictures are done by a friend of mine in the Tibetian Highlands such as the cathedral, which is called Saint John Of The Wilderness. Some missionaries built it app. 200 years ago with the goal to mission the native Tibetians but failed after a while and left their church. Now it is the same as with the ocean liner: it lies there in the woods, lost and forgotten and nobody cares about it anymore: a christian church in the heartlands of Buddhism - the payback for the arrogance of Christianity. The cemetary belongs to this cathedral. So you see every picture has its story and a metaphoric meaning in conclusion with the album. Also the lyric cuttings presented in there communicate with the pictures. I did a hell of thinking about the artwork and even if it looks like it is truly more than just some nice doomy pictures.

The direction of Laments is very inspiring, to me are Laments a major Doom Metal masterpiece with a great spirit, a solid performance and a brilliant production. Fill me in on the studio session you had and how pleased are you with the final mix of Laments ?

- thank you very much for the warm words about sound and spirit. As well as the cover artwork the whole recording, mix and production is done by ourselves. We locked ourselves into a studio for two nights and recorded this album in just these two nights. One night we laid down all the basic instruments and guitars, in the second night all vocals have been recorded. It was a very straight-to-the-bone-work. We didn't record any guitar or vocal overdubs. Our goal was to lay down the pure emotion of the songs, the pure feeling in a very concentrated but nice atmosphere. We've been lighten up some candels and worked for 10 hours a night. After it our guitar player Oli and our drummer Tobi mixed all the stuff at home at their computers. And that was it. Not to say that we all are very pleased with the final product. How could we not? Due to the fact that avery single step and every single result was planed and manufactured by our own. This is exactly the record we wanted to have.

More on the direction, there is beside this old-school doom mayhem also some classical acoustic arrangements and some spooky overdubs that makes this album varied and versatile to listen to, did you have the concept worked out already in the pre-sessions or did they come during the recording process ?

- All of the vocal samples used in some of the songs have been chosen by our guitar player Oli and follow the same attitude as the booklet: he had some ideas in mind, some phrases he found in movies and seem to fit with the songs. So he added them with the mix and we all have been blown away especially by the Kris Kristoffersen quote at the beginning of "The Coldest Day". The two acoustic parts have been recorded by Oli himself and our bass player Nico who is also singing the last song "The Story Of The Holy Drinker". This one was pretty much done before the recording. Its intensity and non-categorizable atmosphere just blew my mind and I think it's one of the best album ending songs I can imagine.

More on the production, how much are recorded live and how much is tracking recorded on Laments ?

- this is easy: everything is live. The drums have been laid down first with the guitars and some bass adding the vocals one day later directly to tape, no stopping within the songs. All lyrics are first takes.

There is one track that differs a lot from the rest of the material, that is The Story Of The Holy Drinker, a spooky moody acoustic piece that is brilliant, its the last track on Laments and a perfect ending to the album. How pleased are you with the outcome of that particular track and what is the main message in it ?

- Oops, I said everything above just before letting you ask me this question. I have nothing to add here. I would agree with you that this is a true masterpiece. I wouldn't say anything about the content because it's a song Nico wrote but I guess it's a lot of stuff in there to which one could relate.

More on the lyrical standpoint, what is the main topics on Laments ?

Uuh, hard question. I would say the main topic of the record is about soul healing. I said this before; Doom in general for me is about sould healing, like Blues you try to express your very own deppressive feelings which are rotting on the bottom of your soul. These feelings come up from time to time and want to be presented, discussed, expressed. That's the moment when a Doom song is right before his birth. It's very close to blues and I would go further and say Doom today is maybe more Blues than the Blues itself. But to get this a little more straight: Laments is about personal feelings of how to deal with totalitarism, abuse of religion as a justification for killing or exploiting other people. It's about love and hate, about nature and human failure.

Back to the direction, it is very much old-school Doom Metal, very classic sounding. There is a good load of various inspirations, kind of a tribute to the complete Doom Metal scene. How pleased are you with the musical direction of Laments ?

- As I said before; we are very satisfied with it. It captures the status of Shepherd in a very good way. Although we know that this is our first record and it never could be our best. We've been writing songs over the last couple of months and it turned out to be some great new material. It will have some more variety but not leave the path we started walking with Laments. We also tried to show some more variety in songwriting. That's why we don't have only slow songs of the record. I was always impressed by the work of Wino who is able to write a fast song that's totally doom.

The members arent listed on the album, that leaves the listener a bit left in the dark. Was that the plan to not list the members or was it just something you missed out ?

- It was kind of a plan. It's also a statement how Shepherd works and what we're about. Namedropping might be cool if you have some names to drop. But we're only some Germans who nobody knows and our outlet is the band. So why printing names in the booklet? Shepherd is an organism of itself. Once we come together something happens - songs. We let the egos outside and create something that's totally Shepherd and not our egos. And that's why the name Shepherd is printed on the front cover. It's all you need to know.

You also run the label Exile On Mainstream that have issued Laments, how Much is the album going to get in terms of promotion and distribution support world-wide ?

Yess, Exile On Mainstream Records is my label. It's not specialized in any musical style. It's a total open minded project with 13 released records so far which differs extremely. This follows my personal taste but makes it not that easy to promote it. But it works pretty well. Laments has been getting big supports from media in and outside Germany and so does with distribution. I'm working with EFA, one of the three biggest indie distributors in Germany who are also handling worldwide exports. These guuys have been doing a killer job for the label and the band so far (thanks Bjoern!) and I'm more than satisfied with it. In Europe the record should be available in most of the record shops through ordering or maybe picking it up. It's distributed through Border in Sweden, Clear Spot in Holland, United Musics in France, Shellshock in England, Voices in Denmark and a few others. In US the easiest way to get it is purchasing through Hellride Music (who also host our online forum -thanks Chris!), Underdogma or stonerrock.com. And if you can'*t find it you also could order it directly from us through: orders@mainstreamrecords.de Aaah, one thing to mention: we opened a forum - if you wann chat with us or leave some messages, please go to: www.hellride.com/shepherd

The German Doomscene have made a great progress in the past decade with Shepherd being one of the most impressive new bands that have arrived in my mind. Looking at the scene at the moment the german and the overall, where would you place Shepherd ?

- We're one of the bands that tries to keep the spirit alive. We are happy if people dig our music and see and understand that we put ourselves in a tradition by choice. At the moment it looks like Doom getting again a lttle more attention with bands like Orodruin, Reverend Bizarre and Voodoooshock, even if it might be too early to talk about a revival but it's cool to see that people seem to get into the real deal a little more now. I hop that this grows bigger in the future and the most underground and most underrated Metal style will be more accepted. If I need to place Shepherd somewhere I would only say that we wish to be a part of it.

What is happening in the Shepherd camp at the moment after the release of Laments, are you planning any livedates, the next album, any eps or tributes to comps.album. Fill me in on your plans ?

- We're gonna be on tour throughout July with Wino's new band The Hidden Hand in Europe (see tourdates). Their album is released since Friday, 13^th also on Exile On mainstream Records. So it's like a family trip. We hope to play some good shows. Also we keep writing new songs and plan for recording in fall. There's npo plans for EPs, comps or something like that but we really like to come out with the new album in spring 2004. Be prepared guys - we two killer guest appereances on this one...

Any last words ?

- Not really. Again thanks for the interview, Gabriel. And thanks for reading and listening, dear internet user out there. All of you who like or might like our stuff: come to our shows, share the intensity and stay true to your loved and hated ones. Thank You.

By Gabriel Lilliehook

Review of Laments

Contact Exile On Mainstream Records Bruno-Bauer-Str 16 12051 Berlin Germany

Email exile@mainstreamrecords.de web www.mainstreamrecords.de

HAMMER + Legacy magazine + Daredevil magazine + Cosmic Lava present:
THE HIDDEN HAND Divine Propaganda European Tour 2003
carpet rolled by: SHEPHERD
July, 17th Ingolstadt (GER) - Ohrakel
July, 18th Luzern (CH) - Sedel (without Shepherd +ALIX)
July, 19th Erfurt (GER) - Stoned From The Underground Festival
July, 20th Leuven(B) - Sojo (+THEE PLAGUE OF GENTLEMEN)
July, 21st Frankfurt (GER) - Nachtleben
July, 22nd Stuttgart (GER) - Roehre
July, 23rd Heidelberg (GER) - Schwimmbad (+FIRESIDE)
July, 24th Muenster (GER) - Gleis 22
July, 25th Luebeck (GER) - Riders Cafe
July, 26th Berlin (GER) - Magnet (+SAMAVAYO)