Absolace talks to triplew.me

Dubai-based Absolace have received a lot of attention of late, following their excellent debut album Resolve[d], and a host of impressive live performances. We talk to the band about their latest album, playing with Anathema this weekend in Beirut and what's behind their music.

Their brand of rock is unique, almost a breath of fresh air in a musical landscape that often struggles to get itself heard, let alone front-and-center in a host of local, regional and global publications.

With what began with drummer Greg Cargopoulous writing some basic song structures and being joined by guitarist Jack Skinner laying down the bones of the album, and eventually finding vocalist Nadim Jamal and bassist Ben Harris, developed into their debut album, Resolve[d]. The album highlights a great technical ability, while also displaying signs of fragility and songwriting expertise, matched with some production skills not heard in the Middle East all too often. Absolace are branching out from Dubai and doing what hopefully many more do in their wake, play a concert outside Dubai AND still in the region.

This Saturday, 18 September, they support the seminal British band Anathema at the Forum de Beyrouth in Beirut, Lebanon. If you’re going already, get there early to see them, if you’re in Beirut, but not going, do yourself a favor and get a ticket. And if you live in the region and have the means, get on a plane and go and check out the concert, you won’t regret it.

We caught up with the band before the gig about Resolve[d], playing in Beirut and the next steps in their already rapid rise in the public’s consciousness. If you haven't heard them, check them out on Makshoof Music and leave a comment.

Firstly, great album, Resolve[d], which we found to be one of the most original albums from most bands in the world, let alone in the region, this year. How did the album come about? It seems you were working on it for a while. Tells us about the musical journey of Absolace to today, and particularly how you constructed your songs?

Greg: Absolace started when I would sit in my room in my spare time and think of some musical ideas. Mainly drum patters and some guitar parts as well. I’ve been writing them for a while, a couple of the songs are like 4 years old, but I didn’t take it that seriously so it took a long time to get a whole album’s worth. At the time, my aim was to start a band with a ‘split personality’. Going from heavy to mellow, from poly-rhythmical to groove-based. From linear to melodic. That was, and still is the foundation of Absolace’s music. At this time I really had nothing else in mind for the band except for writing music. I didn’t think this would actually materialize into an album or even into a full line-up of musicians. They were just songs I was writing for my own personal satisfaction. After a while of jamming out the ideas with Jack, our current guitarist, we realised some of these songs had a lot of potential. That’s when I started to plan the production of our first album. Jack and I eventually found the other members of the recording line-up and spent a few months in our home studio putting together our debut release. After all that was done, we spent time dealing with the painful bureaucracies of getting our album released, and we also managed to find a permanent bass player, Ben Harris. Now we are here, our debut album out, just a few shows under our belt, and as motivated as ever to keep on writing.

Nadim: What I can say, is that in terms of vocals is was a real personal release – it had been a long time since I had done something like this and I let it all out! The guys set up the home studio at mine when they had enough of the tracks laid down for me to have something to sing to. I would lock myself in the room for hours and record demo tracks – usually the 1st thing I would record on instinct would be the best idea to pursue. I would have a theme/subject of the song in mind, and find the melodies, and write lyrics to them (and the harmonies – I’m a huge vocal harmonization fan – if the guys hadn’t controlled my impulse to harmonize everything it would have sounded like there was a choir throughout the album). The final vocal recordings were done at Greg's old apartment in noisy Satwa (a part of Dubai) in a corner of the room between a closet, mattress leaned up against the wall, and some duvets – every time we had a perfect take a cat fight would break out or car alarm would go off – nightmare. But it worked out in the end.

Jack: Well I’d just ended up back in Dubai, and previously me and Greg had jammed a couple of ideas quite some while ago, we started to just put drum tracks down. Greg and I would go to In The Mix studios in Dubai for a few days to get 7 drum tracks ready, was quite painstaking as in reality, the songs hadn’t even been written yet and we had no idea how it was to turn out.

We see that you got Jens Bogren to post-produce the album and mix it, and listening to it, atmosphere and space appear from nowhere and then is snatched away, and overall is a highlight of the album. How much emphasis did you guys put on the production, or was it more a case of the production came naturally as part of your song-writing process?

Greg: I must say that this came quite naturally to us. It just depends how forward-thinking you are when it comes to production, and how aware you are as a listener towards different production styles. What I mean by that is, I have met a lot of musically gifted people that just don’t know what sound they want. They can’t see past a good melody and nice lyrics. They don’t pay too much attention to production of other band’s albums.

Jack: Production was a key thing for this album, as without it the tracks really do sound very raw as one could guess. I know I personally had no idea how it was going to turn out, but Greg knew a lot more on this than me and really we just trusted him in seeing the bigger picture with all of this, and it turned out for the better I think!

What are your thoughts about the growth in the regional scene, rather than bands going to Europe, doing a circuit – Cairo, Beirut, Amman, Dubai, Doha, Manama, Abu Dhabi, Muscat – that kind of circuit. Cut your teeth regionally and then head out. What are your thoughts on that?

Nadim: Yeah we have heard some really nice comments from other bands here and we have a lot of good things to say about many of them as well – there’s some real talent in the region – and we’ve noticed in Dubai how supportive bands are of one another – it’s really amazing and we’ve made some really good friends with some superbly talented bands. It’s such a pleasant environment to be in a band for just this reason.

To be honest we want both and are working hard to try to get that. We’d love to do as many gigs as possible in the region, be a part of a scene that seems to really be on the rise again (and fast). It’s really important for the ‘scene’ to support the bands as much as for the bands to support the ‘scene’ – so we’re all there and will hop on any half-decent gig there is out there! However there is a long way to go before we have a really strong scene in this part of the world – it will come as more bands start to get bigger, audiences start to grow in size, promoters/organizers start to set the bar higher for quality of the gig, and sponsors take notice and start to finance this very underfunded scene.

At the same time we have been making some really great contacts outside and are pushing hard to line up as many gigs in Europe and Asia as we can. It’s all part of the pleasure of being in a band. I’m so happy for bands like Nervecell who have managed to do this – this is our goal and hopefully we’ll be having a post gig beverage with them somewhere in Europe soon! So hopefully soon we’ll be travelling further outwards to play shows!

On that topic, what are your thoughts on the music scene in the Middle East?

Nadim: It’s finally starting to shift back to rock again. There was alot of focus on rock/metal in the 90s but most of the region was not developed enough (or was coming fresh out of a war – referring to Lebanon of course) and couldn’t serves as a platform in which bands could flourish. Early 2000s it was dance music everywhere and bands were on the down. Now things are looking up – there are new bands popping up, home studio recording is easier now (hard to find a decent studio in many parts of this region), internet has made it easier for international and regional exposure, so it’s a great time for bands. Promoters are back on track in the UAE – there is still more to go but it’s on the right track.

One of the main problems is audience size in the entire region. This means less ticket sales for concerts, less CD sales for bands, less sub-scenes, etc...You go to any major city in the world and in the same night you can go to a punk club, metal club, grunge gig, etc...This makes it really challenging for bands and promoters in the region to make a return (even break even) on what they have worked very hard to put together. But as I said – it’s not all so gloomy – more and more bands are starting to get more successful (which is happening all around the region), audience sizes increase, promoters get more money at the door, get better sound systems, pay bands more, attract more sponsors who are targeting the youth, etc...and the scene as a whole grows – I think it’s happening as we speak and I’m excited about it.

We notice tinges of regional flavour in songs like White Lies, how important to all of you was where you grew up to write your music? Or was it more of a case of your influences coming together that creates your sound?

Greg: A lot people say they hear an Arabic touch in ‘White Lies’, but to be honest, I can’t really hear it, and it definitely wasn’t intentional. Maybe its just a coincidence.

Your playing with the famous Anathema in Beirut on 18 September. How much are you looking forward to that?!? Tell us, what can we expect from Absolace that night?

Nadim: We’re playing an awesome gig in my home town and I haven’t been on a stage there for 4 years – I’m really happy man! Can’t wait to get on a big stage with big sound opening for such an awesome band! On top of all that I know we’re going to have a blast before and after the gig – show the guys around Beirut. I’m also really excited about playing with Braegen who’s playing alongside Jack as our guest guitarist – just to add that extra OOMF! We’ve been practicing hard – it’s going to sound big!

Greg: Really looking forward to it. A great opportunity for us I think. Can’t wait to show our music to another country.

Jack: Unfortunately, due to some passport issues I’m not going to be able to make it over, am absolutely gutted!

Ben: Can’t wait!! We feel really privileged to be sharing the stage with Anathema!

We live in a region that probably relies on that more than the traditional ‘get out and gig’ approach that works in Western countries. How important is your fan-base on the internet to the promotion of Absolace?

Nadim: Very important! The net has allowed us to reach so many people around the world and with great results. Not only fans – we’ve been chatting with net radio DJs from the UK, rock journalists from Greece, Derek Sivers (x-owner of CD Baby) – all of which are opinion leaders in the industry and who are more than happy to help hard working bands get out there. We’ve been lucky enough to have people from all over the world comment on our music – not in great masses or anything – but rather that quality fan from Belgium who spreads the music to all her friends, or the prog rock enthusiast from Poland who has passed on our music to radio stations in his town, etc...It’s so rewarding when you get genuine feedback and support from total strangers around the world and we’re lucky enough to have had that.

Check out Absolace on Makshoof Music and their concert with Anathema this weekend.