Interview with Quintessence Zine (NL), August 2002
It's been quiet around WHW the last 4 years. What has happened since the release of "Sorrow of the Angels" in 1998?
Quite a bit has occured since the release of "Sorrow Of The Angels;" At the end of 1998, we expanded the line-up by bringing in Jim Hunter (Revelation/October31/Twisted Tower Dire) on bass, as well as the brother/sister combo of Scott and Michelle Loose (both of Arise From Thorns/Brave) on guitar and keyboards respectively. This line-up performed live throughout 1999 in the US, but ultimately fractured apart, largely due to longtime drummer Jon Paquin's waning interests, as well as the fact that I had joined Arise From Thorns full-time by midsummer.
WHW went on hiatus after the last gig, and AFT finished up their second album "Before An Audience Of Stars" (to which I contributed minimally), then began a grueling series of performances that added up to well over 100 by the time I left in 2001. I relocated to the west coast of the USA at the end of 1999, where I worked with Don of Sculptured on WHW material, but ultimately returned to Virginia by March 2000 to rejoin AFT, which became Brave at that point in time. Brave went on to record an EP that fall, "Waist Deep In Dark Waters," a release that I was very invovled with in terms of composition and production...and I am very proud of it to this day. Unfortunately, our full potential was never realized because of differences in lifestyle and musical direction, as well as my admittedly morose attitude at the time, so Brave and I parted ways roughly one year from when we started.
By this time, I had already planned on bringing WHW back en force, so rehearsals were already under way. The line-up initially consisted of Jim, Scott, and myself from the 1999 line-up, and Trevor Schrotz (of Brave) on drums before Jon Paquin returned for a bried period of time. Unfortunately, Paquin's attitude had not changed and our differences were clearly irreconcilable at this point, and by April we brought in Phil Bloxam (of the 80's D.C. metal band Hellion) who rehearsed with us through October of last year, but was really more interested in pursuing a jazz gig at this time, so we called upon Jason Gray, drummer of the recent defunct death/doom band Forty Days Longing. At the same time we discovered keyboard player Jake Bodnar quite randomly, and brought him into the fold immediately, therefore completing the new While Heaven Wept line-up.
This new incarnation basically rehearsed from October 2001 through January 2002, then entered Assembly Line studios in February, to begin recording the long-overdue follow-up to "Sorrow Of The Angels." While we have so far completed about 75% of the tracking, the recording process has been interrupted by another client of the studio (albeit more financially lucrative, in an immediate sense), so we are currently rehearsing material for the NEXT album after "Of Empires Forlorn" (entitled "Vast Oceans Lachrymose"), while we wait for the studio to become available this November.
In the meantime, we have managed to complete mixes for a new 7" single entitled "The Drowning Years," the opening cut of the "Empires..." album, and this should be available by October. We've also added some other new members to help perform this more orchestral material live: Greg Schwan (ex-Forty Days Longing/Betray My Trust) on keyboards, Paul Lipscomb on guitar, and we've welcomed back Michelle Loose as harmony vocalist this time around. These members will not be heard on the "Of Empires Forlorn" album, but will be part of the "VOL" recording for sure.
Lastly, I would like to mention the brand new website: www.whileheavenwept.net , which will be updated regularly, and is now our official page.
WHW has become "famous" for the traditional epic doom style bands like Candlemass and Solitude Aeturnus are known for. Do you agree with this tag?
Absolutely. Candlemass, along with early Fates Warning certainly provided the foundations for the formation of While Heaven Wept, and we've proudly brandished the Epic Doom Metal label since our formation in 1989. Mind you, each of the bands within this category have their own individual characteristics, so in our case we could also be considered progressive metal or symphonic metal, but Epic Doom is pretty much encompassing.
Most songs you compose are rather lengthy, is this intentional? If I'm correct you study or studied music in college. Has that influenced your writing skills?
Most of the time the song length is determined by what I am trying to convey as well as the overall tempo of the piece; some of the earlier compositions are long because of their funereal pace, but admittedly, I am a huge fan of progressive rock like early Genesis, Rush, Yes, and King Crimson, so it is natural for WHW to have lengthy works. As far as how much my studies have influenced my writing, I would have to say greatly, although this would not really be evident on the first couple of WHW albums because most of that material was written before I even enrolled in college. The new material from "Of Empires Forlorn" onward certainly demonstrates a more advanced compositional style with expanded harmony, dense orchestrations, counterpoint, and far more modulations, hence the perspective that we have begun the second chapter of While Heaven Wept.
WHW has always been a (more or less) one man band. Do you have a full line-up these days and have you ever done any live shows?
Although I have been the sole composer for WHW since 1990 or so, I've never considered it to be a one-man project, regardless of how personalized the material is. It's true that we've had a ridiculous number of line-up changes over the last 14 years, leaving me as the sole, founding member, however several members have put years into the band (for example, Jon Paquin was our drummer for 9 years). I would have to say though, that WHW is much more of a band now with this line-up than anytime prior to this; everyone in the band now really believes in the music, and is much more involved with every aspect of WHW from contributing to arrangements to financing our projects. As mentioned previously, the line-up of Phillips-Paquin-Loose-Hunter-Loose performed live in 1999, and some earlier incarnations also appeared live occasionally, but the current line-up will be focusing on the studio work for the time being, with plans of playing live sometime in 2003. The line-up on the new album is as follows: Tom Phillips - guitar, vocals, keyboards, Jim Hunter - bass, Jason Gray - drums, Scott Loose - guitar, and Jake Bodnar - keyboards, and since then we've added additional members: Greg Schwan - keyboards, Paul Lipscomb - guitar, and Michelle Loose - harmony vocals, for the purpose of performing the new material live.
In the meantime you've been relocated to England to do vocals for Solstice, but I guess that didn't work out. What happened?
Basically with Solstice, I was "green" in the sense that I was still uncomfortable singing personally, it was a completely different world there in the UK, things were not exactly organized, and my drinking habits gradually grew to be drinking problems. The concept was great, and the potential was enormous, but unfortunately we did not work very efficiently at that time, plus this was when guitarist John Piras first left the band for new horizons as well.
When I returned to the states in the summer of 1996, I had every intention of returning to the UK to do the "New Dark Age" album, but at the time Solstice were going through alot of problems with labels, and at the time it seemed likely that the recording budget would be used to pay for my transatlantic flights as well, which was simply unacceptable. All of this combined with my own plans of releasing the "Sorrow Of The Angels" album pretty much rendered it impossible to carry on, so we mutually agreed that it would be best to part ways, but we did so as brethren, and that is how we remain. There is always the possibility of another Solstice, and I would love to be involved, now that I have found my voice, and we all have a few more years of experience in the industry.
There are a lot of new WHW releases coming out in the future. Let's start with the Double LP that is going to be released through Metal Supremacy from Germany. What can you tell about this album?
It is entitled "Chapter One: 1989-1999," and it contains everything WHW released during the first decade of our existence: "Into The Wells Of Sorrow," "Lovesongs Of The Forsaken," "Sorrow Of The Angels," and our track from the Cold Mourning split (plus one unreleased song from the S.O.T.A. sessions). The pressing is a limited edition of 500 copies on colored vinyl in a gatefold sleeve, of the same high standards as the other Metal Supremacy releases. I strongly recommend that anyone who is interested in acquiring material from our first decade act immediately in contacting MS, as this will be your last opportunity in the foreseeable future for you to purchase it; the original pressings of the cd's and such are long gone, and once this anthology is sold-out, the material will be unavailable in it's original form forever. Contact MS via metal@ancientarts.de for ordering information.
Next up is the album "Of empires forlorn". When will that album be released and through what label? What about the songs, are those in the same vein we're used to? And what can you tell us about the lyrics, songtitles like "The blackness of ravensthorpe (ode to allah)", "West Riding in Hudd's" or "Blackened by abdullah" aren't that average I suppose?
Hmmm, you seem to have our song titles confused with those of Rich Walker's Razorback project, but I suppose you'll have that dealing with such cult material (laughing). As mentioned previously, we are roughly 75% done tracking the material for the album, but are currently waiting for the studio to open up to the public again, so we can finish up and get "Empires" out. Right now, the only confirmed pressings for "Of Empires Forlorn" are the limited edition digipak version coming once again on Italy's Eibon Records, and an even more limited vinyl pressing on Metal Supremacy. There is no confirmed domestic pressing at this time, but we are seeking labels interested in licensing the album from us currently. As for the material contained therein, it is indeed crushing, apocalyptic, majestic Epic Doom Metal from start to finish, but at the same time, much more diverse; there will be aspects that appeal to fans of Bathory or Celtic Frost as well as the more obvious Candlemass influences. The actual track listing is as follows: "The Drowning Years," "Of Empires Forlorn," "Voice In The Wind," "In Aeturnum," "Soulsadness," " Epistle No.81," and "Sorrow Of The Angels."
There's also a bunch of split EP's coming up. Could you give us details about those? Then there's talk of another new full-length "Vast Oceans Lacrymose", what could you tell us about that?
Well, in the wake of the Solstice break-up, and the decision to wait for a new Betray My Trust recording, the split 7"s are not part of our current plans, so now we are releasing two singles from the "Empires…" album; the first single is for "The Drowning Years," and should be available by October via Maniacal Records here in the states (Maniacalrecords@aol.com), featuring edited mixes exclusive to the single. The second 7" will be for the "Voice In The Wind" single. Our version is an adaptation of an obscure track from the old German symphonic band Jane, but the B-side will be an exact cover of their original, exclusive to that single. Most of the copies of this single will be made available through the Jane fanclub exclusively, but once again, Maniacal will be at the helm of this project. I would love to do a split with Rich's new project, as well as with Thunderstorm, Betray My Trust, and Cold Mourning again, but it is a matter of when those bands are ready to make it happen really.
As for "Vast Oceans Lachrymose," that is what we are rehearsing currently…the follow-up to "Of Empires Forlorn." It is even more diverse, and not really a doom album at all at this point, but unquestionably EXTREMELY epic metal…very melodic and progressive, but a lot of it is actually pretty fast in terms of tempo…compared to "Thus With A Kiss I Die" or some of our older songs. Basically, I feel like it would be redundant to follow-up "Empires…" with yet another Candlemass-inspired release, and I've always said that I would not perform doom just for the sake of doom; I think it will be much more gratifying for both the band and our audience to have something truly inspired rather than having to hear us "going through the motions." Mind you, lyrically, it is not really any different, and there is a fair amount of funereal paced material, but certainly a lot more thrashing and headbanging mid-tempos on "VOL," than our previous offerings. To sum this up, rather than opting for the more obvious or expected route of "softening" into some kind of new-age entity, WHW is getting heavier and darker…the contrast to the suicidal doom metal is not going to be inspiring bliss, rather vindictive aggression. I assure you that the material is of the same quality as everything we do, if not better, given the greater emphasis on composition.
In these days of technology, most bands have their own spot on the internet. WHW info is very hard to find on the net. Is that going to change?
Well, I am very pleased to announce that our new website is FINALLY up, running, and will be updated on a regular basis. Some areas are still under construction, but anyone can view the majority of the content already. I invite everyone to check out http://www.whileheavenwept.net
I guess we should be totally updated now concerning WHW. Anything else you want to share with our readers?
Just that there are free Mp3's now available at our website for the forthcoming "Drowning Years" single, and we'll be posting more once the album is complete. Alternatively, there are Mp3's available at: www.mp3.com/whw
Otherwise, anyone requiring more information can contact me at plomerus@hotmail.com
Thanks for the interview Pim… and thanks to our supporters everywhere…our Forlorn Empire shall tower high with the turn of the year…
DOOM ONWARD