Earth Interview

I never thought that I would make this interview, it’s a great honor to have the mighty
Earth, here in our little music world. Deep breath and let’s roll…

First of all, welcome to our blog. This is your first time here in Greece, how do you feel about that?

I (Dylan Carlson) am very excited to finally make it to Greece. when i was a child and lived in Germany (6-8 years old) i was really in to the Illiad and the Odyssey and the history of the ancient greeks, unfortunately when my parents took a trip to Greece, it was the one trip they did on there own, so never got to go.


Why did it take you so long to come?

Logistics, routing tours is sometimes difficult, and when we would receive offers to play in Greece, they never seemed to line up with the tour being planned, for example one year we received an
offer but we were ending in Helsinki, the following year no offer and an offer for 3 shows in Israel, and the third year an offer from Istanbul, but none from Athens, if those offers had all come in at the same time, it would have made sense to fly to Athens and then Israel or Turkey, but otherwise it would have been economically and logistically diffcult. as part of a tour a show with lower fees can be offset by one with higher fees and it all evens out at the end. one off shows with flights and such are likely to make losing money on a show more likely. I don’t want to sound like a business man, but at the end of the day the tour or show has to at least break even so i can keep doing this, i do
not have anyone supporting me, no arts money or grants, Earth has to sell tickets and records and other merchandise to keep going.

For the people that don’t know about you, how did your music trip start as a band? 

Earth was my third attempt at doing a band. My first attempt we only played one show, my second attempt, we played a few shows. But i was unhappy with my guitar playing so i took some time to woodshed and practice. Earth was started with a strong conceptual foundation and very specific ideas
of what i wanted it to be. My desire to play rock n roll started when i heard Ac/Dc for the first time when i was 11. From that moment playing guitar in a band was all i wanted to do.

I think the hardest part is to describe your music, how do you do it when they ask you? 

I  play slow mostly instrumental hard rock/heavy metal.

20 years later, do you have the same excitement to hit the road, play music and
perform on stage?

Yes. even more so. When i first started i was more into the recording side, but now i live for playing music to an audience.

“Primitive and Deadly” is the title of your new album, how was the recording
process?

 We recorded basic tracks at Rancho de la Luna in Joshua Tree, California with Dave Catching. Mark Lineman added his vocals in Los Angeles, California. i did guitar overdubs in Seattle, at Crackle and Pop Studios, and we mixed it and Rabia added her vocals at Avast Studios in Seattle.

How is the experience of working with Mark Lanegan? 

I have known Mark for many years, since 1987 or 88 and we lived together at one point. I have
always liked his singing, and think he’s extremely talented songwriter as well. I made a couple small contributions to his first solo record (a title and a chord progression) but i didn’t want any credits about it. We have both wanted to work together for a long time, but it never quite happened, till now. It was easy as we have both been doing this for a long time.

You are a band since 1990, does that make you nervous when it’s time to record a new album or you do what you always do? 

No i don’t get nervous about recording. I just strive to make the best album possible with the elements available at the time we do the record.

How is your European tour so far? Do you want to share with us a best and worst moment? 

The tour is going really well, and the shows are feeling and sounding very good. I was a bit worried as i had taken 3 months off after all the touring we did last year. I married a beautiful English girl, Holly Arup, on December 20th of 2014. She came with me to the Amsterdam and Paris shows,
but she had to go back to London, so that was the worst moment for me. She will be rejoining the tour in Berlin and traveling with me all the way to the end of the road in Istanbul. So that is going to be the best moment, musically the shows are going great.

We are done! That’s the famous “free mode” section, say whatever you want to say to finish this interview. It was a great honor and we are looking forward to your gig at 27/02 at Kyttaro Club with Universe217(GR).

Thank you for the interview, and I am looking forward to playing Athens, Greece. I will have my wife, Holly with me in Greece so that will be very nice.