Interview with: Ed Warby from THE 11TH HOUR

Thanks! I'm really proud of it so it feels good to get such positive reviews.

RoggaI actually came up with the idea about 2 years ago and we agreed we'd record some doom songs in the style of WINTER. This never happened as we started working on the second DEMIURG album instead, but I really liked the idea and I decided to write some songs myself. I surprised myself with the amount of inspiration I had and ended up writing 6 rather elaborate doom epics.

I've always loved classic doom though, especially CANDLEMASS, PARADISE LOST and early TROUBLE. For the past few years I've been going deeper into the more obscure stuff, which only made the desire to do something in this style myself stronger.

Originally I didn't plan to do a concept album, I figured it'd be cool to write some stuff in the vein of Edgar Allen Poe but Rogga strongly disagreed. Instead he showed me some lyrics he'd done for another project, which was very dark but strongly realistic. This inspired me to come up with the concept of a man who after being diagnosed with a fatal lung disease is haunted by nightmares of a tragedy in his past. He realizes that in order to die peacefully there's a few things he needs to do. The idea is partly inspired by the death of my parents (both died from lung emphysema caused by smoking), but the whole story is fantasy.

The drums were recorded at Excess Studios where I've done many albums in the past (AYREON, GOREFEST, HAIL OF BULLETS etc.), the rest was done in my own home studio. This means I basically produced myself and I also did all editing and engineering work. The mix was done in Sweden by Ronnie, who mixes most of Rogga's projects.

The lyrics are handwritten by Mick so it looks the protagonist's journal, and each page has a picture that relates to the lyrics. First time Mick showed me the stuff he'd done I was blown away by how he translated my ideas into images. I also really like the cover image. It's morbid but beautiful.

We wrote the lyrics together for both parts. Initially Rogga was going to write them on his own, but when he realized how personal the subject matter was becoming he felt I should write the actual lyrics using his words and phrases. I gave him the outline for the six songs and he wrote all these great lines such as and thus the mourning begins, which I would then expand on with more/different words and create a song structure.

I really like how the 2 voices each represent a side of the character; In general I'm the sad, melancholy side and Rogga the bitter and angry one. On the next album we'll do more with the 2 different voices to portray different characters, or different moods of the same character.

It's one of my favorite bands in general, doom metal or otherwise! But I'm more inspired by Leif Edling's songwriting than by the vocals, to be honest. I only recently started listening the less popular CANDLEMASS albums, thanks to the cool re-issues that came out last year. Other bands that had some influence on me are PARADISE LOST, FUNERAL (their gorgeous From These Wounds album especially), VIRGIN BLACK (their brilliant use of orchestral arrangements in particular) and KRUX (seeing them live in Norway was a big inspiration for me). (editor note: Lucky one.)

It started out as a project but it has since grown into a real band. At the moment we're rehearsing for the first show which will take place at the Dutch Doom Days Festival, and I hope to be able to do more shows in the near future.

However, the next album will once again be just me and Rogga. I prefer this way of working because the material is so personal that I don't want to have to compromise even the slightest bit. It's a lot of work but it's also extremely satisfying to create something all by myself. I had to promise Rogga to use one of his riffs this time though, to make him feel better, ha ha! We've already written some lyrics together as well, so not much will change in the writing and recording process.

The music was written first but it was surprisingly easy to fit the concept into the six songs. When I write music, I usually have certain visions to go with it, for instance the piano bit in Origin Of the Mourning already represented a funeral to me before I had the actual lyrics. The next album will not be a concept album, but it will be based around a single theme.

HAIL OF BULLETS Of Frost And War is also a concept album, but that was a lot harder to put together since there were more songs and you have to take the flow of the album into account, as well as the chronological order of the occurrences described.

We don't even hit the road with HAIL OF BULLETS, touring is just so expensive these days for a smaller band that it's not worth it anymore. I prefer to do separate shows instead, fly to Spain or Portugal and do 1 or 2 shows, stuff like that. It's also more fun than sitting on a bus for weeks, not getting any sleep or decent food, playing your ass off every day and coming home with a debt to the bus company.

I don't know about Rogga, but I instinctively know when I write something what it's for. There's a small grey area of riffs that could be used for several projects, but in general I'll sit down and write a HAIL OF BULLETS song or an THE 11TH HOUR song (or until recently a GOREFEST one). Time can be a problem, especially right now where I'm doing promotion for THE 11TH HOUR and preparing for the first show while we're also gearing up to start working on the next HAIL OF BULLETS album.

DEMIURG just got signed by Cyclone Empire, which is great news since Mascot did nothing to promote The Hate Chamber. Rogga's busy writing songs for the 3rd album and I think I'll record the drums early next year. It'll be somewhat different from The Hate Chamber, but it'll be massive for sure!

I'm my own worst critic so there are always things I'd change if I could. In general though, I'm extremely pleased with the outcome, I seriously underestimated the amount of work it would take to do everything by myself and I literally worked around the clock for the last week of recording/mixing (which was taking place simultaneously on some songs, I was still sending Ronnie guitar- and vocal bits on the very last day). Near the end I became convinced I would never be able to finish it on time, I had to keep asking Napalm Records for a few more days... I'm going to take more time for the next album though, probably I'll start working on it a lot earlier this time.

Like most people my age I tend to favor the stuff I grew up with and most of the newer stuff is not my thing at all. Recently I saw a BRING ME THE HORIZON show, and the audience consisted mainly of little girls and boys, the band looks very young and cute too, and they play this pretty extreme Deathcore stuff. I didn't get it at all, made me feel VERY old...(editors note: Join the club Ed)

And while I do feel it's good to have bands that try new things I have no problem at all with a certain familiarity. I love AC/DC, that should tell you enough about how important I find innovation these days...

Thanks for showing interest in THE 11TH HOUR.