An Interview With Airbag (Part Three)
0May 18, 2012
by Rob
in Interviews
Here is the third and final part of our interview with Airbag! In this part, Bjorn discusses lavish deluxe editions, 5.1 surround sound mixes and the future of Airbag! Thanks goes to Airbag’s management for helping to arrange this interview!
Other progressive rock artists such as Steven Wilson and Opeth have released lavish deluxe editions that accompany the standard CD, digital and vinyl releases of new albums. Would you consider offering deluxe editions for future album releases?
We’d love to but those things are incredibly expensive so as for now, we’re more than happy with a nice paper sleeve CD and a double gatefold 180g vinyl. I think what Porcupine Tree, Wilson, Gilmour, Opeth and others have proved is that the physical format is far from dead. You might call it milking a dead cow but the fact is that the fans want to buy a CD for the car, a vinyl and a deluxe box for their collection. We buy these things too and you can’t really beat the feeling of opening up a lavish box set instead of downloading a file from the internet.
Are there plans to offer 5.1 surround sound Airbag albums? Recently there has been a surge of interest in the format, mostly due to artists packaging their records as CD and DVD combo’s, with the latter including 5.1 and high-resolution stereo mixes.
Not for the moment.
Finally, what does the future hold for Airbag?
We’re writing new material that might end up on a new album. Hopefully we’ll start the recordings this autumn but we’re in no hurry.
An Interview With Airbag (Part Two)
0May 16, 2012
by Rob
in Interviews
Here is the second part of our interview with Airbag, conducted with Bjørn Riis on behalf of the band. In this part, Bjørn discusses the newly released All Rights Removed vinyl, and the band’s songwriting process. It’s important to note that Bjørn confirms that the band is working on a vinyl release for Identity – that’s something to look forward to soon – I expect it will be given the same analog treatment as All Rights Removed. Look for the final part coming later on this week!
We noticed the presence of a professional cameraman in a video of your recent gig in Holland. Was the show filmed for a possible DVD concert film release?
The whole show in Zoetermeer was filmed by a local crew for a later release, but there’s no plans for an official Airbag release as of now.
What inspired the decision to release ‘All Rights Removed’ on vinyl with a new analogue mix? Are there any plans for the same process to be done for ‘Identity’?
Having grown up with vinyl, we’re very proud to have released our first and to see that the format is getting its renaissance. Most record companies and artists doesn’t get it and just release the CD master on vinyl, which sounds horrible. We went back to the master tapes and mixed the whole album from start on analogue tapes to get the best sound experience and quality for the vinyl format. There are no huge surprises but you’ll get to hear the album in a slightly, and we think a better, mix. We’re also working on the vinyl release for Identity.
How involved is each member of the band in the songwriting process?
It usually starts out with me (Bjorn) writing the basic arrangements and lyrics and I present this to the band. It could be everything from a very rough sketch that we work out together, like Never Coming Home, or a more or less finished piece, like the title track, All Rights Removed. The instrumental parts are worked out during rehearsals
with everyone adding new ideas and their sound. Asle might rewrite some of the lyrics and obviously, he adds a lot it the postproduction and mixing of the album. I think ARR was a much more of a band effort compared to Identity. We’d been playing all of the songs live for some time before we started to record and we spent a lot of time in the
studio just trying different ideas and the whole process was great fun.
Loading ...
