The Lumberjack Feedback Interview

1. Can you tell us a little bit about the band for those that have never heard of you before?
Hey gals & guys , we are The Lumberjack Feedback, a french instrumental doom/sludge band with two drummers. We've just released our first EP « The Hand of Glory » on Kaotoxin Records.

2. How would you describe your musical sound ?
Few months ago, someone who's not in doom/sludge music told us that it sound like « Black Sabbath jamming with Pink floyd ». That could be a simple and good point of view about our music.

3. What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?
As we're an instrumental band, there is no lyrics in proper ways, but our music can fit to an apocalyptic earthquake scene, or be the soundtrack of a man-hunt in a deep forest by a stormy night. Band's artwork, that is ruled by ourselves, can be seen as lyrical topics ( and it's the main reason we're doing it by ourselves ) : esoterism, instrospection, rituals, man confronted to nature,...

4. What is the meaning and inspiration behind the band name?
At the very beginning of the band, we tried to explain to someone our music style. We told her «Hummm, it's like a lumberjack gang playing music, with a loud chainsaw sound full of feedback as background » and than she told «Hey, you are The Lumberjack Feedback so ! ».
So simple !

5.Currently all of the music is instrumental, are you planning on using vocals in the future ?
When starting the band, we were searching for a singer, but we quickly focused on this fact : « Why should  we have to get a guy (or a gal) that would yell or growl like billions of other doom/sludge/post-hardcore bands ! » As the band wrote his first tracks, it came clear that we were working on  progressive songs, with multi-layered melody and heavy droning sound that don't suffer from « vocals less ».
As we love discovering and trying new music landscape, we are opened to experiments.
We have played by the past an acoustic gig for a children audience (a real challenge ! ) and we had some vocal guests on few shows, leaving a total freedom to the vocalist (from melodic to « down to death yelling » and black metal ritual voices...)

6. What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and how would you describe your stage performance ? As we love saying, « Loud & Low » is our motto ! So be sure to wear ear protections !!! The stage is our « ritual shrine » where we let our inner nature run free. You can expect from us mesmerizing and ethereal moments to « hammer smash your face » assaults and cathartic howls.

7. Do you have any touring or show plans for the future ?
Well, we are currently promoting on stage our « Hand of glory » EP. We've play some « warm up » shows in our home town and Belgium before the « Hand of Glory tour » part 1 that lead us for the first time in Germany and Czech Republic. We'll be playin' in United Kingdom and Paris (with the mighties Acid King) in July 2013 and we've got some shows (and a « in progress » tour) with Jucifer planned for October 2013 in Europa.

8. On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of doom metal and sludge?
We have always been some kind of « outsiders » on the musical scene. We've played with metal, doom, stoner, psyche rock bands. It's always a challenge to capture audience attention.
At this moment, we are really proud of our EP's feedback. It's always rewarding when you get worldwide messages or reviews and from various music style fans about your music that reassures us about our musical direction. It was also a great surprise, when Billy Anderson, after sending him our pre-production tracks, told us that he was really impressed  and would really like to work on the mastering process.


9. Are there any other musical projects besides this band or is this a full time line up ?
The Lumberjack Feedback is our main project, but Chris (drummer) is screaming in the grindcore band PROJECT FOR BASTARDS. Simon (guitar) works on his drone solo project BOUMT HERSINA & Nicolas does some electronic music production for BEAT BOUTIK label.

10. What direction do you see your music heading into on future releases?
As the EP is freshly released, it's quite hard to tell at this moment. We're quite focusing on promoting it on stage. But we can tell you that it will still be instrumental, with a « rise and fall » attitude, heavy riffs, more and more interesting (two ) drumming patterns.

11.What are some bands or musical styles that have influenced your music and also what are you listening to nowadays ?
The Lumberjack Feedback music is fueled by every member musical background (yes, we know, it's a really original answer !). Regarding what most people can think about us, we're not « bearded heavy smokers & doom and sludge » kind of guys (hum... were almost all bearded guys too:) ). We're listening a large display of music, from grindcore, black metal, brutal death to post-rock, classic rock..
You can find on our Ipods, in shuffle mode, bands such as Suffocation, Queens of the stone age, Pink Floyd, Deftones, Liturgy, The Melvins, Nile,nine Inch Nails or Midlake.

12. Outside of music what are some of your interests ?
We're all working and dedicating our life to music and artistic activities : sound engineering, instrument making or dealing, graphic design, video editing.

13. Any final word sor thoughts before we wrap up this interview?
We would like to thanks our devoted crew, Nico from Kaotoxin records, Oliv T'Servancx from Electrik Box studio for the mixing, Billy anderson for the mastering and all people who are involved in our tour booking. Nothing can be done without you. And thanks to you for this interview !

Let's keep playin' it Loud & Low !!!