Esben & The Witch are back in Malta with a new album, an edgier sound and a promise to blow our minds for a second time. Guitarist Thomas Fisher tells Ramona Depares about the new direction the band has taken.

You performed in Malta in 2012. How was the experience for you?

It was an excellent show as I recall. We played many songs from our second album for the first time during that concert and there was a great atmosphere.

We spent a few days in Malta and, apart from drinking beer and swimming in the Medi-terranean, we ended up taking an incredible amount of photographs. Our friend had this amazing infrared film that, when developed, alters the colours of the land. Trees or anything else with chlorophyll in come out bright pink, water comes out black. It was amazing using it in Malta where the landscape and vegetation are so interesting.

What has the band’s journey been like since then?

We released another two albums and we have been touring as much as we can. The way the albums sound has largely been sculpted by playing shows. We have become more of a live band now in the way we perform, write and record. Everything is more raw and primal, which is something we felt drawn to.

After having drum machines, loops and electronics at the fore for the early years it has been a very exciting journey to start taking these away or at least moving them to the side a bit. What is left is the three of us facing each other in a room with our instruments and the result of that is a far more emotional and intense thing.

Any highlights, apart from the new album, A New Nature?

Setting up our own label, Nostromo, has been a great experience. Realising that we can do this ourselves and in the future become an entirely self-sufficient operation... that is an exciting thought.

This third album has seen a definite shift in sound. What led to this evolution?

We have become much more of a live band and this was driven by playing a lot of shows and learning what is gratifying for us to create and perform. The main shift is that Daniel (Copeman, on drums and electronics) now plays with a full drum kit and this has also it has changed the way we write.

Working on these songs was far easier, it felt instinctive and free. Before, we were kind of latched on to the drum machine. I think drum machines are clever things, but the way we used to use ours... I feel that it became too central and overbearing and was eventually somewhat stifling.

What was the collaboration with producer Steve Albini like?

We recorded the album with Steve in Chicago. We wanted to record the songs in a way that captured the live feel that I’ve been describing.

We were aware of Steve’s work as a musician and as an engineer and the way he likes to work. We were able to record all the instruments together, in some cases in one take. It was exactly what we wanted to do, capture the sound of us playing live, which is something that can get lost in the studio.

You have been very prolific with album releases. How do you feel when you compare your live playing with the recorded version?

I definitely prefer playing live to recording. I love being holed up somewhere with the other two, playing off each other and exploring new ideas – that’s why I started doing this in the first place. Recording them, on the other hand, is not always as pleasurable.

Sometimes when you write something you have it there in its raw form and it’s at its most powerful. I worry that, rather than enhancing this raw form, the recording process can diminish it by isolating, examining and tweaking something like a guitar part or even by allowing a vocal to take over so that it loses its magic. The emotion is lost and it becomes a sound.

I feel that I learnt a lot from Steve about how that doesn’t have to be the case, about how you can record songs live, warts and all and they are all the more beautiful for it.

Do you have a favourite track on the new record?

I didn’t when we wrote it, but since we started playing it live The Jungle has become a real favourite. Audiences have reacted to it in a really positive way and, on a few occasions, Sam Barton from Teeth Of The Sea has joined us on stage to play his trumpet part and he really gets a party started, let me tell you.

Last year you also wrote a live score for the film La Antena. Was this your first film experience? How did you find it and what were the particular challenges?

It was indeed and we are considering trying our hand at another live score this year. It was a good experience, a very challenging one and certainly something we all learnt a lot from.

I think the reason we are so keen to try another is that by having one film under our belts we have a far better understanding of the process and, crucially, how it differs from writing music of our own.

La Antena was an amazing film to soundtrack but it’s full of very short scenes, particularly in its first half, which makes it quite awkward. This time we are looking at working on something slower paced, a film that explores the natural world, as that is something that inspires us in our own song-writing.

This was your first album released under your own record label. How has this affected the final product?

I don’t think that releasing A New Nature on our label has had much effect on the way the music sounds. We have always been largely free to create and put out what we please, so not much has changed in that respect.

Having said that it is very gratifying to know that nobody even needs to hear the music before you release it, we are totally our own masters and, while Matador were great and left us to our own devices, there is still freedom to be gained from taking control of a release and overseeing it all.

What are your plans for this label? Any collaborations in the pipeline?

We do plan to release other music on the label. As well as our albums we also want to use it to release other projects we embark on, like the soundtrack work you mentioned. In the future we’d like to put out music by other artists as well.

A New Nature was also made possible through PledgeMusic. Do you believe that nowadays fan-funding makes it easier for musicians to keep to the true identity of their music?

I think many of our fans feel more invested in this album than our previous two, because they had a hand in its release. I think this is a powerful thing in a time when, even though music is more freely available than ever before, it can be harder to forge an emotional connection with it.

Esben & The Witch performs on February 28 at Razzett l-Aħmar, Mosta. The Violent Violets and Krishna will open. The event is hosted by Hairyamp Promotions. Tickets are available from www.ticketline.com.mt.

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