Interview with The 11th Hour
I guess first off, Ed, I’d like to ask why you departed from your normal music styles and decided to create a doom album?
I’ve been into doom since the early 80′s when I first heard Candlemass and Trouble, I even sang in a doomband for a short while, but I never considered playing drums in a doom band. Too much of a flash drummer for that I guess… but then a few years ago I started playing guitar, first it was very primitive and just enough to be able to write songs for Gorefest and later Hail Of Bullets, but after a while I felt confident enough to actually want to play guitar on an album. Rogga already mentioned he’d like to make some doom a while ago, but somehow that turned into me playing drums for his band Demiurg
instead. I did like the doom idea and started writing my own tunes until I had an album’s worth of music and of course I had to get Rogga involved so here we are!
I guess that still doesn’t answer “why doom”, so… I myself am a very melancholy person, and I find that when I sit down by myself late at night and don’t have death metal on my mind I write heavy, slow and sad music. I love minor scales and harmonies, big melodies that make you cry (or laugh, apparently, haha), dramatic themes, in short: doooooom.
Before Gorefest you were in Elegy, which is a band I’m not too familiar with.
Could you speak about Elegy? What did you you with the band?
I joined Elegy in 1987 and stayed with them until 1992 when I made the switch to Gorefest. Elegy played a rather technical form of power metal, with lots of guitar shredding and high pitched vocals. I was very much into this kind of stuff (Cacophony, Malmsteen, Racer X, etc) when I joined them but in the early 90′s I got hooked on death metal and couldn’t wait to play this awesome music myself. In 1991 I met Frank and JC from Gorefest at Stephan’s (my later Hail Of Bullets buddy) place, when Gorefest lost (fired) their drummer they thought of me and I accepted the offer immediately. I did end up playing drums on the first Elegy album Labyrinth Of Dreams, but by then I was already in Gorefest. The drummer that replaced me in Elegy is Dirk Bruinenberg who now plays drums in the liveband of The 11th Hour, so we’ve come full circle again. Metal Mind re-released the entire Elegy back catalogue last year I think, in case you want to check some of it out.
Wow. Now that you answered part of my next question, I’ll go to something else, which comes out of that last answer. Elegy was power, Gorefest was death, and now 11th Hour is doom. What do you NOT listen to?
I do not listen to dance, modern R&B and rap/hip-hop, although as with all rules there’s always exceptions. In general though I can’t listen to soulless music, music made by machines instead of people. I always laugh when I hear an insanely expensive car stereo blasting out some stupid house beat, which was not made to be listened to while not
dancing and/or on drugs.
Besides metal my great passion is country music, and I don’t mean “Achy Breaky Heart” or shit like that, but the real deal: Merle Haggard, George Jones, Emmylou Harris, Buck Owens, Hank Williams, Bill Monroe, Johnny Cash, Louvin Brothers, etc. More than any other genre country deals with pain, sadness, grief, heartache and tragedy and I love it.
I also love old soul/R&B and blues, as well as pretty much anything that can be considered Classic Rock. Prog also finds its way into my CD player regularly, especially the 70′s giants such as Genesis, Yes, ELP or Kansas (one of my all time favorite bands).
You’re officially an unofficial member of Ayreon and you were also on Star One. Any other projects on the back burner moving to the front burner once the tour for 11th Hour is over?
We’re slowly starting up the writing and recording process for the next Hail Of Bullets album. I’ll be engineering/producing it myself this time (with a little help from Dan Swanö who will be mixing again) so I’ll have my hands full. We hope to have it done on time for a late may release.
And Rogga’s band Demiurg got signed to Cyclone Empire recently, he’s writing songs for the 3rd album at the moment and I expect to do drums for it in January.
And now that Arjen has done a “soft” album with Guilt Machine I assume he’ll be ready to rock again and this is usually where I come in, so I figure I’ll also be working with him again next year.
And then it’ll be about time to start working on the next 11th Hour album.
So, after all that, what do you think the next logical evolution of Ed Warby is going to be?
For now more death and doom metal. First up is the next Hail Of Bullets album, after (or during) that I’ll record drums for the 3rd Demiurg and then I guess it’s time to start working on the next 11th Hour album. I have some other dream projects I’d like to realise, such as a power metal album (and I don’t mean the kooky Dragonforce style, but real classic powerful metal) and once I get too old to be believable as a metal musician I’ll probably try and put together a killer country outfit. But for now the metal still flows freely and strongly!
Back to the here and now, with 11th Hour, you’re playing shows with Dirk on drums, and I imagine Rogga is singing live; who else is in the live version of the band, and do you think the live band will become the studio band, or are you going to keep it to yourself and Rogga?
The original idea was to have Rogga on vocals and bass but he’s plagued by a chronic ear infection that makes it impossible for him to fly. So instead I came up with the following line-up:
Bram Bijlhout – Guitar
Petra Guijt – Guitar
Kris Gildenlöw – Bass
Dirk Bruinenberg – Drums
Pim Blankenstein – Vocals
Me – Guitar & vocals
Bram and Pim are from a band called Officium Triste, a well known Dutch doomband. Dirk and Kris play together in Dial and just went on tour with the Damian Wilson Band. Petra is in Deadcell and Toxocara.
I think it’s a great band but the next album will just be me and Rogga, same as Burden Of Grief. I prefer doing all the instruments by myself because I have a very strong vision of what the material should sound like and how it should be played, and I don’t want to compromise in that area, at least not on record.
The subject matter for Burden of Grief is pretty deep. Where did you get the inspiration to write about someone who has a “terminal lung disease”? And what disease is it specifically? I assume cancer due to the song “One Last Smoke”, but I might be wrong.
The inspiration comes from the deaths of my parents, both from a combination of heavy smoking and lung emphysema. My sister suffers from the same disease, so it’s all very close to home for me. I’ve seen the harm it does so I never smoked myself, otherwise I may have had it as well since it’s part hereditary. The rest of the story is fiction, but the emotions in it are all too real.
Who is it that is coughing at the beginning of “One Last Smoke”?
The coughing/breathing is a sample that I modifed to count off the song.
The band name, The 11th Hour – what was the inspiration behind it, and what does it mean?
The name was almost handed to me through a string of coincidences. One morning I woke up and my alarm clock was at 11.11, later that day I was working on the song that would become Origins Of Mourning (working title: Doom11) and when it was finished I did a quick mixdown so I could make an mp3 and I noticed it was just over 11 minutes long… so I started thinking about this 11 business and came upon the phrase “at the 11th hour” which to me really captured the mood of the project. It
stands for the final hours of ones life, the last chance to make things right. The next album will also deal with similar themes so the name will remain relevant.
With that explaination, the mixdown to MP3 business reminded me of my own recording equipment, which does just that as well. What did you use to record Burden of Grief?
I oversimplified somewhat: what I really do is set up a mix and bounce it to disc as wav, then I convert it to mp3. I use Protools to record and edit, and ABC Amber Audio Converter to make mp3′s.
I was showing my friend Thom the interview so far, and he’s asked me to ask you a question for him: what are your top five favorite movies, and why?
I’d like to ask my own version as well: your top five favorite albums, and why?
Cool, I’ll make myself some coffee and put together the lists!
Ok, here goes:
Blade Runner: Sci-fi perfection. I love everything about this movie, the way it looks, sounds, feels… Rutger Hauer is awesome as the replicant that wants more life, something to be proud of as a fellow Dutchman.
Taxi Driver: I adore Martin Scorsese and although I could easily put Goodfellas or Raging Bull here I chose Taxi Driver because of its brooding menace and of course De Niro’s unforgettable performance as the psychotic cabbie. I fell madly in love with Jodie Foster after seeing this as a kid (I’m about the same age) and the violent climax left a huge impression on my young mind. I still don’t know what my dad was thinking when he took me to see it but I’m forever grateful.
The Good, The Bad And The Ugly: The best of the Sergio Leone directed Dollars trilogy and possibly the finest western ever made, or at least the finest spaghetti western. Clint Eastwood will forever be The Man With No Name thanks to this trilogy.
2001: A Space Odyssey: I had to choose 1 Kubrick but I could also have picked A Clockwork Orange which is equally stunning. 2001 has a certain otherworldly magic to it, and even though it’s over 40 years old to me it has lost none of its brilliance.
Apocalypse Now: A mesmerizing journey into the heart of darkness as personified by the insane Colonel Kurtz. So many classic moments in this, most memorable of all the Wagner scored helicopter attack.
Since I love horror movies and a top 5 is not nearly enough to include all my favorites I made a separate horror list:
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: I mean the 1974 original of course, the single scariest movie ever made. I still feel that way about it after seeing it well over 50 times. Nothing equals the last 30 minutes of this for pure, hellish terror.
Dawn Of The Dead: Hypergory yet very smart zombieflick that works on so many levels thanks to Romero’s smart scripting and direction. Day Of The Dead has better effects but I prefer the scope and epic feel of Dawn.
The Beyond: Fulci’s masterpiece. Another movie I’ve seen way too many times, and still can’t get enough of. This movie is so powerful not even those damn fake spiders can ruin it.
Suspiria: Can’t have a list without Argento on it. I chose this because it’s so nightmarish, but I equally love Profondo Rosso, Tenebre or Opera. Nobody sets up a murder scene like he does, a true artist of death.
The Evil Dead: Part 2 was technically superior but nothing rivals the crude original for sheer intensity and gory inventiveness. I actually took a date to see this when I was 14. Loved it ever since, and I’m afraid I know all the dialogue by heart.
Honorable mention: Re-Animator, Hellraiser, Braindead, Cannibal Holocaust, Videodrome.
I’m gonna have to do the same with CD’s, metal and “other music”. This is a silly list as I have so many more favorites it’s impossible to narrow them down to just 5… but still, that’s the game, eh?
Hard Rock / Metal
1. Manowar - Into Glory Ride
2. Candlemass – Epicus Doomicus Metallicus
3. Rainbow – Rising
4. Metallica – Master Of Puppets
5. Savatage – Sirens
Other
1. Pink Floyd – Dark Side Of The Moon (I know, not very original but it’s just so damn brilliant)
2. Queen – A Night At The Opera (same comment as above)
3. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Deja Vu
4. Led Zeppelin – IV
5. Kate Bush – The Kick Inside
I tried to pick the real classics, stuff that I’ll probably like 10 years from now as well, but like I said there’s so much more stuff that I like it’s impossible to make a top 5. There’s not even any death metal in there, which I absolutely love. Stuff like early Entombed, Bolt Thrower, Autopsy…
Thanks a lot Ed for answering my questions. Is there anything else you’d like to add?
No.
Haha, I always hate that one, I usually do a “thanks for the support” blabla, but considering the elaborate and candid stuff we’ve done before, that won’t do, will it?
I will say I was and am very happy with your review and with the attention you’re giving to The 11th Hour. As you’ve noticed by now it’s a very personal project that means a LOT to me, so it’s much appreciated.
Ladies and Gentlemen: Ed Warby. Here’s to some amazing doom.
The 11th Hour – “Atonement” Sample.