Southern Lord Artist Planks Interview up...

http://www.myspace.com/walkingonplanks

1. For those of us that are new to Planks give us a history about the band..

Planks is a three-piece band from southern Germany – Mannheim to be precise. The band is Benny on drums, Frank on bass and myself handling guitar and vocals. We started in early 2007 after our old bands broke up. Tired of the music our bands prior to Planks played we wanted to do something different. Our interests lay with down-tuned, rather doom-ridden or chaotic bands like Mastodon, Botch, Lack, Cursed and Breather Resist. Due to our abilities we never made it to the point of sounding like those bands, haha.

2. The bands sound is a mix of crust punk and sludgey doom. How did this sound come to be?

That actually doesn't describe our sound at all I think. Maybe the first record and the split with Tombs, but not at all our new(er) songs. I actually dislike being described as Crust. We've been there with our old band, Benny is still there with his other band “Gun Mob” (myspace.com/thegunmob). For me Crust and SludgeDoom are both genres I felt attracted to for a while none of us in Planks wants to do this sound. Our influences derive from dark pop bands, moody black metal and hardcore bands that know how to write dark and depressing songs that are not limited to sheer brutality. We shifted our musical approach after the first record as we all got tired of playing this style and got better on our instruments.

3. How did you come to work with Southern lord ?

We released our 2nd full-length “The Darkest Of Grays” on the classic German label “Per Koro” in late 2010. Earlier this year we released the 4-song EP “Solicit To Fall” on “Institut Fuer Mentale Hygiene”. All the stuff we ever recorded we offered as high-quality downloads for free pretty fast. This way our music spread around the web and people got to know our name. Somehow Greg Anderson, the man behind SL, stumbled across one of those links, loaded it, liked it. He dropped us a line, I write back...we kept in touch. Wrote a lot of mails about a lot of topics. Then he asked us if we would like SL to put out the last two records on one CD. We loved the idea of working with him as he is super nice and straight up guy. We like the label as well as the roster of bands working with it, so it is awesome for us being part of this now!

4. What is a Planks live show like? Do you prefer to perform live or being in studio?

I think I speak for all of us when I say we love to play live more than time in the studio. That too has its moments, but in general our songs are meant to be played live and loud. When you see us you will see three guys, two tiny lights in the middle of the stage and a constant soundscape inbetween songs. Mostly it will be loud and with a lot of bass.

5.  Is there a running theme in your songs or albums or is it just angst filled music?

With “The Darkest Of Grays” there is. It's a concept record split in two parts dealing with the way a single soul stumbles through life so it can fail and fail again. The first part (starting with the first Log Lady intro) called “Passages” tells pathways which lead to the downfall of everything “human” in a soul. The opposite side entitled “Fatalities” (starting with the second Log Lady sample) tells about the stages you will go through until it's all done and you are stuck in “The Darkest Of Grays”, a state close to “black” which is death. So, little life left and only ruins to look at. Unfortunately we forgot to mark the chapters on the CD where on the vinyl you can see that. The four additional tracks form “Solicit To Fall” on the SL CD also deal with this topic, they just didn't match as perfect into this concept plan. In general all my lyrics are dominated by own experiences of failure, solitude, fear, desire and depression.

6.  What your thoughts as a band on the digital age are you fan or do you miss the days of old with print zines, tape trading and college radio indie support?

I miss paper zines. I still trade tapes and they are the only type of media I still purchase. Over here college radio indie support almost never took place, so I can speak on that. What I do love is that once you hear of a band that might be interesting, it is only three clicks away. You can access info on bands, their music and whatnot so fast. It's easier for unknown band to spread their music and get listeners all over the world. I sold almost all my records and live of mp3s now. Sure, sometimes “the old days” strike a moment of sentimentality but actually I am pretty cool with the way it is now.

7. The release with southern lord is a collection of tracks will we see a proper new release with them or was it just a one off?

We spoke to Greg about that. He wants to hear demos first, which we can totally understand. But he said the chances are very high. We would love to work with Southern Lord for a new full release. I guess we will see about this latest in October, when we hit the studio to record new material which we are in the progress of writing right now.

8. Will Planks be performing in USA soon ?

We did a small run of shows with our friends in Tombs about a year ago on the east coast and the middle east of the US. We would love to come back as soon as possible, but our life and work schedule does not allow this right now. Maybe there will be a chance in 2012. Greg said he would help us out with gear, we get tons of offers ever since the SL deal news broke and we have a couple of bands we are friends who offered to tag along. It's a question of money for the tickets as well as our schedule. As I said, we are working on that.

9.  Where do you see indie music going is it going more underground or will there be a rebirth as there seems to be just too much pop music for this interviewer..

Popular music will always be there. This scene of manufactured faces and images to create trends will remain. And so is the independent culture, because as many people drift over to popular culture a comparable amount tries to step away from that. It's an ongoing circle. It's just sad that not so many people try to question standardized routine in this spectrum. There are shitloads of bands that write true, honest and mostly way better songs than any producer of big-shots could ever write. It's an industry and that sucks like every other industry does. So I guess the shift won't be there...it will stay the same, just with more money to be made on the one side.

10.  If your working on new material .. what direction is the music heading similar or very

different?

The transition from the first to the second record was pretty harsh. The transition now will be not

as “hard” but still there will be things that might make people think “whoops”. When we started writing, talking riffs and songs we agreed that the dynamic, dramatic and pop-song character should move even more to the foreground. This doesn't say we will sound like Coldplay, the songs are still pretty heavy, but the melodic aspect in heavy music bands such as Breach, Junius and Tombs capture beautifully. In the songs we have completed by now there are black metal blast beats shaking hands with “joydivisonesque”dark pop parts. All the songs are pretty different from each other but they all still sound like Planks.

11. What are the members of Planks listening to currently always like to peek into what is making the band tick right now..

I almost exclusively listen to contemporary and early 90's Black Metal alongside 80ies Dark Wave and Goth punk. All the newer bands I like share this feeling, this eerie melodic drama. The best band right now when it comes to this is Junius. They pretty much nail everything I love about music. Die!Die!Die! from New Zealand are another band that is out of the ordinary. Then there are the classics like Joy Division, The Cure, Killing Joke, Depeche Mode, Swans, My Bloody Valentine etc. are the ones that really really define my life musicwise. Two newer bands that really make me feel good right now are: Kellermensch and A Place To Bury Strangers. Benny listens to Baroness, Tool, Majority Rule, Refused and bands in this vein. Frank likes Drum&Bass, Bruce Springsteen and Mastodon. Both of them like Deathspell Omega and Glorior Belli, even though both of them aren't big fans of the Black Metal scene. But yeah, I guess you could name those to as influences now, too.

12. Any closing thoughts place here thank you.

Thanks for giving us this spot to “talk”. I would like to make clear that Greg Anderson is not an evil musical genius that wants to earn a golden nose with releasing CDs with records already out by small but respected bands. He is a real fan and knows all the songs by heart of the bands he puts out. You could call him a “fanboy”, this means: he really knows and loves the bands he works with. He has a plan and it's ruled by a heartfelt love for extreme music. For the bands as well as Southern Lord it's a win-win situation. Anyways, thanks for this interview and we really hope to be back in the states sooner than later. If you have questions or want to contact us: walkingonplanks(a)gmail.com. Cheers!