For Ruin

From Ireland comes a mighty force - For Ruin began life as a solo recording project for founder member John Murphy, but over the years have evolved at a frightening pace to become a well-rounded and ambitious outfit whose name is beginning to ring out way beyond their nation’s shores. 2009 saw the release of “Last Light”, an outing that defied all talk of ‘difficult second albums’ with its originality and commitment - 2010 brings a whole new host of possibilities. I caught up with John and bassist Pete Lawlor to discuss For Ruin past and future.

Hierophant Nox: Hello both; thank you for giving up your time to tell us about For Ruin, how are you doing?

John: Doing good thanks, getting back into the swing of things after the holidays at the end of 2009 and doing a lot of press and organisation for 2010 at the moment – its shaping up to be a busy year for us.

Pete: Freezing! Perfect weather for listening to Emperor!

 

HN: We recently reviewed “Last Light” which was released in the final quarter of 2009; what kind of a reaction have you had from your regular fans and from the press? Was there any praise that particularly pleased you, or criticism you feel should be answered?

J: The reactions have been very positive right since we released the digital-only EP “Enlightened” just before Last Light’s release. The EP was a taster really and was the first recorded output from the band that people could hear since the release of the under-produced debut that came out in October of 2007. We included a couple of strong songs from the album on that EP (with some other stuff) and people were blown away by it – some were worried that we’d included the very best songs on the EP and that Last Light would not contain songs that were as strong, but that proved not to be the case at all – the reviews and press we’ve received have been really positive and constructive and we have an album we can stand over proudly. While good press is important, what’s more important is that people who like our sound really like the album and that’s the key to the bands continuation. Its important to get good press of course and we have had some very encouraging reviews from some of the major metal publications.

P: Any praise is good but criticism is far more important because it highlights things we could do better next time, and factors we might not see having lived with the songs for so long.. It’s impossible to record the perfect album. There will always be things you could have done better in retrospect. The album is being very well received so that’s great and it seems to be appealing to a wide audience of tastes.

 

HN: This was your second full-length; how did you find the writing and production process this time around? Did you encounter any problems on the way?

J: The fact that we had stepped away from our old record deal meant that we were under no time pressures. We decided to self-release, and of course this means a lot of extra work and strain (financial and otherwise) on us directly, but we understood that and have come out the other side the wiser for it. A couple of the songs were knocking around since the time of the release of the debut album “December”, but the 8 of the songs were written during the following year. I had a few songs written & demoed, Pete and I collaborated on a couple and Drew and I wrote another together – finally the band had what I always hoped for: collaborative song-writing. We changed drummers in 2008 and started rehearsing the ten songs in the summer of 2008 without any problems. We did a full pre-production demo of the album at the end of that summer and we digested that and analysed it over the coming months and rearranged and refined a few things but by the time we started recording in January ’09 we had everything in shape and knew how the songs would come out.

P: There were some time delays with the schedule as our former drummer Steve was living in Switzerland, but it makes no sense to record if you’re not ready as a band to get the best. We did a pre production demo for Alwyn (Komodo Studios), so he could familiarise himself with the material and give feedback, but also so we could spend some time just listening to and analysing, rather than playing the songs. Then using the mobile studio set up allowed us to work in a very relaxed setting. Once we were ready to start the recording, we were all comfortable with what we wanted to achieve and I guess it worked.

 

HN: “Last Light” is faster than your previous material, and sounds very tight; has the band dynamic noticeably come together over the past year or so? What kind of rehearsal schedule do you keep?

J: The tightness comes from the producer, Alwyn Walker to a degree and also from the fact that 3 of us at least have been playing together now for quite a while. Steve had been in the band before and easily adapted to the new material – (he’s since returned to work abroad and we have an even better drummer in Pete Alcorn with whom we’re writing and rehearsing new material now). We’re all good friends and there’s no bullshit between us – we were very focussed on doing a really good second album and funding it ourselves forced us to really work hard at it.  Regarding rehearsal – we don’t make a living off the band and we have to work around other things, but we do ok. Its not every week for sure – Pete Alcorn lives in Northern Ireland and we are at the opposite end of the island to him so at the moment its every few weeks. Coming up to some shows we increase that and likewise for recording. If  the 4 of us are living in the same city (which may happen soon) it will improve things but for now its working just fine.

P: I don’t think there was any conscious decision to play faster or tighter, it just developed that way as we practised the songs and they evolved. We don’t practice very often but tend to concentrate on quality rather than quantity and spend a lot of time honing the songs and working on the finer details. A good song is only as good as its weakest element, so we try to spend a lot of time with fine tuning (pun intended) the material.

 

HN: Pete, you joined For Ruin back in 2007; what was it about the band that convinced you to jump in? Has it been easy to fit into the band and start making a contribution to its direction?

P: I knew John and Drew prior to joining and had roadied on a few gigs for the band, so when they asked it was the natural thing to do. I always liked the demos and December and had been previously meant to join but was unable due to family commitments, so it was on the cards for a while I suppose. It was very easy to fit in and get involved in the arrangement & song writing process from day one. It’s an oft used cliché but we all have great chemistry as musicians, and are all good friends, even when Drew decides to get naked.

 

HN: For Ruin have successfully stumped the metal world when it comes to pinning down your style or writing a coherent description; what would you say are the key elements to For Ruin’s sound at the beginning of 2010?

J: Ha – yes that’s a good thing in my book. I’m a music fan and a musician and to my ears we’re a metal band at the extreme end of the spectrum. Call it what you like, its metal. People like to use tags and labels and I understand why some need to do that – comparisons to other bands are probably more useful for people because genre labels don’t do bands justice. In terms of the key elements of our sound –I would say strong melodies and harmonies coupled with speed and aggression. Melody is what someone remembers in a song, the bit of the song that you can’t get out of your head for days and that good beat you tap your fingers and feet along to is also key. I like to hear hooks and riffs that I can remember and the best songs are full of them. Our music has elements of this with guttural vocals and all the rest of it – we listen to more extreme and less extreme forms of music too and there’s also probably elements of these in our music.

P: Variety would be the main thing for me. We never set out to sound a certain way or write a particular style. It makes no sense to write an album that repeats itself. We try to balance melody and brutality without ever being blatant about it or letting it get in the way of the song's flow. If something works we'll do it.

 

HN: What things drive and inspire the band? What kind of ideas do your most recent lyrics explore?

J: Inspiration isn’t something tangible or easy to identify but for me personally, I guess its my surroundings, my life and family, hobbies and what music and other media I listen to or read. I spent quite a long time in education and so my professional life also influences me (and in turn our music) to an extent. The drive for the band comes from the love of playing a style of music that we all enjoy and seeing others enjoy our music is also a factor – ultimately if nobody liked our music we would probably still play it for ourselves and our own enjoyment – the fact that others like it is a great bonus and its encouraging. It used to be me on my own pushing the band forward but now we are all in it and there are 4 of us fully behind the band.

I’m the only lyric-writer in the band at the moment and our lyrics come from my influences, experiences and opinions for the most part. I don’t write horror/gore/satanic lyrics or anything like that – there’s enough horror in the world around us without delving into fantasy. The lyrics on Last Light deal with a range of topics from getting older, loss of freedom, climate and “In Suffering” is a commentary on the fallacy of organised religion and the disdain I have for the catholic church in Ireland. The album’s artwork is also influenced by this repulsive subject.

P: Everything and anything can inspire, be it music, art or events in our lives. Thematically, unfortunately there's no shortage of subject matter when you tackle the real life demons we see daily in the press and in our own lives. Musically we’re all playing metal a long time so its in the blood, like an illness! For me music has got me through the darkest times in my life, and enhanced the good times.

 

HN: Do you feel that extreme metal can be an effective way to express serious ideas, or do most people consider it entertainment?

J: Good question. Many people who listen to extreme metal gloss over the lyrics I’m sure, particularly in an age of digital downloads where people probably never see the package that an album was released with. As a kid I always read the lyrics to see what the band had to say but maybe not everyone feels like that and the music is enough for them without knowing what the band has to say. But music and lyrics should be entertainment as far as Im concerned – if people have more serious things to say then there are avenues to express them. Extreme metal is not music for the masses and if someone wants to influence someone via music maybe a more radio-friendly and commercial style of music would work better!

P: I think extreme metal is, in general, listened to by people who take music a lot more seriously than the more mainstream music fan. 99% of the garbage pumped out on the radio is contrived, soulless background noise, distracting the masses from a crumbling society. Extreme music and underground music doesn’t really attract the casual listener so the ideas expressed will always be more serious when mature lyrical content is used. I guess the mainstream mindset sees only the offensive side and think that's all there is too it. That's their loss.

 

 

HN: For Ruin are more active than many in promoting their material and activities – is this more effective than relying on a label or professional promoter? How do manage to fit it into your schedules? 

J: The incentive to promote the band comes from the self-release. If we don’t do it, nobody will. We are not like a label manager with lots of bands and bills to worry about – we look after one band only and can concentrate our efforts on that. We put our own time, effort and funds into the band so it’s up to us to make those work. A difficulty for people starting on that road is networking and contacts in the underground – we don’t have that problem really and have a solid network. We don’t have a manager; I look after most of the business issues with the band with everyone’s input. As I said, we don’t make a living from the band and my day job allows me some time here and there to push the band. Fitting it in with family can be a little more difficult for me in particular, but we make it work…

P: We took it on ourselves to do as much as possible. Its time consuming but you’d be surprised what you can achieve with enough effort - I'm doing this on my lunch break! Unless you're lucky enough to have major label backing, then the only way to get your music noticed is to grab the bull by the horns and promote yourself.

 

HN: Even though “Last Light” is a ‘self release’, you still managed to create a really beautiful collectors’ edition – do you personally have a love for this type of release? Do you collect any bands’ releases yourselves?

J: I used to be a collector of rare/bootleg vinyl back in the day, but I sold them all when I needed some money a while back, and while I have a decent CD collection they are all packed away in boxes from a couple of house moves and a son who likes to “sort” things… when he’s older maybe I can put them on a shelf again! I used always buy the CD with the bonus tracks or poster or whatever it was…its nice and the limited edition idea always appealed to me. We will do this again next time. We only did 100 copies of the collectors’ edition and have sold most of them – Pete did a really nice job on the sticker and posters for Last Light.

P: Everyone who loves metal loves having a collector's edition. It’s a part of the illness! I have My Dying Bride's Turn Loose The Swans on all three formats because of the different artwork on each! My first pressing of Atheist's Piece of Time is coming to the grave with me!

 

HN: You have made good use of alternative media, however, offering your releases up for download. What was the reasoning behind this decision? Has it proven successful?

J: It was a decision based on the current stature of the band – we are growing and many people haven’t heard of us so since music is seen as free now by most people, it makes sense for us to let people get the album directly from us and we get to see who and where our fans are. Making it freely available gives people the chance to check us out. Of course the album is available on the torrent and hosting sites and its up to people to decide if they want to support us directly (and not a label/middleman) or not. The money we make from the band goes straight back into furthering the band at the moment. So certainly we have lost some money by making it freely available, but that’s not what its about for us at this stage in our development. We are still a “new” band that needs to have our music heard and making it freely available has helped get our name out there. It was a first in the Irish metal scene, but not a first globally – loads of bands are doing it now. The industry is in this “grey area” where nobody quite knows how it will all pan out. In fact – your question refers to downloads as alternative media – I wonder if CD’s are quickly becoming alternative media… I listen to everything on my mp3 player these days, like most people… so its an interesting and uncertain time for those involved with the music and media industry.

P: The whole reason for the album is to get it to as many ears as possible. If you look at the music industry downloading is now the foremost format. It just made sense to use the present technology to its fullest. Labels and record shops are going out of business because the listeners have chosen the way they want to get music. Whether its a good or bad thing only time will tell. Bands have to accept that times are changing and move with the changes in order to get their music heard.

 

HN: You’ve just had a track showcased on a cover-mount CD and are to be featured more extensively in an incredibly respected and widely-read publication – I think I would have a little party if that were me; were you excited when you were approached, and what have been the other milestones of success for you?

J: Well cover-mounted CD tracks don’t come free unfortunately ha ha… that’s the second one we’ve done, but it remains to be seen how useful such CD’s are these days. Do people still listen to them? Do people still read ¼ page adverts for gigs in the magazines? Are the magazines themselves shit? Lots of questions…

We were given a featured review in Metal Hammer last month which was a first for us and that was great exposure and brought a smile to our faces (it was also the first time I ever bought the mag!). I did a phone interview with Terrorizer the other week for their Feb. edition so that will be good exposure too for us. Legacy is a decent German mag that’s featuring us and I can think of a few others that have given us column inches too in the last while so it all helps to keep the band’s name to the fore I guess – we need that given our self-release status. As for other milestones – playing with Paradise Lost and Rotting Christ was a significant point for us, and playing the Camden Underworld in ’08 was nice too (I’d been at so many shows there myself…) but undoubtedly getting our second album recorded and released ourselves has to be pretty high up on the list as well – its important and can be easy to overlook. I was also very happy to have Paul McCarroll’s artwork on Last Light – he’s done the last two Primordial album covers – hopefully we’ll work with him on the next one.

 

HN: Your sound has been described as being “tailor-made for the live arena” (Gerald Robinson – Vampire Magazine) – does performance bring out an extra edge in your material? Have live shows played an important part in shaping For Ruin and progressing your career?

J: Undoubtedly in both cases. The band started as a one-man project. I had been a drummer in other bands up until that point so getting a band together and stepping up to the mic was a big change for me which took a few years to get used to and comfortable with. The songs evolve and change slightly the more you play them and that has certainly happened with the older ones – I wonder how the Last Light material will change in the coming years…There’s only so much that studio based bands can do (unless you’re Darkthrone or Burzum) and playing live is key to getting your name out there which is what we’re focussing on – but it takes time. I’m sure playing the material live has made us better musicians and performers as well.

P: Personally I love playing live. The live versions of the songs (especially the older ones) are constantly changing the more we play them.

 

HN: You’ve shared the stage with a very impressive collection of bands – what has been your favourite live experience? And do you still get ‘star-struck’?!

J: We’ve been fortunate to play with some great bands (Paradise Lost, Rotting Christ, Napalm Death, Destruction, Decapitated, Primordial, Skyforger, Massacre, E.N.T) and with some of them for sure I reverted to fan-boy ha ha.. I think that the Paradise Lost & Rotting Christ show was probably up there for me, and playing the Underworld as I mentioned was great too. But its early days still for us and these are small victories – hopefully plenty bigger and better moments to come!

P: Supporting Paradise Lost was a big deal for me. I’ve been a fan since their first album 20 years ago (I'm getting old!) so I was happy as a pig in shit!

 

HN: Ireland always seems like an excellent place for metal – maybe it’s the rain, or the fact that you’ve got some brilliant metal journalists doing the PR - does it feel like a good place to be growing a band? Is there much activity with you in the far south?

J: No I wouldn’t say that Ireland is a great place to be growing a band – it’s ok, and has its benefits and drawbacks. There’s a lot of metal fans (casual and otherwise) in Ireland – Metallica plays here every year lately it seems to 30k people or something and others in the big-leagues do well too. The underground, or lets say “proper” metal shows are much smaller, with a fan-base of less that 1000 people I’d say. Festivals here have struggled in the recession (which hit Ireland harder than many), numbers are down at gigs, CD shops are closing, business is down. Bands are not unaffected by this. It’s not a great time to be putting out albums in Ireland or anywhere really. But there is a core of fans in Ireland that are pretty decent and loyal – its just that everyone has extra costs and lower incomes at the moment. We fool ourselves here into thinking we can put on 2-day festivals when we can’t, especially at the moment. There are some decent bands in Ireland from various styles within the extreme metal spectrum and some are fairly well known now abroad. Irish bands seem a little strange to the outside world – metal from an island on the north west of Europe is an oddity to many international fans who know Ireland from a whole range of clichés and from a musical perspective – U2 and many other highly successful radio-friendly artists. We have too many gigs over here at the moment, probably too many crap bands and the local gig-goer is tired of seeing them play week after week so they are selective, and rightly so. Cork has really suffered from this, and Dublin too (although there is a larger pool of people in Dublin).    

P: To be honest being a metal band in Ireland can be very tough. There’s a shortage of musicians, venues, and the scene is very small. However this has led to some very unique bands like Primordial, Mael Mordha and others, as our isolation keeps the scene here very fresh. It has pros and cons like any country. In so far a logistics it is obviously expensive and awkward to play abroad. Ireland has always had a very strong musical tradition so that has definitely carried over into the metal scene here.

 

 

HN: Some members of For Ruin have some other projects going on in the background – can you tell us a little about these? Are they currently active?

J: Drew and Pete A. aren’t playing with anyone else at the moment. I played drums, guitar & some keys on the Meiche demo in 2003 – a two-man project really I guess. We have never done anything since so I guess its pretty inactive… it was fairly primitive black metal. I play in a local pub band around the county here to bring in a few quid on the side but that’s about as far from metal music as is possible!

P: I used to play bass in Carnún Rising, for the best part of the last 10 years but I left in the past year however, as I just wasn’t able to dedicate the amount of time needed to them. I plan on doing some other things in the future but nothing certain for now. I’d like to do something strange like Neurosis as a one off recording at some stage.

 

HN: What are your plans for 2010? Are there any particular goals you have set for yourselves, or will you just take it as it comes?

J: Right now we’re working on some UK tour dates for the Spring and a lot of promo and interviews. We’re hoping to get on a few festival bills too and we’re investigating some licensing possibilities to a few labels in order to get Last Light out there and pushed harder than we can. Its nice to have all of this under our own control I guess. We’re hoping to set up some European dates later in the year but a few things have to fall into place for that to happen first. We’re rehearsing some songs from the new album that we have yet to play live and also have one new song written and we’re putting that through its paces at rehearsal at the moment. I guess we’ll write some more during 2010 and start looking at recording again in late 2010 or early 2011.

P: Obviously to do some dates in the UK and the continent is the main goal. Also we've already started writing new material so its looking like being a busy year ahead.

 

HN: We wish you the best of luck for the future; thank you again for speaking with us. If you’ve any final messages for the world, please go ahead!

J: Thanks for your time Ellen – we’ll hopefully get to the UK in the Spring and until then people can check us out at www.forruin.com and on the other websites listed on there. ‘Til next time…