Interviews : An interview with Switzerland’s Sybreed

Switzerland’s Sybreed aren’t a band anybody expected to see in Australia, but it’s happening. The band are heading over here to play Canberra’s epic Chaos A.C.T Festival, as well as the new @moshpere festivals in Melbourne and Brisbane, and a few sideshows. We caught up for a quick Q&A to find out how the recording of their upcoming album God is an Automaton is going, and other things.

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You’re recording your fourth full length album at the moment, “God is an Automaton”, how is it all going? What stage of the recording are you up to?

Ben: As of now, we have completed the main bulk of the recording process, and we only need to do a couple of arrangement and “cosmetic” recording when coming back from our Australian trip. In any case, I can say is that, even if not mixed, it sound already great.

How do Sybreed go about writing material?

Ben: Strictly speaking, nothing is really planned when we write material. We just feel at some point that we want to write new songs, so we meet up and just start composing. Usually, the only guideline is like “hey, let’s make some heavy shit today!” or “what about something more melodic now?” Sometime, one of us come to the studio with an idea and we start working on it, but for the most part, we enjoy going where our imagination lead us: it’s quite funny to see a song appearing out of thin air.

What should people expect from the new album? Does the sound differ much from “The Pulse of Awakening”?

Ben: Not really different, but I have to admit it should be closer to our second album Antares, sound wise and musically wise. We wanted to write shorter and groovier songs, some material that would be built for stage performance. So the new stuff is definitely bulkier: there are even some riffs with an “old-school” feel here and there. However, it will retain the dark and futuristic aspect of The Pulse of Awakening.

Will we get to hear much new material live on your Australian tour?

Ben: Not so much, we prefer waiting to have a bit more of practice on the new material. Still, we will perform a song called “Challenger”, which has been already digitally released some time ago, but that will still be part of the new album, as well as very new song which name will be kept hush-hush: the Australian audience will be the first to discover it.

Ben: Lyrically wise, God is an Automaton explores mostly post-humanist and nietzschean themes such as the systemized apathy in modern societies and how it is enforced, through mass media or by any other means, or on the opposite the individual affirmation as a way of living. There are also more metaphysical considerations about the nature of God as well as our nature as human being, and even a song about epistemological issues, which is pretty uncommon for a metal band is guess. In a more general way, I think the current state of the world, the fact we live in a world of now permanent political, economical and social unrest deeply influenced my lyrics and there is definitely a sense of insurgence, a call for a change in this new album.

Your sound has a lot of different elements and styles involved, does each member bring something a bit different to the table, or do you all follow similar music taste?

Ben: We have for sure some stuff in common musically wise, or it wouldn’t end up being a bit difficult to play together, but we also all have very specific and personal influences which are expressed in each member’s way of playing and inspiration when composing. We like the fact of being able to all brings fresh ideas in a music that would be otherwise too monolithic if we were like just all loving only the same bunch of bands.

Has the whole “djent movement” of late affected the band much? Have you seen a rise in popularity along with so many others of the style? And what are your personal thoughts on the whole “djent” tag?

Ben: Well, that’s a tricky question … let’s say we are cool with it, since we have some things in common with this scene musically wise. Moreover it’s interesting to see such a complex kind of music gaining interest, for indeed it really seems to be the “big thing” nowadays. On the other hand, one could question the validity of such a movement on a long run, as well as I could evoke the business “hijacking” issue I somewhat see coming, but I guess many already wondered about it as well. Then, it’s a bit early to say how it will turn out. At any rates, it doesn’t have any impact on Sybreed’s music and at the end of the day, we don’t feel belonging to this scene or to any other actually. It has been almost ten years since the band started, so we had time to forge our own sound, so we won’t try to jump in a bandwagon we don’t fit in. We like being independent and doing things the way we want.

Who are your personal musical influences?

Ben: Damn … that’s THE other tricky question, because we have a megafuckton of influences. Let’s say that Meshuggah, Fear Factory and In Flames were our basic influences when started Sybreed, but we added many more things around, many coming from other genres, be it metal or not. Katatonia had a big influence on us at some point. I could say Front Line Assembly as well. I any case, it’s a real tedious thing to do a list of our personal influences, and I think we won’t ever be able to complete such a task while being concise enough and satisfied with it.

I’m always interested in how the local music scenes are in other countries, how is it in your area of Switzerland? Is there a strong underground community?

Ben: I can’t say there’s such a strong underground community here, but it’s also maybe because we tend to stay a bit aside with Sybreed: we never really enjoyed the concept of “scene”. Then there are quite a lot of bands dispersed in the whole country, but nothing really organized. At the end of the day, it’s often more about competition than cooperation and bands tend to do work on their own. Moreover, since Switzerland has three official languages, so as to say German, French and Italian, each band tend to go focus themselves on same-language territories. In the end, it doesn’t help communication between bands.

You’re playing quite a few shows in Australia, including the huge Chaos A.C.T and @moshphere festivals, have you had a listen to any of the other bands playing, and are there any in particular you’re looking forward to seeing live?

Ben: Honestly, I personally made a fast check about some bands playing with us, but I hadn’t time to really listen to their music properly and with the attention they deserve: we were right in the middle of the composing and then the recording of our new album, and it such situation we tend to become very obsessed with our music and don’t really listen to other things. Then, I can’t wait to discover those bands on stage.

Are you going to be having a bit of a holiday while you’re down here as well?

Ben: Indeed I think we will have a couple of day off to devote to go to the beach and stuff. I think even the touring agency planned it that way: we play the shows, and we will surely take it quite easy on the days off, going to the beach and stuff.

Any last words?

Ben: Just that we are quite impatient to come and play in front of the Australian fans. We really expect to have a blast during the tour.