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The universal vibrations of Earth: an interview with Dylan Carlson

Full interview via Never Mind The Hype

The 13th edition of Le Guess Who? Festival is coming up, featuring many wonderful artists with ringing names. One of those is the American band Earth. Originally the band hails from Seattle, the birthplace of grunge, where main man Dylan Carlson has many friends, including the late Kurt Cobain. But Carlson chose a different musical path than his fellow Seattleites with Earth, he chose drone. 

Carlson is often called the father of drone metal. Not a moniker he would pick, but one he gratefully accepts. Currently, as we talk over Skype with a bunch of disruptions on the line as friends try to reach him, he is staying in Los Angeles. For the film soundtrack he is making, but also because he will be moving there in December. It’s a lot more sunny in L.A. he concurs: “It’s way warmer up here, nicer weather for sure!”, he chuckles. 

We talk about the new album, Full Upon Her Burning Lips, which recently came out. But also about his solo record Conquistador, on which he collaborated with Emma Ruth Rundle. And Bagpipes. And Le Guess Who?, obviously. 

What do you think about the Le Guess Who? Festival yourself? 
“It’s one of my favorite festivals. I’m not crazy about festivals, but this one always has an interesting program and many people are there that I’d love to meet. Not that I get to usually, but last time I was there I saw jazz icon Pharaoh Sanders perform. That is really cool!” 

How does Earth fit within the confines of a festival like Le Guess Who? And how did you end up playing there this year? 
“Well, The Bug is one of the curators and we did an album together, so I think that’s how it went. But why we fit in is that even though people love boxing us into genres or microgenres, Earth has always tried to do something new, always pushed itself into new directions. That fits within the confines of this festival very well. As a musician, I don’t feel confined to microgenres. I make music, as best as I can, but I can’t affect the way people deal with that. But we play all sorts of festivals, because we are not limited to just heavy music. We’ve done Hellfest, Primavera, but also Le Guess Who? and Levitation festival. That’s a big range. Big Ears in Knoxville is another one of my favorites by the way. We’re not stuck in a corner, we can go many different ways with Earth.”

Text: Guido Segers // read more HERE

(via The Brooklyn Rail)

Adrienne Davies is one of two permanent members of Earth, a Seattle band formed in 1989 by Dylan Carlson and credited with inventing ambient metal—a contradiction that caught on and evolved into the doom genre associated with groups like Boris and Sunn 0))). When Earth re-emerged following Carlson’s recovery from addiction after 2000, his guitar playing confessed a tender spot for the gothic moments of American country music. In its second life, the band evoked the cinema of Ennio Morricone, the hypnotic savagery of Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, any Western with a sad and bloody ending. As striking was the addition of a new drummer in a band known to use machine programming in lieu of live percussion. With her unnatural restraint and stark rhythm patterns, Davies enhanced Earth’s geologic pace. Earth has since continued to expand on its meditative approach to hard rock, but 2019’s Full Upon Her Burning Lips promises an outlook sunnier than what the band’s followers have come to expect. On a recent tour, Davies spoke with me about the new album, her hybrid drum kit, the physical and mental challenges of playing at glacial tempos, and Earth’s fanbase—including a few doom-loving domesticates

Earth is featured on the cover of Music&Riots Magazine September Issue. Interview feature, pages 88-93.

Read the full piece here: https://issuu.com/music_and_riots_mag/docs/issue_25

(full feature via Louder Sound)

Seattle experimentalists Earth have long dabbled in drone-inflected sonic minimalism. Over the course of their 30 years – and their eight studio albums – they've explored new musical territories and influenced a legion of bands in their wake.

With new album Full Upon Her Burning Lips, Earth – now a duo consisting of founder member Dylan Carlson and percussionist Adrienne Davies – have stripped their sound back to its core. It's still Earth, but it's Earth at their most essential.

"It was definitely a very organically developed record," says Carlson. "I limited the number of effects I used. I always like the limiting of materials to force oneself to employ them more creatively. Previous Earth records were quite lush sounding, and I wanted a more upfront and drier sound, using very few studio effects.

“I wanted this to be a ‘sexy’ record, a record acknowledging the ‘witchy’ and ‘sensual’ aspects in the music… sort of a ‘witch’s garden’ kind of theme, with references to mind-altering plants and animals that people have always held superstitious beliefs towards. A conjuror or root doctor’s herbarium of songs, as it were.

"I feel like this is the fullest expression and purest distillation of what Earth does since I re-started the band."

Here, Carlson takes us through Full Upon Her Burning Lips, one track at a time.