In light of my recent review for Agalloch’s incredible new album ‘Ashes Against the Grain’ I got the opportunity to ask the band a couple of questions and Agalloch mastermind John Haughm kindly took the time to answer them for me.

First off let’s start about the music. ‘Ashes Against the Grain’ seems to be packed with postrock influences from bands like ‘Godspeed You Black Emperor’ and the like, ambience also seemed to play a big role. I’m aware that some of these influences were also available to a certain extent on ‘The Mantle’ but on ‘Ashes’ I found them to be much more prevalent. What made you decide to put these influences up front like this for the new album?

There wasn’t a conscious effort to make this new album more “post-rock” sounding. In fact, I hoped it wouldn’t be called that. I feel that post-rock is a bit of a tired style and we explored it enough on “The Mantle” and “The Grey”. With the new album, I did want to create an overall dreadful and apocalyptic feeling. I guess this is where the Godspeed You! Black Emperor influence has seeped in. Also, the “Fortress” trilogy contains some of the oldest material that was written for the album. Most of it was written back in late 2003 when we were quite into the post rock stuff.

I’ve always found Agalloch lyrics compelling and well thought out. However I did not receive any lyrics with my promo copy for the new album. Can you tell me something about the lyrical concept behind ‘Ashes Against the Grain’ and the meaning of the songs this time around?

It is pretty much a surreal tale that begins with mankind cutting off an arm and both legs and creating a flood of blood that covers the earth, changes natures patterns, and destroys humanity at the end so that everything can be reborn anew. There is obviously a lot more to it but I’ll leave that up to you to check out…

Speaking of lyrical concepts, I know that the power and purity of nature has a major influence on the creation of Agalloch’s albums, both in lyrical form and in the imagery. The way of thinking called transcendentalism seems to also have been a factor on ‘The Mantle’, hence the quote from Emerson’s ‘Nature’ on the disc. Can you tell me something about how this plays a role in your life as a whole? And also if this played a similar role in the creation for ‘Ashes Against the Grain’ or is it something that hasn’t been reflected on while making this album?

It played a small role for this album; however, I was more fed up with humanity than I was enamoured by nature when I wrote this album. I was also depressed about certain things going on in my life. I sought out the silence and solitude of nature when I needed to actually finish composing the songs. There were simply too many distractions living in the city so I rented a cabin in the Mt Hood wilderness to put all of my focus into the writing process. 

Can you tell me about any other influences that were present during the making of ‘Ashes’, mainly literature that was read and the music the band was listening to themselves to draw inspiration from?

Alcohol, cinema…. I wrote most of the initial lyrics in a drunken haze after watching Tarkovsky, Svankmajer, Parajanov, and Jodorowsky films. I wanted the lyrics this time to play out as one long bizarre tale so I referenced mainly the Kalevala and studied the style in which it was written. This, of course, being an English-translated version. It was an interesting process and much more enjoyable than just sitting down with a beer and creating phrases to fit the music like I have done in the past.
 
I read on a news site the other day that you will be supporting November’s Doom on a European tour this fall. Am I correct in assuming this is the first time you will be playing for a European audience? Are you looking forward to it?

Yeah, sure. It will indeed be our first time playing in Europe so it is nice that we will be touring with a band we already have a good relationship with. Novembers Doom toured with us when we supported The Gathering back in 2004 and we have also played a show with them at a festival last year. There is a good history between us.

Another tour question, this upcoming tour will obviously be in support of ‘Ashes Against the Grain’, the band will be taking up a support slot now however, do you think a headlining tour is something to expect in the future? Aside from this, does the concept of doing those kind of big tours a lot seem like something you would enjoy as a band?

No I don’t think so. I would enjoy it, yes, but I cannot foresee it ever happening. We are simply too bound by our jobs and other life responsibilities to do a long tour anywhere. As it is, we will be missing the Italian and UK dates of this tour because our guitarist is a college professor and he needs to be back at the university before the tour ends. It is very frustrating but unavoidable in our case. I am thinking of staying with the tour as a roadie for those last shows if it’s okay with the tour manager. 

I’m sure I’m speaking for many others when I say that I would love to get my hands on an original copy of the ‘Of Stone, Wind and Pillor’ EP.  This seems to be impossible to get anymore. Are there any plans for re-releasing older material like this in some sort of a compilation? Perhaps certain demo tracks could be included as well?

The “Of Stone, Wind, and Pillor” EP was meant to be a limited release so why would we cheapen the original by making more? The damn thing took three years to finally sell out of 2500 copies. If we do re-issue it, it will have to be different somehow; either with different artwork or on a different format. We have discussed a couple different possibilities. This can also be said for our demos. We have been thinking of releasing both demos on CD with an extensive booklet featuring a complete biography and rare photos from that era. Perhaps it will be released next year since it will be the 10 anniversary of “From Which Of This Oak”. Who knows what will happen though. This stuff just isn’t a big priority for us.

I want to talk to you about the artwork. The original artwork I had seen for ‘Ashes Against the Grain’ on the internet seemed to depict a falling angel. This, however, differed from the artwork that was on my promo copy. Is there going to be a difference between the artwork for the United States and Europe?

No. Veleda Thorsson’s photograph of the falling bird is on the booklet cover. Tolonen’s drawing of a charred falling bird is on the slipcase. The booklet cover is more or less the official cover of the album. The slipcase features a different variation of the theme.

I have also seen a limited edition wooden box edition that included a t-shirt for ‘Ashes Against the Grain’ on the website of your American label, The End Records. Are there any plans to release this edition in Europe through Grau as well?

No. It was the idea of The End Records to have a special edition for their mailorder. The box was limited to 500 copies and it is already sold out. I think The End should’ve put a limit on how many copies people could buy because I think a lot of them were sold to stupid Ebay stores who ended up selling them for ridiculous prices. They totally took advantage of the fact that it sold out in 2 days and many people didn’t even know about it. Fucking assholes. It’s Interesting you should mention it being released on Grau because Andreas got the idea to do this box when he saw Prophecy’s Empyrium demo box set. When he called me up and asked what I thought of the idea, I was sceptical and initially against it because I felt that it would be a rushed job and it would take way from our “Pale Folklore” LP wooden edition. I still feel this way. Although I think the addition of Veleda’s and Jens Knippschild’s (Vermillion/ex-Moonlit drummer) extra photo prints made this box worthwhile. Funny, I wanted to do this exact kind of special edition back in 1999 for our first album but The End thought it was a bad idea back then! Bleh…

To conclude the interview I want to ask if you are satisfied with the outcome of the album as a whole. I also want to ask if you are pleased with the end result of the video that was shot for ‘Not Unlike the Waves’ and when we can expect to see it. I know ‘Ashes’ has just been released but are there already plans in the air for new musical endeavours for Agalloch? Can you give us a little preview of things to come or is it too early for that?

My overall impression of the album is that it is good but I tend to dislike every album we do soon after it is released. I think it is a mixture of the stress of its creation, dealing with the label and manufacturer, and the promotion circus that follows. It really burns me out. I just need to spend some time away from the album and check it out again in a year or so. I have only seen the 4 minute edit of the video and I think it is pretty good. Definitely not bad for a first video. I have no idea when the full 9 minute version will be finished and released nor do I know if/when the short version will be aired on TV. I have no control over these things. As for new Agalloch material, I have absolutely no new ideas and no motivation to work on anything right now.

This concludes my interview; I want to thank you for your time.

Thanks for the interview. Cheers!