Leif Jansen of Dew Scented
Interviewed by Patrick Rennick on 9/16/2007
Transcribed by Patrick Rennick
Thrashing since the early 90s, Germany’s Dew-Scented are an inspiring symbol of perseverance in a scene that has only recently begun reclaiming its lost popularity. Following the release of their seventh full-length, Incinerate, vocalist and founding member Leif Jansen speaks to Metal Review about recording, touring memories with Death, and his hopes for metal music to one day reach outer space.
Patrick Rennick: What stands out about your latest release when compared to the rest of your discography?
Leif Jensen: Well, that’s always the difficult question because at the end of the day we as a band try to understand the record to be 100% of what the band is. It’s a report of the status. With this record we tried to make everything a little more catchy and direct with the songwriting. In comparison to Issue VI we tried to be a little bit more aggressive, tried to trim away the fat in the songwriting, getting rid of what is not needed to make the songs effective and focused. We took a different approach when it came to recording and the mixing of the album as well. We had Mr. Andy Sneap working the knobs on the mix for the record which takes it to a different level as well. So I think that there are a couple of things that stand out from this record to the last one. As far as we’re concerned we’re very happy with the result. Of course that doesn’t mean that people might be able to think differently.
PR: You talked about some of your goals for the album and trimming the fat so to speak, could you elaborate on some of the more specific areas you chose to focus on?
LJ: We were in a situation where we understood that Issue VI, the previous record was pretty diverse; we tried a couple of different things on that album. But we had a situation with our guitar duo of Hendrik [Bache] and Flo [Müller]. Flo was out of the band after we had recorded Issue VI. So I guess that we had a bit more pressure and everything was going through Hendrik around the time. What the vibe and the atmosphere was for them back in the band and working together was I guess the songwriting was a little bit more focused. We were trying to skip parts and riffs and ideas that were not beneficial for the songs themselves because at the end of the day we want to be able to play these songs live. This is how Dew-Scented works the best, as a live band with a powerful entity on stage. And therefore we wanted in the best case all the songs to become possible candidates for the lives sets. That’s how we try to write them. You know we’re jamming in the rehearsal room and if it felt like too much then we tried to reduce the songwriting to what is needed instead of just adding more ideas and more breaks and more solos. We tried to keep it simple and more direct this time around and I think the atmosphere of the album is a little similar to that of Impact, the album we did in 2003. It is pretty heavy from beginning to end and that is what Incinerate is about as well.
PR: You speak of the band’s live performances and writing songs that you want to perform live. Are there any tracks off of the new album that you would say are the most likely songs to be performed in a live setting?
LJ: Obviously the song, “That’s Why I Despise You” which we did a video for. That’s the typical Dew-Scented live song, it’s short, it’s sharp, it’s very aggressive, and very speedy. “Vanish Away” is also part of our new live set. In fact we have already played six or seven songs live from the new album during the first show that we did with the new album. So all of the material we have tried to work out very well. I guess at the moment those two as well as, “Into the Arms of Misery” are part of the constant live set and we are working in a few more. “The Fraud” is going to be on there as well. So it’s probably going to be five or six songs from this album for the live set which I think is quite a lot. When I was talking about Issue VI being a little different than this record, you can see that very easily in how we integrated those songs into our live set. At some point we realized that we were playing more material from Impact and Inwards than we were from Issue VI which gave us a bit of a weird vibe which is why we definitely paid attention on having the songs be live compatible again.
PR: We spoke a bit before about Andy Sneap mastering the album and I was just wondering what your thoughts are on the end product of his work and why you chose to go to Sneap this time.
LJ: Well, it’s because we basically think he is the man! (laughter) He’s probably one of the best modern metal sound guys that you can find. His sound quality has impressed us throughout many different styles which is not something I think that everyone can do. You know his Nevermore albums are equally good in comparison to As I Lay Dying to Kreator. Whatever he has done has a very over-the-top, clean, crispy, and still very powerful bombastic production, which is what we wanted. We wanted to see how our material sounded if we tried things a little bit differently. We were always happy with Andy Klass, the guy who recorded our last three albums but we wanted something different, just to see how the material comes across, not changing the style, but the approach of producing. The guy that we recorded with for Incinerate an old friend of ours [Jorg Uken] has a really cool studio [Soundlodge], he’s really down to earth, and he knows what he’s doing. He has a good feeling for the essence of the band’s sound. Then we took it over to Andy for the mixing so he could add his magic to it and I think it’s a really good compromise of our rough, old sound and the powerful aesthetic sound he added into the mix. I think they balance each other out very nicely. We’re getting really good reactions to this record as well, which after seven albums is a really nice thing to achieve.
PR: On the track, “Everything Undone” I noticed a vocal effect that is very reminiscent of those used on the song “Spiritual Healing” by Death. I understand that you have toured with this band in the past. What kind of effect has their music had on you?
LJ: Death has always been one of our favorite bands, from the very first album on but I’m guessing that the records Spiritual Healing, Human, and Individual Thought Patterns are records that we dig the most. It was an outstanding band throughout their career because they set the pace for the rest of the scene. They started as a very brutal, primitive death metal band and became more technical, more melodic at some point and I think they are a band that always had a very interesting evolution over the years. They always had top-notch players in their lineup and I think Chuck [Schuldiner] was one of the most gifted musicians that metal had. We were lucky enough to tour with them and support them on a couple of shows back in 1998 which was a great experience. They were very nice guys, a very inspiring band. They are definitely one of the five bands that everybody in our band agrees on when it comes to influences. It was a very important band for us. For me especially Chuck was a vocal influence because I always loved the fact that no matter how brutal he was singing or growling, you could understand what he was phrasing and that is something that we put a lot of effort into as well, understandable, even though they are screamy or growly, vocals. I want to have the words understood which is not so easy sometimes. It’s definitely a nice thing that you spotted Death to be special to us. I think they are definitely one of our main influences when it comes to the death metal side of things.
PR: It seems to me that there are so many bands in the death metal genre specifically that write out these wonderful lyrics but then you can’t understand a word of them.
LJ: Right, exactly and we try to write these days simple, direct, aggressive lyrics. Because at the end of the day the lyrics are an instrument and the vocals are a weapon, especially for a band like ours. The vocals are only going to transport and have the vibe of the song, which is aggression and power. So at the end of the day they are heavy and they are extreme but the lyrics need to follow that pace and flow as well. So it’s nice to have that message understood whether you have those lyrics or not. You should hear it and be able to scream that agony along as well (laughter). So when we were in the studio for the last record I told the guys listening to the music on the other side of the mixing board or the producer, if there is a point where you don’t understand shit from what I ‘m screaming, please make me do it again. That is very important to us definitely as well. Guys like Chuck and David Vincent of Morbid Angel always had these dynamics that at the end of the day you could really understand what a death metal growler is singing. [Dan] Swano from Edge of Sanity was the same thing. It just sounds more passionate if you actually hear the words rather than just the sounds of the words.
PR: Dew-Scented has had a very impressive list of touring companions over the years including: Death, Edge of Sanity, and Morbid Angel. It just seems like nowadays you guys are playing with all different kinds of bands. What kind of effect do you think it has on you to tour with such a wide variety of acts?
LJ: Well, I guess we were lucky. We had the opportunity to not only share stages but time with the musicians like ourselves and people we admire, not only to be amongst nice people but people that you creatively and artistically respect a lot. I think that always leads to certain influences on you whether it is understandable or maybe unconsciously. You know maybe like growing a certain influence or aspect of their music into your own without noticing. That happens I guess. We play with punk bands, death and black metal bands, and also of course thrash bands, which is the main style that we cater to. But I guess at the end of the day we seriously just got lucky from starting out with do-it-yourself shows to all of the sudden being out on tour with Edge of Sanity which was our first bigger tour back in 1996 for our album back then. You know to going to Japan twice and being able to tour North America and making a lot of acquaintances and friends in those areas that you respect. It’s a very big gift actually. And it does influence you, it does make you carry on, it does make you want to have new goals and move on to become a better artist yourself.
PR: You must have become pretty accustomed to the life on the road...
LJ: Yes, we enjoy having that. That’s what this music is all about. I guess if we didn’t have a chance to tour and see new places we would have split up a long time ago.
PR: Is Dew-Scented your full-time occupation?
LJ: I wish I could say yes but it’s not the case. It doesn’t support us financially well enough to support us. But it is full-time in the sense that saying whatever free time we have we’re going to be spending it with the band. It does occupy all of our time next to bringing money home to survive and pay rent, it is as full-time as it gets.
PR: How do you manage to balance this, for instance telling your employer that you need to leave and go on tour for several months?
LJ: That’s difficult. Sometimes it causes problems with your employer or sometimes it causes problems with your lineup. You know what if somebody needs to step back for a certain tour. If you look at the track record we have been doing this for 12-15 years now depending on when you start analyzing when the band started and I guess you gotta make the best out of it. But at some point we needed to realize that the music is too uncompromising and too un-commercial to be able to live from. So we had to be able to have an approach to our real working life and our musical careers. The current lineup is very happy to play as much as possible and fall back on jobs, some of which are part-time and others which are freelance type of jobs. We do everything. We’ve got a construction worker and a male nurse in the band. There’s a little bit of everything in there.
PR: You speak of touring and being able to see different places as a reason that you have been in this band for such a long time. What else inspires you to take the stage night after night?
LJ: Well, I guess it’s a love for the music. Not only a chance of going around and seeing new places. I mean I’m a tourist, I love seeing new places but it is definitely the passion for the music. We understand this music to be a good channel to get rid of certain emotions and negativities and aggressions that we carry within ourselves to keep us balanced for regular life. And it is fun to share that emotion and that vibe with people who go to the shows and other bands. That is a big relief to be able to express yourself. But I guess a part of it is also routine. When you are doing something that you like and you do it over and over, you don’t really realize that you’re doing it anymore at some point. Probably if we sat around at home for four months not playing a show, we would start to miss it.
PR: If you could see Dew-Scented accomplish any one thing what would it be?
LJ: For the band to play on the moon! (laughter) That would be something that no one would forget if they like the music or not. I don’t know, I think there are a lot of spots on the map that haven’t been visited by us. So there are always new places we want to play or replay again. I think we still have to work North America a lot more. We did a couple of festivals and one coast to coast tour but I think there is more in it for us. We had a lot of good feedback and respect on that tour so I think that we will come back not once but twice for this new record. We have also never been to South America even though I grew up there so I would like to go there with the band at some point. But that’s all live things. I think for the band itself we would like to write the perfect record. We would like to be able to write the record where we say, hey the moment we’re done in the studio we’re splitting up because this is so good we won’t be able to make it better. So if we do that album I will be at peace of mind and I think I will be a happy person. I hope we don’t do it too soon though.
PR: Being in the metal scene for so many years what kind of changes have you seen in the metal climate worldwide from the time you became involved in the scene?
LJ: It’s always a movement and I tend to think it’s a spiral. It always goes back to a certain point and then starts over again. It’s about generations of course as well. All the younger kids of course have to go through all the styles and what is hip and what is not as well, which keeps it interesting because after ten years or so you know thrash comes back again or melodic metal is back in the spotlight. Who knows, maybe speed metal is coming back? So it is nice to see that some people have been in the scene forever that we have known since our beginnings and we are still good friends and there is a lot of fresh blood and young kids in there as well. I guess the quantity vs. quality thing has been a bit exhausting over the last couple years because there are so many bands, so many labels, and so many tours, and it can be a little much. But honestly who are we to complain, who are we to say that there is too much of other people around. Maybe other people think that we are one of those superfluous bands. I don’t know I just think there is a lot of activity that keeps it interesting for others and for myself and I’m very open to new styles, new scenes, and new movements. I’m not one to run around and say everything was better in 1985 you know fuck that. I think the internet has made the music scene very interesting today because you have a faster, quicker, more direct access to information, to music, and even to communication. You know one day you are writing one of your favorite bands and you get a MySpace message back from the person which was incredibly difficult to do years ago. You would write a letter and order a demo, but would you be in touch with the people? I don’t think so. It wasn’t that easy. So I think there are a lot of good vibes for 2007.
PR: I understand that you are trilingual how did this come about?
LJ: I am actually quadrilingual. I was born in Berlin so I’m German but my family decided to move down to Columbia where I grew up so I was actually raised with Spanish in school and I had English lessons. I also spent a lot of my spare time honing my English by writing for fanzines and writing to people for tape trading and all that. So there are two languages. Then when we moved back to Germany I started taking French classes at school which is the language that I am the least experienced with because I don’t have a lot of opportunities to speak it but I do understand and I am always trying to teach myself in my own ways in France when I am there but it is four languages, which is cool because I enjoy language and communication.
PR: Have you ever tried writing lyrics in different languages?
LJ: Well, yeah I mean for traveling and meeting people, I am always using those languages. As far as lyrics I’ve never really tried to be honest. I always thought that English had a better sound and a better vibe overall because everyone can understand you and that’s the essence of rock I guess. I don’t like the sound of German when it comes to lyrics. I guess every scene has a strong national aspect to it where bands are singing in their native language or whatever and that’s huge with hip-hop and pop as well but I don’t think it works well with metal or rock though. I think it sounds too strict. French sounds a bit too soft. Spanish, I don’t know. I think that would be cool. If I was in a punk band I would probably write Spanish lyrics. It’s a pretty restless, pretty heavy language. I’ve never tried to be honest though, maybe I should.