Interview with Paul Kuhr

I had the honour of speaking to probably my favourite singer, Paul Kuhr of the legendary Doom/Death metal band Novembers Doom.The Interview took place between 7-9 May 2009 where Paul and I talk about the band, the music and the follow up to the master piece 'The Novella Reservoir' i.e. 'Into Night's Requiem Infernal'! No more crap here is the interview.

SUNNY BHAMBRI: Could you just run us through the history of the band? As in how was it that the early formation really come about?

PAUL KUHR:The very early days, I had a specific vision on how I wanted to band to sound, and had to find musicians who would share my vision. At the time, back in 1989, the style was not well known, and the only way I explained it to other people, was I wanted to be a cross between Grave, Celtic Frost, and the Doors, but played at a slower speed. The bands who really motivated me into wanting to form a band was local legends Trouble, and Devastation (Chicago) and Sindrome. Those bands had a HUGE impact on me, and in a big way, helped me develop into the vocalist I am today.



SUNNY BHAMBRI: Cool.What would you say was the reason for the long gap between the first 2 records??

PAUL KUHR: We actually had an entire second CD written, and things started to fall apart with the lineup. There were too many personal issues taking place, and things came to a head when the over all feeling was the material written for the second CD wasn't better then "Amid its Hallowed Mirth" and we all started to second guess the work. As the mood became darker, and uglier within the band, we all decided it was best to just end things, and not release something no one was proud of. Looking back, and listening to those demos, I feel they were better them "Amid" and it's a shame we never recorded it. After a 6 month hiatus, I decided it was time to continue with Novembers Doom, and I put together an entirely new line up, and with "Of Sculptured Ivy and Stone Flowers" the true essence of Novembers Doom was born.



SUNNY BHAMBRI: And Since then you guys have been unstoppable.Considering the ND albums which have been consistently very good despite the line up changes; What do you think about the current line up? Is it the strongest?

PAUL KUHR: Right now, I can say with absolute certainty, this is the best line up Novembers Doom has had. I think we're writing some of the best music we have, and the band has never been tighter, or sounded better live. When ever there is a line up change of any kind, we always try to find the perfect fit, and as time goes on, the demand for better musicians makes it more difficult to find people who fit the criteria. With the newest addition of Sasha Horn on drums, we've managed to add much needed life to the rhythm section of the band, and by doing this, is also makes Chris our bassist, play better and tighter to the drums. We're quite happy with current lineup, for sure!

SUNNY BHAMBRI: So with an all round line up of good musicians how is the new album "INTO NIGHT'S REQUIEM INFERNAL" coming about? what stage is it at right now?

PAUL KUHR: The CD is 100% complete, and masters were handed into the label 2 months ago. It's in the promotional stage now, and will see it's release date in July. "Into Night's Requiem Infernal" will certainly make our fans happy, and hopefully open doors to a whole new fan base as well. The production on this CD is amazing, some of our best as well.

SUNNY BHAMBRI: Yeah.Chris & Dan Swano worked on this album if I'm not mistaken, right? Any elements of surprise for long time Novembers Doom fans?

PAUL KUHR: Yes. We used the same recording / mixing formula as the last 2 releases. Chris engineered and recorded the entire CD, and Dan Swano mixed the CD, only this time, Dan also mastered the work as well. In my opinion, this is Dans best work to date as well. The sound is huge. As far as surprises, I can only tell you what the fans can expect. This CD has all the darkness from "The Pale Haunt Departure", and the aggression from "The Novella Reservoir" and we included the melodic passages from older CD's like "To Welcome the Fade". All of this with a few new elements thrown in, and I believe we've created nothing short of a contender for our strongest release.

SUNNY BHAMBRI: Apart from that since you are about realease "Into Night's Requiem Infernal" let me ask you about your views about the internet & downloading is it really helping the underground? or what?

PAUL KUHR: For a band like Novembers Doom, downloading has hurt us. I look at torrent sites, and I see our CD's have been downloaded tens of thousands of times. If this were translated into actual sales, we would be in a much better position then we are now. If we sold millions of CD's, I might not be bothered by it. At the same time, a lot of people have heard our music, and it could open doors. It's an ugly reality bands and record labels need to deal with these days, and until someone figures out a way to make it all work out, we just have to go with it, and do the best we can to promote, and hope there's enough people who support us to go out, and buy or CD's and merchandise, so we can continue to record and release quality music. Without sales, recording budgets get lower, and the quality will start to drop. People need to understand this, and support the music they love.

SUNNY BHAMBRI: Well, At present do you think listeners have become more open & receptive towards Doom metal? Kind of coming out of the notion than Metal has always got to be fast? Is there any change that you have seen over the years?

PAUL KUHR: I wouldn't know, because we haven't considered ourselves Doom metal since the first CD. We certainly have elements of doom in our music, but we're so much more then that. We don't want to be pigeon holed into a style. Automatically with a "Doom" tag, you alienate yourself to anyone who doesn't like "doom" and unfortunately, Doom metal has about 10 sub genres... It's crazy. We play emotional, heavy, aggressive "Dark Metal". It's as simple as that. We really want to stand out on our own. It's impossible to call a song like "Rain" doom. It's impossible to call a song like Autumn reflection death metal... We're all over the place, and the one thing that is consistent with all the songs, is the dark overtones. We're dark metal. Simple as that.

SUNNY BHAMBRI: It is noticeable that your clean voice has a much larger precense on the newer albums than the older one's; was it a conscious effort? I mean did it take you sometime to find out out clean voice skills ?

PAUL KUHR: I think it's just a part of our musical evolution. I've never had vocal lessons, so it's always been difficult for me to become comfortable with it. I think I improve with every CD, and I'm very happy with the results on the new disc. It comes much more natural for me now, so I'm comfortable adding more of it in. In the old days, when I wanted to add clean vocals, and I couldn't quite get what I wanted, I took the easy route, and used narrative or spoken word. There's almost none of that on this CD, and I think it's better for it.

SUNNY BHAMBRI: Please tell us something about another awesome band of yours "Subterranean Masquerade" !! is it a full time project?

PAUL KUHR:Nope. Never has been,never will be as far as I know. It was always just Tomer's recording project, and if the time comes and Tomer wants to do another CD, I will bemore then happy to join him once again, but as of right now, things are not progressing at all, that I know of!

SUNNY BHAMBRI:What music do you find yourself listening to these days? Any particular artist outside of the metal scene that you like?

PAUL KUHR: I listen to many different styles of music actually. Currently in metal, I've been into the new Mastodon, and although this is very hard to class as metal, because it's all acoustic, the new Ajattara is unique, and fantastic. Outside of metal, I enjoy Coldplay, Queens of the Stone Age and Agua De Annique.


SUNNY BHAMBRI: Why the hell isn't Chicago on the metal world map?!

PAUL KUHR: We've asked this question for years. I'm not sure why that is the case. There's very little local support here. When a major band comes to town, some shows can draw 1000 people, some draw barely 100. You never know what the draw will be like. I think if the local fans packed every show, the scene would take Chicago metal more seriously, because it's not for a lack of quality. We have some amazing metal bands in Chicago!


SUNNY BHAMBRI: Last but not the least any message you would want to give to your existing as well as potential fans especially here in India & also around Asia?

PAUL KUHR: For those people who have yet to listen to Novembers Doom, who have never given us a chance because they feel we play a specific style of music because we have the word 'doom' in our name, then 'Into Night's Requiem Infernal' is the album they should try us with, It is a combination of death metal, rock and roll, thrash, progressive, and elements of doom, all combined to create our strongest offering.