E-L-R are a Swiss band from Bern, playing quite an individual mixture of Doom, Shoegaze and Black Metal. Recently, Prophecy Productions have released Vexier, the band’s second album.
Lush soundscapes, filled to the rim, taking the listener on a journey to another time and place are a specialty of the Swiss trio. While containing a bit more psychedelia and being even more enigmatic, Vexier continues where Maenad, the band’s 2019 debut, left off.
On the occasion of the release of their second album we got the opportunity to ask the band a few questions. In the following you can find out, among other things, how E-L-R came about, what is important to them in music, what drives them, what they hope for in the future and how cultural specifics shape music from Switzerland.
The interview has been slightly modified for clarity.
AN: What does E-L-R stand for? How did the band come to be? For how long have you been active? Where did the three of you meet? Is Bern, Switzerland, a good place/fertile ground for making music of a dark and heavy shade?
S.M: I.R. and I had already been friends for a long time when in 2016 the idea came up to share some riffs together. We started sending each other ideas and thoughts and they matched very well. Shortly after, we started jamming together weekly and a friend of us (Migre le Tigre) joined us on drums for about a year. At some point I.R. and I moved our rehearsal room to another city, so we had to find a new drummer because of logistics. We already had put up a plan to record our demo “In Splendour & Sedation”, so we asked M.K., if he could play the drums on three songs for us. He had already played in another project with I.R. and they were familiar with making music together.
After the first rehearsal as a trio, we all knew that we belonged together. So, we finished our first debut album “Mænad”, signed a label deal with Prophecy Productions and released the album in September 2019.
M.K.: There is a vital music scene in Bern, although not a lot of doomy dark guitar music is found here. We like to share the stage with bands and artists from different genres, since they sometimes work amazingly well with our music. Like BAZE who now has a featured part on the last song “Forêt” on our new album “Vexier”. We chose him because we have been fans of his music for a long time. We deeply connected with him when we shared the stage in August 2020. Now we have this perfectly matching collaboration and we are incredibly proud that we stepped out of the musical comfort zone and made a doomgaze song with Swiss German rap vocals.
AN: Were you involved with other bands before starting E-L-R? What was your gateway to music making?
S.M.: I really struggled for a long time to find matching people for a project that was a fit for everyone – musically, personally and vision wise. E-L-R feels like home, and it’s such a great feeling when you get the chance to play music with like-minded individuals. I feel very grateful for what I’ve found with I.R. and M.K., and I hope we can go through the highest of highs and lowest of lows together until all eternity.
My gateway to music making were music lessons in school where we could choose an instrument to play. For me it was immediately clear that I wanted to play the guitar and I switched to electric guitar quickly after. I got a red Ibanez SA which I still love dearly.
In the past, M.K. and I.R. played together in a band called Post Human Big Bang and were separately part of other bands like Horace, Sum of R, etc. At the moment the three of us focus on E-L-R only, since it’s a heart project for us and it’s also getting more and more time consuming.
AN: What do the three of you do for a living? Is it compatible with music making and touring?
S.M.: Luckily the three of us have flexible jobs that are greatly compatible with music making and playing shows. I guess as long as we don’t tour all year long, it will be possible to stick with our regular jobs without any problems. We really enjoy the healthy balance of working and making music!
AN: In the last few years, a few bands from Switzerland have left quite a mark on the scene. What’s behind that recent influx of Swiss bands? Where’s all that dark energy in affluent Switzerland coming from?
S.M.: When we talk to people from other countries, the first assumption is that we are rich and that everything is peachy here. Although we feel incredibly privileged to live in such a safe and stable country with so many possibilities, there is also a mental price to pay. It can be quite overwhelming when you have so many options but so little time. A lot of people here struggle with «burnouts» because of high pressure at work and in their private lives. All the possibilities and responsibilities that come with living in such a stable country can be overwhelming sometimes. I think that’s why also a lot of people here really enjoyed the lockdowns. Everything slowed down – for the first time ever. And I think there are still certain traumas that flow through the generations. Especially elderly people are very silent. In Switzerland people are not used to talking about their problems and there are still a lot of taboo topics. There is a slight shift in sight, but there’s still a lot of work to do! So, I’m not surprised that a dark energy can form from all those emotions. But please don’t get me wrong, we love living here.
AN: Your new album Vexier displays a broad spectrum of influences, from black metal, to doom, to shoegaze. Where do you feel most at home musically?
I.R.: We all have different influences and inspirations, and we bring them all together when we play music. Generally, we don’t think about what home musically would be the best for us. We just play and do our thing. We all like heavy music like doom, black metal or shoegaze, but we also like a lot of other genres; M.K. and S.M. are big fans of electronic music and even Trap. I guess that’s why we don’t need to push our sound to fit a specific genre. It all happens very naturally, and we are very open for new inspirations and genres.
AN: Hazy, droney, rich on reverb, shamanic – those are key attributes of your music. Did you set out with the intention of making “doomgaze”, or was that simply the end product of your creation process? How do your compositions come to be?
I.R.: We never talked about what genre or style we want to play. It is the end product of our creative process. We even didn’t know how to describe our music until some magazines called it “doomgaze” or “blackgaze”, which is a fitting term. Usually, we write our songs together in our rehearsal room as a group – S.M. described it as “exchanging of fireballs”. Most of the time we just play and record a few ideas and arrange them step by step. Some songs take shape very quickly and some need more time. It is important to us that we simply let the writing process flow. We love watching a song grow and seeing where it leads to.
AN: What is important for you in music? What are you trying to achieve? What are your goals?
I.R. Most important for us are our rehearsal days. Playing music together is a healing process for all of us. We can share thoughts and feelings and keep the rest of the world out of our bubble. Our goal is to make ourselves and other people happy with our music. We want to spend a lot of time together as friends and play a lot of shows and tours together. One of the greatest gifts is when people tell you how much they like your music and what it means to them when they listen to our records. It’s an overwhelming feeling when someone tells you their own story about your music. We hope we can keep going like this for a while, touching people with what we love most.
AN: Maenad, your debut full-length, was named after the female followers of the ancient Greek god of wine; the music thematized their rituals and bloodthirsty excesses. How did you come up with that as an album theme? How did you set out about implementing it?
I.R.: Like “Vexier”, “Maenad” arose from our own life situations. It seemed very beautiful to us and fitting to find metaphors in Greek mythology. “Maenad” takes you on a journey through different places and states. S.M. and I had the same visions of the story and when we went on a trip to Greece, it all fell into place. We are very happy with our debut album and what path it has taken so far. It was just a start or an introduction to a larger story. “Vexier” is more an expression of feelings and emotions.
AN: Vexier, although mightier in sound, is thematically less straightforward and much more intricate, a labyrinth of music. What experiences or realities were you trying to portray with Vexier? What intention lies behind its teasing, elusive character?
S.M.: The writing process of “Vexier” was an organic journey and evolved from many rehearsal sessions. Some time ago we started this ritual of recording every rehearsal in order to remember good riffs or beats. We put the songs together like a music puzzle, basically. Many different emotions flowed into this album, since 2020/2021 was a tough time for everyone in their own way – I think this made everything naturally heavier and darker.
AN: Your compositions also include different field recordings and nature sounds which give the music an organic feel. What’s the idea, the aim behind the inclusion of these sounds?
M.K.: We want to create a whole world to dive into. If you listen to the album from beginning to end it should feel like a journey instead of just individual songs – even when all the songs do have their own story and feeling. These added sounds should help the listener to project visual aspects of our sound onto their inner eye. We try to not overdo these things; we want every individual to go on their own trip while enjoying our music.
AN: 2019 you toured North-Eastern Europe with Amenra, often a region left out of tour plans. Would you do the same tour now? What does the war in Ukraine mean for touring and for the scene in Eastern Europe? How does it affect your own touring plans?
M.K.: Everything is and will be affected by those difficult happenings unfortunately. We are not in the position to make predictions about how touring or even the music scene as a whole will change in these regions. We hope for the best for all the people living in Eastern Europe.
AN: What does the future hold for E-L-R?
M.K.: We are eager to play many international shows and tours and do have our personal wish list of festivals.
For now, we will play some Swiss shows but we are already looking forward to autumn. With the help of our newly won partner DOOMSTAR as our booking agency, we will hopefully have the chance to play awesome places all over Europe and hopefully soon all over the world.
Interview Slavica
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