Renowned for their minimalist metal and repetitive structure, Earth formed two decades ago, and throughout their career the group have forged sonic explorations of work spanning from experimental ambience to psychedelic metal and stoner post-rock. “Every album is always different because you’re different. It’s a different time.” Notes Dylan Carlson in a thick American accent. As the driving force behind Earth, Carson has been fundamental in the group’s constant evolution – and since their reformation seven years ago he’s the only remaining founding member alongside Adrienne Davies.
“Even if it’s the same studio the situation is different. On our last pair of albums we worked a lot more on the stuff live before we hit the studio,” he notes of their most recent bodies of work, Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light I & II. “There’s a lot more improvising, especially in the second half of the album when we’d just roll the tape and play and see what happens.”
“I’d say it still pretty much works in the same way it always has,” he shares of the group’s fundamental processes when penning an album. “I try not to do the same record over and over. I like to have the accidents that happen in the studio as opposed to being super control-freakish. I try and get people that I like to come into the studio and play with me because I know I don’t have to worry about how they’re going to play because I know that they’ll do something good,” he pauses and laughs. “I’ve got enough problems with my own stuff to worry about.”
Viewed as one of the most respected and venerated drone outfits of contemporary day, Carson notes that the widespread reception of his work is ultimately welcome, but that outside perception doesn’t play a role in shaping Earth’s music. “It’s nice to get good reviews and I appreciate them but I don’t necessarily pay that much attention to it. I’ve always tried to not let bad press stop me, but then there’s the problem of beginning to believe your good press too much. There’s the risk of turning into an egomanic,” he laughs. “It seems that these days that the press is made up more so of audience members than professionals.”
Currently making their way through their debut tour of Australia, Carson shares that many of his early musical inspirations are from down under. “We’ve wanted to go to Australia for quite a while. A lot of my favourite bands come from there. The whole reason I got into music was AC/DC, I’m a big Radio Birdman fan and I used to do a few covers of The Saints back in the day, The Dirty Three, etc.
“Unfortunately our previous tour was Lori [Goldston]’s last as she doesn’t want to tour anymore because of her child, and Karl [Blau] also just had a child so the touring lineup will be a little different to our album lineup. We’re coming over as the classic power-trio,” he divulges. “The songs from our last albums will be played with a lot of improvisation alongside some reworkings of our older stuff. We’re trying to focus more on the newer record but also taking songs that people haven’t heard in a while and try to renew them.”
BY TYSON WRAY
