Interviews by: Craig Sternberg
Interview with Eric of Gigan:
Craig: First off, give us a bit of background on Gigan and how you guys started, what you set out to achieve as a band, etc.
Eric: Well, I started the band in early 2006 after I realized that Hate Eternal was not where I wanted to be. I had spent a lot of time and effort and performed in two videos with Hate Eternal, but once I was confronted with the reality that the situation was not ever going to be a creative or enjoyable musical outlet for me, I knew I needed to do my own thing.
It was a great opportunity and I learned a lot about people and personalities and made some great friends, but all that is a mere blip on the radar of my life! Randy and I were/are good friends, so when he approached me about joining GIGAN after he left Hate Eternal it was an easy decision to make! My goals with this band have always been to record the music that flows through my brain at all times and maybe start something different in the process. The one thing I knew for sure is that I would put absolutely NO creative limits on sounds, songs, or song structures.
Craig: What does Gigan sound like to you?
Eric: The soundtrack of Monster nightmares and the sounds in my head. (It's noisy in there!)
Craig: What are some of the concepts behind the band? How does this band connect to your imaginations?
Eric: The main overall concept of this band is creativity and self-expression…Our imaginations are our only limiting factors, musically and conceptually. Another underlying theme is open-mindedness and the ability to comprehend all planes of our existence and the occult powers that make the universes go 'round! There is of course more to all of this, but I hate typing…
Craig: How does Gigan's sound differ from past bands you've been in? Lord Blasphemer, Burnt Offerings, Diabolic and Hate
Eternal.
Eric: All great bands with one thing in common:…I am proud of all of them (some more than others)… Sound-wise I would say GIGAN is much more abrasive and intellectually inspiring that the rest…I also believe GIGAN is much more colorful…
Craig: Tell me about the process of writing lyrics for the record and what you write about.
Eric: Currently, I write all the lyrics for GIGAN and my recurring themes tend to be the occult, human dysfunction, mental illness and life after death…and of course MONSTERS and their lives as I imagine them! GIGAN's lyrics are equally as important as the music and the two are directly tied to each other.
Craig: How does the songwriting process in Gigan work?
Eric: Randy and I sit down and get to it…He has riffs, I have riffs…we introduce all the riffs to one another and see who gets along best! Most GIGAN songs are a collaboration between myself and Randy with a couple of exceptions that I wrote alone. Lyrics usually come last.
Craig: What is the album called, when is it coming out, and where can I buy it?
Eric: "The Order Of The False Eye", July 22 on Napalm Records! You can find it at your local record store, such as: Best Buy, FYE and many other chains…Of course it is also available through us and our label as well! Try to buy it at an independently owned record shop, though. Support your local metal shop!
Craig: What can we expect from Gigan in the future? How do you expect to see this band evolve?
Eric: You can expect a lot of touring and hard work! GIGAN will always be redefining itself in some way…just wait and see! Things on the horizon include additional instruments, videos and an ever-evolving live show!
Craig: What was it like jamming with Hate Eternal for a short while? Why pick Gigan over Hate Eternal ultimately?
Eric: Jamming with Hate Eternal was an experience I will never forget…Thanx to that situation I have friends now I never would have otherwise and I have learned more than one priceless lesson about life and the people in the music biz.
Craig: You say in your biography that you were tired of extreme metal clichés and that was part of the reason for making Gigan. Did you feel you were stuck creatively in Hate Eternal or that maybe they were sticking to too many clichés?
Eric: The cliches I have a problem with are peoples attitudes more than anything…egos, bad ideas, negativity, rascism,
elitism, addiction…! I just wish people would shut up and thrash already! I also am sick of the endless catagorization and labeling of bands…IT'S ALL MUSIC!!! Metal people need to stop concerning themselves with the bullshit constantly being thrown at them and JUST LISTEN TO WHAT YOU LIKE!!! There are no music police and there shouldn't be. GIGAN welcomes all music fans and lovers of art, so come on down to our "tent" and be amazed (or annoyed) by our spectacle! I wanna thank Craig, Ian and sickdrummer.com for their support of GIGAN since the demo and "hello" to all the sickdrummer.com afficianados!I hope to meet you all on the raod! THRASH – Eric
Interview With Randy of Gigan:
Craig: First off, give us a bit of background on Gigan and how you guys started, what you set out to achieve as a band, etc.
Randy: Eric started the concept GIGAN after he was jamming with us in Hate Eternal. During that time, he and I realized that we had similar ideas musically, complimented each others playing wonderfully, and got along well personally. All of these factors contributed to us playing together. GIGAN'S goals are simple for us: To create the band we always wished existed on a musical, conceptual, and presentational level.
Craig: What does Gigan sound like to you?
Randy: Evolution.
Craig: What are some of the concepts behind the band? How does this band connect to your imaginations?
Randy: Creating a living, breathing, and constantly expanding mythos within the band was always an important factor for Eric and I. The both of us grew up devouring horror, sci-fi, and fantasy literature, films, comics, role playing games, etc. One of the major attractions to these forms of escapism was the intensely rich worlds, and characters in these stories.That is what I loved about George Lucas, Frank Herbert, and Primus for example. Weather the medium was film, print, or music, those three artists drew their audience into a realm where their creations came to life. On a musical level: Eric and I sometimes tend to be pretty visual when we are writing. Sometimes one of us will come up with a part. And during the process of showing it to one another, we'll say things like: "This riff kinda sounds like a 100ft monster crashing through a city", or
"That's cool! Kinda reminds me of laser bolts being fired!".
Craig: You've been a guitar player most of your life but most have known you for your bass work in Hate Eternal, was there an adjustment period going back to guitar? Which instrument do you feel better expresses yourself?
Randy: Yes, I play guitar first, and foremost, but from the start of my involvement with Hate Eternal I set out to play bass like it should be. During this time I played the bass intensively, and only picked up my guitar to write. When I left the band and joined forces with Eric, the first thing I noticed was how rusty my guitar playing became. It was BAD! Eric has an amazing work ethic, and it shows in his playing. I had to work extra hard to: A: Get up to speed, and B: Be in the same league playing wise as he was. But playing bass taught me a lot about music, and really improved my improvisation, songwriting, and accompaniment skills. I mainly write on guitar, but a few things I initially wrote on the bass has been converted over.
Craig: You have taken over lead vocal duties as opposed to normally being a back up singer. Has your voice changed at all while singing with Gigan? How do the vocal duties differ from singing back up in Hate Eternal?
Randy: Once it was deemed that I was going to do the vocals in GIGAN, I set out to make my voice differ as much as I could from what I've done before. But I still consider myself a novice when it comes to vocals. I never even sang before I joined Hate. I had to learn right there on the spot, so I never really felt comfortable as a vocalist in general, let alone the main voice of a band. "Footsteps of Gigan" was the first studio recording that features my vocals, and tracking them was tough. It's still a bit odd being the frontman of a band though. That's the big difference. I'm a laid back, low key guy…now I've got to get a bunch of people all riled up.When we went up to Volume Studios in Chicago, to record "The Order of The False Eye" I was a bit concerned about doing my vocals.Thankfully, Sanford(Parker, Minsk) went out of his way to make me feel as comfortable as I could. He built me a little fort of isolation, lit a few candles, and really created a atmosphere I could preform in. After a meeting with the Double Bubble, and a few Jager shots I destroyed his hard work while thrashing about and screaming my head off!
Craig: In the past we've talked about you getting into writing lyrics, do you contribute lyrics at all to Gigan? If so, what do you write about? If not, do you think you'll ever contribute lyrics to Gigan?
Randy: Eric handles the lyric writing for GIGAN, and does a killer job doing it. In the past I have contributed concepts that he in turn evolved and built upon, but I have never wrote a lyric for the band. I may in the future, but Eric is more then capable of writing great lyrics.
Craig: What can we expect from Gigan in the future? How do you expect to see this band evolve?
Randy: Constant progression. The songs from the "Footsteps" demo are major contrasts to the songs on "Order..". One of my favorite aspects of this band is that each song has it's own personality. With GIGAN the evolution is from song to song, witch contributes to the listening/live experience of GIGAN. From the start, we take you on a trip through the Cosmos,
letting the listener explore various peaks and valleys in the landscapes of the GIGAN-universe. As we each grow as individuals, the music we create will evolve with us.People should expect an extreme psychedelic musical journey with our music.I can't say what our future material will "sound" like beyond that it will be GIGAN.
Craig: Last time we spoke you were on the verge of going to Europe and doing your first DVD with Hate Eternal. Did the DVD turn out the way you initially intended it to and are you pleased with the overall result?
Randy: It came out better then we hoped, and I am very pleased with the results. It was hectic…..
Craig: When you left the band, two different statements came out explaining your departure. You certainly had gone through a lot in the two years leading up to you leaving the band. Can you explain why you left? How hard was the decision?
Randy: When I left the band I left to focus on finishing my schooling. Once I got home I started playing guitar again and a lot of music came out of me. Eric and I made a strong bond together, and I knew he was starting GIGAN up. So we talked about it…I can over to jam and it was settled. I was joining. GIGAN offered me the chance to play the music I heard in my head. I enjoy, and create wacky music. In Hate, I was given every chance to write material. But most of my music is way to left-field for that band. I joined a band with a definitive sound, and a history that I had to respect. In GIGAN, I get to join forces with two extraordinary musical individuals and create a definitive sound that is unique to us.
Craig: You say in your biography that you were tired of extreme metal clichés and that was part of the reason for making Gigan. Did you feel you were stuck creatively in Hate Eternal or that maybe they were sticking to too many clichés?
Randy: It's not that I was "Stuck" creatively. Erik(Rutan) and I were able to collaborate and write great stuff, but what I COULD write for Hate is only a small percentage of my musical concepts. Hate is a explosion of fury. Acceptable music obviously has to fit within a fairly rigid framework. In GIGAN there isn't a framework, the music just takes the shape it was meant to be.
Craig: What is your relationship like with Erik Rutan and Derek Roddy today?
Randy: Diffrent, but fine on both fronts.
Craig: Can we ever see a collaboration with either of them in the future? Maybe Erik Rutan producing Gigan in the future?
Randy: GIGAN recorded our "Footsteps" demo at Mana, but we clearly found our sonic temple At Volume Studios with Sanford Parker at the helm.
Craig: When Eric Hersemann and you started jamming in Hate Eternal, did you have any idea it would result in what is now Gigan? Explain the chemistry you two have developed in a short period of time.
Randy: It was never talked about in terms of a band. but we would sit around and just noodle on guitars at each others houses and really dig on each others music. Secretly I thought about it though because both of our music was largely outside the framework of Hate, and I knew we could write some mind blowing stuff together. But that was just fantasy so to speak at that point.
Craig: Have you has a chance to hear the new Hate Eternal? What did you think of the record?
Randy: Not yet….I've seen the video online, but I won't judge a recording from a youtube video, or mp3 for that matter.
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