Before we start talking about Canaan, Eibon Records, which is a recording label led by yourself, released two new albums. Shape a New Start from Act Noir and Alternate Endings from Devar (NOR).  Both albums are quite different from what usually Eibon Records releases. For all the new and aspiring musicians, are you widening the “spectrum” to help more bands?  Also, if someone is looking for a label, can you tell us more what kind of music you are looking for?

Well, I’ve never actually cared too much about the styles – I just released (and still release, though with decreasing frequency since the tremendous lack of sales…..) records I like. That’s the only general rule I follow. As a direct consequence of this, I’m touching different genres through my releases, which is eventually misleading for those who try to “frame” my label in a way or another. I’m getting demos of different genres, and though I’m not rejecting anything (a listen is due to each and every demo I get) I’m usually moving within dark ambient/power noise/dark wave territories. Unfortunately, as mentioned, sales have dropped drastically over the past years (god bless p2p), so I’ sorry to report that the label is currently undergoing a period of “suspended animation”. I’ll try as hard as possible to keep it alive, but it’s a struggle that’s becoming harder and harder over time…..

Back to Canaan.  Can you tell us more about the origin of the band’s name?

I mutuated this name from a song of AMON DUUL II (“Kanaan”), to be found on their 1967 album “Phallus dei” . No hidden/secret/esoteric meaning, I’m afraid. I liked the sound, and went for it. As simple as that.

Can you give us a little bit of history about Canaan, i.e. The birth of a great and unique band?

We started the band in 1995, immediately after the split-up of RAS ALGETHI, the band we were playing into at that time. We felt we were uselessly self-confining us into a kind of music (doom metal) that wasn’t entirely representative of what we wanted to achieve, so we moved on. Canaan was initially born as a 3-members band (me, Luca and Matteo) then had some line-up changes over the years; currently (January 2011) it’s me, Matteo, Nico, Andrea and Alberto. At the moment, I feel the closest and most accurate way to describe the band is a collective of people working on music rather than a regular band. We don’t have rehearsals in the usual acception of the term. We seldom meet in our small home-recording studio to work on songs, always with reduced line-ups. We record and gather large amount of fragments, then organize them and shape them into real songs. The process takes a very long time usually, but it’s an absolutely fine working method – for us at least. It gives us all the freedom we need to experiment thing just the way we like. And having no time constraints is a blessing, as we need space to experiment different things and different composition processes, which we could never do if we hadn’t our own small studio.

So, what should we expect now from Canaan’s new album, any hints to keep the fans on their toes?

Our new album is titled “Contro.luce” and has been released in late december 2010. It comes some 5 years after “The unsaid words” and I consider it the zenith of our musical production so far. It’s a bit far from what people expected from us, not only because it’s entirely sung in italian, but also because it encompasses a wider range of sounds; ethnic music has become more and more important, and it’s now more than ever hard to frame what we do. We’re definitely satisfied with how it turned out. We’ll see how people will react to it.

The more time passes, the more Canaan’s music evolves.  From the unpolished and very dark Blue Fire, to the Polished, sad but ‘not that dark’ The Unsaid Words.  Does this change comes natural to the band? Or is it something that all of you sit down and think of writing something before starting playing?

We’ve always been very impulsive when it comes to writing/composing and we never (and I mean it) planned anything. We simply start playing and see what happens. This means we in no way envision things before they actually happen. This time CONTRO.LUCE has turned out different from everything else we did in the past, and we consider it as a very positive aspect; think as evolution versus involution. We feel the band is a living entity, in change, evolving; we’ll do our best not to spoil this evolution and – if, some day – should we feel we’ve said all we had to say, we’ll put an end to the project long before becoming a parody of ourselves like unfortunately we’ve seen so many times with so many bands. You see, CANAAN is not at all a project made to “entertain” nor to “make success” nor to “sell a lot” or “to reach a wide audience”; as such, we do not have any other aim than being satisfied with what we do. In the end, if Contro.luce is less dark than our previous cds, all I can say is just: it happened like this………

And what about the lyrics?  Like Canaan’s music, the lyrics in the first two albums were more metaphorical, while in the last three albums are more ‘direct and straight to the point’.  What causes such change, and are they a reflection of self?

The lyrics on the new cd are twisted perspectives on everyday’s life thematics such as failure, inadequacy, loss, regret, pain and joy. They reflect my points of view (which are mine, and only mine) over what surrounds me and/or happens to me. When I was younger I used to incorporate more “visionary” elements in my lyrics, but then time & life brought me on the ground and stitched my feet to reality. Not sure the direction I’ll take with the next ones.

Three members from Canaan play with Neronoia.  Is this just a side project which helped you release two albums with Gianni from Colloquio, or are we assisting the birth of another new ‘permanent’ band?

Neronoia was a permanent band until it lasted. At the moment (January 2011) the project has been stopped, and we’re not sure if we’ll ever get it working again. We would like to, but certain circumstances are conjuring against this chance. Sometimes the will to do a certain thing is not enough to bring it to completion, and this is much what’s happening……

On Neronoia’s website, it states that Neronoia is a cooperation between Canaan and Colloquio, though two members from Canaan are not part of it.  Any particular reason?

The two CANAAN members who are not involved in Neronoia are Luca, who is living and working quite far from us; I would dare saying we lost his traces after 2004/2005. And Nico, who estranged from the band for personal troubles after the release of 2006 “Un mondo in me”. Life, sometimes, bites hard. No other reasons, just the fact that quite often we loose contacts with people we shared our past life with. Sad but true. It simply happens, and there’s nothing you can do to fix it…..

The end

While hoping the above interview gives you a better insight of what dedicated people are up to in the REAL music industry, we personally urge all of you out there to buy the albums they like, if they would like to listen to more interesting and new material from their favourite artists.  As Mauro Berchi says “Like a white elephant or a ship sailing unknown seas, I still feel a good record MUST have a physical form, to preserve it from being just a molecule of water in the oceans of bytes out there”

Mauro Berchi can be contacted on info@eibonrecords.com
Eibon Records official website: http://www.eibonrecords.com
K.M.D. Design official website: http://www.eibonrecords.com/kmd.php

click here for the Ozzy Osbourne interview

Hi and welcome to this interview.  Thank you for your time.  To start off with, can you give us a brief overview of how Behind the Sun was formed?

Aaron: Behind the Sun was formed by the current singer, drummer and guitarist (Aaron) a few years back at Saar’s farming village, called Timorim, in the north Negev desert of Israel. We used to jam and write songs in the basement underneath the village meeting hall. We played our first show at a pub in the same village and we’ve been going ever since. In fact one of the songs on the album, Running Water, we played at that very first show.

How did you come up with the band name?

Aaron: Our drummer Saar Gur thought up the name Behind the Sun. First of all, it represents a sort of metaphysical idea (I mean how can you ever be behind the sun, you are just on the other side of it). Second of all, its a name which brings up some memories of a bunch of our musical heros such as Nick Drake, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Eric Clapton so I assume that had something to do with it also.

It’s been some time now that your debut album was released.  what response have you got from the public and media?

Aaron: We’ve gotten some really great reviews on blogs and websites from around the world. As well as the very kind review from MuzikaBlog here, we were named album of the month at progressiverockbr.com in Brazil, we got a 5 star review at YosMusic.com in Israel, and some great reviews at other blogs in Australia, the USA, the UK, France and Holland. We were on Israeli TV twice last summer promoting the album which was a new first for us and a lot of fun. Mostly the response is:” wow, I didn’t know that there were any bands in Israel that were playing hard rock music.” And then they say: “Great guitars, great drums, and the lead singer sounds like … ” and then we go all the way from Eddie Vedder to Ian Gillian.

What was the thing that triggered you as a band to play this genre of music and who are your infuences?

Aaron: I really didn’t know what kind of music I was going to play with this band when we started playing. I listen to all kinds of music and in the beginning we had some jazzy funky jams, some more like Neil Young country rock type songs, and some very heavy metal songs. Over the years of playing together I think our influences have merged and we have the 70s progressive influences coming from Gad and myself, the metal coming from Saar and Yoram, and some grooving rhythms and some bounce coming from Dan. And that I think is the North Desert sound — 70s tube guitars screaming over a driving modern and intense rhythm section. And of course, Gad is in my mind the voice of the angry pissed off desert, coming to get even.

So, what kind of CD’s / music a Behind the Sun member would have on his Ipod or at Home?

Aaron: This is an interesting question … what do I (Aaron) think the other guys are listening to… hmm… I could be less than diplomatic and say Saar – Depeche Mode, Yoram – Whitesnake, Dan – Leonard Cohen, Gad – Jeff Buckley, but it could be something more like Saar – Strapping Young Lad, Yoram – Iron Maiden, Dan – King Crimson, Gad – Queens of the Stone Age. I’m sure they think I am listening to Keith Jarrett all the time.

Gad: I know for a fact that Aaron’s also listening to some west coast gangsta-rap and some heavy metal in the car, on his way to and from work. I guess it’ll be a good idea to listen to Jarrett at work though….
Personally, I’ve been romancing with a good ol’ love of mine lately – The Black Crowes. They’ve just released a fantastic new album (“Croweology”), but what made me go back and listen to them was a semi-religious experience of listening to their 2009 album “Before the Frost…Until the Freeze” on my iPod, while speed-walking around the block at dusk, one summer evening a few weeks ago.

The lyrics reflect a lot of unfortunate and sad reality.  What kind of message are you trying to propogate to the world?

I think the message is don’t live in denial. Be aware of what kind of things are going on in this world. Don’t follow anything blindly be it your religion, your leaders, your society, your parents, your boss. Question everything. If there’s a dark message in the lyrics its because we’ve looked into a lot of what’s happening in Israel and in the world and we don’t like the way its going right now. On the other hand I think songs like Running Water and Still are very positive messages of self-fulfillment. If you work on it and you put in the time and really pour your heart into whatever you are doing — you’ll get there.

As you well know in the last couple of years there have been a number of problems related to copyrights, distribution of music over the internet etc.  Your debut album was available online in the beginning.  What made you make such move and did it / would it effect sales?

Aaron: The internet is a double edged sword. On the one hand, people are downloading your album for free from all these places (not itunes, i’m talking about bit torrent, rapidshare and emule) and you don’t see any revenue or even have the satisfaction of knowing who’s listening to you. On the other hand, we never would have reached all these countries and fans overseas without the internet and file sharing or online streaming or what have you. Also, the fact that we were able to produce our own album is a direct result of today’s technology (cubase and protools) allowing you to mix in your own home. If we were mixing everything reel to reel in a studio it wouldn’t have been economically viable for an independent band such as ourselves to make a studio album.

Gad: At this point in our career I think we only benefit from the internet. I, for one, really don’t care if someone’s downloading the album on some file-sharing site – I want our music to get to as many potential fans as we can and one way to get that is to share this music and spread the word out via blogs, file-sharing and music web-sites. I think it’s all about building the fan-base and establishing our name/reputation at this point, as a leaping platform for the next album.

What are Behind the Sun members up to lately?

Aaron: Dan is finishing dental school. Aaron is flying all the time to the far east for his work as a software engineer at a major phone manufacturer we can’t name. Saar has just gotten married and is going on honeymoon to Sri Lanka. Yoram just had his first kid and Gad is taking spanish classical guitar lessons. So its just your average summer.

Tell us what is the rock scene like in Israel?

Aaron: The rock scene in Israel is slowly but surely getting known around the world. Steven Wilson from Porcupine Tree recorded an album called Blackfield with an Israeli artist I won’t name. Then, Mr. Wilson went on to produce and album by a friend of ours Omer Ephrat which came out on Inside Out records. And to top it all off he produced Orphaned Land’s last album which is becoming very well known all over the metal world. Besides that the Israeli singer Asaf Avidan, who sings in English and sounds a bit like Janis Joplin (even though he’s a guy) just signed with Sony Germany. There are a bunch of other great bands in the Israeli rock, progressive and metal scene besides Behind the Sun including a fantastic group called Eatliz which I recommend to everybody to check out. The rock in English scene in Israel doesn’t get a lot of respect or radio play on the biggest stations in the country, but its a very diverse scene with groups playing everything from Reggae to punk to progressive to neo-progressive to folk to black metal to grindcore to indy rock to emo. There’s something for everybody. And in Behind the Sun we represent the big, hairy, beer drinking, detuned guitar rock section of the spectrum.

Is there any fair amount of clubs and events promoting such music in Israel?

Aaron: There are some clubs in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. After that it gets a bit patchy. We’ve played kibbutzim (collective farms) all over the country where the whole kibbutz shows up at the show and even bring their dogs. I’m not sure everybody there are huge fans of Opeth or Rush but we play our set with conviction and anybody who can stand the volume has a good time.

Obviously recording your debut album thought you some or a lot of lessons.  Any lessons you would like to share with upcoming and aspiring bands?

Aaron: I’m sure everybody learned different lessons. The lesson I learned was everything takes twice as long as what you think it will take. That could be recording drums, recording guitars, arranging backing vocals, mixing, mastering, deciding between 5 heads on cover art — everything will take twice as long as you think so start sooner rather than later.

Gad: After passing the long tunnel and coming out to the big bright light at the other side, I have only an immense respect for bands that have released a lot of albums and stuck together for a long time. It’s a very intense process where (for good or bad) everybodys level of sensitivity gets very high but at the same time it’s a very interesting, educating, fulfilling and rewarding process.

Are you planning any concerts / gigs / tours outside Israel?

Aaron: We are on the lookout all the time for some cool places or festivals to play outside of Israel. When the opportunity presents itself and it looks like we’ll be able to reach the right audience, our bags are packed and we are ready to go.

Tell us about Behind the Sun future. Any new songs / records plans?

Aaron: We are now in the process of writing songs for another album which we hope to record next year. we’ve got about 7 songs worked up with the whole band and another 5-10 songs or so in early sketch form or in bits and pieces. We’ll probably keep writing for the next few months and then see which songs work the best together as an album. We have all sorts of wild song ideas now, from 13th century Icelandic gang violence to a song about Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. It will be interesting to see if it can all be fit together.

Thank you for your time and interview.  While wishing you all the best for your future, anything else Behind the Sun would want to say?

Aaron: Thanks for listening to our music and we hope you enjoy our album.

Watch and enjoy Brian’s humour, with comments like “it makes yer arse go like a rabbit nose”…