Philip A. Wickstrand is a contributing freelance writer for Metal Psalter Webzine. He met with vocalist/guitarist Brian Spinks and bass guitarist Dylan Desmond of the band Samothrace at Branx in Portland, OR on March 4, 2010.

Originally hailing from Lawrence, Kansas, SAMOTHRACE have proven to be one of the best new Doom Metal bands in the States. With their first album, "Life's Trade", being released on 20 Buck Spin in 2008, SAMOTHRACE show thus far that long, well written, heavy and melody laden songs are amongst their trademarks. With their relocation to Seattle, addition of drummer Joe Axler (BOOK OF BLACK EARTH) and the plethora of like minded bands to play shows with throughout the Pacific Northwest, the future for SAMOTHRACE holds great potential.

Phil: How's the relocation from Kansas to Seattle been for you guys?

Dylan Desmond: It's been really good. As awesome as Kansas is, the music scene is… (laughter) You laughed. I'm laughing too when I say that.

Phil: I have a friend that lives in Kansas City, so I've heard. (laughter)

Dylan: It's cool, but it's teeny-tiny and out in Seattle, things have been established for many years in the genre. It's awesome. It's great out here.

Brian Spinks: Yeah, enjoying the Northwest a lot, doing pretty well with the relocation. Playing shows. Like, we seem to be welcomed fairly well to Seattle, you know, being a new local band there. It's going well; we're all digging it.

Phil: Was it difficult going from a smaller place to such a large city?

Brian: It wasn't for me. I don't know - something about Seattle, it seems like it's so broken up into neighborhoods that it's kind of like small cities all in one.

Dylan: If Georgetown had a fuckin' grocery store, it'd be a piece of cake, 'cause that's the only hard part. (laughs)

Brian: Yeah. So, for some reason, it doesn't seem like a huge city.

Dylan: It seems really easy 'cause with the Metal scene, it's still very close knit - everyone knows eachother and everyone's real nice to each other, kind of like it is in the Midwest. I thought it was really easy.

Phil: You guys have been playing a lot more shows around the Northwest, but what are your plans for the year at large as far as shows go?

Brian: We have some shows coming up in the end of March. March 27th, we're playing a show with LESBIAN; it's their tour kickoff. Is it their album release or is it just the tour kickoff?

Dylan: I think it's just the tour kickoff.

Brian: Yeah, a show with them on March 27th at the Funhouse. We're playing, I think April tenth, at The Comet with ATRIARCH from here in Portland.

Dylan: I'm under the impression that we're going on the whole little three day tour.

Brian: We are doing the three days. I think the others are in Portland and Olympia.

Phil: Yeah, Portland's on the ninth.

Brian: Yeah, Portland the ninth and Olympia the eleventh, I think or however it works out. And then as far as, like… I don't know if you want us to talk about recording stuff, too.

Phil: I was actually going to bring that up next.

Brian: Well, we're set to record from July seventeenth until around the twenty-fourth of July. Here in Seattle, we're flying out our good friend and producer/engineer Sanford Parker and we're gonna actually to have our buddy at Red Room Studio, Chris Common, do the drums for that, work with Sanford on the recording. At least on the drum part. So we're going to be doing that to work on the next two albums or the next two releases I should say. They should both be out by the end of the year.

Phil: Two albums?

Dylan: Those two albums, there's going to be kind of a… the idea that they're going to conceptually and musically kind of tie together. So the first one will kind of come out, start to finish two songs and the next one's going to have two songs, as well, but they're going to connect sort of, so you can kinda play it start to finish all four songs. Those two albums would kind of meet up together.

Phil: What can we expect musically from this?

Dylan: Heavy!

Brian: It's still kind of with, I don't know if we should say formula, but still in the vein of what SAMOTHRACE does and how we kind of approach writing songs. But I think we've progressed some, tighter riffs, just a little bit more intricate lead play and stuff like that. I think we're all just growing.

Dylan: Intricate rhythms, too. Like with Joe playing drums with us, there's a lot more activity in the rhythm section than like, say, with "Life's Trade", it's very sparse and things are getting more… not more active, but more…

Brian: A little more rhythmic.

Dylan: Yeah, more rhythmic, that works.

Phil: What can we expect lyrically?

Brian: Kind of attacking the same issues. There's been quite a bit of stuff that's been going on in the last year with our personal lives, etcetera, so some of that stuff will be coming out in the lyrics. I don't know… some of it's going to tackle with drug addiction, some of it's gonna probably tackle, just kind of… I don't know, I hate to say life; it sounds kind of cliché, but maybe just more like soul seeking, you know? Kind of like using the lyrics to help people along the way, as well as ourselves.

Phil: Can we expect these albums to be released on 20 Buck Spin or elsewhere?

Brian: Yeah, as of now the first one and I think the second one, we're gonna stick with 20 Buck Spin. Dave is a good friend and (we) kinda feel like his label is up and coming or whatever, like it's doing better and better, as are we, so we're happy with it and we're going to stick there at least for awhile.

Dylan: He's done a great job.

Phil: I understand there was talk of a European tour.

Brian: Yeah. We've been tossing the idea around for maybe too long.

Dylan: I think we're aiming for fall, maybe early winter-ish of this year.

Brian: End of this year.

Dylan: Probably start looking at Europe the next couple weeks.

Brian: Or early next year. One or the other.

Dylan: In the near future, yeah.

Brian: We're excited to get over there finally. We're definitely planning on it. It's just a matter of getting the time figured out for us.

Phil: And will you in fact be playing on the island of Samothrace? (laughter at the bad joke)

Brian: That I'm not sure of yet.

Phil: I apologize for that bad joke, by the way, but it had to be made.

Brian: At least if we get the chance, I think we should probably go over on a boat or whatever and check it out.

Dylan: We should send a letter to the government of Samothrace or tell an agent to fund a show.

Brian: There's a music fest there every year, maybe we should get on that. (laughter)

Phil: Recommend a book for our readers and then explain why you recommend that particular work.

Brian: I recommend "The Land Leviathan" from Michael Moorcock. I just think it's a…

Dylan: (interrupting) Nerd! (laughter)

Brian: It's… uh… (continuing laughter) I don't know; it's got good social commentary on kind of how the future might play out after wars.

Dylan: Did you just push your glasses up to your face? (Brian does not wear glasses)

Brian: I did.

Dylan: Oh.

Brian: I don't know. (to Dylan) You ruined it. Check it out. Read it. (Dylan laughs)

Dylan: Uh…

Brian: Dylan learned his ABC's.

Dylan: Read "Mean Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus'. (laughter) But first! Read "Moby Dick".

Phil: What is your opinion on the recent advances in technology moving away from physical formats to things like downloading?

Brian: It's kind of a touchy subject 'cause in a way, I'd love everyone to share music and have it for free, but also being as that we like to tour and we have to pay rent and bills and stuff when we're gone, too, album sales kind of help us get by, especially on the road. But also, I just got an iPod finally, so I'm moving into the whole 21st Century. It's kind of nice to be able to download music.

Dylan: People do it a lot, but I've never really downloaded anything either. I have an iPod and buy CD's and put them on there.

Brian: Yeah, I put my CD's on there and I bought a couple of things on iTunes. But I know our album, you can get it on the internet for free and stuff. I've even talked to friends that were like "Yeah, I bought it the downloaded version". I think it's cool. I think it's fair, you know - we're struggling. It helps.

Phil: At the same time, do you think it detracts from the way bands intend things? Like often times, people will just pick and choose, this little song, that little song and it completely takes away from the artwork and presentation, as well.

Brian: Yeah, definitely. It's definitely lacking in the presentation, certainly from the LP form.

Dylan: You know what, though? When it comes down to it, taking a random example, take "Dark Side of the Moon", you listen to one song, that song is still fucking amazing - you don't need to listen to the whole album. You listen to the whole album, you get a whole other piece of something - that's a whole amazing thing in itself, but you listen to one song, it's still amazing.

Brian: Well played.

Dylan: And there's something pretty cool about that. I don't think you need to have a whole album and listen to it in one sitting. Maybe some people do.

Phil: All right, is there anything else you'd like to add?

Dylan: You don't need to eat a whole bag of Salsitos in one sitting either, but you can. But they're really good! If you can, you should!

Samothrace

March 4, 2010

Interview & Photos: Philip A. Wickstrand

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Formed: 2006, Seattle, WA  USA
Label: 20 Buck Spin
Genre: Stoner Doom Metal

CURRENT LINE-UP:

Brian Spinks: Guitar, Vocals & Noise
Dylan Desmond: 6-String Bass &
                                 Samples
Daniel Nokes: Guitar
Joe Axler: Drums

DISCOGRAPHY:

Demo (2007)
Life's Trade (2008)