Interview: The Universe Divide

Posted on 29th Jul 11 by Jonathan Keane | 0

Right now, The Universe Divide is a little known name, but the progressive metal outfit has existed since 2007 and features one time members of Canvas Solaris, guitarist Chris Rushing and bassist Gaël Pirlot, along with drummer, Jason Parker. Just fresh off the release of their debut mini-album, Dust Settles on the Odontophobes, the band spoke about everything that has led up to this point and what happens next.

Firstly, Canvas Solaris split up earlier this year. What can you tell us about what led to the band calling it a day?
Gaël Pirlot: Oh wow. I guess part of it was dealings with the label [Sensory]. I don’t think we wanted to approach it on a business standpoint and it kind of got the best of us.
Chris Rushing: Scheduling too. We’re all in different cities so it made it really hard to rehearse and do the things that we wanted to do and it still be feasible.
GP: I think also, Hunter [Ginn, drummer] approached it as a project where he just loved recording and creating music, not so much live performance so we questioned the validity of actually continuing. We were just going to record albums. We felt good about where we left off so we decided to call it a day.

Did you look at The Universe Divide as more of a way to play?
GP: No, actually. We started The Universe Divide as kind of an offshoot of another project. We wrote the first song as part of that project and lost two members in the process because they didn’t feel like they could keep up with the material. Chris and I just wrote the first two songs on the album on our own and had programmed drums for a while. About two years in, we decided to make a band out of it and play live. Luckily we found Jason, which was a pretty long search. It was pretty independent of Canvas Solaris splitting up actually.

Did plans to record emerge after the Canvas split?
CR: We were already recording. The Universe Divide was something we were doing when we weren’t working on Canvas. We’ve had a couple of thing always going on, not so much one being more important than the other but as one would slow down we’d work on another one. Honestly, between me and Gaël, we [didn’t know] Canvas Solaris was going to close out when it did. Hunter and Nathan [Sapp, guitarist] are more the centre nexus of that band and make a lot of the main decisions. Like Gaël said, we knew that the last album [Irradiance] was a good note to end on. It just worked out that way, there was no real planning. We were doing The Universe Divide and Canvas just happened to close out when this EP got finished. Good timing I guess, in that respect.

Jamie King produced Dust Settles on the Odontophobes, and you had worked with him before. Was he eager to work with you again this time around?
GP: I think we were more eager to work with him than the other way around. He hadn’t really heard us but he’s always a positive guy to work with. We knew what he’d done with Canvas and Between The Buried and Me and He Is Legend. We always admired his work so it just made sense to keep working with him.
CR: It fits our budget too! Jamie’s very affordable.
GP: I think he had a great mind-set. He’s pretty experimental and great to work with.

How long was the recording process?
A collective laugh from all three is the initial answer.
Jason Parker: 14 months. We started drum tracks in April of last year and did all five tracks in one day. Chris and I drove up to Winston-Salem and cranked it out and then it was kind of a long process after that.
CR: It wasn’t continuous. We did everything but the drums in our home studio and when we had a good weekend off from work, we’d work on different sections. It wasn’t a continuous 14 months in the studio but it took a while.
GP: I don’t think that this is going to be indicative of the next album that’s for sure.

Did you only have the five songs of the EP written when you began recording?
GP: We had like a song and a half in the works at that time but we were mostly focused on the album. Some new songs were written but we didn’t have them ready to record and I think just the five songs we had at the time were consistent in concept that we thought it made sense to record them at the same time.

What point is the new material at right now?
GP: We’re still in the writing process right now and trying to focus a little more on live performance.
CR: At this point, we’re just trying to get awareness out about the band and get people to know the name and listen to the music.

What are your plans for playing live and touring?
GP: I think we’d love to tour; unfortunately it’s quite hard to line up shows. I don’t think we have the proper exposure to link up with many venues in consecutive dates yet so that’s kind of a work in progress right now but I think our goal right now is get a couple of tours in before the end of the year.
JP: Also, financially too, just going out on our own without label support. It would all be coming out of pocket and it would be a serious amount of organisation for all of us. The finances are certainly secondary though to making sure we have the proper amount of exposure otherwise we’re playing to a crowd of ten people.

You released Dust Settles on the Odontophobes on your own, with no label. How have sales been thus far?
GP: I think they’ve been respectable considering our exposure. I think at this point we’re just looking for positive responses more than direct sales. I say we’ve done alright considering how little knowledge we have of promotion and sales.
CR: I think for the amount of people that know about this band we’re doing pretty good.
JP: All 12 of them!

Has there been any label interest at all yet?
GP: We’ve had a few interested labels. Actually, Sensory Records is going to be stocking our album in the near future, on a limited run, although we won’t be necessarily signing up with them. We’ve approached some of the more popular routes. I know Prosthetic is interested in us, [who have] some great instrumental bands so we approached them, and some other ones – both European and across the States. Jamie has actually helped us quite a bit with that.

It’s somewhat surprising that Sensory haven’t picked you up.
GP: I don’t know much to say about that one. We definitely enjoyed working with Ken [Golden, label head] but I’m sure he’s very sceptical in terms of sales. Canvas did well but in terms of promotion didn’t.
CR: There were probably some things on our end that the label would have liked us to do more of that we didn’t really start picking up on until the end.
GP: I’m going to be honest; I kind of understand his position. We’d definitely love to join an outfit like Sensory, they put out some great records, we’re all big fans of Gordian Knot and Spiral Architect and a lot of bands on that label.

To end, could you explain the meaning of the title of the EP?
GP: I guess this will be the first time that I’ve explained it.  The Odontophobe represents the fear of teeth and I associate that with society’s principles. I guess this album is about overcoming those obstacles and criticisms. I guess it’s put forth in pretty negative terms; it’s kind of an interesting juxtaposition between the title and the actual meaning.

The Universe Divide

Tags: Canvas Solaris, Chris Rushing, Dust Settles on the Odontophobes, Gael Pirlot, Hunter Ginn, Jamie King, Jason Parker, Nathan Sapp, Sensory Records, The Universe Divide