Interview: Isis
by Barry Lee Dejasu
Since their formation in Boston in the late ‘90’s, Isis have established themselves as one of the leading bands in the post-metal/drone scene, their name frequently being mentioned alongside such giants as Neurosis, SunnO))), and more recent acts such as Pelican, Cult of Luna, and Callisto. They have gained further attention recently with a tour with Tool. Recently, Isis released their first DVD, “Clearing the Eye” and on Halloween their fourth full-length, “In the Absence of Truth,” will be released.
Songwriter/lead vocalist/guitarist Aaron Turner took some time out during their sound check at their October 4th show in Providence, Rhode Island, to share his thoughts on the new album, the DVD, and the future of the band.
What is “In the Absence of Truth” going to be like, musically and lyrically?
I’d say musically, it’s not a huge departure from what we’ve done in the past, but it’s a progression. The complexity and the density of all the songs is greater. There’s more melodic singing, and some more complex drumming going on. It’s not as jam-oriented as “Panopticon” was. There’s more changes going on within each song. It’s our longest album. It’s our most diverse as well. So hopefully people will feel that when they listen to it.
You stated that Hassan-i-Sabbah (the 11th and 12th-century Islamic religious leader), Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra’s “Don Quixote,” Mark Z. Danielewski’s novel “House of Leaves,” and Jorge Louis Borges’ “Labyrinths” were all inspirations for this album.
Any writer who I appreciate or find something interesting about will effect the way I choose to write about. A lot of my influence, when it comes to writing, does come from other writers, but not solely. Some of it is from other musicians, or from film or whatever. Especially on “Panopticon”, that album had some literary influences. This one, moreso than any other, was influenced by a lot of the things I was reading during the time that we were making the album.
Would it be okay to say that all of your albums have some kind of connecting theme between them?
Yeah. I hate to use the term “concept album” because it implies…
A plot and characters?
Yeah, exactly. There’s been some terrible concept albums, so I’d hate to lump us in with that. Then again, there’s been a lot of good concept albums. Even from the very first EP, we’ve tried to make thematic album. And it’s not just about the lyrical content tying together, it’s also about the musical content. We spend a lot of time focusing on the sequencing of the songs and making sure that everything not only works well as individual pieces, but works well as a whole.
Does “In the Absence of Truth” connect to your other albums?
I don’t think all of them interconnect with one another. There have been certain themes that have popped up for me, that have re-occurred from album to album, but no one album is directly linked to another, with the exception of “Celestial” and “SGNL>05” the EP that came right after it. There are certain things that have recurred over and over for me, but I try to give each one its own unique “persona.”
Do you have any ideas of where you’ll take your music on future releases?
We have our ideas of things we’d like to do and what we’d like to try. But for the most part, we just try to keep ourselves open to whatever’s gonna happen. Even with the newest album, we had certain ideas about what we wanted to do and what we wanted to achieve with it, but a lot of that changed during the writing and recording. We try to keep ourselves open and have a “dialogue” with the music itself. We play it, we listen to it, we figure out what could be better and what could be changed, and what direction it points us in. We’ve talked about doing some collaborative recordings, a mostly improvised record, an ambient record, and of course there’ll probably be another full-on studio “rock” album at some point.
2006 In the Absence of Truth (Ipecac)
2006 Clearing the Eye (DVD) (Ipecac)
2004 Panopticon (Ipecac)
2002 Oceanic (Ipecac)
2001 SGNL>05 (Neurot)
2000 Celestial (Escape Artist)
1999 The Red Sea (Second Nature)
1998 The Mosquito Control EP (Escape Artist)
