Halifax Collect: Celestine's last recording on earth unveiled and given away: Members talk about an ugly duckling

"We felt like the album would be better off without this song"

Yeah. I keep writing about Celestine, but this might be the last story. This is where the road ends. The band is dead, memories and recordings remain, the memories are harsh, heavy and sweet. Sometimes one doesn't want to let a band go (exhibit 1 and 2). If you were saddened when Celestine left for the other side a prolonged death might have seemed more appealing than a sudden one. Ah yes, selfishness... We want more! That's what they always say. I'm one of them.
Well lucky us. The members of the band bestowed on Halifax Collect an unreleased track, their last ever. Listen to that unpleasant, dirty beast and read the conversation I had with Addi (bass, vocals, synth) and Ómar (guitar, vocals).
Stream / FREE DOWNLOAD below

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Drastically different than the material that ended up on your final album, is that the reason it didn't get included? Or did long time lapse between writing this song and the rest of the album, thus yielding such a different sounding song?
Ómar: When writing the album we went on this whole process of churning out song after song and we didn't hit a wall the entire time. This song is actually written at the same time as the rest of the album, and it might have actually been written right in the peak of our creative flow. I think the reason that this track sounds different is because all of the songs are different in their own way and that was what we aspired to all along. The reason for it not being on the album was we weren't happy with the way it sounded. It just didn't have the same power on the recordings it originally had when we were rehearsing it.
Addi: This song was actually written in the same time period as the rest of the album, in the winter of 2009-2010. Most of the songs on this album are fast paced, compared to older records, so we felt like this down tempo bulldozer would fit in well with the rest of the album while making it more versatile, and we thought so until the recordings were done. We felt that the recording never matched the vibe the song gave us during rehearsals. There was something off about the way it felt. It's hard to put into words, but ultimately we felt like the album would be better off without this song.

Where does that "melody" that opens the song and everything is built on, come from? Furthermore, which instrument are you using there?
Addi: That melody actually started as a bass line. We wanted to create a very heavy song that didn't revolve around all the string instruments palm muting the same power chord. So the guitars are riffing two different, but similar chords, and that creates a certain low frequency cacophony. And with that bass line in the back, the soundscape gets even stranger. Then we tried playing the bass line as well with both guitars. And we thought it sounded very good, so that part became the "chorus" for a lack of better word. At this time I was also getting more and more into synthesis, so we decided to try to add one to the song. So I played this riff on an FM synthesizer, and that's the sound that can be heard in the intro and throughout the song.

It sounds like John Carpenter on a terrible hallucinogen trip gone wrong.
Addi: I take that as a compliment!

It seemed like the demise of Celestine had been imminent for a while. What have you guys been up to since the completion of the self titled album?
Ómar: We did play a few shows Eistnaflug and airwaves for example. Topping it of with Celestine's goodbye concert which was probably our best show ever. After that i just started focusing on my new band (Morð) and that's been going great.
Joseph (here), Addi and Elli are all working on their own electro music thing which i think is kind of funny, all of them doing underground computer music. I even got Arnar with his (Ultraorthodox) to do a show with Morð and that was great. Elli bang even mastered the Morð demo so we still stay in touch. (Elli also plays drums and percussion for Ojba Rasta - The Ed).

That's it then. The very end. And how fitting, a song that didn't belong.

For added context and logical continuation, match this Ultraorthodox track with "White Widow."

- Birkir Fjalar

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Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Celestine's last recording on earth unveiled and given away: Members talk about an ugly duckling

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