Origin

Sunday June 22nd (Hellfest 2008 3rd day)

American death metal band formed in 1998, known for its technical level, Origin released its last album, “Antithesis” in april. After a successful tour in Europe, the band is now here in Clisson.

Fab: So first, could you introduce yourself for those who don’t know you?
Paul Ryan: I’m Paul Ryan, I’m the guitar player/some vocals for the band ORIGIN. I formed the band in 1998.

Fab: So are you happy to be here at the HELLFEST 2008 after 10 years?
Paul: Yeah. It’s awesome. Good crowd, people know the songs from each album, so. It’s only our second European tour. We’ve done like, nearly 20 U.S. tour, so there’s definitely a lot of work over there but, it feels like there’s definitely a fan base here, even though we’ve only done two tours over here, so it’s been good to us.

Fab: How would you compare the crowd in America to the one in Europe?
Paul: Well, they don’t have the metal fest per se in America that rival the numbers of the European market. But fans are a little bit more responsive but a little less violent I would say, over here. They’re very into the music but you can tell sometimes by the pitting that’s a little bit more mellow. But I think it’s a great response and they’re very supportive and very happy over here.

Fab: How are the reactions so far about your fourth album “Antithesis”?
Paul: From the press that’s been very good, from the fans that’s been really great too. It seems like Relapse is happy, we’re happy . We sold out the cds two weeks ago, so. We’re out of tee-shirts, we’re out of everything on this tour. (after 10 years) People have still interested in the band, we keep trying to push the level, to push the limits of what we can do. It’s still based, it’s still on song writing more than just technicality, you know, it’s still somewhat technical but, it’s more based on song writing.

Fab: By the way, could you explain us a little bit about your song writing process?
Paul: Pretty much, we live in four different states. I live in California, our drummer lives in New York, our singer is in Minnesota and our bass player lives in Kansas. So basically, we record demos of songs and tab it out and send it, it’s kind of an assignment, and basically the album really have 10 days rehearsal, write the material. So pretty much settle up. So we have 10 days rehearsal before we went to the studio. The guys are so all musicians and practice on their own, and nobody really want to be the weak link in the band so. It keeps us a little better mentality on the road too because we don’t see each other all the time. So it makes it easier, I think, on that angle.

Fab: Is there a special meaning about the very impressive cover artwork ?
Paul: Basically, Orion Landau he’s got the record and just start creating artwork to what he listened to. You know we had some ideas, just little ones, and he pretty much went with it, so. It was what he conceived in his head by listening to our music. It was all him, so.

Fab: Do you dig the work of H.R.GIGER?
Paul: Of course, I mean that’s what at first it reminded me of. Personally I like the LP cover a little bit better, I don’t know if you have seen the album but in America there’s an album with a different cover. It’s actually the space shot, of the eclipsing thing with the atmosphere being sucked up of a planet on the first page. So that’s what we want the cover to be but Relapse thought that the GIGER cover was far more interesting to our fan base. I don’t know, I don’t make these decisions. We ad some kind of, something a little “out of this world element” to our music I guess, so, that’s what he perceived in his creation. It’s cool by me, it looks cool.

Fab: You seem to have a very good live reputation, what are, according to you, the reasons for this praise?
Paul: Well, because everyone wants to be the best they can on stage. We’re pretty hard on ourselves for performance anyway. I mean, we’re not perfect, we never said we had a perfect show. If we did, ???? want hanging out with ???? (laughter). We just try to push it as hard as we can, try to make the show as good as possible for the fan base as well.

Fab: Whose idea it was to have several vocal attack, several singers?
Paul:. Basically I played in bands before ORIGIN, they weren’t successful but I did vocals, I was the primary vocalist, and the music a little bit more technical. We found a good vocalist and basically we just went what it’s there. It’s like concentrating a little bit more on guitar as I wasn’t screaming all the time. It makes it like I can be a little bit more tech I think, as I am more concentrating on guitar.

Fab: What are your memories about your last touring in France?
Paul: Last year? We had a very good show in Paris. We had a really great show in Marseille. We had some really good shows, I think we played three shows in France last tour Paris, Marseille….Luynes / Marseille… (spelling LUYNES), is that also Marseille? (wondering). It’s a small town, it’s right next to Marseille. So we had pretty good response from both tours in France. People are very friendly here, very supportive of metal I mean, this Fest was great. The line-up in this Fest is a killer (looking the bill on the wall), Slayer’s headlining, that’s killing! MESHUGGAH !.Even the smaller stage, DYING FETUS! . If it was near me I’ll pay for this. It’s put together well, it’s cool.

Fab: Did You think about the comparison with CARCASS?
Paul: I used to be a huge fan of CARCASS, NAPALM DEATH, “symphonies of Sickness”, “Peel Sessions”… all that stuff…I love all that stuff. I wish I was able to see them.. I mean the vocals tag, the mentality I guess, the blasting, stuff like that, I like their early parts. I would definitely see that as a huge influence very early in our playing, so, if it comes through now, so be it. I welcome it actually.

Fab: What are your plans for the close future?
Paul: We just went to tour in the States, and then we had like two days off, and then we did this tour, and we got like two weeks off, and we’re doing a “Relapse contamination”, opening up, MISERY INDEX main support, ??? headline, that’s pretty much mid-west coast. And then we have a couple more of weeks off and then we do, about another month, we’re main support for CRYPTOPSY. And we’re touring in Canada, and then on the way there, we’ll be booking shows with headline on our way back we’ll be headlining some shows. Pretty much we’re busy until October and then we’re done for the year. And then we’ll go back and work on some new material before the touring season starts. They’re talking about bringing us back early, early next year in Europe. That’s what they’re talking about. Again, because the two tours we’ve done over here has been successful for us and for them, and so they want to bring us back over. That’s what, that’s everything I know of…

Fab: That’s already not bad. Definitely a good sign, even if this is a lot of work.
Paul: Yeah. A lot of work, going out and have fun, pushing the units out, you know, like I said we’ve done a lot of tours in North America, and, that’s our biggest fan base but we’re starting to see a lot of fan base over here, so we’re just, you know, I think we’re gonna be like a main support for the next tour, so. Maybe a band a lot bigger than us so we can exposed ourselves to a new crowd, hopefully.

Fab: What do you think about the great return of “Old School” bands, on headlining shows? like HELLOWEEN, TESTAMENT, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES ( at that time, we are interrupted by the label manager who wants to know if another interview with Paul is possible after ours)…
Paul: All right, sorry about that. Well, I won’t say TESTAMENT because I know that they do stuff, they went through some line-up changes, they last, I mean, I saw them in 2007 and they had Nick Barker (NDR live drums for gorgoroth as well in 2007) playing drums and now they have Paul Bostaph. TESTAMENT is one of the bands that, in the States, I feel they never really went away. And they had Chuck Billy’s health problems, you know what I mean, I think that they’ve always been there. Some on the other bands, there’s a lot of money been throwing at them, so…I hope they can pull out old material. You know, people are picky if they’re gonna pay that money (laughter). So it’s cool, also is the metal scene been bigger. So if kids wanna see the old bands ,so be it, there’s a whole new generation of kids in metal now, so…It’s cool. There might some commercialism in it but I’m getting to see some bands I got to see when I was young so it’s cool for me also.

Fab: Last question: What would you make listen to someone who didn’t know you at all? Just one song.
Paul: I’ll probably just say for now the first song on the new album because I think it gets a good representation because it’s crazy, insanely fast. It got some heaviness to it, arpeggios, rythms… it’s a good example of the vocal tag, it’s a pretty eclectic mix of one, more than…when we wrote that song, we decided that if will be the first song because it’s been three years since the last album . We wanted the “Oh Shit they’re back” factor. The aftermath will be a good one. If they don’t get that song, then they just not gonna get it, you know what I mean?(laughter).