Interview: Haujobb - November 2011

Written by Sebastian Huhn Wednesday, 23 November 2011 15:39

Interview with

Daniel Myer & Dejan Samardzic of Haujobb

All in all, eight years fans had to wait for a new HAUJOBB album to be released. It’s titled ‘New World March’. It’s a blast to listen to but it raised some questions as well. We’re leaving it up to Dejan & Daniel to answer them.

Reflections of Darkness (RoD): How long have you been working altogether on ‘New World March’ until it was nearing completion?
Daniel: Altogether it’s been at least 6 years. But the final mixing / production started in the end of 2010.

RoD: Is there a concept to the album or are the tracks loosely tied stories?
Daniel: The concept was to be HAUJOBB, 100%. The title of the album was set pretty early, so we had a mood pretty much set and tried to be as dark and cold, without losing the organic touch.
Dejan: Then again, what is 100% HAUJOBB? All though many of our followers already expect the unexpected they are still surprised.

RoD: The guy on the cover is standing on the ruins of a city it seems. Is it to say that he's kind of a symbol for a new world that is going to arise of the ashes?
Daniel: Exactly. We talked about the idea of the record with our graphic artist and we wanted to keep the mood of the single. And he came up with this fantastic piece of art.

RoD: On a related note, who have you been working with on the artwork for the album?
Daniel: His name is Chris Dessaigne. You can find his work on flickr. Great guy.
Dejan: Check his website out: www.midnight-artwork.com. The coolest thing is, he didn’t know HAUJOBB, but suddenly became a huge fan of the music.

RoD: On the booklet's last page it says “Now it's up to you. We leave it in your hands.” What's that supposed to mean?
Daniel: It’s totally up to you, to decide.

RoD: You're using a lot of analogue machinery on ‘New World March’. Why did you prefer to use those in favour of digital stuff?
Daniel: It sounds like it, right. ;) We love the sound, it’s raw, it’s pure. And it fit our concept.
Dejan: Actually there’s a lot of digital in there still. The secret is to make even software sound like analogue machines. When you use 2 or 3 analogue synths on a track but the rest is digital the song will still sound digital.

RoD: On the opening track the lyrics say “The ultimate list of information / generates a maximum fear”. Is that meant as a hint to what our own future could be like if the Big Brother mentality keeps expanding like it does today?
Daniel: We keep saying that for years and 2011 is the time, were it’s a reality. You are being watched everywhere, the government checks your computer, your life. It’s total control and we let it happen.
Dejan: Good thing that we have internet though. Compare TV news to all the information you can get from the web.

RoD: 'More than Us' speaks about a person or an impersonated spirit, so what is it. A cancer that drew mankind’s attention from racing towards the edge?
Daniel: The lyrics are written by Joakim. He had a goddess in mind, someone, that protects you...
Dejan: He also mentioned that she is a goddess of death. It’s really interesting, because I personally read this totally different sometimes. And that’s what people should do with lyrics, moods, etc: get their own ideas of how it speaks to you.

RoD: I can't help but thinking that 'Little World' has drawn some inspiration off the Matrix trilogy like a world within a world created to distract or is that too far-fetched?
Daniel: Not really. But of course the movie was/is an inspiration to me, but I am a fan of science fiction, especially when it happens in a future world and maybe we are not too far away from a matrix reality.
Dejan: It’s a kind of lullaby that is singing to all the people all the time trying to keep them asleep. Not far away from the matrix idea actually. But we didn’t have Matrix in mind when writing it.

RoD: I understand that with all the illegal downloading going on you had to do something but when reviewing a CD voice-overs are a bit unnerving and in some cases destroying the mood. Was there really now other way?
Daniel: There was no leak online before the release date. The day, the CD and official download was released; it was all over the net. Now you tell me… ;)
Dejan: It’s not about illegal downloading, you can’t stop it. It’s about who is going to release the album, the artist or some random internet kid? It’s our right to release it first! We also tried to convince all our partners to not send out promos before release (without voice-overs), but they didn’t want to accept it due to what I would call an old-fashioned marketing schedule. Look at our website, YouTube etc. now: we uploaded the entire album for streaming ourselves. It’s not that we don’t want to be heard. We just want to provide it ourselves.

RoD: How are you going to present the new songs live. Anything special that you've planned?
Daniel: We want to bring as much live action on stage, as possible. Play with our analogue gear and just rock it ;)
Dejan: No more acoustic drums, just pure electronic with as much live play as possible.

RoD: Anything else you'd like to add?
Daniel: Thank you for your continued support. We appreciate it.