Interview With Orphaned Land

Orphaned Land, the premier metal export of Israel, has been at the forefront of "progressive metal" for many years. Combining ruthless riffing, melodic leads, ethnic instruments and native sounds, the band has released four albums in about sixteen years. That's about four years for every single album. When asked about this huge timeframe for one album, the band's charismatic singer Kobi told me that its only because of their perfectionism this happens. I wondered but when I heard the new album "The Never Ending Way of ORwarriOR" I was really blown away.

Having an elite artist like Steven Wilson doing keys and then mixing the album is also no small feat. Steven, the leader of the uber-progressive rock band Porcupine Tree is very choosy and picky when it comes to who he works with. This is understandable considering the numerous projects he is involved with. As someone who truly appreciates Steven's music, I read on his site about Orphaned Land. And then, I noticed that they were opening for the Swedish metallers Katatonia, which was great since I was already scheduled to watch this show.

Orphaned Land's brand of metal is really unique. The scale and ambition of their music is something that we dont often see in this day and age of "fast food music". You can read about the history of the band in their website or their wiki as I would like to focus more on the new album. OrwarriOR has a thematic and idealistic worldview not something that we hear in the run-of-the-mill metal albums filled with the usual songs of hate and self-centric views. I love the fact that there is a band coming from a land of so much strife, doing something to unite all the diversities. I dont understand why this band is mixed up with religion. Its probably the price they pay for talking about unity. I am happy they do this without going overboard or being cheesy. Its tough to describe the music as I am poor at album reviews so please check out the album for yourself if you want to hear something fresh in the metal circles.

I had the opportunity to meet all the band members during their recent San Francisco show. What follows is an interview I did later with Matti Svatitzki, the guitarist of Orphaned Land, who was very gracious to answer my questions. Thank you very much Matti for taking the time out and doing this.

Ravi: First off, congratulations on the great new album and a rocking tour you are doing in North America.
Matti: Thank you very much!

Ravi: The new album, "The Never Ending Way of ORwarriOR" is an outstanding musical achievement. Maybe your best to date. Can you describe the creative process that enabled you to make a record of this scale, ambition and magnitude?
Matti: First of all, thanks for the compliments. We all in the band are very satisfied with the album. We have put much in it so it will sound good. The creative process was a lot like the process we went through while building are previous albums. However, there were some differences, we learned from mistakes we did before and came to this one with a better approach towards our sound and our style. We have worked with instruments that we have never worked with before but that we always dreamed of working with. Also the recording process was more thorough, we used a variety of instruments and techniques in order to get our sound.

Ravi: I noticed many non-mainstream collaborations on this record. Right from the beautiful artwork to the myriad musical instruments you have used, other than the regular electric guitars, drums and bass. How difficult was this process of reaching out to various musicians and bringing them to work on your record?
Matti: We have cooperated with other musicians before, and that’s never an easy process. The arrangements for other instruments always have more work and more effort to it, and on this album we took it even up one level when we worked with Arab violins and flutes. The players were members of the Nazareth Andalusian orchestra, and their style of playing and vision of music was quite different from ours, so naturally we had to make ends meet and get them think like we do and play what we want them to play. But it was fun, they came to like the album and the music very much and they will probably also play live with us in the future.

Ravi: The album has sense of tragedy and a tone of loss that is beyond anything you have done before. Can you describe what prompted you to work in this direction of unity across diversity?
Matti: The album is about the warrior of light, and it describes a person’s battle of the soul. As we know from our own lives, every day is a struggle, and we are all bound to make different choices. As life is never easy and sometimes lingers towards the sad and melancholic parts, so does this album on occasions. But there are also more cheerful parts on the album and the general message is a positive one, so there is a mix of emotions in it and lots of ups and downs, like in life.

Ravi: You have another great musician mixing this record and also playing keyboards on it. How did you meet Steven Wilson and how much was his contribution on this record?
Matti: Steven is a good friend of ours and a great musician. He works on a project in Israel (Blackfield with Aviv Geffen), and therefore spends lots of time here. Kobi, our vocalist, met him during one of his stays and they agreed that it could be interesting if he worked with us. We had him listen to some of our old and new materials, and he agreed to produce our album. Unfortunately, there were some time constraints and he only mixed the album and played the keyboards, but did a hell of a job none the less. We hope to get the chance to work with him again in the future.

Ravi: You recently opened for Metallica in Israel. How did that feel? I also read that Kirk Hammet is spinning ORwarriOR?
Matti: Openning for Metallica was a great experience. We have played on big stages and big festivals before, but none of them were back home and none of them with gods like Metallica. It was an enriching experience for us as a band to see how things happen professionally behind the scenes, like watching the gigantic crew working, and we also learned some new tricks and got some tips about how things happen on stage, and also on the production level. Kirk gave us a very positive feedback on Metal Hammer saying that he has listened to our album and liked it.

Ravi: Can you talk about the process of bringing so many sounds together for this record? Is it why this record took a few years to produce? Any frustrations due to the scope of the project?
Matti: We never meant for this project to take so long. We have planned to release it 2 or 3 years after Mabool. I think that the long scope was also because of personal matters, but the fact that we were very selective about what we are going to release also contributed to this. Next time we will try to make a new release a lot sooner. We are already planning a DVD with lots of guests and surprises for release next year.

Ravi: How has been the current tour with Katatonia and Swallow the Sun so far? Did you play any new frontiers that you haven't before? I confess, you found a new fan in me from your San Francisco concert.
Matti: That’s great to hear. To be honest, that’s what support tours are all about, making some new fans and spreading your word. The tour was great, the bands were amazing and we have enjoyed much. We liked San Francisco a lot and the US in general and can’t wait to come for another tour again soon.

Ravi: After the tour, what's next for Orphaned Land?
Matti: Like I have mentioned, we are going to film a live DVD, and it will probably happen in December. We are going to have a major Israeli artist as a guest (it will be very interesting), and also Greg Mackintosh from Paradise Lost(Ravi note: WOW, Greg on stage with Orphaned Land, what a treat). We’re going to play a full set with lots of ethnic instruments on stage and with Shlomit Levi, our female vocalist as well. The show will be in front of our local crowd which usually go completely nuts in our shows, so it will be fun watching. Besides, we are planning to release a new album in about 2 years.