{"id":5885,"date":"2012-05-22T00:00:52","date_gmt":"2012-05-22T00:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=5885"},"modified":"2012-06-10T16:28:32","modified_gmt":"2012-06-10T16:28:32","slug":"feature-tesseract-05-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/feature-tesseract-05-12\/","title":{"rendered":"TESSERACT – Dream Brothers (May 2012) | Features \/ Interviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

TESSERACT – Dream Brothers<\/strong><\/span>
\nAnthony Morgan<\/span>
\nMay 2012<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\n\n
<\/td>\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

On August 23rd, 2011, United Kingdom progressive metallers TesseracT publicly revealed the addition of vocalist Elliot Coleman, the man\u2019s curriculum vitae boasting the names Zelliack, Omnon, Sky Eats Plane, Of Legends, and Haunted Shores. Previous vocalist Dan Tompkins parted ways with the outfit in July of that year, citing life priorities. From late March until mid May TesseracT had toured North America alongside Maylene And The Sons Of Disaster and Protest The Hero, culminating in a July 9th, 2011 performance at the Sonisphere Festival in Knebworth, England.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a really long, hard graft at it as well, but ultimately Dan decided that he wasn\u2019t quite happy doing what we were doing,\u201d laments James Monteith, guitarist for TesseracT. \u201cThat was partly because the tours were really long, and musically he was starting to go some place else. He was basically not as into the heavy stuff as he was before, and decided he wanted to go in a different direction. He then said he was moving on, so he left and we went on the hunt for a new vocalist. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe basically looked around, and obviously looked at all the people we knew first. Obviously the internet is a great resource, so we checked out vocalists on there. It was quite difficult to find anybody at first. Actually, I was out for a beer with a friend of mine called Dez (Derya Nagle) who plays in The Safety Fire, and he basically suggested Elliot. He said \u2018Have you heard this guy Elliot Coleman that does a project called Zelliack and Omnom?\u2019 I hadn\u2019t heard of him. He said \u2018You should check him out. He\u2019s got a really interesting voice, and he might be what you\u2019re looking for.\u2019 <\/p>\n

\u201cI checked him out online, and I really liked his voice. It\u2019s soulful, it\u2019s jazzy, and it\u2019s quite unpredictable. I think it\u2019s what we quite like, because it\u2019s refreshing and quite different. He\u2019s also got a brutal, guttural growl, which we hope to utilise a little bit. Just the odd moments where it needs to be super heavy. It\u2019s soulful and huge, I guess. Amos (Williams) our bassist just sent him an email, and asked him if he was looking to join a band. We sent him a couple of instrumental tracks. He did some demos on them, sent them back, and we really liked it. We said \u2018Yeah, why don\u2019t you join?\u2019 The fact that he lives in America… We didn\u2019t consider how difficult that might be (laughs). <\/p>\n

\u201cTouring wise, it doesn\u2019t really matter. If we\u2019re touring the UK or Europe, then we\u2019ll fly him out a little bit earlier so we can just get some practice in and then go off tour. I guess we\u2019ll go out a few days earlier to the States when we\u2019re touring there, and practice with him. As far as writing and recording goes, we all live quite far apart in the UK anyway and do everything online. That was also how it worked with Dan, actually. He was up in Nottingham, and Acle (Alec Kahney, guitars) who\u2019s the main writer and producer lives in Milton Keynes. Basically ideas were recorded, emailed around, and everyone would put in their input. Elliot is basically writing from Washington DC, putting his ideas on demos, and sending them back. That\u2019s the process. When we actually come to record everything properly we\u2019re gonna have to get him over here to the studio, but most of it\u2019s done virtually. Elliot\u2019s voice really worked well though and we\u2019re really excited about it, so we jumped on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Debut full-length One<\/em> arrived in March 2011. \u201cIt seems like a hell of a long time ago now, because the album came out in March 2011 but it was actually finished a year before that,\u201d the axeman notes. \u201cMost of the recording happened at the back end of 2009, so it definitely seems like a long time in the past. It was a really fun time because it was all coming together. I specifically remember the sessions where \u2018Concealing Fate\u2019 was recorded; I remember when we first listened back to it, we were like \u2018We\u2019re quite pleased with this.\u2019 This is how we wanted it to sound. I had been in TesseracT since 2006 and Acle had been doing TesseracT since 2003 I think, so it was a real milestone. Everything we had worked towards was in one complete package, in an album. It was an amazing feeling, and then we just basically got frustrated for a year because we weren\u2019t doing anything until it finally came out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\n\n
\n
<\/p>\n\n\n
\n
Perspective EP<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

In May 2011, TesseracT cut three acoustic tracks in New York at the request of digital outlet Metal Injection<\/em>. \u201cAt first we were like \u2018Well, that\u2019s a bit odd. How are we gonna do this?,\u2019 but we just got out some acoustic guitars, and reworked some tracks,\u201d James remembers. \u201cIt just seemed to work. Basically we listened to all the tracks, and decided which ones would work and which ones wouldn\u2019t. The more atonal, heavy tracks obviously won\u2019t work because you need to have a lot of melody really for it to actually sound decent. For example, something like \u2018Concealing Fate, Part Two \u2013 Deception\u2019 would be rubbish on acoustic guitar because it\u2019s one note the entire way through until you get to the ending. We chose the tracks that basically had lots of chord progressions and interesting guitar melodies, tracks where the parts translated well to acoustic guitar. I think we had a few attempts at \u2018Sunrise\u2019, but that was at the jamming stage. Once we actually went to the studio to record and started properly practising, we were pretty much settled on the tracks that would work.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe basically stripped everything down, kept the main rhythmic parts, and chose some of the melodic lines that worked. It turned out quite well. We did \u2018April\u2019 and \u2018Concealing Fate, Part Six \u2013 Origin\u2019 for the session, and also we did a cover of the Jeff Buckley song \u2018Dream Brother\u2019. On the EP we do those three tracks plus \u2018Concealing Fate, Part Four \u2013 Perfection\u2019. That was actually something we worked on more recently, and I think it really works well because of the addition of some piano which our good friend Aidan O\u2019 Brien (Shadowboxer) helped us out with. The EP is basically the same, but with \u2018Concealing Fate, Part Four \u2013 Perfection\u2019 and also the new version of \u2018Eden\u2019 as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were talking about recording acoustic tracks properly anyway, but when Elliot joined \u2013 because he had such a soulful voice \u2013 we thought it would be the ideal way to showcase his voice, and how interesting and different it can be. Therefore, we decided to do the EP.\u201d<\/p>\n

May 2012 EP Perspective<\/em> is a five-track affair, an acoustic rendition of \u2018Concealing Fate, Part Four \u2013 Perfection\u2019 opening proceedings. \u201cI\u2019m trying to remember back to where the original idea came from,\u201d the musician confesses. \u201cI think we were in the studio ages ago. Aidan was there who did the piano, and he started playing it on a big grand piano. I think we were in Sphere Studios when we did the drums for Eden. He started playing it on the piano, and we thought it was really, really good. When we were recording an acoustic version, we thought \u2018Aidan did this really cool version. Let\u2019s get him along.\u2019 Basically we used his piano lines, and then built the track around that. Again, the approach to that track was very different to the others.\u201d<\/p>\n

An acoustic interpretation of \u2018April\u2019 occupies position two on Perspective<\/em>\u2019s track listing. \u201c\u2018April\u2019 is actually a song that has been through loads and loads of changes,\u201d James divulges. \u201cIt\u2019s actually one of the older tracks from the band. When I joined the band, I think it was something that Acle had already had the basic bones of. We\u2019ve been through a few vocalists now and every vocalist has done something entirely different, so we\u2019re used to things changing massively. I guess the difference this time was it was the music that was changing, and the key thing was to keep in the important rhythm and make sure that that groove was constantly rolling with everything else. We just basically picked little bits and pieces that worked. I think vocally it stayed pretty much the same, apart from the fact it transposed key. It transposed from B flat to D I think, so I guess that\u2019s the main melodic change and also the main challenge for the vocalist.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\n\n
<\/td>\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n
\n
TesseracT (l-r): Jay Postones, Acle Kahney, Elliot Coleman, James Monteith and
Amos Williams<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018Concealing Fate, Part Six \u2013 Origin\u2019 concludes the trio of numbers lifted from One<\/em>, and acoustically reworked. \u201cIn fact, that\u2019s the one that probably changed the least because it was already a quite melodic song,\u201d the guitarist judges. \u201cThe tuning was changed from a B flat to a standard drop B tuning, which was an obvious transposition. As far as the guitar parts go though everything\u2019s virtually the same on there, which is quite interesting. That was an easy one to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

An acoustic interpretation of the late Jeff Buckley\u2019s \u2018Dream Brother\u2019 (the original featuring on Buckley\u2019s August 1994 debut Grace<\/em>) is Perspective<\/em>\u2019s lone cover. \u201cThat was actually Amos\u2019 suggestion,\u201d James reveals. \u201cWe\u2019re all Jeff Buckley fans, and I suppose it was a really obvious thing which was staring us in the face. When he said \u2018Let\u2019s do a Jeff Buckley cover as one of the acoustic tracks,\u2019 we were like \u2018Oh yeah, that makes sense.\u2019 \u2018Dream Brother\u2019 is an excellent song, and also the melodic guitar lines have a similar feel to some of the guitar lines that we play in TesseracT songs. We took the Jeff Buckley song, and the only change we really made was with the clean lines we ended up doubling up octaves over them \u2013 a little bit like what we do in TesseracT stuff \u2013 to try to make it a bit more like us. I think our version of \u2018Dream Brother\u2019 sounds hell of a lot like the original, which we\u2019re quite proud of (laughs). It\u2019s just a really, really good song. We obviously did that with Dan, but Elliot\u2019s got lots of characteristics that are similar to Jeff Buckley\u2019s. Again, it was a perfect song for him to record.\u201d<\/p>\n

TesseracT flirted with the notion of covering other tunes. \u201cWe were looking at doing the Massive Attack track \u2018Teardrop\u2019 (from April 1998\u2019s Mezzanine<\/em>),\u201d the axe-slinger confirms. \u201cWe talked about it a lot and we mucked around, but didn\u2019t actually put anything to tape. Maybe one day we\u2019ll go back to it. I think it could work really well, and it\u2019s an amazing song. We didn\u2019t really get past the initial drawing board with that one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Concluding Perspective<\/em> is a re-recorded (albeit not acoustic) version of the composition \u2018Eden\u2019, dubbed \u2018Eden 2.0\u2019. \u201cI think we always intended that track to be a lead track, and have a music video for it,\u201d James submits. \u201cWhen Dan left, obviously we were like \u2018We need to put out a track with our new vocalist.\u2019 I think we may have had the music recorded for it already before Elliot joined, so when Elliot joined he basically recorded his vocals for \u2018Eden\u2019. It\u2019s obviously shorter than the album version. Part of the reason for that was because to get it played anywhere, you have to have a song that\u2019s only a certain length. Although we really like the album version of \u2018Eden\u2019, we thought it might be a bit too long for a live set as well. That was the reason for doing a new version of \u2018Eden\u2019, so that we can play it live. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe main difference is the arrangement is a lot shorter, because we cut lots of bits out. A lot of the long, extended melodic sections have gone. There\u2019s a new verse in the middle as well. In the original version we pulled it back and made it a bit more filled out, whereas now it has a lot of staccato riffs. Then there\u2019s obviously Elliot\u2019s vocals, which are different. We haven\u2019t even played it live yet though, which is a shame. We\u2019re hoping to play it live when we go out on tour next in the autumn. Again, we just really wanted to put the track out and it was another opportunity for people to hear Elliot\u2019s voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\n\n
\n
<\/p>\n\n\n
\n
TesseracT (l-r): James Monteith, Amos Williams, Acle Kahney, Elliot Coleman
and Jay Postones<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Elliot Coleman is the fourth individual to stand behind the microphone for TesseracT, his tenure preceded by Daniel Tompkins (2009-2011), Abisola Obasanya (2006-2009), and Julien Perier (2004-2006). \u201cThere were earlier versions of \u2018Concealing Fate\u2019 with our previous singer Abi, and also an earlier version of \u2018April\u2019,\u201d the musician imparts. \u201cOn this little demo that we were selling there was also actually a version of \u2018Sunrise\u2019 with Julien our first singer, so it\u2019s been a real mish mash. I think musically everything had matured a little by the time we got to the album, and vocally everything had changed pretty much. Dan had reworked all the vocals, and made them his own. Momentum wise, losing Dan was a killer. We lost our vocalist four months after the album came out, which was a terribly time for that to happen. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur UK tour was Elliot\u2019s first ever tour with us and it was his first time touring as a vocalist, so it was definitely a challenge. We had to go back to the drawing board with a few things. In the industry we\u2019re in the process of proving ourselves again, because things are fickle. If a band doesn\u2019t seem to be riding a really successful wave, people aren\u2019t as helpful as they maybe were before. There have been setbacks, but we\u2019re basically trying to take it easy. We\u2019re trying to make sure that we write the best album possible, and record the best album we possibly can for the next release. Hopefully we won\u2019t have too many more setbacks.\u201d<\/p>\n

TesseracT are in the process of composing a sophomore full-length, though \u2018Eden 2.0\u2019\u2019s abridged structure isn\u2019t a signal of things to come. \u201cThat was just what we were thinking at the time I guess,\u201d James surmises. \u201cMusically it\u2019s about 75% there. Vocally it\u2019s hard to say because we\u2019re still chucking around loads of ideas, but I think ideally we would like to get it finished by the summer. It\u2019s kind of hard to say. We actually have a July deadline, but if we\u2019re not happy with it by then then we\u2019ll just have to miss our deadline. It\u2019s pencilled in for the autumn if we finish it, but I don\u2019t know. I have a hunch that we won\u2019t make the deadline, and it\u2019ll probably come out in spring 2013. Our record company won\u2019t be pleased about that, but ultimately it\u2019s very important we make this next record the best record we possibly can.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new material has gone off on another tangent, actually. It\u2019s definitely evolved. Things have matured. I think it\u2019s grown up a little bit. It\u2019s a bit more refined. That\u2019s what I\u2019d like to think, anyway. I\u2019m probably completely wrong, and talking rubbish. It\u2019s not radically different, but it\u2019s evolved into something slightly more mature I think. It\u2019s quite interesting because when we first started getting tracks together, it was going off in a more proggy, atmospheric and melodic direction. The latest stuff we\u2019ve been doing \u2013 especially the riffs Acle has been writing \u2013 are quite a lot more techy and heavy. There\u2019s more of a focus on melody and big sounds, yet some of the riffs are really techy and off the wall. It\u2019s still progressive music. We\u2019re not going to be doing the standard verse-chorus-verse-chorus type song.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of hard to say what the direction is though, because it\u2019s all going off on its own little journey. I think maybe lots of longer sections of music divided up into different sections and different parts, a little bit like \u2018Concealing Fate\u2019. Also, we will do some short, heavy tracks. Acle has definitely not been influenced by those re-interpretations, but we\u2019re definitely going somewhere else.<\/p>\n

\u201cElliot\u2019s voice and his writing style is obviously very different to Dan\u2019s, so that will obviously be reflected in how things turn out as well. Dan has a very powerful and hook-driven voice, whereas Elliot is a bit more jazzy and slightly more off the wall. That\u2019ll definitely affect the overall sound of the songs and also how the music is written as well. It\u2019s hard to say specifically, but yeah, he\u2019ll bring something different so the sound will definitely be different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perspective EP<\/em> was released in Germany on May 18th, 2012, in the rest of Europe on the 21st and in North America on the 22nd, all via Century Media Records.<\/p>\n

Interview published in May 2012. All promotional photographs by Kristell Gathoye.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TESSERACT – Dream Brothers Anthony Morgan May 2012 On August 23rd, 2011, United Kingdom progressive metallers TesseracT publicly revealed the addition of vocalist Elliot Coleman, the man\u2019s curriculum vitae boasting the names Zelliack, Omnon, Sky Eats Plane, Of Legends, and Haunted Shores. Previous vocalist Dan Tompkins parted ways with the outfit in July of that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,288],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-tesseract"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5885"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5921,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5885\/revisions\/5921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}