Making music has never been easy. And in fact it still is like this these days. I cannot understand some people saying making music is free. It's not. You need to buy equipment, you need a rehearsal space (a lot of bands need to pay a rent for that) and in the end you need to make a record and promote it with a decent video. Everyone of these steps (and some more) needs to be backed finacially. Plus in the end you can never know if the people out there will like and buy your stuff.
But there are also signs of hope out there in the darkness. One is the story of the doom/sludge three-piece called Nest situated in Stockholm, Sweden. Read below how things went out for them and listen to their full record in the stream below.
It started in 2011 with two brothers, Fredrik & Jonas, and a riff. The riff is key, for it carries the song, driven only by understated and economical drumming. For this the band needed the right drummer, but good drummers are few and far apart. The brothers happened upon a Frenchman named Dave, a drummer with death metal roots that brought that extra something to the fold. Nest was now a three piece. A band. The idea came to life and the riff became a song.
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| (c) by Nest, used with kind permission |
A couple of riffs later, the songs became a set, and Nest played their first show at a bar called Snövit, known to play host to punk shows. People seemed to like it.
When the time came to record their songs, they knew that the heaviness was there but wanted to capture the raw nerve of the punk influences that might get lost in hazy riffs. They turned to their friend Mattis Rundgren (Makabert Fynd/Dissekerad/Kakafoni) for the recording. The result is the self-titled debut, released in 2015.
The band was now faced with a new problem: how to get that recording out into the world. Nest opted for a DIY approach, pressing CDs and selling them themselves, in hopes that they could sell enough to afford a vinyl pressing.
At a bar in Tilburg, Holland, during the Roadburn festival, Fredrik and Jonas met up with their dear friends, Craig and Andrew, from the new country across the sea, Since they, too, worship at the altar of the riff, they were given CDs and t-shirts. The words spoken after that went something like this:
Craig: So when do I get to hear this on vinyl?
Fredrik: When we've sold enough CDs and shirts to afford it.
Craig: If I start a label, would you consider letting me release it?
Fredrik: Yes. That would be awesome!
Not long after that Tribunal of the Axe Records was born, and the record was pressed.
If you'd like to purchase a copy on vinyl just head over to the
Bandcamp page and get one of the limited physical releases or the digital version.
What I like in the band's sound so much is that they keep things raw and direct. It's not that much polished and it's kept simple and straight forward. If you like bands like Black Sabbath, Electric Wizard and the like I think you'll love this.
Make sure to stay in connection with Nest through their
Facebook page or have a look at the label that helped them to do the vinyl pressing - here's the link to
Tribunal of the Axe Records Facebook site.
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