Interview with Larry Roberts (guitar)

How would you compare "To Welcome the Fade" with the previous album "The Knowing"?
Well for starters I think the new cd has a better flow from song to song. The last cd "The Knowing" was a concept album, so the way we constructed that song order was based on storytelling. This time we were able to just pick the songs that really flowed one after the other in a coherent way. Plus, we really wrote more as a band this time, instead of individual members writing whole songs by themselves. We still did that as well, but there seemed to be more input from everyone in the band this time, and I think it really helped. Stylistically, I think "TWTF" is just a further extension from "The Knowing".. We didn't take any major leaps and bounds with our style, I think we just took what it is that we do well, and further improved upon it.

Why did you choose Neil Kernon to produce the new album?
We had met Neil through a mutual friend a couple of years back and we got along well with him. He showed interest in possibly working with the band in the future, and when the time came to do this new album, we decided to give it a shot. We had never really worked with a proper producer before so it was a challenge. Plus, we were impressed by his credentials and really liked the sound of some of his past works. So we hoped that he could take us to that next level sonically.

Why did Mary leave the band?
Mary was and still is a very close friend of ours, but she had decided back in 2000 that she needed to move back to Pittsburgh and get her life in order. Noone wanted to see her leave, and she did continue to help us out at shows as much as possible after that, but the distance between Pittsburgh and Chicago just made it too difficult to continue to work together regularly. Plus, she joined the band Penance and started really focusing her energy on that and they've since released a couple of new cds. Right now she is playing in a few bands out in Pittsburgh, she likes to keep busy!

How were the songs in "To Welcome..." composed?
Songwriting for "TWTF" began in late 2000/early 2001 basically. Usually each of us will have a few ideas for songs and kind of work on them on our own until we think we have something good to bring in to the band. Like I mentioned earlier, this time we did more work as a group than before when constructing songs. It added a little bit of spontaniety to the mix, and really helped focus on the overall musical personality of Novembers Doom, rather than just that of one songwriter.

"To Welcome..." seems to be a darker album than the previous ones, starting from the cover art. Was this done on purpose?
I don't think it was necessarily a conscious effort to be darker. We just write from the heart about whatever we want, and we draw upon what's going on emotionally inside of us at the time. There were things going on in some of our lives over the past couple of years that were not so good, and perhaps that affected the mood of our songwriting. If anything, I look at my own writing on this album as not just being darker, but really just more aggressive overall. I think you're going to see alot more aggression in our music in the future.

How did the November´s Doom sound change with the HDCD format in the mastering?
Well I dont think the HDCD mastering really affects our sound too much. What it did, though, was make the overall sound level much clearer when played loudly. Some cds will tend to get very distorted and noisy when turned up too loud, whereas our cd has a bit more clarity when cranked up. I think thats the most important way in which the HDCD helped.

What are the lyrics in "To Welcome..." about?
Paul's lyrics on this new cd were very personal this time. In the past he has usually told stories or taken a more poetic approach to his writing, but this time he sang about things that were going on in his personal life. Alot of heartache and personal trauma has gone on for him in the past couple of years and he really couldn't help but address it in his writing. I can respect him for that, because it takes alot of balls to expose your feelings, fears, etc. through lyrics, especially when you know alot of people aren't going to understand and there's so many critical people out there.

Are you going to tour in order to support "To Welcome the Fade"?
We would love to tour but basically it all depends on getting the right offer, and being able to afford to do it. Even doing a shitty little tour costs a lot of money nowadays. Until we get a proper tour offer, we will just continue to play shows everywhere that we can get to. We love to play the big metal fests and whatnot, and we really wish we could get to Europe and South America to play some big metal fests there as well. It's definately a huge goal of ours to get out there and play for anyone who cares to see us!

Any final thoughts?
A big thank you to everyone who has supported us through the years and for anyone who can't find our cd's, please visit www.darksymphonies.com and you can order from there at a very good price. Also please come visit our website www.novembersdoom.com, and drop us a line at our message board at www.ultimatemetal.com. Thanks to you MusicExtreme for giving us the time and being supportive! Best wishes to you all!

Interview by Federico Marongiu