Kesurapan On the Making Of ‘Lifeless Shells’
What was the creative process like for this particular 'Lifeless Shells?'
Most songs start with a catchy riff, and then we build everything else around it. Take “Falling Faster” for example. We knew right from the start that we wanted to create a haunting vibe with that pitch-shifter effect and then shape the whole atmosphere around that riff, keeping it simple but impactful. On the other hand, “Oblivion” was like a puzzle. We grabbed different parts and patched them together, borrowing some ideas from other songs we had. But when it all clicked with “Oblivion,” it just felt right. Now, “Lifeless Shells” was mostly built around its chorus. That was the first piece of the puzzle that fell into place. The lyrics, rhythm, breakdowns, and solos just flowed naturally from there, you know. That’s pretty much our usual process, but for these three songs, it just felt very organic. That’s why we had to put them on the record.
Can you talk about the recording and production process for 'Lifeless Shells?'
Our friend Martin Frank, who lives in Austria, offered us a long weekend in his cozy little studio. We spent 4 days there and recorded 4 songs: “Falling Faster,” “Lifeless Shells,” and “Oblivion,” along with a live recording of the song “Not Blind Yet,” which we plan to release as a single soon, alongside the ‘Lifeless Shells’ EP. Martin gave us some great support with his ideas and experience. He had previously collaborated with our friends from Abstractyss and his work with White Noise Generator, for example, was quite helpful giving us the right shape of sound. He gave us some great suggestions, and we had a lot of fun hanging out in the hot tub, drinking beer, and savoring our guitarist Matze’s famous Nasi Goreng. These memories are truly special, and we are thrilled with the songs that came out of it.
What did you enjoy most about making this album?
We had a great time as a band and with the creative process. But what made it really special was the fact that as friends we got to hang out in a little cabin that had a studio in it. We slept in the studio, so we had a lot of nighttime recording sessions. It was great to have the freedom to record around the clock without any pressure. It was really some quality time for us. Also, especially Falling Faster means a lot to us, because it's one of our most emotional songs, dealing with a very sad event in our friends' lives - it was good in that context to bring that up through the song, to talk about it and give the song the sound that it deserves.
Can you tell us more about you as a band?
We formed Kesurapan in 2019, at the time it was Dom, Fabi and Matze coming together from other bands and bringing their individual influences. Initially, the focus was to go in a stoner and doom direction, but through our influences as kids of the 80s and 90s this has evolved into a more open approach, with early influences from alternative metal and rock like Tool, Deftones, Alice in Chains and others. Our bassist Ade joined us and brought his background in black and death metal, which has a definite influence on our song structures, which are often complex and unpredictable as a result. Unfortunately, when we were ready with our live set in 2020, the lockdowns messed things up for us. We wanted to play live but were not allowed to, yet. In this phase, we used the time to record our first EP in home recording. With this debut EP packed we had our first gigs and the passion to play live took hold of us. Since then we shared the stage with legends and idols like Pentagram and Kadaver, played great festivals like the Blackdoor Festival and made many new friends in many venues. The last 3 years have been very exciting for us as a band, and with our first studio EP we want to complete the whole thing now.
How do you continuously grow and evolve as a band?
Aside from our day-to-day grind, we’re all about growing as a band. We are therefore constantly pushing ourselves to up our game on stage and in the songwriting process. We want to give our tunes more depth, and break free from those genre boundaries. But of course this also means fun to us and not only work. As pals, we hit up loads of concerts together in Munich, soaking up inspiration. Our next goal might be to hit the road for a small tour, maybe this year or next, spreading our sound and discovering new places through our music. We haven’t tackled the whole tour life thing as a team yet, but we’re totally up for the challenge.
