Exclusive interview: ANACRUSIS front man Kenn Nardi discusses the Hindsight 2010 re-recordings

About a year ago, Examiner sat down with Anacrusis’ singer/guitarist Kenn Nardi to discuss the band’s abrupt re-emergence from over 15 years in obscurity. He mentioned the band had reunited to perform a couple shows here and there, culminating in the April 23-24, 2010 spot on Germany’s Keep It True metal Festival. Things were left with that. Until…

Scanning the Internet about a month ago, I was shocked to find that Anacrusis (consisting of Nardi, guitarist Kevin Heidbreder, bassist John Emery, and drummer Mike Owen) had actually gone back into the studio to re-record its first two albums, which was recently released as a deluxe 2-CD digipack with the title HINDSIGHT: SUFFERING HOUR & REASON REVISITED. It goes without saying that the album was ordered immediately and we took yet another journey into the dark past.

After absorbing the album and frankly being amazed at the quality of the output, many questions began to arise, so upon reaching out once again to Mr. Nardi, he graciously invited the barrage. Read on as we grill Anacrusis on bringing the past into the present!

Was it difficult at all to convince the guys to embark on this endeavor to, in a sense, erase the past?

Yes and no. Everyone was excited to finally get together and play a show or two, but we hadn’t remained as close the last few years as we had after the band split up. It was a challenge to not only re-learn songs for the live performances, but also to record 22 songs; most of which we hadn’t played at all in nearly 20 years.

When I was reading the liner notes, the essay by Niels Schroeter made it sound like Kevin Heidbreder was the band leader. What was the band dynamic back then, and at what point did it shift to you spearheading the efforts?

We all played very different roles in the band from the beginning. While I wrote the majority of the music and arranged/produced all of the songs, Kevin was the one who did all of the speaking for the band when it came to dealing with the label and promoters and those sorts of things.

I was fine with handling the musical aspect of Anacrusis and with him handling that sort of thing. I generally prefer not to deal much with the people involved with the “business” elements of the music business, whereas Kevin enjoys it. We also practiced at Kev’s house the entire time the band was active and all of our mail and things of nature went through his address.

Rather than simply remaster and remix the two albums, what led to the decision that it would actually be better to completely re-record them?

Our first manager has/had the master tapes for SUFFERING HOUR (not sure if she still does or if they are even playable) and the REASON tapes were supposedly destroyed or thrown out a few years ago by a studio here in town (they claimed they notified us first, but neither Kevin nor I got a letter). Since there was no chance in remixing or anything like that, I figured it was a good time to do what we had always wanted to do, which was to re-do the albums the way we had wished they were done in the first place.

Were there any songs that bugged you for so long, like tracks that once they were recorded, you immediately couldn’t wait for an opportunity to edit, fix or re-record them?

Yes, all of them, [laughs]! We were pretty unhappy with both of the early albums from the time they were recorded. SUFFERING HOUR was a complete rush-job and sounds like we recorded it in a cave. REASON was a mess and the result of experimenting with drum triggers and samples that made everything sound worse. There were engineering issues with everything and our mostly crap equipment didn’t help matters much.

If you start with bad sounding tracks, there is only so much you can do about it. I really think REASON would have sounded better after stripping the drums back down since a lot of the sloppy playing is actually poorly mis-triggered samples and even some parts where Mike attempted to manually play snare parts that didn’t trigger properly and things like that.

Did you keep any of the original tracks from the album recordings, or did you scrap everything and begin anew?

Everything was done from scratch except that I think I used the little National Anthem intro from “Injustice”.

Since many of these songs hadn’t been performed in a very long time, did any of the guys have difficulty with any of the parts/songs?

The drumming was a bit of a challenge at first. Some of the stuff is insane on the early songs and playing it at 40 is different than playing is at 20. Drums are different in that they are a physical instrument and sometimes it’s all about stamina. Mike rose to the occasion though and I think he did an excellent job on everything.

What was the most challenging aspect of going back and completing this “do-over”?

The other biggest challenge was re-learning all of those old songs. Kevin and I are the only people on Earth that know those riffs and many songs were only played once or twice live and then abandoned altogether. When we changed drummers and did more touring, we generally only played songs from the current album due to our short set times. None of us reads music or even tabbed any of the songs out, so it was all from memory and picking things out by ear. I pretty much just figured everything out and showed Kevin most of his guitar parts as we went along during the recording.

How long of a process was it to put this package all together?

We spent several month recording and putting the cover and booklet together, but that was because there was no real deadline other than the two shows in April. We were also learning songs and rehearsing for the shows during this time, so we usually only spent a day or two each week working on the recordings. I think we started with drums back in July or August and were finishing up a few of Kevin’s solos a few weeks before the reunion shows.

Usually when a band goes back and re-records one of its classic albums, it is met with a firestorm of mixed feelings – some think it is okay, some think it is bad, and there are others who deem even the idea outright blasphemy. Did you have any apprehensions about revisiting the well?

We never really worried much about what anyone said about the band and the way we did things. I have heard many of the re-recorded albums people have released in recent years and I agree that very few improve on the originals. This is what I sought to avoid from the beginning. I didn’t want us to sound like some band just doing covers of their own songs 20 years later. Maybe a live album of updated recordings is better sometimes for this type of thing.

For HINDSIGHT, I put as much time and care into every single aspect of the recording and mixing as I would with anything we’ve ever done. We planned it carefully and made sure to avoid the pitfalls that usually ruin this type of project. We wanted a nice presentation and good cover art along with great sounding versions of these songs; otherwise, there was no point in even bothering with it all.

I try to always put myself into the shoes of our fans and try to imagine what I would like to hear. I don’t hate everything about the original versions and I really hoped to maintain the same atmosphere when it suited the song and not create even newer problems by completely shifting the focus of the sound.

Throughout the discs, you made some creative decisions to slow some parts down and speed other parts up. Were these notions you had wanted to incorporate back then, but due to time constraints, couldn’t? Or did you have certain revelations when listening back over them and performing them live?

This time Mike and I sat down and very carefully decided what the best tempo was for each song or each part of the songs in some cases. We were in such a hurry when we recorded the original album and we never used a click track, so the tempos were all over the place. Many of the demo versions sounded better to me because they were closer to the original intent we had when we wrote them.

So many songs, in my opinion, suffered from really rushed tempos. “Fighting Evil” and “Annihilation Complete” are probably the two best examples. I think “Annihilation” had completely lost its groove altogether on SUFFERING HOUR. It was almost pseudo-thrash, which is not at all the way it was supposed to sound like. “Fighting Evil” was very, very fast and also lost its original feel.

I realize some people like this about these old versions, but you can never please everyone. We decided to do them the way we thought they should be done. This time we tracked almost all of the drums to click tracks, so we knew what we’d end up with.

Why was “Apocalypse” the only “new” track included in this package? Where there no other b-sides written during that period you felt worthy of including?

“Apocalypse” was the only song from that era that was never recorded in one form or another on an album. The ANNIHILATION COMPLETE demo had 2 other songs that did not make it onto SUFFERING HOUR. “Pendulum” was later re-written as the REASON bonus track “Killing My Mind” and “Vulture’s Prey” became “Brotherhood?” on SCREAMS AND WHISPERS. I thought it would be cool to have a little something special on the new release.

Were there any tracks on these albums that gave you a juvenile impression and made you think, “I can’t believe we wrote this” or “I can’t believe we’re actually going to play this again”?

There is always going to be some stuff that you personally aren’t as proud of after so many years, but I think every song on those early albums has some merit. There were things written before Anacrusis was together as a band that might be lyrically out of character, but musically, it is all a part of the big picture, so each song is important in its own way.

Twenty years on, how do those screams NOT hurt???

Who said they didn’t hurt [laughs]? Seriously, it sounds worse than it really is. The way I scream is just a part of my voice and isn’t difficult for me at all. I had some trouble hitting the really high screechy stuff like on some of the original stuff, but by the time we did MANIC IMPRESSIONS, I had honed it to a slightly different sound anyhow, which most people seemed to like better anyhow. The screams on the new versions are probably closer to the way I would have done them on the later albums, but I don’t think it hurts the new versions.

How did you manage to retain the youthful innocence of SUFFERING HOUR and re-harness the venomous anger of REASON?

This is really little or no spontaneity in what we do musically, even if it sounds like it sometimes. Everything is very well planned out, with different sounds or vocal styles to accent the dynamics. I approached the new album like you would when you make a film. Everyone gets into character and does their part until it is just right. When you put it all together, it looks and feels like there is real emotion in the actors’ performances even though they may have done their scenes days or weeks apart. The key it to make it FEEL like it is all happening a certain way. As soon as I knew we could all still play our proper roles, I knew the songs themselves would capture the spirit of the originals.

The one thing that always bugged me a little bit about the original releases of SUFFERING HOUR and REASON was that there was so much high-end that the albums almost sounded hollow. With these re-recordings, I noticed you took an active effort to amplify and flesh-out the low end, which gives each song a meatier tone. Was this something originally intended that an engineer screwed up on the original discs?

There are a million reasons why mixes don’t turn out well. We were using people who didn’t know our music, very crude equipment to play it on and had very little time to get good sounds in the first place. It took years to learn and understand how important it is to begin with the sounds you want and need and then to just allow the songs to almost mix themselves.

I had everything set up to record the entire time we were rehearsing for our shows, so I would record each practice and then go home and tweak the drums sounds or whatever for days. Each time we’d get a little closer to what we were looking for. By the time we began recording, I had a very good idea of what things were going to sound like and we were able to concentrate on playing the music well.

In the past, we’d rush in and spend a few hours (maybe) putting mics on things and then flying through the songs, which then I later would have to spend endless hours trying to make sound good. It never works that way. I never claimed to be an engineer, and there were other people involved who should have known better, but there is no point in casting blame at this point. You learn from your mistakes and I definitely have learned a lot from ours.

Why was the original cover art for either album actually represented in the new package? I noticed the CDs themselves feature a sort of homage to the originals, as well as the picture frames on the new front cover, but the actual artwork is nowhere to be seen.

We wanted to do something that paid tribute to the original covers, which is why the photo from the original (European) REASON cover was used along with the cathedral from SUFFERING HOUR, but not just re-package them. This whole album was about digging out the old songs, dusting them off and giving them another go. That’s the feeling we wanted to create with the cover and booklet. Technically, I did put all of the LP, CD and cassette covers from the originals in the collages in the booklet; even of they are a little obscure.

In addition to the re-recording of the ANNIHILATION COMPLETE track “Apocalypse,” you also made some editorial decisions regarding the track order. While SUFFERING HOUR remains relatively unchanged, outside of the addition of the aforementioned track, it also closes with “Injustice,” which was recorded for REASON, though it was originally an ANNIHILATION track. As well, the second half of REASON’s tracklisting is switched around a bit. What was the rationale for all these changes?

Both of the “bonus” tracks on REASON were basically leftovers from the SUFFERING HOUR period. I wanted to balance the discs a bit more and also incorporate those songs in with the rest of the music instead of having them sit as throwaways at the end of the albums.

To me, “Injustice” is a SUFFERING HOURH track. It was there from almost the beginning, and first appeared on the 2nd version of the ANNIHILATION COMPLETE demo back in 1987. It definitely feels more at home on that album as opposed to REASON.

“Killing My Mind” was originally the song “Pendulum” which was the first original song I learned and played with the guys when I joined up with them. Kevin re-wrote his lyrics and I completely changed the melody and added a bunch of new music to the middle section and it seemed more at home with the REASON material.

Just like with “Apocalypse” I felt like sandwiching them in the middle of the track running order made a better overall balance for each album. This also balanced the length of each half of the album. Originally SUFFERING HOUR had only nine songs and REASON had twelve.

Did you have a Plan B if these recordings didn’t turn out sounding the way you wanted them to?

Yes, I never would have released them [laughs]. I was pretty confident that things would turn out well overall. This is something we had thought about for years and years and I spent a lot of time planning my attack, so toy speak.

You released once again through Stormspell Records, which is primarily a mail-order only label. Why did you not shoot for something with wider distribution? I can’t imagine that after the reunion and the European shows, labels aren’t banging down your door.

You’d think so [laughs]. Well, my door is still quite intact, though we would definitely entertain other offers to play a few shows hear and there. Actually, I released the album myself through CD Baby. Stormspell did take some copies as well, and Iordan is very aggressive about promoting his label, so that’s why it seems like Stormspell is the main distributor. There are also other distributors in Europe who are carrying it to hopefully off-set the shipping costs for people overseas or wherever else who want the album.

It’s almost frightening today, but if these two albums were released for the first time in this decade, I could easily see Anacrusis changing the landscape of thrash and progressive metal. There never really was anyone out there who did what Anacrusis did, and there still isn’t. Do you think that the insulated lack of a metal scene in St. Louis helped you establish a sense of uniqueness?

That may have had a little to do with it I guess, but we also didn’t sound anything like our local contemporaries either, so I’m not sure if it would have mattered much. I think the members of Anacrusis have a fairly diverse taste in music and we all bring elements into our music that is unique. I knew from the beginning that there were better drummers, guitarists, vocalist, etc out there and that the only way we would ever find any success was to do something different from the rest of the bands that were out there. I always tried to emphasize the things that made us unique.

I also think it is important to make your music interesting without completely going over everyone’s heads. None of us is anything like a virtuoso in our skills, but I wanted to make every instrument stand out. People think we are so much more technical than we really are. More than anything we had great drumming all along which helps, but it is strange to me when people lump us in with these Prog-Metal bands who can play circles around us in their sleep.

Sometimes more is definitely too much and some of that stuff ends up being music for musicians only. We wanted to have actual songs that people could listen to or head-bang to or tap their foot to or whatever, so even when we messed around with odd time signatures and arrangements we always tried to keep it all anchored to something solid that people could still follow.

In our last interview, I mentioned George Lucas, and I feel compelled to mention him again. When you originally recorded these albums, did you feel hindered at all by technology, like he did with a certain film trilogy? And do you feel that you are finally liberated by the electronic advancements of the past two decades?

Yes and no. The best thing to me is the ability to completely record and mix an album like this on my PC at home. Of course it takes a certain level of knowledge to do even this, but I definitely prefer this method to going into a studio and being totally isolated the entire time. We recorded the whole thing in the concrete rehearsal “studio’ which was just an 18’x18’ concrete room with 3 walls slapped up in an old tobacco factory. I used a 32-track digital porta-studio to tracks drums, guitars, vocals or whatever and then I’d copy the tracks to my PC later at home and do all the work from there. John’s bass parts were recorded sitting on his couch in his living room. Kevin’s solos were all recorded in his own basement where he keeps his “gigging” gear set up. This kind of flexibility in invaluable, especially when people are all living their normal lives and we have to work around everyone’s schedules.

Back to George Lucas…I think sometimes newer technology can also ruin things, if it is not used correctly. There is something more “real” about those old models and real explosions and that sort of thing that is just lost on all of the new CGI stuff, in my opinion. It can definitely be used to improve the quality in some cases, but when technology completely replaces everything real, it just doesn’t feel the same. They spend millions these days on these effects and yet as soon as you see them your mind goes “That’s CGI!”. The movements are never really right and something just always seems cartoonish no matter how much time and money they use.

Having said all of that, I think I am somewhere in between two eras of recording. I understand the positive uses of newer technology and am not at all afraid to use it whenever it works and makes things easier or better, but I have a very old-school approach at the same time and also understand the tangible elements of recording and know how we “used to do it”. There are many things that a lot of younger guys take for granted when they begin by leaning on tech itself to do all the work.

So now that you’ve done the ANNIHILATION COMPLETE remaster, the SUFFERING HOUR and REASON re-recordings, what do you have in store for us with regards to MANIC IMPRESSIONS and SCREAMS AND WHISPERS?

Well, unfortunately Metal Blade still owns the right to those albums, so it would up to them to let us do anything with them. I have discussed the matter with them along with some ideas we have, but we haven’t decided on anything. Ideally, I’d love to re-master them as best as possible and re-package them together in a similar style as HINDSIGHT. Eliran Kantor, who did the artwork for the new album has already said he’d love to do something for those albums as well and I’m sure he’d come up with great stuff.

I’d probably include the original version of “Tools of Separation” from the MANIC IMPRESSIONS recording sessions. Other ideas I’ve had are to maybe include a remix of “Brotherhood?” using the original drums/guitars/vocals but re-sequence the “orchestral” parts since the sounds today are miles ahead of what I had to work with in 1992. It would also be cool to include a DVD along with the two CDs with the full pro-shot SCREAMS AND WHISPERS release show and a few videos and other multi-camera clips and things like that from the MANIC and SCREAMS eras.

I wouldn’t bother totally remixing anything since everyone seems to prefer the original mixes they are familiar with. I think things could be fattened up a bit (especially on MANIC) without doing any harm. The only thing I hate about SCREAMS is the horrible sound of the toms. I have the master tapes, so I could replace or enhance them without changing anything else at all. We’ll have to see whether we get the chance to do this or not.

Since Anacrusis was somewhat known for being on the cutting edge of music recording for its budget, have you ever toyed with the notion of mastering an Anacrusis album in 5.1 Surround?

Funny you should ask. A friend/fan offered to do 5.1 mixes for HINDSIGHT for free, but I declined. There is no way I am giving the raw tracks to anyone else only to have my horrible isolated vocal track show up on YouTube one day, haha. Seriously though, I’ve considered giving him a song or two, but I am very protective of these things, so don’t hold your breath waiting to hear it.

Beyond that, I know that fans are salivating for new material. Have you guys actually tinkered with the idea of releasing a brand new album or an obligatory live album?

I shot the reunion show with 8 video cameras and multi-tracked sound which I am almost finished editing. I’d like to make that available eventually. It turned out very well. I did fix up stuff like some solos and vocals to make it all listenable, but it is mostly the real thing and captured the vibe of our “first show in forever”. We have fans all over the world that will likely never get a chance to see us live and this is the closest we can give them.

As for new music, the truth is that some of us have grown too far apart musically over the years to accomplish much together. A couple of us are planning on recording a ton of new material over the next few months. I’d also like to go back and record a few of my post-Anacrusis songs from the mid-‘90s that I never got to properly record.

Based on what music we already have, if things go as planned I may self-release something like a 2-CD set of all new stuff. Some will be very similar to Anacrusis and much heavier than the CRUEL APRIL stuff I recorded a few years ago, while some of it will be even more melodic and dynamic than Anacrusis. I think it could be a very interesting collection of material that even most Anacrusis fans would enjoy, even if it isn’t called “Anacrusis”. A rose is a rose…

When you were overseas for the Keep It True 2010 festival, did you reconnect at all with any of your old-school acquaintances?

We did meet up with an old friend in Germany named Stephan. He used to write to us way back in the beginning (on real paper with stamps if you can remember that) and he came to a couple shows and hung out on the Death tour in 1993. He drove us around the whole time we were there for Keep It True and translated for us and all the rest. He took us to nearby Würzburg the day before we played and showed us around all day. He is a super-great guy and we had a ball spending time with him. The whole trip would have been far less fun without him, that’s for sure and we’d all have been standing in gas stations and restaurants pointing at things the whole time like ugly Americans, haha. He is also a huge New Model Army fan like I am, except that he’s seen them play probably 100 times to my twice.

We also met up with Eliran, who did the HINDSIGHT cover. He is from Israel originally, but lives in Berlin these days. Luckily after a very long train ride from Rome, (and in spite of the volcano) he was able to make it to Keep It True. We hung out with him most of the weekend and he is such a really great guy. It was so nice to thank him in person for the great job he did on the cover.

There were also a few friends I’ve met online over the last couple of years who we got to meet and hang out with. Everyone was very accommodating and we had such an awesome time, not just because of the gig, but because of the wonderful welcome we received from old and new fans and friends the entire time. I really miss them all.

Have you been approached by any American promoters for any special festival appearances, be it Prog Power, Maryland Death Fest, etc.?

We haven’t been asked as of yet, but like I said everyone had such a great time with the reunion and Keep It True that we’d all love the opportunity to maybe play other shows in the future. We aren’t really an “active” band and I’m probably not aggressive enough for all of that, but we’re open to any invitations, so we’ll see.

What is your impression of the resurgence of the thrash metal scene, with both heritage and young bands once again raising that flag in a sort of denim-and-leather-clad world unity?

I think it’s cool. I remember growing up in the ‘70s and having “greaser day” or “50s day” and things like that where you’d dress up like you were on Happy Days or something. Nostalgia is very important, not only to help us recapture our youth, but also to find that common bond with people who may have gone off in all different directions over the years, but who all have that common love for whatever music or bands. I don’t listen to a lot of metal these days, but I still love all of the bands I was into in the beginning.

As for the younger bands, that’s cool as well. In the ‘80s and ‘90s we were all just playing Black Sabbath riffs or Priest or Maiden riffs sped up. The spirit is the same and there is so many good elements in heavy music, that it is great to see new bands holding on to those things and helping to make them new again.

I have been saying for years that I think we will see a change coming in heavy music with older musicians writing and recording music intended for an older crowd. It’s in our blood and not everyone over 40 wants to switch to the Easy-Listening station just yet. At the same time, a lot of us can’t necessarily relate to the typical “metal” messages of partying and rocking and all of the teen-angst stuff.

We have grown older and matured and face a whole new set of challenges in life that we knew nothing of when we were 19. Not to knock the younger people or anything, but heavy music has always been by, for and about youth for the most part and as my generation of metal fans gets long in the tooth, I think there may be a whole new scene of not just fat, old guys in spandex trying to re-create their glory days, but a whole new kind of heavy music with a deeper, more mature element to it.

People become parents; they go through marriages and divorces, they deal with sickness and losses more and more often. They become more active politically because they see how these systems and ideals really affect their every day lives. They even go through mid-life crises, haha. I don’t think all music has to just grow old and bald and die.

I also don’t think we have to completely abandon a certain style of music or simply move over and make room for the new guys. What if heavy music could grow old gracefully? Let’s face it, most people are basically giving their music away these days whether they want to or not, so when it becomes a thing of personal passion or just a creative outlet, there is no reason to follow anyone’s rules. I think it makes a person so much more creative when they don’t have to answer to a label or anyone else and when it isn’t just about getting laid or making a buck.

Maybe metal or whatever will re-invent itself in a whole new form in coming years. Sure, there have always been the bands who do manage to stay around for years and years and still make great music, but they are generally still trying to reach out to the kids half their age. I know my friends are all much wiser now and even more talented than they were 20 or 25 years ago and every bit as capable at creating good music or lyrics or whatever. The whole music business has completely changed in the last 20 years, so who knows what the future holds?

Anacrusis always sounded like a band without a defined time and place, like your music remains relevant in any decade. What is the secret of the Anacrusis magic?

I think it is important not to completely be a product of your time or environment. Bands that jump the bandwagon and become a parody of their time usually don’t last long. It is always important to concentrate on universal things lyrically. Some things never change like love and fear and insecurity and birth and death. These are things that anyone in any age can identify with.

The same goes for music itself. Ultimately there must be a “song”. Good melody and something that catches people. Not necessarily a “hook” in the cookie-cutter sense of pop music, but something that draws a listener in.

As for Anacrusis, it is a cliché but we always wanted to make music we wanted to hear. If your heart is really in what you do, people connect with you. If it is also personal, they connect even more. You can certainly listen to Anacrusis and know that we came out of the ‘80s & ‘90s thrash/power metal scene and that we didn’t just drop out of the sky from outer space or something.

I don’t think we were really all that innovative, I just think we were able to combine certain things in a slightly different way that a lot of other bands ended up doing later on. We weren’t the “first” to do anything we did, we were just one of the first to do it the way we did.  

Check out Examiner's original interview with Anacrusis' Kenn Nardi here!