INTERVIEW: Cammie Gilbert – Oceans of Slumber
OCEANS OF SLUMBER caused a real stir in 2016 with the release of sophomore album Winter, which garnered praise and acclaim from all corners of the metal community. Ahead of the release of third record The Banished Heart, which sees the light of day on March 2nd, we spoke to singer Cammie Gilbert about the record, how it came about, the band’s upcoming tour in the UK with EPICA and MYRKUR and her own response to being an unlikely role model.
So, bring us up to speed first and foremost Cammie; with the Winter album cycle finished, how long was it before you reconvened for The Banished Heart?
Cammie: There was no time at all! The skeleton for the title track was written and laid before we got back from tour and then when we finished up the last run we came back and immediately went into writing with a mindset of getting the album out as soon as possible. A few things transitioned, several things came up such as a change in release date and Hurricane Harvey hitting that spread out the recording and my ability to work on some of the songs, so while the whole idea and the theme of the album was solidified, it gave a different energy to the lyrics and the emotions of the recordings because of what we were going through.
So when was it due to be released, then? Were you hoping for it to be released towards the end of 2017, or was it always going to have a 2018 date?
Cammie: Neither, we didn’t have a hard date, but we were hoping to have it released towards the end of 2016! What we had wanted was not too much down time between circulating, but obviously a shit-ton of stuff came up and as mentioned before the hurricane really set things back as well.
The band biography on Century Media has a quote from Dobber [drummer] saying that you’re now ‘fully the lyricist for OCEANS OF SLUMBER’. Did you find it more of a challenge than previous to take that upon yourself?
Cammie: Not really, I write a lot, I have a passion for writing so I felt that it was easier; less cooks in the kitchen and all that, it makes for a more singular meal, so it gave me a chance to really dive into myself, some of the emotions of last year and what we have going on in our lives. Everyone’s experiences were taken into account, but to have one person wording it out made it much easier than a collaboration.
Your Facebook says you’ve come to a point in which you were able to fully channel what life had handed you over the last few years into the music you hear on The Banished Heart. Can you elaborate a bit?
Cammie: A lot of the album is centered around the loss that comes with relationships, whether they be romantic or familial; they all play such a critical role in who we become and the kind of world view that we have. Everyone handles loss differently but for some it shatters them and they don’t really recover from it, and that’s how I feel like I was with my Dad when he died a few years ago after a long battle with leukaemia. So, to transition that into the band and move forward, it always reopens those cracks of that deepest, greatest loss. With Dobber coming to terms with a split from his partner, he and I found ourselves in a similar place of hurting and longing, so we clung to one another and used it to create a force that would come into this album. There’s no holds in metal, there’s no such thing as being too hard or abrasive, so I really took that to heart when I created the album and when I looked for words that went over this devastating music; it was a chance to be fully myself and vulnerable in what emotions have done to me.
So you and Dobber had your experiences that went into this; did the rest of OCEANS OF SLUMBER chip in at all?
Cammie: Absolutely, everyone plays a critical role in the OCEANS OF SLUMBER mechanism; similarly, it’s the spectrum of life; we have relationships ending, loss, new babies and we’ve taken it all into account. They’re all very raw musicians, everything they experience goes in to what they create and they’ve played such an important role, we’re all equally invested in this and all there to step up to creating and being at the service of the altar of music.
Did you and OCEANS OF SLUMBER approach the album any differently in terms of the recording this time around?
Cammie: Recording wise it was similar, but we approached it with wanting to focus on a central theme, journey and idea, with the aim of the overall experience to keep people in a certain and specific headspace. Our eclectic musical mixture is there because we’re a prog band, but the idea and the journey that is the album stays central, so we really honed it in around that and how we went about it. It ended up being a bit more spread out and difficult because of Hurricane Harvey scattering everything and resources, but in coming back together, studio-wise it was very similar to how we go about things: we hash it out, the guys write incredibly quickly and meticulously, so that part stayed true to the form that OCEANS OF SLUMBER goes about being in the studio itself.
Did you approach this any differently in terms of your vocals?
Cammie: Absolutely; I really wanted to push the edges of what I did and I wanted to ensure that the emotion was at the forefront of what I did, so I was a bit less mindful of the perfection and more so of whether I was telling the story and whether I was getting all the particles of the hurt out, What I love about singing in this band and what metal allows is that you can be as soft and serene or as heavy, hard and abrasive as you want, so I really played around with that spectrum and pushed my vocal range and more carnal techniques, which I’m really happy and excited about!
Are there any tracks in particular that stand out for you?
Cammie: Well, we love doing covers and I really love the southern gothic, kinda gospel Wayfaring Stranger that we got a chance to do, the song’s been floating around between Dobber and I for a while and it’s amazing; it captures that truly southern vibe that’s so prominent around the country here and is really eerie at the same time; it’s exciting to know that it would work and finish the album so well. I love the duet as well, with Tom [Englund] from EVERYGREY, to have him sing anything that I’ve written is a total fangirl moment for me! I love the doomier, darker things too so it was great for us to be able to slow it down and to really get deep in the moment, so to speak. That said, I have a hard time listening to the album myself, the songs suck me in and it’s so real and hard. However, it was such an expression that it’ll definitely make for very emotional performances to come and I’m really excited to get on tour and to share it live. It’s an amazing, dark album with so much realness in there, it’s wonderful to have it so well-received and to share it with people and be in this together, to share the burden of hurt together because life isn’t all fucking rainbows and feel-good shit all the time.
Along with your own personal experiences, did you find that the political climate in America helped shape the way that The Banished Heart took shape?
Cammie: Definitely. you know, it’s kinda like we’re just surrounded by disappointment! It’s very easy to feel that energy on a wider scale, on a societal scale of just being angry, having one update after another be shitty news and bad decisions and living in a constant state of “I’m angry and mad and overwhelmed”, so absolutely it helped shape the album. The climate is one that’s harsher and judgemental, there’s serious things to talk about and there’s serious decision on the brink that will affect all our lives, so all of that goes into how you feel on a day-to-day basis. When your general rights or general way of living is being questioned or threatened, it’s a lot of disappointment; as far as what we’re doing here politically, it’s like ‘Why?’
Although you’ve made it very clear in previous interviews that you’re just doing what you’re doing and if people want to gain from that or use it, that’s what you’re there to do, as 2016 progressed and OCEANS OF SLUMBER grew as a band, did you inadvertently find yourself as a role model for black women within your own audiences or the scene in general?
Cammie: Certainly inadvertently, and not just black women but more just women in general. There’s a lot of variables that go into it and it’s important for me to be someone that people can look up or look into more, so to speak. I don’t want people to get to know me as either a friend or a fan and be disappointed, or find that there’s some murky, weird, detestable thing about me. I don’t want to disappoint people, I want to be someone that if I say, do or create something, it’s thoughtful. I want people that, if they’re going to take the time to investigate me, to find something of substance, that’s the least I can do. So that’s how I feel about it, it’s not like “Oh, I’m on a podium and I wanna speak about all these things and I have so much to say”, I just don’t want to be something that’s not substance at the end of the day. There’s so much to being a woman and even more so nowadays – the rules are being bent, lines are getting blurred and the big question is “What do you want to be and how do you want to represent yourself?” Of course, there’s always going to be people who are going to be contrary to what you say or how you represent yourself as a woman, so I just want to be a quality person, someone that other people are intrigued with and find that it wasn’t a waste of their time to get to know or to dive deeper into things they created. I revolve around being thoughtful and compassionate to people that reach out to me and in any conversations I have, but also standing up for what I think is right, going about what I think is right and having consistency and integrity about it. This last year has been awesome to have people write to me or seek me out and say “As a black woman in metal this is awesome to see” or “As a woman in metal this is great to see” and so it’s very much become a person-to-person situation. If it’s giving more voice to people that didn’t feel like they had as much representation think that’s awesome because as the numbers grow I think the representation should grow; it’s necessary to pinpoint it sometimes but not get too hung up on it or try to define it.
Well, you said you just wanted to come across as a quality person; that’s a quality answer! You’re coming over here in April opening for EPICA with MYRKUR also on the bill – looking forward to it?
Cammie: Oh I’m so excited, I feel like it’s been forever since we toured and, speaking about women in metal, to have a full tour that’s female-fronted bands, I’m so giddy! I’ve been really lucky actually, every tour I’ve gone on has been with another woman, so it’s not like I feel so out there or alone and to be able to spend time with them, talk to them, pick their brain and then see them perform every night, I’m very excited. I’m also excited to get the album out there and to do it live because that’s where the real connection happens and that’s where the real emotions is shared. I always say there’s little invisible ribbons that come from the crowd, there’s a big invisible ribbon that comes from me and they tether together for that performance. That’s the real connection; I know that people are out there but being a millennial you get a resistance to people interacting online, it only means so much. When it’s live, you’re face-to-face and you see my sweat and tears and I see yours? That’s real, so I look forward to sharing this because I think people need it and I know I need it, so by extension we need each other.
It’s nice that there’s quite an eclectic range of styles across the bill as well; from your point of view though, do you find it more of a challenge sometimes if there are bands on the bill that are quite different to you or do you just go let’s see what happens?
Cammie: Well, touring has a lot of variables of how it can work and what will work, so we like to try and be stacked with other bands that are closely-related, but I think that the phenomenon with female-fronted metal is that you can have something like this bill and make it successful because it will link together different genres; the female singing is like a thread of instrumentation itself, and that’s the link regardless of the styles. It’s trickier, for sure, but the foundation is there and it won’t be too crazy or different. That said, if we were to tour with MY DYING BRIDE again or go out with someone like KATATONIA or NEUROSIS I feel like overall that’s a bit more consistent of a spread. We haven’t done it so much and so I don’t know how difficult it would be but I think the element for crossing over into their fandom and vice versa, it’s all there.
Are there any bands you really want to tour with at some point?
Cammie: I really want to go out with VUUR! I’m so excited that it exists again and Anneke [van Giersbergen] is doing her amazingness so I’m never going to stop saying that!
Nice! Cammie, it’s been an absolute pleasure, thanks for taking the time to speak to me.
Cammie: Thank you, you too.
The Banished Heart is set for release on March 2nd via Century Media Records.
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