Russian Circles: Nine Lives
Nine, the brilliant new album from RUSSIAN CIRCLES sees the Chicago, Illinois-based band’s epic soundscapes taking on adventurous new forms while still retaining the sonics that they are renowned for. We caught up with guitar player Mike Sullivan to get the lowdown on Nine and where the band are at right now.
We begin with Mike enthusing about RUSSIAN CIRCLES coming back with this new album and the anticipation he has about the return of the band. “It’s been four years, which is the biggest gap for us in records. So we’re very excited to go out there and play some new songs, and show where we’re at. It’s been a long time since we’ve got to do this as far as introduce new songs in live settings, so we’re excited to follow through with it.”
RUSSIAN CIRCLES worked with producer Kurt Ballou on the album, and having worked with the CONVERGE guitarist on their previous three records, Mike tells about how working with Kurt brings out the best in the band. “When it comes to the technical aspects of recording and the tones, he’s immensely helpful and he’s so skilled in coaxing out different sounds and making the most of his studio and just making the songs a lot stronger.”
Mike then goes onto explain about the influences on the music and the outlook of Nine. “From a musical standpoint, that would differ with each band member and each song has a different approach. Some are heavier, some are more introspective, some are dispatchers. It’s a hodgepodge of influences, and with each record, in between records, you’re listening to more and more bands, getting exposed to more music, and you’re careful not to repeat.”
Conversation then turns to the improvisational aspect of the music of RUSSIAN CIRCLES and if that’s the same in the studio. “It’s totally locked in to be honest. It was crazy this time around. I had demoed every measure of the whole record, so I didn’t play with Brian or Dave in studio. They just played along to the guide track, and that’s how locked in it was as far as the BPMs for each song tempo mapping was already laid out.”
There has always been a visual aspect to RUSSIAN CIRCLES, best exemplified when playing live and this continues with the stunning cinematic nature of the music video for Empath. Mike tells how that visual aspect is so important for the band live. “We often have a lighting engineer with us who designs the show each tour, and that is a big part of it. Live, I’m not rocking out too much on stage. I’m pretty stationary in one spot and just focused on the performance and making sure everything is coming out right on my end, and we don’t have a lead singer, obviously, who’s into the crowd, keeping them engaged with any kind of banter or whatnot, addressing them, and that can be a deterrent for some people, I suppose. So having a lighting element is a good way to augment the show. I feel like they assist the sonic part of the songs.”
Once Nine releases to the world, RUSSIAN CIRCLES hit the road with PELICAN and then PRIMITIVE MAN, with a show with ACID BATH thrown in for good measure. Mike is looking forward to hitting the road in supper of the record. “Volume’s a big part of rock music, and also what we do, and it’s fun to let these songs breathe in a live rock atmosphere, where the bass is shaking your chest cavity, and you can feel the kick drum. You can feel all the elements working together, and you can’t turn the volume down. Everybody in the room, whether on stage or off stage, is linked in together like an old human element that we often lose these days, so it’s fun for the songs to live in that atmosphere or that environment.”
Mike then divulges how the songs from Nine will fit into their live set. “With each record release, we never lean too heavily into the new songs taking over the set, so there will be and these songs are very easy to perform live. Sometimes in the past they’re a little trickier as far as execution to make it sound like the record, doable but difficult. Whereas these are all pretty seamless to pull off.”
RUSSIAN CIRCLES have been a band for over two decades now and are stronger than ever, especially with an album of this calibre. We finish our time with Mike, who reflects, detailing how blessed he feels to still be doing this. “I mean, without question. Of course, we never thought we’d be doing it this long! You don’t start a band with the intention to be nine records deep, 22 years into it. You just learn how to respect each other, address any interpersonal hiccups along the way, and with a concerted effort to keep this going. We’re lucky to be doing it, so let’s respect each other and the band, and always do what’s best for the band and not be selfish about anything. So it’s a lot about just keeping the friendships alive and honouring how lucky we are to be doing it. At any point, it could end. It could end tomorrow. It could end after this record. So it’s important to keep the perspective of this.”
Nine is out now via Sargent House. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS132 here.
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