Interview Leif Jensen Dew-Scented

Lineup: Leif Jensen: Vocals Hendrik Bache: Guitar Alexander Pahl: Bass Uwe Werning: Drums Marvin Vriesde: Guitar

Vader Decapitated Dew-Scented Joe's on Weed Street 11/9/05 Interviewer: Karma E. Omowale Photos: Erika Kristen Watt

“Recording is like putting a wild cat into a cage and telling it to have a good time…you do it because you want to perform”.

Germany's Dew-Scented, a docile name spawned from an Edgar Allan Poe is rather tongue-in-cheek when you start to dissect the lyrics and listen to their music. Vocalist Leif Jensen, is able to exorcise his; demons within thru his music in turn his creation and release is most extreme and violent in nature, like bones of a cadaver disintegrating beneath the weight of your boot, an "Apocalypse Inside" if you will. In this interview Leif discusses the band’s newest album, Issue VI, the dying art of good lyrical content, who he's a fan of, on top of getting a little hot under the collar...after all politics is a taboo subject which usually makes any conversation a lot more colorful. Read on.

Karma: First off, thanks for doing the interview!

Leif: [Smiles] You're very welcome.

Karma: You guys really don't make it over to this part of the world much, good to have you back!

Leif: Thank you. We've been waiting for this chance for quite awhile, we've been here for festivals only so far. It's our first coast-to-coast tour, so we're really, really excited! [Smiles]

Karma: As well as you should be!

Leif: It's been going really, really nice for us so far.

Karma: Being your third date and all.

Leif: Yes, the third date. We have toured with Vader before in Europe; we've known the guys in Decapitated so it's like a small familial thing. It's very cool.

Karma: That is cool! Again, knowing that's its very early on, do you have any projections for the tour?

Leif: No, we're heading to Canada now. We're on the way to Minneapolis where we performed there in May of this year and that was very good, that was really a nice one. Then we're going to the West Coast. I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of new people that have never seen the band before. It's a big opportunity for us to make new friends that's what we're expecting to do, not more than that.

Karma: Fair enough. What has been the greatest challenge the band has been able to overcome in order to get you where you are at this point in your career?

Leif: Well actually endurance, just time you know. Waiting around for many years six albums, many lineup changes and that's always a challenge to get yourself together and continue to progress. Hopefully become better musicians and songwriters, become better performers so kicking ourselves in the ass has been our biggest challenge throughout our twelve years.

Karma: I understand that you all have day jobs, which rocks…

Leif: Well some of us, others can't keep them because of the touring.  We can't survive on music [alone], that's a given. So we've gotta go back and work.

Karma; …since the band is not paying for your bills, I would tend to agree, it is the smart way to do it. Do you foresee Dew-Scented becoming a full-time gig so that you could drop your day job…but would you do it?

Leif: We might try, but the problem is the music is too extreme and we would have to compromise at some level, that's not what we want to do. We would like to play the music we enjoy listening to and we enjoy writing. Just for the sake of surviving financially, I wouldn't like to change it. If this what we're doing would pay our bills, yeah, that would be great but I don't think that's gonna happen!

Karma: I read in an article where it said you viewed negativity as a positive thing…

Leif: …Yeah!

Karma: …by which using your lyrics as a sounding board of sorts, an outlet for all of ills in the world and in your life…

Leif: …correct, yes…

Karma: …must be a great release of your emotions in a cathartic manner, of sorts.

Leif: Where should I take you with this answer? [Smiles] I enjoy metal and extremity is something that relaxes me. It's gets certain emotions out that I don't need. I hope it does the same for a lot of the people listening to the music. Something that gets them to respond causes some reaction causes them to discharge some of the aggression that they carry themselves, by listening, by dancing to it by stage diving, whatever people do to the music. It's a good thing even though the music is evil and so loud, people dance extreme sometimes. It's all for a good cause, it's all about having fun you know, having a good time with it. [Smiles]

It took my parents a while to understand that but I think they respect it by now! [We all laugh] I'm a pretty laid back person, and I think this is because of the music. I don't have any problems with aggression. A lot of people have because they don't have any outlets, they don't have a discharge.

Karma: I totally understand what you're saying. Going back a bit to people dancing as it should be done to have fun, however the audience did get a little out of hand tonight.

Leif: Well, I don't think it was bad, but in order for us to keep the set enjoyable for us and for everybody else it just felt necessary to give [the moshing] a little bit of a break. I've seen it get ugly, but we do not encourage people to get brutal. We want them to hug their girlfriend's a have a good time while listening to our music! Well, yeah…[Laughs]

Karma: You recently released the cleverly titled new album, Issue VI since it is your 6^th release. How did the naming of this album come about? Whose main idea was it?

Leif: Actually our former guitarist [Florian Mueller] did. We have this formulae with the "i" letter starting every album title so far. We're playing around with the word "issue" for a while, we just liked the fact that it's negative work as well as it's a formal and very organized type of word. Our guitarist was like, "Hey, let's just close the chapter on this record. Let's call it Issue VI make it catchy at the same time, continue our pattern that we've had". [Smiles] A lot of people don't know this is the sixth album because only three got corporate promotion and distribution. So it's sort of a statement at the same time as it's a little bit of a concept for the artwork and for the content of the record.

Karma: Speaking of the cover art it is just as disturbing as the lyrics, what do you want the viewer to walk away with?

Leif: [Pauses] Hopefully just the sleeve of a record that they enjoy. I don't really want to pass the message along. The guy who did the artwork is a friend of ours who also made the last cover for Impact [Bjoern www.killustrations.com] He got some of the lyrics, some of the song titles and that’s what he presented to us. We were like, “Wow, this looks cool!” and at the same time, it links to the title, at the same time it has an organic feel as does it has something very fictional. We just liked the combination. I don’t feel more of a message other than that. Would be boring for me to pass all of the story… [Pauses]

Karma: Again, you’d like the viewer to make their own assessment…

Leif: …Yeah. [Smiles]

Karma: Please tell the fans something about the production of the album they may not have known previously.

Leif: One of the insides on this record is that we recorded with only one guitar player; Hendrik took over all the duties because we parted ways with our former guitarist, Florian during the songwriting process. We recorded as a four-piece with one guitarist. Marvin [Vriesde], the guitarist we have also played live with us today, joined the band late in the process, so he didn’t compose and didn’t record but he did do some lead guitar work on the record and he’s doing all of the shows. So that’s a little bit of novelty there for us.

Karma: As far as the break with Mueller was concerned, I am sure it had to have been hard as well as coming at a bad time [during the songwriting process].

Leif: Yeah on a personal level sure, of course because he’s been with the band since ’96 but it just felt best for the band to move on and for him to take care of his personal stuff. We’re still friends, he plays with us whenever Marvin doesn’t have the time to. So we’re still together in a way but at the same time we lost him, we had more pressure on our shoulders so everybody had to display 125% of their abilities to make it come together again, so that was good.

Karma: It is always nice when the label is not giving the artist the flux.

Leif: Oh yeah, yeah! [Smiles] The record company doesn’t give us any pressure; they know that we’re very self-motivated and very self conscious. We’re very good at putting ourselves under pressure so they just pretty much wait for us to deliver. They pretty much. They don’t put in calls or give us advice that’s we just signed a new deal with them because they’re good people to us.

Karma: Congrats!

Leif: Thank you!

Karma:  What's your least favorite song off the album?

Leif: Least favorite, [pauses] may be it’s weird to say but I’ve got to say “Rituals of Time” which is the song that we use as a compilation song as a song to go on magazines and all that.

Karma: Hmm…why is that?

Leif: I don’t know, maybe because I heard it too many times…may be because I don’t feel the structure of the song is the very best but it has very good riffs. I’m not necessarily very happy with my vocals on it but…yeah! It’s just like asking me, well I happen to have twelve kids and which one is my least favorite. They’re all my kids and I’m not gonna put anybody down in particular. Eventually that song may work better in a live situation than it does on the record. It’s always 50/50.

Karma: How was it to work with Andy Classen, I understand that he was unsatisfied with certain aspects of the process; he stopped you during production…

Leif: [Nods head] …he told me right away, like when he mixed the record like then a couple of weeks later. He was like, [gives a grave stare] “Uh…”. “I think I could do better! I’m sorry” [Cheeks begin to flush] He’s just very, very critical. He’s a true artist, he’s never happy with anything he does. When he talked to me and he tells me how much he hates some of the vocals on his own records. You know, their brilliant albums and he’s like, “Yeah right”! He’s just a character; he’s just a super nice guy. He ended up mixing our second album [Innoscent] just because we had a problem with the sound. It wasn’t sounding good so I gave him a call and asked him if he could fix it. He said, “Well you guys are friends; I might try it”. [The band] was happy; we thought it was a good job.

Karma: It also said that Classen was attempting to gain clarity with your vocals, I think it’s really great that he is as thorough as he is making sure to produce optimal vocals, etc.

Leif: [Looks confused] What story is that?

Karma: It was in the same article.

Leif: Wow, I wouldn’t know to be honest. I think the only thing that happened on this recording process is I got sick and tired of recording, like I’m really annoyed with recording.

Karma: Obviously you’d pick touring to recording.

Leif: Oh yeah! [Smiles] Big time! Hundred times, million times, zillion times! [Chuckles] Recording is like putting a wild cat into a cage and telling it to have a good time, you know. You do it because you want to perform. Like I record an album because I want to go back to the States and play new songs, that’s my only [pauses] challenge. So I think the only problems we had or problem was that after a couple of days, we were not happy with a couple of the songs so I went back home for two days, and came back to do the songs again. But that was pretty much it, I don’t think anybody knows about this so that’s pretty weird. [Laughs] Maybe this goes back to something else, I just don’t know what. Andy was very happy with us. [Smiles]

Karma: Very nice to see musicians take their trade so seriously…

Leif: …is there people who are not serious? [Taken aback]

Karma: Oh, quite a few.

Leif: Really! [Look of incredulousness creeps across his countenance]

Karma: Unfortunately, yes.

Leif: That’s bad!

Karma: [Nods head] Do you think lyrics can make or break a band? This question has been posed to a couple of musicians thus far and I received some interesting answers. General consensus is they do not feel it is a big deal in the death metal genre to not really giving a damn and slapping some stuff together from drunken binge, etc. What are your thoughts on this, since you pour your heart and soul into yours?

Leif: I’m still getting used to the fact that no that many people care about lyrics but it doesn’t stop me from trying to give my 100% input. In the first line, everybody’s trying to please themselves so I’m not gonna write lyrics just because people don’t care. I want to please myself first or challenge myself or relieve something that I have in there. I think it’s a shame that people don’t put so much attention to lyrics but that’s really a death metal problem. A lot of people understand the vocals as another instrument and that’s fully what I think it is. It’s not about singing, I mean it’s really nice with a lot of melodies; it’s creating a vibe for the rest of the instruments so it’s being an instrument rather than being a poet or something like that. I still try to utilize the lyrics to pass some message, even if it’s a personal one.

Everybody should do whatever he wants to do. If somebody feels like writing meaningless lyrics, fine, you know. I’d like to say a really good album becomes even better with good lyrics, that’s how I put it. If an album is good and has shitty lyrics, it’s still good album. But those couple of brilliant records, like standout records like an album by Trouble for example being in Chicago, Manic Frustration, that album is great but the lyrics are so amazing that the album becomes a classic.

Karma: Going a step further with lyrics, yours are personal to you being you are a “personal” person, how does this paradox exist? Is it really meant for others for others to understand 100%?

Leif: Well, if they manage to, it’s fine. [Smiles] The stuff is well hidden; I don’t think a lot of the message are too much intimate, [or that] personal things shine through. I think the lyrics have sort of been direct on the last two albums. At the same time they are direct, they are not really easy to the point still. I used to write stupidly complex, I don’t know why, it just so happen to be that way. I think that’s getting better but at the same time even when I re-read the lyrics, I go like, “What the fuck”! So I don’t think I releasing anything there that I feel too bad about people knowing or understanding. I wouldn’t go that far.

Karma: Biggest lesson learned thus far after releasing six albums. Which lesson will you not repeat?

Leif: These are tough questions and the fact that I’m pretty tired, Jesus! [We all laugh]

Karma: I’m sorry!

Leif: [Smiles] It’s alright, it’s alright. In all honesty, it’s a good interview.

Karma: Thank-you. [Smiling]

Leif: What was the biggest lesson? Hmm…pick your friends. Pick your friends take care of them. There has been a lot of people that have been with us throughout the years from the bottom of their hearts supporting us, being good to us and we have been good to them. That’s very nice to see that we are using music and having a good time to make friends all over the place. [Smiles] Some others are not in for that, some others are fake. They will tell you whatever you want to hear because it’s their momentary flavor. Two years later, they’re going to be [doing the same thing] with somebody else. Fuck that! You’ve got to learn to pick your friends, especially in this scene that’s one important lesson.

Another one would be not to pay too much attention to what people tell you. I mean it’s good to get input, it’s good to get advice but by the end of the day it’s about yourself. If you don’t really feel what you’re doing, then it’s pointless and you mostly notice that when it’s too late. You already do a mistake before you notice that you did it and then it’s too late…so… I don’t think that any of the two have been a lesson that we’ve failed to learn. I think we are pretty much aware of those two things.

Karma: I’d like to touch on something else that contained in the same article, I am curious about the Neo-Nazi thing where you spoke of them attaching themselves to a band…

Leif: What? What do you mean?

Karma: Is there an issue of growing fan base of them, not as in the band, or was it just that isolated incident.

Leif: Zero! We’re a very, very left wing band and people know that!! We don’t have any right wing following. In about 500 shows, we’ve had one incident with right winged people in the audience and that was in France just because there were a lot of idiots at the show. We were just the support band for somebody else [Cannibal Corpse]. We don’t have any right winged following, so somebody said something like that?

Karma: I was something I was curious about that was all in this particular interview you had done where the subject came up.

Leif: You read a lot weird articles! We don’t have a right winged following and are very, very distanced from that. It doesn’t get more far away than from us. There are a handful of very outspoken bands about politics in Germany. We belong to them because we clearly want to stay away from that black metal scene that is playing with extremities also political and racial sense which to us, is just for one wrong. For second, it’s not a part of the music scene and for third, we don’t want to be affiliated with those people in general. That is a very weird rumor and wherever it came from, those guys have no clue it’s exactly the opposite.

Karma: Well, thanks for that. [Clears throat] Are there any new bands that you'd like to see blow-up next? Who should we be on the lookout for next?

Leif: You know a lot of those already split up because they were not getting the success they deserved. Psychotic Waltz, Cynic, Atheist, who else? You mean like newer, current bands?

Karma: Yes.

Leif: I think Into Eternity is a great band those guys should be bigger than they are.

Karma: I totally agree with you there!!

Leif: Those guys are amazing. Opeth has always been a favorite band of mine but they’re getting the success now so I’m not gonna wish them more. [Chuckles] No well actually, I wish them the best of luck! That’s a band on their first album [Orchid] I'm like, “Ahh, people should love this band” now they’re getting it, so that’s cool! [Smiles] Strapping Young Lad should be the biggest band in the world.

Karma: I hear you! Now if you could commission a band to do a Dew-Scented cover, who would do it and which song would it be?

Leif: [Laughs] This is going to sound very corny but, it’s going to sound extremely corny but I’m going to say… [Pauses] I would love to hear Tori Amos, my favorite artist…I mean she did a cover of Slayer, she did “Raining Blood” off their covers album, which was pretty mind-blowing. It was completely different. I don’t think she would be able to do a cover of ours because we don’t have anything that translates very well into piano; it’s too riffical for that. Just this is a very, very question; I’m going to give you a weird answer! [Smirks] It should be Tori Amos and she should be doing a song called… [Pauses] This is just weird… [Pauses] Maybe she should do “Unconditional” from the Inwards album just because there’s a lot of staccato in there, should sound weird on a piano.

Karma: Being a frontman yourself who in your opinion is the perfect epitome of a frontman?

Leif: I really liked Tomas [Lindberg] from At The Gates, I mean I still like whatever bands he’s involved with, I think he’s a great frontman. A frontman who played an instrument, I think David Vincent [Morbid Angel] was very good. He has a lot of character, a lot of presence on stage. I really liked Chuck Schuldiner from Death. I thought he was a great, great frontman even though he was very shy but he just had something that could fill a stage…that was a good one too.

Karma: If you could interview a band, name one that you would ask these of?

Leif: I think I have a couple of my favorites already done. [Smiles] I used to work for a magazine in the early 90’s, that’s how I got involved with the scene pretty much. I used to contribute to several different fanzines and magazines. I did interviews with Cynic, My Dying Bride, The Gathering when they were starting out. I had a couple of really good interview partners. Right now, I don’t know. I think for the same reason, Dan Swanö because that guy has been doing everything from producing, to playing in a pop rock band to a grindcore band. He’s a personality and I know him very well. Now that could get very touchy and would make me interested in doing it.

Karma: More role reversals, do you have any questions for me?

Leif: Yes, are you into Decapitated and are you sort of angry that you are not seeing them because you are doing this interview?

Karma: No, I am not angry at all!

Leif: That was too easy, right? [Laughs] [Without hesitation] So if you were playing in a band, what band would it be and what instrument would you be playing?

Karma: Well I would play bass.

Leif: Okay.

Karma: Which band would it be? Now that’s a hard one.

Leif: Not having to kick out your favorite bass player, you would just play along.

Karma: Wow!

Leif: Like you don’t have to get rid of Steve DiGiorgio to join Sadus, you don’t have to kick out.

Karma: I know I don’t have to kick him out, but Michael Håkansson of Evergrey.

Leif: Oh, but he’s cute…[Laughs]

Karma: Ahh, but there’s cuter!! [Laughs] No, I would play along side of Michael.

Leif: Okay. [Smiles]

Karma: Well thank you very much Leif, I appreciate it. Hope the rest of the tour goes well.

Leif: Well thank you! Those were very good questions actually. [Smiles]

Karma: [Smiles] Thank you, Leif.

I'd like to thank Leif for being a sweetheart and to Loana dP Valencia at Nuclear Blast for setting this interview up.

Click here for photos of tonight's show