Nora’s Frontman Is Sick of 50 Cent
MTV.com reports: The years following the release of 2003’s Dreamers and Deadmen have been none too kind to the dudes in NORA. There’s been anguish, bad luck, heartache and a couple of false starts — all of which had a hand in stymieing the composition and release of Save Yourself, the New Jersey metalcore mavens’ third full-length, which landed in stores late last month. And don’t forget about those pesky day jobs, and the cruel reality of getting on in years and all that comes with it — marriage, children, mortgages.
But nothing derailed the band’s plans as painfully and effectively as the 2004 drowning death of drummer Chris Ross‘ infant daughter, Jordana Rose Ross.
“After that, for all of us, NORA just kind of took a huge back seat to life in general,” explained frontman Carl Severson, who, by day, runs hardcore label Ferret Records. “For the next year or so, there wasn’t much movement on the NORA front; we actually started writing the new record at one point back in early 2004 and ended up scrapping five songs we’d gotten through. When we did start putting it back together a year and a half later, we sat back down and just hated those songs. So, we just holed ourselves up in the basement, and we spent a lot of time writing.”
Severson admits the guys were a tad rusty when it came to crafting cuts of sheer sonic brutality at first, given all the band had been through — but in time, it came back to the guys as if they’d never stopped.
“At first, it almost seemed like we were thinking too hard about the songs,” he said. “And then, you kind of get in it, and get in a writing groove, and we started churning out some pretty cool stuff — some of these songs are really slow and cool, which is something we’ve never really done before. This has quickly become my favorite record, and I think the songs are just really interesting.”
Despite Severson’s praise for the LP, Save Yourself has sold a mere 1,225 copies since its release; alas, NORA don’t have any touring plans at all, which will make it even harder to get the word out about the album.
Perhaps NORA went away for too long? Maybe their style could be considered, well, antiquated? A bushel of new bands have come along since Dreamers and Deadmen, helping advance the metalcore genre stylistically. Plus, the tastes of the headbangin’ public do change, even if the bands they love refuse to. Did NORA try to take a cue from some of the heads of metalcore’s new class during the crafting of Save Yourself? Not at all, Severson said.
“We didn’t go out to try to emulate any of the newer, younger bands, to stay relative,” he offered. “We went out and did what we did. We didn’t write to try to keep up with the new bands. We just tried to make it a little more aggressive than the last time, to fit our mood a little more.”
But from a lyrical standpoint, Severson did try to incorporate some of the band’s struggles into his verses and choruses.
“More so than anything we’ve done in the past, the inspiration for these songs came from what we had done personally, with our lives and our surroundings — our reaction to watching life and what it turned out like after what our drummer and his family went through, and how it all affected us,” he explained. “There was a four-year lapse between records, and a lot had happened to all of us since then, and it was just kind of getting a lot of that out. … The music scene we existed in — a lot had changed within that, and there is some reactionary stuff on the record, too, about that, particularly the song ‘Famous Last Words.’ That one’s about what our music community leaves us with now, which is a whole lot of stuff like f—ing 50 Cent. Stuff like that. It makes you miss Chuck D.”
On the label side of things, Severson has been busy signing new acts and organizing the annual Sounds of the Underground festival, which this summer features the likes of SHADOWS FALL, GWAR, EVERY TIME I DIE, CHIMAIRA, THE NUMBER TWELVE LOOKS LIKE YOU and more. He recently added 36 CRAZYFISTS and FULL BLOWN CHAOS to Ferret’s roster, and the label is one of many bidding on OVERCASTS‘ next one, Reborn to Kill Again.
Severson’s label will also release Viva la Bands: Volume 2, a collection of tracks from some of Bam Margera’s favorite acts.
“It’s awesome, because it’s kind of on a totally different, more kind of semi-commercial level than most of the stuff we’ve done,” he explained. “We will have a brand-new track from CLUTCH on there, from IN FLAMES, CHILDREN OF BODOM, PLACEBO — we’re getting to work with all these bands we haven’t had a chance to work with, and they’re all great bands. It’s also a way to introduce Ferret to a bunch of kids who’ve never heard of us before.”
The compilation, due in stores September 4, will also feature tunes by CKY, GWAR, PRIESTESS, DIMMU BORGIR, A LIFE ONCE LOST and MALEVOLENT CREATION.
(+57 rating, 22 votes)
damn straight.
I can’t even count how many things were just advertised to me in that one article.