Long Distance Calling have long since established themselves in the German postrock and new art rock scene. After a good ten years in the business and two albums with vocals, the Münster-based instrumental rock quartet now returns to its origins and creates one of its strongest statements with the new work "Boundless".
Bassist Jan Hoffmann sees many things critically in the previous work of his band Long Distance Calling. He is, however, satisfied with the current situation that the Group has worked through over the years. Which is not only, but also due to the new album, as he emphasizes in the interview with eclipsed.
eclipsed: "Out There", the opener of the new album, goes straight to the top.
Jan Hoffmann: Yes, we wanted to fall right into the house with the door. After the last two albums with vocals there was some uncertainty with us. The album is indeed harder in some places than we ever were. That's just how it developed when I was writing.
eclipsed: On the other hand, on "Boundless" you also play with the contrasts loud/quiet and fast/slow.
Hoffmann: Despite all the harshness, melodies must also be present. This dynamic is important to us. We've reached a point in the footage where we thought: This is going to be pretty heavy, we also need quiet songs.
eclipsed: You have remembered your roots on "Boundless" and simply went to the studio with four of you, without guest musicians. Why the recollection?
Hoffmann: We had written our first three albums together. Everything was simple. We had singers and guest musicians on albums four and five. That was difficult, not all of them were always available. Although we have different musical backgrounds, the four of us get on the same wavelength quickly. That's how we feel most comfortable. The atmosphere in the studio was more relaxed than it has been for a long time.
eclipsed: So the vocal experiment has been shelved. Has it succeeded or failed?
Hoffmann: Neither. This had no influence on the sales figures of the albums. Some thought it was good, some thought it was bad. In any case, it was an instructive experience for us. I think our songwriting is much better now. When you write songs with vocals, you need to pay more attention to songwriting. Our new album wouldn't have been like this if it hadn't been for them before. By the way, everything we wrote for the album also landed on the album. There are no outtakes. Labels or producers would like more material. But we don't want that. The songs have to be really good, too. Instead of twenty good songs we'd rather make eight very good ones.
