Although music has much in common with mathematics, sometimes the art of sound confidently defies mathematical laws. An example of this is the American band All Them Witches. On their last album they performed as a quartet with guitar, bass, drums and keyboards, on the new CD "Nothing As The Ideal" they lost the keyboard player, and yet they sound fuller and more diverse than ever before. For drummer and band founder Robby Staebler this is the logical consequence of a natural development. "We didn't do anything different with the record than we did with the albums before," he states dryly, as if he was talking about his neighbour's new garage. "We don't need a reason to do anything, we're just playing around with some ideas. Some things work out, others don't. Our only plan was to bring in new music."
Tight words for an album that can hardly be surpassed in its wealth of details, references and narrative power. Each song describes its own universe, but together they form a powerful narrative. No wonder, since Staebler is strongly influenced by soundtracks. "We want to achieve the most cinematic effect possible with the music. It would be a dream to write real soundtracks for films sooner or later. For the album we had to imagine the pictures ourselves, which we then illustrated with sounds."
Staebler and Co. rely entirely on their intuition. They make their decisions spontaneously and from the gut, Staebler emphasizes. What feels good for the three protagonists also works on the record. "Like all other people, we change. What seems right to us today no longer has to work tomorrow. We work on things until we can all be satisfied with them. We don't know when that moment will come."
