Earthtone9, were a nu-metal group, formed in 1998, who really took off after their 2000 album arc’tan’gent. It is ten years since that release and to celebrate that anniversary the group have released a 16 track greatest hits compilation, entitled, Inside Embers Glow, the group are also embarking on a small tour and playing at this year’s Damnation Festival. I interviewed the group’s singer Karl Middleton, to find out more about the revival and see why it all went wrong in the first place, back in 2002, when seemingly things were going so well.
The group have often been asked about getting back together, there where stumbling blocks in the way for the group including fall outs within the group, “the main personality clash in the band was between Owen (Owen Packard - the bands guitar player) and Si (Simon Hutchby – the band’s drummer) so it depended upon them becoming friends again.” All that is in the past though and the band have put aside any earlier fall outs to get together and perform again.
The prospect of new material is a possibility, the group have strongly stated that anything they do now will require everybody to agree and be happy with, though if things work out during the renaissance of the group, new material could be on the horizon. “It’s really about us getting back together because arc’tan’gent is ten years old now and we thought it would be really cool to celebrate that”“Its early days at the moment we're hoping there’s a possibility of us doing new stuff but it’s not something we're actively thinking about all we need to do, is do some shows see what comes up in sound checks. See if there’s a real buzz and chemistry there and then if new stuff comes up we need to decide if we believe it sounds better then we’ve done before and if it’s still relevant.”
The band split mainly due to silly differences in the group, Karl explained how intense it is being in a band, especially when you live with the other band members also. “You can only spend so long in a room with the same people, being in a band is quite intense.” He went onto explain further that a lack of personal space caused arguments to come from insignificant matters. “It just meant there was never really any personal space and then relatively insignificant things can mean great significance when you’re in them circumstances and it just reached a point where we were stonewalling each other.”
Asked about the changes in the group created by line up changes, Karl explained that musically the original bass player Graeme Watts and the rest of the group where going in different directions. “When I look back on it I can see that the original bass player Graeme, his musical taste was quite varied and he had a busy style of bass playing and that had quite an influence on the bands playing and it really shone through that he was the one that was really pushing the envelope and making new arrangements so when he left I think we became more stream lined and more on the same page in terms of writing while still remaining quite left field and trying to keep the listeners on their toes. It just became a little more honed because Graeme’s influence wasn’t there.”
The group started out in the late 90’, so how has the music industry changed in their eyes, especially after an eight year gap with the group. Karl told me that the internet had changed things dramatically, MySpace, MP3’s, downloading music and streaming, where all mentioned. “The Internet which allows you to talk to people and do marketing in the crassest of ways and the ways people use computers to listen to music, when I was a kid it was taping tracks and then burning CD’s but now very few people buy or listen to CD’s it all MP3’s or even streaming music from online.”
So is all this a good or bad thing? Karl explained that it is a two sided coin, seeing positives and also negatives from the new age of music and the way the internet has shaped the music industry. “Whilst there’s much more opportunity for people to listen to music it’s also harder to get people to pay attention to what you’re doing because there’s so much stuff out there.”“It has improved, although the dynamic changes a little. In theory you can be in a band now, you can record an album at home to a reasonable enough standard and then if things fall in the right places and you do some good shows, some dudes that work for Columbia or Geffen could listen to your MySpace page, decide that he likes what you’re doing and try and sign up your demo to their label. It seems things can happen more quickly without the ground work.”
The group’s music is quite varied, everything from heavy nu metal through too much softer, almost indie music is on offer as anybody who picks up or downloads a copy of the groups greatest hits collection ‘Inside Embers Glow’ will find out. Karl admitted to enjoying the heavier stuff more, stating that it was closer to the music he and the group enjoyed, however he denied that the group where particularly experimental, stating that they generally just played what they enjoyed and felt was good.
The group had everything in place musically to have a go across the pond and tackle the USA scene, Nu Metal was at its height of popularity, but the band failed to do so, Mark believes this was due to image more than anything and the humour associated with the band. “I don’t think people took us seriously, because humour is difficult to make work, especially with the style of music we were playing.”
The group certainly had a good run during their 4 years, they produced 5 records, including arc’tan’gent in 2000, which was definitely the group’s most prominent work.
Bad feeling, perhaps the wrong image for the musical style they were playing and perhaps a little frustration all cut the group’s days short, however Earthtone9 are back now and with the possibility of some new material, I am sure fans will be looking forward to what may be on the horizon.
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