Sister are currently getting ready to release their brand new album Disguised Vultures – read our review of it here. We caught up with bassist Rikki to ask him a few questions. Check them out below!
So 2014 has just begun – what’s in store for this year when it comes to Sister?
We will release our second album Disguised Vultures in the end of January and will tour in Scandinavia this spring. Thats the plans we have so far but we are all interested to hit the roads around Europe and follow up the great tours we had last year. The two tours we had in the UK were really good!
What went well about 2013?
We played in the UK for the first time opening for Wednesday 13 in March. Since we had been around most parts in Europe since the start of this band in 2006 it was cool to finally go there. Great crowds and great cities over there. And to go back there in November was cool. We did a few shows on our own and played the Hard Rock Hell festival in Wales. Hope to get our asses over there again soon.
And what perhaps didn’t go to plan?
Crashing our vans roof into the ceiling of a tunnel on the last tour while in Italy wasn’t according to the plan. Got a bump in the roof from the front window to the back hehe.
Where do you see the band at this time next year?
I think we did a really good job on the new album so I’m really looking forward to the release. We have toured playing the songs from our debut album Hated the last two and a half years so will be cool to put a few new tunes into the set. Recording is great and so on but we are mostly a live band and like to perform so at this time next year we will look back at a great year on the roads.
You’re currently getting ready to release your new album Disguised Vultures. Could you tell us a bit about the writing and recording process?
It was a bit different this time compared to the last album. Lestat, who was the former gutarist and main songwriter, left the band in the summer of 2012. He was a truly great composer but with Cari and Jamie writing the lyrics and the new guitarist, Tim, making alot of the music and guitar riffs, and all the work everyone did in the rehearsal and studio, I think we have more diversity on the songs on this album. When everyone contributes, I guess it can be like that. It all sounds very much Sister still as always and since everyone has been involved in pretty much everything in this band since the beginning we all have very clear pictures of what Sister should be and sound like.
Were there any tracks that were more of a challenge to complete?
Like always, some songs are done in one rehearsal session and just all the things just fits the right spots right away and some songs take a bit longer to make something of. Please Kill Me was one of those songs we had some ideas about but in the end just thought to hell with it we’ll just do what we have always done. Played it straight forward without any fuzz. But in the end we threw in some acoustic guitars and made an outro of the song anyway haha…
Are there any interesting stories from the studio?
Haha no drunk naked recordings like we have done in earlier recordings like the EP we released. We had a hidden track on that one which we called Chop The Top and we thought recording it naked and drunk as hell was the only right way to do it and in the end we all loved the result of the track. I really liked the fact that we recorded the drums, bass and rhythm guitar live on this album. It was an idea we got early because we wanted this album to sound more organic than on the first one. It really felt like the most natural thing so I’m sure we will continue recording like that in the future.
I adored the opener My Enemy especially, the bass in the intro was magnificent – could you tell me a little more about that track?
Cari had an idea of that verse part with the hard fast lyrics and we all thought it was a cool song. Pretty early we had some discussions about having the song as the opening song on the album so I got the idea that we should do like an intro part after a short verse with that bass line building up the real start of the song and I think the result turned out cool. Starts out like a punch in the face at first and then slows down and that heavy bass comes in. If you listen closely you can hear Jamie breathing in right before if all starts. We wanted that to be the start of the album. A big inhale, hehe.
Which one is your favourite on the album?
I think I have to say Naked at the moment at least. I like the mood of the song a lot. That dusty, low, raw feeling of the sound and the simplicity of the songs structure. I can listen to it over and over even though I’ve heard it a thousand times since the mixing of the album started.
If you could collaborate with another band or musician, who would it be?
We have worked with Martin Sweet from Crashdiet on both these albums so we know each others way of working pretty good by now. I dont have any band or musician in particular that I would like to work with or so. I could see us or me working with the people I know and respect in the future of course, but to name one fictional collaboration why not GG Allin if I can chose whoever living or non-living. Would spice up the recording sessions at least and we have done a few covers like When I Die and Bite It You Scum earlier.
And if you could get another band to cover one of your songs, who would it be and what song?
To hear GG singing Naked whould be a dream come true! Whould be fun to hear his version of it. Or why not a cover of Sick made by Roky Erickson? I would want to hear that.
And finally – if Sister could put their name to any product, what would it be?
We already have socks in the merch so we have that covered, so lets go with boxer shorts. So we get free ones and be able to actually change some times on tour hehe…
Disguised Vultures can be preordered from here.
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