Please, introduce yourself to our readers and name your area of responsibility in THE END.
I am Andrew Hercules I play guitar and write lyrics in the band The End. I am also responsible for our plus size female audience .
Your MySpace homepage says that your songs are the musically transfer of all economical and ecological grievances in our world. Did I get that right?
That is one persons opinion of our music. I would never want us to write our own bio that has always just seemed wrong to me. The truth is like the content of most music-industry related press. There is a flagrant use of hyperbole to make thing seem more interesting than they really are. Alas such is the nature of advertising and marketing in general. Really we are just a band that writes and performs songs the rest is entirely superfluous, but sure why not. If someone gets that out of the music then who is anyone to tell them theyre wrong. What do you know? What does anybody know?
How is the weight ration between your lyrics and the music when writing songs?
Equal we have extremely high standards of ourselves and in order for something to truly be good, it lies in the details and if thats the attitude towards the songs then the lyrics must always have that same quality or it just wouldnt be right.
How long does a THE END song take to grow up?
They are all still growing, we are always trying to find ways to improve the songs; now mostly in the live setting to make them the most effective. Other than that its hard to say some songs fall together right away and other songs will have small parts that we work on for months to make sure its right.
Do you follow some specific work concepts or do you just come together and jam?
It has to start somewhere usually a riff or a set of riffs that the band collectively arranges to everyones satisfaction. Sometimes it can be frustrating to please five different creative minds, but the end result is always for the better
Concerning your influences, the press names bands such as DILLINGER E.P., MASTODON and NEUROSIS. Does it bother you to be just compared? Does it feel like shadow-walking? Or do you feel honoured?
It comes with the territory; really were just another one of a thousand bands that gets compared to these bands everyday. Once a band reaches a certain level of notoriety then any upcoming band reasonably within the same genre will be compared to them. I am a fan of those bands and so I should be honoured, but I do genuinely feel like we have something very different to offer from the aforementioned bands.
How much do other bands affect your work or whence do you get inspiration?
Well other bands are the reason that we began this whole mess, so really they are the foundation of The End and without them we wouldnt exist. Music is a community that transcends the physical state and we evolve and grow together. No band is an island.
As far as you are concerned whats the most important point on writing and playing music? The message brought across to people by lyrics or the emotional side of musics intensity?
To rank one as higher would downplay the other entirely and thats not what its about. Balance, its about the balance and making each part deserving of the other.
On your new record Elementary, I wonder if its the Illuminates pyramid we can see on the cd cover and maybe a relation between it and the economic meaning of elementary?
The pyramid is an eternal symbol of power and focus. Ideals are powerful. People that idolize power are dangerous. You do the math.
Which band and country are next on your tour schedule?
We are currently heading to the states with Poison the Well, Fear Before The March Of Flames and Heavy Heavy Low Low on the eastern seaboard of the U.S and that should be a wholesome PG-rated good time. Ha Ha.
