At first listen, Azusa might seem a bit of an anomaly, but after diving deeper into the weird, discordant, beautiful and harmonious sounds of their stellar debut album Heavy Yoke, it makes perfect sense. Boasting two founding members of the quietly influential, prog metal juggernaut Extol, bass extraordinaire Liam Wilson of the legendary Dillinger Escape Plan, and Eleni Zafiriadou of the obscure Dutch indie-pop duo Sea + Air, a common thread can be found: all are extremely talented musicians whose previous output is of the purest artistic intent, and they've never been constricted by boundaries of any kind.
Drummer David Husvik and guitarist Christer Espevoll both founded Extol in 1994 alongside Christer’s brother, Peter, and guitarist Ole Borud, and the band would become one of modern metal’s most unsung heroes before disbanding in 2007. They released an incredible reunion album in 2012, but have once again gone quiet. Countless modern metal musicians cite Extol as a huge influence, and it’s easy to hear their distinguished presence in Azusa. Along with Fleshkiller, Ole Borud’s new project whose 2017 debut Awaken was a natural continuation of Extol’s 2012 self-titled album, Azusa, too, seems to pick up where Extol left off while bringing in the sonic fingerprints of the other bandmates’ backgrounds, making for a familiar yet compelling listen that’s hard to turn away from.
Much of this freshness can be attributed to Eleni’s haunting vocals, which carry over the harmoniously discordant riffs and driving rhythms. A mix of harsh screeches and a soft, airy croon, her vocal style is certainly not typical of this style of music, but it is a key part of Azusa's sonic identity. A good reference point for Azusa is the angular riffing of Extol with a female vocalist, but such a simple description would do the richness of the band a huge disservice. Indeed, there's hardly another band like Azusa in existence.
So, how then, did Azusa form, and how did their debut masterpiece Heavy Yoke come to fruition? David Husvik was kind enough to fill us in on the genesis of Azusa, touring plans, and more.
How did Azusa come to be? How did your relationship with Liam from The Dillinger Escape Plan form? What about Eleni?
David Husvik: The start of it was pretty much a result of Christer and I entering the same room and writing music again after a 10-year break. As you may know, the two of us founded Extol in 1993 and worked closely together all the way until Synergy and the following tours to support the album. Azusa is the natural continuation of that same creative exploration – a journey that is far from completed, in my opinion. It came to my attention at some point that Liam had a fascination for Extol, and this made me very curious. What could come out of a collaboration with such a talented and interesting bass player? We reached out to him and he was immediately interested. We didn’t even have to convince him, haha! I met Eleni back in the early 2000's. She's from Germany and had a punk hardcore band called Jumbo Jet. Her intense, psychedelic live performance made such a strong impression on me, so when the idea of a female singer came up, she came to my mind right away.
There was no teasing or hype for your first single, "Interstellar Islands," which is the complete opposite of what a lot of bands do. Why'd you decide to release it that way?
David Husvik: Building expectations for new music and band constellations, especially for new bands with members of a certain reputation and history, will often disappoint fans because of their strong opinions on what their favorite band should sound like. Living up to such expectations can be really hard, if not impossible. Thus, with Interstellar Islands and Azusa we chose a surprise strategy to avoid dealing with false hopes and unnecessary pressure from the outside.
With all the members of Azusa being spread around the globe, what was the writing process like for Heavy Yoke? How many times have you guys jammed in a room together? How does it feel when that happens?
David Husvik: As you can imagine we had to gather a few times in order to create the songs for the album, and all the traveling is not cheap. There is a lot of “sending files back and forth” going on – I think most bands work this way these days. It doesn't matter if you live in the same city or ten thousand miles apart. This is the nature of songwriting in 2018. Playing together in the same room is not something we get to do much, so every chance we get is very valuable to all of us. And the chemistry is undoubtedly there.
You and Christer come from a Christian background with Extol. How much input did you guys have as far as the lyrical content goes, and are any Christian themes present?
David Husvik: Well, most people know where I come from, and I can only speak for myself; my faith will always affect my creative outcome. I simply can't hide it. But in Azusa we are four individuals with different background and stories, and we all contribute to the songwriting. If you go in and “dissect” our songs, you'll probably be able to trace all four of us. Without going into detail, I can confirm that some of the lyrics can be categorized as “Christian theme,” but maybe in a different direction that one might expect. As you get older and gain more life experience, certain aspects of faith/religion that you earlier took for granted needs to be challenged; life and faith seems less black and white now than in the youth.
The album cover for Heavy Yoke and subsequent single covers have pretty striking visuals, as do the music videos you've released thus far; very monochromatic and abstract. What was the idea behind these visuals and their relationship to the music?
David Husvik: The artwork for the album and all the singles is made by artist and photographer, Rewinda Omar. Her images go really well with both our music and lyrics, a constant play with contrasts – the hidden, the obvious, the chaotic and the peaceful. An uncomfortable search for truth, balance and harmony.
Does Azusa have any plans to tour, perhaps even in the U.S.?
David Husvik: The answer to that is yes! The U.S. is such an important territory for us. Extol toured there 5 times, and this is where Liam is based, so I don’t see why not. Currently we have agents looking into different options. In 2019, there should be a good chance of catching an Azusa show in the United States of America.
I have to ask: What's the current status of Extol? With Ole doing Fleshkiller and you in Azusa, what's Peter up to? Will Extol release new music any time soon?
David Husvik: We could do a whole separate interview on this subject I guess, haha. I'm afraid there is not much happening with Extol these days. Ole and I actually started working on a new album, after the self-titled one, but with Peter out of the picture, it felt weird to continue. At the time, I had already started Azusa with Christer, and the inspiration for another Extol album just wasn't there. The fusion of the Fleshkiller and Azusa song material could potentially have resulted in some very interesting songs, but it would be too painful for all of us to get there. Ole’s level of musicianship is higher than ever, and he has developed his own direction with Fleshkiller that seems to work well for him. The experimental avant-garde jazz fusion thrash that Christer and I explore seems to get weirder for each new song and drifts more and more away from the Extol sound. I don't know if we can find back to the chemistry that we need to pull it off, but you never know. Miracles have happened before in the Extol camp.
