It's not often you'll be at a live show and have some band you've never heard take the stage and capture your attention right away. I mean, usually when you go to a show you know the bands that will be there, but this isn't always the case. Take for instance a few months back when I was at The Red Shed in Caro, Michigan. This is an (unlicensed - hooray!) establishment that's seen its share of bands play there over the last twenty years. Bands well known and bands not well known. On this night, The Red Shed had one of its many all Michigan shows, and as I said earlier, I had never heard of any of the bands on the bill that night. A few bands played that I didn't pay much attention to and I opted to take the time to talk to a few friends of mine instead. Mainly Ken, my buddy that owns and puts on shows at The Red Shed. This one band went on though, and as soon as they started playing, I was like "Whoa! Ken, who the fuck is that?". He says "They're called Harvyst. They're from Kalamazoo. They drove like three hours to come up here and play". I watched their entire set, and they kicked ass! They're some sort of cross between Death Metal, Industrial Metal and on top of it all, they're a jam band that takes the five or so minute songs off their albums and stretches them out in the live setting to ten minutes or so. Very cool, and very unique. The keyboardist was playing blindfolded and his this blood dripping out of his eyes. It was quite the experience! Join me as I sit and talk with Harvyst vocalist/bassist Aaron Klamer about the many oddities and unique details surrounding his band.

Aaron: Who I am? Philosophers have spent years on such questions, lifetimes even, with unsatisfying results. And I'm supposed to wrap it up in a few lines for an interview? Heh, just kidding. I'm Aaron. My duties in the band include playing bass, doing vocals, writing lyrics, booking, Website updates, promotions, and moving Collin's equipment. Other slaves to the cause include Randy on drums and electronic percussion, Ian on keyboards, samples, and vocals, and Collin on guitar & backing vocals. They all also do booking & promotions (and moving Collin's equipment), and Collin is our artwork and equipment moving avoidance specialist.

Aaron: Well, there's not really a concise answer to that question. To an extent the Harvyst sound was formed before I even joined the band, though it has obviously changed over the years with lineup & equipment changes and musical maturation. I'd have to say that the improvisational aspect has become more and more prominent however, as have the electronics. To sort of directly answer your question though, I'd say it's more the former than the latter. We definitely didn't consciously discuss combining metal, industrial and improv. I think the guys had a vague idea at the beginning to do some sort of industrialish weird metal thing, but at that time a lot of the music was written by our old guitar player Marty. When I first joined the band the direction was pretty wide open. To me it sort of sounded like Godflesh, who were and are a big influence on me, so at first I sort of made it my priority to make the band sound as much like Godflesh as possible. But I've backed off on that quite a bit as our own sound has developed. Randy and I have definitely made a movement in the last couple of years in a more "jam band" direction (still within the context of our sound). When we lost Marty and gained Collin, we sort of had the chance to mold him into what we wanted, at least to an extent, so we were able to sort of fine-tune our sound in the process into what we were already beginning to see was working as a new, unique style. And that was sort of our goal all along, to do something original, new, and different.

Aaron: Well it's hard to pinpoint specific bands as a group influence, just because we all listen to such a wide range of stuff. I myself listen to lots of extreme metal, but also tons of stuff you can sort of put under the umbrella of "Jam Rock" and "jazz," though both of those "genres" encompass tons of different kinds of music. I think as far as influences on the band, it sort of depends on what part of the song and who's playing it, you know? We all have our own musical history and tastes that we bring to the music, and our songs come from different places at different times. Speaking for myself, I already mentioned Godflesh - G.C. Green's percussive walls of distorted bass were a big influence on me, especially when I started playing more "industrial" forms in Harvyst. Before that, my biggest influences on bass were Geezer Butler, Les Claypool, and Jaco Pastorius. In the past couple years I've received an enormous amount of inspiration from Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead. I always liked Geezer because of the way he would sort of jam on the chord changes in a rambling, rhythmic way. I later discovered King Crimson who also do some of this, but Phil is pretty much the master at that sort of thing. He can play a whole song without doing the same lick twice, but it all sounds perfectly natural. I also think that his education in music composition gives him a unique sense of the bass guitar's role in music. He uses it almost like strings in an orchestra, playing these interweaving lines with Garcia. I've also received a great deal of inspiration from Miles Davis. That stuff is all more just an influence on my bass playing itself though, not the band or our music per se. I think we are all influenced by metal to an extent, and we all have our favorites in the industrial/ambient/electronic area. Ultimately though, I think we have developed our own sound to the point where we're influenced more by ourselves than by other bands specifically.

Aaron: I'm happy to have participated in the kicking of your ass. "Ergot" is my personal favorite on the CD as well. I think it turned out a little better than the others, and I really enjoy the layered percussion in the bridge. At one point there is 3 tracks of percussion over top of the normal drum set. As a listener I always enjoy stuff with lots of sonic depth and "layering" like that.

We recorded the demo at "Crescent Studio," which is really just the computer of a guy who I used to be in a band with. Anyway we recorded it in one of those newfangled digital recording programs, like Cubase or something like that. We recorded the drums in a rehearsal space and then layered everything on top of that. We plugged right into the PC and used amp simulators. I was really happy with the super-distorted-yet-clear bass sound I got.

Aaron: Well, I wrote all the lyrics on the demo, but Ian is going to be writing lyrics on stuff as well now. Typically my lyrics are about what is sometimes called "existential angst" - basically the psychic suffering caused by the knowledge that there is no God, and no great meaning to life. I did a lot of reading about existentialist philosophy in college and I've taken a lot of lyrical inspiration from the ideas, especially since the bands I'm in tend to be so bleak sounding! I also like to write about psychedelic experiences, but in a somewhat cryptic way. I like to run through songs for a while before I try to write lyrics so I can get an idea of what vowel sounds work best in certain places and how many syllables lines need, so often that can sort of dictate what lyrics end up happening. I like to write in a stream of consciousness style and arrange it more concisely later.

Aaron: Well I don't know if I'd call it "widely distributed," but yeah, AcidVictim Records helped us out by doing a limited run of it. It's really helping us out as far as getting our name out there, since they're sending a bunch to 'zines and whatnot. I don't have too much to say about it, other than that we're pretty grateful that there's people out there who appreciate what we do.

Aaron: Well, we're not too picky, we're not in this to be rock stars, so we don't have a money guarantee or anything like that. We're just eager to bring our musical vision to new places and new people. It's hard to say exactly how many shows a year we play, mostly because of the situation until this year with our former keyboardist/vocalist. He was often in jail, in the mental ward, or otherwise "unavailable," so we were often held back by that. I anticipate us playing more shows next year, not only because of Ian being a lot more reliable, but also because we have a more professional looking press kit to send to venues, thanks to the label and everything. We also have a new (used) band van that we can fit all of our equipment plus all 4 guys in, so we are even thinking of doing a little mini-tour next spring if we can find the time to put one together.

As far as studio vs. live, any band who does a fair amount of improvising in a live setting will typically sound better in that environment. The Grateful Dead for example were notorious for never capturing their true essence in the studio. I know that we tend to take it way more "out" when we play live then we did on "Winter," this can often lead to a better overall musical experience because there will typically be more dynamics that way. Also when you are improvising and the audience knows it, they are right there with you experiencing the music as it happens. It's an addictive experience and can be credited among other things with the long popularity of jazz.

The next time we record we definitely want to try to capture more of our live aspect, probably do most of the recording live. That's what we did with our first demo "No More Light" and I think the improv aspect came through a bit more on that one. We're also going to be making a concerted effort to start recording all our shows. I obtained a used mini-disc recorder last fall and we've been getting some decent recordings with that. Ideally I think we'd like to have a setup where we can record a soundboard mix independently of the house mix, and blend that with an audience mic.

Aaron: Somehow I doubt it's the ONLY place that has that! Haha! Yeah, we always have a great time at the Shed. We don't want to overexpose ourselves there (no pun intended), but we definitely love to play there at least a couple times a year.

Aaron: Yeah, we would have liked to go on earlier (though that's not the latest we've gone on at the Red Shed), but it was a good time. There was a small group of dedicated partiers there that night who really appreciated our performance, so I don't think it was a waste of time just based on that. Personally I was a little disappointed that we broke our 2 show "streak" of an audience member getting naked. I guess I'll blame it on the cold!

Aaron: Unfortunately Sauron had to cancel at the last minute due to health issues, but we had a good show with Girl Scout Hand Grenade. The turnout was a bit disappointing, there was a big show at the same venue 2 days after we played with some popular local metal bands and I think that may have hurt us a bit.

I actually haven't heard Sauron yet, but I've been friends with the drummer since his days in Somber. I was really looking forward to seeing them, so I was as disappointed as anyone when they canceled. We always love playing with Girl Scout Hand Grenade. They're all good people and they're one of the few Michigan bands in the same musical galaxy as us.

Aaron: Actually a show with this lineup is already being worked on for the Lansing area. I'm not sure what's up with it at the moment because Summon's drummer quit (again), so I'm not sure if they'll be available, but I'm fairly certain that Harvyst and Sauron at least will be playing a show together in Lansing in January or February, and probably again later in the year somewhere else too. But as far as your question, yeah, we'd be into that. I haven't seen Summon in a while but I've been seeing them since the "Fire Turns Everything . Black" demo days, with their old drummer. I have yet to play a show with them though.

Aaron: Usually it's the most recent one, because we keep getting better (in my opinion). However one that stands out in Harvyst legend is this outdoor show we played a couple years ago called "Harrystock." We played for like an hour and a half as the sun went down and a huge bonfire went up right in front of the stage. It was a great environment to play music in. It was also cool because it was one of the first times we really got to hang out with the Girl Scout Hand Grenade crew, and we even had Jacob sit in with us during the "Drums" portion of our set.

Aaron: We're currently working on setting up some shows for the next few months, nothing has been nailed down yet though. We're planning on going back into the studio early next year, tentatively February. Hopefully we'll be recording a full length, but we'll have to see what our studio and time constraints are at the time. We definitely want to record something soon though because "Winter" was recorded with our former keyboardist. We need something with Ian on it. We've also been playing around with the idea for a while of adding a 2nd guitarist and/or a percussionist, so we very well may do that at some point.

Aaron: Well I wouldn't really call Kalamazoo a "big city," but I guess it's all about perspective. Personally I really enjoy living here, at least certain aspects of it. I've always thought it's the perfect size - not too small, but not too big either. I wish there was more a musical and cultural scene, but it's pretty good for West Michigan. The university helps give it a bit more of a liberal flavor that most of this area, which is sort of the northernmost part of the bible belt.

Aaron: Well, it's not that great, but it seems like it is getting better. There are a decent amount of good bands these days, but not many places to play, and it seems like it is really hard to get people to come out to shows. Even when national metal bands like Eyehategod and Grave have played here in the past, like 20 people showed up. It seems like there is more going on in Grand Rapids these days. It's hard for us to fit into any "scene" though. Sometimes it seems like we are too jammy for metalheads and too metal for jam fans.

Aaron: Yeah, my first appearance as a Worm Gear writer was in the final print issue. I have been on "hiatus" for the past year or so as I moved into a new house and other stuff, so I'm not currently listed on the "staff" page, but I still have some reviews up on the site and will be making my triumphant return to reviewing in the next couple weeks. I enjoy writing reviews but I find the endless stream of shit music being churned out by the metal scene machine kinda frustrating. There are so many bands that do not need to exist, if you know what I mean. They offer absolutely nothing that hasn't been done better by other bands. But it's so easy these days with computers being widely available to start your own label, so more and more bands are getting undeserved distribution/recognition. I'm sure there are people out there who feel the same way about Harvyst, but it's how I feel nonetheless. It's been quite a while since I did an interview, the coolest ones I got to do were phone interviews with Fenriz of Darkthrone and Jonas of Katatonia. Those were for an old Webzine I wrote for called Gnosis Zine.

Aaron: Thanks for the interview and support. To stay abreast of all the Harvyst happenings, see www.harvyst.com