Neurosis: "it takes effort to fold time and space."

Thrasher Magazine, April, 2005 by Michael Coyle

NEUROSIS HAS BEEN MAKING HEAVY and intense music that does not--and has never--fit into whatever fad cliche the mainstream media has been passing off as hard rock. Neurosis are a dense trip, a sensual overload, and the band best suited to be making the soundtrack to this slow apocalypse we all dwell in. There has never been anything pretty about Neurosis in their almost 20-year career, yet their music holds an element of supreme fascination, of primal release. They mess with your head and soothe your savage beast. It's like guitarist Steve Von Tills tells us, they'll always be the "freak in the corner." Their 12th album, The Eye of Every Storm, finds the band brooding in a dark and psychedelic limbo--never quite exploding like they did in the past, but still building unnerving tension like thunderheads on the horizon.

Did Neurosis tour in support of this new album?

We're not playing shows like we used to. We don't just go out and play a regular gig anymore. It's got to be something super special or it's not worth our time. We've paid all our dues, we've been out there, we're in the 1,000-plus club. What we're doing at our shows now is a two-and-a-half hour set with no other bands so we can totally dominate the evening with us controlling the vibe 100-percent. We have a very well constructed, very planned set. We don't improv; we have very meticulous planning to make sure the flow is appropriate for the peaks and valleys of the show. It takes effort to fold time and space in a two-and-a-half hour set, because if you don't do that it is just boring.

We're just concentrating on playing the few cities around the world that we enjoy playing, with promoters who we enjoy working with. We all have jobs so it's hard to get in a van anymore and go out for three months at a time. So we're just going to fly to a city, destroy it, and come home, then maybe do another one the next month.

You had full creative control when you were on a major label. Why would you want all the extra work of managing your own label as you are now?

It's a practical business matter. You know, why have an extra hand in the pot? Being with Relapse was great, because they had way more money and they could promote and spend money on us. But we were always the freak in the corner, no matter how much money you spend on marketing.

Neurosis shows always intertwine the visual and the audio. In fact, you have a full-time visual artist who is a part of the band. It seems like it might be a natural thing for you to make a movie--ever thought of that?

We have got a couple of different ideas brewing right now. I don't want to voice them because I don't want anyone to jinx them. We've always wanted to do a soundtrack for someone else's film because we're not necessarily filmmakers ourselves. But in the last few years of working very closely with Josh Graham, our visual guy, it's given us a little bit more confidence that we could actually pull something off together.

You guys chose to work with the great producer Steve Albini again on The Eye of Every Storm. Why do you like working with him?

With Steve, we know we're going to sound exactly how we sound. He's the master of not messing with stuff. There's no bullshit. We set up and within a matter of hours we're doing final takes. He doesn't care what sound it is that you want, he just has no opinion about your music. If we have some gnarly, totally gross guitar song his job is to capture it. And he does that very well.

You've been around for nearly 20 years. I don't think I can name 10 bands off the top of my head that have done that. What is your secret?

The nature of Neurosis is to surrender ourselves to this bigger thing. To us Neurosis is not some mental creation, not some ego trip. We don't sit around and go, "look at these great songs we write." It's more ... there's no good way to talk about it, but it's definitely something more spiritual to us. We are more like mediums and the music flows through us. We've never had to deal with success or fame so it couldn't ever go to our heads. But the music has always felt like the most important thing, so we're willing to deal with the personal bullshit that comes up.