Conjurer (Interview)
As I prepared to interview Conjurer drummist Jan Krause, I didn’t expect to end up covering Gary Numan, The Mills Brothers, or Peter Gabriel’s proclivity for onstage bike rides. But then, Conjurer are not exactly predictable – and with multiple festival appearances coming up this summer, expect the kind of batshit insanity I raved about in my Conjurer-related Underground Greats feature here, and enjoy an interview filled with awesome, thoughtful answers…
You’re set to lay waste to 2000 Trees 2018. What thoughts and feelings are floating around the Conjurer camp at the moment?
We’re all looking forward to festival season for very obvious reasons! It’s our busiest since starting, and we’ve actually been asked to play festivals we never really thought we’d play, alongside bands we never thought we’d play with.
It’s pretty cool when you stop and think about it. Which is usually only when someone asks you a question like this. So thanks!
If an elderly Daily Mail reader were to ask what you sound like, what would be your response?
My go-to response when anyone asks is “loud, shouty music,” which pretty much covers it, I think. They’ll normally then give you something to work with, like, “Oh, you mean like those AC/DCs?”, to which you can then reply, “Yeah, like AC/DC, but louder and shouty-er.”
The conversation will usually then drift onto the music they like, and quite often how they saw “that Ed Sheeran” on the telly the other night.
It’s not always with older readers of certain publications, but I do have this conversation quite regularly.
What’s the craziest thing that’s ever taken place during a Conjurer set?
We’re way too vanilla to have been involved in anything crazy that might have happened during a set, and I don’t pay anywhere near enough attention to what else is going on!
Conor’s shoe ended up flying off and hitting Dan the other week. I think there’s video footage of it. Does that count?
…I’m trying to come up with an answer that doesn’t start with “We were doing this gig in X and Y broke,” because there’s too many of these stories for my liking and they all make me sad! But I guess I should mention that time we were doing this gig in Bristol and the PA broke, but the room was so small and cramped that Dan and Brady just walked up to random members of the audience and shouted in their faces.
Oh, those crazy Conjurer boys, eh?
When you were growing up, which gigs had a real impact on you?
I vividly remember parts of my first ever gig, despite being about seven at the time. My dad took me to the old Carling Academy in Birmingham, specifically so that when I was “big and famous,” and asked what my first ever gig was, I’d have to reply, “Gary Numan.”
I remember him copying me a tape so I could listen to the songs properly beforehand (I was really into Cars); having a meal opposite the venue; seeing the queue to get in, and hearing his mate check I was “alright with the living dead” (referring to the New Romantic/Gothic/Cyberpunk types that were lining up)! And once we were in, I thought it was an open-air venue because there was a draft and it was so dark.
Being into Cars-era Numan, I was completely unprepared for the dark, industrial noise I was greeted with. I’m pretty sure he opened with Pure, and it was the loudest, brightest and most crushing assault on the senses I’d ever experienced.
I spent the whole gig sat on my dad’s shoulders in front of the sound desk, which gave me a great view of the stage but also meant that I spent large portions blinded by the light show. I remember Are Friends Electric? specifically, because I could just about make out the silhouettes of people’s hands cutting the air along to the “whoa-oh” bits. And then he did like three separate encores, and I heard someone say “He doesn’t wanna leave, bless him!”
That was the first of so many Numan gigs that I’ve lost count, and the heaviness he’s played with since I started going is probably the reason I got into metal in the first place.
Trivium on the Ascendancy tour was also a big one. They performed brilliantly, and every song in that set was a fucking banger – but it was the crowd that stuck with me that night.
I’d never seen any sort of “pit” before, and looking down on it from the balcony was mesmerizing. Being a tiny weakling who was generally more interested in the music, I was happy watching it all from a distance. But I knew then that when I “grew up,” I wanted to be in the middle of it!
What happened at the first gig you ever played?
People in suits did the Limbo. I think it was during Yellow Bird. I was seven or eight, and playing drums in a steel pan band for some dinner event at a hotel.
I’d probably done some gigs with the school band before, but this was the first proper paid function gig I ever did (not that I saw any of the money). I ended up playing the same disco beat with that band for the next five or six years.
Do you ever get nervous before going onstage? If so, what helps you deal with that?
I can’t remember the last time I was actually nervous before a gig, but I know that I had no way of dealing with it other than to just accept that I had to go on stage to do the thing, and just power through it.
I remember being slightly concerned before my first Esoteric gig, because I hadn’t played keys live much before that and the set-up had been a complete cluster fuck, but that’s about as far as it goes these days.
As well as your set at 2000 Trees, you’re also playing ArcTanGent – and I hear you have something special in the works. Can you tell us a bit more about that?
We’re actually playing twice at ArcTanGent. It’s an OG Conjurer set on the Friday, but a special collaboration with our label-mates Pijn on the Thursday, titled Curse These Metal Hands!.
Does it have anything to do with Peep Show? Not that I’m aware of (my suggested name of Pigeon Wizard was rejected) and I won’t give too much away about the set.
Just be aware that this isn’t some comedy bit; it’s a proper set, with proper songs – and I’m hopeful the ArcTanGent crowd will enjoy it.
If money, space, and good taste weren’t issues, what would your ideal festival stage show look like?
We’ve only just agreed to think about having a backdrop, because apparently we’re a bunch of “it’s all about the music, man” purists. But if we were to do something, I’d make sure we were revolutionizing the very concept of a “stage show.”
First off, the stage is going in the middle of the park, with the crowd all around it. Around them, you have this big, fuck-off, abandoned city – all a bit dilapidated, but still standing. Once the gig starts, however, whether by the power of stage hands and magic string, or some sort of hypothetical, future-holodeck-technology nonsense, this city starts falling the fuck down!
It’s the apocalypse. Every beat becomes either a seismic shock, a clap of lightning, or some sort of massive explosion that tears away at the surrounding buildings. There’s obviously pyrotechnics everywhere, and projectiles (confetti, let’s be real) fired around by hot air, that fall from the sky like volcanic, fiery rain during any blast-beat section.
Sure, you get brief respite during the clean bits. It allows time for “embers” to settle amongst the dust. Maybe you’ll even get a light shower of rain to cool you off. But once the next riff drops it’s back to absolute chaos.
By the end of the set, there is nothing left but smoking wreckage circling the arena, that you are forced to walk by in order to exit, beaten and drained.
Also, the stage is circular and spins around. It’s basically that Peter Gabriel bit where he rides his bike about during Solsbury Hill, but more metal – and during the apocalypse.
Beyond 2000 Trees and ArcTanGent, what do you have planned for the rest of the year?
After festival season (which also includes UK Tech-Fest and Bloodstock), we’ve got a few “one-offs” (and maybe also a “two-off”) followed by a UK tour with Conan at the end of the year.
We’re hitting a few places we haven’t been to in a while, so make sure you check “the socials” [Facebook here; Twitter here] for more info.
Conjurer play the Neu Stage at 2000 Trees 2018 on Friday July 13.
Follow me on Twitter for updates!
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