Welcome to In Conversation, a special interview column on the site where we sit down with artists and dive deep into everything music. This week, Joe H sits down with Jared Klein, drummer of Rivers of Nihil, to discuss the band’s brand new album, touring, and other music he’s been listening to.
What is it that makes The Work such a special record?
We went into a different realm and put a couple of more 70s elements into it. Some very depressing and industrial stuff. It’s a super dark record musically and lyrically. It’s cool and has that theatrical style to it. In a sense, it seemed like a movie, and like I was listening to a movie soundtrack pre-production. It’s really different and we went a different route lyrically. We pushed ourselves lyrically to make it different all round.
There’s a lot of reoccurring themes such as with “Terrestria” bringing that back. There’s a lot of tour jokes, and field recordings. It takes more than one listen to digest it.
Would you be perceive it be some of your best work?
I would say so, I’ve done a lot more vocal work on this one than I did on Owls.
Do you agree that’s it’s album you would want to listen to start to finish rather than cherrypicking a few songs?
I would say so, there are some days when I want to listen to a song but you have to listen to the album in order. Anytime I listen to it, I listen to I listen to it in full. I make sure I have nothing to do or when I’m driving around town running errands, I’ll just play the album. It is my favourite work to date, we all pushed ourselves. I tried to keep things simple drum-wise this time, while keeping some tech death elements. I just wasn’t sure when I would be singing, or what parts I would singing over. I was cautious before finding out what parts I would be singing on.
Do you perform vocals and play drums when live?
Yep, I did that on The Black Dahlia Murder tour we just did. We played “Focus”, “Clean” and “Void” and I sing on all of those. It’s a little fucked but it takes a second to get used to. I don’t sing on “Tower II” or “More“, but I sing on every other song besides those two. I did sing on three or four songs from Owls too.
What was it like getting back into touring after the time off?
We took the time to get used to our equipment again and practiced for two weeks. We were all practicing and it was nearing towards the first day of tour, we were just like “is this really happening?”, “is this going to happen?”. We were thinking it was going to get cancelled, with the luck of the most of the tours that are getting cancelled. Our Faces of Death tour got postponed and we weren’t really sure what was going on.
Once we got into tour mode and it took me a week to get used. I was like “what the hell are we supposed to do?”. I would get to the venue and setup, then just be like “Well I don’t know what to do now”. It took me a week to get used to that, I forgot about the “Hurry up and wait mentality”. Having to do that I totally forgot what it was like, once I got into the swing of it was perfect and great to be there.
Were you guys able to complete tour?
Yeah, we were all really stoked. I think it was 36 shows, all across the US. We started on the East Coast and made our way West, then went through the south and we got it done. Everybody was safe, everyone wore masks when they were supposed to. We followed guidelines and did what we could to continue play shows and make people happy. That’s why I want to do it. It was super weird though, at first it was hard tog et used to. It was weird to see tat many people in a venue.
You mentioned you guys played Focus, Clean and Void live. Are there any particular songs you’re stoked to play in the future?
We don’t have any set for setlists, truthfully. I would love to play the whole album live, I would love to play “Dreaming Black Clockwork“. That’s one of my favourite songs to play and I try to make it somewhat funky. My Dad has a jazz and funk background, so I try and incorporate that. It would be cool to play Weight. It’s going to be hard to do drumming and singing at the end of “Weight“. “One Day” would be cool to play live too, I do a drum solo at the beginning and sing which is kind of hard.
Are there any influences for you as a drummer?
My parents are big influences as they used to tour back in the day. I think my brother was conceived on tour. When my Mum and his Dad were together, they were in a 70s hippie rock band and they went on tour for about four years. My Dad went on two world tours, so he was on tour for four years after I was born. My Mum sings so I took both sides of singing and drumming and made it my own. My brother plays drums in Skeleton Witch and Psychosomatic and he also plays guitar. That’s just my family. Aaron from Underoath inspired me to sing and drum as well as Mastodon. Those are the two that pop out to me at the moment. Growing up those were the two I was heavily into and inspired me to do what I am doing now.
Are there any newer releases that you’ve been into recently?
I’m really excited for new Enterprise Earth and the new Between The Buried and Me was great, I’ve been a long time fan. New Alluvial, Alustrium and Cannibal Corpse of course. I do listen to tech death, and I’ve been listening to a lot of hip hop recently too. Brodie got me into Vince Staples and other hip hop like Kendrick Lamar too. It’s kinda all over the place. We try to take as many influences from what we listen to of course. There’s the new new Knocked Loose too, I can’t stop listening to which is great and definitely my album of the year.
Are there any bands you’d want to tour with?
They’re not from the US but I’ve been getting into Spiritbox, that’s another release I’ve been getting into actually. It would be cool to tour with them or play a festival with them. We have Brutal Assault, Alcatraz Fest, and ArcTanGent which I’m excited for next year. I’ve never played a big festival like that but we played Heavy Montreal a few years ago. That was our first taste of a big fest. I look forward to those festivals and seeing bands I’ve never seen in my life.