Isis:
Crushing Beauty
Words: Scott Harrell
Photo: Robin Laananen

Over the course of a dozen years, Boston's Isis has consistently stretched the boundaries of heavy music by incorporating both punk-scene ethos and avant garde adventurousness. As the band packed up to hit the road and tour the magnificent new album Wavering Radiant, guitarist Michael Gallagher took some time to speak with REAX about the evolution of the group's creative process.

REAX: You're leaving for Japan on Friday. Having toured so much, do you have a set list of things to get and do that's the same every time the week before you head out?
MG: Yeah, for the most part. There's always some last-minute running around when you realize you don't have this or that little thing, but the general list is intact and unfaltering, basically. It's just a matter of whether you have time to get through it all.

REAX: One of the things I’ve always really liked about Isis is the mix, how the rhythms are right up front, and the guitars and vocals aren’t automatically pumped to drive everything. Has that always been a deliberate aesthetic of the band’s?
MG: Yeah, it has. Also, drummer Aaron Harris is always very focused on how he wants his sound to be. It's changed over the years a bit, but it's always been there, so to speak. I think his sound is  very clear, you can hear everything very well. Yes, part of that is mixing, but it's also him knowing from experience.

As far as the vocals, and them not being the primary thing, we've always looked at them as being another instrument, rather than being mixed out front for radio, or whatever. That's kind of always been our aesthetic with that.

REAX: Are you very conscious of the subtle shifts and refinements of the band’s sound? Like, when you’re writing the next album, do you go, ‘this one needs a little more or less of certain elements?’
MG: We try not to repeat ourselves. There's only so much you can do as a human being, because one, everything's been done, and two, you spend a lot of time as an artist refining exactly what it is you do. So it's difficult to break out entirely, but if we hear something that sounds like another band, or too close to something we've done in the past, we'll abandon it, or try to modify it.

REAX: How do you handle the related musical themes when writing or recording - are you always thinking of the whole album, or do you find ways to connect the songs later in the process?
MG: Generally, that's handled by guitarist/vocalist Aaron Turner. His approach thus far has been to wait until two thirds or three quarters of the record is done before he even starts talking about it, until he knows where the music is taking him, and sees where we are as individuals, and we try to incorporate whatever's inspiring us at the time, throw it in a pot and stir it around until something comes. We're all very much part of the process, but the embryo is definitely brought on by Aaron.

REAX: Do you feel any particular obligation to the heavy-music scene, to the point of, 'oh, maybe there’s too much mellow stuff on here?'
MG: Those feelings come - whether or not it's because we want to be aligned with a particular scene isn't really the case. We've always been kind of the odd men out, as far as, 'I don't like them because they're too mellow, or too heavy.' I'm not saying we're breaking all this new ground, but we had written all but two of the songs on this record, and we said among ourselves that it lacked some kind of heaviness, so basically the next two songs were two of the heaviest songs on the record. It's more making it to our vision rather than someone else's liking.

REAX: How did the collaboration with Tool guitarist Adam Jones go down for the new album? Did he just come in and tear off some stuff, or did he go home and work and write his own parts?
MG: He did, actually. My perception of him as a player is that he's definitely a focused individual who wants to sit down and construct something that fits. And to my knowledge, that's what he did. He recorded it all and sent it to the producer, and we mixed it in so it fit.

REAX: Do you approach all the different collaborative situations the band finds itself in any differently than you approach Isis itself?
MG: No, not really. There's some degree of discussion with the individual in question, but generally it's up to them to do whatever they want. And depending upon how it goes, it gets mixed accordingly. Laughs But we've been fortunate that we've enjoyed what anyone has put on our record.

REAX: So you've never mixed something with no volume, so you could at least tell 'em that it got on the record?
MG: If you can get 10,000 headphones, you'll be able to hear it. Laughs

REAX: Are you ever surprised by the groups and sounds people come up with to compare Isis to?
MG: That does surprise me sometimes, but it's almost always a compliment. This 60-year-old guy came up after a show somewhere out west and was like, 'that was awesome, you guys are like '70s psych-rock act Hawkwind.' I don't think that's the biggest stretch necessarily, but it was still surprising for someone to pull that from a live experience. Yeah, it's surprising what people come up with, and it has more to do with their musical background than anything else.

REAX: I’ve seen the band several times, and I’ve occasionally seen that look on members’ faces, like the mix isn’t right. How important is perfect live sound to you guys?
MG: Perfect is obviously never gonna happen, but … the Tool tour was wonderful, because they have obviously top-shelf equipment, and a monitor guy paying really close attention every night. Those shows were some of the more exciting ones to play for us, just sonically speaking. We've played really small clubs with horrible systems, and still had wonderful nights, some very inspiring nights, actually. It doesn't always need to be the case, but it will certainly help you if you can get by, and it sounds good. You're just more likely to enjoy your night, and give more to the audience.

Isis plays Orlando's Social May 25, Gainesville's Common Grounds May 26, and Jacksonville's Jack Rabbits May 27 - with Pelican, no less. Wavering Radiant is out now on Ipecac.

myspace.com/sgn105