The Dutch band DOOL continues to promote their latest album – The Shape Of Fluidity, and as part of this ongoing journey, the band members have decided to lift the veil and share the behind-the-scenes stories of how each track came to life. From riffs written during a vacation in Greece, to ideas born during soundchecks, to Raven’s most personal lyrics – here is the story of DOOL’s new album, told by the creators themselves.
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Venus in Flames The idea for Venus in Flames actually started from the bridge. Raven had an idea for a kind of a driving song, something with a bit of tempo and pulse, ending in a big bridge with open and lush chords. They asked me to write something in that atmosphere. So, I set down to write the chords for that bridge and quickly made a simple demo, hours before leaving for a short vacation. A few weeks later I received a demo of the full song back and was immediately blown away. Very cool how such a small idea can inspire an entire song, writing backwards so to speak. // Omar Iskandr
Self-Dissect I was on a holiday in Greece when Raven and Omar sent me the demo for Venus In Flames, my initial reaction was that I was blown away by it, but also that I really had to catch up with writing again. When I came home, I immediately started writing and the first riff that came out was the theme riff/melody for Self-Dissect, plus the last part of the bridge before the song goes to the outro. There was still a gap in the middle though. Similar to a lot of the writing sessions for this album, Raven came by later and together we finished the rest of the musical framework, after which Raven wrote the vocal lines and lyrics at home. It turned out to become one of the more “proggy” songs that we have as there is a lot happening within those six minutes. It’s also a song that showcases Vincent his abilities as a drummer really well. There are a lot of details in the drums and a lot of drum fills but everything is still very much in service of the song, a quality that definitely not every drummer can live up to. // Nick Polak
The Shape of Fluidity During the end of the “Summerland” era we were playing quite a lot. And when you’re on the road a lot you start to fool around a bit during soundchecks once in a while, just playing whatever and messing with some settings and stuff. During one of those moments I started playing some random chords just to check my amp settings. Raven and Nick both turned to me and said: “memorize that!” because it inspired them all of a sudden. That simple idea became the backbone of the track, continuing for a long time during the verses and the choruses of the song. // Omar Iskandr
Currents Originally this was intended to be more like an intro tape for our live shows, but later on we felt it would work well on the album too as we were looking for something of an intermezzo. We also often now play it live and that feels quite magic, also gives a bit of breathing space in a set. The basis for this song is a guitar with an e-bow, which is a device through which you can make a note sustain forever. It was our producer Magnus his idea to also put this through a Hammond speaker, which is such a cool effect. // Nick Polak
Evil In You This song started out with the chorus, which I suddenly heard in my head when I was not busy making music at all. Everything around that was added later and the song had a couple of different versions before it ‘worked’. I think it took about 2 years from writing that chorus to when we had a final version. There was even a totally different vocal line for the chorus which was changed last minute. I think it ended up being one of the more ‘poppy’ songs on the album, and in that sense a bit of an outlier, but it does have this cool 80’s goth feel to it. Together with ‘Currents’ I feel it also really breaks up the first and second part of the album. // Nick Polak
House of a Thousand Dreams This song was written by me and Raven together, basically in one sitting. We very consciously wanted to try something a little bit mystical, a bit folk inspired, some neo-classical influences. The song really builds towards the climactic end, something I really like about that track. The voice of Kim Larsson, of ‘Of the Wand and the Moon’, was a really excellent fit for the part too. His deep bass voice really gives a lot of weight to the intro of the song, something foreboding. We were very happy he was willing to lend his voice to this track, since we are all fans of his project. // Omar Iskandr
Hermagorgon Hermagorgon was the very first song that was written for the album. I was fooling around for a while with alternative guitar tunings, especially with tuning the lowest guitar string extra low to a B-note (a trick I stole from Mastodon). We ended up using this tuning for multiple songs – like The Shape of Fluidity and Hand of Creation -, thereby giving these songs a much heavier sound than what we had done before. I already had all the parts until the chorus (minus the vocal melodies, which are always written by Raven) and even though it felt a bit like a different direction than what we had done before, Raven was immediately enthusiastic when I played it to them. The rest of the song we finished together within about two hours, and soon after Raven sent me a version with vocals. The song really wrote itself. It also ended up being one of the most personal songs for Raven, lyrically, as it deals with their nature of being born intersex. // Nick Polak
Hymn for a Memory Lost Hymn was one of the first songs we wrote for the album. I had a demo for a song and we started working on that, but in the end, we just used the opening riff and the rest was completely re-written. I kind of like that; to let go of the song you had in your mind and let it take a completely different path, something unexpected. Like a scrapyard of ideas that you can repurpose and reuse in different ways, combining it with new elements, revealing different sides of the same thought. It took a long time to actually finish, in the end we even wrote a few parts in the studio during the production of the track. One of the first songs to be written and one of the last to finish, a bit of an outlaw. // Omar Iskandr
The Hand of Creation Raven had an idea to make a song built around this ritualistic drum beat, containing a lot of toms. We usually start a song from a guitar riff or a chord progression so in that sense it was a quite experimental way for us to write, as we really started with that drum beat and more of an ‘atmosphere’ that we had in mind. It’s a song that grew a lot in the process, as we revised it a couple of times, thereby adding or removing parts until we felt it worked. In the studio it really came alive when we made samples for the drumbeat, which you hear from the beginning, adding to the ‘ritualistic vibe’ and making it even more distinct sonically. // Nick Polak