New Hallelujah For The Dammed
Foreworde
by
Ellis Jones
interview
by
Brandon Bristol
Out of the sun-baked limestone and the cedar scrub of central Texas came a dark and low-register noise, forged in the heat of Austin in the year of two-thousand and twelve. The Well was struck into existence by Ian Graham, who held the guitar and gave voice to the gloom, and Lisa Alley, who plucked the heavy four-string bass and sang alongside him in a cold, hypnotic unison. With them was Jason Baile, beating upon the drums like a blacksmith driving iron on an anvil. They did not set out to make music that was bright or light of foot. They sought the heavy chord, the descending cadence, the slow and doomful sludge that echoes from the floor of dried-up riverbeds when the earth cracks open under a drought.
Their sound is a heavy, psychedelic doom, rooted in the ancient blues of the dark delta but distorted through stacks of scorched amplifiers until it resembles something ancient and predatory. It is a slow, crushing procession of sound, heavy on fuzz and dark reverb, marked by dual-vocal harmonies that sound like twin spirits calling to one another across an empty mesa. There is a primal simplicity to their rhythm, a thick, fuzz-drenched groove that plods forward with the weight of an iron caisson.
To trace their bloodline is to walk through the graveyard of mid-century rock and roll and the dark underbelly of the seventies. In their heavy, blues-based riffs one hears the unmistakable ghost of early Black Sabbath and the thunderous, unpolished grit of Pentagram or Blue Cheer. From the psychedelic side of the ledger, they draw upon the swirling, drug-addled paranoia of Hawkwind and the eerie, reverb-soaked atmosphere of Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats. Among their contemporaries who walk the same sun-scorched roads, they stand alongside the heavy-riffing brethren of The Sword, Electric Wizard, Windhand, Cough, and Monolord—bands that trade in weight, repetition, and the sonic illusion of vast, empty spaces.
When the sun hangs high over the Texas hill country like a brass plate, and the asphalt blisters on the roadside, there is no sound better fitted to the climate than the low-frequency drone of The Well. The heat in Texas is not merely weather; it is an affliction, a offensive heavy blanket that slows the pulse and thickens the blood. In such an environment, fast music is an insult to the elements. You require a sound that moves at the speed of heat stroke, heavy and deliberate, matching the oppressive weight of ninety-nine-degree air. To sit in the shade of a tin porch with a sweating bottle of cold Lone Star beer in hand, breathing the pungent, heavy smoke of a fat joint as it curls up into the stagnant air, requires a soundtrack that understands the dread and majesty of this land. The Well provides that singular cadence—a dark, cooling medicine born of the very soil you sit upon, dragging you down into a hypnotic trance where the summer heat can no longer touch you.
Tell the people a bit about yourself and your band The Well
I’m Ian Graham, guitarist and one of the vocalists for The Well. We’re a rather
abrasive 3-piece metal act from Austin, Texas. A lot of people file us under
“doom” or “heavy psych”.
I just watched the video for your new single “New Hallelujah for the Damned” and it was sick! How did you come up with the concept for the whole bank heist and what’s the tie in the lyrics?
That whole concept was the brainchild of the director, Olivia Maaghul. She
listened to the song, read the lyrics, and that’s what she was inspired to do with
it. I don’t like to just directly say what my songs are about because I want people
to be able to listen and find their own interpretations, but I do think it was
awesome that that’s what she came up with.
How the hell did you get Greg Ginn to play the sleeping security guard?
Ha, I became friends with Greg a while ago because we live in the same area.
He was kind enough to offer to let us use his building to shoot the whole video.
We asked him if he would do a cameo, and it turned into a full blown role. Greg
has been hugely supportive of The Well and I’m thankful to have him as a friend.
Well it’s a little bit more diverse than our previous records. Because of the span
of time since the last album came out, there have been a lot of different points of
inspiration and emotional ups and downs that bring about different influences on
the creative process. We’re still just trying to make music that we want to listen
to, that we want to play in front of people. We’re still trying to have fun and melt
faces after all these years.
What is the usual writing process like when you get together with Lisa & Jay to build what becomes the next LP?
It’ll start with me recording a riff I like and then looping it. Then I’ll usually pace
around for a while listening, and writing down little bits of a verse here and there.
After that, I’ll sit with what I’ve recorded and written so far, and see how it makes
me feel and what images it brings to mind. Am I walking through a desert? Am I
floating in outer space? Then the song starts to create itself based on those initial
feelings and images it sparked. Once it’s all written, I’ll take it to the studio with
Lisa and Jason and that’s when it fully molds itself into what you hear. And then
we take it to our producer, Chico Jones, and he does any ironing that needs to go
down to make sure it slams. Then we repeat that process over and over until we
have an album.
You worked with an Austin, TX based label Spaceflight records for the newest release; can you tell us a bit about the company and how y’all picked them?
We were approached by Bryan Richie from The Sword, who works alongside
Brett Orrison, the CEO of Spaceflight. He explained that it’s a new concept within
the industry, a non-profit record label that focuses on bands keeping full
ownership of their music and everything that entails. It’s a very wild concept that I
don’t 100% understand but they have been really great to work with and have
given us so many new opportunities. I couldn’t be happier. I’m really excited to
see what our relationship with these guys has in store for the future.
You have a pretty extensive US tour coming up in support for the new album. Are you hitting any cities you haven’t been to yet and do you ever get to skate on the road?
It’s two big US runs, east coast and west coast. I don’t think there are any cities
that I haven’t been to, but what I am super psyched to be on the road with Moon
Destroys for the first leg and Pink Fuzz for the west coast. Haven’t toured with
either of those bands before and I’m a fan of their stuff. As for skating, if there’s
any time for a legit session on the road, I’ll take it.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve ever seen growing up in Texas?
That’s a hard one, mostly a lot of shit that I shouldn’t really talk about. But one
thing comes to mind. My friend’s uncle used to be a big participant in rattlesnake
roundups. I don’t even know if they do these anymore. But we traveled once, by
train no less, to see his uncle do one of these events. I think we were about 14
years old. We woke up in the morning and went outside, still groggy with sleep
and VERY stoned, because his uncle “had a surprise for us”. This man dumps a
bag of rattlesnakes at our feet and then hands us a cage and a snake-getting
stick. I hold the cage, my friend gets the stick, and the uncle tells us that we have
to get all the snakes back into the cage. It was fucking insane, but he was so
calm and seemed like such a professional, that it didn’t seem as dangerous at
the time as it does now re-living it. We came out of the situation unscathed, but I
think that’s some serious backwoods, Child Protective Services-calling, Texas
Bullshit.
Who’s your favorite Texas export?
That’s a toss-up between Roky Erickson, Lone Star Beer, and Zorlac
Skateboards.
Top 5 guitar players of all time?
In no particular order: Tony Iommi, Randy Rhodes, Jerry Garcia, Neil Young and
Matt Pike
Top 5 skateboarders of all time?
Also in no particular order: Jason Lee, Matt Hensley, Mark Gonzales, Ethan
Fowler, and Sal Barbier
Best show you’ve ever been to?
God, you’re torturing me with this. I’ve been fortunate enough to see a lot of cool
shit. Right now, I’d have to say Shonen Knife, The Breeders and Nirvana. I saw
them all play together on the same bill in Houston on the day Frank Zappa died.
Also, I saw Morbid Angel play with Motorhead and that’s around the top of the
list, as well.
Dream line up to play with?
This is impossible to say. I think I’ve lived this dream a few times, but it seems to keep changing. Us and Black Sabbath.
Chainsaw Magazine 
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