Exclusive Interview: NÜR talk writing and recording “Negative Transfer”!

Following the release of their scalding sophomore EP “Negative Transfer“, we spoke to guitarist Eran Mazin from Haifa Israel based Doom laden Sludge Metal monster Nür about their World in the first of two exclusive interviews last week. Second time around, it’s all about the writing and recording as we take a running jump before diving headlong into the black depths of their sound…

What did you learn from the recording sessions for 2019 debut “Light Emerges” that helped you make “Negative Transfer“? “What we learned from recording “Light Emerges” is that we need to go and record it in a proper studio to get to the result that we wanted. “Light Emerges” guitars and vocals were recorded in our collective “Shalosh Cult” reversal room, the only thing that was recorded in a studio were the drums; it had its own magic since it was recorded on a low budget with a DIY punk approach which we were used to. So when we decided to record “Negative Transfer” we decided to go full on and did a much bigger process we took our dear friend Roi Ben Shmuel to produce the EP, improved our vocals abilities with Davidavi Dolev (Vidi) and went to record it in one of the 3 biggest recording studios in Israel “Jaffa Sound Arts” in TLV with Aner Geronimo Baruch on the controller then send it to get mastered by Magnus Lindberg from Cult of Luna”

How does the writing process of a new Nür track start? Melody, riff or rhythm first? “Its starts with a riff idea that I got (Eran) or Liam then me and Liam work on it until we have 80% of it done then we meet up in our reversal room with Eyal (Drums) and Ben (Bass) and we start playing around with it sometimes Eyal will change parts sometimes it will be Ben and just like any other band we will fight about parts or how it should go and then get to the final version of it to bring on stage. Then we will probably do a few shows with it, get some conclusions about it, get back, change it and then have the final version of it”

You have at least two members in Eran Mazin and Ben Belial contributing vocal parts. How do you go about choosing who’s voice is best suited to which part? Do you only do vocals for your own lyrics or swap with each other as and when? “I really need to check about that BIO haha. Eyal our drummer does the more low bass vocals and Ben our Bass player does the mid-range and high vocals . The Snake and Ein jones lyrics were Ben’s and Klala lyrics are by Liam on the album that we are writing right now most of the lyrics are by Ben. As to choosing who’s voice is best on which part its mostly done initiative so mainly in the slow parts that are more doom oriented Eyal will be the one singing and on the fast parts or more aggressive parts Ben will be the one singing there is also another factor that we take into choosing who does vocals on each part which is the drumming parts on the song since Eyal is our drummer it’s really hard to sing and rip complex or fast drumming parts while singing even due Eyal does an amazing job handling that”

The anguished quality of the vocals and lyrics accompanied by those crushing sludgey Doom laden guitars makes for a cathartic listen. Did you find it as cathartic to write? “In the first EP as well as on this EP we really try to hit that spot where we feel that cathartic kind of feeling we try to tap into our feelings and really pure them into our music. When we play this parts we feel elevated and really connected to the music we do, it’s a hard thing to get to in music and to keep a balance between aggression and cathartic ecstatic but we do our best to get there”

For us gear nerds out there, can you tell us what you’re using gear wise (pedals, strings, drums etc) to get your sound? “As for guitar head we both play on Orange Thunder reverb 50 I (Eran) play on 62 gauge on a gibson Les paul Traditional and Liam plays on a 56 gauge on Fender telecaster american deluxe Ben our bass player is playing on the EP on a gibson grabber and our drummer is playing on Black panther snare . As for pedals Ben uses a custom distortion pedal made by an Israeli company called piggyfx which is a combination of a Big muff fuzz and fulltone OCD . As for me, I use strymon blue sky’s , strymon deco , strymon time machine (I love strymon), MXR GT-OD as a tube screamer and Xotic EP Booster which I love . Liam uses mxr carbon copy, tc electronic hall of fame, boss eq pedal and tc electronic corona”

What difference would it make to you as a band if you could land an endorsement from a gear manufacturer? “It could be a very cool thing to have but I doubt any gear manufacturer will care about the music that we make or find it appealing for them to invest in. But ya it will be amazing if such a thing will happen”

“Negative Transfer” by Nür is out now via Suicide Records and available for over at bandcamp