System Divide – Rebuilding The Collapse

It hasen’t been too long since we last spoke with Sven and Miri – He’s the Belgian vocalist from Aborted, she sang for Israel’s Distorted – right before the special concert these 2 bands held in honor of the couple’s wedding. Since then a lot happened, mainly in the Distorted camp, from which Miri decided to leave in a shocking announcement in our local scene. If you’re familiar with Miri, you know she’s not the type to just sit around and so a few months later, together with her husband, she announced their new joined project called System Divide.

This project has started last summer, but only now its members, who also include 3 Americans, decided it’s the right time to destroy the system – on all sides. With a freshly made EP called "The Collapse" and a new song that was released today, I caught up with System Divide for an exclusive world premier interview, which started out quite calm, but soon enough deteriorated into something far dirtier… tread carefully, it’s not our fault, it’s theirs!

Hello to you both, long time no see… Not really, but a lot happened since last time you talked with us. So let me get some updates… First, have you already decided who takes the garbage out?
Miri Milman: Yes it's been not too long after our last interview, always nice to talk with Metalist again! We have an agreement about the garbage… but not yet about the dishes or toilets!

Sven De Caluwe: Actually, she takes out the trash regularly, right before I kick her out of the house to go support the starving Rock Star that I am.

More personally, Miri, it’s been some months since you broke with Distorted. Can you shed more light on what happened back then and what is the current situation between you and your former band mates? Also, what do you think of the new singer?
Miri: I rather not talk about it a lot, I had a hard period and now it’s finally behind me. Things with Distorted didn't end nicely as they should have been expected from good friends but I guess sometimes life surprises you. The current situation is the same as it was when we parted and I don’t believe it will change. As for their new singer I wish her best of luck and hope she connects heart and soul to the lyrics I wrote.

Sven: From someone that has stood by the side of everything that happened, I can only say that it is sad to see how low people go and how far friendship really goes. I am sure the new singer will do the job just fine and best luck to her.

Sven, you are always on tours, what was the best so far from the last couple of months? Is it hard to be apart from Miri on these periods?
Sven: Well, every tour is an experience on its own. I would say Summer Slaughter in the US was probably the coolest tour we did so far. Australia was pretty fun recently, it was kind of strange to be there – you feel like you are in the US since everything there really just looks and smells like America, same as here but without palm trees and Hummus. Also we just did a headline run in France with Benighted which went pretty cool as well aside from my busted eye, all in all we really can't complain show wise or tour wise how things have been going the last year. It’s of course very hard to be apart from my lovely wife, but we knew that from the start, this is also not something that is going to last for the rest of our lives – our love is… I will now go wash my mouth with sulfur for saying such "untr00" things and jerk off a bunch of times listening to Black Sabbath, to redeem myself in the world of "Kvlt" metal!

Same goes for Miri, is it hard to be apart from Sven?
Miri: Being away from Sven is always hard, I suddenly need to fill up my day with things to do without him and boy sometimes it ain’t easy! Also it’s not that fun being alone in the house every day, cooking for myself or just watching TV… but you know – it his job and I support him.

Now you both embark on a new project called System Divide, let's start easy, what's the meaning behind the name?
Miri: Actually, we don't call it a project anymore, we call it a BAND.

Sven: Well it has two sides to the name really. There is the philosophical part to the name which reflects on our society and way of life. We all live life according to a certain routine, a system if you will, that dictates us every day what we are supposed to do. A lot of people are unhappy with their lives and instead of being in a downward spiral of depression and mal contempt, why not break this system, which is where the divide comes in. We believe in breaking the pattern, in the fact that you are in control of your own life and your own future. You don't like your job, quit, get another one, get educated, it’s all in your own hands.

Sitting there and whining about it will not help anyone, and only piss me off to be honest. Too many people spend their lives whining about trivial bullshit, that life just passes them by. Everyone is driven by an urge to be "happy" or to have everything "perfect" while there is no such thing, all these things are just impregnated void expressions by a society that is driven by materialism and sheep mentality. Do your own thing and follow your own path, and be happy with the good things you have in life, focus on that, instead of what you don't have, and reach as high as you can.

How will you define the type of music you will create with System Divide?
Miri: People like to define bands, people need to know that band "A" is doing Death Metal and band "B" is doing Doom. Sometimes it's hard to make people see beyond frames. With SD we try to combine styles that are not very common together and create something new. Of course most of the things have been done before but I believe you can always interest people with something fresh.

Sven: I guess style-wise its a very uncommon mix of extreme metal, going from pure Death Metal to NWOAHM, Black Metal, Symphonic Metal, Doomy-shit like Katatonia, poppy stuff like Soilwork or Lacuna Coil to Nu-Metal like Slipknot if you want to call it that, but somehow it seems to make sense when everything comes together. It’s extreme, it has its melodic and slower parts, its poppy moments – it’s a bit of everything with a modern sauce I would say.

What do you plan to put in this band musically that is different or similar to your other / previous bands? What is your musical goal?
Miri: I used to sing in a band that its music style was softer compare to SD and for me it’s a new experience with something I have always wanted to do. I always wanted to take my former band to more extreme corners but it didn't really come out as planned, and now I really have the chance to do something that I like. My musical goal is to do something that people would love to hear, to improve myself as a singer and as a performer and of course to sing in many concerts possible.

Sven: As far as how it is different from Aborted, well for one it's not full on Brutal Death Metal, the lyrics have nothing to do with gore and there are clean vocals [Laughs]… I also use my more high pitch vocals on there, well whatever makes sense on the songs really. It is definitely more widely ranged than Aborted as far as the music goes and the band is pretty much something we always wanted to do.

I understand this band was formed during last summer, before the Distorted blowup… Was it always your plan to release it by now considering your main work with both bands (and now only with Aborted)?
Sven: Miri and I always wanted to have a band together, to be on stage together and tour together, and the time seemed right, all the rest of the band were longtime friends of mine and we all wanted to do something new together so things pretty much started taking shape since last summer. We took our time until everything was ready, we felt from the start that there was a lot of potential with this band, and didn't want to announce or release anything until we felt the time was right.

Despite our work on our other bands, we worked very hard on our EP and already have more material lying around for a first full length album, and believe in System Divide 100%. This is a full band that will also tour, perform live and do everything that fulltime projects do, to me this is equal to Aborted as of now, and I will treat it as such.

Miri: When we first started working on this project I don't think any of us imagined what will happen a few months later, especially me… I didn't foresee it. Now when I look at things, it seems like everything was meant to be. Things occurred the way they did so this would happen. I think everything in life has its own timing and I believe SD came in the right timing.

Now tell us about your American band members, who are they, how did you find them, and what type of food they like… or something?
Sven: Well they are all close friends of mine for years now really. Cole Martinez, the guitarist and main songwriter of the band, lives in Cleveland, Ohio, and he has been a good friend for over 6 years now – he comes from a band called Antenora and before that a band called Years Of Fire (ex-Chimaira). Mike Heller (drums) lives in New York and I have known him since 2001. We’ve toured many times before in the US with his other band Malignancy (Fun trivia, Mike is a Jew!), we always talked about doing something together and this just seemed the right time and opportunity to do so.

Andrew Lenthe (bass) also lives in Cleveland, he’s one of Cole’s best friends and also used to be in Antenora. Before Andrew we had Tommy from Abigail Williams in the band for a while but he was unable to commit fully to it since Abigail tour even way more than Aborted does [Laughs]… Cole and Mike didn’t know each other before, neither did Miri, so it’s been quite funny to see everyone getting along this well really fast. Needless to say, everyone within SD is motivated to go for it with the full 100% of motivation. Other than that, we have fart jokes and Hummus and we also love Laffa and tampons.

Miri: It’s really funny to see how we all got together and became really good friends and everything trough the internet (thank god for that)! It was all pretty easy to be honest, from the song writing to the recordings and design, I never thought it can be so easy, I'm not used to working with such professional musicians.

You worked on an EP called "The Collapse". First, will it be released publicly (if so, when?) or is it something made only for labels and such?
Sven: Both really. It’s the thing we are using to shop for a deal with labels, we are already having some good talks so hopefully things will pan out smoothly, but also our first step into the world as a band. The EP should be self released near the end of May, as we want to make sure it is for sale for a VERY cheap price everywhere, we mainly want people to discover the band and what we stand for. It’s not about grabbing some quick cash with a few songs, we put a lot of blood, sweat and tears in this, so if you like the material, buy the EP when it comes out or get a shirt – we are selling our shit as cheap as possible so everyone can afford it easily.

What can you tell us on the work process regarding the EP, when and where did you record, produce, mixed and mastered?
Miri: Ok, so Cole Martinez is the main song writer in the band. He wrote all the songs that are on this EP along with Andrew. Cole is also a producer so he recorded all the guitars, bass and samples in his studios. Mike recorded the drums in his basement, he has a studio there as well where he records songs for different bands. Sven and I recorded all the vocals in a studio in Tel-Aviv called "Rony Amir Productions". After finishing all the recordings we sent everything to Jacob Hansen (Aborted, Hatesphere, Prey For Nothing…) to do his magic… We got a test mix and we were very pleased with the sound so we decided to do the EP with him and the full length album. It took us about 2 months to finish all the recordings.

The cover artwork seems interesting, very simple, but meaningful, since you can go up AND down on stairs, but also fall down and break your neck… Seriously, what's the idea behind it?
Sven: As you can see the stairs are collapsing, there is wreckage below. "The Collapse" stands for our system, our society, our routine – that is collapsing on us. You can indeed either fall with the system, or go up the stairs and become a better self. The artwork has more references to it throughout the booklet as well. We wanted to keep it artistic and clean and simple, but very thought provocative at the same time.

Both of you are known graphic designers, why didn't you make your own album cover instead of choosing Colin Marks (Strapping Young Lad, Aborted, Nevermore) for the job? You felt that you need some fresh eyes?
Sven: That, and I hate working on my own album covers, it's much better to have someone else work out your ideas and then be critical towards it from a distance. The entire concept was thought up by us, but if I would have to do it I would never let it rest and never be happy with the result [Laughs]…

Miri: I think Sven is right, when it comes to doing your own artwork it’s very hard. You need to be complete with it and also be able to judge it from a distance. Right now we are very happy with Colin's work.

From first impression on the EP, it sounds very good, Sven uses some of his trademark "Gargamel"-growls, along some more refined singing… Did you feel the need to put both types of singing or is it part of a larger scheme?
Sven: I hate the Smurfs! Well, I think no matter what I do I will sound like myself, which can be a good or bad thing depending to each person, I always try to deliver something fitting and personal on every song I record, and to vary my vocals as much as possible. I think there will be even more experimentation on the full album and let’s just say that whatever fits the song, you know…

Besides all the typical playing / singing, you combine some electronic sounds and samples as well… Was it something planned and will it be part of the band's direction in the future?
Miri: Yes, we got the songs with electronics from day one. I think its very modern, fits our music and makes the songs way more interesting. Lets say it adds a bit more to the whole "modern" feel of the music. It will continue to be a part of the band's direction.

Sven: it also hides the fact that we have absolutely no talent.

Miri: He means it hides his voice…

Sven: It’s like in that movie with Christian Bale [The Prestige] – it’s all about diversion… I like Christian Bale, he likes Hummus too!

There’s a rumor that you learned to sing to overloud your own farts.
Sven: Nothing can overpower my farts, you lie!

Miri: Something can, my dad's!

Hmm, well… When you planning to take System Divide on stage? Wouldn't it be hard to do it along Sven's constant touring with Aborted?
Miri: We plan to tour whenever something good will come along. Now we are working on getting signed and the next step will be getting on a tour. This summer we will visit in the US – first of all to meet our band members, but also hang out, film a video clip and might have some shows as well. Sven of course will be touring with SD when he won't be on tour with Aborted.

Now that you're spreading the word about System Divide and your new EP, what are your next plans after you get signed by a label or even if that doesn’t happen yet?
Sven: We are already working on the full length album, which should be finished by the end of the year. We have signed a merchandise deal with Indiemerch store who also do Aborted's online sales and you will be able to buy merchandising from the band in the next months on our store there. We will also do a package deal with t-shirt + EP and so on. Normally we will start playing shows from late this summer on, and then see where it goes really. As previously said we are already talking to some labels so I am quite confident that the future will bring some more System Divide releases to the masses early 2010. So keep your eyes open ‘cause its going to piss in your pie-hole big time [Laughs]…

With System Divide and Aborted, do you think that there's a room for more projects, either solo or together, if so, anything you can tell us about?
Sven: Well, for my part that pretty much covers it, I will do one more thing where I will play the drums again, but that will not be a touring band at all [Laughs]…

Miri: I love singing, I love doing music and I’m always looking for projects to do, but of course it needs to be something that I like, so if something comes in the way and I will like it, I will find the time.

Summer is almost upon us, and so is the Festival season… Aborted will be quite busy from what I know so any chance you will bring Miri with you to sing on stage just for fun? She can do backing growls, or just stand naked on stage…
Sven: [Laughs]… I don't think there is place for clean singing in Aborted, plus we have our own trip planned for System Divide which will take up half of the summer so we are set.

Miri: I think I will pass on that! Getting naked in front of horny metal heads is really not for me… I would be happy to join Sven for a few shows, maybe catch some nice festivals, even if there’s no room for me in Aborted… But I’m ok with that… [Sobbing] really, I am!

When you both are not working or playing or touring or whatever, how do you like to spend your time in Israel?
Miri: We like to do a few things and one of them we like less – going to the gym. We hang out with our friends, going to the cinema, watching a lot of programs, reading books [Laughs]… Yeah right… cleaning our house, designing our house and going to visit the family!

Sven: I am an Xbox360 freak… I regularly shoot people online or in our house on COD [Call Of Duty] or any other game.

Miri: Yes and that! Playing that godamn Xbox for hours!

Sven: [Laughs]… Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo… whatever, me likes.

Nintendo is not "tr00", it’s for wusses!
Sven: It’s for women.

Miri: You won't see me playing that shit!

Sven: Hah… Liar.

Miri: I rather spend my time on better things!

Sven: She likes Street Fighter 4… Oh, I may add that [Israel's] Phantom Pain are my bitches on COD… this is true.

Ok that was longer than I thought. So before we’re done, do you have any last – BUT NOT CHEESY – words to our readers regarding System Divide and its future plans of domination?
Miri: Prepare for the unexpected… Buy our EP… Give us all your money… Buy all our merch… try not to pass out when you hear our first song… prepare to get your balls kicked!

Sven: I like boobs, they are nice, and that is all… Do not conform to the will of a person that bleeds once a month, be yourself… And lastly, Israel! Prepare for the "Kombina" [Hebrew slang for shady business plan] of System Divide, come towards us, we close the deal on you and kick your ass from all sides!

Thanks for not ruining it… Not really, so let’s try something different. If someone wants to listen to System Divide, how will he know which bands you relate to?
Miri: To cut it short, people that like Soilwork, Slipknot, Chimaira, Katatonia, Dimmu Borgir, Opeth and Lacuna Coil would like this band.

And if I like half or none?
Miri: You can s**k Sven's balls!