DAMA/LIBRA Sent Some Emails, Recorded Some Music, and Invented a Genre

Photo credit: Dave Bales

As an original founder of mighty indie rock riffer titans Silkworm and co-architect of its 90s seminal trifecta, L' Ajre, In The West and Libertine, then on to guiding his own pioneering The Downer Trio, Joel RL Phelps is ingrained as an Amerindie underground lifer and unsung hero. But while his Downer Trio drummer Bill Herzog has logged time in Sunn O))) and currently can be found moonlighting in drone-metal godheads Earth, Phelps’s own lineage hasn’t exactly fallen into the metal pantheon. Until now.

An organic pairing with longtime bud and kindred spirit G. Stuart Dahlquist—a dude hauling his own undying cred as SunnO))) alum, Avsa member, and previously of Burning Witch and Goatsnake—has manifested into Phelps’ entrance into the vast metal orb under the moniker, Dama/Libra. A collaboration stunningly constructed over the web, the British Columbia-based Phelps and Seattle native Dahlquist recently debuted with the electrifying and singular sprawl, Claw.

Phelps, notorious for his bare-boned introspections in the earliest incarnation of Silkworm and in Downer Trio, takes on the role of slow-torture preacher in Dama/Libra. From its onset, Claw reaches a spiritual otherworld of from-the-pulpit death-chanting dronesmithery as Phelps’ soaring, yet pained and triumphant voice intersects with Dahlquist’s sacred and creepy church organ-driven noise mediations and gong-banging percussion. Inhabiting another subgenre of metal altogether, Claw is an especially unique beast given that Phelps and Dahlquist assembled its noisy sermons during an eighteen month period over the Internet, exchanging music and lyrics then putting the pieces together that make up its epics. Ultimately, Dama/Libra deconstructs doom metal with a majestic sparseness and soaring vocals melted in a droning, strangely mellifluous, minimalist cacophony. An unheard music, indeed.

We talked to both Phelps and Dahlquist via email on how a Silkworm guy teamed up with a SunnO)))) guy, how the hell they managed to make Claw over the web and produce such sick songs out of it, the “metal” they create, and where they fit into the metal scene.

Noisey: How did the idea to form Dama/Libra originally come about?
G. Stuart Dahlquist​: I'm not sure really… We kept writing and liking the resulting music. It's a different thing Dama/Libra, the combination of the two of us; Joel always said "We like it so somebody else might like it too." And I believe we just kind of evolved into really trying to make something of it. Pulling it off live has proved to be a different beast entire and initially I balked…We have friends here in Seattle (Jake Weller, Dave Lutz, and Kai Strandskov) who took the time to transcribe and learn what Joel and I thought to be the essential aspects of the music—enough to keep the structures afloat and moving—and with a couple of months rehearsal Dama/Libra became a live ensemble as well.

I read all recording and composition for Claw was conducted in your respective home studios and transmitted via email over an 18-month period. That must have been an arduous task since one of you lives in Seattle (Stuart) and Joel in British Columbia. How were you able to piece it all together?
GSD: On my end it's a matter of assembling a basic idea/sound with some kind of rhythmic base to work off of or sometimes an entire song structure and putting together a rough mix. I send it off to Joel and sooner or later he'll send back a second rough with his ideas- music/orchestration and words usually- atop of whatever initial thing I'd sent. At that point it's a matter of adding to the track or subtracting aspects of it to make things jive, and send it back for approval still in rough demo form. Once the song is fleshed out in total (the back and forth can take quite a while) Joel sends me his final tracks mixed and panned as he hears them, grouped in four or maybe six stereo pairs. I then do the final mix on my end.

Did you have doubts that process could work?
GSD: Not at all. “Empires Should Burn…” (Asva with Philippe Petit) was done in the same manner.

Joel RL Phelps​: For me there were question marks throughout the process but they were just technical issues for me to sort out. The most simple of operations often were a real bear for me to sort out, to learn and relearn and re-relearn. Some words were said and some hair went missing. There was never any doubt that it could work as a creative process though, and one that seemed it could benefit from that kind of arrangement. The time and space to think it over was/is a valued part of the process I’d say.

How difficult is it coexisting in a band where one of you lives in Seattle and the other in Canada?
GSD: Until we began working on the live version of Dama/Libra it was easy. We never set any kind of schedule and with no time frame at all, no rehearsal, no deadlines to meet, just the pure pleasure of making music.

JRLP: Yes, the live thing aside, it’s super easy. Plus I’ve some practice in it.

"Religious" overtones exist in the vocals, lyrics and instrumentation. How did that particular mood manifest?
GSD: I'm not sure about describing Dama/Libra's music as having “religious” overtones is accurate. Spiritual seems more appropriate given the individual nature of the word. I had an older friend (now passed) named Wes Wehr who said with regard to “religious” music: “I don't agree with what they're saying but I love how they say it” and that sums up my own thoughts very well. I love the old cathedrals, the ancient smells and worn steps, the pews sat upon for so long the surfaces have become smooth as glass, the organ and bells, the sound of a chorus in those places. The instrumentation I've decided to work with these past 15 years (primarily organ, bells, bass) is essentially designed to achieve a pagan reflection of that architecture minus the god-speak.

Can you point to something in your life that maybe would be reason for Dama/Libra to inflect semi-religious vibes?
GSD: An introduction to the music of Hildegard von Bingen in about 1990 was the start of it. I drove a cab in Seattle for a couple of years about that same time—the night shift. KING is the local classical station and late night/early morning they break out some of the music that wasn't in regular rotation; Penderecki, Orff, Xenakis, Gorecki, Barber. Lots of times I couldn't hear the names of who I was hearing but I was a dedicated listener. It was that experience that taught me the value of avoiding limits, which in turn brought about Burning Witch, Sunn, Asva, and finally Dama/Libra.

JRLP: Well, I come from a long line of seminarians and ministers, men and women on both sides of my family, so I can’t recall a time in my life when elements of different liturgies, the language, the art, and the ideas weren’t close by in one sense or another.

When you guys played that gig in Brooklyn, you played at a Saint Vitus,. Dama/Libra does have "metal" written all over it. Stuart, your lineage and the album packaging has a metal vibe, too.
GSD: One of the things that has created some confusion for listeners—new ones in particular—is that lineage. There seems to be an expectation of the music, what's expected from me anyway that hasn't evolved beyond Burning Witch or the Sunn stuff I was involved with; with the exception of “Brokaw” and “Drug Mountain” it's been misleading to relate almost anything I've worked on since 2008 to metal. There are no riffs, sparse—if any—guitar, little in the way of traditional drum kit… The most metal aspect of Claw is the end section of “Only Medicine” and that was written by Joel. It's not that I think a person who has an ear for metal would be turned off listening to Dama/Libra but I do think someone who has a rigid approach to what constitutes heavy music—given that dang lineage I seem to be dragging around—might come away disappointed. On the other hand there are an awful lot of well-rounded listeners out there who are deeply into metal and also have an ear for a ton of other music. I think Dama/Libra would fit into that 'ton of other music' category.

Joel, knowing your prior work doesn't fall into the metal category, although Bill Herzog of Sunn O))) and Earth played with you in the Downer Trio, were you cognizant that DAMA/LIBRA would be somewhat uncharted territory for you, as far as a metal aesthetic?
JRLP: (He still does! Though my shift in Sunn hasn’t come around just yet (and it looks like it may not before the icecaps melt!) I never feel like those sonic tools are off the table, it’s just a matter of balance. For instance, I’ve really enjoyed folks like The Body, Indian, From Ashes Rise, Black Breath, Monarch, you know, a bunch of stuff lately and like the other music I enjoy, I imagine it gets put into the machine to inform the creative manufacturing process somehow. But though making a conscious attempt to play as much guitar as I could on the pieces occurred to me, I dismissed the idea quite early as clumsy, not really appropriate. It just didn’t seem what was genuinely called for. From where I heard things, I was trying to force it. Plus I ain’t no Norman Westberg (read: super cool).

Where does Dama/Libra fit in the broad metal spectrum?
GSD: If Dama/Libra is “metal,” I'd have to think the spectrum is widening considerably. There are elements of what could be described as metal but we're listening to a cumulative music that has representative aspects of 35 years of writing music…I think all those years of creative work evolved into this “something” that isn't quite anything. One of the most uncomfortable questions I field and undoubtedly the most common is "What kind of music do you play?"…I never have figured that one out.

DAMA/LIBRA has a song on Songs: Molina - A Benefit Compilation for Jason Molina's Survivors, and Joel contributed a track also separately. What did Jason's music mean to you guys?
GSD: Outside of Songs: Ohia, I had very little knowledge of Jason…It's a brilliant album. His death and the cause hits very close to home as alcohol reliance/abuse has played a substantial role in my own life.

JRLP: My pal Timmy put it nicely, he sang like a fuckin’ bird. And his passing was a transformative moment for me, in a wholly unexpected way as well as to many dear friends in their own way, so I was eager to contribute what I could.

Brad Cohan is a writer based in New York. He is "metal."