MetalSucks

Back at the end of May, Vince and Kip stormed into The Ocean’s show at New York’s Knitting Factory with an arsenal of questions for the band’s mastermind/guitarist Robin Staps (above, far right). So many questions, in fact, that combined with Staps’ incredibly verbose and articulate answers, we ended up with a fucking book instead of the normally terse interview pieces we do, which is the reason it’s taken us so long to transcribe (well, part of the reason anyway!). But for fans of The Ocean — and I know there’s a lot of you who read MS — the wait will be well worth it when you read what Staps had to say about his band, his thoughts on touring in the U.S., the writing and recording of the band’s incredible album Precambrian, and a whole assload of other shit. Enjoy!

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That much should be obvious just from listening to The Ocean’s latest album Precambrian, a sprawling, well thought-out work that is clearly the result of some heady, intense writing and a very active brain. When we interviewed Robin before The Ocean’s headlining gig at The Knitting Factory on Monday, May 26th, this became even more apparent; Robin was extremely well-spoken and articulate and had a hell of a lot to say (we’ll be publishing that interview soon enough). A recent column Robin did for MetalKult further exemplifies just what a smart dude he is. But before we get to that, I’d like to reflect on the aforementioned show for a moment.

HOLY FUCKING SHIT. Opening bands Withered, Lair of the Minotaur and Kylesa were pretty good and all… but The Ocean took the stage to finish off the night and made all of the openers look like little sissy amateurs. Seriously, it was that big of a difference. The Ocean’s level of professionalism and polish dwarfed everyone else’s, their stage presence was 10x greater, and their spartan but effective light show (consisting of nothing more than a few strips of LEDs hooked up to a midi sequencer) added to the drama, brilliance, and awesomeness of the show. A fucking brilliant US debut for The Ocean.

Anyway, back to Robin being a smart dude. It’s no secret that America is a pretty backwards place in a lot of ways, and that while we may lead the world in terms of certain cultural tastes, America is lightyears behind Europe when it comes to certain civil liberties and general common sense. After the jump, read what Robin (who is from Germany but has lived in and spent time in America) has to say on the matter.

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