Agriculture: Diving into the depths of their Spiritual Sound

As the speakers at Out Of Rage HQ can surely attest, AGRICULTURE’s new album The Spiritual Sound is a glorious record, and one that could come to define a new movement within any or all of black metal, noise, and the weirdest of indie. With such a potent release only a month old, we sat down with Leah Levinson (bass, vocals) and Richard Chowenhill (guitar) to discuss the albums themes, the songwriting process, and the depth of meaning within the swirling vortex of sound they have mustered from the void.

Asking first about the structure of the album, Leah went into detail about how the album evolved to become, in essence, two sonically distinct halves:

Leah: “It just came from how the music gets written for the band - we tend to come in with material that gets stretched into more and more material, so what we think might be one song, we start to flesh it out, and we realize there's like several songs worth of material in it; that happened twice on this album. Once with what became tracks two through five, which were all one song at one point, but then became four interconnected songs, and it also happened with Bodhidharma into Hallelujah. So we wrote these songs, and they became interconnected and sonically sat in similar spaces because of that, or followed similar concepts and musical ideas. And then once you have that with an album structure - one thing we appreciate about album structures is that they give us a way to think about the larger work - if we just think a traditional record with a Side A and Side B, it gives us some constraint, and that's helpful for a band that can get very wrapped up in bigger ideas and more ambitious ideas. It can be really helpful for us to be like, ‘Okay, if something splits the album and we have a moment that can reset, which is the transition from side A to side B, then we suddenly have a much more contained structure we can work with.’

That helps ground us a lot, I think in all of our releases, whether it's with the EP’s or albums, having a fixed length that a side of vinyl can be helps. I think that's how it ended up being the side A and side B, but all of that would be practical reasons - creatively, or artistically, I think we came to feel that there was a really nice ‘as above, so below’ sort of thing, or this duality thing happening. There are references for albums that work that way, that I know Dan likes to reference. I think of Kid A for doing that. I also know Kate Bush, I think it’s The Dreaming, which is the one with all those great songs on side A? And it spirals out on side B, or there’s Before And After Science, by BRIAN ENO. That's another one for me that is so clearly split, but it still works as a whole statement, and that became interesting to us - ‘what if we put people through the intensity and the firestorm on side A, and then we just crack it open and let those emotional spaces and some of that formal experimentation really sit on side B?’”

Leaning further into the album as a whole, and the large volume of lyrical content that dives into facets of the Buddhist faith - more notably on side B, but found throughout - Richard gave us an insight into whether the album was intended as a manifesto, an exploration, a teaching opportunity, or something else entirely:

Richard: “Well it's definitely not a manifesto at least. Leah can correct me if I'm wrong, but, at least from my perspective, I want to be clear about that. We're not prescribing anything for anyone, or even really for ourselves - more than anything, my way of understanding it is that it's a reflection of our feelings about how the quotidian can be really spiritual, the daily process. Daily practices of non-conventional or organized spiritual things like friendship, or just the practice of living in the world and going about your day, there's a certain spirituality in the way you connect to your work, to your music, to your friends, the way you can mindfully go through life and appreciate things for what they are. In My Garden, Dan's lyrics are about the Buddhist concept of seeing things for what they are, not what we want them to be, “Mountain is a mountain”. I think all four members will give you a slightly different answer to that, but for me at least, it’s about reflection and encouraging the fact that the quotidian can be spiritual, and that's cool! Spirituality is just however the spirit moves you, and being open to that is a nice way of going through life, especially when I know it's crazy in your country - it's insane in our country right now. Like, you know the political landscape, and as a result the social landscape is the trickle down we get with the cultural war and everything like that. And I think there are a lot of things to do, there's a lot of activism. People talk a lot about outward things we could do, which is extremely important, but I think there's also inward practices that are important in terms of taking care of ourselves and our community, and making sure that we stay on top of that. And as I said, thinking about the quotidian as spiritual and therefore something that is worth practicing, caring for, maintaining, and tending to.”

After both graciously dove into the album as a single entity, we then burrowed into individual songs. We started by talking through Flea and the themes found within, as well as the sonic shifts that the track encompasses:

Leah: “Yeah, Flea was a confusing song from start to finish, but one that I knew was really important to me and what I wanted to do on this album. Structurally, I think of that song as a bit of a labyrinth. At one point, when it started to make more sense to us while we were writing it, we were talking about a spiral sort of thing, the way it circles around to revisit themes, but when it comes back it's in a different place, you know? So it kind of spirals then, and that's just what it's doing musically. Ideas come back, but they're slightly different, and they've changed a little bit by the idea that preceded them and so on. I think part of that song is the haziness and the getting lost in it, and I think that ties to what it's doing lyrically, which is talking about spirituality and the quotidian, and persevering in daily life, and connecting to others and all of that. But that doesn’t always happen in this confusing murkiness that is daily life. Things come up. You don't know where you are in terms of what you're doing in life, or what life means, and it's about finding a way through that. I guess the more emotive side of that, I think of as a sort of softness that allows a lot of that to happen, bringing things to a more vulnerable and tender, almost heart to heart space - even while we're doing blast beats and heavy distortion and post punk beats, there's something in the harmonies there and the way the music is functioning that has this moving effect where we can take it where it needs to go. I appreciate you asking about that song. A lot of that really sets the themes for what I want to do on the songs that follow it.”

After such a poignant discussion, things turned to the end of the album, with the final song The Reply. The song is filled with reference and metaphor, with a powerful final line evoking water that counters the multiple previous references to fire across the album, and Richard deftly explained the meaning within:

Richard: “It's a great question, and to answer that question is to reveal two things about the band, both of which I think are important. Those are Dan’s lyrics, and one of these things is Dan's fascination with history. So Dan's a big history guy. The zoomed in reality is that Dan is a guy who will be in Europe, and he'll just be looking out the window, or looking at the water or something, and he will be thinking about World War One or whatever, you know. Isn't it crazy that you know? And it's ‘Oh, yeah, okay’, you know. Like, wake up from a nap, look out, comment about history, go back to sleep, something like that, that's Dan. That's how he views the world right now. And it's awesome because I think everybody's interested in history, but Dan goes for it. He'll go through his phases with what he’s interested in, and what types of things. So on the one hand, it's that, and it's just very real because this is just Dan. He’s going to be talking about history stuff. But also, I remember the initial kernel for that song in particular was Bernstein. Leonard Bernstein was at a lecture or an address following the JFK assassination, and it was about what do you do in the face of an assault on your way of life or your way of being? So it's kind of confusing. It's a reply to the current state of the world going away. Because last year, when we were putting that song together, obviously we were going through an insane election cycle that didn't turn out the way a lot of us wanted it to, and that set off a chain reaction of other things that we're having. So there's that, and then pairing it with the reflection of how the history of Western Europe had this continually building history, and then in 1914 closed on itself - so it’s reflecting on the destructive pattern that humans seem to, or at least society seems to, engage in. So yeah, it's kind of this amalgamation replying to where the world is right now, drawing a comparison to the downfall of the Western European tradition at that particular point in time, and then having the deeply personal, which is Dan's way of viewing the world, often through the perspective of his deep interest in history.”

Leah: “I think that sounds right to me knowing Dan, and he also loves water. Dan loves water - the ocean is on the cover of our first LP, and it’s the theme of a lot of Dan's lyrics on that album. And, yeah, I think that is a spiritual thing for him. I don't know. I don't know if he would think as structurally with those themes as you're suggesting, that hadn't occurred to me, but I think a lot of the fire stuff is also Dan's lyrics on the album. So, yeah, I'm not sure if that's where that was coming from, but it’s a cool, interesting read of that.”

From one song weighted heavily with metaphor, interest and passion, to a pair of songs that contrast enormously in tone and content. The Weight deals with the mental toll of assault, stalking, and queerphobia, which is immediately followed up by Serenity - a song with a message of love, but not to a person or place; towards spirituality, and peace within the soul. Leah wrote both tracks about personal experiences, and walked us through the two: 

Leah: “Something about The Weight is that I wrote it in a way that I wanted to bear witness to the events that are happening on it, but I wanted to do so in a space that - if I say these things to someone in daily life or daily conversation, someone might just not be able to say anything other than, ‘Oh, my God, I'm so sorry that happened’, and then we both just feel bad and confused and sad about everything. Instead, I get to say these things and, before I'm even done saying them, we have a guitar solo and rock out section that is this huge moment of catharsis. I think it's an early moment of catharsis on the album, I think we get a lot more pouring forth on side B of the album, but that is, on side A, one of the moments where things really land. Then you can just rock out of it, and I think that that's important to me about that song, is that I get to talk about these pains and these difficulties, and I get to take myself and the band and a listener somewhere else with that. You know, we build with it. And that's, I think, part of the end of the song is like the character who has had something happen to her, who's been followed as the narrative of the song, she’s been briefly stalked, and then she reaches out. She called the speaker of the song, right? So it's this moment of connection, and coming out of it, stepping away from the trapped feeling of the difficulty of everything.

Serenity, for me, I would say your reading is pretty accurate. It's not a romantic love with another person, or something like that, it is a more spiritual thing - not specifically Zen Buddhist, because I just don't have the practice or the knowledge to claim that as part of my spiritual experience. But certainly I do relate to a lot of what I learned about Zen Buddhism, largely through Dan, and Richard's been practicing as well. That said, I think the point of Serenity there is to speak to the power and the effect of finding a higher power, finding some guiding principle and guiding force beyond myself and the more ego-driven sense of self that I can attach to. And for me, a lot of that has to do with community and connection to others around me, the connection to the world around me in my daily life, and connection to a deeper part of myself that doesn't relate to the ego, but is honouring a more spiritual part of myself that comes out through things like art and through things like meditation, daily practice and being of service in a way. So to me, that's what that song is about, and how it functions. It's a continuation of the thought that ends The Weight, of reaching out and calling someone, which can be a moment where you're honoring the spirit.”

Our final question went to Richard, and was the most simple and open of the lot - asking him about the two most overtly Buddhist tracks on the record, Bodhidharma and Hallelujah, we simply wanted to know why they were written, and he answered in due course:

Richard: Why were they written? That's awesome! Okay, so here's the chronology. Dan brought in that riff, just the initial riff, the one that opens the song, almost two years ago, and we were working on it, and started adding all the parts and blah, blah, blah, kind of how we do, tear things apart, and then everybody adds their part, and we hash things through, etcetera, etcetera. Dan's been practicing for a few years now at Zen Center Los Angeles, where I was practicing last year as well. And during that time - this goes back to Dan's sort of love of history - he was really into the story of Bodhidharma bringing Chen Buddhism to China, and the story of the disciple. Bodhidharma meditates for years and stares at a cave wall, and he cuts off his eyelids so that he doesn't fall asleep while he's meditating. It’s about dedication and devotion and it's a combination of, again, this interest that Dan brings, where there's a story either from history or from spiritual text or something, and he'll just find it fascinating, and we'll talk about it. I was thinking a lot about it at the time, it's that classic thing, when you're sitting meditating, there's a temptation to fall asleep, and then your feet fall asleep, and your body adjusts to this. You're putting yourself through this physical thing - you're not running a marathon or climbing a mountain or anything, but it takes the body, especially the contemporary body that we fill with junk food and these weird chemicals, or we sit in strange chairs and things, so to actually sit and focus on your breath and do nothing else, is this effort that you put yourself through. I think that that story of Bodhidharma is extreme, of course, but relatable in some ways. It's a big story that goes along with a big riff, to simplify it. And then Hallelujah, for a long time, was just ‘Bodhi Part Two’, was what we called it, but that really goes deep and acts as Dan’s reflections, and references the Old Testament, publicly, of course, so continues to reference the biggest sources that Dan is drawing on - but, you know, it's super metal to cut off your eyelids so you don't fall asleep while you're meditating for 10 years or whatever. But also in this sort of self mutilation way, and that type of practice and that type of focus, it's a lot, it's super compelling, and ultimately, I think, quite inspiring."

With that, our time delving into this special album was up, and Richard and Leah said their goodbyes. If you’ve not listened to the album, this is as good a time as ever to do so, but perhaps even more so if you already have so you can appreciate it all over again, knowing a little more of how and why this enigmatic and profound band created The Spiritual Sound, and why it ricochets around the most vulnerable parts of your psyche the way that it does.

Words: Jasmine Longhurst

Photos: Agriculture

With thanks to: Rarely Unable PR and Agriculture