Long Distance Calling

Hailing from Münster in Germany we have the band “Long Distance Calling”. Even though playing mostly instrumental rock they have also incorporated vocals from time to time. In 2018 they released their latest album “Boundless” which brings equal amounts of heavy riffs, melodic passages and lots of atmosphere.

Your latest album “Boundless” has been out for a while now and you have also toured the album. If you compare with your other releases what comes to your mind when you look at “Boundless”?

Well yeah, it´s out for about a year now and we are really happy how everything turned out. The first thing that comes to my mind is the way we created it. It was a pretty quick “from the belly” album without too much thinking about it like we did with the two previous albums. It was really fun writing and recording it.

Did you write this album with a concept in mind or did each song had their own story to tell?

The concept was that there was no concept haha. It should be “Boundless”, so no boundaries or limits, that was the only idea behind it. We were surprised how heavy it turned out at the end, this was not planned.

Technically speaking. “Long Distance Calling” is well known for your excellent studio productions. Could you tell us a bit on how you recorded this time and who produced the album?

Thank you very much, it´s really important to us! We recorded drums and some other sound stuff at Vincent Sorgs studio, where we also recorded “Trips”. Guitars and bass were recorded by ourselves in our rehearsal space and Vincent also did the mixing and mastering for “Boundless” so this was a good combination I guess.

What challenges did you face this time around in the studio and how did you deal with it?

Like I said, everything was pretty easy with this album so no real challenges.

Most bands tend to start to record the drums, bass (the rhythm section) and then add layers of guitars, synths and so on. Have you ever recorded any of your albums “live in the studio” as a whole band?

No album but we did exactly this with the “Nighthawk” EP. We even wrote AND recorded the EP on one weekend, which was really crazy but it worked out fine!

What would you say is the biggest difference and challenges when comparing playing live vs. recording in the studio?

The chemistry between us of course. Studio is very sterile and you have to take care of tightness, sound and all that shit but when we play live it´s all about the feeling. We try to capture this in the studio as well of course but playing like is a different animal I personally will always prefer.

Can we expect a live album from “Long Distance Calling” in the future? You have already been featured on the classic German TV-show “Rockpalast” which broadcast professional filmed live concerts on the German TV-channel WDR. Have this made your minds more positive or negative in regards of a possible future live record?

Never say never. We might do a live album in the future but it needs to be done right. Let´s see!

In Germany you have many concert venues and cities you can include when touring. Is it easy to get stuck in touring Germany and your neighbouring countries in Mid-Europe or would you like to bring your music to example Scandinavia where you have had some great collaborations with some Swedish musicians in the past?

Of course we would love to tour Scandinavia but until now we didn´t have too many offers from the promoters there. So if you read this: book us.

Speaking about collaborations. You are mostly known for being an instrumental rock band even though many creative people has also dubbed you as “Post Rock”, “Post Metal”, “Progressive Rock” and so on. When you collaborate with different musicians do you already write the music with certain people in mind or do you usually finish the songs first and then invite people to add vocals?

It depends really. First of all we think about whom we want to have for the song and send them a request and if he/she says yes we try to taylor the song for the guest singer. Sometimes we already have an idea or a song skeleton before asking so it really depends.

Many bands speak about evolving and bringing in new ideas for the future. What does the future hold for “Long Distance Calling”?

We don´t know and that´s the exciting thing. We never want to write the same album again and you can be sure that the next album will sound different that “Boundless”, we like to explore and see what´s behind the corner.

Do you have any last words for your listeners in Scandinavia?

If you don´t know us yet, check us out! And tell your local promoters to book us on festivals and club shows.