Robin Staps from The Ocean

Robin Staps started The Ocean in Berlin in 2000 as a revolving cast of musicians before locking into the band's most stable lineup in 2009. Twenty plus years and seven albums later, the group's blend of post metal, prog, and sludge has taken them from Siberian squats to European festival mainstages, and Staps runs Pelagic Records, the label he built alongside the band that's become one of Europe's key homes for post metal and post rock.

In this conversation, Robin talks through The Ocean's first ever full US tour, what it's like bringing a band built on European infrastructure and audiences into American rooms for the first time, and how the reception compares to what he expected. He also runs down his all time top five European hardcore bands, tracing the records and scenes that shaped him before The Ocean existed. And he gets into creative balance, how he manages songwriting, running a label, and touring without losing the thread on any of it.

A look at two decades of restless work from one of European heavy music's most consistent architects.

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