Rocksound Talks to Paul

If you see issue 160 out and about you might want to grab it.

Spot On Joey

Soundsphere shines a light on Joe Letz. This is definitely worth checking out. For example:

Joey Interview

Joe Letz von Combichrist has been interviewed by Playdead Nation, and is his usual awesome self. I still reckon my interview with him is the best I've seen, but I'm a tad biased.

Jeremy McKinnon on Rammstein

An NME interview with the A Day To Remember frontman brought out this:

What's the best arena rock show you've ever seen?
"Rammstein. I saw them headline a German festival a few years back and it was easily the craziest thing I've ever seen. That's a perfect example of a great show, I'd only heard one of their tracks, that 'Du Hast' song and I sat there for two hours in awe of the whole thing.

"I was with a friend and we could have both given a damn about the actual songs, but the whole show was so damn entertaining that I wasn't bored for one second. And what's more important than that? If you can convert the people who don't care about your band and make them have a good time, then imagine what you can do for the people who love your music, you're doing something for those people that people can't do."

ESP & RZK

I haven't had time to watch this, but it's an interview with Richard:



Thanks James!

Rammstein Seriously

It's almost jarring to hear a conventional US media outlet discussing Rammstein as a major artist, rather than as a boutique foreign freak show, but in a good way:



The two band-fielded questions are conventional and the answers are stock, but this is middle-America taking Rammstein seriously, so I'm sharing it anyway. The lack of personality is more than made up for by the respect shown to our favourite riff-masters.

The Gauntlet and Richard

TG has posted content from his interview with Richard last month. It's from here that we had the first intimation that Rammstein might be heading back to the US, and this, an interview conducted in the US during the last LIFAD tour leg.

Listen to The Gauntlet's RZK Interview

TG has posted last night's interview with Richard. You have to hear this stuff to believe it, so listen.

Gevolt Interview

As regular readers will no doubt know, I recently fell in love with another band. Gevolt, an Israel-based Yiddish metal band, has been around for a while, but I only recently discovered it through my relentless search for Rammstein news. I hit upon Gevolt after it was compared to Rammstein in an article on music from around the world. While Gevolt does share traits with Rammstein it is a different creature, with its own unique and incredibly compelling sound. I wanted to know a bit more about the people behind it, so I contacted them. They very kindly agreed to an interview.

Below is the outcome of several emails between myself and the members of Gevolt. Answers have come from the entire band, written by various members, but always labelled or addressed where answers are specific to one of the crew.

Photo by Alex Freiter















How did the founding members meet and come up with Gevolt?

In the early 90's Anatholy Bonder and Dima Lifshits met in the collage class.
Together skipped the entire last semester of the first year and successfully failed the exams))
On the second year they even didn’t try, preferring to play, play, play…

Then they found Vadim Weinstein for a drummming and started a punk rock band called "Pot Of Honey", but in a while military service duty came so they had to split.

In 1999 Anatholy as a singer and Leonid Polonski as a song writer started a project called "ruins of kaballah" - made of programmed orchestration and vocals only.
The Ideas of that project has served as the basis for the GEVOLT in the future. ( some of the songs like “2+2” and “Molotok” were recaptured on a SIDUR album.)

Somewhere in 2001 Anatholy came with desire to make it in electric by gathering a band.
This marked the beginning of GEVOLT.

I'm very glad that you succeeded in failing your exams. The world wouldn't be nearly so much fun without GEVOLT. Out of interest, what were you studying?

Electricity

I consider that rather appropriate :)

'Electrify', 'buzz', 'a bolt from the blue', and more electricity-related turns of phrase all describe what your music is to me in these initial stages of merging it with my mind. In the days since I first found you have have graduated from my main play-list, to my workout play-list, and onto my driving play-list, which is the most critical, as I LOVE to drive, and insist on the best music.

Right music for driving is surely important, that’s true.:)

Photo by Alex Freiter

What do you guys listen to when you are driving or travelling? Also, who would you consider to be your primary influences? I'd really like to hear from all of you on this, as you each bring your own material to your work.

Misha: It’s always depends, on a company ,mood , time of the day, but mostly it’s energetic.

I often use car audio systems as sound reference when mixing.

I can say with certainty, we are listening to all kinds of genres. We often discuss songs or even whole albums either metal or classic, making some kind of analysis, just to understand more accurately the tastes of each other. We share music between us as well.

Our drummer is a big music lover, listens to new music all the time.

His influences: Deep Purple ,Rainbow, Camel, Kayak, Symphony X.

Anatholys influences:
Egor Letov(Grazhdanskaya Oborona), Auktyon, Sektor Gaza, Nirvana, Ozzy Osbourn, Manowar, Sex Pistols, Rammstein, System of a dawn, Pantera, Metallica, Death, Fedor Shalyapin, Nogu svelo, Green Day, Kusturica and No Smoking Band...

Chants of northern and steppe peoples of Asia.
Those days at work: Letov, Gogol Bordello.

Mark says:

Well, I don't drive, but I listen to music a lot when I'm in a bus on a way to work.
Lots of old good Motown records, Stevie Wonder, David Bowie, Queen, Nirvana, Limp Bizkit, Korn, Slipknot, Michael Jackson, Pendulum, Enter shikari, Air, Mogway, Flaming Lips, Weezer, The Strokes, Blur, Gojira, Pomplamoose, 30 seconds to Mars, Short Stack, Bjork, The Beatles, Imogen Heap, Jan Tiersen, Wagner, The XX... it's about 10% of my iPod content;

influences:
Everything that sounds good. It can be either pop music, indie rock or extreme metal...


Misha: My big influence was Black metal genre, once I played in a band called Arafel - participated on the recording of the first album.

By the way, you can check my other projects :

FB [force]
EIN

Photo by Alex Freiter

Was any of the ruins of kaballah project recorded and released?

7 songs were recorded and never released. Rest of the band didn’t even know this recording existed before the interview, so now some of the members became really curious to hear it.))

Haha! They're not the only ones. Do you ever think you would release those songs, perhaps as part of a retrospective project?

Yes, we will.
We will just post em on youtube or something...

And how have you found your new members as older ones have sloughed off?

We have a musician's community(rock\metal), where mostly everyone knows the other, so when someone decides to leave the band, the hearing spreads quite fast. For example, our guitar player already played(jamming) with the drummer before he was invited to the band.
And the Bass player was well known to us from playing in another bands.

Does the magic change, or do you select new people to fit the gaps they're to fill?

Naturally, the changes are always remain its mark.
Of course the magic has changed. Cause it’s – Magic:)

Indeed it is - I'm spellbound.  I'm going to have to buy Sidur. What should I expect, in terms of differences to AlefBase?

AlefBase – alphabet. ))
sid·dur
n. pl. sid·du·rim (s-drm, sd-rm) Judaism 
A prayer book containing prayers for the various days of the year.                         
- a kit of songs for practical use.
We find Sidur more atmospheric, in some way mysterious with a gothic touch.

Are most of your iTunes sales for Sidur in the Israeli store, or are you getting a healthy market building in other countries too?

We think that we got more iTunes sales outside of Israel)), probably because iTunes is not that big(popular) in Israel.
At this moment, we distributing SIDUR through CD Baby (physical/digital) and its not only in Israel.

The territories from which people are buying and downloading your albums from is useful information. I get the feeling you will do very well in the same territories as Rammstein, partly because of the kinship between Yiddish and High German, and the Russian/former USSR connection, but also because, despite the differences, your sound is appealing on many of the same levels as theirs. Have you explored the Spanish-speaking markets?

Not yet.))

Photo by Yevgeny Raw

While I am on the subject of Rammstein, have they had any influence on the development of your sound, or have you worked in a more parallel way?

We like the way Rammstein sounds, but it never was the landmark on developing our sound.

How did the fusion of metal and Yiddish music come to happen? It seems an unlikely marriage, and yet it works.

We like to do incredible things.

Are all your songs based on existing Yiddish songs, or have you composed them from scratch, only to create a feeling of the old style of music. I feel like I recognise some songs, but can't be sure, if it's because they're old and pervasive, or because you are very skilled at composing in that style.

The entire AlefBase album is based on old good traditional Yiddish motifs.
We have made total changes, rearrangements and adds to the originals, guided by our taste.
Recently we started to work on a new album, which hopefully will consist of a new material in Yiddish and we'll not stop on the sound we got in the AlefBase, we'll move forward to get more (maybe more heavy, maybe more folk, maybe more fun, maybe all together)

In that case I probably am recognising the underlying material.

Photo by Yevgeny Raw
 
Evolution is important, so I'm glad you're not going to let yourselves get bogged down in the texture of the current album. Are you intending to shift away from the traditional theme for the next one, or are you going to develop on that further?

We're more likely to expand horizons in both ways, to create more individualistic and innovative patterns.

I'm really looking forward to this. How long have your previous albums taken to develop?

About 4 to 5 years each.
We all have daily duties, sometimes it's just hard to find enough time for making music.
At that time we have a discussion within the band for most productive system to make the next one faster but with highest quality.

That's a reasonable development cycle. Can you tell me what you each do outside the band?

Eva is a professional Violinist, plays in orchestra

Anatholy: Family and working as programmer.

Mark says:
I work as an art director in some small design studio. At free time I draw a lot, play with my other bands, write material for my solo project and do a bit of sports.

Dimitry is a sound engineer, post production.

Misha: I work as a sound engineer, recording and producing, mostly working with rock\metal bands.

Photo by Alex Freiter

Are you trying for the beauty, along with the brutality, or is that an inevitable side-effect of the Yiddish style of music tinting even the harshest elements with gold?

We are not trying, but doing Music first of all.
...and last of all.
...and in the middle:)

Let the magic form itself, then. The violin is a big part of the old world feel and the beauty of your music. Are there any other instruments you would like to fuse with your current line-up?

Hard to tell at this point, it possible that we will mix in some additional instruments, as we did on AlefBase’s 11 track (Bay Mir Bistu Sheyn)  and 3 track (Der Rebe Elimelekh).
So far we treat this as a post production thing,  which usually takes place at much further step of making an album.

That makes sense, given your method for composing and developing songs. I was thinking after writing the last question that some cellos and double basses would work so well woven through the guitar wall, and boost the violen really well.

We will think about it:)

Given your eastern heritage have you considered 'metal-plating' traditional, non-Yiddish songs from your countries of birth

Not really.
Sudir album is somehow displays that.

Do you plan to tour outside Israel, if so, which countries show the most promising fan-bases so far?

We're working hard on local booking for now.
We'd like to make some long tour, since we have fans in many countries in the world. Recently we've got a bunch of gig proposals in some Europe countries and USA. Also in Russia and former USSR countries (Which is not a miracle, all of our band members were born in former Union).
By now we're doing all of booking and promotion by ourselves, but still looking for some booking agency to help us.

Photo by Yevgeny Raw

Would you like to make an album in a new language, such as English or Hebrew?

Yes,I think, Hebrew is really interesting to make a metal record with.

Which nations are you each from, originally, and what brought you to Israel?

Anatholy:
I was born in Kiev (Ukraine) and lived there. Also lived in Nizhnevartovsk (Russia - Siberia) about 6-7 years.
My parents brought me to when I was 16.


Mark:
I was born at Russian border with China (Khabarovsk, Russian Far East district) and in the age of 17 moved to Israel. Well, I'm not that big sionist. I just was young and wanted some adventures.

Vadim:

Russia - Belgorod . Repatriated with parents at age 15.

Misha:
I was born in Tashkent – Uzbekistan. Repatriated with parents at age 11.

Dimitry was born in Russia, I think, in Sverdlovsk.

Noting the Russian, Yiddish, and then mention of Hebrew, it almost sounds like the band's journey is parallel to your personal journeys, or even the recent history of Russian Jews. Is that a fair observation, or is that reading too much into it?

More or less the impression is correct;
We have absorbed various elements of the different cultures, that somehow were transformed into the essence of Gevolt.

Also, is there an agenda within your music to promote, raise awareness of, or educate regarding Israel?

We are reflecting our ways, our home, and our state of mind through music.
Of course we are inspired and influenced by the environment which we are surrounded by.
Whether it be walking the old city of Jerusalem or hanging around with friends on the embankment of Tel-Aviv.

How do you feel about being compared to Rammstein? This comes about because of the awesome vocals of Anatholy, and the combination of lung-flattening guitar and keyboards, but you each so clearly represent two very divergent focuses.

Being compared to Rammstein is not a crime:)
After all, Rammstein is a great band.
There's nothing to do, we both have a low-pitched vocalist and a wall of guitars.

While Anatholy's voice is different to Lindemann's, they have similar vocal ranges, and both sing with a distinctly operatic touch, so comparison is somewhat inevitable. What really solidifies the similarities between the two men is the exaggerated rolling of Rs. Is this speech mannerism a trait of Yiddish speech, or is it Anatholy's own, as it is with Lindemann? 

Well, we do not see much difference, whether it's Sidur with singing in Russian or AlefBase.
So likely it Anatholy’s specification.))

Photo by Ludmila Bazarov

Anatholy, your singing is a revelation. Which language is your favourite?

I love Russian, Hebrew, Yiddish, English, German, Finnish...
Some of those i know well, some of those not much and some of those absolutely not:)
My native language is Russian ( thats why - Rs), then it was English (in school), after that - Hebrew, and now i'm learning (or think that learning) Yiddish - and I like it too.

Your music is brutal, sensitive, and highly immersive. Do any of you ever wonder how on earth this has come about? That is, does it all seem to be much more than you expect, after you've been jamming, and come to pull everything together for the first time?

It's something that has to do with certain people and their specific relationships within the band, which is probably impossible to calculate.
A symbiosis of personalities, various dynamics and desire for self-expression, if you will.

We worked hard on the “AlefBase” album and ultimately - we're satisfied with the result.
Nowadays I get a little bit excited with the ideas I’m writing down for the new one.

How do you develop your compositions as a group?

We do it by stages.
Most of our compositions has been developed within the rehearsals,
then got polished during the recordings.
Since we record and mix by ourselves, final touches are possible till the final point.

Photo by Yevgeny Raw

Do you have a dominant personality in the band, or do you operate as a democracy?

Usually the dominance in our band passes from person to person, depending on the matter.

Cool. What about the cliche roles? You know: the clown who cracks wise all the time, the peacemaker, the weird ideas person, the serious person, the motivator, etc. Who's who?

Every one of us in different times become one of those persons:)

Do any of the band members have musical side-projects, aside from Misha and Eva with her job?

Vadim’s side project

Gevolt website
Gevolt's current album download
Gevolt on Facebook
Gevolt on Twitter
Gevolt on YouTube
Gevolt on MySpace
Gevolt on Last.FM

Thank you, Gevolt.

RZK Interview

There's a good interview with RZK from Jam Magazine Online. It skips the LIFAD era almost entirely, and delves into Richard's history, Germany's history, and Rammstein's...history. It's different and well worth a read...if you're interested in history.

The Gauntlet Interviewing Rammstein

If you watch LILTwitter and/or @TheGauntlet you will have seen that he is about to interview Rammstein. As soon as he has recovered from the show and found the time to post that I'll link to it. Knowing TG it should be a goodie!

Paul Interviewed

The LA Weekly blog has posted a Paul Landers interview. He says some nice stuff about Combichrist:

You are touring with Combichrist again. Do you know the last time they played Los Angeles they headlined at the Music Box. Do you guys particularly like them or is there some other reason they keep ending up on the bill?

Well, it's really just because we are all gay.

We like them they are really nice people. I think it's important to get along with your opening bands because you're pretty much in close contact with them a lot.

And then I think we really compliment each other musically as well [with Combichrist] there not long sequences, they have no guitars, I think people are going to just be really amped up and can't wait till we break out the guitars. We're not bringing on some help-out metal band that people will be tired of and we can just rock out after they open for us.

And they're really nice to look at and they bring a lot of energy to the stage, they really bring a great show on as well.

There's plenty of other good stuff in there, so check it out.

More Metal Sanaz Goodness

Get a Little Tan With Rammstein

Rammstein World, the definitive French Rammstein fan site, has posted this interview from Metal Sanaz:



I like this woman. She's not afraid to express her fandom in a professional context ("This is it!"). She even got Till so excited he's told her she can come on stage with them. Lucky, hot, and in a position to interview her favourite bands. Awesome combination! Good girl :)

Summary: 'best of' in September (Till), "Of course we'll be back next year" (Till), Pussy stunt cocks not necessarily used by band members not in relationships (Till), and Metal Sanaz is a huge fan (herself). Schneider said the usual, and spoke less this time around.

The Pussy video thing I can't help you with. I don't know who is or isn't in a relationship, aside from Flake, whose wedding I have seen photos from, and I really don't care to know, but I'm sure a lot of you do and will be able to work out who had stunt doubles.

Rammstein Mexico Interviews Paul

You can get the goods here. A few points of interest for me from this interview are below.

R+MX: You have reached very high levels, musically and visually speaking. Do you feel like you’ve gone the highest possible, or can you reach any further? What do you feel you’re missing to do?

Paul Landers: In terms of the music, we definitely have some reserves, since there are increasing opportunities to improve the quality of the songs. As for the show, there are also lots of ideas and projects…. Wait and see.

R+MX: After 6-studio and 2-live albums, is this the right moment to release a “Greatest Hits” album?

Paul Landers: No, by no means, but the record company insists we are getting the money for a long time and could not hold them back for more to bring out a best of album. Damn.

R+MX: Usually, between every album release, Rammstein takes its time. How much will we have to wait before having a new album in our hands?

Paul Landers: Quite right, after the tour of the Best, we will again take a “short break”.

It would seem that Till's words from years ago, about retiring at 50, are being taken way too seriously by many fans. It would also seem that, while we might see nothing for a few years after the currently announced activity, there's definite anticipation of more projects from our favourite sextet.

Thanks for Rammstein Mexico for letting me know they'd posted this. You guys rock.

Another Black Carpet Interview

BareBonesMusic.Com:



Hey, it turns out the YouTube embed function has just been well-hidden. I'm so blonde. I'll go back and sort out the other videos soon.

Anyway, they talk about the next leg of the LIFAD tour, favouritism, and SFA else. These carpet interviews are necessarily brief.

Golden Gods Interview

Schneider and Lindemann have been interviewed on the 'black carpet' by Metal Injection, and Blabbermouth has the video here. I haven't had a chance to watch it yet, but will add comments here if I hear anything of note. I just wanted to get it out to you lot.

Update: They were asked how they decide how much is too much with pyrotechnical content in the show. That was down to budget constraints, but as much as possible. Okay, asking if they're happy to be coming back to the US? Duh! The last and most interesting question was regarding videos. Lindemann says they're working again with Jonas Åkerlund (mispronounced - the Å is pronounced as 'or' in Swedish). I'm wondering if this 'best of' project is going to include that, or if there will be another single from LIFAD. No idea at this stage, really.

Die Antwoord: 'Rammstein Blew My Fucking Brains Open'

Die Antwoord are a South African unit that played BDO alongside Rammstein this southern summer, and they're pretty awesome and very funky. An interview was recently posted in which they remark Rammstein. The Germans impress:

Do you feel like the place you want to make most of your music is South Africa?
Yolandi: Yeah we do all our stuff there.
Ninja: We’re not that big, the way we see things. We’re kind of just sticking our little heads out of the ground; we’ve emerged from nowhere.
Yolandi: We’re not as big as Rammstein.
Ninja: Rammstein are fucking cool. I saw them last night. I haven’t liked anything for so long until I saw them.
Yolandi: The fire!
Ninja: I was so sad this morning that it was yesterday and that it was finished.

Are you looking in the future to add flames and foam to your concert experience?
Ninja: Maybe at some point to add flames, but there’s a lot of different things I want to do now. Rammstein blew my fucking brains open for what you can do for concerts, but our concerts are still kind of raw and hardcore, but it’d be super cool to explode the sensory experience like that. They’re fucking amazing. I’m a huge fan all of a sudden. I always liked them from that one movie [Pussy]; that was the first time I thought they were pretty cool. After I saw them live I was like, “Jesus Christ, this is the coolest thing ever.”

Bang Bang on the Drums

Bang Bang Blog (I think this is the blog of the Bang Bang Breakfast radio show) has an interview with Schneider. The acoustics are bloody horrendous, but the interview isn't bad:

Rammstein Interview on Tuks FM 1072 with Michael Bower. by RobForbesDJ

Sorry for the delay on this. I found it a couple of weeks ago and the tab sat open in my browser being neglected, until now.

RZK Interview

Wat Kyk Jy has posted an interview with Richard, which is definitely worth a read. It's a bit different from the usual fare. Something that came up was the concepts that didn't make it onto LIFAD. These have been discussed in the various communities; whether we will have another Rosenrot-type follow-up. Richard's thoughts:

Well, at the moment I don't want to think about it. Something somebody told me is "if you wanna make God smile, tell him your plans", so haha, we don't need plans anymore. At the moment they're in the computer and they weren't strong enough to survive the record, so you know, there must be something wrong with that, you know? And everything belongs kind of to a time. That's my experience with music. You know, when you're in a special moment and a special time you write certain things and its kind of odd when like 5 years later you getting … unless it's strong otherwise its kind of dull because it wasn't on the record and when you listen to it you're moving yourself too… My guess is it will stay in the computer, haha.