German Dark Rockers Unzucht’s
fourth album “Neuntöter” was released on the 2nd of September. In the
spring, when they were touring with OOMPH! around Europe, I met them in Paris
to discuss it, tour stories and some politics. This time bassist Alex Blaschke
also joined in together with vocalist Daniel Schulz and drummer Toby Fuhrmann.
We started by talking about
their latest single “Kettenhund” and the harder sound on it.
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It’s always been there,
says Schulz. In “Unendlich”, for example, there is a very brutal section. We
wanted to explore that and take it further with “Kettenhund” so we can express
all different directions of feelings. That’s how you recognize us, atmospheric
with a lot of heart and then just insanity. We are simply stretching our
borders a bit further. You have already heard our evocative sides in songs like
“Schweigen”. All of these are different facets of Unzucht and we now want to
show that we can do something different. The song is about restlessness,
constraint and force from religion. More than this I don’t really like to say. There
are many ways of interpreting the lyrics and I don’t want to limit and restrict
any of the imagery you can create in your mind. We say what we want and most of
the clues to our meanings are in between the sentences. You can also say that
the significance of the song is: “They say we have this life and it’s just shit
but then we have another one and it will be much better.” This thing with “Ich
Bin Gott” (I am God) can also be something completely different like: What is God?
Is it TV, media, money or Satan?
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The core of Satanism
is that you put yourself in the centre, adds Toby.
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Who doesn’t know
the feeling of “Ich Bin Gott”, continues Schulz. Everyone feels like that
sometimes, be it when you are drunk, stoned or just cycling through a forest.
Whatever it is that makes you happy! When you are playing on the flanks and
manage to score points, then you might think: “Ich Bin Gott”!
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Football god or
any pronoun, says Alex. All of us in the band have different interpretations and
we exchange them between ourselves and then relay them to the audience.
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For me anyway the
core of the text is: “When death liberates me from my body, I am God”,
continues Schulz. I don’t know exactly the meaning since it’s our guitarist De
Clercq who wrote it. In the UK, by the way, “Kettenhund” has got a great
response!
The band have developed a
special relationship with the UK, which is very unusual for a band that sings
in German. Last year they played their first shows there and at the beginning
of this one they toured there with Puddle of Mudd. They also played Scotland
and they will return there this autumn and winter for a headline tour. Because
they are getting so familiar with the place, Schulz wants to clarify the
difference between Great Britain and the UK. Well, Great Britain is the islands
and the UK is the United Kingdom of Scotland, Wales, England and Northern
Ireland.
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Yes, it was
really cool, continues Toby, and fun because we met a lot of people we met the
first time. Like the singer from Maleficient who played support to us in
London. She was there this time selling T-shirts.
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I didn’t know she
was there, says Alex, but it really was a wonderful tour. Like something I have
always wanted since I was a child.
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It was really
insane with how much attention we got in the press during this tour, adds
Schulz. During the first days we had a bit of a scandal!
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Wes Scantlin, the
singer in Puddle of Mudd, was so drunk that he couldn’t perform properly,
explains Toby. The band had enough of him and left the stage. Everyone thought
it was over and went in to the disco next door. After a while Wes came back,
sat down and started rambling to the audience that his band had abandoned him.
Even though it’s his band. It was really admirable of them to finish the tour
without canceling. We had been home for over a week when the videos from that
night went viral. All of a suddenly it was in the big music magazines such as
Rolling Stone and Billboard. They all wrote that Wes had been fired from the
band but that wasn’t true. I was also asked to make a statement on the incident
but by the time I reacted, the article was already out.
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In spite of all
this we met some really nice people, says Alex. The musicians were top and even
though Wes was constantly drunk he managed to sing the songs you wanted to
hear. We achieved what we wanted by reaching out to a new audience and music
promoters.
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To win over the
audience in the UK is something we think we succeeded with, continues Schulz.
They were fantastic and really opened up to us. In Doncaster they were
requesting “Nur die Ewigkeit” because they’ve seen it on Youtube and they were
all singing along in German. Completely unexpected and so cool! We were touring
with an alternative band and even though we are Dark Rock we complemented each other
perfectly.
They also toured with
Eisbrecher at the beginning of the year, a band that belongs to the same genre
as them.
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Another wonderful
tour, adds Schulz. We played in front of 4 000 people in Munich. Our biggest indoor
gig so far.
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To play with
Eisbrecher was a perfect match, enthuses Alex. The band and crew are so nice,
you feel like you’re welcome and the food was also good!
When I did this interview in
April I was wondering when their new album “Neuntöter”, that is now released,
would come out and at that point they didn’t have a clue.
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It’s really cool
that the album has been announced even though it’s not ready yet, says
Alex. It puts us under pressure to work
harder and better. First time in our history that we do that.
It seems like pressure works
well for them. They have just produced an incredibly diverse Dark Rock album.
Heavy, sensitive, brutal and melodic at the same time. The name of it “Neuntöter” (Nine killer) is
the German word for the red-backed shrike bird.
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It’s all about the
words like our album “Rosenkreuzer” (Rosicrucians), explains Schulz. We thought
Neuntöter was such a cool word and then we saw that it was just a small bird.
It impales its victims on long thorns in the bushes and then it eats them. In
the olden days they used to say that it needs at least nine victims per day and
that they ripen them for a while on the thorns before they consume them. A
really sweet bird that doesn’t just eat insects but mice, lizards, frogs and
other birds.
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A perfect bird
for us, says Alex. A nice killer!
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Have you seen the
promo picture, asks Toby? Around the bird you can see body parts and bones
impaled on the thorns. We wanted people to first notice the cute bird and then
the carnage around it.
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Once again it was
designed by Stefan Heilemann, who made the cover for Till Lindemann’s solo
project’s album, adds Schulz.
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Incredible
artist, exclaims Alex.
Heilemann’s pictures looks
like paintings but when you observe them a bit closer you will notice that they
are digitally enhanced photographs. The band told me that the model for their
cover of “Venus Luzifer” is the same one as on the EP “Schweigen” even though
it looks like she is 15 on the latter. She is actually in her late 30s.
On the EP of “Kettenhund”
they also got help from German NDH legends Die Krupps, who did a remix for
them.
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We are so happy
and proud, says Schulz! Such a good remix! I had goose bumps!
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They live in
Texas now, continues Toby. So we had to send over our material to them, that
they then worked on in their studio.
After having collaborated
with Die Krupps they played support to OOMPH! on their European tour. Which of
the two do they consider as being the original inventors of Neue Deutsche
Härte, the musical genre Rammstein brought to the masses? They think both are,
which bodes well for these future heirs to the throne.
At the end of our chat we got
in to more serious subjects. Dero the singer in OOMPH! spoke about the
terrorist attack in Paris at the Eagles of Death Metal concert, during their
show that night. He gave an impassioned speech about freedom, solidarity and
the strength you can get from rock and roll.
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He did it so
well, says Schulz. It was great to see how people kept on celebrating and
showed the terrorists the finger! Even so we couldn’t help but think of it
during our performance. It’s so close to us, Toby knows someone who was there
and he found out about it through Facebook. Heike, my wife, also had friends
there and Toby had also worked there with Volbeat two years ago. The terror had
all of a suddenly entered a new zone. The audience that were there that night
were alternative people that had never done any harm or would have
differentiated the terrorists from the rest.
I was wondering what they
thought about Jess Hughes’ statement that it would probably had not been able
to happen in the US because people can carry guns and defend themselves.
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I don’t believe
that any one goes to a concert with a gun, exclaims Schulz!
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Yes, I heard it,
adds Toby. First of all, I think he feels guilty over what happened and
secondly he was thinking about them stopping a gunman ten years ago because
they shot him. It saved a lot of lives! I hate guns and are very much against
them but even so, I can understand how he feels. If someone had shot down the
terrorists, over 50 people would still have been alive. When someone walks in
to a concert with a machine gun it’s no longer about Peace, Love and Harmony.
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But isn’t it also
the case that if more people have guns there will also be more crazy perpetrators,
interrupts Schulz?
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I am not too
sure, answers Toby. It’s a question about different societies in the end. If
you look at Switzerland for example, they have more weapons per person than in
the USA. In spite of that they don’t have any problems with mass shootings!
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All I have to say
is, stop all the violence and enjoy life instead, exclaims Alex!
Since we had talked about Wes
in Puddle of Mudd’s alcohol problem I was wondering if the song “Mein Grab”,
about drinking yourself to death, was based on personal experiences.
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Of course, we are
rock musicians and we know many who have problems with it…prost! toasts Schulz!
It’s simply just so much fun. It can be difficult to regulate yourself when you
are out on tour. I like getting drunk sometimes, like the first time we met
when I was so inebriated that I made up a new language. Even so I felt it was
necessary to write a song about this theme and how you can’t let it take you
over. In the end everyone is walking their own path and we can’t do anything
about it.
Photo & Interview: Maria Bergman
Photo & Interview: Maria Bergman
