Link to original article in Swedish:
Lord of the Lost have managed to become quite big in a relatively
short time in Germany. Their debut album “Fears” was released in 2010, quickly
followed by “Antagony” in 2011 and “Die Tomorrow” in 2012, which reached number
33 in the German chart. Not bad for a goth metal band. This year on the 9th
of August they released a live album, “We give our Hearts – Live aus St Pauli”
with three new bonus tracks. No one thought that it would work for such a new
band to release a live album so early on in their career. The skeptics were
wrong. The CD climbed up the top 100 immediately.
The band was formed in 2007 by multi talented Chris Harms,
who writes all the songs, sings, and plays guitar and cello. He really is “The
Lord”, and the original idea for the band name was just that. However, they
were a bit worried about comparisons with other bands like: The Lords or Lordi,
so they came up with Lord of the Lost instead. The rest of the band consists of
Bo Six (guitar), Gared Dirge (keyboards, percussion, guitar), Class Grenayde (bass)
and Christian “Disco” Schnellhorn (drums)
I met up with Gared, Bo and Chris after their gig at the
M’era Luna festival in Hildesheim, Germany.
Chris started to play cello when he was four years old, and also
took lessons from the E-cello pioneer Wolfram Huschke.
Were there any bands
that inspired him during his childhood?
-
Of course! My parents listened to glam rock from
the 70s, like Kiss and Aerosmith. But my biggest influence is Roxette. They
were and are my absolute favourites. Per Gessle is my personal song writing
idol. There is no one that writes better pop songs than him! I started to
listen to Roxette when I was ten, and they were also my first live show.
Chris also has another connection to Sweden. When his mother
was a little child after World War II, she was sent to Sweden for a few years.
It was a program that a Swedish charity organised to help children from war
torn countries.
Bo has musical roots because his grandfather was an opera
singer.
-
When I was ten my sister gave me a Metallica CD.
After that I started to play the guitar. I am a metalhead, and I don’t listen
to pop the way Chris does. A few years ago I had long hair, and my inspirations
are Jimmy Page, Kurt Cobain, James Hetfield and Zakk Wylde.
Gared, who reminds me of a young Marilyn Manson, says that
he started playing because there was a
piano in his house.
-
It just felt so natural. I thought that I could
do this for the rest of my life, and maybe even make a living out of it.
Chris was in several bands before LOTL, Philiae from
1999-2004 and glam rock band The Pleasures from 2004-2010. He also played with
Unter Art, Big Boy, Vagueness and guitar with Feuerangel, Germany’s biggest
Rammstein tribute band. If that wasn’t enough, he is also a producer, writes
film music and directs music videos.
How come he founded
Lord of the Lost?
-
A few years ago I wrote some songs that didn’t
fit in to the categories of all my other projects. So I thought, time for
another project. I started to record everything myself. After a few songs I
needed some other musicians to play with. There was no goal, the whole project
developed organically.
The band has gone through several line up changes since
2007. It seems like it has finally stabilised.
Do the others have a
say, or is it just “The Lord” Chris that makes all the decisions?
-
It is not democratic, says Bo. But if we have
ideas we send them to Chris. Sometimes he uses them, and sometimes not. It is
mostly him that writes all the material.
Chris takes over and starts to explain.
-
You have to differentiate between a songwriter
and a musician. Some people can do both, but for many it is one or the other.
The other guys write songs sometimes, but they are not like me, writing three
songs a week. I am always happy when they come with suggestions and I try to
use as much as possible of them. It all depends on what works during the
recording.
Most German bands, like Rammstein, sing in German, a hard
language that works well with hard music. LOTL, on the other hand, sing in
English.
-
I have a much better feeling for English lyrics.
It never felt necessary for me to write lyrics in German. I have listened to
English music my whole life. Actually, I have just started to write German
lyrics for one of my solo projects. But for LOTL, English is part of the
feeling of the band. I don’t like it when bands change too much and start to
mix languages.
LOTL have produced a new album every year. How does Chris have time for two solo
projects at the same time?
-
The solo projects are very different. One of
them, Over The Jordan is a metal core band that is only sporadic. The other
one, Harms@Kapelle is a German rock ‘n’ roll, folk, singer songwriter project and
is more serious. They are only there in the background. My main focus is LOTL.
The other stuff is just for myself, when you write as much as me you have to
find somewhere to place them.
Do the others have
any side projects?
-
No, they are too lazy, jokes Chris. They don’t
even play on stage. Everything is playback even “We love you M’era luna”, and
the audience!
The band has just managed to get
their fans to sponsor a US tour. Through fan clubs and the internet, fans were
invited to donate money. They all got something in return like gifts and access
to the band.
-
It was our American promoter that suggested it.
We first thought it was a
bit
embarrassing, especially if no one had supported us. We tried it and
people from all around the world
sponsored us. Big commercial companies as well. It’s not about the money for
us. We managed to get together almost 13 000 Dollars. That is just enough to
pay for the flight, visas, the tour bus and of course for the hookers and the
drugs, he adds jokingly.
It is a kickstart for us to break
through in America. We wouldn’t have been able to afford it otherwise. It will
only break even.
-
I saw a few weeks ago that even Robbie Williams,
who is a big star here, didn’t succeed with a US tour. It might not work for us
either. We see it as a kind of a holiday, adds Bo.
What kinds of places
will you play, and how long will the tour be?
-
We will be there for two weeks, answers Bo. And
we will play arenas with Bon Jovi as support band.
-
We will of course play small clubs, like we did
in Germany four years ago, says Chris.
Last year Chris said that he would love to play with a
symphony orchestra. Just one year later his wish is now coming true. LOTL are
playing with a classic orchestra in Leipzig in October for the Gothik meets Klassik
festival.
-
We are rehearsing with the orchestra in Poland
for two or three days and then for a couple of days in the theatre just before
the concert. That is all! We are not doing what Metallica did. This won’t be a
Rock ‘n’ Roll show with electric guitars. We will all play acoustic
instruments. Totally different, and it will be Legen-Dairy!
This might be a new catchphrase for the band. They always
have one, it used to be “Let’s did it” from “How I met your mother”.
On the new live album there are also three new studio
tracks.
Were they written
just for that album?
-
No, they were
written for our next CD, which will be out in 2014. We have chosen three songs
as a bit of a taster for that one. One heavy song, “Zillah”, one classic,
“Liberty in Death” and one ballad “Love in a Time of War”.
Will they change
their style for the next album?
-
I like it when bands change and develop a bit.
We will change slightly and our look too, but not too much. We will continue to
be LOTL.
Do they have some
kind of message with their music?
-
It varies, some of our songs are just silly.
Like “Black Lolita”, that’s just for fun. We make party music, but a few songs
are about personal experiences. It all depends on how I feel.
It might feel a bit like the band should be called “Chris of
the Lost”, but Gared seems to be trained up to become a rival for the star. He
sings, plays percussion, keyboards and guitar.
-
I can’t teach him anything. He is much better
than me.
-
No, it’s the other way around, says Gared. I do
what I can, but I am not a songwriter. I am a versatile tool, but not part of
the creative process.
-
He is good at doing what I tell him, adds Chris.
Chris admits that he doesn’t have a clue of what is
happening in the music business at the moment.
-
After working with music all the time, I don’t
feel like listening to it when I come home. It’s like someone that works in a
restaurant. They don’t feel like eating there on their spare time.
Like so many others, the band made a cover of a Lady GaGa
song, “Bad Romance”.
Will there be any
more covers, a Roxette one perhaps?
-
Nothing that silly! Or maybe, wait and see.
I just saw LOTL live in Berlin, and they did indeed play a
cover of Roxette’s “Sleeping in my Car”.
One of the many reasons behind LOTL’s success is their
collaborations with some of Germany’s top acts like Eisbrecher, Letzer Instanz,
Mono Inc and Blutengel.
On the live album, Nina Jiers from Neopera is guest vocalist
on the studio track, “Liberty in Death”. Chris doesn’t really answer the
question if there will be any other collaborations. He can also not say how the
future looks for LOTL.
The lineup they have now seems to work well and Chris hopes
that it will last. You never know though what will happen in one year, ten
years or a hundred. If you work for Chris you have to be prepared to give a 100
percent, that is the only thing he will accept.
Live Photos: Maria Bergman
Interview Photos: Krista Hoogkamer
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