Unzucht Interview 2016

German Dark Rockers Unzucht’s fourth album “Neuntöter” was released on the 2^nd 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.

-       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?

-       The core of Satanism is that you put yourself in the centre, adds Toby.

-       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”!

-       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.

-       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.

-       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.

-       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.

-       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!

-       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.

-       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.

-       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.

-       Another wonderful tour, adds Schulz. We played in front of 4 000 people in Munich. Our biggest indoor gig so far.

-       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.

-       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.

-       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.

-       A perfect bird for us, says Alex. A nice killer!

-       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.

-       Once again it was designed by Stefan Heilemann, who made the cover for Till Lindemann’s solo project’s album, adds Schulz.

-       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.

-       We are so happy and proud, says Schulz! Such a good remix! I had goose bumps!

-       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.

-       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.

-       I don’t believe that any one goes to a concert with a gun, exclaims Schulz!

-       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.

-       But isn’t it also the case that if more people have guns there will also be more crazy perpetrators, interrupts Schulz?

-       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!

-       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.

-       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