25/04/2003

    DAS ICH  :  Interview with Bruno Kramm (and the band)

by dalia di giacomo       

 transcripted by Stefan Vogelaar  

17/10/2002 -  ZÜRICH (CH) at X-TRA Limmat Haus  -          OUR LIVE REPORTAGE

Das Ich  and Dalia                   pic taken by Stefan  

 
THE NUMBER OF ETERNITY 

 

Dalia : we are here in Zürich at X-tra with Stefan, Bruno and Gabriel

Bruno : Kain Gabriel... i did a mistake tonight, because our former keyboardist is called Daniel and i'm used to say in the break "this is our keyboardist Daniel" and this eavening i've sayed "Kain Daniel" and he called me an arsehole for that coz his name is Kain Gabriel Simon

D : could you present yourself please

KGS : I'm Kain Gabriel Simon and i'm 25 years old

B: He is our keyboardist and we found him in a dirty hole doing jobs like sound engineer and stage management and we've met him several times, and as the members of the band matched with him what is very important for us because we are a family like band. From the moment he is a good keyboarder we took him with us

D: critics are saying that your album Antichrist is without doubt the best production you ever had until now, but there are about 10 years of work and experience behind. How much important are your roots for you?

B: Specially for this album our roots had the most important influence, because after our first album Die Propheten and Satanische Verse we tried all kind of styles and we did projects together with metal bands like Atrocity; we did film scoring soundtracks, we did several things, also remix albums with bands, so all kind of stuff and for the new album it was important to find back  our roots. We just tried to put our roots into a new context of modern times.

D : related to that answer, i would like to know how much of Industrial , Classic and Metal music there is in this new album ,  in your opinion

B : Actually we dont see music like a cooking instruction in the way as how much pepper or salt you need to get the dish, but my roots of music are coming from the classical side so
i think there is some more classic ,but we try to mix all the stuff together to get something out that sounds good to us and if it is more industrial or more classic we dont think about, that just happens.



D : Which  are your impressions about the gig this evening?

B : In the beginning it was pretty hard to handle some little mistakes during some songs, and already seen from the opener the crowd seemed not to be into that much, like they stood a little backwards, but after they came into and so we felt to do some more than simply doing our job and i'm happy that the show turned out to be something really great. I have to say that the X-Tra is a great and professional venue with a perfect staff and the lightshow was excellent.



D : You have played in England recently, is there any difference between the English and the Swiss audience?

B: Let's say that the audience is always different, even in Germany the audience is different from part to part of Germany itself. In the UK we go with mixed feelings because we must cancel a couple of shows and we thought that the people there might be a little bit upset with us, but finally it was a great show we did there,  and i have to say, that the people at London, methinks, are party people, and they enjoyed the show very much what let us feel very satisfied.



D : Which are your next projects?

B : At the end of 2002 we are in the USA and we will wright some new tracks during this tour in order to come hopefully out with a new album during 2003, so while we are touring, we do the work for the next album.

D : The name Das Ich, sounds to me a little bit like taken from the psycologic world of Freud ...

B : Well, basically there was a little bit of this story but today it is locked in to another thing what at a first view makes no sense , but a lot of bands developed during their career getting better or into different styles and the good thing with the name Das Ich or translated in english The Ego fits to everything you like to do in the future, if you call your band for example Deepest kind of bad or whatever it wouldnt fit with other styles of music you did when you gave the band a name



D : In your opinion,how much positive could be the fact of being excentric? 

B : It depends of the situation of course, but a band on the stage needs to be excentric, on the other hand, in your private life it is not always good for you to be excentric..



D : The album Anti Christ seems to have influences from biblic topics, who is the Antichrist for you?

B : Actually the Antichrist or the so called evil is one basic human emotion what is , when we dont look back to other people and when we dont have emotions and sensible feelings for others, this is the real evil thing, but if you come to the album Anti Christ it is more about what happened after september 11. For us was not important the crash of the two airplanes into the towers but what happened afterwards concerning the political situation worldwide. We never thought that the world would be devided by an axe of good and evil and i think this terms are really dangerous, because if you call one culture something like evil and a whole religion , there is no more discussion in between... there is no more exchange of ideas, and i think what we need, more than everything, is communication between the cultures. The danger is, that a biblic term like evil alias Satan is getting used in a political way



D : What do you think about the politics of the church?

B : I think these days it is more important to think about the politics of the countries in the world like the USA because they have the biggest power at the moment, i think the church as far as you maybe think about the catholic church lost the influence and more and more interesting what belongs to power.



D : something completely different from this topic..., do you believe in extra terrestrial beings?

B : let's say we are Star-track fans so is that enough answer?
live long and prosper.....
< shows us the vulcano salut (\\//) everybody is laughing...>



D : entering your official website means clicking on the sentence "open the gate to hell"....(---now it has changed--)

B : ...well, it is a little bit pathetic, and the sentence was added as a joke and it wasnt our idea, but an idea of the webdesigner, who did this page,and everybody who knows what we do on the musical side knows that it is just a joke, and there is no hell on our website, .... it is just a website were you can find stuff about our band

< from the background "good question that one".... answer from Dalia : it isnt the last one :D >



D : if there is a gate to hell, were would it be lokated in your opinion?

B : ...in the western countries 



D : Who is the writer you like the most?

B : It depends on the mood, because there are so many classical ones and the contemporary are countless ...



D : the last greeting of your show has impressed me very much, the three things you have told to the audience : "stop Bush" and  you have mentioned the animals too..

B : We are all since years vegetarian, the first thing was about the whole political situation and i think we as Das Ich normally we are not happy with the German politics, but right now we are really happy what Mr Schröder did, that he really found his position and i'm really happy that more European countries start to fight against the war and try to interfere  not the USA  but this president, and that is the dangerous thing......

------Stefan's comment : the discussion about the world politics was going on much longer than i've expected and i give my apologises to Gabriel for not translating his statement, but in the actual situation, i think we have to go back to the music as we are a music zine, but one thing let me tell you lots out there, that guys sayd holy words! -------



D : Which is your favourite colour, red or black?

B : Black is not a colour!.....

< everybody is laughing>

D : Well, this is our last usual question we drop to the bands we interview for the first time, and we call it the Game of the Tower. There is a very high tower and on this tower there are normally three bands waiting, you have to save one and push down the other two, but for you Das Ich on this tower  three numbers are waiting, which one do you keep save? :
777, 999, 888 

B : I will save 888, because if you put it upside down it is still 888 so it is the number of eternity !

D: Thank you very much!

TOP
Niederrohrdorf - Switzerland