GM (dalia) : Well, we are here together
with the singer and with the drummer of Deathstars. Can you tell us something about the history of the band?
DS: Yes, originally we come from the Death metal underground as Dissection and Swordmaster,and we had a record deal with the Universal with Swordmaster. Three years ago ,
instead of going ahead to play thrash we want to do something else and we got to change band and so we became Deathstars and started with synthesizers......yeah, there was the will to something different from what we have done the ten years before in
multiple bands, and we started to work with drum- machine, synthesizer and computers, because it's fun, we wanted to do an experiment. Trying
something different, thats it.
GM: Which are your inspirations, both concerning music and lyrics?
DS: The music was all about Death Metal with synths and we tried to get as much dynamic as we could in our songs.It is still fun, but in a different way. You know, for the drummer it is sometimes kind of boring because now the music is not focused to the single performance, some riffs like in black metal, the Drummer has not very much to do, but it is always fun, because now the song as whole is the important thing and not the individual performance.
GM: You have mentioned Death and Black Metal. There is something in your music that reminds
me of Black Metal...
DS: We have played Black and Death Metal for about ten years and thats where we are coming from, so... other bands
in this genre we make in this moment didnt really see until now ... after we finished the production we heard things like "oh, that sounds like Rammstein" or "that sounds like
Manson" and we started to listen to industrial stuff only after we finished the CD. For us it was just Death Metal done in a different way, but then i start to sing .. <laughing> .., i started to sing with Death Metal.....
yeah, we were in the studio and can't figure out how he had to sing, he started with Death and the dynamic was
totally dissappeared, and then i've heard him singing in a bit different way and it
was fitting and we said "lets try this" and so we started with Little Angel...
GM: Which are your impressions about this first impact with Paradise Lost, because it was such a luck for you that Godhead
have cancelled their presence and you can tour with Paradise Lost.
DS: Yeah, we had one week to decide and put everything together, but we have done now, with this one, three
European tours. For us is this a kind of release and promotion tour and we are here as opener but its kind of strange, because in
Sweden we are on a major label , the Universal and Warner Brothers and now nobody knows about us in europe. You know, here it is like you go on stage and the people are like "ok, lets see what they do" and in
Sweden when we hit the stage 3000 people are going crazy. It is a big difference.
GM: Is it a new experience to see differnt crowd that have couriosity now for you, today is the world release of your album, i mean: newcomer in Nuclear Blast, an important tour, spotlights are suddenly in
Europe on you... what are your impressions about?
DS: As we said before, nobody knows about us in Europe, and we had to short our set down to 6 songs because we have only half an hour on the stage, and yesterday we got cut off because we extended it about 9 minutes. I think that the next tour will be more important. On this tour we are also missing a band member because there too few beds in the bus, so we missing the keybordist, and we dont have our own gear. I dont want to argue about that, i dont care, we stand up and play , but
those small things become irritating. But we have to do it and so we do it. I think next tour will be better. ...... we dont even have fire on stage, usually we have lots of pyrotechnic on stage.
This is a great opportunity and we are thankful, but doesn't feel that good because we
cannot play with all our capacity.
GM: A question about the tracklist of your album. I personally find 4 songs realy
brilliant and the rest a bit too comercial. I mean , songs like Syndrome, No Light, Little Angel.
It sounds a bit too much The Kovenant anyway...
DS:We like The Kovenant <laughing> ... the next album is going to be much darker, it's going more Little Angel- like..... this album is now 3 years old, we
are going to record the new album that will be released next summer, but this album is out in
Sweden since 2 years and since than we have changed alot and we are much darker
GM: What about the production, moreover there is a really good mixing...
DS:...the whole registration process we have done ourself except the mixing part, that was done by Stefan Glaumann, he has also done the last Rammstein album and Clawfinger. We wanted him and we got him, he was expensive
but this work was excellent.
GM: For my taste, the electronic is pushed a bit too much in the foreground and lets suffer the good guitar riffs in the background.
DS: We want it like this, because it was the first time we did something like that, with synthezisers and it was important for us to not hide them too much.
GM: I would like to ask something about the cover, White Wedding. It is
well done!
DS: ....i didnt know that it was included....
GM: ....it is on this CD as Bonus track.
DS: It was ment to be on a new edition from Warner for
Sweden as a single and we thought we should bury it because our label fucked it up that time....we
didn't know that it is on this record now.. by the way, we took it, because we wanted some song from the 80's and so we recorded it.
GM: How are you, which are your personalities in privat.
DS: Boring, ...Bone W Machine : "i have problems with idiots, so i dont go out much, but when you'r on tour and meet nice and good people they are into the same thing, than you forget about the boring people surrounding you in your daily life, thats all about me, to make music and meet people they think like me"......Beast
X Electronic is always around, he is a party man all the time ...... Mabe is the musician, serious, he
doesn't complain about anything, everything has to be perfect..... .... we have a new bass player, he is called Skinny and he is a party man
as well ......
Whiplasher: "no comments" <laughing>
GM: One name, Marilyn Manson.....
DS: Bone W Machine :....Who's that...????? .... you know, people tell me, that i'm looking like Marilyn Manson, but i
just look like me. We used this makeup in the Blackmetal and Manson took it from there
as well, but if you have a look on the picture of me on the first Dissection album from fuckin' 93 and you look at me now, you will see the exactly the same makeup and in 93 there was no
Marilyn Manson, so....... To all the people: we dont look like Marilyn Manson, we look like ME! So i dont change style at all!
GM: Ok, this is our typical last question we propose to every band we are interviewing for the first time, and it is the game of the tower.
There is a very high tower and on top of this tower there are three band waiting for you:
you have to kick down two of them saving only one. For you, on this tower there are : The Kovenant
, Dimmu Borgir and ...Rammstein.
DS: The Kovenant and Rammstein are going down, coz we are friends with Dimmu
Borgir. We had our first gig together with Dimmu Borgir!
GM: thank you so much guys!
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DEATHSTARS:
Interview with Whiplasher and Bone w Machine
Niederrohrdorf
- Switzerland