| Interview
2006 |
Wie
oft probt ihr? Wie oft seht ihr euch privat?
"We'll usually put a set together and rehearse it once
or twice right before a concert if we haven't played together
for a few weeks. Otherwise with the number of concerts we play
we seem to do enough rehearsing by just being onstage. Little
and I see each other quite a lot because we live near each other.
Rolf lives in Stuttgart so we see him (hopefully) whenever we
have a gig which is still quite often." |
Wie
entstehen eure Songs?
"I write the music and lyrics but the songs come to life
much more fully when we've played them as a band. Little and
Rolf will always take what I've written as a starting point
and give it a face of their own. We usually like to experiment
with our songs in rehearsal by changing the groove or stretching
the arrangement out just to see where it ends up going. After
we've brought it onstage and played it in front of audience
a few times it seems to go through a kind of finishing process
for us. I'd say we're not a band that likes to create songs
in the studio before playing them live." |
|
Welche
fünf Alben haben euch maßgeblich beeinflusst?
"That's a difficult question and
I don't really know if I have a top 5 because I've often been
a person that would love 2 songs on a record and dislike the
other 10. Sometimes I even like one part of a song but not
the other, but I'll give it a try ...
The Rolling Stones - Hot Rocks: My Dad gave this to
me when I was only 4 years old and I didn't know what to think
of it. It scared me, it thrilled me, it made me want to run
screaming through the streets in my Batman costume, I loved
it.
The Doors - Strange Days: When I was 10 years old
I discovered this record by accident and found myself drawn
to the aura of its dark carnival mystique. Whenever I listened
to it I could feel a long musical antenna extending out of
my head like a cobra rising out of a snake charmer's basket,
spooky.
Black Sabbath - Master of Reality: When I was 13 this
was the album that made me want to learn how to play fat,
dirty guitar riffs. So that's exactly what I did and I didn't
do much of anything else including my schoolwork, I'm lucky
that I'm still able to put a sentence together.
Dead Kennedys - Frankenchrist: Jello Biafra slings
fistfuls of mud at his enemies in unforgettable songs full
of all the psychotic energy and political venom you'd expect
from a man on fire. If the devil played surf guitar he'd probably
sound a lot like East Bay Ray sounds on this record.
Tom Waits - Rain Dogs: I'd say that this is the last record
I can remember that had a real influence on me. I heard it
when I was about 18 and I was simply amazed by the songwriting,
sounds and the imagery that just poured out of the lyrics.
Tom's gravely voice haunts each one of the songs on this record
like a drunken ghost."
|
Welchen
Song würdet ihr gerne covern bzw. habt ihr schon gecovert?
"The last song we covered was 'Mexican Radio' by Wall of
Voodoo. I think we probably covered it because it was a song
called 'Mexican Radio' by a band called Wall of Voodoo but we
liked the way it sounded too." |
Auf
welcher Bühne performt ihr am liebsten? Wo würdet
ihr gerne einmal auftreten?
"Someday we'd like to play at that famous puppet show stage
in Romania where Metallica was discovered. I think it's called
"The Goat's Milk Theatre" but I'm not sure." |
Euer
grandiosester Gig? Euer erbärmlichster?
"The best show we ever played was when we opened up for
Buddy Holly and the Crickets at the Green Cheese Festival on
the Moon. Seriously, we've had a lot of good and memorable shows
but I can't honestly say that I have a favorite one.
The worst show we played was probably in a cafe in Vienna where
a guy sat down right in front of me while I was singing and
had an argument with his girlfriend. After he finished arguing
with his girlfriend he realized there was a band playing in
front of him so he decided that more than anything else in the
world he wanted to hear us play 'Cocaine' by Eric Clapton. We
of course don't play a cover version of that song and we did
our best to communicate that to him but he wouldn't give up
and decided if we wouldn't play his song then he wasn't going
to leave us alone. He must not have understood english very
well because he didn't seem to mind when I started changing
the lyrics I was singing into insults about his hair, face,
clothes and life." |
Wen
würdet ihr als Gast-Musiker (auch internationale) auf der
Bühne begrüßen wollen?
"Playing with Captain Beefheart would be a dream of ours
because he's written songs with titles like 'Making Love to
a Vampire With a Monkey on My Knee'." |
Mit
welchen österreichischen Bands würdet ihr gerne zusammen
auf Tour gehen?
"We'd like to tour with the Austrian band Ursprung Buam.
That way on our off days we could have magical picnics with
them in the forest." |
Was
wollt ihr als Band erreichen?
"As a band we're very chameleon-like so we'd like to reach
a point where we'd have the freedom, time and space to pursue
the growth and changes of our sound for a long time to come,
wherever that may take us." |
