Drangsal

I always found Herxheim to be outstandingly peculiar – people from there just function differently. It may best be described as the Twin Peaks of southern Germany, yet growing up there was still very dreary to say the least. There just is not a thing to do unless you find something for yourself to do. Being terminally bored and having been exposed to music television from a very early age naturally led me to pick up a guitar, bang a drum and scream.

I don't really care much for pigeonholing my own art. It is however undeniable that before I wrote the songs for Harieschaim I got heavily into and was thus severely influenced by a large amount of Post-Punk, Neue Deutsche Welle, Synth Pop, Dark Wave and Industrial.

They say the first album takes a lifetime to make and in my case this is very true. On this record there can be found songs that I recorded with a head-set duct-taped to a cheap Casio keyboard aged 14 as well as tunes as recent as last year. When I finally got together with Markus Ganter, who produced the album, it took several intense work units spanning the course of about three to four years until Harieschaim was released in Germany.

The first couple of bands I can clearly remember from my childhood days are AC/DC, Rammstein, The Prodigy, Metallica, KoRn, The Beastie Boys, Ian Dury & The Blockheads, Tuxedomoon, The B-52s, DAF and Marilyn Manson, the latter of which I was to become obsessed with quite a bit during my pre-teen years. Before I was able to really grasp and understand music my dad competently ran his pub to bankruptcy, which forced him to bring home the mixtapes he had recorded to be played there and that in turn sowed the seed for my burgeoning obsession with music. When I was about 6 or 7 I was allowed to watch MTV, VIVA and VIVA2 and wished for nothing but CDs and Marilyn Manson action figures for my birthday or Christmas. Then at 9 my father took me to see Manson and Peaches in Frankfurt and at that point I already knew what I myself had to become one day. Right now I am almost exclusively listening to Puscifer after some pretty hefty Tool, Metallica, Smashing Pumpkins and Shellac phases.

An array of customary guitars, basses, acoustic drums and drum-machines, analogue as well as digital synthesizers garnished with a pinch of pure hatred.

I would describe it as ‘Brute Pop’.

I try not to think too much at all when writing music, as for me the process itself is the sheer opposite of thinking. Once you feel inspired and reach the point where idea after idea hits your brain it becomes almost this out-of-body-experience where neither time nor nutrition nor the problems or concerns of what is usually perceived by one as the real world matter anymore. When I'm in the studio I am indeed striving for perfection, so much so that I become an abominable pain in the ass to anyone forced to work within close proximity to me and my mood-swings.

That would have to be Hinterkaifeck. From the song's title and its multi-layered tongue-in cheek lyrics to the intolerably over the top arrangement – when I wrote it, it felt exactly like the song I always wanted to write. Of course I have long set out to find a more refined version of that feeling by trying to write what now to me seems an even better song. Also I think maybe a single person other than myself agrees with my views on this.

Writing is coping and the lyrics are me. I have become invulnerable by making myself as vulnerable as possible, by turning the inside out, by sharing my most private, conflicting feelings and views with everyone and I don't think I have even reached the pinnacle of doing that yet.

Why, thank you! I am indeed deeply involved in every visual aspect of Drangsal which can largely be blamed on my extreme issue with trusting anyone but myself. Ninety percent of what you get to see springs from my own mind, the ten percent that are left are sheer execution and this requires hands more skilled than my own. It's about making an idea become tangible as fast as possible.

Director Max Wiedenhofer and I both grew up in small, overly catholic villages, so a church seemed almost like a natural habitat. I consciously chose not to cast a women my age, but rather wanted to include someone that seemed ill-fitting. Jenny Elvers, who plays the female part in the video, is an infamous German starlet who's primarily known for being involved with alcohol-addiction as well as repeatedly making headlines for domestic violence. She's the prime metaphor for a fallen star, an angel who has sinned. That and wanting to kiss a 44-year old women much more famous than I am led to the video.

I just like to ruffle people's feathers on all sensory levels. I smell like Irish moss, patchouli and incense and I dress like a mixture between Assi and Paddy McAloon.

I would like to continue to concentrate solely on writing, recording and performing music and to let as many people as possible here the result.