Brainstorm

Brainstorm
The World To See

31.08.2016

Архив интервью | Русская версия

Wishes do come true sometimes. Our visit to this year’s “Masters Of Rock” festival in the Czech Republic was not very smooth, with rain basically ruining an entire day of the event for us and a few other not so nice things coming up, but we did get to see the band we had been wanting to see for 12 years, Germany’s premier angry power metallers Brainstorm. Moreover, we got to finally interview Brainstorm singer Andy B. Frank, which is something we had unsuccessfully attempted four times before basically giving up. Unfortunately, in our home country Andy and his band are very much under the radar due to the popularity of another Brainstorm, pop rockers from Latvia, but it doesn’t stop the five-piece from releasing high quality heavy music and doing earthshaking shows on a regular basis. On top of that, Andy has recently started working with another band, Almanac, founded by ex-Rage guitarist Victor Smolski, and Russian fans will finally have a chance to see him live in Moscow with Almanac in late November, performing at the famous “AriaFest”. We, of course, covered some of Almanac in the course of our conversation, but Andy’s main band was obviously our primary focus.

Your latest album “Scary Creatures” came out half a year ago. How do you look back on it now? Are you still satisfied with it as much as you were when you were releasing it?

It’s always like this – when you’re in the studio and you’re recording an album and you listen to it in the studio, it always sounds like it’s the best thing. It’s the best thing you want to release, and you do release it then. But after a while you always look different on one or two or three songs on the album and say, “Today I would do it a little bit different”. I think every musician thinks like this. But of course, we are really satisfied with the album, we think there are some of the best songs we’ve written so far on this album, and to me this is the most important thing, because people always expect a lot from Brainstorm. To me it’s always important to get a response from the fans, to know what they think about an album. After the album got released, we received tons of emails from fans saying, “Wow, we’re satisfied with the album”, “We love the new album”, and in the end, this is the most important thing. Of course, we make the music for ourselves in the first place, but we are happy as well if the fans do like it. (laughs)

The booklet of “Scary Creatures” presents the band in a totally new visual image. As far as I understand, it was your own idea. Can you say a few words about how you came up with and what it is supposed to mean?


When we started thinking about the new album, I started thinking about all the things that are happening on the planet: terrorism, wars and everything else, and it came to me that when you look at it, it’s something like a horror theater, and all these people to me are like creatures you can be scared about. They are the “scary creatures” to me. In the end, it’s not a concept album, but of course, there’s a red line going through, which is “Open up your eyes to all the problems we have”. I think we have more problems in the world than we have had in decades. To me that was the best way to explain the idea behind the name “Scary Creatures” – to have a theater with creatures coming up, and this idea is also presented in the videoclip we made for that, where we have people in masks, and so on. That’s a simple, but to me a very important idea behind it.

We read in the press release that the new album is very personal for you, at the same time, its lyrics deal with the atrocities of the past ages. Could you explain the connection?


Of course, I’ve lost a lot of people during the last years – in the family and so on. And I also have friends who have lost other people because of terrorism attacks and wars. It doesn’t hurt me in the first place, but it hurts me in a different other way to see how people suffer because they lost somebody whom they loved. For example, we lost one of our tour agents at Bataclan, he got shot there. We just had several beers together over the few tours that we did with him, and we did not know each other like real good friends, but we did know each other. And if you see a picture of somebody on TV and the news is that this guy got shot in a terrorist attack, this makes it a little bit personal for you.

On the other hand, I have my children singing on the album, and not only mine, it’s also Todde’s daughters and Milan’s son. That is something I had always wanted to do. I have my big boy screaming and shouting in the shouting parts of five songs on the album, but especially on “We Are”, we have all the kids together, and I had always wanted to have my kids featured on one of my albums. It’s even more important because the song “We Are” says it all about the entire album. It’s us, it’s our world, we have to take care about it; it’s not just for us, it’s for our kids that we should take care about the planet. If you have kids yourself, you’ll understand that it makes it really special when your kids start to sing, “We are, we are…” and they sing about the future, and positive things. When kids are born, they’re all the same, and then in one place it starts to become different. I think it’s our job as parents to make sure the kids take care and understand that a war is not the answer, and terrorism is not the answer.

What do your kids think of your music? Do they want to become musicians just like their dad?


It’s always different. If you have a father singing in a metal band, it’s… Especially to my big son, it was difficult for him years ago. He grew up with my music, of course, but at first it was nothing for him. He started listening to 50 Cent, Michael Jackson and everything else, and I was like, “OK, I’ve done something wrong”. (everybody laughs) But playing some songs was OK to him, they were OK. But then from one day to the other I listened to In Flames, which is one of my favorite bands, and especially the song “Cloud Connected” – I had it in my car, and Dennis, that’s the name of my big son, said, “This is not bad, daddy, this is not bad”. I was like, “Oh, there’s hope!” (everybody cracks) And it started from there, he started listening to my Soilwork, In Flames and Iron Maiden albums and everything else. Then he became more into music, and he became a fan of very extreme kind of metal, like As I Lay Dying, Unearth, The Black Dahlia Murder and stuff, metalcore and death metal kind of stuff. He’s not singing, he’s growling in a band. He wanted to use my microphones, and I said, “No, these microphones are into harmonies and vocal lines, they’re not for grrr!” (everybody laughs)

My little boy is 13 years now, he’s got nothing to do with my music. He likes Brainstorm, he’s got all the albums, and sometimes I go in his room, and he listens to “Firesoul” and everything else. Of course, he’s proud of being part of a song. But he’s more into hip hop and dance music and stuff, because the girls are into that shit. (laughs) As I said, he’s 13 years old, and what’s more important, the father or the girls? But as I said, there’s still hope, and as I’ve made it with my big boy, I’ll probably make it with my young boy as well.

In the end, I don’t care about it too much. To me, it’s more important if they’re happy, if they’re having a good time, sharing the good time with friends. That’s the most important thing. I think it’s cool having a father playing in a metal band – they can talk about it with their friends. It’s a funny thing: for my sons it’s sometimes not so cool, but for their friends, it’s the coolest thing ever. “Wow, your father’s playing in a heavy metal band, his song is on Playstation, wow!” (everybody laughs) Sometimes my kids freak out when people come into our house and go like, “Wow, your father’s in a metal band, he’s on Playstation and on Xbox – woooow! My parents are nothing like that. I would like to have a father like you have!”

You said that the world around you inspires you to write lyrics. Do you have other sources of inspiration, such as books or movies?

Yes, everything. It always depends, and it’s always different. I can’t say that I’m always… For example, some musicians are really into medieval stuff or political stuff, but for me it’s always different. Today I don’t know what will be going on for the next album, to be honest. Sometimes somebody has to push you, like Victor Smolski did with Almanac’s “Tsar” – I had never been into that, and he said, “Just read that!” To me the question that is important is: what is the thing I can identify myself with and I do want to write about? I like reading things about religion, historical stuff, but also about what’s going on in the world right now. I cannot write anything about Egypt or whatever if something that happens in the world right now is deeper into my soul. I don’t wanna read about Egypt at the moment, I do wanna read about why we have the problems here and there. That’s maybe sometimes a problem for the metal fans who are into lyrics, because Brainstorm always changes a little bit here and there, but that’s what makes it interesting on the other hand.

The bonus DVD for “Scary Creatures” contains the recording of a show in Essen where you played your previous album, “Firesoul”, in full. Usually bands play their classic records in full, but you went for the latest one. Why is that?


We have already released several DVDs and live CDs, for example, on the “Firesoul” album we had a bonus CD featuring a full show, and that was something like a “best-of” set. We didn’t want to release another “best-of” live DVD now, as we have released standalone DVDs and bonus DVDs already. To me it was really important to make something special. We are still proud of “Firesoul”, and that was a very special evening to us, playing three old songs, then the entire “Firesoul” album, and then three old songs again. None of the fans inside the venue knew anything about the new album, and that was an amazing moment, because you didn’t know how they would react to the album. But it worked out really well. It was also great for new fans getting into Brainstorm with “Scary Creatures” – they now have “Firesoul” as well, and they know the songs. We do feel at shows and at festivals that the fans who bought “Scary Creatures” know “Firesoul” as well now. It’s a great bonus, I think.

Have you considered playing any classic Brainstorm albums, such as “Soul Temptation” or “Liquid Monster”, in full?


Some people have asked us if we will do something like this. (laughs) But the next step is that we will re-release “Memorial Roots”, as we have never been that satisfied with the sound. This will be re-released in September, and then we will re-release “Menus Mortis”, “Soul Temptation” and “Liquid Monster” on vinyl, which brings back a lot of those songs into our setlist.

In general, what considerations do you take into account when you put together the setlist? You have so many albums that it must be very difficult…


It is difficult, it brings a lot of discussions among us. You cannot kick out songs like “Shiva’s Tears” or “All Those Words”, so it’s always some others that change. But I think the most important thing is that from now on we will always go on headlining tour. The last tour we did was the last for us being a support act, or a special guest, or a co-headliner, or whatever. As you said, there are too many songs and too little time (laughs), so we have to play for 1.5 to 2 hours to play as many songs as possible. We wanna promote new songs from the new album, of course, and some people want to hear old songs as well. It’s always a problem for us when we decide what songs we would like to have in the setlist, it’s a lot of discussion. Five people – five different meanings. (laughs)

As you said, apart from Brainstorm, you are involved in Victor Smolski’s Almanac, and both bands are touring pretty actively. How do you manage to combine the two?

It was planned totally different. It was planned that the Brainstorm album would come out quite earlier, and the Almanac album would come out later. The problem was that the Brainstorm album was delayed, and the Almanac album was pushed forward. I will never ever do it like this again, because I was that close to a burnout in fall last year, jumping from studio to studio every night, and then promo here and promo there – that was really difficult. But normally it can work, and, as you know, there are so many musicians playing in different projects and bands. For me there are only two, and it’s OK. You can deal with that, you can handle that, but you have to make sure that it works. With Almanac there have been some shows when David (Readman) did the whole set himself. But also I have had to play some shows myself, when David was not available. That’s the good and also the bad thing about Almanac - sometimes you have only one singer on the stage, sometimes you have three singers on the stage. But the band can play anyway. (laughs)

How do you like working with Victor Smolski?

It’s OK. I didn’t expect him to work like this. A lot of people had told me that he was an egomaniac, but… To be very honest, I have a very strong personality when it comes to music, and if I do not like to do anything, I tell them straight between the eyes. And I think from the first day on we had a good relationship. To me it was OK, it worked out well in the studio, I was surprised that he was so relaxed in the studio working with me, but I think basically it was because he was able to see how fast David and me worked in the studio, and the rest of the band as well. I think that’s something that made it very cool to him. He said he was not very used to that, because normally with Rage it took months to do that.

Speaking about your activities outside Brainstorm: it may be an old story now, but why did Symphorce break up? From the outside the band seemed to be doing pretty good…

We did seven albums, and I had the feeling at that moment that there was nothing to be told anymore. We talked about that, we had a few shows after the last release… In addition, Cedric (Dupont, guitar) and Markus (Pohl, guitar) had their side projects, they were focused on the family and stuff, and Brainstorm became bigger. So I said, “If we make music like we did with Symphorce, we should do it 100 percent, because people do expect a lot from a Symphorce album”. To me that was something I always cared about. And to me it was the right time and the right place (to break up – ed.) A lot of people have asked for another Symphorce album, but, as I said, if we do not have the songs, we will definitely not record anything. I know there are some rumors and some ideas by some of the members around, they record some songs, so probably one day… It must make fun, because it’s not a band we would like to go on tour for a year with. It must be a funny thing.

Brainstorm have been with AFM Records for four albums. And before that you were with Metal Blade for five albums. It’s clear that you are not the band that changes record labels often. Are you generally satisfied with the way the band has been treated by record industry people? Or do you see any mistakes in the career of the band from the business and promotion point of view?

That doesn’t depend on the record label anymore, that depends on Spotify and the Internet. That has nothing to do with record labels, record labels are slaves to the Internet, they cannot change anything. It doesn’t make any difference if you go to AFM or Metal Blade or Nuclear Blast or wherever, they all have the same problems. It probably depends a little bit on the distribution, but the songs are more or less available on Spotify, and the fans on Spotify do not care if it’s from Nuclear Blast or AFM. There’s nothing you can change about it.

One of our favorite Brainstorm songs is “Fire Walk With Me”, but as far as we understand, the lyrics don’t have a direct connection to the famous David Lynch movie. What kind of fire are you singing about?

Oh my God, that’s years ago! (everybody laughs) As far as I remember, “Fire Walk With Me” is about schizophrenic people, and it’s always a walk on a thin line of reality between what’s right and what’s wrong, and that’s the fire you walk with.

Special thanks to Irina Ivanova (AFM Records) for arranging this interview

Brainstorm on the Internet: http://www.brainstorm-web.net

Interview by Roman Patrashov, Natalie “Snakeheart” Patrashova
Photos by Natalie “Snakeheart” Patrashova
July 17, 2016
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