Tanzwut
Bagpipes Worldwide

16.02.2015

The German promoters of wild dances and infinite fun are gearing up to bring their new show to Russia and make everyone dance to their beat. On top on that, Tanzwut’s plan is to demonstrate to everyone the boundless power of supernatural forces, which inspired them to come up with the new album aptly titled “Freitag der 13” (“Friday the 13th”). Shortly before the release of the record, which is scheduled for – don’t be surprised! – Friday, February 13, we contacted the band’s singer Teufel and bagpipe player Stefan Zwilling via Skype. The latter was kind enough to act as interpreter, as German “devils” (that’s what “Teufel” means in English) only speak their native language. However, Stefan was very active in expressing his own point of view as well. Thus, the answers that containing reference to “I” are his own, and all the others are the combination of what the two of them were saying.

Having added Teufel in Skype, I couldn’t but pay attention to his avatar proudly displaying Jack’s lantern...

Oh, it’s still Halloween at tour place!

Ah yeah, the pumpkin…

Do you like this holiday that much?

Well, it’s a funny day, because everything is scary and we have pumpkins everywhere; and we like pumpkin soup, so… (laughs) Not so much, actually.

So it’s just a kind of image thing.

Yes.

In about a month, Russia will be the first country to see your new show. It’s not the first time you come to our country to start your tours, so it feels like it’s become a nice tradition. Is it so? Do you think Russia is the best place to premiere a new show?

For us, it’s always really special to play in Russia, it’s a lot of fun. We had good experience having premier shows in Moscow and St. Petersburg and until now it always brought us luck, so yes, we should continue with this tradition.

Is there anything special about your Russian audience apart from their “luck-bringing power”?

Our Russian audience and the shows there are really special because they’re drinking vodka like hell, they party always… For sure, it’s special. Otherwise we wouldn’t have been there for almost ten years or something.

A couple of days ago you announced your supporting band Stoneman. How did you choose them?

They asked us to get the support slot and we liked their music, and we think it’s a good package together, they suit our music and we think it will be a relaxed tour together.

Do you think personal relationships matter in that kind of issues?

For sure, it’s important to us that you don’t hate each other. When on tour, you want to have a nice time, you want to have fun and good mood. So it’s important that you have a good mood together.

Your new album is coming out pretty soon. It seems like recently you’ve been experiencing some kind of “creative boom”, releasing one new album after another. What’s the reason?

Actually, you’re right. There is this creative boom nearly all the time. We had so many ideas about all the things that happened and about the music, about the costumes, about the show. We love to make music and so it simply happens. It’s not work, it’s not like we think we have to do our work, it’s just coming out of us.

So was this new album easy to work on?

You know, you always have some days that don’t work as good as other days. But the pre-production and also the recording sessions in the studio were really fun. There was good mood, it didn’t feel like working, we were always working as long as we wanted and after that we went to a pub and had beer. So it was fast, we could even have recorded some more songs.

Oh, so maybe we can expect another new record very soon?

(laugh) Yeah-yeah… First we will go on tour and then we will see what the future brings.

What are the things on the new album that you’re happiest about, something you’re proud of, maybe?

(talking it over for a while) We’re proud that we have a special version of the CD, we have a usual version and a bonus-version with the book and another CD, and on this second CD there are some special versions with guest musicians from other bands, guest singers or remixes by Lord of the Lost or Subway to Sally. That’s a special thing and we’re proud of it.

Talking about remixes or covers, do you like hearing your own songs in someone else’s interpretation?

It always depends on how somebody else is covering you. Lord of the Lost, for example, for their remix they just asked for the recorded voice, they didn’t get any instruments, they just got the singing parts and from that they created their remix. And that for sure is very interesting, because they rebuilt the song without knowing the original. But sometimes you hear your song and it sounds awful – that happens. I remember that once somebody played bagpipe somewhere and that was… I think… that’s difficult then… So it always depends on how it’s covered. But all in all, for sure it’s interesting.

How did you come up with this idea of dedicating the album to Friday the 13th?

The song “Freitag der 13” was written first because it’s an interesting thing, all this superstition stuff, you have a lot of material in this. This idea and this song was the first thing, and after that we saw that you can find a lot of interesting stories about that. Also when we were on tour with Die Apokalyptischen Reiter, we had some occasions, like after a show we saw a black cat somewhere or somebody walked under a ladder, and all those things bring you bad luck, and so the intent was growing to dedicate this CD to that date.

Do you think that releasing the album on such a day, Friday 13, this February will bring you luck?

Yeah, actually we think it should bring us luck, but we will see if it works or not. There still is a risk. But no risk no fun. (laughs)

Do you have any superstitions yourselves?

We think everybody does a little bit. When we made this video for “Freitag der 13”, we had to destroy the mirror – maybe you have seen in the video, that mirror with Teufel singing inside – and the guy who destroyed the mirror didn’t believe in this thing. Until the moment when he broke the mirror. Because the next day he had an accident with his car, he crashed into a large animal, not a cow but something like this in the street. And then, his personal Baba Yaga (laughter), personal witch told him that he had to walk back home and wear his underwear inside out to neutralize this bad luck.

Is there anything you’re afraid of doing, like breaking mirrors or something else?

There’s one thing. We don’t whistle backstage. It’s forbidden. We believe in that and we don’t do that.

What can happen if you do that?

It will bring you bad luck.

With your show?

You never know, but it can be your show. But you never know where it brings you bad luck.

Well, in Russia they say if you whistle at home, you won’t have enough money…

Yeah, I heard about that. There’s plenty of these things. Or you can’t say goodbye or shake hands in the doorway, you need to step inside or outside. And I never do this. And sometimes in Russia I learnt very beautiful stories about this thing. I didn’t know these stories in Germany, but they are really interesting. You in Russia have a lot of this. Like if you talk about a disease you may not touch your body in that place. And so on. You need to know that so that you have more luck in future.

Do you practice any luck-bringing rituals then? Or have some amulets maybe?

For sure, we have a lot of things. We have a lot of bones somewhere, like in some gardens and close to lakes, we have talismans everywhere and a special kind of shaking hands before the concert to get luck. But that doesn’t mean that we believe in that.

Anyway, what kind of concert can make you feel really lucky?

Well, actually, if the people are having fun, you can see it in their faces. They are smiling and everybody is dancing and going crazy. So first you see it in the audience, how they act. We ourselves are full of adrenaline and a little bit crazy at any show, so we’re happy after every concert. And we can’t judge if it was good or not. But sometimes you meet some fans after the concert at the merchandise and they tell you, for example, that they have forgotten for three hours all of their problems. And that is something that makes us happy.

Well, with your festive shows you’re bringing fun to your fans, but what makes you happy, apart from playing your music? What’s your personal idea of fun?

We like to travel, to be on tour and have fun. You can work and at the same time make yourself a beautiful life, you can see that you’re surrounded by people you love, that you have fun together, tell crazy stories about things happening to you or some things you want to do in future, something like this. I think that’s the point.

You’re playing with this medieval esthetics. Do you think there were some things in the Middle Ages that the modern world lacks?

We thought it would be good to bring the disease of bagpipes to the world. So we did that and now we have bagpipes in every corner of the world. And now we’re not sure anymore if it was a good idea or not. (laughs) We think that now in Germany they have more bagpipes than in Scotland and England together.

Yeah, you know, yesterday there was a guy in the street where I live playing his bagpipe all evening long…

Ah, you see, the disease comes to Russia now. Some more weeks, and you won’t be able to sleep.

Why do you like this instrument so much?

The good point of this instrument is that you don’t need electricity, you’re loud enough. And while you’re playing nobody can come to you and talk and give you some good advice or something. (laughs).

If one visits your website and Facebook page, they’ll see that you not only sing in your language, but all the news concerning the band are shared with German-speaking audience in mind. Do you ever think of getting closer to your international fans via at least having the “English version” button?

We are amazed by our Russian fans who translate our lyrics into their language, but for us German suits best, English would not work with our music. We use German traditional instruments and it doesn’t fit English lyrics. And on Facebook, we have a page Tanzwut Weltweit (Tanzwut Worldwide), and all the news are translated into English. And in Russian VKontakte there’s a Tanzwut group and they’re usually quite fast with translations into Russian. The group there is quite large, we get a lot of support from it and we’re really proud of it.

It feels like your fans are very enthusiastic – have you ever thought of having some fan projects or contests like other bands do? Do you generally like that kind of interactions?

We’re surprised because we’ve never recognized other bands have contests like this… But we like the idea. We didn’t hear about it. But maybe you have some more ideas for us, what we can do in future.

Maybe I can become your PR-manager then?

Maybe!

Well, it’s strange that you don’t know anything about that kind of fan events, I thought things like that are generally popular. Like taking part in a contest to win some tickets, or participate in a video, or draw an album cover…

Well, we’ve never thought of a drawing contest but we get a lot of pictures somebody painted for us. So we didn’t need to create a special competition about that. We get plenty of pictures, they’re beautiful, we like them, there are lots of different styles. And talking about videos, nearly for every video we announce that you have a chance to be with us in the video. Once we had a photo competition in medieval style. They had to show themselves in beautiful medieval costumes and our fans could vote, so it wasn’t our decision, our fans could vote, who should be in the video. Yeah, once we did that. Now we remember.

Your music and shows seem to give you lots of energy, but how long do you think you can carry on with this concept and can there be a time when you want to get rid of your image and try something different?

It was our plan to die on stage and fall off from the stage while playing.

One last question: does Teufel feel like he’s the real devil sometimes?

Yeah, for sure, he says that sometimes he feels like he’s the real devil. And he’s smiling while he’s saying that. A devilish smile.  

Tanzwut on the Internet: http://www.tanzwut.com

Special thanks to Nikolai Sviridenko for arranging this interview

Ksenia Artamonova
January 25, 2015
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