Lord Of The Lost
Life After A Swan Song

04.03.2016

Germany’s Lord of the Lost are a funny and talkative bunch. Therefore our conversation, which took place backstage at Moscow’s Club Teatr shortly before their gig, turned out lively and relaxed. The band, which had arrived in Russia to present their new releases - “Swan Songs” CD and “Full Metal Whore” EP, appeared before me in a complete line-up, which I hadn’t planned, but which turned out very nice. Sitting in a circle and passing the recorder to each other, so that it could actually capture the voice over the sound of an opening band soundchecking, Chris Harmes (vocals), Bo Six (guitar), Gared Dirge (keyboards), Class Greynade (bass) and Tobi Mertens (drums) were very willing to share with me both their professional views and interesting details of their backstage life.

It’s almost a commonplace among both your fans and outsiders to say that your live shows are more expressive and captivating than your recordings. Doesn’t it concern you somehow?

Chris: No, actually we see it the other way round. It’s much more a compliment because music is mainly about playing live. Recording music and selling CDs is only something you have to do to spread the word. Because everybody does it. But actually music was meant to be played live. It would we worse if people were like, “Yeah, I like your CDs, you know, but your live show sucks”. So it’s good that way.
Gared: It’s just hard to capture the energy that you’re giving on stage, to capture it on that little plastic disk. It’s just impossible.

But do you still enjoy working in the studio?

All together: Of course!
Bo: Working in the studio is a completely different thing because you have to take care of different things, you have to concentrate on completely other stuff, you have to play differently. You have to play more precisely because you don’t make a big show. During your show you are like, “Okay, I’m jumping around, but I have to play”, but in the studio you can’t hide any mistakes. And it’s a completely different atmosphere because you and the guys are the only ones who can tell you that you are shit. Really! Because sometimes when you go to the crowd after your show and you think, “Okay, I messed it up today completely, I really played shitty”, and they are coming to you telling you, “Ho-ho, this was maybe the best show I have ever seen”.
Chris: You can compare it to watching porn and having real sex. It’s not the same thing.

Okay, but let’s dwell a bit more on your studio work. Your most recent full-length release is “Swan Songs” which is recorded with a symphonic orchestra. It is generally believed that to come out with a release like that, having an orchestra playing their music behind them and so on, a band needs to reach some kind of special level in their career. Did you feel like you had already come to that certain point when you decided to record that album?

Chris: Yeah, actually you’re right. Releasing a live DVD or doing something with an orchestra, whatever, needs a certain level that is not like the beginning of your career. But we always did things a little differently. It just felt right for us, so we thought like why not. Why should we wait until we fill a football stadium, to play there, why should we wait for that? We can do it right now, it feels right.

Tobi wants to add something…
Bo: Bo wants to add that no one cares about Tobi! And the main reason why we’re doing music is actually for ourselves. For us it was the time to make something like this symphonic thing, so it’s the right time.
Tobi: Hi, this is Tobi! We have three classically educated musicians in our band, so it was quite obvious that we should do more than just a little acoustic set here and there on some gigs. We really wanted to do the whole thing because we know how to do it. We think. (laughs) We are convinced, this is why, yeah.

And what about the title? I suppose a swan song is something you do before you die. But well, it’s not the last thing you’ve done!

Chris: Right! It’s not about something like saying goodbye or whatever, it’s more about the fact that, as they say, a swan sings its most beautiful song before it dies. And presenting the songs in a classical, romantic and really sensitive way is actually the most beautiful version of the songs you can ever get. This is why we chose such a title.

But do you believe you can never ever make anything that beautiful anymore?

Chris: Of course we can. Because we can re-make all of our songs in some kind of “swan song” version, you know. It’s not like we did it once and we’ll never do it again. It’s just that this kind of classical version is the most beautiful one a song can get. Of course in a rock version it can be hard and more brutal, more energetic, whatever, but not that beautiful. When I say beautiful, I mean… (can’t find the right word)

In a poetic sense?

Chris: Yeah!

And right after this poetic release with such a beautiful title you release something very-very different – the “Full Metal Whore” EP. Are you keen on contrasts?

Tobi: Yeah, this is our concept. We have quite a big range of what we can do in the Lord of the Lost context. It was a bit extreme to have this very quiet and symphonic music and then have these super-heavy tracks on “Full Metal Whore”. But still these are all the things which kind of happened already before. We’ve always had strings in our music, we’ve always had quiet parts, and we’ve always had metal parts in our music. So it’s nothing that we invented. We didn’t start with funk music or something because that wouldn’t fit. We never had that. But we’ve always had the metal thing and we’ve always had the classical thing.
Gared: I think the vaster your contrast is the more you draw attention towards yourself. So you need to have a big variety of sounds you can offer to get attention from people and to make people wanna listen to you. I mean now we’ve got a lot of fans who like more the metal stuff of our music and we’re getting more and more guys, like metal guys digging our music, so the more you can offer, the more fans you can acquire.
Chris: But actually we just wanted it that way, so we did what was right for us.

I believe Chris is the mastermind behind everything you do…

All together: That’s a lie! No, okay, that’s true.

So how much do you all feel involved?

Everyone starts fooling around estimating their “shares”: One thousand! Forty two!
Tobi: Chris is writing most of the songs and doing most of the organization stuff which is really a lot. Which is actually just a full-time job already. And he has another job. So that takes a lot of time, what he does. He’s always there when everyone is recording. He’s mixing the albums together with Benny, the co-producer next to Chris, and mastering. Even if someone else is doing something, mostly he’s there. So Chris is having the biggest amount of lost time.
Chris: But it’s more like being in the middle of a lot of people working, you know. You always need one centre that is organizing the jobs, who’s doing what, which part, whatever. It’s not like I’m doing everything alone. It’s like we have certain ministers for certain kind of jobs inside our band. But you always need some kind of supervisor for all. It’s not a solo project, not at all.

Yeah, but still, being the central figure, you’re the one to make decisions and face the consequences. Are you okay with all this responsibility?

Chris: Do I look like I don’t feel good about it? Yeah, of course, we’re all fine with how we work in our band. So it’s good for us and it’s good for me.
Tobi: And the next thing is that he’s the singer. I mean, it’s always quite obvious that everything’s around the singer. So it’s probably the reason why many people already think that from the first moment, that everything is about the singer, he’s singing, he’s writing songs and the lyrics, so it comes up very fast that he could be the main guy. But as Chris said we all have our work and we all have to do something in the band. But we always discuss it together.

So, any plans for your future contrasts?

Chris: We don’t work that way that we finish one album or EP, or whatever, and then like, “Hm, what comes next? We don’t know.” No, it’s always like when we are mixing one product, one album, EP, or whatever, we’re already in the making of the next one and already like planning the next one after this. So this time we’ll release like a real rock album. No swan songs, no metal EP, whatever. The next genuine album comes out in summer. And it’s gonna be very different again.

But how “different” can you never become? Is there anything you’ll never do?

Chris: Reggae.
Gared or Bo: And country.
The others: Country is pretty cool!
Chris: Country is fine for me. But not with Lord of the Lost. Maybe I see it the wrong way, but actually everything we did so far kind of feels home. Because it all happens in sort of the same frame. Of course sometimes it’s more electronic, sometimes it’s more metal, sometimes more classical, but for me, at least for my ears… I mean, I have a different perspective, but at least for my ears it all sounds like Lord of the Lost. So it’s never not gonna sound like Lord of the Lost. But it’ll always be a little different. Because we need that. It doesn’t feel right to copy ourselves again and again with each album like many bands do. It’s just fucking boring.

You’re managing a lot of things by yourselves, for instance, you’re running your own Youtube channel. How do you come up with the ideas for what you can show to your fans, what can be interesting for them?

Bo: Well, actually we’re just thinking about what we would like to see from bands that we like. For example we have this little web-video thing called Eye to Eye Interview where we are interviewing other musicians from other bands around us. And what’s coming up there are questions that we would really like to hear in regular interviews that never come up, so this just gives another perspective.

And what kind of question you’d like to be asked?

Сlass: The best thing is to get surprised by somebody’s question. It’s like, “Oh, that’s a good question!” We’re not thinking about what would be nice being asked. I think it’s better to be surprised by a question than just hope that somebody asks something. It makes it really natural and funny.
Chris: For me, actually, the best interviews are always those interviews which feel more like a conversation, not like question 1, question 2 and then, when you give your answer, it’s like, “Aha… (Pausing and looking at an imaginary list of questions.) Next question.” So it’s better if it’s just talking to each other. It’s always the most interesting thing and that is what we try to do. And when we come up with those ideas, it’s just us in the tour bus with some beers and it’s like, “Huh-huh-huh, let’s do this, it’s super funny, yeah!” Most bands say that too but just don’t do that. They get funny ideas when they drink alcohol and party, but all the ideas we come up with, we at least try to put them to reality.
Gared: Me, I like to nerd around about things. Like being nerd about musician stuff. (Chris starts snoring.) But nobody wants to hear that, as you can hear by Chris’s snoring. But I’m actually a big fan of that.
Chris: I must say that after so many interviews and so many years it feels like every question has been asked. So interviews don’t really feel like interviews, more like yeah, you hear me just talking, fine.
Class: That’s why we also try to bring the drummer to the drummer and stuff like that. Not to talk about tech stuff – well, maybe just a bit. But I think they have similar feelings or positions in the band, there’s something they can share. If you have something in common, it makes it easier to start discussing something, even if it’s talking about sex, whatever.

Talking about sex, it feels like a very essential topic for your band with all those sexy videos, BDSM stuff and so on…

Gared: It’s like Forrest Gump would say (imitates the voice), “Sexy people do sexy things”.
Chris: You must know… We’re in Russia, we need to admit it, we’re all gay.
Gared: And this is the end of our Russian career.
Chris: No, or it’s the start of it!

Well, isn’t it a kind of cliché? You’re playing heavy music, so here comes all this sex and violence thing?

Chris: Maybe you see us too much the way like we’re trying to make a concept out of everything. But what we do visually, musically… It’s like we try to look the same way we sound like. And we like to look that way. We like make-up. We like sexy clothes. We like naked skin. We just like it. It feels good and we would do it even if no girls were interested in that. It’s like we don’t do it to get groupies. Fuck groupies!
Сlass: And the thing is, we just try to get the best out of us. If we’re able to be sexy for people, why shouldn’t we do it? If we can be sexier every time again, we’ll do it. Sex sells. We’re having fun making those people crazy.
Chris: Yeah, sex sells. But if we didn’t like it that way, we wouldn’t do it. It just feels right for us. It’s fun. And for me it’s always like, when I see a band, when they are on stage with their T-shirts and jeans on and playing music that really needs a show, I’m always like, “Oh man, you could have done so much more, because how you look like is not even close to how you sound like.”

So it’s not just about music, right?

Chris: It’s a whole thing.
Class: It’s magic!
Chris: Yeah, it’s magic, it’s art. A band is not just something to listen to. People don’t stay like this (motionless) at a concert with closed eyes.
Bo: When we’re playing in Hamburg in front of 1000 people, maybe of these 1000 people there are 15 people who really know about music. And the other people are more… They wanna be entertained. Sometimes I’m going to a concert like, “Okay, just switch off my brain.” It’s like watching an action movie with Bruce Willis. I’m not thinking about why he is saying, “Yeah-yeah-yeah, motherfucker.” It’s just like, “Cool.” Imagine going to a Rammstein concert and not getting pyrotechnic.

Chris: Rammstein is the best example for the whole concept. It’s not just about the music.
Bo: People should get what they want to.
Class: It’s about magic. I guess Nirvana was also sexy but they didn’t give a shit. They were sexy because their concept was not giving a shit. And people loved that.
Chris: It was fashion as well. If you try not to be in fashion so much, it’s fashion as well.
Class: It’s about magic. It has to fit yourself, your identity. And it has to match the fans.
Gared: You have to feel good.
Class: You have to feel good with that stuff at the right point at the right time.

Chris: But on the other side, what we really like when we’re doing our web-episode thing, we always like to show ourselves how we look like in real life. Because we’re humans. It’s not like a concept thing, like we have to wear make up all the time, try to talk like that (harsh voice) all the time, be fucking sexy and evil, whatever. Because it’s much better that people still love us even if they know who we are.
Together: Maybe they love us much more because they are able to see what’s behind all the make up and stuff. That just comes back to the contrast.

But do you want your fans to know what kind of people you really are?

Chris: We let them know what we want to let them know. Because we are the ones that are editing those videos. It’s as simple as that.

So, still, there is some distance.

All together: Of course!
Bo: I would never ever take a cam with me when I’m on holiday with my family. Never ever, because it’s my private part. But when we are on tour, we’re filming each other the whole time. And sometimes we are talking about, “You know, my 28 kids did shit yesterday”, but we cut it out.
Сlass: For me the best times of rock’n’roll and music were when there was a huge distance between fans and the bands. Because the bands were heroes, they were so high and they only did cool things. That was a good thing to think that these people are gods. Today you’re so close to the fans. I don’t judge it, but we can’t be heroes anymore. So I think the best times are gone. I don’t wanna be a god or a hero, but me as a fan, I always like to see them on stage and have that small vision, that small frame of them. I see this guy on stage and think he’s awesome. I don’t wanna see the way he eats his pizza.
Chris: Anyway, we don’t force the fans to watch those videos.

So you just give them this opportunity…

Chris: Yeah, right. And people love it. It’s like maybe 50% of all our promotion, it’s because of all our Facebook and Youtube activities.
Bo: And of course I would say we’re not that kind of ‘normal’ that other people might be. I think we’re the kind of that very small percentage of people that is a bit screwed up. No, I’m happy with that. So we can put that kind of craziness and entertainment into our normal life.
Chris: We wouldn’t sit here if we didn’t have some issues.

Okay, then can you name some things that you find good about yourselves and some ‘issues’ that you find bad about yourselves?

Class: I’d say I’m really productive but I have a lot of issues to start my productivity. So if I’m running, I’m running, if not, I’m not. (Everyone starts making fun of this deep statement.) I mean if I’m running I really love the work I do but I have to kick my ass to start. That’s a problem. So this is my issue. And when I work, I really enjoy myself.
Bo: I’m pretty good at trying to see the best in everything. You know, like something really shitty is happening and I’m always thinking, “Okay, this is happening for some kind of reason and at least I’ll learn something.” Maybe it was a completely shitty day, a completely shitty year, I lost whatever, but at least I learn something, I’m getting smarter, I’m getting forward. And what I’m really-really bad at, and the guys can tell you, is organization. I’m really bad at organization. For example Chris is telling me something like, “Yeah, you know, in two weeks we are in the studio recording whatever”. I say, “Oh yeah, I will remember that”. Two weeks later he’s calling from the studio, “Uhm, where are you?” Me: “Why? I’m at home.” And this is for years. It doesn’t get better. It’s getting worse.

Gared: Well, besides music, which I’m obviously very good at, I really enjoy cooking actually. (Everyone seems to be very surprised.)
Classs: If you enjoy it, it doesn’t mean you’re good at it.
Gared: No! I’m not a good cook. I really like to cook for myself, that’s enough. Not for other people. It’s more like a hobby. And what I’m really bad at… I’m a fucking lazy ass. I tend to be pretty lazy but I can always kick my ass at some point. So I’m fine with that.
All: You see we have almost the same problem… Well, it’s not his (Gared) problem. He’s fine with that.

Chris: The things that I’m good and bad at are actually the same thing. I know that I’m really good at keeping things together, organization, making plans and stuff. But there’s one bad side in it. It’s really hard for me to express myself in the way I really feel it. When I write things or tell people things, I always sound and look and write much angrier and more sinister than I mean it. I try to be friendly and like, “Hey-hey-hey.” But if someone asks me, “Hey, Chris, how are you doing?”, and I’m saying (gloomily), “I’m fine”, I really mean it but I’m not like smiling all the time. So I really need to work on my attitude…

Well, you’re writing and playing such music, you don’t need that…

Chris: I need that. You need that if you wanna lead a team. It’s always very important that everyone feels good with the guy that leads them. It’s because we’re all just humans. It’s getting better but sometimes it’s like, “You-you-you, this-this-this” (like giving orders) – and sometimes it’s not easy.

Tobi: Yeah, here’s Tobi. I’m perfect and I don’t make mistakes.
All: And this is his problem!
Tobi: No, I think I’m pretty obsessed about things and I can do something endlessly. I can practice a lot, I have a lot of discipline and stuff like that. But I’m stupid (someone said it, he repeated), I don’t know what to do. So all my discipline is for nothing. The problem is that I have quite a narrow-minded point of view about the world because I only see certain things and the rest is like, it doesn’t matter. It’s just guitar, pumping and drumming. And the rest is just bullshit for me.

Lord Of The Lost on the Internet: http://www.lordofthelost.de

Special thanks to Julia Davydova (Kulturprodukt) for arranging this interview

Interview by Ksenia Artamonova
Photos by Julia Koltyrina
February 7, 2016
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