Tanzwut
We Don’t Like Folk Metal

21.04.2008

It’s about midnight in Moscow, but the backstage of Tochka Club is still crowded, as the guys from Tanzwut have just completed another excellent show that Russian fans love them so much for. Singer Teufel is quick to go out and meet the fans, other band members have just started partying, but for drummer Norri the work is not over, as he still has some speaking to do. Many of you know that it’s next to impossible to get a phoner interview with Tanzwut, and via e-mail the guys are always very brief. We were thinking it was due to their bad command of English, so we expected this to be a tough conversation, but Norri has no problem in getting the message across. It’s not always easy to figure out if he’s always serious in what he’s saying, but OK, with bands like Tanzwut, there should always be room for interpretation…

Thank you very much for your concert, it was great, and we are really happy to see you once again. And we made a lot of pictures!!

Oh, I think I should say “thank you” for the audience and it works only together… But what about pictures? No one got me on the pictures, I am the drummer, and I know it’s difficult…

No, unfortunately we didn’t manage to capture you. We’ll try to do it now as we speak. So let’s get down to questions and discuss the latest developments in the Tanzwut camp. There was not much activity in Tanzwut in the year 2007. There are only a couple of news from that year on your official website. What have you been doing since your previous Russian gig? And what are your future plans?

Well, the matter is that we are not only in Tanzwut, we have also the project Corvus Corax. In the last few months we were working on its new record and unfortunately we didn’t have time to think about any thing else, except giving some gigs and interviews. There is no time to do anything except the new album “Cantus Buranus 2”, and at this moment we want that all stuff to be fixed on time. Next month we are finishing “Cantus Buranus 2”, and after that we are open for the whole world again. (laughs)

Are you going on tour with this new record?

Well, it’s rather difficult to say. It’s a huge project where we’re using a symphonic orchestra. At this moment it’s not possible to make a real tour with it, but I think we will play 10 or 15 times this year with this project, maybe we can do some tour but the group will be too big.

Is there any chance to see the performance of Corvus Corax in Russia?

We talked with the promoter here, and asked how the situation with the project Corvus Corax was in Russia and if they would like us to do something with it. For this concert we are having a new promoter, maybe we can organize something for the next year, and it would be great. If we have some time we will talk with the promoter again, cause I think a lot of people are waiting for this concert and we have to do it.

It’s been nearly two years since the release of your latest album “Schattenreiter”, so now you can look at it more objectively. Are you still satisfied with it? Or will your next album be completely different?

Something to change in our music… (thinking) Well, actually we are changing all the time, and I am sure that the next album will be completely different, so it’s a kind of evolution. And if you compare all albums of Tanzwut, you will notice that they are really different. The dress is different, and the music is. It’s fun, and we are making the music to have fun. Maybe it would be more logical to make a new record in the same style, and people will know what it is and they will buy it. But when a record is the same, there is nothing interesting for us.

Since the very beginning every Tanzwut album is heavier than the previous one. Is there any chance that you will eventually play something like death metal in five or seven years?

That’s right; we are getting heavier, but I have no idea why. Everything is possible, because we don’t know ourselves what we will do on the next new album. When we start to make a new record, then we will know what we are going to get. And all depends on ideas, today we want to make this, next time we are doing absolutely different stuff. And on the planet there is so much different music, and we love a lot of music. And what is more important we like to do what we want in the moment, so… we need to wait a bit, to see what will be…

You come from Eastern Germany, so you obviously know the band Die Puhdys, and one of their albums from the 1970s was also called “Schattenreiter”. Does your album title have any connection with Die Puhdys?

Yes, we are all from different parts, but the matter is that, first there was Eastern Germany and there was Western Germany and then there was a special city called Berlin, where people are always talked about as eastern and western people. And I am from the west side of Berlin, and Patrick (guitarist) is from the west side too, while other guys came from the eastern side, but we are Berliners. And the thing is that we are mixing together all these cultures. Here we are, now we can make a party together.

And as to this band we don’t have any connection with it. It was very funny, I noticed that a few months after our release, and we didn’t know that. I remember how one of our fans wrote us an e-mail and asked about the connection of these two bands. And then I used Google and Internet for finding this band, and then…Oh, fuck! But unfortunately there is no connection…

“Schattenreiter” is also the most diverse of your albums. What inspired you to write a song like “Im Tiefen Gras”?
 
Well the main writer for the lyrics is Teufel, and its for me a secret, I don’t know. He is inspired by life, very often he has very strong ideas of the lyrics after the music has been done, and he hears the music and writes the lyrics for it. But sometimes he already has the lyrics and many ideas for the music.

Tanzwut and your other band Corvus Corax draw inspiration from medieval music and folk music. How did you originally get interested in this type of music?

Well, I think there is no one of us who thinks that we are making folk music. (laughs) And I am ready to tell the truth that no one of us even really likes folk music or medieval metal. I personally don’t like folk rock or metal. We play what we want, so the only connection with folk is that we have some strange instruments, medieval bagpipes. And these instruments have been made by Wim, he is the bass player in Tanzwut, and he is constructing all our medieval instruments, which are made according to the old pictures. Folk music is something that is 100 years old, and there is no connection with it in our music. Maybe we are doing something that is looking like folk music. But as for me I don’t like folk, I like industrial, I like metal. And what we are doing has even some ska elements. It’s a mixture of everything…

During the touring you are using medieval instruments. Is it difficult to keep them in order during the tour?

Yes, it’s difficult, but Wim looks after them very carefully. And all instruments were made in a style like street instruments, some would fall apart very fast and some will stay alive very long. These instruments can’t be broken very easily, they are very heavy, and we can fight and we can make a battle with them.

Have you ever heard any Russian folk bands or metal bands?

Ah, well… The name of the band is not in my head now. I know that Patrick knows some Russian death metal bands, because he is completely into death metal, he knows every band from every country on this planet. (Calls Patrick for help) Could you answer the question, name some Russian band …

Patrick: Band…Are you a band? (everyone laughs) Well, I’ve heard some death metal band, but I don’t remember really their name, they sound like Devourment, I enjoyed their stuff with an impressive deep roar.

You’re probably referring to Abominable Putridity…?

Patrick: Yes, maybe!

Norri: You see, he knows everything about any band!

Does anyone in the band have formal musical education?

Well, I didn’t start with medieval music, I started with the metal music, my old band was called Depressive Age. Many of the band members did start with street music, but the idea of doing something that is like medieval music gives you no opportunity to study how to play this kind of music, and there is no any possibility to learn how to play it in any musical school. The only existing explanation how to play those instruments was the explanation for some church instruments of Gregorian style. These instruments were used for playing for the kings and lords. There was no band before us that could do this kind of music, cause there was no possibility to learn it. We read a lot of books, we compared the description of still existing bagpipes from different countries, even from Africa, we collected the information about them, and we tried to rebuild the medieval music, which existed in Germany and other countries, because there is no traditions of medieval music in Germany, this music disappeared completely as a result of the pressure of the church. Now folk music is new music. I really love traditional music of every country, but I don’t like this medieval violin stuff, because it’s not traditional, it’s classical, it’s boring. It’s kind of music that aims to show you that you are lower than it.

You don’t consider yourselves as a folk metal band. But still there is a scene in Germany (let’s not give it a name) consisting of the bands like Tanzwut, In Extremo, Subway to Sally, and they all have been on stage a very long time. Do you see any young talented bands playing this kind of music in your home country?

Well, there is a huge scene of this genre of music in our country, and I should say all over the world. We played in Mexico some time ago, and it was a great surprise to meet a band which is doing the medieval music in the style of Corvus Corax. (laughs) There are a lot of bands, but unfortunately there is no special band. There is a band called Faun, but they make more medieval music, there is also Estampie, but they started like us, 20 years ago. There are a lot of bands that are trying to play in the vein of In Extremo, which is easier heavy metal…Hmm, I don’t like heavy metal. (laughs)

OK, and what do you think about bands like Tokio Hotel?

It’s very young band, and I don’t know what is going on behind the scenes. I think it’s an original band, it was not put together through casting, but this band has a big marketing scheme behind. Let’s talk again in five years if they still exist and make rock’n’roll.

What does Tanzwut need to become as big and popular as Tokio Hotel?

A big management! We are doing everything for our own record company, we are handling all management affairs, which requires not only opportunities, but a lot of ideas. And if you want to get the success like Tokio Hotel has now, you need a big record company, a great booking agency, a team of managers and money.  

As far as we understand you release albums of Tanzwut and Corvus Corax on your own label Pica Records. Why did you decide to do this on your own? In what ways is having your own label better than cooperating with a bigger one? We’re sure you get a lot of proposals from labels like Nuclear Blast or SPV, right?

It’s very important for us now to be independent. And there is no one who has the possibility to tell us what to do. They can’t tell us, “This is a good idea and this is not,” we can do what we want. After all, even if we don’t sell as many records as we did through major labels, we get much more money. Before I came to the band, they worked under a deal with EMI, actually they still have the rights for the first two Tanzwut albums. And I had some deals with BMG and G.U.N. Records, and I didn’t earn any cent, so it makes no sense. It’s very easy to give all the problems to the other hands and to be a full-time musician and don’t work. But if you want to do what you want and earn money, then you should have your own label.

Have you tried somehow to gain the rights for the first albums of Tanzwut and early stuff of Corvus Corax?

Well, actually the rights for Corvus Corax were always ours. We had a special release of our stuff and this was under a deal with the Berlin government, but they returned the rights to us. To get the rights back from the EMI is not possible, even if they don’t do anything with them. Even when we ask them to give us CDs for a good price, they just don’t do it. For us its much easier now to buy them at music stores, because they sometimes offer some special prices for them. But we can’t connect to EMI directly, because they are very closed, and for us there is no possibility to talk with them. We can buy the rights but we will have to pay big money. So I am very sorry about it.

You have done a few videos in the past, which are available on the live DVD. Did you shoot any videos in support of “Schattenreiter”? And in your opinion, do videos help the band, or are they just a waste of money?

We haven’t done any videos for “Schattenreiter”, and there is no any possibility to show them to people anyway. There is no music channel for the music like ours, and MTV doesn’t show our videos, cause they are not in the way which they want, so they prefer to show some stupid pop-stars, some sex appeal madness. Besides the quality of the videos is so bad that we don’t want to spend money on them, that’s the reason…

W would like to ask you about your new visual image that you have for this gig. Is this military outfit something special for Russia, or you are going to play in this uniform somewhere else?

Yes! It is looking cool…

But where did you get these uniforms?

We got these uniforms in Berlin. There are a lot of stores that have the military stuff from the east side, and many Russian people sell it in Berlin. But no one of us addicted to military stuff, and we don’t like any fighting. Our idea is to get some love to it. There are so many stupid things on it… (points at medals and badges hanging on his chest)

You obviously know that you have a lot of fans in Russia. What is your secret, what  attracts people to your music, even though they don’t understand the lyrics?

The secret is that we are doing what we want. We don’t try to copy other bands, and we are listening to a lot of different music, because we love music. But we do what we want, that is again the plus of having your own record company. And any other company will get crazy, cause each record is different and every time we have to win over the people again. I am not sure that everyone likes our new record, they may be surprised when they hear it, they may go like, “Oh, is this Tanzwut?” But I think this is the secret, we do it with 100% of our energy, and people feel the energy.

How do you prepare yourselves for a concert, and how do you relax after that?

Oh, this is very easily, especially in Moscow. Before the concert I drink vodka, and after the gig I drink vodka. (laughs)

Try mixing it with beer…

I have tried, it’s not a good idea. I think water is OK (laughs), and here vodka is the best thing, you can drink it in a room temperature. When a vodka is bad, you need to freeze it for not feeling its bad taste, and here you don’t need to do it.

What do you think about Russian beer?

Russian beer? It’s OK. I am a German, so, of course, here beer can’t be better than OK. We all know that German beer is best in the world.

There are seven members in the band. How do you manage to keep the unity of the band?

Well, we have done any fights which were possible. (laughs) And we are still together, it’s another secret of us. Many bands separate when they have some troubles, but we know the problems of everyone in the band. And we have to learn and analyze our relations. And on tours we prefer to drink some light drinks, only beer and wine, cause there could be some problems.

Even though you don’t admit this, many people connect your music with the Middle Ages. What do you think about life in those times, would you like to try living in that era?
 
Well, humans are humans. Maybe the tools of war are different, we don’t have stones now, we use atomic bombs, but the idea is always the same: conquer a new land and more people. The Middle Ages lasted for many hundred years, some ages were good for humans, and some not very good. Anyway, I like to live now, and I don’t want to live in the ancient Greece or Rome or the medieval times. I want to live now, it’s interesting to look for the future, and I am not a guy who is looking to the past, and the only look to the past is to rebuild the traditional music.

Finally, what is the talisman that you have on your neck?

It’s the symbol of clan of Null, the clan of nothing (laughs), and I am one of its members. Its idea is to be free in your mind. It’s the opposite of any organization that you can find, cause any organization has rules, and this clan has no rules. Do what you want!

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

Special thanks to Roman Novikov (Main Rock) for arranging this interview

Victoria “Ewikgeit” Bagautdinova, Roman “Maniac” Patrashov”, Dmitry “Ward” Kulikov
March 15, 2008
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