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First of all, introduce
yourself to the people all over the world.
Reza287 (vocals): Hello everybody, we are "Golem
101" from Karlsruhe, Germany. We play an energetic
mixture of heavy guitars and exciting electronica. One
of or goals as musicans was always, to connect the both
worlds: heavy metal basics and the still hardly explored
electronic sound. This is the sound of the future, as we
think. It's the sound of "Golem 101". Our vocals are
kept in german, they mostly are about the dark side and
the struggle of life. We call our music: "Industrieller
Dunkelrock", which means "Industrial darkrock". We play
more than just industrial metal. You gonna hear a lot
MORE from "Golem 101" in the future, this I promise you!
James (music): Come and see us live, we play our
asses off...
GOLEM 101 has a cool sounding and fits to the music
you make in a way. Has the name some meaning?
Reza287: Well, this is the right question for our
soundcreator James, who came up with the name. To tell
you the truth, in the beginning it was just a name to
me, but I love it meanwhile - there is something magic
about "Golem 101".
James: Me being a big science-fiction fan I have
found this name in a Perry Rhodan book. "The Golem" is a
mixture between man and machine. You can describe it as
something like a "Cyborg". This fits perfect to our
music: A mixture of cold industrial electronic techno
sounds and warm ( hot!!! ) heavy painful emotional
guitars. The "101" simply comes from the binary-code. It
is the number 5 ( exactly 0101 = 5 ) as we started with
5 members. I also thought it's funny because of the "Jackson
5"
Reza287: (laughing at James) This is the real
reason I bet ya! It' really fits! With them nobody knows
what they are, I think Michael could be a „Golem“, half
human half something you just can't define.
How was the idea developed of creating a band making
music like this?
James: I had this idea, to bring the 2 worlds
together: The techno dance EBM music and the heavy metal
world. Most people like techno and hate metal or the
other way round. So I thought it must be possible to
create something that could satisfy both. So I started
the Golem project. Than I found Reza287. He was the
first one who understood, what I had planed. Only with
his input we could finish the basic idea. I am still
very proud to have such a talented guy in my band. If
you listen to the lyrics you might understand, what I
mean. ...if you understand german...;-) And last but not
least there is Pete Pain, our guitarplayer who gives the
right dose of pressure and pain ( ...as his name says...
) to our band.
Reza287: Yeah, a lethal dose! You gotta get
yourself a lethal dose of Pete Pain! But ok, seriously...
I was searching for a new band - not only a cover or
dance music band but a real band with visionary musicans
and a real perspective. I found this musican in
Karlsruhe: James Bottlehill - a great guy and this I
tell you: the most visionary musican I ever met. Since
then James and me always worked together as a fantastic
team, trying to create something new. Not only another
clone of some major bands. Creating "Golem 101" was a
dream of James and I am proud to have the opportunity to
participate in this great music experience! Already in
the beginning we had this idea of an "extended" band.
Not only music but also a great show with for instance
huge video installations. A kind of "the borgs" ( the
half man half machine species from star trek ) of heavy
metal.
I the review on IndustrializedMetal.tk, GOLEM 101 was
described as a good dark mix between DAS ICH and
RAMMSTEIN. Are you guys influenced by them? And what are
your other influences?
Reza287: Oh dark is good! I love listening and
even more, doing dark or depressive music. You know, to
be compared to "Rammstein" is an honour for us, but if
you listen to our lyrics closely, listen to james hidden
sounds in the background and the whole drumprogramming,
you gonna realize that we are very different from "Rammstein".
I mean, think about it - the guys from "Rammstein" do
the same stuff every album. It's always the same, let's
be honest about it. We are more experimental in many
ways, every song on our debut has it's own character and
it is a little different than the other song. We like to
keep it interesting. And that's not really hard in our
band, James has it's own musical background and a lot of
experience through his job as a producer of course. My
favourite bands are "Paradise Lost" and "Tiamat", the
great "Pink Floyd" and Kevin Moores "Chroma Key", so I
always take their level of creativity in electronic
soundcreation and its integration in organic rock or
metal music as an example. I mean just listen to "One
Second" or "Host" from "Paradise Lost", the work they
did is very underrated and still unachieved 'til now,
that's my opinion. So with them as my idols, you can
image that I always try to push the limits with every
new "Golem 101" song. The sounds that influenced my
electronic understanding are "Depeche mode" ( Ultra - a
great album! ), Trent Reznor and his NIN, Tiamat's "A
deeper kind of slumber" and the complexity of the "Front
Line Assembly" sound. Not to forget "Fear Factory". The
lyrics may be influenced by "The Ministry ( "Dark side
of the spoon" ), and "Pardise Lost". One of my favourite
all time bands is "Tool", their way of using electronic
elements in their sound is so subtile, I just love that
stuff! To be honest with you, I don't have one single
album of "Das Ich", and I quit listening to "Rammstein"
a long time ago. Of course the play of our guitarero is
an influence too, he is a hell of a guitarist with the
right amount of... how should I call it? "wickedness" or
„balls“, he has great skills and a characteristic way to
play "heavy and dirty" It's a good feeling to be on the
stage with him, he's a real professional. You have to
see it by yourself, than you'll get what I mean.
James: As Reza287 said, it is an honour for us to
be compared with „Rammstein“. At least „Rammstein“ is
the most known band outside germany, but if you would
like to compare us with some bands I would rather say:
Pantera, Pain, KMFDM, Die Krupps... My influences come
from many different directions. Just to tell you a few
names I would say: Pantera, Pain, The Kovenant, Fear
Factory, KMFDM, Die Krupps, but also: Pink Floyd,
Culture Beat, Depeche Mode, The Prodigy, and even: Dean
Martin, Frank Sinatra and all of the classic-heros:
Beethoven, Mozart, Orff As a producer a would say Frank
Farian.
The album received some very good critics by our
zine. What do you think about it yourself?
Reza87: That's a difficult question you're asking
there. I mean, which musican wouldn't say he would do
his work better, if he has the chance to do it over
again? Every musican with enough heartblood for it's own
work has this motivation, I guess. Of course we would
find enough things to do differently now that we have
grown as musicans, ( some of the songs you listen to on
our album are five years old ). But as James always
says, if you don't stop working on a finished song, you
don't go anywhere - it's like you are stuck in a moment.
A song is a time document, that's the work of a musican
at a certain time. Instead of working on an old song
again and again, start a new one with your new knowledge
- otherwise you won't grow as a musican. If we had a
bigger budget for our debut, I propably would extend the
booklet with a storyline - I love telling stories. But
that would be it, maybe on the next album, we'll see...
James: As Reza287 said, a song is a
time-document. For sure we would do something different
now, but I don´t look back, I look forward and there is
a lot of work waiting for us where we can put all of our
energy. What I wish for the future is to have the time
and the money to work as long as it takes on the new
album.
The Prinzip Der Finsternis album was pretty
experimental from time to time. Will there be some other
experiment on a future album?
Reza287: What a question?! There is some much
still to come! We are already working on 4 o 5 new
songs. They have the typical "Golem 101" sound, but a
lot more essence, and a lot more experiments and some
brandnew features which we developed during the years!
I'm a big "Drum n Bass" Fan, so I tried to integrate
some interesting elements of this music style in our own
sound. I love the pressure and intensity of songs from
acts like "Leftfield" or "the Prodigy". I miss that
sometimes in the EBM bands I listen to.
James: Yes, you can be sure of that...
The best part about being in a band is playing live.
How do the people in Germany react on GOLEM 101 live?
And what kind of public do you get: the Goths or the
metalheads?
James: The best part of being in a band is to play live!
All we do, we do for this in the first place. But to
answer your question, we hope to get all of them...;-)
(at least some of both...)
Reza287: You name it, James! You know, we love to
play live. And I think the people who see us on stage
realize that fact very quickly. They know the intensity
of our lyrics from our album and when they see us on
stage, they get the according intense performance, when
we express ourselves live. I think our music offers a
big plattform for every group of people. I have friends
who only listen to electronic or techno music, they see
us because of the electronic elements in our style. On
the other hand, there are a lot of metalheads enjoying
our guitar riffs ( just listen to the pantera-like
guitars on our title track "Prinzip der Finsternis" )
and gothics who like my desparation-filled lyrics I
guess. ( laughing ) Or maybe because they like our
guitarplayers cute ass, who knows!
What can we expect of GOLEM 101 in the future?
Reza287: We have great plans as I already told
you. I don't want to tell too much, but we are all very
keen on improving our live shows with a lot of
multimedia elements. A part of my dream has already come
true, to share such an exciting experience with guys who
also are my friends. What can a musican want more? I
just need the second part of my dream to come true now:
to take "Golem 101" to the top and reach a lot of people
with our music.
James: As I said before, we are working already
on our next album. But before we release the new album,
we plan to release an EP with remixes...so be curious
about it... My personal dream is to work with an big
orchester, playing our songs, like Metallica did
already. As we have some string-elements in our songs,
it would sound outstanding I guess...
Thanks a lot for the time given. Any final words?
James: Thank you for the review, the interview
and your support, we really appreachiate your work. The
scene needs more guys like you! Carry on like that! To
the people: Come and join us on our concerts, we are
prepared...
Reza287: Oh I thank you for the interview and
having us on your cool page! There should be more people
like you, with this passion for music! I wish you and
your page a succesful new year. Don't forget to visit
our homepage ( http://www.golem101.de ) and of course -
look out for concertdates somewhere near you, come see
us and we'll have a beer together!
"Beware people - we will help the machines to rise and
conquer mankind!, so better join our side quick!"
Interview by: Gerardo - January 2005 |
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