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First of all, please introduce your band to the
readers.
MaX (drums): HerrSchaft was created about 2 years
ago by the singer M.X.. From the beginning his main idea
was to conjugate Electro and Metal musics, then he
started seeking for people with the same state of mind.
After a few tries, he managed to find Zoé, as a
guitarist and sound engineer, and me, MaX, at the
electro part and as live drummer. We took on well
together and decided to work as a trio. After a few
months though, thinking about live performance, we
decided to recruit a new guitarist. That’s how MaT, who
knew the band from the beginning, joined us. He is now
fully integrated to HerrSchaft.
And now a practical question: what the Hell does
Herrschaft mean? And why have you picked this name?
MaX: You know, finding a name for whatever group
or music band is always a huge history. And in our case,
it took time to find one which would represent our
concept… But well, “HerrSchaft’ is a german word which
means “Reign”, or “Power”. It is strongly linked with
the concept we develop aside of our music, and which is
mainly inspired from the book “Ravage” from René
Barjavel. In an anticipated future of mankind, this name
represents for us the so-considered “Reign” of the human
race, the egocentric control it is convinced to have
gained on every little thing. And this overwhelming
confidence just leads to its complete fall, the day
electricity disappears, leaving mankind with its
selfishness. We choose to build our concept upon the
dual sides of human history, with a constant view on
both periods. It can be seen in the lyrics for example,
but on other aspects like artworks, or the way we built
our web site. Here is the meaning of “HerrSchaft” !
In the review of your EP, I described your music as
"the dark electro of Tamtrum mixed with the powerful
rock/metal of bands like Punish Yourself and Golem 101
with an industrial black metal attitude". What do you
think of this description, and how would you describe
your music yourself?
MaX: First of all, thank you for these references,
as –though I don’t know Golem 101 – Tantrum and Punish
Yourself are definitely models of strong influence for
us. For any band it’s very hard to describe and speak
about your own music, especially when it sounds
differently of what you intended at the beginning –
which is always the case! We just describe our style as
“Electro Metal”, I’m not keen on putting partitioning
labels to music, and this has the advantage of letting
us experiment things on one side and another, and find
our identity between both. Your reference to black metal
attitude is interesting, and it comes from, of course,
the voice of M.X. We definitely wanted a very aggressive
voice, quite loaded with effects, to cement the angry,
tortured side of our music. The vocals of M.X. answer
perfectly to this. Though, I don’t think we really have
a ‘black metal attitude’ with HerrSchaft, even if of
course extreme music has a huge place in some member’s
hearts. We only appropriate sounds from other styles as
a matter of expression, such as bands like Hocico,
Strapping Young Lad or Children of Bodom can do.
What are your main influences? And who are your
personal heroes?
MaX: You may have noticed, our influences are
strongly diversified! Each member listens a wide range
of different musics, and our heroes could be from Peter
Gabriel to Rammstein or Chimaira and Kraftwerk for one
guy, or from Muse to White Zombie for another, or from
Dulce Liquido to Mayhem and Gorgoroth… All of these
people are of strong influence on us, but they are so
many… At the end, every member picks ups ideas from here
and there and brings them when we play together, a great
melting pot!
Your EP "Architects Of The Humanicide" came out a
while ago, and received good ratings from our zine and
various other zines. But how do you look upon the EP
yourself? And did you expect these good critics?
MaX: Critics so far are excellent, and truly we
weren’t expecting so much enthusiasm - even it’s really
pleasing ! Nevertheless we have a bitter look on the EP
now. At the beginning, we started recording songs just
to see what it would ‘sounds like’, with rather poor
material to record with. But Zoe really did a kickass
job on this and gave this demo a rather acceptable sound,
good enough to spread it and make people discover our
music. The problem is now that, as you said, this EP has
been “unleashed” for several months, now, but is still
to be released on a more solid form. We’re still looking
for a label to distribute it more widely. It’s
frustrating, especially when people who had the
opportunity to listen to some songs give great support
and would like to listen more. We’ll see what solutions
can be found.
And how did the audience reply on the debut?
MaX: We already have a lot of support from people
on the Internet, but, clearly, we are still on the
beginning of what we can prove. First, by distributing
“Artchitects of the Humanicide”, and then by starting
live performances and showing what we can do on stage.
The main dates are coming up now at the end of summer,
we will see soon what are the audience reactions.
What is your favourite song of the EP, and why?
MaX: I think that ‘Self Bondage’ is our favourite,
because of its alchemy between electronica and catchy
guitar riffs. This is a good example for me of our view
of “fusion between Electro & Metal”, with energy, and
maybe a kind of Dance/Metal taste ahah! On another
register, “De flammes et d’ombres’ represents for now
the darkest and twisted side of our music, slower,
heavier, but imprinted with this ‘end of the world’
ambiance we’ll clearly want to insufflate in future
songs.
Of the bands I have mentioned in the third question,
Punish Yourself is the only one I haven't seen live, but
the others almost crashed the stage with their powerful
performances. What can a stranger expect when he visits
a show of Herrschaft?
MaX: If you never saw Punish Yourself on stage
you definitely miss something. Their visual concept is
most unusual and inventive, it’s a must-see ! But for
our part, I think we definitely found a revolutionary
concept by offering stools, coffee and tea-cakes, having
peaceful chatting time with the public… Mmh… Or,
alternatively, we fucking intend to power-crash the
stage as well ! Our music is definitely done to make
people move, dance, shout, headbang, cry, jump or burn
themselves, whatever… If we fail that, there’s no need
of playing this kind of style !. More seriously, there
are many ways to communicate energy on a live show, from
a naked charismatic frontman to the whole ‘image & sound’
apparatus. What we’d like in the future, is to “bring
up” our concept with us on stage, the apogee of mankind
and its fall, with all means we can get at every show.
I’m very interested in adding a visual aspect to
Herrschaft on stage. This would include, lights,
costumes, videos and why not, live actors ! But mixing
all these together, while still communicating strongly
with people is complex and takes a lot of time and money,
so it will come slowly… But surely!
What can we expect of Herrschaft in the future?
MaX: We now focus on live, to show a new facet of
Herrschaft to the public. We passed some time working on
“Architects” and build our identity, this has to be
behind us now, we now want to communicate this, bring
something to people and get pleasure with it! Some news
songs are ready for the stage, a lot of others already
gestating, so as soon as we decide to settle back we
will have sufficient material and experience for a next
full-grown album.
The interview ends here, thanks again for your time.
If you have something to add you can do it here.
MaX: What can I add, I was very pleased to answer
to this interview. It helps to have a backwards view,
and motivates for the next step! And as it is from your
support that we build our best… See you soon with bigger
stuff I hope !
Interview by: Gerardo - June 2006 |
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