Interview with Lacrimas Profundere
Posted in Interviews on May 24th, 2010 by General Blaspheme
I guess to begin with, how about we let people who have no idea who you are get to know who you are? Who is in the band, and what do they do?
Rob – Vocals
Tony – Rhythm guitars
Korl – Drums
Me, Oliver Nikolas – Lead and Clean guitars
Could you give a history of the band since it’s inception?
Yeah in 1995 I had this idea to found a band because I was sick of playing alone with my song books Overkill and Metallica songs! I met our former bass player at a metal pub in my hometown, he had a friend who played rhythm guitars and I had a friend who played drums! My brother looks like a singer and a week later we had our first rehearsal in this bog called a rehearsal room! Now we entered the German Charts, played together with all our idols, Like Paradise Lost, Type O Negative, Overkill, the 69 Eyes and visit countries like Spain, The Netherlands, Mexico, Russia and UK for example! I never regret my decision to find this band!
How hard is it to lose band members and replace them? Some bands can take no time at all to do it, but they never talk about any stresses involved in bringing new ideas to the table. How has Lacrimas Profundere tackled these stresses?
Yeah! You know, in these times, you can’t lean back in the rocking chair and release an album every 4 years if you’re not Metallica or Guns ‘n’ Roses! It’s very easy to get lost in oblivion! But its not that hard to find new members, because we know many musicians in our hometown. We only send our CDs out with a setlist and a week later there is a band rehearsal, a week later a tour and after the tour you know, if the new member fits, we do the rest.
Lyrically, where do you find your inspiration?
Its about our self-discovery and the emptiness we felt. It´s a mix of self-pity, drugs, about affairs, love/hate and “let’s say it smooth” , the Love Act intrinsically. Its a “walk on the wild side!” This record is very private and you can find every band member in some of the tracks! The last couple of years we have eaten so much shit and toured our asses off! We slept in ugly rooms and took showers in moldy showers. We played shows drunk or while we had fever or both and kicked out of cheap hotels and my wife decided to leave me! So, last year the situation was like this: “we’re going to write an album, record and then go on tour”. If your son calls you Uncle Theo when you open the door after a long tour, you should think about it. All these things you experience, good or bad, and all the cities and people we saw influenced us and the lyrics! You have time to think about your animation while you lay in the bed of a nightliner and wait to arrive at the next city! But who do you think is able to write an honest rock record: a band who drive with a swimming pool in the nightliner, fly from show to show and every band member is the owner of about 14 bungalows, or a band that drinks bottom shelf liquor, sleeps in cheap hotels without shower and is on the road in nightliners with broken windows and bullet holes… ah, stupidly we’re the second example!
How about musically? Are there any bands in particular that you’d name as influences?
Sisters of Mercy, The Cult, Motley Crüe, Overkill, there are so many bands outside I love so much! But, if I compose songs, I don’t listen to music! I watch TV, or good movies or bios of musicians, for example Walk the Line.
You know, I don’t want to be like anybody else. There are so many new influences outside, if you open your eyes.
We were always a bit wicked and dirty, and if I listen to the songs right now, it feels like we are the drunk brother of HIM with biker boots, unwanted at the family celebration, or the sweet sister of The Cult who has a sideline at the table-dance bar next door! (Laugh!)
How has changing band members changed the way that you write music?
It hasn’t; since the beginning I’ve compose the music by myself.
How do you write music? Is it a full band effort, jamming out ideas at rehearsal, or is it pretty much one or two members writing everything?
I compose the songs at home, if I have 5 or 6 done, I call the others and we rehearse the stuff together. But this record was different. Different in development, the condition and the approach.
Beginning of 2009 we wanted to dissolve the band, because of our health and because nobody wanted to speak or stay in the same room with one of the others. So, this record describes the mood I was in in the writing process.
Do you think coming from Germany has made a huge impact on the band’s sound at all?
No, it doesn’t matter! I can write melancholy music at the toilet of the Hilton or in the sun of Malibu Beach! So, I only need the right mood. It doesn’t depend on the country or the place!
The new album, The Grandiose Nowhere, is a great album. How long did it take for you to write and record? Is there anything on it that you would change, now that it’s finished and you’ve had time to hear it again?
Thanks a lot!
Yeah, you know, we’ve lost a lot and we’ve won a lot in our history and during this hardest period of the band we composed this album, that’s the reason why it is something special for me, and I think you can hear these feelings and my direction in the songs!
No, I would never change a second in this album! This album draws you down, spit you out, let you fly and in the next moment you echo on the brick at the rooftop of a high riser with a cigarette in your hand! Hahaha, sounds strange, but, yes, this is our perception of evolution.
What kind of touring plans do you have to support the new disc? Are you planning on coming across the pond to North America?
Yeah, we have some plans to visit US West Coast for about 8 concerts. See you soon!!!
