German Death by Dissonance called themselves for
a modern metal band. I can agree but I hear much
old deathmetalinfluences here too. The interview
was done in june 2020.
Please tell me a little bit history of the
group?
-Death by
Dissonance was founded in 2013, at that time
with a slightly different cast. We already made
music in different constellations before but
with Death by Dissonance we wanted everything to
be “more serious” this time. We formed a lineup
and quickly achieved some popularity in the
local scene with our first shows. From the
beginning we wanted a band with two front
singers. With the Release of the Antisyndrome EP
in 2017 we released our first recordings. DbD is
also closely associated with the crew around the
band and celebrates shows, excess and musical
creativity with them. After a bad setback, the
death of our guitarist Nico, we released our
first album Epitaph by the end of 2019. We are
back on stage with our new family member Robin
for some time now and are very hungry for
rehearsals, shows and songwriting.
Please tell me a little about every member in
the group right now, age, family, work,
interests and something bad about everyone?
Earlier bands? Other bands on the side? What
happened to Nicolai?
-Jona: 26, studies
audiovisional media and is doing his
masterthesis about audio, acoustics & artificial
intelligence. Loves to listen to music als well
as making music by himself, he is also a
producer of electronic music as „Jona Davis“. As
he says, his zest for action can sometimes be
annoying as well as his and Deans stupid ideas,
when they get drunk.
Johannes: Age 24,
music producer / mixing engineer. Interests
outside of music: chess, red dead redemption 2,
skateboarding like a god.
Dean: 25, Carpenter, like to go camping with his
girlfriend and VW Beetle, nature man, can ignore
everything around him very well and can't spend
an evening with Jona without getting drunk in
the end.
Max: 27,
educator and
interested in hiking or being outside in
general, Tavla, eating good food, Krav Maga and
of course beer. He claims to be annoying
everyone else with his unreliability, sometimes
he's a lazy dog! Before DBD he did vocals for
another band with a few guys from my school
called Naturtrüb. That was their first musical
attempt, “we had little ideas, but really wanted
metal”!
Robin: 30, is a Media
designer for reasons of survival and a
passionate bartender. Otherwise he loves to
drink, music and drink a little more. Before
being a Part of Death by Dissonance, he used to
take part in various bands and projects.
Jan: 27, studies
classical Music and conducts an sings in
different choirs and plays in Orchestras. Nearly
his whole life is all about music, although he's
politically active, enjoys drinking just as much
as all the others and loves being out in nature,
if there is any time left. Is also called the „Bandhitler“
because of his very strict ideas, how something
and especially DbD should sound.
Nicolai
increasingly suffered from depression and the
influences of the material world. DbD have
always been a perfect place to turn that off.
Unfortunately, Nico decided not to continue his
life at last. That hit us all very hard.
I can hear much different influences but mostly
old death metal music? Favorites from the past?
You call it modern death metal?
-Actually there are few concrete old school
death metal influences that are part of the
songwriting. At least, there is a certain
roughness which is typical for the sound of DbD
that is also part of many old school death metal
sounds. Since there are also elements across
other genres we are transporting traditional
death metal into something new.
Death by Dissonance are you satisfied with the
name? How did it came up?
-We really like the band name. I think Jan came
up with the idea and we found the name pretty
cool right away. It’s actually quite shocking
how well the name fits, considering what
happened to Nicolai.
-During the shows there’s an insane energy
in the venue, between us and the crowd. Every
show is unique and therefore it’s a great
experience every time. We’re in love with all
the people at our concerts, so it’s great to
meet new people and catching up with friends.
And where is best to play? And the worst place?
-There’s no bad place to play a show! We already
played in many different locations. Playing open
air shows is very cool, but so are the small
club shows where the band and the crowd are very
close.
How is to play this sort of music in Germany
right now? Which types of bands do you have
concerts together with?
-We have an incredible large and diverse metal
scene in Germany, no matter what your
preferences are, you will always find a band
that fits your taste. In our hometown Stuttgart
there is a lively hard core scene and besides us
also a bunch of other bands playing metalcore,
death metal and modern metal.
How would you describe your music in three
words?
-Raging, bleak and heavy. Sometimes also
emotional.
-Punk has many different meanings to people, so
it’s lived individualism. For us it means living
the way you really are and saying out loud what
you think not being led by constructs like
state, capitalism and materialism. And sometimes
maybe it’s just sitting at the bar all night,
having a good times with friends drinking as
much beer as possible. And then stumbling home
in the early morning with a strong alcohol
breath and sunglasses on.
-That’s a far variety of bands and artists for
each of us. Ranging from Green Day, Black
Sabbath, Suicidal Tendencies and KoRn to
Tchaykovski or Bach.
-Be away for 3 days
and turn off your cell phone. When you come
back, climb drunk on the roof at night because
you don’t find the house key. Also our drummer
Vougi says he’ll never forget the look on his
grandma’s face when he told her he’s going
vegan.
If you’re cool with
your parents, just take them with to show the
middle finger to the world!
-Living in Germany is
quite comfortable, but the political shift to
the right in Europe also exists in Germany.
Sadly, we have problems with racism,
antisemitism and sexism here. The alt-right
movement managed to shift the whole political
discourse far more to the right wing than it
should be here ever again.
About the corona
virus: From a political point of view, the virus
leads to many conspiracy theories, which are
often a breeding ground for dangerous right-wing
movements.
-There’s several very
good bands that play similar styles as ours. The
most recognized ones would be Heaven Shall Burn,
Caliban or Neaera. But there’s also strong
newcomers such as our friends in Unredd, who
just released a really sick album. Other great
bands are Der Weg Einer Freiheit, Deathrite and
Downfall of Gaia.
We have a pretty
strong scene in Germany and we especially love
the scene in our home base in Ludwigsburg and
Stuttgart.
-We heard that buying alcohol without
financially ruining yourself is absolutely
impossible. Apart from this Sweden is a
beautiful country, has a very friendly and calm
vibe. Jona and Johannes have already been to
Sweden on holiday and really enjoyed their time.
-We don’t know where to start, there are so many
great bands from Sweden! In Flames, Meshuggah,
Bloodbath, Soilwork, Entombed, Disfear, Morbid,
Dödsrit, Skitsystem, Grave,...
-Jona and Max write the lyrics. We process the
darker sides of life, often in a metaphorical
way. It does serve as a valve for all the
negative energy you have to face in life. We
never had the discussion to limit ourselves to
one language. We think sometimes the English
words are the better fit for a certain
expression, and sometimes it’s the German ones.
-There won’t be any “peace, joy and
pancakes”-songs for us, the world is way too
fucked up for that. Also you’ll never hear any
of that patriotic shit from us.
-In our music we express what concerns us:
Emotions, Angerand also social or political
issues. We have some songs that thematize
political issues, hard to say which is the “most
political” track. There is, for example, “We Are
The Rats”, which deals with the subject of
gentrification, “Spit on you”, a Song about
police brutality or “Slaughterhouse”, which is
about animal rights.
-There are many great Bands, some of them
international known, some of them from Germany
in very different genres: Ton Steine Scherben,
Rio, Waving the Guns, NoFX, Hanns Eisler, Rise
Against.
-Sure! Music can act as an amplifier for
whatever emotions you might feel or sometimes
even change your mood completely. If it can
change the way you feel, there’s no doubt it
will affect whatever you’re going through in
life! Especially combined with strong lyrics!
-Deep Blue by Parkway
Drive, The Dusk in us by Converge or Meta by Car
Bomb are great artworks.
Our Guitarplayer
Robin did the Artwork for our Album! He’s a
graphic designer so that’s not too surprising.
He took some cool shots of Regina (our
merch-mannequin) and we really liked how the
photos looked so we put them on the cover. We
think that it’s a good visual fit. And it makes
sense metaphorically, since we dedicated the
album to Nicolai, who was also the one that got
us the mannequin and styled it.
There are two great
record stores in Stuttgart, Cheap Trash Records
and Second Hand Records.
-Yes, it is absolutely important to us to
offer physical recordings. In addition to all
the streaming services, it is also great to hold
a CD in your hand or flip through a booklet.
After producing an album it is a great feeling
to have the final product as something haptic.
Our singer Max also likes tapes, but there are
probably not enough people interested in tapes
or records that it would make sense for us to
produce them.
-One time we rented a
van to drive to Weimar to play a show. After
hours of fun and driving, we finally arrived but
weren’t allowed to enter the venue for some odd
reason. So we went for food and drinks, taking a
tour through the city. On returning, we set up
and started playing. The room was quite small
and packed with people. After a few songs, there
was the most insane moshpit I’ve ever seen in my
life, a pool of blood, picture frames falling
from the walls, a guy being thrown into my
drumset, it was pure violence. And then the
power went out. We somehow got it back on and
continued. Then the power went out again, and no
one there was really trying to help us fix it.
Then there was some serious tension between one
of us and the guy at the bar, which ended in
some mean words, spitting and us being thrown
out. We ended up driving all the way back to
Ludwigsburg the same night. I’m not sure if that
counts as a funny thing, but it was an unusual
concert experience for sure! I still have a
cymbal with some guys blood on it from that
night.
Another time we
played at a band contest in our early years and
got disqualified, because Nicolai wanted to play
totally naked, which was his form of artistic
expression that evening. Everyone in the
Audience loved it, except for the judges.
How does your audience look like? Which people
do you miss on your concerts? Which is the
biggest band you ever have played together with?
-We have a very diverse audience: Metalheads,
Punks, Hardcore- and Slam-Dudes, every age,
every gender. Just how we like it. At some shows
we also met moms who asked us about merch for
babys, that’s great!
-Records:
Jona: Suicide Silence
- The Cleansing, Marilyn Manson - Antichrist
Superstar, Slipknot - Vol. 3 (Subliminal
Verses), Chelsea Grin - Desolation of Eden,
Parkway Drive - Deep Blue
Jan: Anaal
Nathrakh - The Whole of the Law, Igorrr - Savage
Sinusoid, Vulfpeck - The Beautiful Game, Flying
Lotus - Cosmogramma,
Johannes: Citizen -
Everybody is going to heaven, Deftones -
Saturday Night Wrist, Bloodbath - the fathomless
Mastery, descendents - Everything Sucks, Emil
Bulls - Phoenix
Dean: Linkin park-
meteora, Green day- American idiot, Bring me the
horizon - suicide season, Architects--lost
forever/lost together, Death by
Dissonance-Epitaph
Max: leeway- Born to
expire, all out war-self titled ep,
adolescents-blue album, ton Steine Scherben-
keine Macht für niemand, motorhead-ace of spades
Jona: As Blood Runs
Black, Neaera, Limp Bizkit, Slipknot, Despised
Icon
Jan: Gustav Mahler,
2nd symphony, Anaal Nathrakh, Thy Art is Murder,
Stravinsky, Symphony of Psalms, Death by
Dissonance
Dean: Metallica,
Green day, 30seconds to mars, Architects,
Marylin manson
Dean: Food, Love,
Nature, Music, Food
First, last and most expensive record ever
bought?
-Dean:
First: Green Day -
American idiot
Last: Unredd - Second
Self
Max:
First:
Unleashed-where no Life dwells
Last: HC Baxxter-
Self titled
Expensive: I don’t
know
Jan:
First: Nightwish:
Over the Hills and far away
Last: Super Satan -
Menetekel (preordered)
-It’s not boring, we like talking to people who
are interested in our music.
-We don’t like when critics write about
something they obviously won’t enjoy listening
to, to begin with. Why bother? That said, we got
away pretty good so far, our biggest and least
expected review being in the Metal Hammer! We
like reading them, because you get a new
perspective on your own music. If something is
constructively negative, you always learn
something from it. It tells you the stuff your
friends are probably too polite to say to your
face!
Which bands do people compare you to, is it
boring that people compare you to other bands or
is it understandable?
-There have been many weird comparisons, in most
cases we feel honored to be compared with well
known Artists. From a musical point of view,
some of these comparisons seem to be a bit
unfounded, but everyone has own impressions, so
that’s okay.
-Jona: Early Suicide
Silence, Slipknot, KoRn, Neaera, Rage Against
The Machine
Dean: Old Bmth, old
Suicide silence, In other climes, Marylin Manson
and Lady gaga
Robin: Korn,
Slipknot, Limp Bizkit, Static X und Sevendust…
2000er New Metal all the way!
Jan: Igorrr, Anaal
Nathrakh, Portishead, Lantlôs, Flying Lotus.
Johannes: Metal is a vent for many people, but I
don’t know if it really correlates with being
nice. Most metal fans I know are nice people, so
maybe? I guess it depends 100% on what you feel
and what you’re listening to. For me, the best
music always intensifies whatever I feel. Being
in this band, where all the songs are the result
of someone feeling helpless, angry, disappointed
and hurt just tells you how much this a way to
cope with life.
Which is the most odd question you ever have got
in an interview?
-This one.
Which is the question you want to have but you
never get. Please ask it and answer it?
-Question: “Can I
give you my house, my studio and all my money?”
Answer: “Yes”
-World domination!
-World domination with DbD.
Wisdomword?
-Johannes “It’s what
it’s” (- Future Franz)
Dean: Let the rain
fall
Jan: Communism will
win.
-Maybe nutmeg. This gives many vegetables and
stews a special touch.
Jokes aside: Thank you for the interview! Hope
to see you at a concert in Sweden sometime. |