Gebruder Manns is german band which is a rellay
good one. I´m looking foreward to more music
with them and here´s an interview with them done
in the middle of august 2021
Please tell me a little bit History of the
group?
-Annika: The foundation of this band goes back
to the early 90ies - students in
Göttingen, wanting to do a band. None of us ever
had played in bands before, never had an
electric guitar before, 4 drum lessons. We soon
figured it would be cool to have an all girls
band. And that’s what we did. There was quite a
nice music scene in Göttingen at the time and we
soon started to do our first gigs, playing songs
we wrote ourselves. Never covered any socalled
heroes. We had some nice successes, were chosen
to participate in a band contest that the Guano
Apes had won the year before. That was huge for
us - 600 people… we didn’t do as well as
the Apes that night, but won the “price of the
audience”. The jury thought a bit differently…
:)))
Then life tore us apart, Mary left for Hamburg,
others got children, the rest off to
Berlin...none of us had band activities in the
meantime, when an old friend of ours had a beer
too much with our former drummer and they came
up with the idea of having a reunion concert
with all the other bands we hung out with. Six
months and five rehearsals later we finally
played together again at the “Summer of 96”.
That really was a blast. We did the old songs
and one or two new things. What was intended to
be a one-time-reunion thing suddenly turned out
to be an eye opener: How could we ever have
lived without rock’n roll for such a long time?
So we went on rehearsing, even though half of
the band lived a four hours drive away from
Göttingen. But time had changed many things and
we came to split up with the drummer. But that
was no reason not to go on - we were on
fire again and found our actual drummer Sabine
in Berlin where the bass player Karin lived
anyway. So why not transfer the rehearsals to
Berlin. We called her, we met in Berlin to play
together and it was fun and a perfect match.
From then on we continued to meet in Berlin
every 5 or 6 weeks and developed our playing and
our music to the next level.
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?
-Annika: I’m 53 years old, have two teenage
daughters (listening to terrible music), live
with my partner who is a musician too in a
flat with quite some guitars and vinyls... I’m
very much into anything that touches creative
processes: music, photography, writing texts and
songs. Things that also help me in my job as a
teacher for German and French language and
literature. A bad thing about me: Too much chaos,
too much melancholy
Sab: Age 53, no kids, not married, working for
GVL GmbH (Society for exploitation of
neighbouring rights) / still smoking weed /
Karras, Übermutter, All I've Got / ScheissKind,
Nervous Germans
I can hear much different influences but mostly
metal, some hardcore and some rap music?
Favorites from the past? Rage
Against The Machine?
-Annika: RATM sure is a band that we all flipped
on at the time (and still do). I saw them on
festivals and freaked out on dancefloors - I was
never into true metal but loved all the
crossover, industrial (NIN) and also a lot
of Rap // Hip Hop -Oldschool hardcore rap.
To sum it up: everything that you can find on
the “Judgement night- sampler - Deftones -
Limp Bizkit
Sab: 90s Hardcore, Metal, Crossover, Emo,
Grunge
Gebruder Manns are you satisfied with the name?
How did it came up? You weren’t afraid that some
other band would be named like this? What
does it mean?Which is the best bandname you know?
-Annika: The band’s former name was Cup C -
meaning the bra size… what fit us quite well in
an ironic way when we were young didn’t seem to
fit anymore now. We wanted to do some german
lyrics at one point so we were looking for a
German name. Gebrüder Manns was the name of an
old grocery store in Berlin, the company sign of
which you can still see attached to the building
where it used to be. The meaning of Gebrüder ist
a bit difficult to explain but it means brothers
with a reliant down to earth connotation. So:
more than just brother. Brothers running a
company in a very solid way. Since my last name
is “Manns” the girls thought it would be a fun
name, slightly ironic - since we’re not
brothers at all - and not as mean as metal
bands like to put their names. Hell raiser
- burning flames -
The best band name I know will be our next name…
but in the meantime we stick with the Gebrüder..
What´s the best thing with playing live? Do you
miss in these covidtimes? Have you planned any
new gigs?
-Annika: Getting to know new people, other
bands, sweating, giving and getting energy from
the crowd, being in something like outer space -
feeling things happening. The best thing!!!
And where is best to play? And the worst place?
-Annika: There are no bad places to play. We
loved every gig. Even the one in front of just
two butches just watching us from
the bar, not caring for our music at all.
:::)))
Sab: Best to play: enough space to set up my
drum kit, stage monitoring, ventilation – Worst:
no backstage
How is to play this sort of music in Germany
right now? Which types of bands do you
have concerts together with?
-Annika: We are just at the beginning. We had
one show in February 2020 just before Covid. We
played in an old punk rock institution in Berlin
- “Clash” - a hell of a cool place,
great crew and crowd. We supported NH3. a
punk-ska-band from Italy. After that we were
ready to rumble, but then Covid hit the
planet...
How would you describe your music in three words?
-Annika: Groove - heavyness - punch
Sab: 90s Crossover
What does punk mean to you, is it only a word or
is it a lifestyle? I know you don+t play punk
but some influences from hardcore I think I hear?
-Annika: That question is for Sabine. She IS
punkrock. Marie too.
Which song/album or group was it who took you
into `music and be playing yourself?
-Annika: Rollin’s Band - The end of
silence. Biohazard - Mata Leao.
Deftones - Around the fur
Sab: My uncle had a drum kit in the cellar at my
home, and he played guitar and piano as well, so
he teached me how to play. My stepfather loved
The Rolling Stones, CCR, and a lot more rock
bands from the 60s/70s, so this was the kind of
music I did listen to when I grew up.
What shall a young girl/boy do today to shock
their parents as the way we did when we were
young? They have already seen everything
?
-Annika: Oh, God you are so right...my girls are
14 and 15 now! I would love them to shock me
with some political engagement or with “Stay
home and read a book”. They can shock with bad
and cheap german rap sneakers, humiliating
sex and Gucci as only topics. I made a song
about that: “Louis Vuitton is fucking your brain”.
Today they think that they have already seen
everything, because the media seems to make
everything accessible to them. When it comes to
the big themes: love - life -
death - they will get punched by reality.
Sab: Listen to Techno/Electro
How is it to live in Germany right now?
Politically? Fascists?
-Annika: It’s a horror to see right wing forces
make their way into the very midst of our
societies again. That is the same all over
Europe.
Göttingen has always been a city with a strong
anti-fascist scene. This has worked pretty well
in the past. Nazi groups didn’t dare to show up
for a long time, after some serious fights
against them in the 90ies. There are new
tendencies though- fascists showing up downtown,
provoking, there’s also attempts to
intimidate workspaces or places of collaboration
of political forces against racism and fascism
in our town.
Sab: In Germany a social and political change is
taking place, I think in autumn there will be a
„green“ Government for the first time. A
democracy must be able to withstand extremes on
both the right and the left.
Is there any good bands from Germany right now?
Is the punkscene/metalscene/hardcorescene big?
How is it in your hometown?
-Annika: There is quite a strong hardcore scene
in Göttingen.
Sab: There are some good hardcore bands in
Berlin like Punishable Act or Crucial Point, and
there is an interest in metal/hardcore in
Germany, as you can see at the big festivals
like Wacken or Rock am Ring.
What do you know about Sweden? Have you
been here sometime? What is typical Swedish?
-Annika: I once had a swedish friend who was
also very impressing with words: In less than 2
years he had learned a brilliant German - Better
than most mother tongue speakers. Unbelievably
original and funny, the guy. Other than that:
Clichés: Beautiful country - happy free
people - alcohol is too expensive!
Sab: I'd played at the Swedish Rock Festival in
2007 with my band KARRAS, that was awesome. And
I'd been on holiday in Sunne for kayaking.
Typical Swedish: Chokladbollar (Schokokugeln)
Have you heard any good bands from Sweden?
-Annika: Meshuggah!!!!! Soooo goood, sooo deeeep,
sooooo evil! Seems that all good metal bands are
swedish. :::)))) Of course Arch enemy. Many
others that I knew, but didn’t even know
they were swedish.
Sab: When I was touring with my band All I've
Got, we've played with Grace.Will.Fall (Swedish
Hardcore), great live band! Best bands: Refused
/ Meshuggah
Your lyrics, who does them and what influences
you? Never in German?
-Annika: The lyrics were usually done by Marie
on most of the older tracks. During Corona I
started writing whole songs. Sometimes I
wrote only nonsense lyrics with a phonetic
character and Mary then started to rewrite it
and make real lyrics. On some songs it’s
partially mine, partially Marie’s. I did one
song completely in German (one against the
rising of fascist parties in Germany) but till
now it’s the only one in German. It’s really
hard to write good german lyrics. Marie also has
some cool danish stuff, that seems to be the
perfect language for metal.
Is there any subject that you never will write
anything about? Or isn´t anything sacred?
-Annika: I would not know what? Maybe raise my
voice for people who’s pain I cannot measure -
but anything else should go.
Politic and music, does it go hand in hand?
Which is your most political song? Is it
important to get out your opinions in music?
-Annika: I think a band / music is a perfect
tool to get out opinions to a broader public, if
you have some range. I would not be interested
in doing music that has no real sense - no
statement. Neither listening to it nor making it
myself. I think all our lyrics are about
something substantial in life. But that must not
necessarily be politics. But hey, in the end,
everything is politics.
The problem is that the right movement has very
well understood how to instrumentalize music for
demagogy. A rising number of bands with German
lyrics and heavy sound are fishing in the
grounds of people that are deceived by life,
deceived by a non-successful German
reunification, by politics in order to spread
their venom against a tolerant and welcoming
Europe, giving them the feeling of belonging to
a stronger group. That is a very dangerous
development that we have been witnessing for
quite a while now.
Sab: I think it's important to make clear on
which side you're on, and to denounce grievances.
Best political band/artist?
-Annika: RATM
Sab: Dead Kennedys, RATM
Do you think that music(lyrics and so on) can
change anyones life, I mean people who listen to
music?
-Annika: I am sure that music can save lives.
Sab: Especially when you're a teenager, music
and lyrics can have a big influence.
Your favorite record cover all time? And
do you have any good record stores in your
hometown?
-Annika: We have some cool record stores, yes.
And finally vinyl is having a renaissance. That
is a great turn in the industry of plastic
conserved music.
Sab: The Clash – London Calling // Record stores
Berlin: Dodo Beach, VoPo Records
Is it important to get out physical records of
your stuff? Why or why not? Vinyl, CD, cassette,
what do you prefer if you could choose whatever
? Or is it OK with only Spotify etc?
-Annika: It definitely is a whole different
feeling listening to music on vinyl. The whole
process is a different one, more active, more
attentive, you touch it, you choose physically,
you see the artwork, you get in closer contact
to the lyrics if they are on the booklet. I
really enjoy that as a moment of concentration
and not distraction. A moment of really
appreciating the elements rather than giving
them a minor role as accompanyment to whatever
you’re doing. I enjoy both ways. The benefits of
publishing on spotify etc. are undeniable though
- for a poor band without a record deal!
Sab: It is important, still a lot of magazines
and radio stations want us to send Cds.
I personally like it, to read the lyrics in a
booklet of a CD.
Please tell me a funny thing which have happened
during your career and under some gig? And have
you had some positive reaction that you´re an
all girl band or is this a negative side?
-Annika: Being an all girls band has always had
the great advantage of constantly being
underestimated. So you almost always have a
surprise effect.
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?
-Annika: Varied. Extremely varied.
Sometimes I miss people that would come to see
bands that really play the music we play. We
often have people in the audience who come
because they wanna see women play. But we’re not
there because we’re women, but because we play
this music.
Please rank your five favorite records, five
favorite concerts and five most important things
in life?
-Annika: Is it allowed to ask questions that are
impossible to answer to? ::))
Albums:
1. Deftones “Around the fur”, 2. Faith no
more “Angel dust”, Queens of the stone age “
Songs for the deaf”, Slayer “ God hates us all”,
Tool “Aenima”
Concerts: Henry Rollins, RATM, Faith No More,
Biohazard, Cromags,
Things in life: friends - family - music
- resiliance - ideas how to go on
Sab: Records: Fugazi – 13 Songs, Tool – Aenima,
Pantera – Cowboys from Hell, Helmet – Betty,
Slipknot – Iowa // Concerts: Einstürzende
Neubauten (Berlin, 1986), Tom Petty and the
Heartbreakers (Essen, 1982), Cypress Hill
(Berlin, 1994), Faith No More (Berlin, 1989),
Tool (Berlin, 2019) //
Important things: Music, Love/Relationship,
Self-confidence, Mental and physical health,
Courage
First, last and most expensive record ever
bought? And the most embarrassing in your
collection? Do you buy many records now or is it
only Spotify?
-Sab: First: Beatles – Revolver / Last: Body
Count – Carnivore / Expensive: Pixies – Live
Bootleg 1988 (60,- DM) // I still buy CDs
Is it boring with interviews? Are there many
interviews?
-Annika: Compared to the ones we did with Metal
hammer and Rolling Stone your questions are by
far the coolest. ::))) No bore.
Is music a good way to get out frustration and
become a nicer person outside the music??
-Sab: Of course, playing drums helps to reduce
aggression. Through years of experience in bands
you are able to handle conflicts in a different
way. You are more willing to compromise, and you
learn to appreciate teamwork.
Future plans for the band?
-Annika: Conquer the world- establish a metal
kingdom and abolish suppression, oppression and
hatred.