DEAD (Eng.)

– Hi, thanks for taking the time. What are you currently up to?

It’s Friday evening and I’m having my 1st “after-work-beer” while answering this interview.

– Wy did you pick the name «Dead» for the band? It fits perfectly with the style I believe, moreover sounds powerful and easy to remember, was that something important as well when choosing the band’s name?

The name “DEAD” results from the Grindcoreband “DEADLOCK” in which Uwe and Peter played before.

When they split up (end 80’s) it was decided to form a complete new band with a totally different music style.

“LOCK” was simply deducted from the bandname, so “DEAD” remained.

Although our bandname is quiet simple and easy to remember, it’s really hard to find stuff from us at e.g. YOUTUBE or even GOOGLE – without adding special keywords, hehe…But thats the only disadvantage…sometimes I whish we should have chosen a more remarkable name..

– And what are your musical influences?

Previously it was mainly “Pungent Stench”, old “Carcass” and also some slices of “Autopsy”.

But after almost 20 years we have more than that, like e.g. “G.G.Allin”, “Buzzoven”, “Electric Wizard”, etc. Nevertheless we do not only listen to Metal, Hardcore, or whatever. We also like different kind of non-metal-music like e.g. “Björk”, “Prince”, “Austra”, or “Adriano Celentano”..we’re quiet open-minded in that case.

– The band was on hiatus for some years; what prompted your «dissolution» and what made you come back?

It was just for the money, free drinks, glamour and becoming famous.

But to be honest – it was Narutoshi from Obliteration Records who responsible that DEAD came back to life…he invited us for a Minitour in Japan 2004.

– Counting the hiatus you’ve been around for 2 decades now and, for such a long time, you haven’t had many line-up changes. Is this something easy to get?

Not really. You have to consider that musicians are a very “special Kind of people” somehow, and internal quarrels can blaze up very soon. It always depends on the combination ot the bandmembers, I mean – if they all fit together harmonically (Music is Sex!), share same ideas about the band’s music, and if they tolerate each other.

If these facts are guaranteed and there are no significant private issues for any member that could cause the exit I don’t see any problem at all.

– In fact you had the last line-up change just a couple of years ago if I’m not mistaken; has this affected the band in any way?

Yes, of corpse it did.

DEAD has now changed to a glam-rock-scum-punk-band with neurotic pagan lyrics about demons from beyond the franconian border of Middle-earth. Just kidding…

Compared to older stuff you can clearly hear the progress that DEAD went through all these years.

You’ll also note that there are now only two vocalists left, whereas in former times we had three.

To sum it up: it’s more than logical that changes of band members do always affect the band.

– Since your reunion you seem to have much activity, in fact this 2011 you have released two albums. Is there any secret recipe for such creativity?

Well, it’s only one “new” album that we release this year.

“For Lovers of the New Bizarre” is a re-release from the Split-CD with Regurgitate from 1994. It was our real debut album, but Poserslaughter Records decided to add some songs from these swedish grinders and compile it to a Split in hope to have a better commercial release.

With the help of italian Grind Block Records we finally had the chance to release it as it was ment to be..so this is very very old shit.

“Hardnaked…but DEAD” is our newest stroke. The secret of the creativity is mainly the technical progress. Nowadays it’s no problem at all to compose tracks at home , or send riffs to your bandmates via email. This helps alot as you’re not always in the good mood of writing new material. As soon as you have an new idea yo can record it at home and provide it for a discussion during the next rehearsal.

– You have always used girls for your covers, and «Hardnaked…but Dead» is not an exception. What could you tell us about it? Do you always use the same models?

Hahaha…no we don’t..we always change the models, as they also get older… Well, using girls on covers our very own style that I want to continue for each upcoming release. It wouldn’t make sense to break this tradition as it’s also a trademark for DEAD.

– Considering your music style and when you guys started, you have always had unusual lyrics. Back when you started most bands talked about violence or social issues; how did you come up with the idea of singing about porn and adding certain humour too?

The reason is quite simple. While getting older (keyword: Puberty) we nearly lost our interests in Gore-, or Zombieflicks, but got more attracted to tits and beer. As we are neither “Evil”, Satanists, nor political orientated we took themes in which we were really up to. Our humour is just the “cherry on the cake”, if you know what I mean..

– And due to having such sense of humour, does it bother you the fact some people may not take your music too seriously?

No not at all. Of course there many bad critics about our sense of humour. They call us infantile, childish or whatever, but I don’t care about it. We are just old “boys” who only want to have fun with this music and spread our filthy, sleazy ideas. If anyone is offended or bored by that, well…who gives a fuck?!?

– What are your inspirations for lyrics? It also seems like alcohol is also important for DEAD.

YES indeed!!! We’re totally booze-heads and focus in our lyrics on all that men like: Metal, Sex, Alcohol, Boobs, gambling, and farting in public. These are very important things in life that make us happy and the world a better place…sometimes.

– You have released several splits, in fact some years ago you released one with HAEMORRHAGE. I would like you to tell us a bit about it and if you know any other bands from Spain.

Of course I know more bands from Spain than them..e.g. mighty MACHETAZO, amazing TEITANBLOOD or the greatest spanish band of all time –

HEROES DEL SILENCIO (I have all albums & I’m a big fan of them – no joke!), AVULSED and some more. Well, when we played with them 5 years ago – it was their release party for the “Apology..”-album, we asked them if they would be interested in doing a split album. They were really enthusiastic about that idea as they are absolutely DEAD fans – which I didn’t know before, .. As we already had new material and enough time we just went back to the studio in Feb 2007. But it took a lot of time until Haemorrhage recorded their material, as their bassist was on tour as a sound engineer for several months. Luisma also had to write new material for that release and really gave his best. It’s one of our favorite releases and already a “classic”.

– On the album «In Bondage of Vice» you included a really outstanding track and also rare for your usual style, «Church of Alcohol», a slow-tempo song. Have you ever thought about doing again something like that? I mean something that, somehow, breaks the rule.

“Ooooooops, we did it again”, hehe…on the new album you will recognize that we have another doomy song named “Perfumes of Doom” which even has the first accoustic (!) solo in DEAD’s history so far.

I never tried this before – it was more or less an experiment – but after listening to it I was really amazed and thinking “Holy FUCK!!! Woooooooow…THAT’s ass-kicking!” I think I will do more of that stuff in future..perhaps implementing pipe organs or a jaw’s harp…

The song “Tits” is also very unusual as it sounds like a Garage-Punk-song from the 60’s.

– Finally, what are your short-term plans with DEAD?

First of all we want to promote the new album as best as possible, of course.

As 2011 is has nearly passed, respectively the damned fucking winter will arrive soon, we will focus on gigs for next year. Beside beer drinking we are already writing on new songs. But It will take minimum a year to have enough material for a new full-lenght album – and we want to deliver “High Quality in Double-D-Stereo” for sophisticated lovers, but for 2012 a Split-Album is also already planned…let’s see if it will come true.

– That has been everything from my side, thanks once more for your time. If you now want to add some final ideas to the interview, last lines are all yours.

Thanks for your interview and interest in DEAD.

Spread the sleazy word, drink beer, have some sexy times – “…or slink away and listen to DEAD !!!” (from “Polesmoker”/Whorehouse of the Freaks)

Tania Giménez

tania@queensofsteel.com