Sonic Seducer, May 2024

 You are currently on your anniversary tour. What is it like to actually be on stage after the long run-up?

I was on stage for the first time at the age of five, so for me it's actually just as relaxed as a day at the office. We had a four-day production rehearsal. Everything I need to get prepared happens in that period. Our show and our setup are modular so that it works in a bar in front of 50 people or in a stadium of 50,000. There are no surprises.

Is there a tour date that is special to you?

 A sold-out Haus Auensee in Leipzig is really something special. With more than 3000 people, this is a new size for a concert in our own tour. In general it is still unbelievable to play to four-digit audiences across Europe... What has happened nationally and internationally in the last few years is really huge.

You now have one more man on stage. How did that come about? What is the basic idea?

I had “been pregnant” with the idea of asking Benji to join LOTL since 2020, but never told anyone about it until the fall of 2023, when I realized it was just time. And luckily both Benji and the other boys shared my enthusiasm for the idea. So, the plan has been in place ever since. Economically speaking, everyone in a band is richer when the band is smaller. But we've never decided anything on a monetary basis. Art is the law! And it gnawed at me more and more that Gerrit doesn't have ten hands for even more keyboards, that many second guitars are missing live that exist on record, that a really good singer could provide missing second voices... we could do it like almost everyone else and fire off even more tracks from the laptop... but we didn't want that. So now we have Benji, for more guitars, more synths, and more vocals to bring our live shows even closer to our album productions. Apart from that, Benji is an excellent songwriter and audio engineer and an absolute plus for us in this respect too. Not to mention that he's a great friend, which is the most important criterion for playing with us.

A third guitar looks cool. But for it to sound cool, it has to be integrated into the live arrangement in a meaningful way...

 Yes, of course. It does take a bit of time to rearrange everything for two keyboards and two guitars. We'll have to do the same for all the other old songs as soon as we include one of them in the setlist again. But that's our job and we don't shy away from it. It's also fun because we now have to make far fewer compromises in order to perform the albums live.

One day before the start of the tour, Nik had to cancel due to health reasons. You quickly found drummers to help out. That sounds like a stroke of luck.

Nik is now back and is doing well. That's a great relief! Less than 24 hours before the soundcheck in Nuremberg, we received the news that he was on his way to hospital with blood pressure problems. Without knowing our songs and armed only with sheet music, Nico Vaeen from Annisokay stepped in. He delivered an incredible performance at the first two shows and saved our tour. From show number three onwards, he didn't have time and Jörn Schwarzburger, who is also in our crew, and who had been on stage with WITT the two days before, stepped in. When Nik was back we still had Nils Kinzig from Schattenmann on the “subs bench” at the side of the stage, just in case Nik wasn't feeling well. When Nik's call came while I was on vacation on the ski slopes and then started calling all my friends from the ski hut, from Subway To Sally to Saltatio Mortis, there were suddenly 30 options within an hour. 30 crazy people who agreed to play; what a friendly team spirit! Unbelievable! Thanks to you all, friends!

You are playing at the Festival-Mediaval this year. How did it come about that you are headlining there? Medieval music is... how shall I put it... not your core business.

I could make up a wild story about how this came about, but the festival simply got in touch with our booking agent and asked if we could come up with a special show for it. We thought it was exciting and will be performing there acoustically, just like on our 2021 online format “Festival of Love”... not with an ensemble, strings and the like, but completely pure-MTV unplugged, so to speak... we've never done it like that live before.

 “Blood & Glitter” is currently being released in an extended DVD version. What exactly is there on the visual medium?

 We shot an incredible 14 music videos for “Blood & Glitter”. And they are now available in a box set on DVD and Blu-Ray. An audio CD of all 14 songs is also included for anyone who doesn't have the album yet.

I still have one question to ask: There was a 15-year LotL studio stream. There were gifts. But there was no pot knocking^[1]. Rumors were circulating beforehand that this form of children's birthday party escalation would take place. Was there a lack of a pot?

 You can use drums for banging pots... No. We idiots simply forgot that during the stream.

First of all, let's talk about the Lordfest and you standing in for Klaas. Have you ever played the songs for yourself? Or can you quickly transfer everything from listening to the fretboard?

What helped me immensely at Lordfest was that I had heard most of the songs a lot through the tours and shows throughout the year. That meant I had already internalized most of the sequences, chord changes and things like that. For the songs that were completely new, I had written a cheat sheet with everything written down note for note.

The idea of becoming the sixth member of the band was already in the air also?

Correct. It was already fixed and I had already started practicing the songs for the anniversary tour. However, the intersection of the pieces that also appeared at Lordfest is rather small. So I was only able to benefit from it for a few songs.

You met Chris at SAE^[2] around 2014, right? Does that mean you've been accompanying the band as a backliner for ten years already, more or less?

Funnily enough, sometime in late 2013 I did a beginners' workshop for interested people at the SAE, which Chris led. That was the first time we met, but we really got to know each other in 2014 during my sound engineering studies. I only joined the direct band cosmos in 2018, back then as a classic backliner. That's how I found my way into the crew and accompanied the band for six years.

What is it like for you to be on tour with Lord of the Lost again, but in a different role?

Good question. On the one hand, little has changed, as it's still the same lovely people and we're all still friends, whether crew or musicians. On the other hand, the daily routine has almost completely turned around. When the crew is working the hardest, namely during set-up and dismantling, I now have time off.

“After six years and 191 shows in 32 countries, Benjamin ‘Benji’ Mundigler will retire as Guitar Tech, Backliner, Stage Manager and Monitor Mixer in LotL's live crew...” This social media post sounded like the end of an era?

It really felt like the end of a long but very good time. And although I knew what was going to happen next, I was really moved by all the emotional reactions from the fans to my quasi-farewell. Even though it was clear that the post would turn out to be a bit of a joke, the fact is that I've resigned from the crew completely.

And you've been photographed more in the last few weeks, when I look at Facebook...

That's right. Fortunately, I have a lot of fun fidgeting in front of the camera and then I just hope that it looks good. I would say being in the public eye is not an intrinsic need of mine, but I do enjoy it and I enjoy meeting lots of new people through it.

Will your greater involvement in LotL change anything for Scarlet Dorn?

I am still active with Scarlet Dorn and will remain so! It's a completely different musical experience for me and they are at least as good friends. I wouldn't want to miss that. Bengt, who does FOH for Lord of the Lost, i.e. mixes the sound for the audience, is also Scarlet Dorn's guitarist and we'll both still be on the road with LotL just as much as before. So nothing will change.

Will your creative input now increase with Lord of the Lost?

 It will certainly grow. My creative engine is definitely running at full speed and full of motivation at the moment! I've already been able to contribute to the last few albums in a variety of ways, but I'm curious to see how that will develop in the future.

Author: Christoph Kutzer

 Photography: Jan Season

[1]: Pot knocking is a children's game in which a blindfolded player with a wooden spoon has to find an upturned pot with a reward. It is mainly played at children's birthday parties and involves one player being blindfolded. He is then given a wooden spoon and another player spins him around in a circle to confuse him. An upside down pot is placed in the room under which there is usually something sweet or a gift. The pot must not be moved during the search. The blindfolded child must now crawl to find the pot by continuously banging the wooden spoon on the floor in front of them. The other children call out “warm” and “cold” to indicate whether the child searching is approaching the pot or moving away from it. Sometimes another player taps on the pot at the beginning to show the blindfolded player the direction in which the pot is located. As soon as the searching player has found the pot and knocks on it, they can take the cloth from their eyes and take the reward. Then it is another player's turn and the pot is moved to another place. In an alternative version, several children search blindfolded and with wooden spoons at the same time.)

[2]: The SAE Institute (originally the School of Audio Engineering) is a private training institute that offers training, further education and degree courses in the field of media production. The company has 45 locations in 23 countries worldwide, with its headquarters in Byron Bay, Australia.

Translation: Margit Güttersberger

Proofreading: Helen Forsyth