UR-Radio (2014)

 

 

NOTE: Since this is audio only and all the band members take part in it, it can contain mistakes about who said a certain quote sometimes, and also some parts couldn't be understood.

 

 

Moderator: Saturday evening, 4 minutes past 8 o’clock. I greet you at the rock symphonic radio “connect yourself”, at the microphone for you is Spornja (???), but I think you don’t care about that that at all today, cause actually you want to know who is sitting across from me.

Chris: Who is?

Mod: (laugh) They obviously forgot their names. Maybe we have to wheedle them out.

Chris: To my right is Bo from Lord of the Lost.

Bo: And to my left is Chris from Lord of the Lost.

Chris: Awesome.

Mod: (laugh)

Chris: Hello.

Bo: Hello.

Mod: Yeah, shake hands.

 

[0:33]

Mod: In the next two hours the whole band will appear, that means you’ll get to hear all of them, and in addition there will of course be lots of music. And I think we’ll just start with that.

Bo: Very nice.

Chris: Cool.

Mod: And with a song from the new Album.

Bo: Ooh.

Chris: Kill it with Fire.

 

[0:46]

Mod: There, and before we start, I also have to tell you how you can interactively participate in the episode. That’s how you can chat with the guys, how you can ask questions, greet greetings, etc. PP. And there are multiple possibilities for that. First of all, on our website www.ur-radio.de you’ll find to the top left the wish-greeting box. There you can enter a name, greeting, comment, and send the whole thing to the rock stream. The second possibility, also on our page: there is a button called UR-chat. If you click it, a little applet opens, and you find us directly in the channel UR-rock.  The third possibility: you grab an IRC-Client and connect directly to our server under IRC.ur-radio.org via the ports 6667-6669 or port 7000. And those for whom this is too complicated can just go to the Facebook event and write to us there. There, that was it.

Chris: did you learn all that by memory? I understood nothing.

Mod: (laugh) Was it too fast?

Chris: Much too complicated.

Mod: There, okay. But I think you also need to explain a die game. 

Chris: well, we figured, to make sure everyone gets their turn, seeing as only two of us can sit here, because there are only two microphones, that we’d roll the dice and just keep switching around. So we’ve got the numbers 1-5, from vocals to drums, Chris, Bo, Class, Gared and Tobi are 1-5, and if we roll a 6 we go home…no, we just roll the die again. And we switch piece by piece. After each moderation block. 

Mod: Exactly. So that you always hear two people, but not always the same two. 

Bo: a bit of variation.

Mod: That’s right. Now you’ll hear another song by Letzte Instanz again, and then we start with the questions!

Chris: No, we roll the dice first.

Bo: Yeah.

(dice roll)

Bo: 1!

Chris: That’s me. But then I have to sit here twice.

Mod: (laugh) You’ll have to divide yourself. 

Chris: (I think he rolled again?) That’s Tobi.

Tobi: Here!

 

[2:35]

Mod: There, we’re back. With a new conversation partner now. 

Tobi: Hello!

Chris: Hello Tobias.

Tobi: Hello, I’m Tobias.

Mod: (laugh) We’re sitting here, in our sitting-dance-group…no, of course not. There, we already have the first question. A big subject. And this will just get priority over mine: DarkOne would like to know when the video to Kingdom Come will come out. 

Chris: Ummm….we don’t know yet exactly. Cause we’re first shooting a different video, for the next single, and we’ll push Kingdom Come in-between somewhere where it’s reasonable. The video is finished. We shot it last year in Russia already. It’s still with the old cast, so you see Disco a little, our former drummer. We don’t even know ourselves. We want to save it up for a typical little slack period, when not a lot is happening.

 

[3:22]

Mod: And speaking of videos: you shot in a really cool location for La Bomba.

Tobi: That’s true. 

Mod: (Laugh) Tell us what location it was!

Tobi: That was in a public swimming pool.

Chris: Um, Steglitz. The old city bath in Steglitz. It was out of business for a few years, there’s no more water in the pool. We performed there. And what’s cool is that, because of the dome it looks a little like a church. It’s got something sacred, and it’s still an entertainment place. It was a leisure place. And we thought that was nice cause it connected to our band and this song. Cause the song is 100% party, and we’re a band who also stands for serious and critical subjects. And the architecture just connected that in a bizarre way architecturally and from the content. Actually it was a coincidence we found it, but I just interpreted it that way now. 

Mod: (laugh) Well the best things usually happen by coincidence. And speaking of La Bomba at this point: that is a video you can only love or hate, I read.

Tobi: Yes, it’s really like that. It’s very bizarre, very funny, and actually it characterizes the band completely. We make fun of ourselves. Each one of us has his own “erotic moment” in quote tags. Which Chris has with Chrystal.

Mod: (laugh) With the pen (???) [4:47]

Chris: Yeah, with my “sister”, if you like.

Tobi: …I slap the guy’s butt. It’s very funny every time. The performance is very…the way we think we are in real life, on the stage. But basically it really is very extreme, and definitely might not be liked by some.  There are some who might say…

Chris: If it’s of course too silly for some. There are of course some hardliners, great-goth-hardliners, who just say it’s too silly.

Mod: You’re also not allowed to laugh.

Chris: Well you have to respect that, you can’t argue about taste. But we just don’t always feel like doing the same thing. We just like to surprise…to also surprise ourselves. We ourselves were surprised during the shoot about what we are capable of, within a context.

Tobi: The frame was set of course, but a few things were still improvised. Like the scene with the butt slap. That just sort of came out…out of me…

Mod: (laugh)

Chris: …into him.

Tobi: …at that moment. Yeah it went into him very deep. But it within our plan we always had the option to do something, which can be seen in the video. It’s really funny for us is, we know what was planned.

Chris: The video is 100% us. That’s just cool. It’s also 100% authentic. That’s what we are like. And those who don’t like us, will also not like us otherwise, and they don’t have to like us. It just is like that. (laugh)

Mod: One has to live with that. 

Chris: Yeah.

 

[6:13]

Mod: Before one of you two leaves me now: do you have a favorite song on the new album? 

Chris: For me it changes every day. I think today it’s “Go To Hell” cause I’m a bit tired. And it’s a bit calmer. That’s my favorite song today.

Tobi: A strong one is “Kill it with Fire” as a favorite for me. We already played it live, and it’s a lot of fun for the drummer personally. Um, La Bomba I also like a lot. But it really does change. You listen to the songs…

Chris: Ah change. I’ll throw the die….six…six…

Mod: You shouldn’t play monopoly with Chris. He only rolls sixes. 

Chris: Okay, Chris will leave now, Class will come. Um, to the microphone, that is. 

Tobi: Into the microphone. 

Mod: We will continue here. 

Tobi: Careful, clean it up.

 

[7:03]

Mod: And we greet a new voice at the microphone.

Class: Good day. Class Grenayde my name.

Mod: And since we just started the question, we’ll ask it again. Do you have a favorite song on the new album?

Class: …

Mod: Silent consideration.

Class: Into the Fire. But that also changes daily. Cause the songs grow with every hearing, even though I already heard them so often. All that sitting in the car, relaxed, listening to the whole thing many times, that does cause things to come out that you may not have perceived a lot before.

Mod: Did you also listen to it now while driving?

Class: No. We listened to the Kanguru-diaries or so.

Mod: (laugh)

Tobi: Revelation.

Class: It was a revelation, I’d say.

Tobi: The next album will be good again.

(all laugh)

Tobi: Let’s not talk about it.

 

[8:00]

Mod: You mentioned before, in a side comment, that you practiced your autographs.

Tobi: Yeah, that’s right, exactly. 

Mod: How many?

Tobi: How many versions, or how long I…? Well there were two or three different versions. In the USA I was faced with the challenge of having to write autographs. Wanting to, of course. That was mutual. There were two or three or four attempts. I had to train, cause I’m generally not a nice-writing and nice-drawing person, but now it works quite well.

Mod: Now you prefer to do it like this.

Class: That’s right, and you can see all that in the TV of the Lost Episode 136. We spared no efforts and expenses, and drove to the USA, because we figured this man will be inspired much better if we’re not in Hamburg. A signature lasts a lifetime, so you should make sure that you find yourself in it.

Tobi: Yep, I found myself there.

 

[9:05]

Mod: Okay. Speaking of the tour in the USA. That was shortly before the project where you in effect shot over your goal.

Class: Yeah, at the end of the world we fell over the edge.

(everyone laughs)

Mod: Like in Asterix and Obelix? Whoop!

Class: Nah, it was quite overwhelming what resonance and help we were overflown with from fans, friends and proponents. That’s how the whole thing came together. And it sort of carried itself. We will be forever grateful to the crowd of fans and friends. It was indescribable.

Tobi: The whole tour was also great. That we were together.  That we spent 18 days together, especially with my new entrance, that we had the time.. That was…gigantic.

Mod: In the 12000 kilometers you had enough time to…heheheh… concern yourself with everyone.

Tobi: Yeah, I got to engage with everyone.

Class: Exactly. And after 1000 kilometers he also kept asking if we were there yet.

Mod: (laugh) “Are we there yet”?

Tobi: It’s of course awesome to be able to pull off a crowd funding project like that. To get that sum together that was great…

Mod: Was it the first visit to the USA, generally?

Tobi: As a band, yes.

Class: Yes.

Mod: I also meant rather like…

Class:  one fifth yes. For four fifths it applies. 

 

[10:35]

Mod: I got a question from Facebook. Monika would like to know whether you still have a private self, or if you at some point stay in the role you play on the stage.

Class: Um…I regularly ask the cashier if the sound check has started yet, or if I can still search my wallet for coins, if I still have the time. Nah, kidding… We kind of have, I think, two personalities. I think on tour and backstage we are ourselves, the private self, of course in a certain job context. But as soon as we enter the stage, we do show a completely different side, which you can’t really unearth like that. All the demons and the aggressions and also the positive feelings you normally can’t release, you suddenly let out….

Mod: Onto the stage.

Class: they explode there virtually. But other than that, we pretty much are…almost the same old people. Apart from the fact that we of course also change and develop to a certain degree through this great job we have.

Mod: And of course on the stage you present yourself completely different.

Class: Yeah. Well of course you can see us at Penny’s (supermarket) in…not in underwear, as I was gonna say…

Tobi: we do wear underwear.

Class: You might meet me in normal blue jeans, or in the Spiderman costume, at Penny’s.

Mod: Oh, that was you in the spiderman costume!

Class: No!

(all laugh)

Tobi: Peter Parker.

Class: Peter. My friend Peter. No, that was me. I plead guilty. 

Mod: To the accusation. There, I think you need to roll the dice again.

Class: I’ll roll the dice. 

Tobi: I’ll leave now. Bye. I won’t come back. You shouldn’t miss that. 

Class: 3. But that’s me. That’s bad.

Mod: Yeah, you’re already here.

Class: That means I’ll roll again. 4. 

Gared: That’s me.

Class: Gerrit will come next. Bye Tobi.

 

[12:40]

Mod: That was Die Tomorrow. A request by Metmieze. She wrote “I have a Lolli-Request!” A lolli-wish. I just have to emphasize that again here. That was the song we just listened to here. And greetings to the boys.

Class: Greetings back.

Tobi: Best wishes.

Mod: and Sternchen asks: “Did actually only Bo and Class drive in America or the others as well? Cause in the TV-episode you only see the two of them drive. 

Class: Yeah, only Bo and I drove, cause…due to, well, it seemed practical. The insurance gets more expensive for more drivers. We had international driver’s licenses, etc. pp, and just happen to be the best drivers in the group…

Gared: That’s your opinion.

Class: …um, no one drives automatic cars as well as us. And, well, it just lent itself like that, and we were always a good driving team.

Mod: Does driving automatic cars get boring?

Class: No. Well, generally maybe yes. But there was so much to see, so many impressions to collect. Cause no matter what you see, it differs in some way from Germany or European streets, and cause we drove through so many climate zones and time zones, from east to west, it never got boring. Except maybe after 11 hours of driving at night at 3, when got back off the adrenaline kick from being stopped by the police and just wanted to go to bed. But yeah, he let us through. Germany first.

Gared: Cause he was half German. It was sort of collegiality.

Class: Yeah, thank you Mr. Baumgartner, from Police Department Ohio…ja…ja..Jackson city.

Gared: Thank you!

 

[14:33]

Mod: Lisa would like to know when you’re playing in Vectar.

Class: Vectar?

Mod: Or Vechta.

Chris from the back: Is that Lisa from Vechta?

Bo(?): Hello Lisa!

Chris?: I have/want your phone number!

Gared: That’s Lisa from Vechta, and I can tell you. Wednesday. Err tomorrow. Precisely tomorrow. Cool the beer already. We’ll be there then and escalate.

 

[14:55]

Mod: So much for me and pronunciation. We’ll also leave that.

Gared: That’s quite okay. I’m sure she’ll forgive you.

Class: Which planet is Vectar?

Mod: The one with the weird star shirts (???) But who cares.

 

[15:09]

Mod: TBH would like to know: how come the album was only released after the tour?

Gared: That was more or less a little experiment. That’s something that…I at least haven’t seen that often, to first only push the album on the internet a bit via teasers, so people would get a first impression, and other than that really only give them an impression of it live. Just to get them into the mood. But it was basically nothing more than a little experiment, just to test. Especially now that the songs are already known, through the tour, and is now given to people’s ears in polished CD-quality.

 

[15:55]

Mod: And Christina writes: Hey Lord of the Lost. First of all thank you for the great autograph session, it’s always great to meet you. My question is: would it be possible to play in a video of you?

Class: We already did that once, for “Sex on Legs”. That depends entirely on the video. If we need audience, actors, extras, dancers then we’ll surely announce it. 

Mod: So follow the Facebook page!

Gared: Well, that’s obvious.

Class: There are no concrete plans, but we’re not denying anything.

 

[16:31]

Mod: Since your current release rhythm is bringing out a new album every year, you are surely already working on the next album.  Does that sometimes confuse you, because you’re on tour with one album, and that’s out at the moment, and everyone’s asking stuff about it, and you’ve maybe already got the next one on your mind?

Gared: That already isn’t the case due to the fact that our credo is…apart from the song…that our credo is to not repeat anything, so every album’s basic idea and sound is always different, as far as possible, so it’s not possible to get them confused. The work on the new album actually already started way before the release of the current album.

Class: For now it’s even still new.

Gared: That’s right, it’s still new. For one week still. Nah. So they do overlap, but there’s no chance of confusion.

 

[17:36]

Mod: Do you have, on the current new album…(laugh)

Gared: Just right now?

Mod: (laugh) yeah…do you have a favorite song?

Gared: I have to concur with the boys. It does change quite strongly. But at the moment the burner for me is still La Bomba. It’s just the good-mood-bomb, literally. 

 

[17:58]

Mod: Yeah I think we already have to roll the dice again, right?

Class: I’ll roll!

Mod: That’s right, you have to roll.

Gared: It’s your turn. 

Class: (rolls) That’s the 2.

Gared: That’s Mr.Six!

Class: Bo Six!

Gared: He’s on his way already.

Class: Good bye.

Mod: Then we’ll continue here with a song from Mono Inc.

 

[18:12]

Mod: There, we’re back. 

Bo: Hello!

Mod: Looking at the microphone. You don’t normally look at that.

Gared: Why not? The audience is inside there, isn’t it?

Bo: Are you in there, hello?

Gared: Hello! Knock on it.

Bo: No, I don’t think that would be nice.

 

[18:34]

Mod: There, Mike he or she, I’m not sure, sorry. Anyway, Mike would like to know what memories you have of the Gothic Meets Classic in Leipzig. The DVD of this magical evening gave me goosebumps again.

Gared: Same for us.

Bo: Yeah, same for us. It was one of the most beautiful musical experiences for me, and I can probably speak for us all. It was just overwhelming. This huge hall is just crazy. And playing with this symphony orchestra. For me, and probably also for Gared, it was just a dream come true.

Gared: Absolutely!

Bo: It was just overwhelming. We’d love to do it again.

Gared: Also because some of us had a classical musical education during our childhood and teenage years, so it really was a childhood dream, if not THE childhood dream which came true. And that’s just…

Bo: (jokingly) That’s hard to top, you understand?

 

[19:43]

Mod: Caroline would like to know if during the autograph sessions you’re as nervous as the fans.

Bo: By now no longer nervous, but it’s just…we look forward to it.

Gared: It is luckily mostly a very relaxed atmosphere. We’ve had the luck that so far there was never, or very rarely…

(crashing noises in the background. All laugh)

Bo: Mr. Harms…

Mod: He’s vandalizing the studio.

Chris: I dropped my dildo. 

Bo: Reinsert it.

Mod: And it’s also made of wood.

Gared: To get back on topic: We do have the luck that the autograph sessions always go by very mannered and quiet, and no one is ever totally drunk, and it’s totally relaxed, so are we. Just as we usually go on stage relaxed. Excitement...only in the positive sense.

Bo: Pleasant anticipation.

Gared: Definitely not nervousness. Last time we were nervous was at the Gothic Meets Classic, to stay on that topic..

Bo: Yep!

Gared: There we really were excited. Before and after. 

 

[20:44]

Mod: Do you have a ritual you perform before you go on stage?

Bo: We get drunk like crazy. No…

Gared: In the end the ritual which keeps coming back anyway is the whole one-hour-long getting dressed and putting on makeup, on the neck and downward, which we always do. That is, first of all, what must be done, because we’re going onstage, and therefore that’s the ritual. Other people, like Rammstein, drink a shooter before they go on stage. We don’t.

Bo: Our ghetto-fist.

Gared: That’s right. A little fist-bump, for motivation, directly before we go onstage. But the make-up is a ritual too.

 

[21:24]

Mod: On the subject of makeup, there’s something that I wonder: Does the stuff also get smeared when it gets hot onstage?

Bo: Yep. Well, partly. (voice like in a commercial) But we use makeup by Kryolan. Ding! We get money when I say that. No, not at all. No, we do use stage makeup, and it’s made to be water resistant. It’s not completely resistant to our sweat, as you can see often, but, well, it smears. (whiny voice) These are the tears of passion and the tears that just burn…like crap! Shit! Oh, am I allowed to curse, yes? Shit! It burns so bad!

Mod: But I can imagine that the first time around that was definitely a strange experience.

Gared: Yes, definitely. We all had to…well, not get used to it…but it was a matter of practice, the whole makeup.

Bo: Now we just don’t sweat.

Gared: Every time, getting it to look so good, and still being able to play on stage with sweaty wet hands, smattered full of makeup. After all, things are a little dirty with us. 

Bo: We just practiced not sweating around the eyes. 

Gared: We had our sweat glands sealed by our family…surgeon…sealer…

Mod: The guy with the soldering iron.

Gared: That’s our guitar tech, Kristof. Hello Kristof, in case you’re listening!

Bo: Hi! Hello darling!

 

[22:48]

Mod: I’m afraid we’ll have to roll the dice again.

Gared: Yes, it’s my turn. That’s me, Gared…That’s the 1. Harms!

Chris: (unnecessarily formal) Would you please take over the chat?

Gared: Yes, I’ll take over the chat. In return, please put away the magazine and come to the microphone. And we’ll listen to music.

Mod: That’s right.

 

[23:07]

Mod: Subway to Sally, “Schwarze Seide”. You wished for that.

Chris: Yeah. To me it’s the album of the year. Unbelievable.

Mod: Aside from your own of course.

Chris: Yeah of course, your own album is always the most awesome. Otherwise we wouldn’t be doing it. Without any arrogance: if you don’t love what you do yourself, then you can’t convey it. Of course we’re proud and love our own music. But apart from that, as someone who always liked Subway to Sally but was never really a fan: with this album I really became a fan. 

 

[23:41]

Mod: When an album is created, -- you just said you also have to love it – do you also make compromises with one another, or does really everyone need to consider the song awesome for it to get onto the CD?

Bo: If it worked like that, La Bomba would never have been published. Yeah when La Bomba…when I heard La Bomba the first time, I thought “What crap, what’s that about?”

Chris: We have the very clear Credo: those who make compromises in the field of art produce mediocracy. That means, we have different functions, different powers of decision. Artistic decisions are mostly mine, but I listen to all the opinions and filter and try to get the best out of everything. There is always a bitter pill you have to swallow at one point, because no one finds everything equally cool. For La Bomba, I just knew that the track would only in the final version sound the way it did in my head. So I just pushed it through and said “Come on guys, we’re doing this now.” And then when it was finished, and everyone saw where the journey was going, it became one of our favorite songs, for all of us. 

Bo: Definitely.

Chris: Sometimes you have visions, you can’t realize it in a demo. Something so abstract. You can’t foretell it. You need to have it perfectly completed. And even Bo said -- beginning, he was the biggest doubter in the song-- And during the videoshoot he took me in his arms and said “Dude, what monster have you created?”

Bo: A transsexual monster.

(all laugh)

Chris: And that’s how it turns awesome. 

Mod: But before that you wanted to…

Bo: Yeah, before that I just felt it doesn’t fit. It didn’t sound “right” to me, in quote tags.

Chris: But I totally understood it.

Bo: Well I trust Chris completely, and I know that if he has an idea it has its justification. And as he already said: in music there is no correct or incorrect, so I figured I’d wait and see. And I took my time, but by now I really like to listen to it. I also like to play it.

 

[25:40]

Mod: Lotte would like to know how your album got the FSK-0 rating. 

Chris: The album doesn’t have the FSK-0 rating, the DVD does. The FSK-0 only refers to the DVD. In Germany you’re not allowed to publish a DVD without an FSK. And for an album that comes with a CD which you’re allowed to sell everywhere, it must have FSK-0. And since during the Gothic Meets Classic we’re not naked but dressed, the lyrics don’t contain the F-word, and also otherwise the content and show…

Bo: You mean “fuck”?

Chris: …Exactly… and because the show is okay, it got a 0. The album itself is “Explicit”. It doesn’t have…if there were an FSK for music, it would have FSK-16 or 18 depending on the country, but that’s only about the DVD.

 

[26:26]

Mod: By the way, what I also thought was very nice was how you were the supporting act for Blutengel. That was very sweet. Well two fifths supporting act.

Chris: Two fifths. Gerard and moi. Oui, it was pretty.

Mod: Yeah, that was quite nice. Now…

Chris: Nice is the little sister of shitty.

Mod: No! For god’s sake! I thought it was awesome!

Bo: Yes!

Chris: Not for god at all.

Mod: No! I’m talking myself into a corner here.

Bo: Ooh screwed up.

Chris: Yes.

Mod: I thought it was great!

 

[26:54]

Chris: Shall we roll?

Mod: I don’t know, do you want to roll already?

Chris: Nah…

Mod: I still have another question!

Chris: Oh of course, go on.

Mod: Alina wrote: “Hey guys. I was in Bochum and saw you live for the first time there and thought the concert was really awesome.”

Bo: Thanks!

Mod: “Thanks for that.”

Chris: Thanks!

Mod: “Now I’m wondering: Are you planning to ever play open air?”

Bo: Yes…

Chris: We do that every year! So this year, take a look at lordofthelost.de, look under “Dates” or on Facebook under “Veranstaltungen” or rather “Events” if you’ve set it to English, and there you’ll find everything. And this year we’re playing at 7 or 8 festivals, all open-air. Of those, 4 or 5 are already…

Bo: Published?

Chris: …published, a few will be added. So: Yeah, sure!

 

[27:30]

Mod: Do you have a favorite? Rather open air or rather club?

Bo: Nah, if it works…

Chris: Yeah you totally can’t compare them. If it’s awesome…if the spark catches…then it doesn’t matter. Whether it’s 3 people standing in the rain, or 3000 in a stadium, or something else, it doesn’t matter.

 

[27:46]

Mod: Katharina would like to know if it happens often that you’re not home on a birthday or an important anniversary.

Bo: Well on my next birthday I won’t be home again. On my last I wasn’t either.  And both birthdays I’m celebrating at the Rock Talk in Berlin.

Chris: But it is in fact the case that we’re all guys who don’t really care about that. Sure when at Christmas the family comes together and stuff…

(Bo pretends to cry)

Mod: (laugh) We’ll bring you a small birthday cupcake!

Chris: No seriously, of course we appreciate Christmas because of the family coming together. And Christmas in and of itself is of course something we as non-believing Christians totally don’t care about. As for birthdays, we don’t even give each other presents. We forget it sometimes. “It’s my birthday in five minutes” “Oh.” We don’t really see that like…you know we have this luxury to have a job where we can feel like it’s our birthday every day. So I it doesn’t count. I mean that in a very positive way.

Bo: You said that quite nicely. 

Chris: It’s true…

Bo: Yeah, sure!

Chris: I just want to….

Bo: (deliberately interrupting him again) But yeah really!

(all laugh)

(It’s hard to tell who said what in the next couple of lines)

Chris: Yes?

Bo: Nothing. 

Chris: Ah, moron. What is it?

Bo: Nothing…moron..!

 

[28:51]

Mod: (laugh) I think I’ll call the die roll!

Bo: (whispers) moron (a crack is heard) Ouch! Four. Who was four again?

Gared: Me!

Bo: Gerhard! You get to go on the radio too now!

(all laugh)

Gared: Gerhard, with emphasis on “hard”..!

Bo: See you later…

 

 

[29:07]

Mod: And that was Stone Thorn (???) with Gorn…oh god now I’m pronouncing that…

Chris: Lorraine (or something with rain???)

Mod: Thank you. I almost mispronounced it. Now, let’s talk more about the current album.

Gared: Oh no.

Chris: No way at all.

Gared: After all, it’s already passed. No one’s listening to it anymore. It’s already been out for so long.

Chris: It’s been out since yesterday after all.

Mod: Then let’s talk about the weather.

Gared: That was there yesterday too, so no.

Chris: No what do you want to know?

Mod: What I want to know?

Gared: Spring it on the table, bam!

Mod: Okay, I’ll spring it on the table. You have a guest musician on your new album. Two of them.

Chris: Yeah. Well theoretically more. It’s the album with the bonus CD, on which we’d have another 15 guest musicians. I guess you mean the normal…

Gared: …regular only version.

Chris: One of them will stick out, and that’s Douglas Blair from WASP. It sure was weird having someone so legendary on an album, with a guitar solo. And he even asked US if we want that.

Mod: Oh!

Chris: We never would have dared!

Gared: We would never have counted on that in our lives!

Mod: That’s quite awesome.

Gared: that someone from such authority would..

Chris: It’s a funny story. As you know we play the best guitars in the world.

Gared: Don’t interrupt me!

Chris: Well why don’t you just shut up. We as you know play the best guitars in the world, made by the best guitar builder of the world, who makes guitars for the best band in the world, namely Die Ärzte. He also makes guitars for us.

Gared: The second-best band in the world. 

Chris: Cyan…spelt like the color…Z-Y-..

Mod: With a C! 

Chris: C-Y-A-N. Cyan guitars. And Douglas Blair from WASP thought those guitars were awesome too. And he drove all the way to Finland to see a festival we played on, the Trash Fest, to see the guitars, as we played them. And after the show he came to our backliner Kristof and said “Can I take a guitar from Lord of the Lost into my hands?” And Kristof realized: “Ok the guy knows about Guitars, I can give him something..” and they sort of talked shop. Then I think he wrote to Bo a day later on Facebook and said “Hey guys, I checked your guitars and I love them. And I also play in a band.” and stuff. And Bo said “Oh really? Interesting. What band?” and he “It’s called WASP” and he “What the fuck?!”. And then he gave us the offer that he’d like to play for us. And of course we first said no. (all laugh) Then we let him tremble for two seconds, and then we said yes.

Gared: Actually we also wanted to ask how much money he would offer us but…we were doing quite well at the moment. 

Chris: He then offered one million himself. But it was too little….nah it was super awesome. Makes us very proud.

 

[31:33]

Mod: And you have a female guest singer. This time not from Blutengel.

Chris: No, it’s Nina Jiers from Neopera, a new metal band from Hamburg, who already appears on one of our live albums on the bonus CD on a track. We needed a bit of classical lala-singing for the track “Holy F…” (laughter) and um…

Gared: Fuck!

Chris: …the track is called “Holy F…”

Mod: You’re allowed to say it, go on.

Bo: Holy Fuck it’s huge!

Chris: And it’s great. It’s a track about child abuse in the Vatican, or to phrase it nicely: a love story between a priest and an altar boy.

Mod: We are not nice.

Gared: Very romantic.

Chris: Yeah…

Mod: You don’t have to be nice about that.

Chris: And there we have a chorus with Nina Jiers singing hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, and that’s very nice cause it makes the song extremely absurd.

 

[32:25]

Mod: Mm-hmm. And the second one, the special edition with the second CD which has a lot of remixes on it.

Chris: Remixes, cover versions, new interpretations, everything.

Gared: Some of it was completely put through the meat grinder..!

Chris: Subway to Sally, Letzte Instanz, Formalin, A Life divided….

Gared: Some of it by ourselves.

Chris: Sometimes we ourselves, sometimes people from our crew…what other bands… Caspar from Coppelius… Stahlmann…what else…

Mod: So, incredibly many.

Chris: Yeah, quite a lot. Kinda all of them.

Gared: Yeah. We just threw it out there and saw who…

Mod: I don’t want to say “Everyone was allowed to have a go” (laugh)

Chris: Yes. Like with Gared. Everyone had a go at him also.

(Mod laughs)

 

[33:09]

Gared: Err, at this point I would like to quote Marcel Reich-Ranicki.

Chris: I’m gonna be gone soon anyway, I’ll go ahead and roll already.

Gared: You can’t sleep with all the women in the world. BUT…

Chris and Gared: You have to aim for it!

Chris: 3, who’s that? That’s Class. Do you have another question before Class takes my place, finally?

Mod: Nah. We can also ask the next question afterwards. 

Gared: Then let’s hit it.

Chris: What are we listening to now?

Mod: Now we’re listening to Six Feet Underground.

Chris: Awesome!

Gared:  Ugh no…

Chris: That’s from Lord of the Lost, isn’t it? Stick it in.

Mod: I will.

Chris: Cheers!

 

[33:42]

Mod: There. That was the publicity break. You’ve survived it, and now we’re back. Now I’ll read something from the wish-greeting-system. 

Gared: Yeah!

Mod: And it’s Niklas. He writes “I would like to greet Lord of the Lost” He continues: “Continue as before! Each of your albums is totally awesome. I admire you for your varied music. Each album shows new aspects of your skills. Rock on!”

Gared: Thank you Niklas. Your vote will be counted. Nah, we will, thanks a lot, and greetings back.

Mod: And the Zwergdrache would like to know if you’re going to Metallica in Hamburg.

Class: Yeah, yeah! We’ll try.

Gared: We’ll try if it fits into our schedule and there’s somehow the possibility of the guest list. After all, it is quite slapdash…(has a tongue twist with the word “slapdash”)…

Mod: Quite fast in any case..

Gared: sold out quite fast. So it might get tight with tickets, but we’re trying…especially Bo, who is pretty much the biggest Metallica fan on this our…disc-shaped planet.

Class: I’ll see, I wanted to send a Whatsapp message to James anyway. Maybe I can get something out of it.

(all laugh)

Gared: Hey James, old dude! How’s the art?

 

[34:49]

Mod: Annika would like to know if there will ever be a poster of the lollies.

Class: what do you mean?

Gared: There are frequently posters. Especially during tours. You can also buy them in the Out Of Line store.

Class: Or on tour.

Gared: Or on tour. We’re not on one at the moment unfortunately but…

Class: They exist.

Gared: Time and again. In the current cast as well. 

Mod: Maybe you should consider these large pop standees.

Gared: Or dolls, with front and back entrance.

Class: We already did. But we’ll limit ourselves to cardboard. Yeah, that will probably come too. 

 

[35:15]

Mod: And um…one moment, I just skipped a line…a guest would like to know what brand your first guitars/basses were.

Class: Well, for me it was a Yamaha RBX160. Nature-colored. Nice instrument!

Bo: Gibson explorer.

Gared: Gibson explorer for Bo.

Chris: Explorer Gibson.

Gared: And the first one I got at age 15,16 to get to know the instrument better was also sort of a Yamaha-something 300 Euro combination with a little sound box, nothing big, just something to learn the instrument. Tobi?

Class: Yeah but, just quickly something about his guitar: in the video it was…

Gared: I smashed it in the Die Tomorrow video. I beat up all sorts of stuff. And I saw it as an occasion to smash my first guitar, which had already kicked the bucket in functional terms. It was a certain form of fulfillment. A closure of that chapter.

Mod: Do you still have a little piece of wood at home?

Gared: No. I think I almost got a splinter.

Class: Awww.

Gared: I wear the scar with pride.

Tobi: I think I should still say my first instrument. My first instrument was a Fender guitar. Leo built it for me. Signature. But…

Gared: Ding ding ding ding ding! But now of course we proudly play exclusively with Cyan guitars by Tom from Hamburg. Hello Tom! Ding ding ding ding…

 

[36:50]

Mod: Claudia would like to know if you’ll do an autograph session in Osnabrück.

Gared: Autograph session in the sense of…after the show, when we’re back? We’re planning to.

Class: So far nothing’s changing about that. If something should change about that in any form --cause we’re quite faithful to the whole going out and giving autographs-- we’d be sure to announce it. So that, if we don’t come out one time, the pain won’t be so great.

Gared: But we essentially come out after every show.

 

[37:22]

Mod: And Katharina would like to know if you still have contact to Any, Sebasta and the Pleasures.

Class: Sebasta? Sebasta…um, yeah. Maybe not as regularly as between the five of us, but sure. The last time we saw each other, almost all of us in any case, was in the Markthalle.

Gared: And we who are tattooed and pierced are after all more or less regulars in the “Oldest Tattoo Studio of Germany” which is located in Hamburg, and after all that’s where Sebsta works as a tattoo artist, and accordingly, you usually run into each other every so often when you want to get something scribbled on your skin.

 

[38:04]

Mod: (laugh) Referring to the Bild Interview I now of course also have to ask a question. And that is: how did the idea come up that the fans can call you at night?

Class: boredom in the tour bus, and…

Mod: That’s what happens if you have a good crew, huh?

Class: ..and creativity. We think: hey, how can we reasonably use the time for us and the fans. And after all it’s fun. It’s entertainment for the fans as well as for us. 

Gared: It was an attempt to get even closer to the fans, and get the fans even closer to us. Of course in a way to not penetrate our private lives. The idea was just fun, and had never done before, so we decided to try something new. 

Mod: That sounds hard-working.

Gared: Yeah. In the masses of maximum five-minute-chats with the Fandy (fan-handy, handy being the German word for “cellphone”), but easily 20-30 missed calls. That means the display constantly lights up cause there’s a new mailbox message etc. It doesn’t stand still.

Class: And it also bears unprecented fruit that we wouldn’t have expected. I think the third caller was a well-known Doug from Texas which we met on tour, who just rang and…

Mod: Asked “Hey guys, how’s it going”?

Class: Yeah and “Hey guys” and that was just overwhelming. This Fandy carries unforeseen fruit. Of a sweet nature.

Gared: Awww.

(Mod laughs)

Gared: A sweet aftertaste.

Mod: That brings us back to the Bild-Interview…

Class: Yeah.

Gared: What’s that supposed to mean now?

 

[39:46]

Mod: Yeah I think we need to roll again. 

Gared: Ah, that’s my job. I leave you temporarily. And it’s the 2. Who’s the two?

Bo: Ooooh!

Gared: Mr. Six!

Mod: Okay, we’ll be right back and in the meantime a song by Oomph.

 

[40:00]

Mod: There and here we continue. A lady asked a question concerning the earnings of CD sales. We’ll NOT talk about that subject. There.

Bo: Awww…

(Mod laughs)

 

[40:16]

Mod: Sternchen wrote: If we send the cards from the box to the autograph address, do you sign them? She hasn’t managed to get to any autograph session.

Bo: I’m thinking…the problem is, if you send it to our record label, our record label would have to send it to us. And, I don’t know, I don’t want to accuse our label of anything, but I don’t know if that wouldn’t be too big a risk that the things just disappear somewhere. 

Class: Or intention, bad intention.

Mod: So better go by with the cards after a concert.  

Bo: Exactly. Just be patient. Cause it’s nicer anyway to just see each other.

Class: I was just gonna say. It’s not like they go bad just cause our signature isn’t on them. And anyway, the goal should be to see us again.

Mod: At the very least…

Bo: You’ve got something black there from the Schaschlik.  grilled or fried meat skewer

Class: Oh, yes, that’s um, chicken teriyaki. Sorry. But yeah, let’s just meet again. Even if it takes a while. Maybe end of the year, next year, we’ll be sure to come to your city or near you.

 

[41:14]

Mod: And next, Guest would like to know if Bo has a motorcycle, and if yes what kind?

Bo: I have a dozen motorcycles. Nah..

Mod: (laugh) this size.

Bo: Yeah, tiny model motorcycles. No, I don’t have a motorcycle, unfortunately. But it’s all a question of time.

 

[41:30]

Mod: And then another guest writes in English: “Hello Lollies, well done on the new album. Can we get a hello for the UK fans? Love from Cathryn.”

Class: (very fake British accent) Hello bloody UK fahns… Motherfuckers from the UKay. Hoy. Greetings to you and thank you for listening…us.

(People laugh)

Class: Stay tuned we will come…some day we will come to rule over the UK.

Mod: At least it’s not as far away as America.

Class: Ya, that’s true. 

Bo: (more german accent) Dat’s true.

 

[42:01]

Mod: Another guest would like to know if you still remember your very first live performance.

Various lollies: yeah.

Class: You have to distinguish: with the band, or in general?

Mod: I’d suggest we just take both.

Class: Um, then I’ll just start. My first show was in my hometown Stade, Niedersachsen. A little youth club, like 25 guests. And my family was there too. That was quite fun. I was also quite excited. It was quite a good thing. And then it started, and I never stopped. And, Lord of the Lost, the concert was in the beginning of 2009, in the Zeppelin, at Schwerin, or in Schwerin. Where like two people fit on stage, and at that time we were I think 6. 

Bo: Five. I wasn’t there yet.

Class: that was exciting. But it was just great. Backstage we were still allowed to watch cinema. That’s forbidden now somehow. But it was just indescribable. It was an awesome moment. And yeah. Then it went on, forward with no doubt.

Bo: My first concert…was me alone. I learned the classical guitar. I’m not sure how old I was. 12 or so. I sat in front of a bunch of parents and teachers.

Mod: Grandmas and Grandpas?

Bo: Yeah. Grandmas and Grandpas, and um, I don’t even remember, I think I played something from Bach on the classical guitar. My first concert, yes, and I was very very nervous, and my guitar was out of tune. Which I didn’t notice. But the others did. 

Mod: (laugh) That’s very bad.

Bo: My teacher too unfortunately. 

Class: He was also out of tune.

Bo: No, he also noticed. He was nice enough to only tell me after the concert. The first concert with Lord of the Lost was in the Headbangers Ballroom, in December 2009. Very small, very intimate. And from then it…

Mod: Kept increasing.

Class: That was also the first day we sold Lord of the Lost T-shirts.

Mod: So two premiers at once.

Class: Sort of.

Bo: Back then I still had (dramatic voice) longer hair.

Mod: (laugh) But not with pigtails.

Bo: No, no. But I had a little lock. Sort of curly hair.

(they laugh)

Class: You can also see that in Credo…no, nonsense…Break Your Heart. I think exactly on that day, in the Ballroom Hamburg, we shot the Break Your Heart video you can see on YouTube. 

Bo: That’s right! I had totally forgotten.

Class: There you can also admire Bo’s lock.

Bo: Yeah. I haven’t seen that one in forever.

 

[44:55]

Mod: The next question is meant with a wink. The person writes: “Hello, every time my daughter sees a photo...”…err, no wait, I got it totally wrong. I need to ask that question later.

Bo: Aha..

Class: But now we’re all excited. But of course we’ll stay tuned and continue listening carefully, cause it’s still gonna get hot….I don’t know how old the daughter is…or cute..

(Mod laughs)

 

[45:20]

Mod: Then I’ve got another question, namely: what’s on in your CD-Players at the moment?

Class: Um, our current album. Normally I only listen to Spotify, so the CD-Player isn’t an option.

Bo: It is for me.

Class: But (something like “getting back to the question”). At the moment I often listen to Silverchair, Diorama. Masterwork.

Bo: For me I have to say of course our current album…nah..among other things. But the moment I’m totally into Alter Bridge, the last album, Forthless.

Class: Fortress.

Bo: Yeah, something like that. Forthless, Fortress….Four…minus two…less one.

Class: Wonderful album. I can also recommend it.

Mod: It’s always a thing with that TH.

Class: Especially cause there is none in there.

Bo: Yeah (laugh)

(They laugh)

 

[46:10]

Mod: Well, we have to roll the dice again.

Bo: Go on.

Class: Oh that’s a five. That’s our Tobias. Tobias, to the meat counter. Good luck, Tobias.

Mod: He’s cheering in the background. (laugh). And now here’s one from the current album, namely Afterlife.

 

[46:36]

Mod: And we’re back. Hello Tobi.

Tobi: Hello. I’m happy.

Mod: He’s grinning widely. 

Tobi: I’m happy to be here.

Mod: I’ve got something from Facebook. Carolina writes “Thank you for the great autograph session today. I was there with my blue-haired sister and I hope you remember.”

Tobi and Bo: Yeah.

Mod: “See you on September 13, have fun!”

Tobi and Bo: Cool, thank you!

 

[47:00]

Mod: Kati would like to know if you shared your cookies yesterday.

Bo: What cookies??

Tobi: Shit…

(they laugh)

Tobi: I ate a lot of them myself because they were really quite delicious. But I also…who ate from them?

Bo: Nah I did eat some of them. 

Tobi: Yeah I occasionally said “you can have another one”. We took them with us and we all ate them.

Mod: Shared brotherly, screwed over sisterly. 

Tobi: They were really good.

 

[47:30]

Mod: Lisa asks: “When will you play in Vechta?”

(They laugh)

Tobi: Tomorrow, Lisa, to-mor-row!

(Chris in the background): Lisa from Vechta!

Tobi: Lisa you gotta come to Hamburg. Lisa relax, goddammit.

(Mod laughs)

 

[47:46]

Mod: And another Lisa would like to know…well first she says “Hey guys, thanks for the show in München!”

Tobi: To-mor-row! Mealtime!

Mod: She’d like to know in what countries you’d like to play.

Tobi: In foreign countries.

(laugh)

Tobi: I’d like to do America again.

Bo: I’d like to go to Australia. Cause they’re so super relaxed there. No but Australians can rock, and it’s a nice place, so purely for selfish reasons. I was in Australia once and it was quite dreamy.

Mod: I find the Australians quite sympathetic, cause there you MUST sing live at least half the concert, otherwise you’re not allowed to appear as a live concert.

Tobi: I personally think that’s quite great…! 

Bo?: It’s always fun to see on which DVDs from bands, when they play in a Budokan or whatever, the first three concerts you see the fans standing there full of reverence, and at some point they totally go crazy. They are all wearing a suit or whatever -- I mean it’s not always like that, just the impression I got -- and then they totally go crazy, in their suits and their respectable clothing. I’d love to see what that would look like for us…could…would. I’d find that interesting.

 

[48:57]

Mod: And we continue with…you have many fans in Vechta. Michael writes “Greetings from me from Vechta too!”

Tobi: Thanks, see you tomorrow.

 

[49:08]

Mod: Sven writes: “You make a great mood live, power till the end. Lots of talent. Greetings from Sven from Lone.”

Tobi: Greetings back, Sven!

Bo: Lone is also near Vechta.

Mod: And the girlfriend of Sven is there too. She says she agrees with her better half, the concert in Hamburg was just awesome!

Tobi and Bo: Thank you!

 

[49:27]

Mod: Let’s see…another question..question, question, question?

Mod: Oh yes, a guest would like to know what is your favorite thing to eat.

Tobi: Eat? Meat.

Bo: Oh, that’s difficult. I basically eat everything. I guess you can interpret that any way you want, but yeah. I really eat pretty much everything, as long as it’s delicious.

Tobi: Pizza..

Mod: French fries.

Bo: Oh, Sushi! Sushi is awesome.

Mod: Sushi is delicious.

Tobi: Cows…water…

Mod: We could of course just continue….favorite color, favorite animal (laugh)

Bo: Exactly. Black! Black!

Bo: Elephant. It’s got a long trunk. It’s my role model.

(laughter. One of the guys laughs really loudly and does fake snorts. Gared I think? [50:17])

 

[50:20]

Mod: (laugh) gorgeous. When you newly entered the band, did you have to do an introductory challenge? Beat the guys at a drinking game or something?

Gared: (comically) DON’T tell!

Tobi: (sigh) Oh god the memory is coming back.

Bo: Does your butt still hurt?

Tobi: I have to concentrate for a moment….oh…

Bo: Don’t cry.

Tobi: No there was…no there was no real ritual, we just…

Mod: (laugh) The ice cubes are rattling.

Tobi: I have ice cubes in my drink, mya…

Bo: We did that in the USA.

Mod: At 12000 kilometers.

Bo: Played around in Las Vegas on 12000 kilometers (they laugh). Hung out, at the beach.

Tobi: LA…

(they laugh)

Tobi: No I’m just kidding. There was no big ritual. Cause it pretty much started right away. With a video shoot, tour, tour preparation, tour. Actually only now we have some time to do private things together. That’s good too. But it started immediately. 

Bo: During the night, when we told you “Yeah, we decided in favor”, you had to drive to us. At 2 at night or so? And then we had a drink.

Tobi: That’s right.

Bo: That was the test if he’s ready to do anything at any time and to drive back home drunk. No, of course he didn’t. Of course not.

 

[51:56]

Mod: did you know each other before?

Tobi: Yeah, I’ve known Chris since 2011. We did Harms und Kapelle together, we did a few studio productions together…(Mod laughs)…Bo keeps drinking when I’m talking!

Bo: Wluuu..whisky?

Tobi: Through that, Chris and I already have a working relationship for quite some time, and a friendship. Then I met all the other guys, and we all know each other already 2 or 3 years, were drinking buddies, I trained with Class often..

Mod: (laugh) trained?

Tobi: …as friends…yeah, at the gym.

Mod: Oh I see (laugh) I thought drinking.

Tobi: So, a friendship was there already. That was no issue. Then the USA was more or less a final test if we can stand being together for 18 days, but that was no problem either. We already know each other for a very very long time.

Bo: Too long.

(laughter)

Tobi: So that was good.

Bo: And with us today for the last time…

Tobi: best wishes.

 

[53:03]

Mod: Sandra writes: “You’re just the most awesome band I know and the new album is totally great. I greet you thoroughly and hope to see you again in July.”

Tobi: See you in July!

Bo: See you in July!

Tobi: Best wishes!

 

[53:16]

Mod: And another guest asks if there are children photos of you.

Tobi: Yeah of course. I was a child once too. And my parents even took photos of me.

Mod: You weren’t born this big?

Tobi: Yes, just as a kid. I was a big baby.

Bo: Maybe we’ll show that at some point. Let it be a surprise. 

Mod: Would fit for the anniversary. (laugh) Okay enough of that. We continue with music, that means we need to roll the dice first. They’re being rolled…

Bo: Oh, the 1!

Chris: Why, that’s me!

Bo: Quelle surprise! Au Revoir!

Mod: And next I have a wish: Alter Bridge,  “Addicted to Pain”…

 

[54:08]

Mod: we just had a loud “silence!” going through the room..

Chris: (rough voice) Heyyyy, we’re back!

Mod: Chris, since I have you sitting here…

Chris: Yes?

Mod: I heard you are also, or at least did at one point, work as a lecturer.

Chris: Yes, I do…

Mod: Do you still do that?

Chris: I have been teaching for some time here and there, and especially a lot at a private university called SAE-Institute, -- it’s worldwide in the educational area “Media” -- and I work there mostly in the audio area. I actually also teach a bit in the film area and the cross-media area. And one kind of fertilizes the other. Being a frontman helps me be a good lecturer and the other way around.

Mod: And all proper with a suit?

Chris: No! Nonsense. And there I teach future sound technicians, future song writers, music producers, musicians. They all look like us. I stand there as tattooed as I am, and sometimes even with eye pencil in my face. I can be as I like there, I don’t work IN the SAE, I work FOR the SAE, as a freelancing lecturer, and am booked there as Chris Harms, and am allowed to be who I am there. Otherwise I wouldn’t want to do it. 

 

[55:29]

Mod: And we have new fan questions, namely: what was the most suspect fan present ever. Apart from the undies.

Chris: The most suspect fan present, …we can’t even say that. We already got really….really…well let’s stick with the undies, that’s quite…when they fly onto the stage…some of them are used, and some of them have been used for a long time. And um, it’s not problematic if you just smell, if you test carefully, it’s more problematic if you can see it. And, respect! What’s going on down there, amazing! But we don’t always want to know everything. After all, we’re not in it. 

(the guys laugh loudly)

Mod: Thank goodness. But that leads us to Japan: there you can get something like that from vending machines!

Tobi: You can?

Mod: Yeah.

Tobi: Used undies? Used ones??

Mod: (laugh) Yeah.

Tobi: Is it dated how long they were used? Between 10 hours, 20 hours…?

Mod: I haven’t seen such a vending machine myself yet. Just photos from friends. 

Chris: It’s for sniffing. In Russia it’s the tube with the Uhu-glue, there it’s the undies. Makes you stupid but happy.

Tobi: Every culture’s different.

Mod: Exactly.

Chris: Fuck me, that’s awesome. 

 

[56:48]

Mod: Lily wrote “hello everyone, great show. I think it’s really nice that all together are giving an interview. My question to the gentlemen in Lord of the Lost: Who decides what kind of merch will be sold?

Chris: Um, there’s many different things. Of course we get suggestions from the official side, i.e. label etc, but that happens rather rarely. Mainly we develop the ideas ourselves. Sometimes it’s me alone, sometimes an idea comes from a band member. And we’re all capable of working with Photoshop, we make a basic layout, give it to our graphics designers, and then we hand that in, and decide together with our label what to do. But really, 19 out of 20 articles are designed by us ourselves. It just gets finished by a graphic designer so it can be printed. It’s all us, the way we want it.

Mod: That’s nice.

 

[57:43]

Mod: And another fan would like to know if you’ll ever publish a vinyl record. 

Chris: We’d like to. But it is a fact…a lot of people can’t imagine that, but, it really is a fact, that publishing a vinyl record, in the amount that we’d have to publish, would be a financial loss for us. With all due respect for art, and sacrificing yourself for your own art, that’s nice, but you won’t be able to enjoy us for long if we become poor doing what we do. We aim to be able to make a living off it, not cause we’re lazy, but so that we can do this even more, and even better. In the end, we profit from that, and so do all of you. And to publish a vinyl right at this moment, that would just be retarded. We’d be losing 1000 Euros on it just so we can say “Boah are we awesome, we’ve got vinyl.” No point to that. Irrelevant of collector’s passions.

 

[58:32]

Mod: Oh, Vanessa asks which instrument you’d like to try out which you don’t play yet.

(Incomprehensible answer in the background. From Bo I think?)

Mod: (laugh) rocket doesn’t count. 

Tobi: I’d really like to be able to play the piano.

Gared: Forget it.

Tobi: Yes, it’s a really awesome instrument!

Mod: I’ll translate the off-comments. There’s a no, and a no…

Chris: Recently, Caspar from Coppelius showed me how to get a note out of the clarinette, I thought that was fascinating, but anyway I’ve always been fascinated by brass instruments of every kind, but I can only get unaesthetic farts out of it. I love the sound of the trombone, that brute, tinny, Wagner-like, Gustav Holst-like, late-romantic “Baaam!” Amazing. I’d love so much to be able to play the trombone really well. But I probably never will. But I love that instrument.

Mod: Now we need a camera. Tobias is looking all skeptic.

Chris: No I’m serious. I love distorted synthesizers, the really dirty ones. And if there’s one instrument --one of the real instruments-- that is capable of imitating that in some way, nay, to have been the inspiration for such sounds, it’s the trombone. And I love it. It sounds like a distorted bass. Only more brutal. Awesome.

 

[1:00:00]

Mod: Ina would like to know what your first thought is when you wake up in the morning.

Chris: Crap, what shall I do with the morning wood. 

(laughter)

Chris: Yeah, as Gared said before, what was the joke with the root and the unknown variable?

(Gared talking in the background)

Chris: I’m like a good mathematician. Every morning I take the root of an unknown (a pun which can also be interpreted as: “I pull my root (penis) out of an unknown woman”.

(Mod laughs)

Chris: (breathes in) Nah, to be completely serious: The first thought I have when I get up in the morning is…pfff

Mod: Where’s the snooze button?

Chris: No, it is in fact: “Did I get an important email, question mark? Check it.” Cause especially in times like now, where things are really on fire, I have a release day…It was yesterday, wasn’t it? Yesterday I’ve had to answer like 400 mails, cause all our business partners, everyone who has anything to do with us, had some issue. Especially in such hot periods, the first thought is “Office!” And often I will answer, inside the bed, for about 15 minutes the first most important emails, go shower, and then I take care of the rest. [TODO Was chris and Tobi]

Tobi: It’s similar for me. I have to answer so many emails, (Mod laughs) cause we don’t have someone with the administrative execution skills.

Chris: It’s noticeable already.

 

[1:01:23]

Bo: That’s right.

Chris: Boom boom chack, boom boom chack.

Tobias: Exactly, that’s usually my first thought: what can I practice today? Where’s the next gym? 

(laughter)

Mod: But in the car you didn’t train, right? When you travelled through America?

Tobias: No, that was three weeks of deprivation. That was really tough. I practice and train a lot, and that was a real deprivation. 

Chris: Tobi only trains so much, cause if he doesn’t get rid of all that energy, he’ll become even bigger and green. 

Tobias: Yeah, feels like it.

Chris: And he needs to vent that somewhere. And a person just can’t wank that much, so he does it by going to the gym.

Tobias: Yeah, that’s a simple explanation. You also find it on my blog.

(laughter)

Mod: Oh dear, the pictures in my mind. There, back to the question…

 

[1:02:15]

Mod: And I have quite a funny one. A friend of mine calls you the “Metal Take That”.

Chris: The what?

Mod: The Metal Take That (she’s got a big accent, making it sound like “Tek sat”)

Chris: Oh, “Take That”…

Tobias: Well then I’m Robbie…

Mod: And we gave you boy band names. So what do you think of all the fangirlies?

Tobias: Super!

Chris: You know, I always have a bit of a problem with fans judging each other. There is often this --I don’t mean to attack the question directly, I’ll just generalize it-- that you always hear things like “We are the real fans, and then there’s all these screaming girls, and these total groupies, and this and that.” We don’t distinguish between first- and second-class fans. We’re not talking about chicken eggs. Everyone who likes us is perfectly within their right to be entertained by us anyway they like. Even if they only like us cause they think Tobi has nice chest muscles, or they only like us cause they think I can sing nice, or, no idea, cause Class has such pretty long hair, or if they really like the music and the lyrics, we don’t care. And if someone expresses their joy by screaming loudly, by fainting, by listening devoutly and quietly. It completely doesn’t matter. And everyone should celebrate it the way they want. So we think the exact same thing about these “fangirlies” as about everyone else too. I’m grateful to everyone that we’re able to share this miracle we’re allowed to experience here with everyone. It sounds so brown-nosed and lofty and rehearsed, but I really --we all, I speak for us all-- wish to set that clear once. I don’t like it when one group of fans says about the others “Yeah, always those screamies” and stuff. Hey, we’re all doing this together, and together we are unbearable. (mod laughs) Period. Against the rest. Who all hate us. And if we start infighting because some are screaming and some are not, it’s just super-shitty.

 

[1:04:17]

Mod: I’m just remembering a story you once told where you entered a goth store with white sneakers or something and someone talked to you and asked what that was about.

Chris: That’s right. “Hey, are you wearing white trainers? Aren’t you Chris from Lord of the Lost?” “Yes” “Hey totally un-gothic, you’re wearing white shoes.” “Yeah, okay.” My god, that’s just the way it is. One guy takes the scene-thought seriously, the other doesn’t. Maybe I’m too old for that or something. But I never…we all never felt like we belonged to one crowd. We think it’s great that we play a role in this gothic scene, we like it, we like to dress and make up like that, but if the scene becomes more important than someone feeling comfortable in their shoes, pfff, so what. You just have to smile and wave a bit, it’s funny, whatever. But I don’t want to judge anyone, because if it’s really important to someone, that fashion goes before character, okay. Everyone lets something else fulfil them. As I said: if you expect tolerance, you must also give it to others. 

 

[1:05:15]

Mod: And we’ve got greetings from a French fan: “Hey, I’m a French LOTL fan and we are here. We’d love to have a little bonjour from the guys, please.”

Tobi: Bonjour!

Chris: Bonjourrch..commo esta…ah no wrong language.

Gared: Comment ça va (how are you)?

Chris: comme ci comme ça croissant… (like this like that croissant)

(laughter)

Bo: Baguette!

Chris: Cigarette, Jeanette.

Mod: Ok, they still need to practice their French. At least the language.

 

[1:05:41]

Mod: there, roll and then a song?

Chris: Yeah. Are we allowed to speak again immediately?

Mod: Yes, of course.

Chris: I’ll just stay here. We’re rolling me out. Cause I need to say something still. (breathes in)

Class: Two!

Chris: Aw.

Class: Bo.

 

[1:06:00]

Mod: We are back.

Bo: Hello!

Mod: I’ve got a lot of Facebook written here, namely…hm, where do we look? No, that one was answered already…that’s what you get for not scrolling to the right place.

Bo: Always these smoking breaks. 

Mod: In any case, Katherine writes “Hi, thanks in advance for the interview and the answer to my question. Keep it up and stay the way you are! You’ve already produced one awesome album. I have a question” but she will write it to you via PM, Chris.

Chris: Oh..!

Mod: Secrecy!

Bo: Boy, but that will take a while till he answers you.

Chris: I don’t have time for sex, so…

 

[1:06:38]

Mod: Jessie has a question: looking at the Sonic Seducer contest. One might know that from the past, when you recorded yourself on cassette or somewhere else, and for the most part it sounded crappy, at least to oneself. What’s that like for a professional singer, do you get used to that over time?

Chris: Self-perception, perception of other in general. I remember the first time I heard myself sing or speak on some video recordings I thought it was horrible. Cause in your head you of course hear yourself completely different, that’s a matter of getting used to. At some point you have to accept what you sound like, and learn to sing the way you are, and not just copy others, not just try to be as cool as singer XY, but experience your own voice at some point, and learn what you can and what you should do and what not. And that’s a process of getting used to, that took 2-3 years. Then I got along with myself. And since 3-4 years I also like myself, the way I sing, so that I can stand behind it emotionally.

 

[1:07:36]

Mod: And another guest asks if that’s really you in the Falco-Video.

Chris: Yeah, it’s me. The Falco Video to “Kissing in the Kremlin”. Falco has sadly left us. But during the early days of Lord of the Lost there was a cooperation between our label and the..”Falco-still-label” when he brought out the record, and they thought it would be funny to place me there. Cause Falco had the typical character traits of a Rock n’ Roller. And they asked me if I would…I mean I’m not actually playing Falco. But I kind of play that which Falco stood for… they asked if I wanted to do that, if I would dare. It was a great honor to me, to be allowed to slip into at least the emotional role of one like Falco, and I was happy to do it.

 

[1:08:30]

Mod: And another question, which I’ll reformulate a bit: If you now had a million euros on the table, what would you do?

Bo: Give away quite a lot of it fairly to family and friends who need it, invest a lot into the band. And just continue as before. I wouldn’t get all lazy and waste the money. I’d see how I can invest it productively. 

Chris: I’d invest a lot into building in the studio, and put a lot aside so that we can use it to finance complete promotion work Germany-wide, including complete posters for like 2 albums, to profit from the money in the long run, to invest it usefully.

 

[1:09:20]

Mod: On the subject of albums: If I see that correctly it’s very important that the fans especially buy the album in the first week.

Chris: Yeah. I wanted to say something about that later too. I can say it now. All the presales and the first week, including Thursday evening of the now starting week, is all counted together and then basically counts for the first sales week. With any luck, this will get us in the charts, and with even more luck, to a high position. One or the other of you might ask: “Why are the charts so important?” We work together with many media partners, with big companies who sponsor and support us, or support us with big discounts, in the area of technology etc. And all such large companies care about are numbers. We can’t say “We have the best fans of the world” or “Tobi is a great drummer”, or whatever; all that counts is what we’ve accomplished. And this chart position is basically worth money. And every place is worth money, and gives us a lasting chance to do what we do longer, with this support. So, those of you who would like to buy an album, be it a download or in the CD store, order it on amazon or elsewhere, then it would be really great if you don’t hesitate and buy it next Monday or whatever, but if possible until Thursday evening. It helps us, and therefore you, so you can enjoy us for a long time.

Mod: I don’t want any commerce comments now. (laughter) Or I’ll come out and hit the person.

Chris: Yeah, commerce…I mean of course we want to be commerce. You’re commerce if you’re selling something, and can live off it if we sell it. That’s commerce. And Alex from Eisbrecher once said: “A band can’t decide to be mainstream. If enough people buy it, it’s mainstream.” If we could make that decision and hit mainstream, wow, how easy would that be. It’s also about us staying the way we are. Exactly the discussion with the article from the Bild (German tabloid). “Whoa you’re adapting to the Bild” Where did we adapt? The album is rougher than all the others. The Bild adapted to US, it wrote about US, put our album the way it is into the Bild, printed my answers exactly. So did we adjust to the Bild or did they report on us the way we are? Wow. Commerce, silly discussion. We stay out of that.

Mod: That discussion is also a bit sucked dry, if I may comment that.

Chris: Yeah, sucking is hot, but not like that.

 

[1:11:57]

Mod: That kinda fits the comment. Another guest is asking if people are allowed to hug you on photos.

Bo: Certainly. Many people also do that. We like to hug. Bodily things are so important. Free Hugs!

 

[1:12:10]

Mod: There, now I also have a friendship question. Cathryn from UK is asking “Guys, if you were animals, what animals would you be?”

Bo: Ape..

Chris: A rain worm. Cause then if I split myself apart I’d have a friend.

Bo: Awwww, come into my arms, dear! Aww man, come on. It’ll be ok.

Mod: What’s rain worm in English?

Chris: Rain worm.

Bo: Worm.

Class: Don’t you know the game worms. Wuorms.

Chris: I wanna be a worm. 

 

[1:12:50]

Mod: Claudia writes: You’re the shit, keep it up. I’m looking forward to September when I’ll finally see you live. Greetings from Diepholz, which by the way is near Vechta.

Bo: Greetings to Vechta.

Chris: To that I’ll say, I learned it: Claudia, (audible wink) you are the shit.

 

[1:13:08]

Mod: And Jessica from Oldenburg also wants to thank you again for the great autograph session yesterday. It was very special to be able to meet you in St.Pauli, and thanks you kindly for the time you took.

Chris: gladly, gladly (snorts like a pig)

 

[1:13:25]

Mod: and I don’t know if this is a question one answers or not, but Guest asks if you have siblings.

Chris: Who?

Mod: Guest. Just guest.

Chris: One or the other of you surely has siblings somewhere.

Bo: yeah, we do.

Chris: Thanks.

 

[1:13:38]

Mod: And Bono writes…

Bo: Bono? Bono??

Chris: Wow, Bono.

Bo: Hey Bono. Big fan man!

Mod: (laugh) I don’t know how important this info is. “Many greetings to Lord of the Lost. Lost Area are breaking up. Will Matteo and Marengo go on tour with you again?”

Chris: Um….

Bo: Not ruled out.

Chris: Not ruled out, but not planned so far.

Bo: Marengo is even in Hamburg at the moment. And is sort of my guest.

Chris: But there are no plans. That’s neither a yes nor a no and also not a mysterious “ooooh” and then you get some information. We’ll see.

 

[1:14:17]

Mod: Are you allowed to pick your support bands yourself?

Bo: Yes.

Chris: Yes of course. That’s bottom line completely our decision. There are of course some factors that we have to pay attention to. We can’t just pick our favorite super underground band, but the point of a support band is on the one hand that the support band benefits from it, but so do we. So we fill the concert halls. That we don’t lose money. And we don’t want to lose money. There should at least be a black zero there. We of course take some consulting factors in our business, bla, seriously, but mainly it’s our decision.

Mod: So it won’t be Metallica anytime soon.

Bo: Sadly no!

Chris: Well the thing is just…

Bo: They also wouldn’t fit.

Chris: Well they already asked us a couple times, but we’re just a bit scared that people will then think Metallica is cooler than us. So we said no so far.

Bo: And they also don’t draw enough people out lately. 

Chris: No, no. If it isn’t in the 5-digits, it just doesn’t give me anything lately. 

Bo: I mean like, 50 thousand people, that’s just…

Chris: Fff, yeah…

Bo: …that’s just nothing for us anymore. 

(laughter)

 

[1:15:31]

Mod: I think it’s time to roll the dice.

Chris: Okay, I’ll roll myself out. Oh yeah, by the way, we’re gonna be here longer. We’ll be here till half past 10. Two. Bo, you wanna go double?

Bo: Yeah.

Mod: Do you have a split personality?

Bo: Um, no we don’t.

Mod: You don’t? But you should always have multiple.

Chris: We have the three!

Mod: Woo! There, now we’ll listen to Rob Zombie. That was even your wish, number three.

Class: Did you say Rock Zombie?

Mod: No!

Class: Rock Zombie. White zombie to be exact.

Mod: What?

Bo: White zombie?

Mod: No, more human than human!

Bo: Oh…yeah, ok. 

Chris: Now just push play!

 

[1:16:10]

Mod: There, that was…maybe you’ll just say the title.

Class: That was White Zombie, with “More human than human”.

Mod: and why did you choose that song?

Bo: Cause a woman moans at the beginning.

Class: Because it’s a timeless classic which was also instrumental for today’s industrial scene.

 

[1:16:33]

Mod: Now, Samantha asks “In an Episode of TV-LOTL you mentioned fanfiction stories. Do you read those regularly, or just occasionally, or regularly after all?”

Bo: I gotta admit, by now I don’t read them anymore at all. At the beginning I thought it was interesting. In the meantime we just have -as arrogant as it may sound- not enough time for that. You really have to read into it, cause the stories are so complex.

Class: for me it’s just too disturbing.

Bo: I think it’s funny when I hear something about it at a concert, about all the stuff that’s going on there. But yeah.

Class: Live and let live.

(silence for a second)

Mod: (laugh) everyone’s very quiet.

Bo: ??? You gotta write it down. What are you writing down? [1:17:19]

Mod: That renders redundant the question of whether you ever rated a fanfiction or something like that.

Class: Uh, no idea. After all, fanfiction is rather from fans for fans. And if a fanfiction wins recognition, then that’s “Ok, it’s good like that.” But, for us…we accept it like that.

Bo: For us it’s also way too close to reality. (Mod laughs) It’s very disturbing what the people guess. Unbelievable.

(laughter)

Mod: This is once again one of these half said sentences where you wonder: What is the artist trying to tell us?

Class: Nothing at all.

Bo: No, it’s so abstract. It’s…I always wonder “How do you think of such sick shit?!” without wanting to judge it negatively…

 

[1:18:17]

Mod: Speaking of reading: do you have time, or are you interested in reading a book sometime?

Bo: I can’t read.

Mod: Oh. That’s bad.

Class: I think it’s very interesting, but…maybe that’s also due to my bad learning skills or reading skills cause I’m just not training. I get too tired far too quickly. I can basically only read in summer outside in the garden when the sun’s in the sky at 12, when I’m completely awake. And then I can also read 2-3 hours. But if you mean the classical reading-in-bed, which is usually the only type you practice, I’m gone immediately. One page and my head lies in the book.

Mod: Well if you can’t fall asleep, then it’s…(laugh)

Class: Yeah that’s true. I just wanted to…no wait. Then maybe I should start again sometime.

(laughter)

 

[1:19:09]

Mod: Another fan wrote in Facebook that she thanks you a lot that you let the fans participate so much in Facebook in your lives. How much time do you spend per day on average in Facebook?

Class: It varies. There are peak hours. I don’t know if Gared already mentioned that. Um depending on what there is to do, you sit down a few times a day. You keep skimming it, but for half an hour a day you make a point of sitting there and answering everything, share various things that want to be shared or have to be shared. Cause, Facebook is a great platform, but you get lost in it far too quickly. So you also have to set limits, like saying “There, I was at it for half an hour now. I don’t have to look at all the news, even though it’s very tempting to do so sometimes.”

Bo: It’s just like Youtube. You think “Oh, that video” and then the next one, and in the little preview the next one. And then you laugh your head off about this cute little cat who does I-don’t-know-what, and then you check the clock and think “Oh shit, two hours have passed. That went fast.”

Class: Facebook is great, but with the needed detachment.

Chris: Like Porn.

Class: Porn dulls you too. You should never watch porn more than once a day.

(laughter)

Mod: But there’s this nice saying: “why was the internet born?”

Class: Yeah, to watch porn.

Bo: Uh, thanks, internet. For getting me through puberty.

Class: Leave Facebook, watch porn.

 

[1:20:49]

Mod: Now, let’s finally listen to another song from your new album, namely Odium.

Class: That’s right.

Bo: Yeah.

Mod: Would you like to tell me something about the song? Is there something worth telling about it?

Class: Yeah it totally goes…forward.

Mod: And it has a length of 3:53, great.

Class & Bo: Yeah, yeah…

Bo: No, it really is smack in your face. I look forward to performing it live someday.

Class: And we will. You can’t stop us.

Bo: Ha, maybe tomorrow! But then you won’t be here, hahaha! 

Mod: In Vvvechta.

Bo: I’ll roll.

Mod: That’s right, roll the dice.

Bo: The three!

Class: That doesn’t work.

Bo: Why not?

Class:  Cause I’m the three.

Bo: Oh, you’re the 3. (rolls again) The five. 

Someone in the background: The five is completely off-limits.

Bo: Tobias, please come to the cheese counter. Tobias, to the cheese counter.

Class: but I don’t have any cheese feet.

Bo: Bye.

 

[1:21:41]

Mod: The drummer has pointed out that the guitar fades out for quite a long time.

Class: Which is the case. Well, it’s correct.

Mod: We’ll let it fade out. Well we did.

Tobi: We did.

Class: We respect the art.

Mod: That’s right. On the subject of art: so far, well whatever. In addition to your new album you also released a new website.

Class: A new internet platform, if you like. Lordofthelost.de, as a relaunch, completely new, fascinating, and all-encompassing.

Tobi: filtered.

(Weird electronic noise in the background, from some toy..)

Chris: Sorry.

Tobi: Chris just playing around with a toy. And isn’t stopping.

Mod: (laugh) there’s a switch at the bottom.

Chris: Sorry. I found el Wall-E. I’ll put it away.

Tobi: On the website you find all the news. We set it up to date all the time. All the links to our social media platforms, all the dates when we play, everything we publish; videos, TV-of-the-lost-episodes. Everything which may be too tedious for some people on Facebook, or who have no Facebook. They’ll find all the information there…which we want to publish.

Mod: (laugh) nice.

 

[1:22:52]

Mod: Another fan question is if it annoys you if you are constantly linked on Facebook.

Class: I think the problem isn’t so much on our side –cause we can just sort of accept it and skim over it often if the flood is too big—um, it just has a positive effect, and maybe a bland aftertaste for some, it’s good viral marketing, it spreads cause a lot of people see it, cause friends have friends and the friends-of-friends then see it too.

Mod: At least we hope they have friends.

Class: Of course people see it who get the feeling they are seeing too much of us, or who feel like they don’t always need to see the newest album linked for the 100th time, but you have to stand above it. That always passes. Of course there are always peak times, but normally the net isn’t overflooded. But the one or two days of an album release: just take a deep breath and go through it. Or if it gets too much just sit in the sun, if you’ve had too much Lord of the Lost, or take a bath if it gets cold that can’t harm either. Or watch a movie.

Mod: you can also take a cold bath if it’s warm outside. 

Class: There’s no point really in getting annoyed about something like that. Cause…

Tobi: there are much worse things.

Class: Since Facebook exists we know, which Bob and Bill like which Pizza, and seen like that this is really no further…impulse, no, what’s it called? Stone of impulse? Who cares…

Person in background: Yeah!

Class: Exactly. That’s it or it’s not.

Mod: Exactly. Now I lost my trail of thought…Film, exactly.

 

[1:24:33]

Mod: What was the last movie you watched?

Someone in back: Spiderman (?)

Class: No, I saw Godzilla, Thursday.

Mod: Well?

Class: I knew what to expect, and my expectations were met. Cause, well, New York is smashed.

Mod: I thought it takes place in Japan.

Class: That too. But…well…doesn’t matter. In any case, Godzilla shows up, lots of stuff breaks. Godzilla also gained weight again, as he did back then, i.e. he’s completely healthy, and all is great. 

Mod: And you?

Tobi: I last watched Shutter Island, with Leonardo DiCaprio.

Mod: Wooo, girls stuff.

Tobi: Yeah. But great movie and great actor.

Mod: As long as you don’t watch that shark movie with him. I thought that was totally horrible.

Tobi: shark movie? With Leonardo?

Mod: Yeah, it was called beach or something.

Tobi: That might have been Biedermann: “Haifischalarm auf Mallorca” (Shark alarm on Mallorca, a German movie)

(Laughter)

Tobi: Nah I actually thought it was really cool. I was 13. I thought Jeanette Biedermann was great.

Class: But she’s totally “bieder” (respectable), man!

Mod: (laugh) fortunately we’ve all gotten older.

Tobi: Yeah, I still like her.

(Mod laughs)

Tobi: Jeanette, call me!

Class: by now it’s actually worth it.

Tobi: I don’t get it.

(laugher)

 

[1:25:48]

Mod: and the question to you Tobias, by a fan: how do you even get around to sleeping, when you’re at the gym so often?

(laughter)

Tobi: I don’t sleep that much, that’s true.

Person in background: Sleep faster.

Tobi: Sleep faster. I have to divide my time.  Sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less. I also don’t train every day, but three or four times a week. In addition to that there’s the job, a lot of practice, and then I spend a lot of time at fitness school, which I sometimes publish. Hm, I used a foreign word. (Mod laughs). And well, I do find enough time.

 

[1:26:24]

Mod: And another guest asked if there will be more The Pleasures covers.

Class: What do you mean “more” The Pleasures covers? People who cover The Pleasures?

Mod: I don’t know what he means by “more”.

Tobi: We don’t have that planned right now.

Class: I don’t think we’ll cover the band The Pleasures, and we’re also not planning it in the distant future. Great songs, but it’s not planned.

 

[1:26:52]

Mod: Then I also have a lot of, well, praises.

Class: Oh thank you!

Mod: Some girl (?) for example says: “I wanted to thank you for the autograph session in St.Pauli, and for various laughing attacks. It was fun. Keep it up”.

Class: Thanks a lot!

Mod: And Kitty also thanks you kindly for the photos that you made with her at the hometown concert. She was so excited she forgot to thank you.

Class: Aww. Uh, thanks.

Tobi: Welcome!

Class: And best wishes!

Mod: And also from Katze Comes a “Best wishes. Keep it up”…I could continue.

Class: Well we can’t do anything else. Of course we’ll keep it up. As long as you guys are there supporting us, coming to our concerts, buy our stuff, preferably also wear our T-shirts…

Mod: and wear it in the subway?

Class: in the subway?

Mod: In the train or the subway.

Class: Oh I see. Yes, please wear our shirts in the train. But also in the subway. In the Deutsche Bahn (German railway) as well as Lufthansa (airline) Lord of the Lost T-shirts are happily seen.

 

[1:27:56]

Mod: And another fan question: are you still excited before concerts?

Tobi: I am a little, yeah. 15-20 minutes before, I’m very tense, but not totally nervous. I’m sure of myself, but still a little tense. And I have my rituals, things which I issue, and they get a bit excessive…expressive.

Mod: (laugh) We could ask ourselves again: what is the artist trying to tell us with that?

Tobi: Well I’ll leave it at that. But I am more tense than the others. 

Class: Yeah. But generally there’s a good form of concentration in the band, and rather happy anticipation. I.e. we know that super awesome people await us. And it keeps happening more frequently and stronger and louder that when we enter the stage there are already screams and cries, already clapping during the intro. Even our songs which are played before the concert, our new album, are…frenetically?...sung along.

Tobi: Is that a question?

Class: Well I don’t know if the word “frenetic” is right, but I’m quite sure it’s the right word.

Tobi: “a lot”. “sung a lot”.

Class: Yeah. And it’s an unbelievable motivation. It brings us ahead so strongly. So, it’s unbelievable. But at the same time we’re focused, concentrating and full of happy anticipation.

 

[1:29:27]

Mod: And now we roll the dice full of happy anticipation.

Class: the 2. That’s Mr.Bo. Six.

Bo: Well the die is on an edge.

Class: Is it still tipping? No, wait… Now it fell off the edge onto the floor. That’s Mr. Dirge.

Gared: (triumphantly) Ha!

Mod: That’s right. And now we first listen to a song by Solar Fake.

 

[1:29:52]

Mod: Solar Fake: “Under the Skies”. And a new guest has a very important phonetic question, namely: is it actually pronounced “Ga-red”, or “Karred” or “DSha-red”?

Gared: Well it varies between Sharred, Gehr-hard, Gerda, uh (French accent) Gerard…

Tobi: Gerald.

Gared: It’s confusing cause it’s spelt with G, causing most people to assume it’s “Garret” (like G for goat). I, on the other hand, tend to use “Dsha-red”. But do as you please.

 

[1:30:26]

Mod: And the question of Bo1-5..hmm…: Could Gared and Bo sing a duet sometime in a TVOTL-Episode?

Gared: Um…

Bo: (singing) Yeees!

Gared: Well we could, the question is if we CAN sing. That’s probably the bigger question. I think with a lot of alcohol we can also do it.

 

[1:30:48]

Mod: Is there a music style you don’t like at all?

Gared: Reggae.

Tobi: Yes. I totally agree.

Gared: I don’t go off on the sound. I think we all agree.

Bo: No.

Gared: No? Hippy. Bo likes Reggae.

Someone: Free Jazz!

Mod: With flowers in the hair. 

Tobi: well Free Jazz is also quite far up on the horrible-scale.

 

[1:31:10]

Mod: Now then, let’s see, what do we have: Sternchen says “Thanks for the great evening, answering my question, and my song wish. You guys are just brilliant. Keep it up.”

Gared: Can I also wish for a “penis” (sounds similar to “song”)? (laugh)

Mod: You can also wish for a song, but you have to talk in the meantime, so that I have time to search for it. 

Gared: Well I’ll think about it. I actually only did it for the pun.

Mod: then I’ll go back, away from the keyboard.

Gared: Maybe I’ll think of one.

Mod: I can have a look and read some more.

 

[1:31:37]

Mod: Another guest writes: “You’re all great. Specially to Gared…sorry, that was weird…

Gared: It’s an honor.

Mod: …respect for what you’ve accomplished, not just that you’re a piano-god, you also mastered the other instruments so great. And you guys definitively are my role models. 

Gared: Oh. We do our best, thank you. Even though we are sometimes quite stupid, but it’s nice we’re still your role models. We welcome stuff like that. More idiocy for the world.

 

[1:32:04]

Mod: And Julia calls you a One-man-band!

Gared: Me? One-man-band?

Chris: Better than one-night-stand. And better than One Hit Wonder I’d say.  When you only have one song in the chart show / hit parade. 

Gared: Or Wonderwoman. Whatever. 

Class: Soon he will also be seen in the Mönckebergstrasse (a central street in Hamburg).

Gared: That’s right. I’ll just soon do a solo project, cause Lord of the Lost just isn’t giving me anything anymore. 

Chris: Great. You’re not giving us anything anymore either.

Gared: I’m just the fluffer.

(Mod laughs)

Tobi: Theeere ladies and gentlemen…the bar is sinking. 

Gared: Unlike Mr.Harms. He can’t do that. (a pun cause sinking and singing sounds similar)

Tobi: I don’t understand that now.

Gared: Greetings to our dear friend Stefan Raab (german TV moderator) whom we’ve never met before. 

Various Lollies: Theeere!....Theeeere!

Tobi: Now what’s next on the program? What’s the next question?

Gared: We don’t wanna miss that.

Mod: I see I need jingle-buttons.

 

[1:33:06]

Mod: Well, what should I say. I have another requested song here and then we roll.

Gared: So, you need to roll yourself out, no, I need to roll you out.

Mod: Actually he rolls himself out. 

Gared: Go ahead and roll yourself out..and stuff.

Mod: Cheeky grin. I’ll translate that.

Tobi: Okay I’ll roll now. 

Mod: Concentration.

Tobi: Performed with a calm hand. Oh, a one.

Chris: Who’s that?

Tobi: Not Chris Harms.

Mod: There. So after the next song, there will be another small block, and then it’s time for us to say good bye. 

(someone pretends to cry)

Tobi: Bye!

 

[1:33:44]

Mod: That was Slipknot with “Snuff”, the wish of one of the listeners, and I think Chris would like to tell you something now. 

Chris: Yeah I’d like to, as they say, for my own benefit: We’ll be on tour again in Fall. And of course we’d like to see you all there. You’ll find the dates on Facebook under “Events”, or on our completely new website: lordofthelost.de under “dates”. There you’ll see them all. I think with 12 dates we cover the republic pretty well, plus, as said, one concert each in Austria and Switzerland. For all those who will be at the WGT (Wave Gothik Treffen) we have a small special. There really is one official release party to the album, where we’ll all be present. All of it takes place…will you stop coughing you asshole?...at the WGT, the WGT-Sunday, Whitsunday on June 8 in the Darkflower from 15:00 till 20:00 (i.e. 3pm-8pm).

Mod: Early hour.

Chris: Yeah cause in the evening people wanna see all the big bands. So 15-20 o’clock. The entrance is free. Come early. The Darkflower is small. We’ll play some music, play some games with you, don’t know, play guitar hero against each other, give autographs, photos, just have a nice day with you, toast to the album..

Gared: (a word that sounds similar to toast but means eruct)

Mod: Cough

Chris: …ram in (also sounds similar to toast)…well yeah.

Gared: Repel (another similar word)

Chris: Yeah, everything that has to do with ramming will happen there. We’re looking forward to it a lot. I’ll play DJ in the evening. In the night towards 2 o’clock, together with Dero from Oomph and Henke from Henke (laughter) and well…the guys will of course also be there, and party wildly while I play DJ, cause of course they know who is the most awesome D.J.: Dero from Oomph. (Mod laughs) Visit us on our Facebook page. We’re just a small band. We appreciate every “like”, and um, that’s one button…push…click…mouse press (laughter) whatever. Just press on something. And in the end I’d like to send greetings to Erwin Meier (???) 

Tobi?: best wishes!

Gared: And I greet everyone who knows me. And Aunt Erika.

Mod: (laugh) Well I would suggest we say good bye after the next song.

Chris: Oh yeah that’s right, one more song. It can’t be left out. It’s the unavoidable one: La Bomba.

 (Laughter)

Mod: Well if this continues, I still have questions from the fans.

Chris: Yeah, three more questions. The night is young.

 

[1:36:32]

Mod: Okay: what’s your favourite bar in Hamburg?

Gared?: The Lunacy, for me. If we’re really talking about bars.

Chris: For me it’s Gretel & Alfons.

Gared: Oh yeah, that’s way up front too.

 

[1:36:43]

Mod: (laugh) Ok. What do you not like at concerts at all?

Gared: At the risk of making enemies now…

Chris: Farting in the first row.

Gared: That’s right. No, at the risk of making enemies: while I do appreciate a certain resonance via photos, and more or less half-heartedly qualitative cellphone-videos, but to watch an entire concert through a like screen on the camera or the cellphone, I’d personally consider that rather deducing from the concert experience. 

Chris: It’s also a no-go to photograph with flash. Cause we put thought into the light show, and every flash disrupts the light show. The photo looks crap. And people complain that we use so much mist, cause then the photo looks crap. Um, and it disturbs the light show. And it’s annoying when it happens at the wrong moments. Imagine a nice ballad, take the guitar out and then suddenly th-th-th! A storm of flashes. We consider flash photography absolutely unsexy. Cause the product is crap and interrupts the show.

Gared: But we’re not one of those bands who are categorically against photographing.

Chris: No! you can make as many photos as you want, front to back, every song. But flash is stupid. 

Gared: Flash is stupid, and to watch the concert through the cellphone. That just can’t be nice for you. And I have to say it’s also not nice for the people standing behind you.

Mod: Definitely not. Especially if the people are as big as me, 1.60m.

Gared: And of course we don’t want that either. 

Mod: And one thing which the fans might want to practice is that they don’t speed up while clapping.

Gared: Audiences….audiences? (searches for the german plural)

Mod: (inputs a more high-brow option)

Gared: audiences have been trying that for two centuries and it never got better. So I think they won’t manage it.

Chris: Well they do manage “one applause” (claps once) at the right speed. 

Gared: But not at the same time.

Chris: but not at the same time.

Gared: but I mean, it actually is an indicator for a good mood if it keeps getting faster. As long as we don’t allow ourselves to be infected by it. 

(someone hyperventilates)

Gared: At some point we’ll do “See You Soon” in double time.

Chris: You can do that on your own.

 

[1:38:43]

Mod: Last question: we’re back with phonetics: how do you pronounce your last name?

Gared: Dirge.

Mod: Ok.

Gared: Dir-JAH! James Hetfield would say Dir-JAH!

Chris: The question is stupid.

Mod: The question is stupid?

Chris: Yeah cause…

Gared: Cause it’s the last question?

Chris: It’s so Gared-specific. That makes me feel –after all I’m the lead singer—it makes me feel totally…my ego can’t take that.

Gared: I was gonna say, you’ve got such a small ego: two meters.

Chris: (laugh) I totally can’t deal with it.

Tobi?: Well then, question to you, dear Chris: Which question would you like to hear as a last question?

Gared: Do you have any last words to the fans? 

Tobi: On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you like yourself?

Chris: Let’s do it like this…11..: Ask some more questions. I’ll decide which one is the last one.

Mod: (laugh) Shall I look?

Chris: yeah, look.

Mod: …if we have some more fan questions.

Chris: We don’t have any fans, so we don’t have any questions, or what?

 

[1:39:34]

Mod: Let’s see…we already had the one with the groupies…

Chris: Really? 

Mod: Yes! How you like the fans. The groupies, the fangirlies, etc. 

Chris: Oh careful! Groupies and fans. You really do need to categorize that. 

Mod: Okay. 

Chris: A fan is a fanatic. Someone who fanatically celebrates a band. And listens. Who is not involved. Neither haptically nor…

Someone in background: practically.

Chris: …practically. But only emotionally. And a groupie is defined by sexual services in some way.

Mod: Okaaay…

Gared: financial support when you consider only the groupies from the 80s or the 70s[1:40:10]

Chris: for example. It involves someone more strongly. So if someone is called a groupie, you have to assume that they in some way…

Gared: Had sex.

Chris: …saw more of the band than…

Gared: …others.

(Mod laughs)

Chris: There are two types of bands. Those who have sex with groupies, and those who don’t admit it. And we’re part of the second group. 

Gared: I’m also part of the third group.

Chris: And that was also the last question.

Gared: You can end it like that. By the way, my last name is pronounced Dirge.

(laughter)

Chris: With us today for the last time: Gared Dirge. Here’s La Bomba for you.

 

[1:40:51]

Mod: Lord of the Lost.

Class?: it’s our birthday ???

Mod: I wanted to make a cool moderation.

Tobi?: We say “dude”.

Bo: Let the lady do her moderation.

Mod: That was “La Bomba” from the current Lord of the Lost album. You heard it: buy the album before Thursday. Visit the tour at the end of the year, and other than that, like them on facebook, and whatever else you can think about. And we’ll repeat the show the following Wednesday from 20:00 o’clock. Note the date, or give it to your friends, whatever, as long as you pass it on: next Wednesday starting 20:00 o’clock. 

Gared:  Bye. I’ll be there.

Chris: Love the best, fuck the rest.

Gared: fist the rest. 

Various Lollies: Bye!

Chris: Thanks for tuning in! And thanks for the interview.

Class: Till Thursday err Wednesday!

Mod: it was fun.

Bo: We’ll be back. Stay tuned, on UR Radio. 

Mod: You heard it.

Class: You’re watching…(various other comments by others) You’re watching UR…we are Lord of the Lost, and you’re watching UR…(seems he made some mistake)

(laughter)

Class: We are –fuck you!—I mean my band should fuck themselves, and…

Bo: Love you, bye!

Mod: I would also like to kindly thank the boys. I wish you a nice evening, get to bed well later, nice dreams, and take care of yourselves.

 

 

Translation: Manuela Lütolf

Proofreading: Natalie Willum