(Before the interview starts)

Camera guy: Don’t get startled; im going to clap two times now.

Gared: Ah! God, I’m scared.

Nik: Crazy.  I’ve already heard that today.

Camera guy: ……Jesus…….magic………

Nik: *Laughs*

Camera guy: Okay, the next time 5 seconds pause, don’t start right at the clapping, that always seems really weird if people *makes hectic noise* instantly start; right, so... *claps*

Chris: Well, I’m Chris, of…

*Laughter*

Camera guy: Good, you may, folks.

Pi: Hm? I see, yes.

Konstantin: Alright. Let’s go.

Pi: We are NEVER allowed to look at you. Only there.

Camera guy: Never!

Nik: *looks at Konstantin* Never?

Konstantin: Well, yes, when I’m asking questions it’s okay, but when you’re answering, into the camera.

Gared: Hola cabrones!

Camera guy: Hola!

Konstanin: And all who don’t speak can look at me!

 

Pi: All right.

 

 (0:43)

Sonic Seducer: Well, we’re here at the M’ Era Luna, I’m sitting here with Lord of the Lost - introduce yourself, all of you!

Gared: Hi! We are Lord of the Lost.

Nik: Let’s count, please! ONE.

Chris and pretty much everyone else: One!

Gared: Are we even audible, if the mic is down there?

Pi: Yes.

Gared: Cool.

Chris: ONE.

 

Sonic Seducer: Those who watch the video, know you anyway.

Gared:  That’s what YOU say.

 

(1:03)

Sonic Seducer: Well, you just played an Ensemble Show. How did it go?

Chris:  Oh, I’ll just switch my watch to silent mode…

Pi: We are professionals.

Chris: How does that work? 

Nik: 30 centimeters.

Chris: Fuck.

Pi: In the- in the meantime…

Konstantin: We won’t edit that.

Pi: Okay. It was reverent. Totally beautiful, I have to say. Also unusual, as for the past 8 weeks we did not sit on the stage but jump around all the time.

*Konstantin pointing at the camera*

Pi: I’m trying. I just can’t do it any differently but look at you.

Chris: He’s a handsome man after all!

Pi: Exactly. In the past 8 weeks we jumped around a lot on the stage in loud shows, that’s why this here was…

Class: …quiet.

Pi: Very quiet.

Gared: The people were not quiet though.

Pi: BUT – the people were not quiet, and I have to admit, the whole M’Era Luna and how we feel at home here made it very easy for us, to feel comfortable. It was really marvellous.

(1:55)

Chris: “To feel at home” was the keyword today. It really felt like coming home. That always sounds like some stupid phrase, but it was really like *relieved exhale* great. I don’t know, how many times we have played at the M’Era Luna already, maybe the 6th or 7th time… it’s just… really like coming home.

Nik: It already starts when you arrive here and you only see familiar faces. You just literally know everyone.

Chris: Me, for example.

Nik: Who are you then? – Yeah, you walk around here, you go three meters, no matter if in front of or behind the stage, wherever – feels like you know each and everyone. And you go, “Ey, long time no see!” Just now I got to know someone – no, not “got to know someone” – actually we kinda got to know each other AGAIN…

Gared: Darling, I’ve got to know someone.

Nik: ...because we got to know each other for the first time on tour 10 years ago, and today I met him again for the first time since then. Pyro-Man from SCHATTENMANN.

Gared: It’s pyromaniac.

Nik: It really has this “coming home”-feeling, really familiar, you know them all, and…

(2:57)

Chris: I already want to - to all of you out there, if we ever found a NDH (new german heaviness)- band, we name it Pyroman, please. But there won’t be any fire on the stage.

Pi: There will only be water on the stage. *Chris bursts into laughing*

Just water. As we are already fire enough, as the kids call it these days, I think.

Gared: I thought it’s “lit” – or is “lit” rather 2016?

Pi: Ja.

Chris: I have a question to Konstantin though: Do you have any more questions to us?

 

(3:25)

Konstantin: Yes, two, three more. But if the interview runs by itself, it’s great! Can I hand this (the microphone) to one of you?

Chris: Can I have it? 

Class: You have your own mic?

Konstantin: I have one here *pointing at his shirt*

Gared: You can afford it all!

Konstantin: Yeah, incredible. TWO microphones! And two cameras!

Pi: Going great.

Gared: *looking up* Where’s the second one? – There! Woah!

Class: But we’re not allowed to look into it.

Pi: *points at the camera* Only there.

Nik: AND two lights. One here and one there.

Gared: *looking downwards* – and here is another one.

Pi: And there’s another one in the shower.

 

(3:49)

Sonic Seducer: Okay, I think, we need to ask some more questions. I’ll get back to the Iron Maiden shows in a minute, but now about the Ensemble show – was this the first Ensemble tour after the pandemic, or…? 

Chris: Like that, yes. In April we did an Ensemble Tour, which was the tour to the album, which we released 2 years ago, and today it was kind of the … right, today we played the Release Show for Swan Songs III.

Pi: True.

Gared: That’s true.

Chris: Which has been in the stores for two years. The original Ensemble Show 2020 should have been the Release Show, which I think it was planned for M’Era Luna.

Pi: Yeah, that’s how it was.

Chris: So we already played with the ensemble earlier this year, but because of the Iron Maiden tour and loud shows, which are not unplugged, we had gotten a bit out of practice… but it all worked out really great. There was no time for rehearsals, as two days ago we were at some festival in Spain, beforehand we played in 16 more countries, so today there was a bit of risk in it, but… went quite well.

Pi: A little thrill can be really cool!

Gared: I was killer! (?)

Chris: I made 2 or 3 mistakes, I think in one verse I started one line too late.

Gared: *ironically* Really? I did not hear that.

Pi: Those were YOUR ears, Gerrit.

Chris: Yeah, but it was totally beautiful.

 

(5:03)

Sonic Seducer: Okay, great. So now as you are completely in the “Metal-mode” with Iron Maiden, you probably don’t have a “Swan Songs IV”-album in your agenda currently?

Chris: Yes/no, let’s put it that way… Swan Songs is something which produces itself kind of “in the background”, because when you have time, you can always re-arrange songs. Especially when it’s about… Half of the songs on a Swan Songs album are songs, which already exist as rock versions, which we then convert to classic versions, and the other half are songs, that we have just written. And these conversions are being done consistently, so in the background we actually are already producing Swan Songs IV – but it’s not on our agenda as our next release, but we’ll do that at some point in a few years. But it kinda produces itself in the background.

Pi: The nice thing about such albums is, that they are in a way limited concerning their extent, since you can’t do 20 … well, you could! - but… not us. – you can’t do 20 albums with an unbelievably huge concept and then you still didn’t use it all but still keep going. But while you stay within the extent of one album, you probably already develop ideas for a next one. And in this case it was like that.

(6:11)

Chris: And furthermore we considered, if maybe we leave out on Swan Songs IV and do Swan Songs V instead already. You could justify that the way they did with Star Wars back then, that they just didn’t have a budget for #4.

Gared: And 4 is considered an unlucky number in Japan or China also, so that’s….

Chris: Is that so?

Gared: Just don’t do that.

Class: That’s also death, I believe, right? Four, death?

Gared: Yes. With that we’d just shoot ourselves in the foot.

Pi: Oh, the sound was gone. Dangerous half-knowledge!

Chris: Great final words! *stands up and pretends to leave*

Sonic Seducer: okay, Chris is done, will you guys stay some more?

Gared: Well, yeah.

Pi: Yeah, we do.

Konstantin: Okay, I see. On to Iron Maiden!

Chris: Also cool.

Pi: Are they here?!

Nik: Come on in, guys!

 

(6:49)

Sonic Seducer: You have just been on tour with one of the greatest Metal bands on the planet, you played 18 shows, in 16 countries, with half a million people in the audience… those are the numbers, right?

Chris: Approximately, yes. It’s generally even more, if you add them all up, but you have to assume that when WE played, the stadiums were like 50-80% full. So, if you reduce by a little bit, you still get almost half a million people who have watched us in 18 shows in 16 countries.

Gared: That wasn’t all that bad.

Chris: That was crazy. I think I told all my colleagues, who asked me about it… if I have to sum this up as short as possible – the size of this tour, the stadiums were not the impressive thing. The most impressive thing were the people.

Gared: Yeah.

Chris: Both Iron Maiden as a band, as well as their crew. That’s what got stuck with me. Incredibly beautiful humans. In a heartily way, inside and outside, an incredibly great band and I always feel like saying “really cool boys”, as that’s how they act on stage. Like 15 year-olds, playing their first show. Not concerning the quality of course, they are much, much better, but concerning the fun while they’re playing, the fire. That’s crazy. That was so inspiring, you can find true idols there. No Iron Maiden fan in the world would be disappointed by their idols, because they are just as you imagine them to be.

Pi: It is the complete opposite to “never meet your idols”. If you want to meet your idols… go meet Iron Maiden. And their crew, as they are really…..

Gared: Very big………*not understandable*……

Pi: (creates a new word) “missable”. Very much so.

Chris: Yeah, they made it very easy for us to feel as part of the family and that’s why we really miss that a lot. These are memories that will stay forever and one can say with justice, that this tour has been THE highlight in our career so far. Absolutely.

Pi: Yeah.

 

(8:44)

Sonic Seducer: You also immortalized Iron Maiden on your skin meanwhile, right?

Chris: yes, I have it here… after a few shows I thought, I’ll get TNOTB (The Number of the Beast) and 666 as a little reminder and “The Number of the Beast” was also my first Iron Maiden album, so that fits. My tattoos are like a diary to me, like little stickers all around, which remind me of something. I just had to do it.

 

(9:09)

Sonic Seducer: Did you have worries beforehand, that the Heavy Metal audience might see you with mixed …

Class: YES!

Everyone: *nodding* -yeah!

Nik: Yes, absolutely.

Gared: We assumed, that 95% of the people – oh thank you, that’s nice! *as Chris hands over the mic* – is this thing on? – We assumed that 95% of the people might find us… well… shitty. Because we are everything but the typical Metal – as we play everything but THE classic Metal.

Chris: It was only 94%.

Gared: We have keyboards on stage – which is a big no-no for many. We do crazy make-up shit and crazy outfits which go in the direction of cross-dressing, and so our apprehension was like… “Hmmm. let’s see!” But we don’t change, we just do our thing the way we feel – and it worked out great!

Nik: They didn’t find it totally shitty.

Class: There you are just the opening act.

Chris: Do you want to hold that? *hands over the mic*

Class: Yes. You just are not Iron Maiden, you are the opening act-

Gared: 30 centimetres, Class!  *shows him how far to hold the mic from mouth*, these are twenty *shows like 4 cm*

(10:08)

Class: You just are the opening act there, and I think, every band playing before Iron Maiden, Metallica, AC/DC or whatever they are all called – you just have to be worried, that you might not meet the expectations – and we were lucky.

Gared: And the nice thing is, we were not just a support, who paid to play there, but we were invited guests, and that’s how we were treated. The band themselves requested us… of course we have time, that was never the question. I think, Chris did not even ask us, when our booking agent asked him he said “Yes, we have time.” – “Won’t you ask the boys first?” -  “No, they have time.” – and that’s how we were treated, they treated us like an invited guest – or rather invited guests. And HOW we were loaded, you have no idea! (the German word “geladen” can mean “invited” as well as “loaded”) That was just really cool! It was… gorgeous.

Chris: Back to the audience: They made it really easy for us. Of course you can never reach all of them, and there were always some, who stood there with folded arms till the very end of the show, but that’s normal. But the biggest part of the people, far beyond the mix desk, which is a kind of measuring bar somehow in that concern, if to that FOH-spot, that’s what it’s called, or beyond, the hands are up in the air – you know, you’ve done it. And you really noticed, from song #1 to song #2 to song #3 how the spark became a little flame, a bigger flame, a fire.

(11:33)

Pi: Those people, who stood in front *shows folded arms*, who wanted to have a look at it first, what is going to happen there with those strange boys with the strange make up…

Gared: “I’m not allowed to like them.”

Pi: ...first they look grim.

Chris: They look to the left and to the right, see “oh, the one left of me likes that – shit.”

Pi: And then, like you said, song by song, they get involved – and that’s one of the greatest senses of success, if you see those immersed fans, as “metal battle-vest-y” (“Metal-kuttig”) as possible.

Chris: When they get that grin on their faces…

Pi: - and in the end they sing along – or they try, as they don’t know the lyrics -that was so nice!

Chris: Yes, because especially those… that sounds so funny, but these 500 people who form the 1st and 2nd row, they are there almost every night.

Pi: Dude, yeah!

Chris: So we really …

Nik: Greetings going out to you!

Gared: You know, who you are.

Chris: We were really lucky, one of the band members said to us, “We know our audience, we knew that it would work out.”

Pi: He was right.

 

(12:30)

Sonic Seducer: So you had personal contact with the band, you were invited, you were invited guests, Steve wanted to have you there, you interacted with them – did they also listen to your Cover version? Did they comment on it?

Chris: I know – I spoke about it with Steve – I know, that he listened to it, I didn’t ask him, what he thought about it though. And he didn’t tell me either, as we switched to a different topic then. I had just handed our Lord of the Lost beer over to him, which we had just got that day, he just said, “yeah, yeah, I’ve heard it!” – and then we went to a different topic, so …

Gared: Let’s take that as a compliment.

Chris: I don’t know, if I want to inquire, to us it was a huge pleasure to cover “Children of the Damned”, whether they like it or not – WE like it. For us this was like taking our hats off to them and somehow say thank you. As a musician you say it best in the language you all speak… music. And…

Pi: Besides this, shameless plug, we also created a kind of diary with it for us, because there’s a music video to this song, with our highlights from all these shows. To watch this now in the retrospect …

Chris: I cried a bit.

Pi: … is really … we still need to process it all, of course it still resonates, over and over again. But to watch it again… that’s really gorgeous.

Chris: So much has happened in these 8 weeks, I did not completely …it will take some more time, till you have completely processed this all.

(14:00)

Konstantin: Alright, cool. In a minute you’ll have a signing session here at our Sonic Seducer booth…

Chris: oh yeah, right.

Konstantin: how well are we on time?

Chris: Ten more minutes.

Konstantin: easy, easy. Other than that… *towards Chris* you’ll still be here tomorrow, as you’re doing the Crypt Talk – what about you *towards the others*, what are your plans, will you watch other bands, do you stay at the festival area?

Pi: We will stay some more.

Nik: We definitely will stay a moment more. Yeah.

Gared: Exactly.

Pi: Right now we are pretty free-spirited, as so far the day has been pretty busy…

Konstantin: Everything is possible, nothing is mandatory. (The literal translation of the phrase “alles kann, nichts muss” would be “everything can, nothing must”.)

Gared: Exactly.

Pi: Exactly. With the show, the preparations etc, this lovely interview, then the signing session, and then…

Gared: We’ll see, what the day will bring!

(14:39)

Chris: It’s always pretty difficult for us – for me in particular, as I’m always pretty tensed up then – I always think about everything that could go wrong – to make plans before the show for after the show, I’m fully concentrated, only afterwards I can relax. Tomorrow I’ll be here, I’m really just a guest and can be totally relaxed, “laissez-faire”, just… hang out. I think I haven’t done that in a very long time. I’m looking forward to it.

Pi: Yeah! Go hang out!

Chris: I’ll be here in the morning, just hanging out. With colleagues.

Nik: Do that.

Chris: I’m really looking forward to it.

Konstantin: Will you also roam the festival area or will you rather hang out backstage with the colleagues?

Chris: I will also roam the festival area.

Konstantin: So you have the chance to meet Chris Harms on the M’Era Luna area tomorrow, so if you watch this…

Chris: If you aim hard enough and throw good enough, you will hit me (in German the word for “meet” is the same one as for “hit”, as in – when throwing something at someone)   

(15:20)

Gared: He’s the wittiest comedian of the season. (“Er ist der geistreichste Spaßmacher der Saison” is a line of the song “Party stinkt” (“Party Stinks”) by Die Ärzte, as well as an episode of The Simpsons.)

Konstantin: Alright, this was it from my side, thanks a lot for being here.

Chris: our pleasure.

Pi: Now to OUR questions.

Konstantin: I have nothing to tell about. Any closing words for the fans? The last word is yours.

Nik: Thanks, BYE!

Gared: That was two words.

Nik: Ah yeah, right.

Pi: But he said “last words”, too.

Chris: He said, “closing words”.

Pi: Yes, Konstantin was very…

Konstantin: What do you want to promote right now? The beer?

Chris: No… I have to… I have to… I have to pee.

Pi: I’m hungry.

Nik(?): I have…*inaudible*…..beer.

(15:51)

Pi: We need to go to the signing session.

Nik?: Hunger and beer. Everything.

Gared: We want to go scribbling now.

Nik: One word?

Pi: Last word… closing word…

Chris: I dunno… can we promote paper weights?

Pi: YEAH! We got paper weights in our shop, they look silvery.

Chris: If you don’t know, what that means, go to our merch shop…

Nik: Lord-shop.de

Pi: Exactly.

Chris: … and look for paper weights.

Konstantin: We could have put one on the table here.

Chris: that’s right. We didn’t bring it – our tour manager has it now.

*everyone is laughing, Gared is waving his hand (probably as a greeting to their tour manager)*

Chris: I really need to go now.

Konstantin: Thank you.

Everyone: Bye!

Chris: See you later!  

 

 

 

Translation: Margit Güttersberger

Proofreading: Jari Winter, Inessa On De Rox