Everybody: Cheers!

Gared: Welcome on the Lord of the Lost Pop-Sofa (pun… in German “poppen” is a way to say “have sex” )…  mmm yummy!

 

Moderator: Hello Metalheads, we’re here… no, not on the casting sofa…

Gared: ehmm … whatever you want it to be..!

 

Moderator: We’re at the Matrix in Bochum, here with Lord of the Lost, thank you for having us!

Gared: Thank you for having us, too… and generally..!

 

Moderator: The good thing is, the two of you don’t need to do sports now – that’s what the others are doing right now.

Nik: Yes. No, we’re not doing sports, because we are lazy.

Gared (lifts his beer bottle): but that’s some kind of sports, too?

 

Moderator: A bit, right. Good for your biceps. I used to think “Lord of the Lost”  … lost sons, dark music, a serious rock band … then, unsuspecting, I go to Facebook and then this crazy thing pops up, “LOTL” !

Gared: Ooops! How did this ever happen?

 

Moderator: Do you have an idea?  

Gared: It was our idea, as at some point we thought, all this dark, serious, strict gothic-shit or metal or whatever you want to call it is just rubbish. At some point we wanted to finally earn a bit of it and so we decided to make pop music, commerce, dress crazy… that also works quite nicely for various pop musicians… and so we became incredibly rich. That’s how we are now able to afford these lovely, shiny party-hats, for example.

Nik: I agree to what he says. There’s nothing more I could say.

 

Moderator: You ARE lazy!

Nik: I am VERY lazy.

 

Moderator: So you do the talking today and he just nods?

(Nik nods.. another german pun, as it is “Nik nickt”)

Gared: if you really want it that way..!

Nik: (nods)

 

Moderator: You are also very active on Facebook, Youtube, give Make-up tips, do sports with fans, looks like it is a big thing with you?

Gared: What exactly is a big thing?

 

Moderator: Social Media in general, to get in contact with people?

Gared: Yes, definitely. To say it seriously, Social Media is the biggest advertising platform that you as an artist, as a band, as a human being have these days. If you lock yourself out of this…which you sometimes would love to do, as it can be quite annoying at times also… you miss many options to get known to a wider audience… to spread yourself. Also if you are against streaming services like Spotify etc and think, people should just go buy our physical CDs … you may have your reasons, but it’s just not how it works nowadays. It’s a blessing and a curse at the same time, but it pays off. The internet is, where people hang around… or on concerts and festivals, in the best case.

 

Moderator: And it seems to be fun, as for what I can tell from watching what you’re doing there.

Gared: We make  the best out of it! It’s fun, if you make it fun. Of course it also has to be taken serious (touches his party-hat) … btw, these are the real metal-hats!

 

Moderator: no cardboard, it’s real metal!

Gared: Indeed, you have gold, he has silver, and whatever metal mine is made from, no idea. Anyhow, it’s fun, because we pick out the funniest  ways to use it, as for example LOTL, as for example our tour tv, “TV of the Lost”, which is for a big part just a huge pile of incredible bullshit… this way it is easier bearable, that Social Media can be that annoying.

 

Moderator: You also use it to get in  contact with your fans there, I have seen that you started a poll about Meet and Greets (turns to Nik) – but even if you are lazy, maybe would you…

Nik: Yes, I am lazy. Well, no. Yes, we got this question from the fan community, why we only put our Meet and Greets into raffle, we do that on every tour. Apparently quite a lot of them are pursued by a losing streak, so they never win something, and so they demanded, that they wanted to pay for those Meet and Greets…. like “go sell tickets for the Meet and Greets!” At first we did not really feel comfortable with it, it felt strange somehow, that might look pretty greedy...

 

Moderator: I can imagine, if the idea came from the band, some might say, “Commerce, what’s that now, we have to pay to meet you!”  -but your fans are different apparently.

Nik: Apparently they are different, yes. We have quite a big official fan group on Facebook, with about 3000 members, maybe even more, and that’s where we put this up for discussion. There we asked,” What do you want? Is it cool for you, if you can buy tickets, do you want contests…?” What I found really cool about it – thanks for that to you people out there in that group- there was a really serious and objective discussion about it going on there. You often see it happen on the internet because of the “anonymity” there, that people get harsh, offensive and unfriendly towards each other--- this did not at all happen here. It was a nice, serious and objective discussion about it and we came to the conclusion, that people want to have the option for a particular amount of Meet and Greet tickets for each show, but in addition to that there’s also a contest still. So, this way we were able to satisfy everybody who took part in this discussion, and… that’s really cool! I was surprised in the most positive way there.

 

Moderator: Maybe you should become politicians!

Gared: What I said so harshly beforehand about Internet being so annoying ever so often -  this gets compensated because there’s so many warm-hearted reactions from our fans there. Of course there’s also trolls on Youtube who basically think your videos are shit. But as I said, already the reactions that we get on things we do make it all precious and bearable in a very pleasant way – and therefore also meaningful.

 

Moderator: That leads me to my next question: you have been sent a song – and because of that a new band was born..?

Gared: Give me a hint, please.

 

Moderator: Scarlet Dorn!

Gared: Ah? Now who’s that? (laughs) – yes. That for example was one of the positive side effects of Social Media, where getting in contact with people brings a benefit in the end, sort of like “Hey, I’m an artist, I have some ideas, I’m up for it, can you help me or do you know someone” – and that’s exactly how it happened with Scarlet Dorn. If I remember it correctly, it was a Meet and Greet contest; the task was, “Write us a love letter, tell us, why you find us so great and why particularly YOU should win the Meet and Greet”. Scarlet Dorn said, “I’m really bad at writing letters, but I have a song instead.. what do you think about it?” And Chris was THAT impressed by it all, by her voice, by the song, by the idea … which if I remember it right ended as “I Love The Way You Say My Name” on Scarlet Dorn’s debut album, so it ended as a collaboration. That’s perfect, that’s what Social Media is meant for.

 

Moderator: Because of that you had two jobs on tour.

Gared: That way I don’t earn money in even two bands, that’s cool, too.

 

Moderator: speaking of which… you  have just been to Malta, had quite some fun there; I heard, Malta is special to you?

Gared: I cannot say it is special to me personally, but it definitely is for Chris, because he had been there before and had some spiritual experiences there, which are reflected in our Thornstar album. Back then he spent full nights with a priest  or something,  talking, among other things also about that Mythology that we then have woven into our album. Considering that way, it IS a special place, it’s special to sort of come back here, where like 20 years ago the seed has been planted for this idea. That’s definitely cool.  

 

Moderator: Thornstar, that’s a nice keyword. The tour has been going on for a long time already. Will it be continued forever? Do you not have a home or is it so bad there?

Nik: All of us have homes, even though the people there maybe don’t know us that well any more … nah, that’s not true, every now and then we get back home for a few days in between shows, but you’re right, that’s an extremely long tour; yesterday as we were on our way to Bremen in the Nightliner … I can’t even recall how we got to that topic …somehow all of us were sitting there, looked out of the windows to the highway, when suddenly someone said, “Are you aware that Bremen is the 42^nd show of the Thornstar tour already?!”… including all the festivals ect that we played since Thornstar was released. And … there’s still more to come. This tour goes on for some more, there’s a festival season coming up… in total this all will be the most extended tour, that Lord of the Lost have ever done with an album. Also for me the biggest tour ever so far.

 

Moderator: You have not only been to Germany and Malta, but also a bit further away.

Gared: Yes, we’ve been to Austria, too.

Nik: That’s the only country that we have NOT been to!

Gared: Ah yes, right! We are yet to go to Austria. My bad. But yes, we have been (spreads his arms) …to the very left and to the very right, if you can even put it like that when you’re talking about a globe… that’s dumb, right? Nevermind. We have been to Mexico and to China, as the extreme examples, within a pretty short time. By Mid November, about Nov. 10^th, we were  in Mexico for just one show, a festival, where we played as headliners, I think, we have been in Mexico City for about 48 hours in total.

Nik: 52 hours.

Gared: Those drummers always feel the need to correct me. So, the extreme examples were 52 hours in Mexico and a few weeks later we were in China for 10 days/5 shows, in an incredibly big  and very different country, which neither of us had experienced sth like this before. Ever so often one of us said, “Hey boys… we’re in CHINA!” It was just that incredible. And at the same time the thought came up, “only two or three weeks ago we have been to Mexico!”  -it just felt absurd somehow. It’s remarkable, what has happened because of that album… no idea, how many tourdates it will be in the end, it’s just.. awesome.

 

Moderator: Did people know you there in China?

Nik: China is pretty much sealed off. I did not expect it to be that extreme, but you just don’t have the Social Media that we have here. There’s no Whatsapp, no Facebook, Google doesn’t work, there’s no Youtube, but they do have their very own Social Media community there with their own platforms, and that’s where they share our contents. So, they get it from the western media, spread it in their media, and there’s a huge scene there. Really awesome.

Gared: People in those far eastern countries like exotic things like men wearing Make up and stuff like that, so it’s not that uncommon that we find applause there, and so it’s cool, to go there as a band who uses exactly these tools and to have a closer look yourself.  We really had no idea, if people knew us there at all, if they had a chance to listen to our music before … you cannot follow their Social Media channels, as well as it doesn’t work the other way around, so we just had to trust our promoter, that there’d actually be an audience at our show. I didn’t have any expectations whatsoever, I was like “I’ll be happy if there’s 20 people there”; in the end there were three-digit numbers of guests at each show,  a bit more than 100, but at  least it was by far more than I (or all of us actually)  had expected.  The last two nights we were in  Shanghai  and Peking, there were 200-300 people there and suddenly you get to think,” Hey, you’re for the first time in an incredibly far away country, where you’ve never been before, a country that you don’t know at all, and where you don’t have the lightest idea about how people will react to you or if they have ever heard of you.” – and then there’s 200-300 people there in front of the stage. Totally absurd, but very cool.

 

Moderator: Awesome. The way the camera lady looks, a lot of time has passed already.

Gared: I’m in a very talkative mood today, apparently.

 

Moderator: I was planning to see you in Siegburg at the Kubana; I like that club a lot, bands like it a lot, too, because  of its  awesome surroundings.

Nik: Yes. It’s not the surroundings actually, but all the things going on in that building. I have been there for the first time—it also was your first time, right? … so, in the basement there’s a club, above it there’s a restaurant, above that there’s a gym, above that there’s a spa with saunas etc, and it’s all run by one family. Kinda like Mum and Dad opened the gym at some point, thought we’d use the basement for a club and have bands play there, the daughter opened a restaurant and the son … I don’t know exactly how it all went and who runs what, but it’s really cool!

 

Moderator: Is the food nice there?

Gared: Yes, it was delicious. This was one of the loveliest tour days, at some point some of us (the ones, that didn’t do sports) went to the spa, enjoyed the sauna and the roman steam bath, which was incredibly relaxing. I think, I have never been that relaxed and feeling like “reborn” on stage. Can we please always have that?

 

Moderator: Always sauna?

Gared: Maybe it will feel like a sauna tonight as well, or rather like playing in an oven … who knows, maybe even that can be nice in a way.  Who knows what it feels like when you breathe in and feel the exhalation, sweat and love of almost 800 people that we expect in this sold out show. Actually this sounds much more gay than I ever meant it.

Nik: But you look like you mean it exactly that way.

Gared: I can become a unicorn (puts his party hat on the forehead).

 

Moderator: And he does not even wear Make up yet!

Nik: Nope. But you don’t get him any prettier anyway. He looks different when he wears Make up, but not prettier.

 

Moderator: Ah, that’s why the light is so bad on stage?

Nik: Yes. Wait, our light is bad??

 

Moderator: I don’t know.

Gared: I want to throw the word “disimprove” into the conversation. (Party hat falls off) Now I lost my horn.

Everyone : Unicorn, unicorn, unicorn… cheers, cheers…

 

Moderator: The tour has been going on for ages, the album is pretty old already.. when will there be something new?

Gared: You just can’t get enough, right?

 

Moderator: No, not really. To be honest, I saw you for the first time last year, actually I was there to see Scarlet Dorn, and then I was a bit flashed.

Gared: To be honest, I love to hear someone say, “I was there to see the support band” – I really like that attitude. When will there be something new? We’re working on it, it is in progress, but it’s nothing that I could in any way announce … it will definitely be 2020. This year is dedicated to the tour, …

Nik: THE BIRTHDAY! IT’S OUR BIRTHDAY!

 

Moderator: In December something big is going to happen!

Gared: We are celebrating our 10^th anniversary and we are going to celebrate that by playing 4 shows in a row in our beloved hometown Hamburg. Two of which will be acoustic shows with our Swansemble, the other two will be loud, dirty, cool, as you are used to get from us. I’m totally excited about this already. Full of wild anticipation.

 

Moderator: They’re almost sold out already.

Gared: Indeed, 3 out of 4 shows are sold out, one of the Swan Songs shows still has a few seats to offer.

 

Moderator: Great! I think, we will end this here then. Cheers!

Gared: You know, what I really like about this? You didn’t ask the standard final question, “Famous last words or do you want to  say hello to someone?” I really like the fact you didn’t ask that. And we can leave it this way.

Everyone: Cheers! 

 

 

Translation: Margit Güttersberger