Q&A Livestream #2 - Chris Harms (21-05-2020)
(NOTE: Below we have included ONLY the German parts of the livestream, NOT the English ones.)
8:21
Do you have to do something to look so good? You probably just wake up, shake your hair and get ready …?
Chris: Haha thank you for the compliment, actually I have to do a lot for that, I’m 40 years old. I do sports five times a week, I just came from doing sports right now, I usually do an hour of rope skipping per day. I also do other things that you can do at home or outside, while the gyms are closed during the lockdown, like working out with weights. Besides that I don’t drink, don’t take drugs, eat healthy, I eat hardly any meat. If I do, it’s from a nearby farm where the cows almost smile while they are dying, I’m a positive thinking man, in the sense that I, as I already said before, am fully aware how good I have it, even if I feel bad, I know, that these problems are no real problems actually. I think, this state of mind is really important to look good. But really, that moment, where doing sports had an effect, where I started to look more „fresh“, was the moment, when I stopped drinking alcohol. That was in April, two years ago. I didn’t excessively drink alcohol beforehand either, never drank at home, I only drank alcohol while we were on tour, but when we were on tour, I drank enough, and that has an effect on you. And if you’re not 20 anymore but 40, it becomes very noticeable actually.
11:21
Show us the instruments there in the background, and is that phone the one…?
I can show you the instruments there in the background. This here is my acoustic cello, I also have an electric one. The next one is my signature guitar from Cyan. This is a mandolin, I currently try to play the mandolin. This is my oldest Les Paul, I had two older ones, which I had saved up for, when I was a teenager, but they unfortunately got stolen by a rehearsal room burglary. This here is a ukulele, for my Jack Johnson moments, I’m a secret surfer, windsurfing, not the wave riding kind of surfer. And this one is a half acoustic guitar by Dean that I use a lot for guitar sounds that are somehow in between acoustic and e-guitar sounds. I totally like those, as I call them „Tarantino-guitars“, others will maybe call them „spaghetti-western-guitars“, the kind that you know from these Ennio Morricone- movie soundtracks, Wild West movies, in the style of Tito and Tarantula. I totally love that kind of guitar sounds, such a nice bit of crunch, a lot of twang, echo, tremolo, that’s what I use that one for. Those are the instruments I use at home, because I do relatively much demo-production at home, songwriting, whenever I need to catch some ideas I need some things from here, in another corner there’s a keyboard instrument, I also have a working room at home, where I have a computer… and that telephone? Yes, this is an old phone from the late 50s/early 60s, I have like 100 phones from the 50s to the 80s, about 2-3 years ago I rebuilt them with my colleague Benny in the Chameleon studios. As you can see here, these phones got an XLR-plug, which I can simply plug into a microphone pre-amp. And if I press „phantom power“, that’s the button that says „48“, plus 48 Volt phantom power, I can sing via the mouthpiece. If I don’t press that button, I can sing via the earpiece and I can use the loudspeaker as a microphone. Basically microphone and speaker are the same thing, only the other way around. And yes, I have like 100 of these telephones. I have always planned to create a website to sell them, but so far I never managed to do it. There have always been other things to do. But we’ll do that soon, sell some of these telephones as microphones. To nerds, or sound engineers, who like to directly record things via telephone sound.
15:02
What is your favourite song from Panoptikum?
(He answers in English)
23:33
Hi Chris, is the next album by LOTL in progress already?
Almost. Soon Swan Songs III will be released, on Aug. 7th, and a little less than a year after that the next Lord of the Lost rock album will be released. It’s „in progress“ as far as the concept is clear already, it will be a concept album again with a very tight concept, but the active songwriting phase will start in June. We’ll do a songwriting camp again, which we originally wanted to do in Finland, in a house at the lakeside, somewhere north of the polar circle, where it doesn’t get dark in June around midsummer, but unfortunately we can’t get there at the moment for commonly known reasons, and that’s why we’ll be doing that in the Chameleon studios in Hamburg instead.
28:48
Why are you doing a concept album?
Because it’s fun! We don’t find it interesting to say „Hey come on, let’s do the 7th Lord of the Lost album… what shall we do? Let’s just write some songs, and once we have enough of them, we release them“– that’s not enough for us. We want to have a direction, that enables us to be creative within a self-imposed frame and to deal with a topic, where those of you, who don’t just want to hear cool music, those who can enjoy it on a totally different level, can dive into it, into a world which can be either real of fictional, and to accept it completely. Because to us, an album is not just songs, to us it means…everything. It’s artwork, it’s everything around it, the Make-up, the costumes, that’s all incredibly important. That’s why it has to be a concept album.
32:37
How are things about your podcast? Do you already know the next topic?
Yes, I only have time until 8:30 or 8:45 pm this evening, because Gerrit, Class and Pi will come here and we will record another podcast episode. Nik cannot come unfortunately because he doesn’t live in Hamburg, so that’s not so easy.
35:11
Could you add Nik via phone? (to the podcast)
Yes, we can, we actually do that today for a few minutes, but to be on the phone for one and a half hour sounds shitty and is annoying.
44:15
Could you please tell us a funny story from your time back in school or a joke that comes to your mind? I urgently need something to laugh.
Just go to Gared Dirge’s Facebook page, look at his photos, there you already got something to laugh. It’s better than any joke and funnier than stories from my school days. Even if it’s a bit sad also at the same time.
45:32
You speak English and German so nicely. It would be nice to practise in the language classes of Mr. Harms.
Is that someone asking for private lessons there? *wink wink* Unfortunately that doesn’t work out…I’m too expensive.
48:01
Are there other songs you’d like to cover, is there something planned, e.g. a Roxette song or something like Kraftwerk (German band)?
Not Kraftwerk, no. We already did a live Roxette cover, “Sleeping in my Car”. There’s always nice things coming up that I’d like to cover. Right now I have an idea, which is not meant for Lord of the Lost though, I think I really want to do that at some point, maybe I even manage to get it done before Christmas, just me and Gerrit, very basic, only piano, an acoustic guitar, a cello and my voice. I want to cover songs that shaped me in my early childhood days, which I listened to from my parents’ records. They all were recorded before I was born, so before 1980. I recently checked, which songs “accompanied” me there, and I think there’s a lot that I’d like to record. But it’s all songs that I would not want to implement in Lord of the Lost style, that’s why it would be very personal, acoustic and calm.
51:04
How did you get the idea to use children for the “On This Rock I Will Build My Church” video clip?
Hah! That’s a cool question. I like to tell the story over and over again. It was my son’s idea actually. At some point as he was listening to some of my CDs, he came across Michael Jackson, found him really cool, as all children do, when they see someone dance like that, then he asked, “can we watch some Youtube videos?”. He was five then…or six. Then we found the video “Bad” by Michael Jackson, and there’s actually two versions of it, go check that on Youtube… one is the normal one, and in the other one there’s children. All characters in that “Bad” video are played by children, who are also dancing like that. Then he asked, “Papa, can I play in one of your music videos, too?” I said, “Yes, we can do that.” A few days later we had to start planning the first video for the Thornstar album, and we had a time slot of one month to get it done – and in that exact time Gared was on tour with David Hasselhoff as his keyboarder for the first time. True story. So, it would have been impossible to shoot a video with Gerrit. So there only were two options: Either we make up a story, that includes none of us, or we shoot a video with just me. It was no option at all, to shoot a video with only four band members, but not Gared. It’s possible to just show the vocalist, that’s commonly known from other videos in general, but we found that stupid - it’s the first video to such an important album … and then there should only be me in it? Or no band member at all? And then the idea came up -we can show the whole band … but we’re doing this time travel. So we took my son as the vocalist, and some other kids – and that’s how we could show the whole band in the video.
55:11
Hey Chris, I’m very impressed by your vocal performance on the Thornstar album. In my opinion you have improved a lot in the sense of melody and facets. What’s the secret?
That’s no secret, it’s just simply practice. I really practiced a lot for it, because it is wrong that you can not improve your voice and your vocal performance, even if you are as old as me. It works, and it keeps working better, and I really just practiced a lot. Many thanks for noticing that!
1:04:53
Do you still have the red contact lenses?
Which ones? I have had so many in my life. But I probably don’t have the ones that you mean any more, because after a few weeks or months they get germinated and you need to throw them away and buy new ones.
1:09:18
With all your projects – Lord of the Lost, Die Kreatur, your family… how do you manage to organize your day without getting too stressed?
My family is not a project!?!
That’s actually very easy. I use an agenda. That’s the only secret to it. And I have enough empirical values to know, how long it takes me to do things, so I know in advance, how much I manage to do. And how long one particular job takes me. That’s all. I use an agenda. It also tells my sleeping hours. So, I also plan in a way that I get enough sleep, that I have enough time for my son, that I have enough time for my jobs – and that’s it. Just time management. I focused on that very intensively some time ago, attended a very long seminary to learn proper time management, and that’s very important, also when I’m planning productions for other artists. So, for example, here in the background you can see two current productions, which I did as a producer, which have just been released, which is on one hand “Swiss und die Andern”, the album is called “Sauna Club”, which was a huge production that took several months, with many many sessions and a complete band, five boys who played their instruments, and give plenty of input – that takes proper planning. And for 9 months we have been working on this record, the new Joachim Witt album “Rübezahls Rückkehr”, which is something totally different. The workflow is totally different, there’s one solo-artist, Joachim, and then there’s people in the studio, who act as the band, including myself. I also wrote the songs along with Joachim, so the work started much earlier already. This all needs to be managed and put in a time schedule, and you know in advance, how long it will take, and I always add 30% of extra time. So, to be on the safe side, I always add 30% of time, which enables me to do the things that just show up unexpectedly. No matter how well I plan it, someone will show up and says, “Hey, I need a song for a girl band in LA till next week… can you do that?” Then I can say, “Yes, on Thursday I have half a day left, because the one session with Joachim went faster than expected. And so I write a song for a girl band from LA.
1:15:31
Do you have any quirks when it comes to work?
I’m very pedantic, I’m very tidy, I’m a perfectionist. When we’re talking about perfection concerning work, there I try to do things the best possible way, and I always forget at least one item in the studio, which then my production partner Benny notices and he will bring me my forgotten item then. No matter how hard I try to do it right, I always leave either a cap, a scarf, a hard disc, a USB device … I’m organized that well… but I always forget one thing in the studio. There’s a note hanging on the exit already, so I get reminded when I walk out… but after two days you don’t notice that note anymore.
1:16:52
How did that Sauna Club record behind you come about? The Witt record and Die Kreatur are easy to explain … is there a connection to Swiss & die Andern?
Yes, there is. I produced this album. And I will also produce the next Swiss & die Andern album. And by the way, I’m currently producing the new Ferris MC album.
1:20:14
What do you teach at SAE?
I don’t teach there anymore. I quit teaching there last summer, because I just didn’t have time to do so anymore. I really loved teaching there, and I did a lot of teaching there. Everything about music production and sound engineering, which I have studied myself, but I unfortunately didn’t have the time anymore. Maybe I will do these “Meet the professionals”-Workshops or alike, but I really don’t have time.
1:20:49
Will there be another cooperation with “Eden weint im Grab”?
I don’t know, so far nothing is planned.
1:21:11
I shall say something so Die Kreatur knows I’m there.
Ok. You also could have invested this one minute in a good question – then I would even have been able to give you a good reply.
1:24:21
Can we have a coffee together if you have time?
I have to disappoint you there, but… also concerning the topic “health” … I don’t drink coffee either. I also don’t drink black tea. The only unhealthy thing I drink is sugar-free cola. *drinks cola* Which is gone by now.
1:29:13
What do you think of drive-in concerts where the sound is broadcast on the radio?
If we still had a normal festival situation, I’d say, it’s an interesting, exotic project, let’s do this. It’s not the idea of the century, but ok. Considering what’s going on now, it’s rather a kind of necessity, so I’m happy that people find ways to get us on stage and to get you in front of the stage. And so in the first place I’m grateful that someone initially had that idea – and accept it this way.
1:29:59
I would like to hear your voice in the choruses as well as Dero's, unfortunately Dero is more audible in the two songs than you :( * nothing against Dero, you both have good voices, but I still miss hearing you in the songs.
No. That’s wrong. He’s definitely not more audible than me. When we both sing together, a timbre emerges, that automatically rather sounds like Dero, but I’m partly even louder than him, still it gets this timbre. I definitely don’t perish here, Dero would never have allowed that, it’s just something that happens, when we sing together.
1:34:02
Will there be another project with the Heaven Can Wait choir?
I don’t think so. In my opinion you only can do such things in a cool way once. The second attempt would depreciate the first one somehow… because it definitely won’t be better.
1:34:21
Maybe the question comes a bit early, but are there more concept album planned in the style of Thornstar? To read the story about the Gods was really awesome.
Yes. It’s planned. The next Lord of the Lost album will be a concept album again. It will be released next year. The next classical album will be released now, on Aug. 7th, Swan Songs III, the next “real” Lord of the Lost album will be released a little less than a year later.
1:36:20
For which foreign artist did you write lyrics?
Oh, so many. I did not only write lyrics but also songs. I wrote songs and lyrics for more than 200 artists. I can’t and I don’t want to name them all now, that would be way too much.
1:40:48
I really like the earbook. Have you ever thought about reissuing old LOTL records in this format? Maybe also as a collection?
Yes, one can do that. The problem is, that you need to produce like 1000 copies of it, to make it worthwhile, and the production will cost like 20 Euros pro Earbook, so you have to invest 20.000 Euros first to the production of an e.g. Antagony Earbook, and then maybe only 200 people want to buy it and … phew! You can take out a loan for that! So, it’s possible, but it has to be well thought out. You can’t just do that for fun.
1:42:23
For almost every concert you can also buy a "Meet and Greet". How important is that to you? Do you remember people or questions? Do you see any of them again in chats?
I know, how important it is to give you that chance to meet your favourite band. I’m a fan of many bands myself and I know how cool it is to have the chance to meet the band. So it’s important to me, because I know how important it is. And yes, I remember people, and sometimes also questions, sometimes you get to meet some more often; I can’t remember the names, because it’s just too many, but when I have seen a face, I usually am aware that I have seen this person before. It’s hard for me to tell from where though, especially as our fans travel a lot, and you see a girl from Russia show up in Nuremberg or a London boy in Milan…. Then you think… your brain isn’t able to figure that out…. That’s why I can’t remember, who’s from where.
So, one more Napalm question here… I don’t see any here that I’d like to answer …
Translation: Margit Güttersberger