Subway to Sally - April 2006

Since beginning of April you are on acoustic tour. How did it come to this tour and which experiences have you collected up to now?
This idea already smoldered quite a long time in us. The fans have also asked for it. It is obvious - with our instruments, with our music. At the time the unplugged-trend rolled in the last years, we did not want to jump up on the train. This is so striking. That’s not our kind of style. There was also never enough time between the circle of studio – recording - touring - festivals. Anyhow the time was never to be found and now it was there. After the very cool Nord-Nord-Ost-Tour it has been exactly the right thing. It promised a lot of work, but it was also a new challenge.
As it is shown and will be shown today, it runs quite well. We really started with an unsafe feeling. Our audience is accustomed only loudly music by us. I know there are also a lot of Gothic people who also like the quiet songs. Nevertheless, it was not sure whether it would be alright, but it is and that makes me very glad. I think at least a song is a song. It makes no difference whether it is played with an E-guitar or on an acoustic guitar at least if the song works and it does.
The acoustic appearances which we have done in the past were different. In the evening we have played in a village hall and in the morning after we appeared around eleven in the bar to the early pint and then this was unplugged. These were the early times and it is not comparably with this tour.

How does this tour differ for you personally from the last ones?
First of all it differs in the physical strain. We are all sitting during the concert. Some people say that it is the only difference to our rock-shows, but there is natural already even more. There is also an amount of work in it. After the rock-show I am "torn in the ass" to say it in German. After a rock-show I can’t do anything more - then I also go out no more and during this tour I can already do this. The physical strain is - I can’t say like zero- but goes against zero. This is not a new experience for me, because I still have had a solo program, but it’s sometimes hard for me. I can’t say that this is absolutely the fulfilment, but it leads of course to the fact that I’m substantially more relaxed. I am a person, who sings with the whole body. Because of that I sometimes don’t know what to do with myself sitting on the chair.

In your tour diary you said that you all are still nervous before every concert. Besides, almost each of you has played hundreds of concerts in the past. Why are you still nervous?
Anyone of us had probably played rather thousand concerts. During the last years it became rather less. If the halls become bigger, you don’t have to play all over the country. It would be very bad if we weren’t nervous anymore. It is a dangerous virus - the return of the forever same. You need to be careful, that it is not getting to close to you. Fortunately, the band still wants to prove it every evening again - not only to ourselves, but also above all to the audience. They paid for some experiences. To see this task before us and not to know whether we can make it, nevertheless, this is enough reason for being excited. Of course we have a healthy self-confidence, but for me it is always a huge step, this last step on the stage.

When do you become calm?
I calm down with the first song. I don’t know exactly why. It is everything together. The welcome of the audience is very important. They are always euphoric and then I know I’m back at home - in the middle of my community. I can’t fail if the music is ok and this is probably the moment. Everything is alright then.

Your shows are famous for the spectacular effects like Pyros and stuff like that. What can we expect on the acoustic tour?
Nothing - the nice scenery is enough - the strength of the arrangements and the songs. Besides, we have a guest musician, whom we all like very much. I have played earlier with him, the cellist B.Deutung. He is also my personal favourite. All this is enough for the eye and before all things also for the ear. There is so much to discover that special effects aren’t necessary. Except a very static, but romantic light nothing is necessary there. I talked a lot with the audience and until now nobody has really missed it. Also without these elements no eye remains dry.

Many bands offer a live album after such a special tour. Can we expect one of your shows too?
We will shoot the concert in Berlin. There were already a few evenings on tour, on which I thought, we would have had to record. However, logistically it is much easier if we do it in Berlin. The film company is there and the sound company too. In addition, there we play in a church. This becomes maybe more nicely from the ambience. Then there will be a DVD and a CD. I also think this has to be preserved. It is good.

On the last album the piece ‘Das Rätsel II’ (‘The riddle II’) is found. Do you understand this rather than a homage to your fans or as a dig on all those “who have lived during the years as parasites in your fur”? (Comment: This is a line out off the song…)
There is no “or” in it. Maybe it is more evident than in some other songs. And to me the homage is more important. The dig is there, but to me it is not elementarily important. It is meant quite self-confidently and I think everybody can handle it.

The single ‘Sieben’ (‘Seven’) made it to the Media Control charts; the album to the sales charts. How important is this success to you? Have you forced this?
You can’t force it on your own. This goes out rather from the record company with more or less available means. Because there was only a minimum expenditure for promoting, this is, actually, a big success. The placement of the album in the sales-charts was even more important. There you can get only if you really have a quite loyal fan crowd which asks for the album in the first week. This has pleased me a lot and we all were really proud. This is also a small little piece of satisfaction. There is no equivalent for it, no measurable scale, but this is a nonrecurring experience.


Unfortunately, the matching video for ‘Sieben’ (‘Seven’) did not find its way to the heavy-rotation of the appropriate music-channels like MTV or Viva. Why have you generally made this video? Which hopes had you connected with it?
At our working-level it is quite normal making a video -although it is always a question of costs. Sometimes miracles happen and an editor likes the video and plays it. It would be a chance to advance new people. I think it would be very interesting. Sometimes I ask myself: Outside 500 people are already standing, who want to get in and then 500 come once more in the evening. All together 800 of them are aged under 20. It is incredible how young they are. I ask myself always, why are they here. Where from do they know us? Why do they like us and why are there still millions, which don’t find their way to our music. The answer is quite simple: because always something else is shown to them. They don’t have any possibilities to make their own decisions, to develop their own taste or to choose generally.
Maybe we could break through this vicious circle by such a rotation on a music-channel. It would be at least very interesting whether this could work or not. I think that we could persuade everybody. This is important for me. Now I don’t want to play in 5000th halls, but I think that we could also convince the people with our authentic and honest music. With lyrics that educate at last the consumers also in the sense that they begin to think about things they haven’t thought about yet. I think it is very important, that we are making no insignificant music. If we would not try to reach more and more people, it would be just end in itself.

Are you wishing you would have done more advertisement for the record and video?
No, we have to walk on the golden middle course. With too much advertisement you come fast to the discredit to be commercial. This is not a bad thing at all. However, the word is used with a bad smell. It is loaded. Meanwhile we earn our money with the music. This was always our purpose. We are living on what prepares us joy and what is our appeal. Not every band can say this of itself. However, we always have to decide what we are doing or not doing. Even if I want to stretch my look a little wide out, nevertheless, to me the core of the people who supported us for years is even more important.

In the approach of the tour there was an online survey on your website. The fans could vote which songs will be played on tour. Did you use the results for the set list?
To 70% this has already flowed in, but it would be nonsense to fix it in terms of percentage. We looked at the results and reacted to it. In many cases it has also corresponded with our ideas. Of course there were also represented many new songs beside of the classic ones. However, this is owed again of the novelty. We didn’t follow this way that much, but the classics which were there far in front are also to be heard on tour.

On the last album you published two very direct songs, ‘Eisblumen’ (‘frost flowers’) and ‘Feuerkind’ (‘fire child’). Which stories stand behind these songs?
These are two completely different songs, also from different composers. The lyrics of ‘Eisblumen’ (‘frost flowers’) are originally written by Ingo, although Bodenski stands underneath. The song without wanting to go now to the detail grounded of the special situation, in which Ingo has been at that time. This was also the reason, why the album has lasted so long. This is contained in the song. At last it is a hymn to the Gothic community, but there is already even more in it. ‘Schneekönigin’(‘Icequeen’) also belongs to this category. These things strongly occupied Ingo at that time.
‘Feuerkind’ (‘Fire child’) is a story of Bodenski which he often writes, but not every lyrics are so strong. This is one of his strongest. Reading it, I immediately had some ideas for the music. It was a special idea, to do a song about a pathological problem - pyromaniacs. But also to make it in this way that is a strength of Bodenski. Then I wrote a song on the guitar and worked out a piano-part with Gerit with whom I also do my solo program. Then it was already so touching that the whole band wanted to realise it.



The acoustic tour still runs until May. Then the festival season starts. This will occupy you until August. Which musical plans do you have for the rest of the year?
We will do a new record. We want it as fast as possible. This also needs its time. We already want to write some songs in the summer. It would be ideal if we could finish the record maybe at the end of the year and publish it in the next spring. But I can’t promise this. Therefore music in general is too unpredictable. We don’t have a general heading yet. We are rarely working this way. We have to wait and see. Who knows how we are doing in autumn. This can already become very astonishing. I do not know it yet and I am also curious.

How do you see the development of the medium internet, of the internet-magazines and above all internet-radios during the last years? Bodenski formulated some reproaches in one of the last interviews.
It opens new possibilities for everyone. You can use new canals. However, it happens that there in an interview people are sitting in front of you, who can’t close their mouths because they meet their star. They just used this possibility to be close to us. Now, maybe I do someone wrong with this sentence, but this is the extreme example. This is what Bodenski meant in that interview. You have to pay attention with whom you speak. In an interview the questions are very decisive and the preparation too. For an interview you need to know what we are doing at the time. Otherwise the results don’t show the truth or show a wrong picture of the band. This can’t be useful. I do not know how to solve this, but I can just appeal to the people that are working for the internet-radios and such sides to take it serious and to prepare for it.

Thank’s a lot for the interview and best wishes for the concert.

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