Diary of Dreams - January 2007 (Part I)

Interview with

Adrian Hates of DIARY OF DREAMS

After the release of the last regular studio album ‘Nigredo’ DIARY OF DREAMS went onto an extended tour, where besides the live CD ‘Alive’ also the live DVD ‘Nine in Numbers’ was recorded which in the end found its way to the shops in November 2006. In the first part of our interview we talked about the DVD, the progress in making a new record which shall be released sometime at the end of this year, as well as about touring in general and touring through the USA in special.
http://www.diaryofdreams.de/ / http://www.myspace.com/diaryofdreams

Your recently released the DVD ‘Nine in Numbers’. Could you give us some details about the DVD?
To begin with, I would say that the DVD is a personal review for us onto a very long tour which was extending over nearly two years. It describes our impressions and experiences. That’s why it has become a portentous piece full of memories, also because we as a group were welded together even stronger. It was an unbelievably beautiful tour. The most beautiful one in my life! For the DVD it was very important for us according the content that it deviates from the norm and contains the quality standard which we demand from ourselves. That means that we also wanted a lot of extras on the DVD. And especially, we wanted to show a well sounding and good looking concert with very nice light. This was a big deal. According the sound, we made the DVD together with Guido Fricke from Audion-x who is sensationally good when it comes to his work. Then, we put all the nice cuts and fragments as well as the bonus material together with him into one context. This all took much longer than we expected and as we had hoped for.

Originally, you planned to record and release the show in Essen, as far as I know. On the DVD you finally released the Magdeburg show…
That’s not totally right. We never had a particular plan; we just said that we want to record different locations. And from the material we look at then and listen to, we want to make a decision. We recorded in Magdeburg, Essen and Frankfurt; but in Frankfurt it was only sound. In Essen I still missed something. Personally, I had something to find a fault with.

And what was that?
That’s hard to describe. It’s just a gut instinct. I just look at it and tell myself, this can be better. And Magdeburg had exactly what I wanted. Magdeburg was also the last show of the tour. Usually you might think that you are at the end of your rope after so many concerts. And you always have to keep that in your mind when looking at the concert. We had completed, I think it were 34 shows, day after day and then we recorded the DVD on the very last day. Just try to re-produce that – still having a voice, still having condition, still having motivation and also still having fun in what you’re doing after so many concerts with only three off-days during the whole tour. You only can do that when you have joy at this stuff and not because you think you make the big money. You don’t go just out doing a job there.



I also can imagine that the last show of a tour is something very special according the mood. There are many fans who especially drive to the last show of a tour just to see THEIR band once again. And than, the mood is much more explosive.
Definitely! Very often, you call the last show of a tour also fool’s day where tricks are played.

Did you have that too?
Yes, but backstage. Of course it does not work that you go on stage bearing some uncertainty on you because you know that some gag with you will happen soon. You cannot do that when you are just recording a DVD. We brought our fool’s day forward, but that also was very nice (laughs).

What happened?
I won’t tell you; whether you were there or not. You have to experience it or not. We did not have our fool’s day on stage this time but in the bus. And anything happening behind the bus doors is a secret anyway (laughs).

I can understand that very well. ;) Why have you decided to finally release the DVD in November 2006 short before Christmas? Was it just because the DVD was ready than? I mean, it just took very long after the tour until the DVD was ready finally…
It was not planned like this. Originally we wanted to release the DVD a year earlier. But things need the time they need. There were also many… well, I don’t want to call it complaints… but urgent demands from fans when the DVD will be available. Well, of course we could have released it a year earlier but I think that the result would not have been legitimate at that time… I wanted to do the content like I imagined it for myself with no need to be ashamed after five years. And I think the DVD is now worth its (small) money. We’ve put lots and lots of love, lots and lots of effort and lots and lots of time into making this DVD…

And according to the reactions of your fans it was worth it!
Yes! Luckily, the fans are very happy and that makes us very proud! It is very good to finally have the DVD ready. It was a very hard process. Audio is my world… then I can do everything on my own, I can work for my own in the studio and at the end I can present a result which I created on my own without constant complications and problems… moving images are a dream! But if I should do something like this again, it would be an own movie… low budget… and go ahead!

What would a movie you would do, deal with?
I definitely would do a thriller/horror movie living more from its atmosphere than from a certain story line. My story probably would deal with fucked up people and conspiracies - bizarre apocryphal worlds that collide.

That sounds very interesting and would be something new for you. The DVD did not demand that much from you in creative aspects.
That’s exactly the point! Since ‘Menschfeind’ nearly no new sound! Then you’re longing for making music and you cannot manage it because there is so much else to do… horror!



Recently, you’re just back in the studio to record new material. Could you please tell us more about it? Of course we’re especially curious about the date when the good piece will be finished.
This time I can be relatively sure when I say that the process of creation went forward with a speed which I don’t know in that way. Usually I am much slower (laughs). And much much much more gingerly. This time, it goes forward very well and anything is of one piece – What I never had expected. Half of the songs are nearly ready. For me, this is enormous! The computer is full of approaches and ideas; the discs and papers are full with concepts. For quite a while, I now only concentrate on the new album for 100% and I think that it will be ready in summer. And then in late autumn ‘til early winter – definitely in the second half of the year, more likely in the last quarter – the album will be released. I won’t specify it more and I don’t take any guaranties – as always no responsibility is taken for the correctness of this information (laughs). But I very hard aim for that because there has a lot of time passed since ‘Nigredo’ and I really want to release a new album. We also want to plan a tour…

That sounds very good! Your fans will be very glad when the new album will be finished soon.
I try to! Promised! All in all, there are ten songs which soon should be finished!

That’s nearly enough for an album! How many songs you want to do all in all? Or is there no special goal?
I want to do twenty, just to pick out thirteen of it – just the best so to say!

And what happens with the rest of the songs?
I don’t know yet. That depends on how much I like the rest. Whether it will disappear in the bottom of the deck (what would not happen for the first time) or I use them for something different. During ‘Nigredo’ we also wrote ‘Menschfeind’. I thought it won’t fit to ‘Nigredo’ and so, we decided to use it for the end of the trilogy. For the trilogy, we wrote thirty songs all in all. That was a real marathon! We worked 2.5 years! Madness! Very likely, there won’t be a mini album this time but rather a new album which won’t be a long time coming this time. But who knows? Probably I’ll use the remaining songs as download-pieces? Who knows, who knows…

Shall the planned tour happen following right after the album release?
Yes, it will happen directly following the release. But I think that we first tackle foreign countries and than, at the beginning of next year, a huge German part will follow before we go for more shows abroad.

Do you have any ideas yet where you want to play? Maybe somewhere you have not been so far?
No, we first – of course – will do all the countries we have been so far, and that’s about 25 countries yet. This tour will probably last about two years, and that’s damned good that way! For us, touring if one of the mist beautiful things! I have said it before, it is something of vacation. But on the other side it is more intense. And who is going to have vacation with all his best friends so regularly?

Have you experienced that people in different countries react different to you and that the shows run totally different?
That’s a frequently asked question, isn’t it (laughs)? Luckily, I don’t have to describe the differences of the scenes now; I think it’s far-fetched to describe something like that. But of course the audience reacts differently. I just think an audience here, what is sensationally true and beloved – there is no negative aftertaste in it – is surely different to an audience that catches a sight of us only every five or ten years. That audience of course reacts different. It’s a bit like if you only get food once a week. You are more excited and you want it now! You are totally hyper and you celebrate as there is no tomorrow – like in Moscow or South Africa, but also in Greece or South America. Also some shows in North America were absolutely fantastic – I just think of New York. Or also South Africa. Anyway, there were so many concerts when you say those were something very special and you can feel that people don’t see you that often.



Do you also have contact to your fans after the shows?
Every time! There is actually almost no show where we don’t go to the audience afterwards because I think that you owe a certain attention to a true audience. I hope we can do that eternally. Of course, this depends on how our audience develops. But so far, we always did it with great joy and devotion; we talked to the fans, answered one or another question or were available for a photograph or an autograph.

I can imagine that the fans are very thankful therefore. You don’t see something like that too often nowadays.
Yes, sadly fewest bands do that. You could have seen it i.e. lately in Chemnitz where we were occupied just 2.5 hours after the concert. I think, as a musician you should be there for your audience every now and then. I find it interesting and good as it is. I actually take that for granted.

Just back again to North America – after an eight years break you went back there on tour in 2006. Why did it take so long until you toured the states again? Which impressions did you have on tour?
Basically it is fact that I handed over the full booking to someone else in 1998. Before, I was partly integrated. I think this is a very exhausting job, well, it is really a whole daily job you are doing additionally. Sometime you just work for administrating a band and you forget that there some when won’t be any band if you only do that. So it happened that I decided that I don’t want to deal with the booking anymore. From this time, I was not really included in booking decisions anymore. Of course I can give impulses, I can comment, I can include myself in negotiations and make recommendations. The bottom-line is that there are countries which are easier to manage and some that aren’t that easy. Sadly, the USA are an extremely complicated country. There are i.e. many bands that don’t do their tours due to the legal rules, I just say that discreetly. And there are bands that do it like we do it – everything in an airtight way so that anything is legal. I don’t want to get a three years lasting ban to enter the USA just because I did a concert that was not allowed.