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Interview with

A Life [Divided]

This band was supporting EISBRECHER during their latest tour. Our partner radio channel MORITURI TE SALUTANT had the chance to talk with several band members before and after the show in Bochum.


Part I - Interview with JP (Jürgen Plangger)

Radio Morituri [RM]: Hello, here is Radio Morituri and we’re guests of…
A Life [Divided] [ALD]: EISBRECHER and A LIFE DIVIDED.

RM: Welcome! Let’s start with the fist question. You are guitarist within EISBRECHER and now you have a side project with A LIFE DIVIDED. How do you arrange these both projects?
ALD: That works quite well. We have not that much touring stress with A LIFE DIVIDED at the moment and no pressure according appointments because we do not have a label. So you can arrange things quite well and it brings a lot i.e. like today. We are here in Bochum and support EISBRECHER, a thing you are happy about.

RM: Where do you get your inspiration from and how is work divided within the band?
ALD: I am doing the lyrics, I am the singer and it is important for me that I am delivering also the lyrics. Where it come from… I don’t know. It just comes out. I am not searching for themes, the themes find me and then I write them down on a sheet of paper. Mostly it is some kind of dark stuff. I am asked quite often why it always has to be something depressing. I don’t know for myself because I am usually not a depressing man and not always sad. But somehow it is always the dark side that fascinates me and which I find that important that I have to express it.

RM: Let the dark force be with you! Little joke… Who is doing the musical part in the band?
ALD: I do that together with Eric who could not join us live because he does not like touring. So far we both do the music.



RM: How did it come to the current line-up of the band?
ALD: In our region we’re some kind of “all-star” band because anyone had other projects and bands. We all knew somehow. As the other bands “faded away” we just said, let’s do something together and exactly that we did and since than it works quite well – for four years now.

RM: Do you have any musical idols? I don’t expect you saying EISBRECHER now, I would not take that.
ALD: Well, I was educated with METALLICA; I can remember that my sister copied ‘Write the Lightnings’ for me when I was 9 and then I was listening to ‘Fire with Fire’ on repeat. Back than it was just rewinding the tape. There was no “repeat” button. METALLICA is the band who brought me to music. Besides that, I nowadays listen to anything. The older you get the more open you are and you also accept the calmer tunes such as TORI AMOS i.e., and I am a real big fan of DEPECHE MODE. That’s really very mixed.

RM: How is it with the other band members? Are there some glaring musical differences in the band, i.e. is someone only listening to 80s stuff etc.?
ALD: No. The good thing is that really anyone has a wide musical horizon and I think you hear that in our music. Of course anyone has his priorities. Our drummer is more on the hard side… he looks like that as well. Toni is also a big TORI AMOS fan. I am more the popper I would say. I can also listen to a SUGARBABES record and love it. Mike is more the 80s guy even though he’s listening to current stuff too. It’s hard so say, anyone has his tendencies and they melt quite well and overall we can say we have a very wide musical horizon.

RM: Do you support the whole EISBRECHER tour? If so, what’s with Moscow? And how do you prepare?
ALD: Moscow is something out off the tour. A LIVE DIVIDED are doing the whole tour so far but Moscow that’s only EISBRECHER. That will be a highlight; I am looking very much forward to it. When else do you have the chance to go there?



RM: A very stupid question, you surely know “German Idol”. I don’t want to say anything about Dieter Bohlen, but what do you think about this exaggerated casting show?
ALD: Well, who wants to do it should do it and who wants to watch it should watch it. I am not a militant antagonist. That’s a TV thing. The musical output does not endure. There is a CD and that’s it! You don’t hear anything else from those people. That’s why I do not care about it at all. The first casting I usually find quite funny when so mane people make a fool of oneself. There are so many people thinking they belong there… but after that it gets boring very fast. But anyway, who want to watch it should do so.  

RM: What can we expect from you in future?
ALD: When we’re back home we concentrate again on new songs, go back into the studio to work on our third record. In the meantime we also found a producer who will care about us and we also hope to find a label or sponsor so we can go a step forward. That’s how it looks at the moment.

RM: Is there something at the end what you want to tell our listeners?
ALD: No, I think they know very well what they are doing ;)


Part II - Interview with Tony

RM: Hello, here’s again Radio Morituri and I got a hold of another member of A LIFE DIVIDED, and that’s…
ALD: Tony. I am the guitar player of A LIFE DIVIDED and I am very glad about being here. Hello.

RM: How did you like the show?
ALD: To be honest, this was the highlight of our tour so far as support band. Any city was great but I must say that Vienna and Bochum were best. Today in Bochum I liked it that much that I had some alcohol for the first time of the tour. Sorry dear listeners, but Bochum rules! Thank you!

RM: Honestly, where do you see the band in five years?
ALD: I don’t know. Hopefully we have the status EISBRECHER have now. That we play as headliner… or that we are on tour with EISBRECHER still in five years what it is fun! Thank you!




Part III - Interview with Toby and Jürgen

RM: Again here is Radio Morituri and after the show I have here in the interview…
ALD: Toby and Jürgen of A LIFE DIVIDED.

RM: I just want to know how much your music is influenced by Jürgen because he’s guitar player in EISBRECHER. How much does that take influence on your band?
ALD – Jürgen: At the moment it influences us a lot but in a positive way. Means only due to that reason we can support EISBRECHER on tour what is a big thing for us and we could not do it otherwise. If we have time problems some when then we have to judge what’s more important. But at the moment it is a big thing for us, thanks a lot to EISBRECHER for giving us the possibility and chance. We really appreciate it, so many thanks.
ALD – Toby: According the music it is the fact with Jürgen that he still writes his own songs and realises his ideas and I believe, that A LIFE DIVIDED is running totally independent from EISBRECHER and if there should be any overlapping sometime than you have to check what’s best.

RM: That was my question, how Jürgen takes influence on the band at the moment because he is guitar player in EISBRECHER. That’s more German lyrics; with your band you’re doing English lyrics. There is some influence, question is which one.
ALD – Jürgen: Me and the other song writer, who does not want come touring, we brought some influence to the last record. Musically I don’t see many differences. Of course we are more spherical than EISBRECHER but I think that complements one another quite well. Anything that does not fit with us you can use for EISBRECHER or the other way round.

RM: I’ve seen your show and I was quite excited. Usually support bands are not that good, but I did really like you. But somehow I got the impression you’re a bit more electronic. I don’t know how you see that. In my eyes it is a contradiction to EISBRECHER.
ALD – Jürgen: Honestly spoken, I don’t see it that way. I find EISBRECHER with its “Neue Deutsche Härte” (New German Hardness) attitude are a band with lots of electronic influences. Well, Noel and Max basically are real House people who love Electro. Maybe we are a bit more spherical and it is more obvious in our band, but otherwise I think it is quite balanced.

RM: Your Opinion…
ALD – Toby: Well, I think the same way. I think if you would listen to the Hard Disk Recorder or keyboard work separately than you wouldn’t hear much of a difference to our work. It only sounds different with us and it is also fact that EISBRECHER sound much more brute than A LIVE DIVIDED. While we are a bit more of “Girl’s Music” EISBRECHER is something for the hard boys.

RM: A LIVE DIVIDED has a quite young band structure compared to EISBRECHER when I count your average age and the one of EISBRECHER. Where do you see yourself in the band when you sometime have reached the average age of EISBRECHER?
ALD – Toby: Hard to say, but I hope at least at the same level, if not even higher. Of course you have to hang on and wait how anything develops but it would be very nice if it goes that way. No idea. We don’t get any younger and music scene develops as well and not always to our best, and there is not always room for a band like A LIVE DIVIDED. But let’s see what the next weeks, months and years will bring. Maybe we are ready than.

RM: I had a talk earlier with Jürgen alone and I know that you’re not part of the big festivals at the moment. What is planned?
ALD – Toby: What’s planned? Maybe a good question to Jürgen. It is fact that at the moment not very much is planned besides some small festivals and a small show, means some gigs but nothing besides that.




Part IV - Interview with Kori

ALD – Kori: Hello, here is Kori of A LIVE DIVIDED and I greet Radio Morituri.

RM: How did you like the concert?
ALD – Kori: One of the best shows of my career I must say.

RM: Tonight, you all travel together to Berlin. Afterwards, as far as I know, the tour is over. What do you think about the whole tour?
ALD – Kori: I must admit that I was not sure at the beginning of the tour what it would be like. I am very positively surprised how good the tour went, how full the venues were and the crowning finish was here at the Matrix in Bochum. Well, I could jack off, so great was it! Are you allowed to send something like this in the radio?

RM: Well, yes, after 22:00 it is no problem ;)

Interview held in German by Jana Konopatzki of Radio Morituri; editorial work by Sebastian Huhn, translation by Daniela Vorndran.
Pictures by Markus Nathofer
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