Interview with
Adrian Hates (Diary of Dreams)
Close to the release of the new album (if) a colleague of ours also did an interview with Adrian Hates to tickle even more information about the new release and more stuff out of him.
Question: The reason for this interview of course is the release of the new album and I noticed some things I find unusual but I’ll pick up this topic later again, so let’s start with the cover to the new album. When I saw the cover and the title for the first time my first thought was “If you take my hand, I will show you…” How close comes this theory to the intention behind the picture and if I’m quite close how you would finish that thought?
Adrian Hates (DoD): I believe theories in essence aren’t meant to be finished but to be continued or painted out but you shouldn’t finish theories on that note. Your interpretation is a very nice interpretation which I intended in parts. I think that the pose of the hand especially in combination with the title allows a plethora of interpretations. So there’s also a certain pleading, almost begging in the hand and especially in combination with the part of the cover you don’t know yet, that is, the background which is always connected on a DIARY OF DREAMS album. Front and background belong together and aren’t two separate components and I think that the pose definitely lures you into wanting to lay your own hand into it and of course that’s what it’s about. It’s also words like letting go, trust, care, and safety. These are words coming up with the gesture and the title of the album.
Adrian Hates (DoD): I believe theories in essence aren’t meant to be finished but to be continued or painted out but you shouldn’t finish theories on that note. Your interpretation is a very nice interpretation which I intended in parts. I think that the pose of the hand especially in combination with the title allows a plethora of interpretations. So there’s also a certain pleading, almost begging in the hand and especially in combination with the part of the cover you don’t know yet, that is, the background which is always connected on a DIARY OF DREAMS album. Front and background belong together and aren’t two separate components and I think that the pose definitely lures you into wanting to lay your own hand into it and of course that’s what it’s about. It’s also words like letting go, trust, care, and safety. These are words coming up with the gesture and the title of the album.
Q: We argued a lot to whom this hand might belong. Is it a band member or a model?
DoD: That’s a women’s hand and we have no women in the band! ;)
DoD: That’s a women’s hand and we have no women in the band! ;)
Q: We weren’t sure!
DoD: You weren’t sure (laughs). But if you would have asked a make-up specialist he would have laugh at you for saying that it’s a men’s hand. If one would take a really close look at my hands on photos, they would instantly see that it could never be. My hand is like a fryer compared to it and it’s definitely not Gaun:A’s or DNS’ hand either. Regarding the term model: I think it has something degrading, unpleasant! She’s an artist and at the same time a presenter, appearing in the video clip, in the booklet and as you already saw on the cover. She’s a dear friend and a very talented and gifted young woman. For us that was very enticing and when w saw the picture it was clear for us swiftly that we couldn’t get around this picture as cover.
DoD: You weren’t sure (laughs). But if you would have asked a make-up specialist he would have laugh at you for saying that it’s a men’s hand. If one would take a really close look at my hands on photos, they would instantly see that it could never be. My hand is like a fryer compared to it and it’s definitely not Gaun:A’s or DNS’ hand either. Regarding the term model: I think it has something degrading, unpleasant! She’s an artist and at the same time a presenter, appearing in the video clip, in the booklet and as you already saw on the cover. She’s a dear friend and a very talented and gifted young woman. For us that was very enticing and when w saw the picture it was clear for us swiftly that we couldn’t get around this picture as cover.
Q: Regarding the photo session. I’m not sure if these pictures belong to the new album or the video clip.
DoD: Both! It’s the same location where we did the photo shooting and then the video clip and it took us 3 days in total.
DoD: Both! It’s the same location where we did the photo shooting and then the video clip and it took us 3 days in total.
Q: Compared to the pictures in Nekrolog 43 these pictures are quite modest and the costumes and make-up so beautiful. Did you purposely want to set a contrast to Nekrolog 43 and who came up with the idea?
DoD: Already after the photo shooting to Nekrolog 43 we talked about what we wanted to do next. This builds up idea by idea and later, when everything is matured to a certain level, and then you talk to the photographer and graphic designer about how to realize everything graphically. The ideas for the clothes were ours and it was the same thing with ‘Nekrolog 43’. ‘Nekrolog 43’ was, concerning the photo shooting, a totally different thing than this one now. This time it was all freer; it was more a portraying, a presenting and to make nice, interesting pictures in which you portray the person so to speak. In Nekrolog 43 we all cut a figure, they didn’t embody us but made us a part of a whole concept; a whole story and alone the procedure’s already entirely different. We knew exactly what we wanted, wanted to have different states for every person with different rooms and we needed to choose the rooms beforehand and choose the tools as we called them. We had to plan everything to the last detail.
DoD: Already after the photo shooting to Nekrolog 43 we talked about what we wanted to do next. This builds up idea by idea and later, when everything is matured to a certain level, and then you talk to the photographer and graphic designer about how to realize everything graphically. The ideas for the clothes were ours and it was the same thing with ‘Nekrolog 43’. ‘Nekrolog 43’ was, concerning the photo shooting, a totally different thing than this one now. This time it was all freer; it was more a portraying, a presenting and to make nice, interesting pictures in which you portray the person so to speak. In Nekrolog 43 we all cut a figure, they didn’t embody us but made us a part of a whole concept; a whole story and alone the procedure’s already entirely different. We knew exactly what we wanted, wanted to have different states for every person with different rooms and we needed to choose the rooms beforehand and choose the tools as we called them. We had to plan everything to the last detail.
That wasn’t necessary this time. We still had to do lots of planning but on a different level. It wasn’t about what to cover exactly with the photo shooting; which different rooms, but rather a certain spectrum we wanted to cove. After we chose the location we were introduced to by Annie Bertram we first talked about what we wanted to do now and discussed a lot with Guido Fricke, who’s also the man doing the video clip! Then Tanja Bonensteffen did a lot of Making-Of photography of the photo- and video clip shooting, thus it was a very big, creative team working together here and also the working procedure was completely different to the one on ‘Nekrolog 43’ but also to the one of ‘Nigredo’. This is what really brings us joy when realizing he graphics and photos. That you’re not getting into the groove, you’re repeating over and over again, but that you really thing of something new for every new CD. This time also the contextual context; the meanings of the songs were much more private, personal, and fragile and that’s what I wanted to reflect in the pictures, so that there’s preferably less in them that’s having a distracting effect so that the musician, the person is the centre of interest.
Q: On all band pictures of this photo session you are three. Was it intended that way or was there changes to the line-up and will we see Torben or Taste playing on the upcoming tour or not?
DoD: Well, Torben has played all the Christmas concerts with us and Taste was also there. Taste is really busy right now and has very little time, thus he’s not active in the band for now and I can’t say right now if this will change again some day. Can be but not necessarily and Torben actually is a constant member; he never really left and he was always back from time to time and always when I was asked “Does he come back on stage some time?” then I said “Certainly. It will happen but I can’t say when” And now for instance it was a big surprise for many people because nobody was expecting it. It was clear that it would happen again and now the opportunity came along and then you’re doing it together. I know definitely there’ll be some more dates where Torben will be with us on stage again and there’ll surely appear the one or other new face as well but I won’t give away more right now.
DoD: Well, Torben has played all the Christmas concerts with us and Taste was also there. Taste is really busy right now and has very little time, thus he’s not active in the band for now and I can’t say right now if this will change again some day. Can be but not necessarily and Torben actually is a constant member; he never really left and he was always back from time to time and always when I was asked “Does he come back on stage some time?” then I said “Certainly. It will happen but I can’t say when” And now for instance it was a big surprise for many people because nobody was expecting it. It was clear that it would happen again and now the opportunity came along and then you’re doing it together. I know definitely there’ll be some more dates where Torben will be with us on stage again and there’ll surely appear the one or other new face as well but I won’t give away more right now.
Q: When I saw those beautiful pictures I had the feeling this album will become something really special. News said this album, as opposed to the last one, is no concept album. Are there song son the new album coming from earlier album sessions but didn’t fit into the conceptual frame of those albums or are all those tracks new ones?
DoD: All the songs on this album are brand new of course. Those aren’t old songs that didn’t fit onto the old albums. That would be insane and we don’t do such things. During and after the tour to ‘Nekrolog 43’ we needed and used every free minute to write new material, to work it out. I had a very exciting and emotional year 2008. I used the inspiration that came about for me to realize them in this album. We travelled a lot, I was sick for a longer time, I had a few other, private events which were pretty defining and they’ve found their home on this CD. But I would never use dumped material from an old album for a new. I couldn’t look at myself in the mirror anymore if I would do that. Sometimes you can pick up an old composition where you say “Hey, this was great but it wasn’t finished back then put it fits perfectly on the new album.” That happens sometimes, but it’s not like we would use dumped material for it. The conceptual ties you mentioned we had with ‘Nekrolog 43’ in combination with ‘The Plague’ or before with the trilogy ‘Giftraum’, ‘Nigredo’, ‘Menschfeind’. These were concepts and it was an amazing experience and a great challenge for us and we enjoyed working like this but we felt the need now to make a record without a conceptual frame, but where every song represents an own world.
DoD: All the songs on this album are brand new of course. Those aren’t old songs that didn’t fit onto the old albums. That would be insane and we don’t do such things. During and after the tour to ‘Nekrolog 43’ we needed and used every free minute to write new material, to work it out. I had a very exciting and emotional year 2008. I used the inspiration that came about for me to realize them in this album. We travelled a lot, I was sick for a longer time, I had a few other, private events which were pretty defining and they’ve found their home on this CD. But I would never use dumped material from an old album for a new. I couldn’t look at myself in the mirror anymore if I would do that. Sometimes you can pick up an old composition where you say “Hey, this was great but it wasn’t finished back then put it fits perfectly on the new album.” That happens sometimes, but it’s not like we would use dumped material for it. The conceptual ties you mentioned we had with ‘Nekrolog 43’ in combination with ‘The Plague’ or before with the trilogy ‘Giftraum’, ‘Nigredo’, ‘Menschfeind’. These were concepts and it was an amazing experience and a great challenge for us and we enjoyed working like this but we felt the need now to make a record without a conceptual frame, but where every song represents an own world.
That was the strategy for this album; to work freer and not to be bound by a concept A concept can be an incredible enrichment but some day you want to make records without a concept because when it becomes a motto, sort of a ritual then it’s not what we consider the right strategy because we want to surprise us and others.
Q: I’ve already listened to all snippets and already found some favourites. First one is ‘The Wedding’ with this dark atmosphere, then ‘Wahn!Sinn?’ and ‘King of Nowhere’. Which songs on the album are your favourites? And tell us a little bit about the genesis of the album and how you experienced that time?
DoD: It was an incredibly intense album. I handled some really private things and parallel to the touring spent a loot of time in the studio. I was either out playing concerts or at home working on the album in the studio and so my whole year actually consisted of music; active music making if you want. Musically and production-wise I worked together a lot with Daniel Myer of MKM Productions as I did already on ‘Nekrolog 43’ and also several times before and so the creative team in the preliminary stage comprised Daniel, Guan:A, and me. And we worked at different times and in different constellations and it was a very intense and very fast working. Later we were joined by Rainer Assmann who mixed the CD as usual and by Christian Zimmerli who did the mastering. Graphically we realized everything with Ingo Römling of Monozelle and Annie Bertram. And we were a big, varied team. Then we had many people counselling and supervising us. The whole Diary team, the sound guys, and Guido Fricke who’s on one hand responsible for the live sound and on the other does the video editing as well.
DoD: It was an incredibly intense album. I handled some really private things and parallel to the touring spent a loot of time in the studio. I was either out playing concerts or at home working on the album in the studio and so my whole year actually consisted of music; active music making if you want. Musically and production-wise I worked together a lot with Daniel Myer of MKM Productions as I did already on ‘Nekrolog 43’ and also several times before and so the creative team in the preliminary stage comprised Daniel, Guan:A, and me. And we worked at different times and in different constellations and it was a very intense and very fast working. Later we were joined by Rainer Assmann who mixed the CD as usual and by Christian Zimmerli who did the mastering. Graphically we realized everything with Ingo Römling of Monozelle and Annie Bertram. And we were a big, varied team. Then we had many people counselling and supervising us. The whole Diary team, the sound guys, and Guido Fricke who’s on one hand responsible for the live sound and on the other does the video editing as well.
He’s also done the DVD for instance and the same guy also did our video clip now, so you pretty much know what to expect and that is damn good work. The guy is really brilliant!!! For me it was very exciting to do this record as it is always. That’s actually the great thing about it; it never gets boring! And we all share your love for ‘The Wedding’. For us all it is an incredibly important and meaningful song. We all dig it. Everyone has their own favourites but personally I felt ‘Requiem 4.21’ to be very important for me thereafter. And ‘Wahn!Sinn?’ is definitely great. I’ absolutely agree with you here.
Q: Now I want to talk a little about the things I found a bit unusual about the album. Back then you always released a single first and then came the album. Why was it different this time? Couldn’t you go for one song?
DoD: I think there are more singles than ever on the album. But I find that the music market hardly allows a single nowadays; the market is so broken and clapped-out and the respective countries are so badly attuned to a single release that we decided to invest the time, the money, and especially the music differently. Of course we could have added two bonus tracks to a single again but I found it much better to place for bonus tracks on a Ltd. Edition. Much more people get something out of it that way, most of all everywhere in the world and not everybody buys a single and with a single you very often have the feeling of somehow sacrificing the music. And a double album or an album with a bonus disc to put it correctly comes to the attention of much more people. This time I just decided together with the guys to abandon the idea of a single and rather shot a video clip. And all things considered I believe that it was the best decision. The single format sadly isn’t very popular anymore and where is the point in doing it just to cling to nostalgia.
DoD: I think there are more singles than ever on the album. But I find that the music market hardly allows a single nowadays; the market is so broken and clapped-out and the respective countries are so badly attuned to a single release that we decided to invest the time, the money, and especially the music differently. Of course we could have added two bonus tracks to a single again but I found it much better to place for bonus tracks on a Ltd. Edition. Much more people get something out of it that way, most of all everywhere in the world and not everybody buys a single and with a single you very often have the feeling of somehow sacrificing the music. And a double album or an album with a bonus disc to put it correctly comes to the attention of much more people. This time I just decided together with the guys to abandon the idea of a single and rather shot a video clip. And all things considered I believe that it was the best decision. The single format sadly isn’t very popular anymore and where is the point in doing it just to cling to nostalgia.
Q: The video also is a highly discussed topic. If I’m not mistaken you’ve been against video clips as yet
DoD: No, I was never against video clips. I always said that I can only spend the budget I have in a certain way and I can’t knock up money that isn’t there. A few years ago a video clip was still much more expensive and much harder to realize. The technical possibilities have extremely evolved and furthermore a gifted technician joined the band a few years ago with Guido and with the DV we went riot a bit and within the scopes of the album works just talked about what we can do and of course a video clip can’t be done before the music is finished. In the last years we usually hadn’t much time after the music was finished and the photos were already done for over half a year, thus it just didn’t fit in the last years and the video clip just went to the dogs. But now you can say you could never place a video clip better on the internet and in other media than now. You can do so many things with a video clip without relying on TV.
DoD: No, I was never against video clips. I always said that I can only spend the budget I have in a certain way and I can’t knock up money that isn’t there. A few years ago a video clip was still much more expensive and much harder to realize. The technical possibilities have extremely evolved and furthermore a gifted technician joined the band a few years ago with Guido and with the DV we went riot a bit and within the scopes of the album works just talked about what we can do and of course a video clip can’t be done before the music is finished. In the last years we usually hadn’t much time after the music was finished and the photos were already done for over half a year, thus it just didn’t fit in the last years and the video clip just went to the dogs. But now you can say you could never place a video clip better on the internet and in other media than now. You can do so many things with a video clip without relying on TV.
And now we just had a great capacity and the perfect moment and could connect it perfectly with the photos and that’s why it was obvious and that’s why we did it. There was never a general ‘Yes or ‘No’. We always said it has to be really good and then we do it. But we don’t want to do things by halves.
Q: Are you planning a re-design of the official homepage for the new album?
DoD: I think the site somehow constantly changes in the last years and it will keep going on like this but there’s no fixed date when we say “Now it will look different!” It will happen someday and then we’ll announce it. But right now we want to concentrate on the more important elements like the promotion. I think the site is beautiful; it has lots of content and there are many things to discover and that’s why we focus on the more important topics that have to be finished for now.
DoD: I think the site somehow constantly changes in the last years and it will keep going on like this but there’s no fixed date when we say “Now it will look different!” It will happen someday and then we’ll announce it. But right now we want to concentrate on the more important elements like the promotion. I think the site is beautiful; it has lots of content and there are many things to discover and that’s why we focus on the more important topics that have to be finished for now.
Q: Now the work on the album is finished! Is everybody who worked on it satisfied with what you achieved? What did you get of the creation of the album personally? Maybe this is a pretty private question but maybe there are things you can tell us after all.
DoD: If the people who’ve worked on the album wouldn’t be satisfied then the album wouldn’t have been released. The essential condition for considering the work on an album finished is that we’re 100% happy and satisfied with it. That’s the one thing. The other of course is that work on this album was pretty intense; even though, compared to the previous albums it took less time to do it for an observer, though I had a different feeling. I’ve never worked so intensively on an album like on this one and I never started working on a new album so soon after finishing the last. Also I was lucky enough to work very creative and fast with a great circle of persons, thus work on the album in the first third; maybe even in the first half proceeded very easily. That said I don’t know what personal or private things I could tell you about the production.
DoD: If the people who’ve worked on the album wouldn’t be satisfied then the album wouldn’t have been released. The essential condition for considering the work on an album finished is that we’re 100% happy and satisfied with it. That’s the one thing. The other of course is that work on this album was pretty intense; even though, compared to the previous albums it took less time to do it for an observer, though I had a different feeling. I’ve never worked so intensively on an album like on this one and I never started working on a new album so soon after finishing the last. Also I was lucky enough to work very creative and fast with a great circle of persons, thus work on the album in the first third; maybe even in the first half proceeded very easily. That said I don’t know what personal or private things I could tell you about the production.
Q: I don’t mean the production itself but the creation o the songs.
DoD: The only thing I will tell you is that the core of the tracks always has a private and personal origin and that during the last year I used many things as a foundry, sat down, and wrote down a catalogue of questions so to speak which are important questions for my life regarding the past, present, and the future and from these questions I build 16 songs and for every song I packed a question inside a story so to speak.
DoD: The only thing I will tell you is that the core of the tracks always has a private and personal origin and that during the last year I used many things as a foundry, sat down, and wrote down a catalogue of questions so to speak which are important questions for my life regarding the past, present, and the future and from these questions I build 16 songs and for every song I packed a question inside a story so to speak.
Q: I find the idea pretty interesting and I’ll give it a serious consideration. Maybe I can create such a catalogue for myself as well?
DoD: I think it’s basically not a bad idea to write down the questions you have for yourself.
DoD: I think it’s basically not a bad idea to write down the questions you have for yourself.
Q: Your new tour starts very soon. Dou you have a mascot you always take with you or maybe sort of a tradition or ritual you celebrate before going on tour?
DoD: No, we just enjoy making the concerts. We don’t need any mascots and stuff. We’re our own mascots. The band as such on tour is great and we have lots of fun. I don’t need anything else, of course there’s a ritual before every tour: You pack your things; you rehearse and create the sets. These are indeed procedures resembling each other but it’s not like we do certain things before a tour starts; like drawing three crosses on my door or something. I pack my things, we meet and then we start the journey.
DoD: No, we just enjoy making the concerts. We don’t need any mascots and stuff. We’re our own mascots. The band as such on tour is great and we have lots of fun. I don’t need anything else, of course there’s a ritual before every tour: You pack your things; you rehearse and create the sets. These are indeed procedures resembling each other but it’s not like we do certain things before a tour starts; like drawing three crosses on my door or something. I pack my things, we meet and then we start the journey.
Q: Maybe the most important question for our readers. Are there already any fixed dates for shows in the Ukraine?
DoD: Well, I can say this once more now to everyone reading this. If the dates aren’t online on our site then there’s none! They’re maybe negotiated then but they’re not official and as long as they’re not official I can’t tell them. Otherwise they would be online!
DoD: Well, I can say this once more now to everyone reading this. If the dates aren’t online on our site then there’s none! They’re maybe negotiated then but they’re not official and as long as they’re not official I can’t tell them. Otherwise they would be online!
Q: I’m asking because there’s already information about dates and shows in Russia on various sites.
DoD: That’s not official though! These are speculations and no fixed dates. They can change. Everything can be totally different next week. Hence we won’t put them online as long as the dates aren’t fixed. First when they’re absolutely fixed you’ll read them online! Then you can be sure they’ll take place! And before that’s the case I won’t make any statement regarding this because I wouldn’t do anybody a favour if I’d say “This is the date for the next show” in Kiew for instance and then it changes and 200 people are sending me mails asking “Why did you say the concert will take place then or then if it isn’t the case?” The only thing I can say is: Check the dates on www.diaryofdreams.de regularly. There’s nothing else I can do. I’m not getting the dates before they’re official either.
DoD: That’s not official though! These are speculations and no fixed dates. They can change. Everything can be totally different next week. Hence we won’t put them online as long as the dates aren’t fixed. First when they’re absolutely fixed you’ll read them online! Then you can be sure they’ll take place! And before that’s the case I won’t make any statement regarding this because I wouldn’t do anybody a favour if I’d say “This is the date for the next show” in Kiew for instance and then it changes and 200 people are sending me mails asking “Why did you say the concert will take place then or then if it isn’t the case?” The only thing I can say is: Check the dates on www.diaryofdreams.de regularly. There’s nothing else I can do. I’m not getting the dates before they’re official either.
Interview by Daria Szegeda for Uagoth Community (http://uagoth.net/) and Ukrainian Underground Magazine SACRATUM / Translation by Sebastian Huhn
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