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Interview with:

Dr Pymonte

 



 

German medieval rockers „In Extremo“ recently released their record “Mein rasend Herz” (My raging heart), continuing their mission to spice up medieval music – or to “medieval up” rock, you take your pick. The band has been around for nearly ten years now, since this particular scene started evolving in Germany, and is made up of two fractions: the rock fraction, with a drummer, a bass player and a guitarist, and a medieval fraction, with three bagpipe/shawm players. Somewhere in the middle there is also the singer, who also plays medieval instruments. 7 men and a horde of instruments, the band uses also instruments like the hurdy-gurdy, harp, different medieval shawms, flutes, cittern, dulcimer, mandolin, tromba marina, nyckelharpa and so on and so on. A recent addition is uillean pipes, to be heard on the song “Liam”.

Dr Pymonte, who plays the harp, bagpipes and shawm, had the time to answer a few questions on the phone from Berlin before summer vacation kicked in.



You’re not that famous outside of the German-speaking countries, try to describe what In Extremo is about for someone totally oblivion to the German medieval music scene! And say it in English too…


"I have to say it in English?! Hehe, ok! For the English guys: It’s difficult... we have a black humour. What we do is a fusion between 2 different styles of music; medieval instruments and lyrics and so on and mix it with modern instruments. That’s what In Extremo is about."

The new record has been out for a while now – how was it received?

"It was released at the end of May and was recevied really well; we entered at number 3  in the Media Control Charts and the single (“Nur ihr allein”) got rotation on VIVA 1! Now we want to have a go at the rest of Europe, and will release the CD in most European countries, in the Benelux-countries, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Portugal and so on. We’ve played – or will play - all the big German festivals this year, for instance Rock am Ring. Our own concerts have also grown bigger since the release of our last album, “7”, and now we have about 3000-3500 people at every concert."

How do you find the CD now, a few months later?

"Very good! The newest CD is always the best one! Having new material again is good, to be able to play new and fresh songs. At some point it becomes a matter of habit to play the old songs, and that’s never good."

Do you have a favourite amongst the new songs?

"Many! It’s hard to say… No, I don’t want to have to make up my mind about it."

I’ve seen that the non-German speakers seem to prefer „Raue See“ or „Horizont“, whilst the German fans prefer „Liam“, but sung in Gaelic. Do you have any explanation to this?

"Maybe it’s a matter of the form of music; people abroad often like trashrock or more punky stuff than what they do here. “Raue See” has a tint of trash rock, whilst “Horizont” is a bit punk-rocky. “Liam” is a very beautiful song, the Gaelic just sounds lovely and very melancolic, I think it just suits the German audience better."


I like the title of the CD, „Mein rasend Herz“ (“My raging heart”), a lot, but is there something more to it than just being the title of the CD and of one of the songs?


"The title was chosen because of the song and has a lot to do with the exact phase of time that In Extremo were in at the time; very active, lots of partying etc. It’s the ultimate powersong."

There are many guest musicians onboard, this time around too... Rea from Reamon, Marta from Die Happy and Robert from the old Inchtabokatables (the Inchies for short). How did that come about?

"We do this every time, and we like doing it! To have guest musicians along is generally a very nice thing. We are very open for other styles of music, and of including styles of other musicians. Reamon does pop, but very beautiful pop songs. Rea fit perfectly to us, as did Marta. “Horizont” really turned out great! We know Robert privately from old times, he used to play in the Inchtabokatables, a band that sadly doesn’t exist anymore, but they used to be very well known. He’s got the true  spirit of a minstrel. Sympathy also enters into it when we choose who we want to cooperate with."

"This time we have a song that is sung in Irish Gaelic (“Liam”), and Rea comes from Ireland. Not all the Irish speak Gaelic anymore, but he does speak some. He still had to call his mother, that speaks the language fluently, several times during the recordings to check up on the  correct pronounciation. We always have people that help us with the pronounciation of foreign or old lyrics."

The band arranged some pre-listening parties for fans back in May. How did they react to the new album?

"Very good, I must say! We rented some old castles and made the most out of the setting; with food, drinks and in some cases also guest musicians, and then we played the new record for the audience and showed the “making of…” film. There were about 200-300 people at each party, and then we just mingled with the crowd, beer in hand and chatted. We have to take care of our fans; they are the ones that made us into what we are today!"

The video to „Nur ihr allein“ is rather funny – where did the idea come from?

"We are just showing the world who we really are! We didn’t want to make one of those artsy videos, but just show what we are really like: sincere, heartily - pranksters of good mood and with humour. We’ve dedicated the lyrics of the song to our fans, as a way of saying “thank you” to them."



Once again you are being accused of making music only to make money, that you have “sold out” your ideals, partly because of the choice of “Nur ihr allein” as the single, that is sounds too much like die Toten Hosen, and also partly because you now get airplay on MTV and VIVA1. Is that just jealousy and pettyness, or have you honestly gotten too commercially inclined?


"We don’t feel that we’ve “sold out”, that’s just rubbish! Each and one has to figure out for themselves whether it has anything to do with jealousy or pettyness. It happens as we get bigger and thus are more in the media, when we’re being showed at VIVA. I find it good, though: we’re just a small independent band, but we’ve still gotten a platform for our music, and people can see and hear us. I personally never watch VIVA or MTV, hip-hop isn’t my thing *laughs* but it is good that we are represented!"

"As for “Nur ihr allein” and die Toten Hosen…. that’s a matter of taste. It’s ok that people think so, but people always seem too fast with making comparisons. We make music to be In Extremo, not to be compared to other bands! We just make simple songs… Well, that’s what die Toten Hosen do too, so maybe the comparison isn’t too far-fetched and we are rather alike, afterall."

The second single will be released on the 15th of August. What can we expect, will there for instance be new b-sides?

"The German version of Liam will definitely be on it, along with a “making of”-clip of the video to “Horizont”, that we shot yesterday. We recorded too may songs to fit onto the album, so we have something special in store: the continuation and closure of the song “Spielmannsfluch”, called “Der Spielmanns Wiederkehr” (the return of the minstrel). But the tracklist isn’t 100% finished yet."

You’ve made rather a few albums within a relative short period of time. Where do you find the inspiration to your albums?

"The inspiration is always the desire to produce a new record. There’s a lot of work to it; we research, try to find something that thematically fit to the other songs, with the lyrics and such. We don’t want to make any sudden and dramatical changes of style."

Where do you find the non-German traditional songs? I’ve heard that you listen to the Norwegian folklore artist Agnes Buen Garnås, for instance.

"We’re always on the lookout, either online, in libraries, in old books and so on. Agnes Buen Garnås made a record together with Jan Garbarek, didn’t she? There are many interesting themes there, old myths and so. I find that very interesting."

The middle ages has turned into big business a long time ago, at least in Germany, and there are gazillons of medieval fairs, concerts and whatnot…


"That’s all just crap, there’s nothing nice or remotely authentic about it anymore! I’ve been involved with medieval music and happenings for the last twelve years, and there are now so many events where the organisers just take a lot of money to let you into a market where you can buy expensive crap. And the cultural aspect of those markets is also nothing but crap."

... but where does this fascination of an era where most people weren’t even free stem from?

"I think it’s a way of fleeing the reality. It isn’t just easy today, the world isn’t easy to handle and everything moves so fast.The minstrels were the newspapers and tellys of the middle ages, and that appeals to people. But they were hard times to live in too. I think it has to do with the attitudes to life and to surviving, that we are too controlled and that society is far too complex today."



Where do you see In Extremo in 5 years’ time?

"Then we’ll be rich and famous! *laughs* No, we’ll keep on making music… as long as it makes sense and is fun, we’ll keep on!"

There are rumours going around about another acoustic record from the „medieval fraction“ of the band…Are there any solid plans, or are those just castles in the air?

"We are working on it, in between everything else. Sadly, it goes rather slowly; we simply don’t have a lot of time. One is rather knocked out after a rock concert and then the days simply don’t have enough hours!"

Of all the eight albums so far, which is your personal favourite?

"The new one! Remember, always the new one…!"

You had a European tour planned for the spring, but it had to be cancelled. Will it be rescheduled? And how does it look for fans outside of Europe?

"I hope it will be rescheduled! Nothing is determined as of now, but we just couldn’t squeeze the dates in one by one in between the festivals this summer, and we start our tour of Germany this autumn. We are working on it, though! Also with dates outside of Europe. We might be playing in South-America, maybe the US and Mexico, maybe even in Asia!"

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