Interview/ Nachtgeschrei

Playing Metal with a touch of Mediaeval magic is nothing special in itself in Germany, which has experienced a veritable boom in bands taking their listeners back to the Middle Ages. But few of them have done so as intoxicating and mesmerising as Nachtgeschrei. A seven-member-army featuring a complete Metal line-up and a plethora of colourful acoustic instruments, they are setting stages on fire and making crowds sing, dance and celebrate all at once. Over the course of their 4-year career, the band have already released two albums, the latest of which, "Am Rande der Welt" (At the Edge of the World) was met with approval all over their native Germany. Which is an important asset. Because even though all members all have regular day jobs, they have made it a habbit to tour as often as possible and fill the entire country with their "nightly screams". We met up with Nachtgeschrei to talk about life on the road, rehearsals, bras, boobs and herding cats.

Hi! Could you shortly present yourself and your band?
Hi there, I'm Nik, I play bagpipes, flutes and other folky stuff for Nachtgeschrei, a medieval-folk-metal band from Frankfurt, Germany.

What was the feedback for your last album in Germany like?
The general feedback for "Am Rande der Welt" is quite good. The people like our new songs and the more straightforward, rocking attitude of our last release. We got a lot of very good reviews and feel very happy and proud of it. It was fun recording but now that we take the new material out onto the stages it definitely is great to play. But all this is still the beginning of Nachtgeschrei and our second album, so we hope that you will hear much more from us in the future!

There's quite a lot of you in the band. Are you getting any headaches organizing rehearsals and shows?
Absolutely. Organizing seven musicians (who are, by some strange natural law, a bunch of maladjusted individualists) is like herding cats, absolutely mind-wrecking. When we're on the road, the touring party consists of nine people making it even harder to getting things done. The only way to cope with these things is to have a team that works hard and with passion. Everybody gives their everything.

Was it evident for you that the lyrics would be written in German? Don't you think it creates a gap with the non-German speakers?
Not really. Initially we started writing in German because it gives us a freedom of expression and integrity we (as non-native speakers) would hardly have writing in English. Apart from that, we feel that a German name as well as writing in German suits a band with a certain medieval, slightly gothic dark-ages touch well. Perhaps it is a bit weird for non-German speakers but we think it could also give the whole thing a more edgy appeal.

You're singing about Freedom. Do you think nowadays human beings in our
modern societies are still free?
It depends on how you define freedom- for me, freedom is freedom of addictions and dependencies, be it drugs, technology, habits or abusive relationships. To be able to fulfil your needs, to be true to yourself and your believes and live the way that feels right for you is the freedom I need for myself and what we sing about.

Are you regularly on tour?
Since we can't live from our music we all have a day job and can't go on a continuing tour for months. Nevertheless, we spend most our weekends on the road cramped into our small bus, so that you guys can see us all over the year, all across the country.

Your best souvenir on stage?
Hmm... don't really know. My favourite souvenir is perhaps a jerrycan of finest mead from a festival in Bavaria. But Sane (one of our guitar-players) told me to mention bras thrown onto our stages by pretty girls in the audience- so there you go: we like bras and booze- but who doesn't? You can make us very happy by giving us more of both! My favourite souvenirs nevertheless are the memories of all the crazy things we do and the strange places we go. It's a privilege to be able to travel around, making music and see things through a different eye, from snow covered mountains to the cold waves of the North Sea.

By Guillaume Dulhoste

Homepage: Nachtgeschrei
Homepage: Massacre Records