DIE APOKALYPTISCHEN REITER - OFFICIAL WEBPAGE

Payo Magazine (Czechia) 1999

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INTERVIEW - DIE APOKALYPTISCHEN REITER (for PAYO MAGAZINE, CZECH
REPUBLIC)

First of all, greetings. As your fan, I´m honoured to interview your
band. I wish to made this interview a title issue of the next number of
our zine, so you´re welcome to say as much as you like. Thanks.

Although your´re probably known all over the world, there´s not much of
you in Czech press, so let´s get it straight. Let’s start from the
beginning - May 1996, "Firestorm" demo. How do you explain the success
it had?

I think it was very crazy at that time. Nobody mixed up Grindcore and Piano stuff in that way we did. I think, people felt, hey yeah, that sounds different than everything I have in my CD collection. I really believe, that you must innovate, if you want become more than just a number. DIE APOKALYPTISCHEN REITER were and are fucked up sound philosophers, who don’t care about anything and maybe that was honoured by the audience.

Wasn´t it the wave of interest in black metal?

Not really. We never titeled us as Black Metal Band, but people heared screaming vocals and expected, whow, this must be Black Metal. By the way, we never did any satanic stuff, no lyrics, no symbols in that way, so it seems, people follow the wrong path.

December 1997, debut CD "Soft & Stronger" under ARS Metalli. The record
that made you famous and that is hailed as cult by many. Certainly it
brought an original element into the scene - was it intention or a
coincidence of your different musical tastes?

Well, this difference lives inside of the band, cause we are the difference. If you mix up a Punk Noise Freak, a Death Metal Freak, a true Metal head and a Classic Music and Gospel Lover you can have two possible chances: 1) you are gay 2) you are the ultimate team to create thing never been heared before. Hope you will vote for Number 2.

1998, "Dshinghis Khan" what were the reasons for releasing the vinyl
and what´s your attitude to vinyl in general?

This was just an idea and because we knew the studio guy (Andreas from Golem) very good, we recorded it. Of course it was a bit a nostalgic feeling to have a vinyl in the hands, but it was more meant to shorten the time between “Soft “ and “Allegro” CD. Sadly the the Ep was delayed very much, so it was released just 2 months before that “Allegro” cd. So the half time chart breaker turned out into an appetizer. And the blood red vinyl looks more like Barbie Pink. The EP was repressed in black vinyl, but sadly the Ep is now totally sold out.

1999 ? CD "Allegro Barbaro", ARS Metalli ? a step forward again. What
was it like working on it also knowing the not very pleasant situation
under ARS Metalli?

Hope I didn’t misunderstand you here. We had never any hard feelings if it came to Ars Metalli. We knew, that they were a small label, but they always supported us as much as they could. During the recording and songwriting process we never speculated about a changing the label at all, it was just our second CD we had and wanted to record. They songwriting process was more hectic than on the debut, maybe also because we knew, that people await now something good from us. But I think, we managed it very good and “Allegro Barbaro” turned out great.

2000 ? CD " All you need is love",Hammerheart rec. ? I heard you were
contacted by the label on Wacken Open Air ’99. What does it look like when a
label contacts you - a huge dude bids you to sit down in a limousine
nearby where the boss offers you to sign the contract ...?

No no, it was more like selling drugs on the steets haha. We were totally drunk in the backstage and suddenly a guy came to us and told us “hey, there are the guys from hammerheart records, they wanna talk with you”. Well, luckily for us, we had our ultra-black sunglasses on board, so the meeting was really cool. We didn’t ask that much, Guido from Hammerheart told us, that we are great and they he could imagine to sign us. We told him, if we sign to a dutch label, we want marihuana for free for life time and sometime some hot girls to fuck. He said yez so we knew, that’s our label, haha.

What are the conditions? Money, promotion, tour ...

Everything better than on Ars Metalli. More money for the studio, a better promotion and of course some tours. We promised to do better songs (what we surely did), so we are happy, they are happy. Fine situation.

Where did you record the album, what equipment you had available?

We recorded the new fucker at “Stage One Studio”. It has an incredible equipment, we had full 3 weeks time. We worked very relaxed, but also very concentrated and the result is much much better as we ever expected. We worked from 9am to 6 pm every day and in the evening we got drunk and stoned and talked about shit, girls and nintendo games. It was a great time and we’ll also record the next album there.

Some bands from Germany started to record in Czech republic for way cheaper
prices ...

Yes, I heared about this but for this time we had a big budget and we definitely wanted a fat sound. We knew that the studio has done some very very good productions in the past, that was the reason, why we choosed it.

As to tour - you have had no official tour so far, have you? I haven´t
seen you live yet, can you describe your live performance to me?

Our show are 100% emotional eruption. You’ll feel, that we have fun on stage, you’ll have fun, you’ll feel our power that kicks ass. We always play on limit, so after the show we are really burned out, but that is a great feeling. We live for the music and our fans. No matter, if we play on a big open air or a small club. We give you what you want, pure metal, 100%.

Can you tell me what was the response to the new album from your close
friends and family - including the negative reactions?

Everybody was VERY surprised how the new album turned out. I’m sure, our closed friends didn’t expect that kind of a step forward. Some people where a bit shocked, how brutal the new material is, but they were also very pleased about the sad, silent and melodic moments. So far we got no negative reactions.

Interesting album title - is there any deeper meaning or it´s simply
your statement?

It’s of course and interesting title. You must see the meaning in the combination of the album cover and the title. That’s our kind of sarcasm we like. By the way, a bit more love would help to make our world a bit better, cause everybody needs love. It’s very hard to live these days in those cold, materialistic world, nobody is able to show emotions, isolation everywhere.

Also, the album cover by Alf Svensson - it does not say much about love,
unlike the back cover ... can you make it clear to me?

Well, is say very much about love, about our love we bring to back to earth. Our love is called Death, War, Plague and Famine. We, the horsemen of the apocalypse bring you our love. We wanted to have a real metal cover, a modern kind of the historic motives of world downfall.

Your previous covers were done by some Japanese guy, am I right?

Right. But they was stolen by us, haha. We had no permission to use that, but hey, we were an underground band, nobody cared about that. The “Soft” cover was by Sorayama, who did some very special books, everything is air brush technique. The “Allegro” cover is a photo by Araki, a japanese photographer. I found that stuff in the internet.

How did you contact him?

As I told you, we didn’t ask those guys.

And also Alf - what does he ask for his work?

I visited Alf quite often in Sweden (you know, that he was the guitar player in AT THE GATES on the first two albums). I know his great paintings, so I asked him, if it is possible to do something in that way. A few months later I got a burned CD Rom with that cover. Great, we are really proud to have that cover.

Is he also an author of your tattoos?

Yes, he did 2 tattoos on my arms and he also did a tattoo on Eumels back.

"In the Name of Heavy Metal!" or "Fight for Metal!" - what does this
mean for you?

It stands for our believs and represents, that we’ll always raise the flag of metal. Metal is our way of life, in the past, now and forever.

Also songs like "Reitermania" - one feels like you´re trying to become
new MANOWAR. What´s your opinion on this band?

Do you really think so?? Well, this is a song about us and about all our fans. About riding together into world downfall, but always to stand together and to give a shit on rules and and everything that makes you sick. By the way, Manowar are godz and we hail them of course.

Btw, "Reitermania" is Russian the first chorus, or is it just bad accent of
Eumel´s that I can´t understand it?

It’s me who is singing that part. Yes, it is lousy Russsian with a much more lousy accent. Sounds terrible or?

What´s your opinion about role playing games, AD&D or card games like
Magic the Gathering? The new record should contain some kind of game,
is that so?

Ì like role games if it comes to sex, but I never understood games like Diablo or Baldurs Gate. I play sometimes fuck shooter games like Quake or Unreal, just to have 30 minutes multimedial orgasms, but I can’t concentrate to long on that shit. It is wasting my time, I have better things to do. I’m sure, we’ll never put any games on our CD’s, well okay, maybe Strip Poker with some Grindcore tunes.

Tell me something about your concert agent, about your ownership/authorship
rights ...

I can’t speak about that, because it’s forbidden to talk about details of contracts. We have a record company called Hammerheart and a publisher Warner Chappell. We don’t have a booking agency, so if anybody want to have us on stage, just mail me at mail@reitermania.de

Have you already got someone to care for merchandise on tour?

We have a merchandiser, who is friend of us here in our hometown. Sometimes also our girlfriend do the merch stuff on concerts.

I saw some kind of offer to play in a film that you want to shoot - is this serious?

Yez yez, totally serious. I’ve been writing the story board right now, we hope to do the film next spring. It will be a chaos movie about sex, drugs & rock ‘n roll…. and about Reitermania of course.

Can you give us some recommendation as to German scene - bands,
magazines, gig organisers? Something Czech bands could find useful

Well, that is hard. I never safed and addressess of gig organizers where we played, but I know some cool magazines as Legacy, Rock Hard, Ablaze, Heavy Oder Was!, Hammer. That are the big ones everybody can buy in shops. They come our every month so they are very up to date with everything.

.... Also what are relationships among bands ?

We have good contact to bands, but not that close as you might imagine. We know and respect the other bands here and when we play at a concert it is always nice to meet old friends and to have some beers. But there does not exist something like a brother band we know very very good. The guys from Golem and Menhir are very kind.

Perhaps it would be better if I wrote the questions in German, but I´m
just not good enough. (me neither ... note of the translator) According
to the statistics, German is spoken by 130 milion people, out of which
95 are native speakers, so it?s far less used than English or French.
Your opinion?

Hmm, I don’t know what you want to say with that. If you want to ask, why the Germans don’t speak English or French, so I must say, that Germans are very ignorant to learn another language. If you want to ask, why we did German lyrics on this record, well, it was easier to speak in our motherlanguage, cause the lyrics are very personal and sometime a translation into English would have destroyed the feeling of the song.

Are you interested in politics?

Yes and no. Sometimes I read newspapers, magazines and look the new on TV. But after a while I realise all that shit, that happens on earth. I take care very much, if I hear about those things, but sometimes I don’t want to care about things, who happen on earth, so I often turn of the TV and play guitar. I like it very much to escape into my world.

Can you tell us something you know about our country?

Mhh, about Czech I know a bit. I know, that there is brewed great beer and that Prag is a very cool town. Very nice architecture. I also know, that many many bands hail from Czechia and that you have a great Metal scene. We once played in Czechia in Cheb and it was very great.

What do you think of such neighbours?

I feel sympathy for Czechia and I like to visit your country. Nice landscapes, nice people, really.

Thanks for the interview, whatever you like to say to our readers, feel
free ...

Well, join REITERMANIA Forces, when we enter Czechia together with the US American Monsters Macabre and Broken Hope. We’ll play on 12.01.2000 in Prag at P.Akropolis on our Murder 2001 tour. Visit our website www.reitermania.de and check out the new album “All you need is love”. Thanks for everything boys and girls, we hail you. Let Metal be the law!!!

Please, we shall need some photos to go with the interview, can we
obtain them from you or shall we ask the company?

Download pictures at www.reitermania.de/press.html
They have a resolution of 300 dpi, so you can print them. If that doesn’t work out contact Hammerheart Records!!
Louda
PAYO MAGAZINE, CZECH REPUBLIC

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