Divinus
Divinus, a German based
band, has offered us their new album "Nine Ways To Rome", which has been
for me one of the most pleasant and great surprises. The reason is simple...
according to me Divinus is a band that desrves recognition and our support,
because they bring forth something new, unique and special. You can't consider
yourselves open minded metallers and not listen and love their music...
Here we have Daniel and Matze, the band's vocalist and drummer correspondingly,
answering our questions...
1. CONGRATULATIONS ON “NINE WAYS TO ROME”!
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT IT?
D: Thank you very much. We are very proud
of our new product and also very proud, that most of the people like it
too.
2. GIVE US IN BRIEF THE MOST IMPORTANT MOMENTS
OF THE BAND’S LIFE AND PRESENT THE CURRENT LINE UP.
D: Everything started in 1992 with Christian
(Guitar) and me. Two twelve year old kids making some noise with keyboards
and their childish voices. Funny as hell…but see how it ended up. At the
age of 14 we had our first band called “T.R.D. – The radical dude”. Two
years later we changed our line up, our name into “Dementia” and had some
“bigger” gigs. In 1997 Matthias (Drums) joined the band and we changed
our name again into DIVINUS. Until 2002 we had several line-up changes
until we became the band we are now. Me singing, Christian playing the
guitars, Matthias the drums, the other Matthias the bass and last but not
least Steffen on the keyboards.
3. WHAT AMAZED ME IN THIS RELEASE IS HOW HOMOGENEOUSLY
YOU MANAGE TO INCORPORATE DIFFERENT METAL ELEMENTS IN YOUR MELODIC HEAVY/POWER
METAL. THE DEATH METAL AND ATMOSPHERIC TINGES FIT PERFECTLY TO YOUR SOUND.
HOW DO YOU FIND THE GOLDEN BALANCE? WHAT KIND OF PROCEDURE DO YOU FOLLOW
WHILST COMPOSING SONGS?
D: We don’t really follow a procedure, when
we create some new stuff. Someone has an idea and we just play. Everybody
listens to different styles of metal or music in general, so finally we
put it all together somehow. Mostly Christian is doing all the arrangements.
That is the reason, why everything sounds so homogeneously. If everybody
was included in that process it would never be like that.
4. WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IF YOU WERE ASKED TO PRESENT
YOUR ALBUM IN A FEW WORDS?
D: This album is SO bad, you must here it!
*laugh*
M: That´s one small step for Divinus,
one giant leap for metal-kind! *also laugh*
5. WHAT’S THE BEST AND WHAT’S THE WORST PART OF
YOUR MUSIC, ACCORDING TO YOU?
D: I guess the worst part is that many people
don’t get along with our mixture of different styles. For the progressive
ones we are too straight and for the others we are too progressive. But
also I see this fact as the best part of our music. Being different without
any pressure.
6. WHY DO YOU THINK THE METALHEADS SHOULD CHECK
YOU OUT? WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO OFFER TO THE SCENE? IS THERE SOMETHING YOU
FEEL THAT SETS YOU APART?
D: Of course they should check us out, to
know how future sounds like *laugh*. No, seriously. Everybody who is not
limited in his musical horizon should check us out. There is so much to
experience in our music. Many small things, you do not realize, when you
listen to it for the first time. We love putting some “ear-candy” into
our music. Christian is quite good doing that. And also Steffen or Matthias
(Drums) do such small things partially.
7. WHICH ARE THE SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES
BETWEEN “NINE WAYS TO ROME” AND YOUR PREVIOUS RELEASES “THOUGHTS OF A DESPERATE
MIND” AND “ANGELS’ PUNISHMENT”?
D: The similarities are of course our catchy
choruses. No matter how a song sounds like, we always want the people to
say: “Right, here we have DIVINUS”, when they hear the chorus.
The differences are that we found more and
more our own style. In the beginning everything was highly influenced by
bands like Iced Earth, Blind Guardian or Rage. Meanwhile we do our own
thing. And this development you can hear when you listen to our CDs. You
know, Christine, nowadays in our fast food society, when music is more
and more replaceable and band B is just a copy of band A you must dare
to be a little bit different to be noticed. But this sounds much easier
than it is. The people want fast food – the people get fast food. It is
comfortable, easy to get and cheap.
8. WHICH ARE YOUR MAIN INFLUENCES AND WHO ARE
THOSE MUSICIANS THAT MADE YOU REALIZE THIS IS THE KIND OF MUSIC YOU LOVE
AND WANT TO FOLLOW?
D: I would not say that we really have main
influences. Of course Rage and Dream Theater are bands we appreciate very
much. But finally we are influenced by so many different things. I love
bands like Mercenary, Evergrey or Soilwork very much and I feel influenced
a lot by them. Christian also likes stuff like the famous Jazz-Guitarist
Al DiMeola or Coldplay. Our Bass-Player Matthias generally likes everything
experimental and new.
M: My big influences are Mike Terrana and Thomas
Lang! I like many drummers who have a great technique and tight playing!
Such drummers give me the reason to practise hard and push my talent (I
think I have a little) to maximum!
D: NO, you don’t have any talent at all *laugh*
M: Thanks my friend.
9. YOUR LYRICS HAVE SOME DEEP MEANINGS AND I THINK
ONE SHOULD PAY SOME TIME READING THEM IN ORDER TO UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE
TALKING ABOUT. CARE TO TELL US IN A FEW WORDS THE MAIN THEMES YOUR LYRICS
DEAL WITH?
D: One of my greatest pleasures. But to be
honest: most people do not care about lyrics. For me lyrics definitely
belong to a song, give it a face. That is why I don’t have any main themes.
Each song stands on its own, musically and lyrically.
For example “You poison the air we breathe”.
This one is written for somebody who was telling stupid things behind our
backs while he was absolutely nice, when he was talking to us directly.
That is the reason why you should read this one with a little smile. But
finally the lyrics can be used anywhere else. You find those people everywhere.
“World of tomorrow” is quite apparent, so I
guess there is no need for further explanations.
Oh…”Forever lost”…let’s forget this one. I
was 16 when I wrote the lyrics *laugh*. Dealing with someone trying to
escape his coma. Veeeeery suspenseful *laugh*.
“Sphere of crime” is NO love song as some writer
wanted to tell his readers. It deals with fanaticism and the following
terrorism. Definitely a critical song but not easy to understand for everybody.
But I suppose with this background info some might understand it better.
“Wunder”, also difficult to understand…especially
for people who don’t understand German *laugh*. Influenced by a reportage
I once saw on TV. Dealing with the thoughts of an autistic person. So definitely
NO suicide song as some thought.
“Every darkness” is a pure love song. Nothing
more to say about this one.
“Words lost in quicksand” deals with our mother
earth and us raping her. The old story.
“Into my paradise” is some kind of dreamy number.
The text tells you not to doubt on yourself and to fulfill your dreams,
no matter what others say.
“Death or rebirth” was written for a friend
of mine who died too early in a terrible car accident.
And finally we have “Woodpeg paranoia”. Maybe
the most idiotic lyrics I’ve ever written. It is telling the story of a
paranoid vampire, lying in his coffin, afraid of getting out because of
the baaaaad mortals trying to hammer a wooden peg into his heart. *laugh*
But still you can draw some similarities to the real life as you can see
in our video clip.
All in all maybe you can say that the main
themes are based on social criticism. But the ways I go are different.
Nine ways…so to say ;-)
10. WHAT KIND OF FEEDBACK HAVE YOU RECEIVED THIS
FAR? WHAT WAS THE MOST FLATTERING AND WHAT THE WORST COMMENT YOU READ FOR
YOUR MUSIC?
D: Until now we only got (very) good feedback.
When I remember right the worst was 7/10 points. But I don’t care about
points. The written words are more useful. Sorrowfully we often get feedback
we do not really understand. Sometimes it is written so bad and gives facts
that are not right. For example someone wrote that “Forever Lost” contains
pitched vocals in the verses. If he had read the booklet, he might have
realized that a “real women of flesh and bones” is singing and not me using
a pitcher. For us as a band, we need feedback we can handle with. I mean,
we always want to learn and improve our style and abilities. And therefore
we need useful feedback. When somebody is writing: “the singing is bad”,
I do not really know what he means and I can’t act and try to improve it.
Because when I do not know what is wrong I can’t fix it. These are the
points in feedbacks when I am disappointed. I want to know why something
is wrong and not THAT.
11. HAVE YOU SENT YOUR CD TO ANY LABELS? ARE YOU
UNDER NEGOTIATION WITH ANY? WHY DO YOU THINK YOU’VE BEEN UNSIGNED FOR SO
LONG? I THINK THEY MUST BE DEAF! ?
D: Until now, we haven’t sent the new album
to labels. But we will do. We still wait for some more reviews, we can
include to the package. In the past we tried it several times with our
old album or our DVD. Finally no one wanted us. Our style seems to be too
unique for some. Nobody wants to risk anything today. As I told you, people
want fast food and they get it. But we will see what happens with our new
stuff. We never give up hope ?
12. I LIKE THE COVER ARTWORK. IT’S CONNECTED TO
THE ALBUM TITLE “NINE WAYS TO ROME”. WHY DID YOU NAME THE ALBUM LIKE THAT?
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SUGGEST? HAS IT GOT ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE FACT THAT
THE ALBUM CONSISTS OF 9 SONGS?
D: You know, many ways lead to Rome, to the
aim. Our aim is to make music and to entertain. This album shows nine ways
of achieving our aim. Nine ways which are completely different from each
other. So you are right with your consumption that 9 songs are on this
album, but it has got no deeper meaning.
First we had a different idea for our artwork
but by a fluke (based on my boredom) we did it that way.
13. IF YOU HAD A BIG BUDGET TO SHOOT A VIDEO CLIP,
WHICH SONG OF YOURS WOULD YOU CHOOSE AND HOW DO YOU IMAGINE IT TO BE?
D: We already did it. We had no money, but
we still did it. *laugh*. But it was in 2004. I am studying some
media stuff and so I had some girls around me who loved shooting music-videos.
One day one of them asked me if we want a video, too. I was very surprised
and first I thought we never could pay such a thing. But finally we managed
it and had almost no costs. Until that time, we had no songs from our actual
album and so we took “Woodpeg paranoia” and released it as a complete DVD
with almost one hour of additional material. It was one of our newest songs
that time and so we just took it. Normally we wanted to release a concept-album.
All songs were written and we were about to begin…but then something happened
and our creativity took over and we were writing new songs…one after another.
We all loved these new songs so much, that we said: “All right…let us record
these ones and let us do the concept later.” So here we are, having a DVD
and a CD with “Woodpeg paranoia” as bonus track. We took it as bonus track,
because we did not release the song itself. We only had it as a video.
Because of this and the fact, that the sound and the musical structure
are different from the rest of the album we chose to use it as the bonus.
For the unusual case we had money now, I suppose
we would take “You poison the air…” or “World of tomorrow” for a video
clip. I think you could shoot some nice stuff with these ones. My favorite
would be “You poison the air…”. I’d love to do some ironic shit with it.
Hehehehe…
14. HOW DO YOU PLAN TO PROMOTE YOUR WORK? HAVE
YOU GOT ANY PLANS FOR LIVE SHOWS OR FOR A TOUR?
D: Oh, we would love to go on tour but we
suffer from the same problems most unsigned bands suffer from: no money,
no management, no connections. Everything would be much easier if we had
someone in the background who believes in us and helps us. At the moment
we have some nice gigs. Just small ones but still very nice. We take almost
every chance to increase our fan base. Sorrowfully we don’t have the time
needed to organize more concerts. Everybody of us is very busy with his
university or job. I hope we find someone who helps us. SO, DEAR READER,
IF YOU READ THIS: HELP US!!! ;-)
15. IS THERE A QUESTION YOU’D LIKE TO BE ASKED
AND NO ONE HAS EVER ASKED YOU SO FAR?
D: Of course: “Hey Otti, I have 10 million
euro for you. Do you want it?”
16. WHAT’S THE STRANGEST OR FUNNIEST INCIDENT
THAT HAS OCCURRED TO THE BAND?
D: Oh…in 2003 we had a gig 300 km away from
our hometown. So we packed everything into one car and drove there. During
our ride on the highway, Matthias (Bass) turned his head and said: “Christian,
can it be, that your trunk is not closed correctly?”. In that moment, the
damn trunk opened and our backpacks fell on the highway…at 130 km/h. Thank
god no instruments were harmed. The loss was low *laugh*.
17. IF YOUR MUSIC WERE EMOTIONS, WHAT WOULD THEY
BE? IF IT WERE A PAINTING, WHAT WOULD IT SHOW?
D: Wow…interesting question.
Emotions: maybe a mixture of feeling queasy
and depressed but still knowing, that everything will turn good somehow.
The painting: imagine a landscape. One part
on the sunny side and the other one on the dark side. This landscape is
filled with hundreds of people and everybody is doing something completely
different. Some are kissing, some are depressed, some are walking around,
the head in the neck, watching the sky and dreaming, some are up to harm
others and one guy is playing jokes to everybody. This guy would have my
face. Hehehehehe…
18. BY THE WAY HOW DID YOU SELECT YOUR MONIKER?
I SUPPOSE YOU ARE AWARE OF THE FACT THAT THERE IS ANOTHER BAND FROM ITALY
WITH THIS NAME… HAVE YOU EVER FACED ANY PROBLEMS?
D: Oh, long time ago. We have our name now
for ten years. As I already told you, we once were called “Dementia”. But
as we realized, that there are millions of bands having the same name,
we were searching for another. One day our old bass player and me were
sitting at school, reading the Latin book. Suddenly we discovered the word
DIVINUS. We all liked it and so we had a new band name. The easiest way
of finding a name*laugh*. I am a friend of simple things ;-)
19. THANK YOU! IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU’D LIKE
TO MENTION?
D: First of all thank you for this nice interview.
It was a great pleasure answering your questions. Of course I haven’t prepared
any “famous last words” so I have to do something spontaneously: keep on
smiling everybody. Life is hard enough. So why not take it with a little
smile! …Great words. I am proud of myself. *laugh*
M: Thanks,Christina! Please introduce Divinus
to the Greek metal heads and I hope to come some day to your country for
a tour and play our music for all of you!
Christine Parastatidou
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