Irony
Irony is a young German
band that has started making its first steps in the metal scene delivering
classic heavy metal with a great dose of energy, rhythm and power. Their
influences vary from the European metal scene to the American one and this
is something you will realize as soon as you listen to their tracks. The
diversity and the love for what they're doing is something that you surely
won't escape noticing...
1. HELLO! I HAVE JUST LISTENED TO YOUR NEW
PROMO CD WITH THE 3 TRACKS AND I CAN SAY THAT YOUR MUSIC IS QUITE INTERESTING.
SO CAN YOU TELL US A FEW THINGS ABOUT THE BAND? WHICH IS THE CURRENT LINE-UP?
Hello Nikos. Thank you for listening to our
CD and thank you for your interest in IRONY. IRONY is a 5-man group from
the area of Heidelberg and we´re playing the kind of music we can
identify ourselves with: Heavy Metal! The band was founded in the year
2000, just check our website for further information. We aren´t professional
but we´re learning with every breath we take together. And, the most
important thing: We really enjoy playing in this band!
Nicolaj Ruhnow-Vocals / Manuel Förderer-Guitar
/ Achim Rauscher-Guitar/ Jörg Billeb-Drums / Paul Geiger-Bass
2. I READ IN YOUR BIO THAT THE LINE-UP OF THE
BAND CHANGED MANY TIMES. DO YOU THINK THAT THIS WAS A DISADVANTAGE AND
AN OBSTACLE FOR THE BAND’S CAREER? HAVE YOU EVER THOUGH OF QUITING?
Everyone can imagine that the loss of a member
of the band creates a physical and musical gap. The machinery of the band
doesn´t work anymore and you become discontent. But IRONY became
stronger with every crisis and finally we can say that IRONY wouldn´t
be the band it is today without these changes in the past. No matter what
happened, we never thought of quitting!
3. FROM ALL THESE MEMBERS THAT LEFT FROM THE BAND
WHO DO YOU THING WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT AND WHY?
It´s hard to say who was the most important
member and why. The band learned with every member who has come and gone!
4. BEFORE YOU FORMED IRONY YOU HAD ANOTHER BAND
CALLED “ANISY”. CAN YOU TELL ME A FEW THINGS ABOUT IT? HAVE YOU RELEASED
ANYTHING WITH THAT BAND? DID YOU PLAY ANY SONGS FROM THE ANISY PERIOD WITH
YOUR CURRENT BAND?
Jörg: I was for about 4 years the drummer
of Anisy, a melodic-metal band of our area. We released a 4-track CD which
was quite successful. But there is nothing of Anisy in IRONY, these are
two totally different bands.
5. BY THE WAY IS ANISY A GREEK WORD, MEANING NOT
EQUAL? IF NOT, WHAT EXACTLY DOES IT MEAN?
Jörg: Well, I can´t answer this
question, because the band already existed for 4 years when I joined Anisy.
It was a fantasyname, but, as I said, you have to ask the rest of the band.
6. SINCE WE TALK ABOUT BAND NAMES YOUR NEW ONE
IS QUITE STRANGE TOO. CAN YOU TELL ME HOW YOU CHOSE IT? DOES IT HAVE A
SECOND MEANING EXCEPT THE OBVIOUS ONE?
Jörg: We put up a list with about 100
names. We wanted to have a name that is easy to keep in mind, not so stereotyped
and, of course, doesn´t exist. We decided to name the band IRONY.
Nick: I wasn´t a member of the band at
that time, but I found my personal meaning of the name IRONY. The ambiguity
of the word, of the name, is its might, an unbreakable and unyielding might
that you can find in every song!
7. YOU ARE ABOUT TO RELEASE A NEW ALBUM. I WOULD
LIKE YOU TO COMPARE IT WITH YOUR PREVIOUS RELEASE “RELEASE THE BEAST”.
WHICH ARE THE NEW ELEMENTS THAT YOU HAVE ADDED?
Jörg: Well, you can say that “Release
the beast” was a very spontaneous CD, direct and without compromises. We
wrote the songs and we recorded them. That was it. Every song on “RTB”
was written by Jörg and maybe here you can find the main difference
to the new CD. The new songs are written by the whole band and so you can
find many different styles, they´re more powerful, stronger. But
in one point it will be the same like “RTB” – it will be Metal!
8. WHEN WILL YOU RELEASE YOUR NEW ALBUM? CAN YOU
GIVE US ITS TITLE? WILL IT BE A SELF-FINANCED RELEASE OR WILL YOU WAIT
TO RELEASE IT WHEN YOU FIND A CONTRACT WITH A LABEL?
We´re working on the new album and we
played a couple of shows this year. We have some inquirities here and we´ll
check them after we have finished our CD. Of course we hope to release
the CD over a label. But, no matter whether we have a contract or not,
we hope to release the new (and untitled) CD in the first half of 2006.
9. SINCE WE TALK ABOUT LABELS, DID YOU HAVE ANY
PROPOSALS SO FAR? WHAT EXACTLY DO YOU WANT A LABEL TO OFFER YOU IN ORDER
TO SIGN A CONTRACT WITH IT?
Hard to say. We think a good promotion is
very important. We will see.
10.YOU HAVE DONE QUITE MANY LIVE SHOWS. DO YOU
REMEMBER HOW YOU FELT THE FIRST TIME YOU PLAYED LIVE ON STAGE? DO YOU REMEMBER
ANY FUNNY INCIDENTS THAT HAPPENED WHILE YOU WERE PERFORMING ON STAGE?
We did a support show for Jeff Scott Soto
in Cologne, and while we were playing “Fight”, a very fast song with a
lot of double-bass drums, Jörg was desperately screaming for Nicolaj
(who is the only one with a helping hand, because he is not carrying an
instrument) because one of his bassdrums was sliding more and more towards
the edge of the stage, so he had to stretch his leg more and more, because
obviously he couldn’t just stop playing. So Nicolaj put one foot on the
bassdrum to hold it, and finished singing the song standing on one leg.
A lot of people in the audience thought that was quite funny.
11. TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH YOUR SOUND HAS NOTHING
TO DO WITH THE CLASSIC TEUTONIC METAL. ON THE CONTRARY IT’S CLOSER TO THE
U.S. METAL. DO YOU AGREE? WHICH BANDS HAVE INFLUENCED YOU? CAN YOU NAME
5 OF YOUR ALL TIME FAVORITE METAL ALBUMS?
Yes, you’ll find more US-Metal in our music,
but also a lot of European influences.
A good mixture of both worlds.
Vicious Rumors – Digital Dictator
Nevermore – Dreaming Neon Black
King Diamond – Conspiracy
Judas Priest – Painkiller
Iron Maiden – 7th son of a 7th son
Running Wild – Death or Glory
Sanctuary – Refuge denied
Crimson Glory –Transcendence
12. LET’S TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE LYRICS.
WHO IS THE MAIN RESPONSIBLE AND WHAT KIND OF THINGS INSPIRE YOU TO TALK
ABOUT? DO YOU PREFER THE REALISTIC ONES OR THE FANTASY ORIENTED AND WHY?
Our singer writes most of the lyrics, but
some of them were written by the whole band. Most of the lyrics are about
confusion of the mind, melancholy, death and destruction, historical incidents
or mythological stories, some even about social issues. A little bit of
everything!
13. LET’S SAY THAT TERMS LIKE HEAVY/POWER METAL
DON’T EXIST. WHICH WORDS WOULD YOU USE TO DESCRIBE YOUR MUSIC IN ORDER
THE PEOPLE TO UNDERSTAND WHAT KIND OF MUSIC YOU PLAY?
Raw, Powerful and sharp like a razorblade!!
You have to hear it!!
14. IMAGINE THAT YOU HAVE THE MONEY TO CREATE
AN EXPENSIVE VIDEO-CLIP. WHICH SONG OF YOURS WOULD YOU CHOOSE TO VISUALIZE
AND HOW DO YOU IMAGINE IT TO BE?
The first song would be „Heaven & Hell“,
because the polarization between good and evil can be displayed with a
lot classic Heavy Metal- video elements. It is also a very powerful and
impetuous song. Another song would be “A Bitter Shade”, a semi-ballad about
pain and loss, which would be commercially more successful and has the
potential to emotionally touch the listeners. But it’s hard to describe
how all that could be visualized.
15. THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR TIME! CLOSE THE
INTERVIEW IN ANY WAY YOU WANT AND LEAVE A MESSAGE TO THE READERS OF BEHIND
THE VEIL WEBZINE…
Thank you very much for the interview, and
it would be great to play in Greece one day!! Don’t forget to watch out
for the new IRONY-album next year!!!!!!
HEAVY METAL TILL THE END!! \m/ :)
Nick “William_Kidd”
Parastatidis
|