Dream big, honey
“A pros pos believe. “Pokerface” will be your first headliner tour. It starts with five shows and hopefully more will follow. The venues are not the smallest ones. Colos-Saal in Aschaffenburg already hosted such international big names as Lacuna Coil or Arch Enemy for example. Is it true and believe that you will fill these venues or is it hope? Or simply ‘Think big’?”
“Dream big, honey! I don’t care whether or not the venue is not fully sold out. Even if there are only five people we take them on a journey with us. Only the feeling that I already have now. In two to three weeks’ time we will be on European tour, we have our headliner shows, we will have the complete festival summer. It is a crazy time.”
“Which size of festivals will you play?”
“Oops, I would need my mobile phone now, out of the head on the Blizzard together with Jinjer, then Music Forge, Rock Castle in Czech Republic, somewhere in Belgium with Doro Pesch on Female Fronted Festival and so much more. Looks like this year we’re all going to speed and even if we crash into a concrete wall we will have had fun.”
About Idols
“Do you as the band have ‘idols’ or role models who have inspired you?”
“I think it is all very individual for each of us. Speaking for myself it is Papa Roach. I love this band. They actually released a new album. They are so cool, it is the last band I saw before Corona started, in Offenbach. The next day the tour was interrupted and over. It would be my dream to tour with them. I really love them and it will happen once.” Julian comes into the room.
“Hey, there’s another one, Julian what are your musical role models and bands?”, Lisa asks him on the spot. “Alter Bridge for sure, and Dream Theatre. But if I look into our direction it is Papa Roach: on stage, songs, how they manage themselves and everything.” Lisa adds: “And Pink in my case and as a singer, I’m a huge fan, I grew up with her, since she was an R&B singer, she’s a great vocalist and personality, a true role model.”
“And in case of metal?”
“As a singer? Let the think of it… No, not really”
Julian adds “The bass player of Dream Theatre, he constantly trains his skills, even during interviews he is fiddling around with his strings, I think, even as soon as he leaves the stage.”
Lisa is laughing “Yeah, he’s a crazy guy, I mean, I like that you do the same, but one really must be crazy to do so.”
The door opens, Ben and Chris take a look in: “We have finished, we’re gonna put the merch stuff together now.” I check the time, we already talked and laughed together for nearly one hour.
Again it is what you make out of your opportunities
“Oh, I will speed up, we forgot the time!”
“Don’t worry”, Lisa replies, “we’re here tomorrow, too. We’re going to be here for the whole day so we are not in hurry! Today we had our dress rehearsal, and tomorrow we will check all the equipment, the gear, etc. That’s also why we played so many new songs. We needed to know how they sound live, how people like the songs. Where can we fine-tune something or change it. But Sunday will be without public though. Again it is what you make out of your opportunities. Take the chances once they come. Don’t wait for a better one, do it now. I sang about it in one of the songs today, too. We have no saying in what happens to us but we can decide and steer its impact on us. That gives you all the power in your life.”
Schmiddi retires, excusing for the inconvenience because he was sick and slept next to us most of the time.
Schmiddi and Sören – The almost-band members
“Him and Sören are part of the crew and both of them are so garish. I am so grateful to know them. They do everything. They make everything possible, even the impossible. Both are so devoted to the band and almost as if they were band members. Schmiddi will stay at home due to family commitments but Sören will also join us for the tour. I have known him since 2017. He just popped up and there he was and never to leave. He is always there. It is important for a band if there is someone like him. We can rely on 150% him. He is the boss of the sound desk. What we do on stage is one thing but if you want to have the perfect rich sound you need someone like him.”
“So he is one of a kind?”
“Yes, sure, as I said, he is always there. He not only does his part and is gone. He helps everywhere. He helps sets up the gear, the merch, loads the van – all alone if necessary and all these things. He did it once when we had an interview too and when we finished the van was loaded. It is impossible to load the drum rack alone, we don’t know how, but he made it.”
Lisa is apparently very proud of him indeed! These are the great people you can’t thank enough for their devotion. They are what Rock and Roll community is all about. Great personality!
Ben and Chris are slowly bringing in all the merch stuff and all the gear they wouldn’t want to leave on the stage. We have to leave our cozy spot in the middle of the room to make some space. We really lost control of time… Disco music can’t be overheard through the open door. Lisa laughs and blames them “You destroyed the whole mood.”
She continues and comes back to Sören: “When you open your eyes, not for the things that don’t work but look and reach out, you find the little angels, the guardian angels. Once you found them you better let go of them, but keep them forever.”
Daily band life
I can nothing but agree with Lisa in this and many cases. Meanwhile the rest of the band joined us. “Something else, how are your daily routines in the band, in the ordinary life outside of the band?”
“Ben is working full time for the band. He quit his just job right before Corona, of course he had saved some money before so it works for him though. I myself am only working one day per week.”- “ What’s your profession, I bet graphic design?” – “Haha, no, although I do all the stuff for band. By a few months I worked in a small company as a gofer, I put together control cabinets, etc., everything including sales. But I made an apprenticeship as dental specialist.”
We are kidding. “Oh, can you have a look at one of my teeth, I think there is a little hole?” – “Sure, I just need a tool and a little bit more light to pull it.” I decide to keep my tooth though…
“Now I only do a little bit of accounting but I can do more or less everything. I’ve also built and designed all our merch stall equipment. You can also ask the guys, I can even cook. Ask h i m, can I cook?” She points at Julian who confirms it short but with confidence. “During our productions I am happy to cook for the band, I like it a lot. Chris, is it tasty?” Chris replies with a yummy face “Yes it is. Too good.”
Lisa, the chef (not the boss)
“What kind of dishes do you cook? Vegan food, veggie stuff, meat?”
“She cooks healthy dishes which taste very good, no matter if vegetarian or with meat. It is a good mixture,” Chris passes the question back to Lisa who continues “I try to cook a lot of vegan or vegetarian dishes but sometimes also something with meat. Or a Bolognese, whatever. And I like to vary a lot. I like going shopping and buy everything as fresh as possible to decide on the spot for a dish.”
“When you’re in Spain in a few weeks, how will do it there? Will there be only catering or will you cook on the road too?”
“Good question, we’re all curious about it how it will work out. We are all very concerned about proper and healthy food, fitness, etc. But also beer, a lot of beer, beer is like bread. I have no idea how it works.”
“At least you should try to buy some Catalan rice, it is a top quality. I bought some last year.”
“Good to know for Chris, he likes rice a lot, we’ll look for some for sure. But we have to confess, we only have a very small kitchen in our tour bus. So we really must see what is possible. I fear during these two weeks, the time for proper cooking will be down to zero. Sorry guys. We might bring over some stuff though, olives, Spanish sweets, the rice, etc. though. I’m really curious, I count for nothing. I guess we’ll travel from venue to venue, sleep in the coach and wake up the next morning, a new town. We share a night-liner with the other support band. I’m excited a lot how it will be with them. I’m happy I can sleep under almost every conditions. You can put me in the corner and I fall asleep.”
We are quite some nerds
“Apart from tomorrow how often do rehearse?”
“Currently twice a week all together but everybody alone too. We are quite some nerds in this regard. But we also say ‘this is the chance of our life’, each gig is the most important, each show.”
In the background we hear Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit when someone opens the door and has a look before he disappears again.
“That’s Sören! Hi Sören!”- „Hi Sören!“ And gone he is again.
„We have all dreamed for all our lives to make this experience that we’re gonna make in two weeks. A dream comes true. We want to make it perfect, be perfect on stage and dream on about the next level. We dream to do full time as a band, no side jobs and live from it. Every show is important and the next one is most important as this one today.”