DAMN, WE
NEED MORE PERSONS LIKE SASCHA IN THE METAL COMMUNITY. HE IS SUCH A CONVERSABLE
AND IN GOOD MOOD PERSON THAT I COULD TALK WITH HIM FOR HOURS. ANYWAY I
THINK THAT THE DRUMMERS IN THE METAL BANDS ARE PROBABLY THE GREATEST PERSON
OF ALL. IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME THIS CONVERSATION WILL CONVINCE YOU!!!
1.FIRST OF ALL MAKE A SHORT BAND PRESENTATION.
GIVE US THE CURRENT LINE UP AND NAME THE FOUNDERS.
Tyrant Eyes are:
Alex Reimund – Vocals
Marcus Amend – Guitars
Michael Apfel – Bass
Jürgen Bormuth – Keyboard
Sascha Tilger – Drums
Tyrant Eyes was originally founded
by Marcus, Michael and Alex; they have been former members of another local
Heavy Metal band which splitted in 1992; in winter 1992, I (Sascha) joined
the band; Jürgen became a member about one year later.
2.TYRANT EYES IS DEFINITELY A HEAVY
METAL NAME. IT DOESN’T SOUND ORIGINAL BUT RATHER LIKE A CLASSIC HEAVY METAL
MONICKER. ARE THERE ANY OTHER BANDS THAT HAVE THE SAME NAME? HOW IMPORTANT
DO YOU THINK IS A BAND NAME? SHOULD IT BE IN A WAY AN INDICATOR OF THE
BAND’S MUSICAL DIRECTION?
I have to admit that I´m not
sure, but I have not heard of any other band with the name TYRANT EYES
yet; sure, there are several bands with similar names, for example “Tyrant”
“Tyran´ Pace” etc., but I think that TYRANT EYES is quite unique.
I think the name of a band should definitely describe in a way the musical
direction; just imagine, we would be called “The Pink Daisy”, do you believe
that any metal fan would buy our CDs? J
3.YOU HAVE RELEASED 2 DEMOS AND A SELF
FINANCED CD (DEBUT ALBUM). GIVE US A FEW INFO ABOUT THEM. ARE YOU STILL
SATISFIED? ARE THERE ANY TRACKS FROM YOUR DEMOS INCLUDED IN YOUR DEBUT
ALBUM?
Oh, yes, our demos…they are wonderful,
haha! No, seriously, our first recordings were quite bad; ok, the songs
were not that bad, but the sound was terrible! Typical low budget demo
production! Nevertheless, our second demo was already available on CD and
contained 4 tracks; you can even check some of them on our website www.tyrant-eyes.de
. We have not used any songs from our demos for our debut; we had enough
new & better ones to record for our first album. After finishing the
whole production of “Book Of Souls” someday in January 1999 we decided
to make an edition of 1000 copies which we can sell on our concerts. We
sold about 300 copies until the summer; and during these months, we also
sent out several promo-copies to record-labels, which brought us finally
the deal with B.O. Records. “BOS” was then re-released officially in January
2000.
4.YOUR DEBUT ALBUM WAS RE-RELEASED
AND DISTRIBUTED BY LAST EPISODE/B.O. RECORDS. ARE YOU SATISFIED WITH THE
DISTRIBUTION? WHY DIDN’T THE LABEL SUPPORT YOU WITH THE EUROPEAN TOUR WITH
WARHEAD AND VISION DIVINE?
In the beginning, we were very happy
with the cooperation with B.O. records! They did some good promotion, and
the distribution was also great. But this changed very soon; things started
to get worse with the tour that was scheduled; the original headliner for
this tour has cancelled it, and I think B.O. were not content with the
substitute bands, Warhead and Vision Divine; maybe they thought that they
were not “big” enough, and B.O. did not want to take any financial risk,
so they cancelled the tour for us, too. They also did not pay our royalties,
payments were delayed frequently, and the relationship between B.O. records
and Tyrant Eyes...well, let me put it this way: it cooled down noticeably.
To top it all, we had to take a lawyer who helped us to get our money;
almost the whole communication with our former label was done by a lawyer
at this time. This wasn´t fun at all!
5.WHICH BANDS STAND AMONG THE INFLUENCES
OF TYRANT EYES? WHICH IS YOUR DREAM? TO MAKE SONGS LIKE THE BANDS YOU LOVE
OR TO CREATE YOUR OWN PERSONAL SOUND?
I think that there are far too many
bands which we like and which may influence us. There are 5 different characters
in TE, and everyone has his own musical preferences which have some influence
on him. Nevertheless, I personally would definitely prefer to create an
own style and go an own way. I think that it´s no ambitious aim to
copy other bands; you can be the best copyist of the best band in the world
– but this doesn´t change the fact that you are a copyist nevertheless,
and I guess that most people prefer listening to originals, not plagiarism.
6.TYRANT EYES ARE FROM GERMANY AND
PLAY POWER METAL. I THINK THAT LATELY GERMANY HAS RELEASED MANY HELLOWEEN
CLONES AND THIS RESULTED IN THE QUALITY OF METAL IN YOUR COUNTRY. DO YOU
AGREE? IN WHICH WAY TYRANT EYES DIFFER FROM THOSE BANDS AND WHICH OTHER
NEW METAL BANDS FROM GERMANY DO YOU THINK THAT CAN MAKE THE DIFFERENCE
FOR THE POWER METAL SCENE?
I hope that I understand you right
here; it´s hard to answer this question, but like I mentioned above,
I´m no friend of copying, and I have also to admit, that I do not
like all those Helloween clones that much. I, too, have the point of view,
that all those Helloween clones did not really help to improve the quality
of metal. I can claim that we differ from all those bands in the way that
we do NOT sound like Helloween J. It may sound a bit arrogant or exaggerated,
but I think we are on our way to finding our own style…more or less. Sure,
if you expect a “real, true” power metal album, you will be disappointed
when you listen to our new album; but I think there are also many listeners
who will be happy when they buy a CD from a German power metal band which
does not sound like Helloween…
7.A NEW ALBUM, UNDER THE TITLE “THE
DARKEST HOUR” IS ABOUT TO BE RELEASED. TELL US A FEW THINGS ABOUT IT. WHICH
THEMES DO YOU LIKE TO “HURT” THROUGH YOUR LYRICS?
Oh, we have several topics on our album;
unfortunately, I am the wrong person for telling you something about the
lyrics; I have written lyrics for one song on TDH only; the rest was written
by our guitar player Marcus; I just can say that 3 of the 9 songs on TDH
deal with death in several ways; it was no intention to write these kind
of lyrics - it just happened. “The last light” for example, which was written
by Marcus, deals with a guy who is sentenced to death; he is sitting
in a cell, reflecting about his life, watching a candle burn while he is
waiting for his death and for the things which may come thereafter. (Hmm.
Ooops. This sounds almost a little bit like Maiden´s “Hallowed
be thy name”). Another one Is called NDE. That´s the one I have written,
and it was inspired by some article in the internet I read. It dealt with
the phenomenons of Near Death Experiences, and for me, the most fascinating
point was that almost all people who had such an experience reported the
same or at least similar things, though they may have completely different
religious or social backgrounds, education and / or confessions. But normally,
we do not write about death it all its variety; we rather try, in many
songs, to cheer up people with our lyrics, encourage them not to give up,
no matter what comes.
8.ARE YOU SATISFIED BY THE FEEDBACK?
ARE YOU SATISFIED BY YOUR COMPOSITIONS AND PERFORMANCE OR IS THERE ANYTHING
YOU’D LIKE TO CHANGE?
Until now, we are quite content. Something
which is quite remarkable for me is the fact that TDH polarises far more
than our debut did. For our debut, we got almost only reviews like: “This
is a quite good album”. This time, I have already read reviews like: “This
is absolutely a brilliant blow”; or “the best power metal album that I
heard in months! A serious kick in the ass for the whole scene”, but there
were also some fucks who think that TDH is bullshit, hahaha! Well, I can´t
help it, and you can nerver satisfy EVERYbody! But we are very content
with our new release; you have to spend a little bit more time with it,
probably there was some easier access to our debut. But for me, an album
becomes more interesting when it reveals itself only after some intense
listening. From the personal point of view, there are always things, which
you want to improve once the recordings are finished; there are always
moments when you think “Oh, shit, I should have played something different
during the chorus”, or “maybe we should have changed this or improved that…”.
But this is normal. When I am absolutely 100% satisfied with an album,
I think I have to give up making music, because what else can be done when
you have already recorded the “perfect album”?
9.IF YOU HAD THE ABILITY TO CHANGE
SOMETHING IN THE WORLD, WHAT WOULD THAT BE?
Oops. Hard question. Too much responsibility,
too much pressure…next question please J.
10.HOW DO YOU IMAGINE A WORLD WITHOUT
MUSIC TO BE?
Yeah, that´s an easier question:
boring!
11.WHICH IS MAN’S BIGGEST TEMPTATION?
Greed, in any form of its appearance.
Greed for money, greed for power, greed for attention or maybe also greed
to be something “better” than other people. I think this can seduce man,
and this might be dangerous.
12.IF YOU COULD TRAVEL IN TIME, WHICH
HISTORICAL CHARACTER WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE?
Another damn hard question, but very
unique!!!J Let me think…I am not able to mention one special person right
now, but I think I´d like to travel in the 17th/18th century, in
the time of enlightenment and those great philosophers like Rousseau or
Kant. Sometimes I think that this might have been already the peak or the
climax of mankind´s evolution; when I watch the news today, I think
we are already on the way down the hill…
13.IF YOUR MUSIC WAS AN EMOTION, WHAT
WOULD IT BE?
Night Of The Defender = Anger
Delight In Dying = Hate for oneself
Magic Touch = Breaking free from dependence
The Dawn = Whatever you may feel when
confronted with reality
Out Of The Dark = Unity
NDE = Transcendence
Command To Destroy = Fear
Gladiator = Will to survive
The Last Light = Desperation
14.HAVE YOU DONE ANY LIVE SHOWS? DO
YOU REMEMBER ANY FUNNY OR WEIRD INCIDENTS?
Sure, we have done lots of shows during
all those years, and there where some crazy incidents: There is one funny
story that comes into my mind immediately: It happened in our very early
days, I think it was in 1993, and we were opening for the German melodic
metal heroes “Heaven´s Gate”.We started our set with a song that
was called “Ready for the storm”; it started with some drum groove, so
I was the first who went on stage during the intro. When the intro was
finished, I started to play; after some seconds, our bass player Michael
walked on stage and joined me. The next one who was supposed to walk on
stage was Marcus, to add some guitars. He also entered the stage at the
right time, smiling all over his face, enjoying the big stage and the audience
and playing like there was no tomorrow. To put it short, he played everything,
but not the song “Ready for the storm”! Nevertheless, he was smiling and
laughing all over, because he was so excited. So it became quite confusing
for all of us, but somehow we managed it to get in time again and play
“Ready for the storm”! The rest of the show was very cool, too. Also worth
mentioning is our live-video, which was recorded when we supported Saxon.
Today, it is beyond my imagination what went on in our heads when we dressed
for the show, because we all wore the ugliest clothes you have ever seen
on a live-metal-video. Very embarrassing. But I guess that´s normal:
you want to do something very special when you know that there´s
a video shooting, and in the heat of the moment, you do not notice how
you make a fool out of yourself…well, so what J. Also on this very video,
there is a funny faux-pas from our singer Alex; at the end of the show,
he was introducing the band to the audience; when it came to mention our
keyboard player, he shouted: “On keyboards: Jens Bormuth!!!”. Unfortunately,
our keyboarder´s name is Jürgen…
15.WHAT TITLE WOULD YOU LIKE THIS INTERVIEW
TO HAVE?
Another cool question… I think in German,
I´d like to have the title :”Tyrant Eyes: In Freud und Leid zum Lied
bereit”, which means something like “ In Joy and Pain, always ready for
a song!”. Yeah, I know, it´s kind of silly, but in German it´s
quite cool cause it rhymes , hehe!!! Maybe there is some similar saying
in Greek…?
16.THANK YOU! HAVE I FORGOTTEN TO ASK
YOU ANYTHING AND YOU’D LIKE TO MENTION?
No, I don´t think so J. Of course,
we also want to thank you for your support, as well as anyone who
has checked “Book Of Souls” and will also do so with TDH! So far, if you
got any further questions, don´t hesitate to contact me: [email protected].
Thanks again, Best wishes, Cheers, Sascha