Transcript of an interview I recorded with SCHMIER of DESTRUCTION - 20200508. Full article here. MAL-
Stretching his lead on the leaderboard of people I've spoken to the most is Schmier back again. How are you? Thanks for joining me. SCHMIER- Hey Always a pleasure Mal. Yeah I'm doing good you know despite the circumstances of course we're holding it together so it sucks to stay home and having all those bad news but that's why we did this live album you know to get some good news out, to get some good vibes out, to have some live atmosphere and and I'm glad we can do this you know it connects us with the fans and so I had some you know, that's a good week so last week because we could work still. Even though we had to cancel all the live shows you know, but you could still work on this album and that keeps you busy, keeps you happy. MAL- Did the band finish their run of touring when this struck? SCHMIER- No, we actually did the first part of the European tour. We started in December for some shows in East Germany but then we did February, we did like a bigger tour with the SUICIDAL ANGELS. And after that tour we had a little break. And that was going to holidays. And then we were supposed to continue in Europe. But then Corona came in I was actually on holidays in the Indian Ocean at that time. And I got like completely, everything got cancelled and like the shows got cancelled, my flight got cancelled back home. And I only heard bad news coming from Germany and I was basically stuck on this island. And all the shows that we had for next weeks work cancelled immediately. And it was a big shock. And there was a time where I was like, I was on the island, I couldn't fly home. All my friends were writing me from Germany, 'don't come back home. It's all chaos here'. You're fucked and they're like, Okay, what are we gonna do? We have no job. I can't come home. I have no flight. And then I remembered that we had this live recording because this live recording happened last summer and was very spontaneous on the release weekend of the album, 'Born To Perish'. And it was basically a gift from a friend of mine that has a recording studio. And he was at the festival and we recorded some other bands. And he recorded us just as a favour he came in my dressing room said 'Schmier, I recorded your show' you like what you're like, wow, what the hell? Because it's actually a good thing that you don't know that you can recorded because then you get nervous, you know. So at the end, he said, you know, give me some Jack and Coke and I give you the tapes, and we're like, Okay, this is the best deal we ever had. So we kind of get my buddy drunk, and he gave me the tapes. And we listened to it at home and we were surprised how great the show was like, wow, this sounds amazing. It's gonna be good release one day, but we were going on tour for 'Born To Perish' so we put it back in our pockets and forgot about it. And then at this moment of this lonely island, I was like, Okay, everything's cancelled. Maybe it's a good idea to do the live album now so I called everybody and then everyone's like interested. And that's the story of the live album basically, a very spontaneous, never the most spontaneous release we ever did. And also, I'm very happy that Nuclear Blast agreed on releasing the album now, digitally first so people all over the world can listen to it online. And later, when everything is produced, the vinyl takes up to three months, you know, takes time, whenever they produce July the album comes out physically as a limited edition. MAL- I was speaking to a band the other day and they've got an album just about to come out. But that's been delayed, the physical CD can't be produced and sent to the record company. So that's really screwed them around. And they're not probably in the same position as you that have got a live album that can come out digitally first. So it was a very good coincidence if you like that that album was recorded. SCHMIER- It's actually crazy coincidence. And as you said, here in Europe, the distribution stopped, all the stores are closed. And some of the warehouses for the CDs of Nuclear Blast been frozen because Corona in the warehouse, you know, so everything was frozen for the last weeks. And I'm pretty happy we do it this way. Because now digitally, people can buy the album. And we don't really depend on the distribution rates in Europe right now because they don't work also distribution outside of Europe, sent over to America whenever everything's complicated at this moment. So I'm very happy that this accident album that we did, kind of, you know, helps us right now, because of the Corona times. You also had the film team at the show at a Party.San Festival to film our DESTRUCTION movie doing kind of the documentary kind of movie at the moment with the film team and they've been following us on the tour for a while. And they were there that night. And they were actually filming the beginning of our show. But just with five cameras you know for the for the movie, not like a video clip, but I caught up with the producer today, dude, we have this live album coming on, we get some footage, you know, and the guy's like, yeah, let me see what I have. And he called me up today I've recorded three songs, I think I can cut you three core video clips with this. So we have the chance to release three videos now with this album, so I'm very happy about this. Fans will also have a visualizer of the show, because of course, it's always great to have a DVD come in with a live CD. No, but that was possible, of course, but at least we have three video clips. Then almost by coincidence happened because the film team from the movie was there. Filming loading of the show. And yeah, the whole album was an accident basically. MAL- It's worked out well. How's the band going these days? Being the four piece these days. SCHMIER- It was the best decision we ever had. If I would have known how good this works, we could have done this earlier. But also you needed the right person, you know. Damir, the new guitar player is a good friend of mine, but I only know him since five years or so. So he came at the right time, you know, I'm very glad we did it. The atmosphere in the band, the chemistry is really good, really positive, really constructive. And really, we get along really well. The new guys are funny and you know, that's all you need to have good band chemistry. It's important to play good live and be functional as a band who get along. And, of course, then the big side effect is the second guitar that is an amazing thing to have you know more power, more harmonies more more possibilities in stage also the whole interaction on stage is different now because we're more people. It's more it's more powerful. So, we had really good reactions from the fans. You know, that's the most important thing about it because you don't know what the fans will react when a power trio, like a cult power trio turns into a four piece but most of the fans loved it. I spoke to so many fans about it and was just a few guys that were really sad. It said, Oh my god, you know, you're one of the last power trios in Heavy Metal and now this has gone, so I understand that but on the other side, we have so much more possibilities now and fantastic players in the band, the band sounds better than ever. That's why also the live album kind of totally made sense to me like the first time I heard the recordings. I was like blown away. I was like, wow, we sound fucking good now. So there was, that gave me the confidence to say, hey, let's do this live album, on the quick run, even if you're not so well prepared for it, but the band sounds great. And let's give the fans a listen to it. And of course in your live situation you can really hear best how the band is functioning now as a four piece. MAL- What I've noticed lately over the last couple of weeks is it with all this year's festivals being cancelled, but some being announced early for next year and it's almost like they've taken the 2020 lineup and just transposed it into 2021. So how's that working out for DESTRUCTION so far? SCHMIER- Yeah, that's actually causing a lot of chaos. Because, of course, our booking agent started to work on summer 2021 already and then now everybody wants to postpone the shows from this year to the next year. And of course, they tried to add the same billing. I know most of the festivals are able to do it. But also also some some big band some headliners are not doing it. I heard IRON MAIDEN are not doing the rescheduling. You know, but most of the bands are doing it and I think it fair enough, it's cool for the festivals, you know also to, to make this happen. And everybody's struggling now, of course, the festivals also, you know, imagine you work the whole year for this event and then it doesn't happen. It must be frustrating. So I'm glad that happens. But also, we already had some collisions on some dates. So we have to see how we're going to manage this. But so far, so far, all the big festivals are cancelled. So we still have enough smaller festivals that are officially not cancelled yet, because the government hasn't spoken out the new rulings and the new restrictions. So there are still possibilities that maybe some stuff will happen to smaller ones because the European festivals, the small ones with new restrictions, I could see that happening because it's open air, distance you know, I think hope is not totally lost. All the black clouds have lifted a little bit. And there seem to be new possibilities coming in, will save the industry, of course and give some more hope to people. And at least some stuff will happen this year, it would be nice. But we don't know. We have some stuff. Also at the end of the year that we have postponed already. that hopefully will happen in November and December because that's like still more than half a year from now. So I think for me, the worst time is ahead, you know, because I'm now been busy with everything. And now the season is coming for the festivals, I'm going to stay home. And the longer this takes the more crazy I'm gonna get because I'm used to tour I'm used to go out. I'm used to play and used to have the adrenaline and all of a sudden I can't so the longer it takes, I will see how this goes for my mind. And we already said, the band already said that we're going to start writing some new songs, worst case and be productive in those times, but it doesn't mean that you're going to release an album next year, but maybe writing will get us over this a little bit, you know, and in terms of positive vibes, MAL- Well, DESTRUCTION have had the good fortune of having a live album basically 'in the can' when this has happened so they've been able to get something out. 'Born To Thrash Live In Germany', digitally, it's out now. And the CD will be coming mid July we're looking is that right? SCHMIER- Yeah, exactly the 17th of July is when instead of the, of the physical. MAL- For people that still buy physical. What's your view on the physical versus the streaming? Where's your view on that? SCHMIER- You know, streaming is a great thing because it's fast, it reaches all the people you don't have to distribute stuff. You can just click it and you're there. I know today the album is out to people in Malaysia, in Australia, in Brazil, they can all listen to the album at the same time, without having to ship it and shipping was always complicated. As you see now in Corona shipping is a complicated again. So I like that. And also the digital distribution is so good that most people have streaming nowadays, that the torrent sites, you know, all the bootlegs, they're kind of going away. You know, for a while we had some we had so many bootlegs that the new album came out, and in the same time there was 200 bootleg, torrent pages, you could download the album for free. That's all gone because of the streaming. So that's kind of a great thing for me. Of course, I'm an 80s kid, I love vinyl. I like the sound of a vinyl album. I like to you know, to have something in my hands and have a booklet and read the lyrics and stuff. Of course nowadays, everything is improving and you have to go with time and the digital age is there so you can you can't avoid it. I'm taking it as a as a good thing you know, to improve everything and the only thing I don't like about streaming is basically the payment for the bands you know, the payments, the payments are too low. And you're hoping that this will, you know, get changed at one point, because Digital's to future and at one point there will be almost no more physical products. This won't happen in the next year. It's going to come so we already you know preparing for that and the industry will prepare for that also so we have to accept it and also having metal fans I still see a lot of fans that say all streaming is bad stuff. And it's not you know, don't don't don't feel bad when you stream. It's a good thing support the band, listen to the band as much as you can. And support the bands. It's still band support is there of course buying vinyl or CDs or t shirt of bands is even better, but the streaming is still great support. MAL- We should probably wrap it up, SCHMIER. SCHMIER- Let's hope DESTRUCTION can also postpone the Australian dates til next year. We planned to come in September with our Asian shows. But now that's cancelled, but we're still having Australia top of the list for next year and we'll present a new lineup to our Australian fans. MAL- Yes, looking forward to it. Hey, SCHMIER, always great to chat to you. Good luck on the new live album. And hopefully we'll see you when all of this improves. SCHMIER- Okay, thank you very much. Stay safe. First of all, most important nowadays. And looking forward to return to Oz, Mal, always good to talk to you. Comments are closed.
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AuthorMetalhead who hates bad parking. |