Blutengel

What do you prefer? Play at festivals like this one (Wave Gotik Treffen) or smaller club gigs?
- "It's a big difference. It's more personal if you play at clubs and when you play alone, because then everyone that are there have come just for you, and you can say "Hey, everyone that are here is here for me!". But when you playing at festivals, people go "What's this band?". Festivals, especially the Wave Gotik Treffen is a great opportunity to be introduced. People are coming from all around the country and from all around the world and they have a chance to see us. If there are just a gig a person from Japan can't afford to go to Germany, but when he wants to see many, many bands at one place he can go to the Wave Gotik Treffen and have the opportunity to see all the bands he wants to see. I think it's really cool. On the other side it's more intimate to play at clubs and that's why I prefer it."

You have lots of visual effects and appearances at your gigs. Do you have the same amount at club gigs or is it just at festivals with bigger stages?
- "No, we have more stuff going on when we play at clubs, because then we have more time to set all the things. When we play at festivals it's more difficult because there are so many bands playing before and after you, so we don't have much time to set the fireworks and stuff like that and that's the problem when you are playing at festivals. This was the first time we played an open air gig so we could use some heavier fireworks. It was very cool playing at a big stage and open air, but normally we have more time to prepare everything."

In what way do you feel your visuals improve your music?
- "We think it's very important. We think the music should be seen by the people so we try to make it "real". We like when people leave the concert saying "Wow, that was a cool show, because there were many girls on stage, a great performance and fireworks". We don't like artists with great lyrics and a great message, just standing there on stage with just one guy singing and the other guy stands behind his keyboard. I like to make it stronger in a visual aspect. So when we play live we think about our lyrics and then make them visual."

Tell us a little bit more about Sonja's (performer) appearance.
- "Mostly I write the lyrics and Sonja then have to make them visual. Translate the lyrics and emotions into a performance. So we sit down and talk about it, we show her the lyrics and then she imagine and try this and that with her dance and performing. So her work is to translate the context into a visual performance."

In your latest album and at your performance yesterday, you gave the girls much responsibility to sing and perform without you. Tell us more!
- "I don't like to make the same things all the time. On the new album there are more influences by the girls, so it's quite clear their live performance is stronger than before. They sing without me with their own lyrics and I think it's cool. I like when things are changing and when something is going on at the stage. I think that's better for the audience. As I said before, it's not as boring as it is when one guy just stands there and don't move. We made that decision before the show."

You released 'Angel Dust' a while ago, are you only going to produce Say Y now or will you release another Blutengel album?
- "I work with both projects. I have done some new things for Blutengel, but right now the focus is on producing the new Say Y album. I found them when I saw them live and I thought they were a great band so I said "Ok, do you want a contract?" and they said "Yeah, we want it". And now it's my job to produce them and that's the main focus this year since they want to release their album soon. But I always work with Blutengel and it will be a release this year. It will probably be a MCD or something like that, but it should be something this year. I can't really say when the next album will be released. If not this year it will be during the next year."

You do most of your lyrics in English and some of them in German. Allot German bands do all their lyrics in their native tongue, why have you chosen to do them in English?
- "I started to write them in English because I think it's more international and it makes the songs better. I was not sure how to write in German, because sometimes when you write in your own language it sometimes sounds a little bit stupid and simple. Instead you can use strong American words and make it more international. Take a word like "Fuck!", that's a strong word and you can only say it in English and if you say it in another language it don't sound that cool. But I try to mix it and combine it. Some lyrics I can't write in English because it's to intimate so I have to use my own language."

Using just two single words, how would you describe Blutengel?
- "It's a good question. I have to say "Sexy" and "Emotional" do describe the atmosphere."

It's kind of obvious you get allot of inspiration from vampires and from "The World of Darkness". What more sources of inspiration do you have?
- "Life. Most of the lyrics are very intimate. They have to do with my personal emotions, what I thought and what I felt at the time. Everything's points at dark, vampires and angels of course. We have our own picture of angels and we try to put it into the lyrics."

Any last words from Blutengel to our readers?
- "My message to everyone is to be individuals, because some try to be somebody else. I think everyone should find their own individuality and shouldn't copy another person or style."

[font]This interview was made 2003 and initially published on Neurozine.com