Rock Overdose's Zisis Petkanas made an interview with Dominik Sholtz (drums) and Oliver Nikolas Schmid (guitars) about their upcoming live in Athens and for a lot more subjects! Enjoy the conversation!
Rock Overdose: Hello Oliver and Dominik! Welcome to Rock Overdose! How are you? We re excited for you guys that you will visit our country again for a concert! How do you feel about this? Do you like Greece and the Greek crowd??
Dominik: Hi there! We were coming back from an amazing tour in China some days ago and feel fine. Of course we are looking forward for another show in Greece, because the Greece audience knows how to rock!
Oliver: Hi, yeah at the moment we all have a big hangover, but we can´t wait for the show in Athens! It goes step by step and we become more and more known. The concert in Athens the last time was really really great, the people, the crowd, the headbangers, Greece rocks! I can remember last time we went from bar to bar and we were celebrating with friends and beer. And the coolest thing, there was metal everywhere. We were singing and banging along with all of our favourite 80´s bands. GRRREAT
Rock Overdose: How was the reaction of your fans for your latest album??
Oliver: They love it - what else! The album is exactly what people want it to be. THat makes me happy. Take 4 crazy guys, a bottle of jack and meet them on Skid row show 15 years ago with Pantera, Him and Sentenced as support acts and start a band next day. I think that’s what we´re still doing and this is what the fans expect from a Lacrimas Profundere Release!
Rock Overdose: Have you felt that gothic is going down the last 2 years?
Dominik: If you are talking about Gothic Rock or Gothic Metal, it was maybe bigger in the early and mid 90ies. But as with every subgenre, popularity comes and goes, so we just do what we do, and obviously there are always some people who like it. We don't think to much about it.
Oliver: Yeah, Powermetal is in and out every 5 years, Trash Metal too and actual it´s gothic! Who cares, we´re still alive like rats out of the pentry!
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Rock Overdose: As I am watching your moves,the last 2 years,the band is going really fine! Many festivals,many tours…etc.How did you make it guys? I m sure you worked really hard for this.
Oliver: Yez we always work hard and it´s not easy for a band like us, this means you had to eat shitttt and it´s not always luxury but that´s rocknroll. You can visit so many countries, but there's little sleep in the sardine tin called Tourbus! You know, we played about 180 Concerts in 23 countries and this costs time and health. The conditions were not always the best. We got food poisoning, played shows drunk or while we had fever or both and were kicked out of cheap hotels and my wife decided to leave me and if your son calls you Uncle Theo, if you open the front-door after a long tour, you should think about and you have to deal with it! It´s sometimes a balancing act but what can I say, I simply need all of this, it´s my life!
Rock Overdose: Which album do you think describes Lacrimas Profundere better?
Dominik: The recent album is usually the point where the band is standing at the moment, but the actual Lacrimas is described best by the last 4 or 5 albums, I guess.
Oliver: the next one 😉 We still combine this two worlds like banging at a concert Overkill is the opener and Motley Cure the main act. We play malancholic rock music with heavy metal parts, without female vocals, bathos and hokum, so take the last couple of albums and you have a good description!
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Rock Overdose: Is it easy to change the vocalist of the band,as you have already been a big band with history,discography,etc???
Dominik: No, it's difficult usually. The fans now however mainly seem to have accepted Rob as the new one and only singer of Lacrimas.
Oliver: In the beginning it was hard to keep some of the Christopher fanatics. But that´s a natural thing. We played our asses off with Rob. Tours together with Apocalyptica, Wednesday 13, the 69 eyes, all the biggest Festival like the Sziget in Hungary, Mera Luna or Wacken in Germany or The summer darkness in The Netherlands and many others! Now, everyone accepts him. Some fans stop by and tell us, “hey, didn´t know you had a different singer before”. .that´s great and Chris is still a member cause I compose a lot of stuff together with him!
Rock Overdose: Tell me the most crazy experience you had in a tour!
Dominik: - censored -
Oliver: On our tour together with Apocalyptica we had a flat tire on the way to Birmingham just 2 miles near the exit of a highway parking! The Busdriver said I should go out on the Highway and show him the way to move backwards! I said “no way man” and together with the others we leave the bus and went to the highway parking! Five minutes later our bus including the trailer came backwards and another five minutes later the police came to ask the busdriver why he move backwards on a highway! About 20 seconds later the tourbus of Apo move and saw the police cars around our bus and their trailer! I never forget the phonecall of their tourmanager cause I only heard loud laughing of all the Apocalyptica members. We explain to the police that in 9 hours we have our gig in Birmingham and we´re so sorry for our crazy busdriver. We give the police officers CD´s and T-shirts and after a short interview with the Busdriver and the changing of the tires we arrive Birmingham in time but I will never forget the conversation with the Police officers cause I thought to myself the tour is over now!
Rock Overdose: In 2008,you played in Athens,with our “SadDoLLs”.Did you enjoy the show? Do you remember things from this night in Athens?
Oliver: No - and this is a positive sign! Hahaha, no we like the club and are in contact with the guys of SadDolls since 2008! We always had in mind to do a gig with this cool guys in Greece again and now, 4 years later, the waiting is over!
Rock Overdose: Is it true you are on the way for the next album? What we would expect from this album? Give us some information about it!
Dominik: Yes, we are recording ideas and demos right now and have a bunch of songs ready. It will be a mixture of traditional Japanese folklore and late 90ies Techno, of course. No, just kidding. Expect another nice mixture of heavy guitars, atmospheric parts and melancholic vocals.
Oliver: The new record is coming along great. We want to make a record for fans but also for ourselves. It’s going to be like surprisingly dark, it’s going to be really heavy and doomy, that’s a good mixture! On two tracks I work together with Ricky Warwick of The Almighty and on another one with Jesper Strömblad of In flames, so expect the unexpected.
Rock Overdose: What are you going to do with the place of the bassplayer? Are you in search of someone?
Dominik: We are not sure yet. We found out that the shows work without a bass player, although it would be nice to have one. We'll see.
Oliver: Yes, at the moment we always play with session members and it feels good like it is!
Rock Overdose: Which songs will be included in your setlist for the greek crowd in April? Why you will play again with SadDoLLs?
Oliver: like I said, we had fun the last time so why not! We´ll play the same setlist like at the headlinertour in Spain in February and China in March, about 18 songs from Burning: a wish album to The Grandiose nowhere, so now it´s on you guys, hope the club is well-filled!
Rock Overdose: A message to the greek crowd!!
Dominik: We are looking forward to play another show for you guys and having some beers together!
Oliver: expect a really cool ROCK GOTHIC METAL party with a good show and after the show some beer drinking, talking metalheadz. The Gothrock bastard is back in Greece, try to catch him live! see ya guys!!!
For RockOverdose.gr,
Zisis Petkanas
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