Rockezine.com interview with Regicide on Apr 02, 2006

with Frauke Richter on Apr 02, 2006


		First of all congratulations with your new album ‘Breaking the Silence’. The first question that pops into mind is: how do you manage to get the seven noses of Regicide in the same direction? We have a big feeling of solidarity and deeply respect each other. Tough it takes forever to agree on something we fight and give way and fight again until everyone is fine with the decision. It’s all a matter of understanding, so all in all Regicide is a big compromise.
		I noticed the mention of Chris Wolff several times in the credits. Who is he? Should we consider him to be Regicide’s eight member? How important is Chris for the band? Our Label Fame first suggested Chris Wolff to us to be our producer for “Viorus”. He helped us to rearrange some songs and did all orchestral- and keyboard programming. On the album we realized our and Chris´ idea of how we have to sound pretty equally. He’s a great musician and became a close friend, so there was no choice to make: he surely produced our new album “Break The Silence” as well! So during the production we surely consider him to be the 8th member, yes!
		How do you write and record the music? Is every member involved in the writing? One of us comes up with an idea, sometimes a whole song, sometimes just a riff, a chorus, a melody. Then all seven sit together and write and change and write again. Once the instrumental structure is done we let the music inspire us. Depending on the emotions we have while listening we write the lyrics by telling stories, digesting dreams, discussing personal emotions or problems, thoughts, social criticism – subjects that keep us busy… It all takes place in our hearts and heads so recordings are only made when we have enough song material to start another preproduction for a new album.
		Which of the tracks took most time writing/recording? Actually our song writing is so chaotic that I don’t even remember. I guess it was “An Embracing Space Part III”, it’s the longest song on the album and we wrote it first so we had the most time.
		‘Voirus’ is a strong and very consistent album. The new album ‘Breaking The Silence’ is somewhat different, showing different faces of the band. Did you intend it this way? What do you think is the biggest difference between both albums? It was no intention but a natural sound evolution. We don’t intend to write songs in a specific style, we can’t really, because our musical backgrounds are so different. All of us had band experiences before Regicide. Besides metal and rock some of us played in folk, new metal, progressive, jazz, punk or reggae bands, others in acoustic projects, classic orchestras, big bands or sang in choirs. Writing songs together is like lighting a fire, putting a big kettle on top of it, pouring all our musical background into it, stirring it up and what comes out is just the sum of the seven of us, the sound of Regicide. We went through many different sounds: the “Travelling Minds”(our first demo) for example has programmed drums on it and I was the only vocalist by then. This album was the result of a studio-project, that we recorded ourselves at home with q-basis. For “Behind Your Eyes” (the second demo) we searched for sponsors to record in the studio of our sound engineer. And “Viorus” was our first album with professional help, like a label a producer and so on. The ”Break The Silence” sounds more like rock and is more mature than the ”Viorus” was, I think. We learn more and more to get deeper into the song as a group. But what always stayed the same is that all seven of us are equally involved in the song writing so that you can hear all our different influences through all albums.
		I know it’s a bit eighties to talk about artwork, but since you turned it into concept art... The cover and the band photos show a group of people looking in the same direction and one person looking away. What’s the concept / philosophy behind this? A guy breaking out of this monotony, this bringing into line, this stagnation of body, soul and mind that dictates the music industry and the whole world nowadays. He is breaking the silence!
		Could you define in five words where the band stands for? Individuality, democracy, creativity, innovation, solidarity
		Which countries are you going to visit to promote the new album? Surly all over Germany, some gigs in Austria and Switzerland and hopefully some in the Netherlands and in Belgium, too. We’re working on it!
		Please finish these centenses: 2006 is going to be the year of Regicide because ... we’re gonna break the silence! I wouldn’t want to be in any other band because ... when you’re in love it seems that you don’t need anybody else. ;-) It’s my ultimate goal to ... play, travel and reach out, inspire and be inspired. I want to be free in creation and free in expression by doing what I love most: music!
		What is the biggest compliment you read concerning Regicide and what is the biggest bullocks? The biggest compliment is when people really understand what we are talking about, when they really feel us. At a concert one teen-age metal-head for example started to cry when I sang the song “Nothing In Here”, because he knew exactly what I was feeling. We don’t really have a problem with somebody who doesn’t like our music, because no accounting for tastes, so even bad critics show that our music was worth to be thought about.
		What is the weirdest thing that has happened to Regicide on the road? Our back liner Bill
		What is the most embarrassing album in your own private album collection? (How/why did you get it?) Jan (our guitarist) and I have been friends forever and we always try to find something really stupid and useless for our birthday and Christmas presents. So last Christmas I got a really awful CD: Band Ohne Namen – Free As A Bird. You don’t want to listen to it!
(Geert Oldenmenger)