Interview с Diary of Dreams : DARKSIDE.ru

ur new album is called “Nekrolog 43”. What does it mean? Why nekrolog and why this number?

It’s a pretty complex title actually and if you look at necrology as work you’ll find several meanings. I chose basically a few meanings which fit best into my context. And as far as the concept goes – when somebody dies and you write a few sentences about him and publish it in the magazine for instance, then this is like a nekrolog. And other option is that in old times in churches and other houses of gods, where priests and holy people lived, where all believing people lived they had books where they wrote the name of the people that actually died in this house. And it was as a respectful way of keeping people in memory. I basically wanted to use this ancient form of keeping respect to somebody as a basis for our work. And the 43 is itself – it’s quite difficult to say where this number comes from, but I’d like to keep the secret and give the audience a chance to find out where it comes from.

What can we expect on the new album? Are there any changes in the sound or in the style as compared to your previous works?

I think for me as a musician it’s always quite difficult to say, but what I did is that I continued with the conceptual ideas of the trilogy that we had on “Giftraum”, “Nigredo” and “Menschfeind”, so the story basically continues. But what I wanted musically is to be more challenging, I wanted the album to go emotionally more up and down – first you have some dark atmospheres, then you are pushed to some rhythmical parts and more direct, more straight music. And then you again have this very calm and very said and very peaceful melancholic songs, so I wanted this album to be a very emotional and challenging ride, a journey. And that was my main goal really – designing the musical concept of the album really.

The band Diarama is very often accused of copying Diary Of Dreams. What do you think of these accusations?

I think that the musical style that I chose for Diary Of Dreams many years ago is a style that is quite unique and quite rare in this music industry. And actually if I may say so I think that we were the inventors of this style of music and later on in the late 90-s Diorama came up and began to play the similar music that we did. But it’s just because somebody has a similar musical intention and it’s not exactly making a copy. If it were so then all rock bands must be a copy of the first rock band, or let’s say every brit-pop band must be a copy of the Beatles. I don’t know. I think there are so many bands that have the similar style, and Diorama and we share very similar visions. I don’t know is it copying or not, but people should ask themselves if they like it or not, is it a copy or… Well, it’s certainly not a copy. I mean I kno

w Torben (Wendt – Diorama mastermind) very well and truly he is a great talent and an amazing musician. I would listen to it carefully and see the differences – they are quite a few.

You described your new album as a combination of two extremes – what extremes do you mean?

That’s quite simple. “Nigredo” for instance I start with one flow, with one red line which was intended by myself, because I just wanted to give very true and very much focused on the story line and I didn’t want people to be distracted from the essence of the story by too many ups and downs in the rhythm and whatever, I just wanted them to be able to follow the album from the note 1 to the last note and to perceive it a one consistent note in one mood. And with this album I wanted to reach some musical extremes – that’s from it all comes really. I wanted to be very down and very quiet and on the other hand – very aggressive and very direct and very structure wise simply orientated. That was really where I got the idea from. And that’s what I’m trying to say when I say that the album is two extremes.

I know that in your upcoming tour you are supported by the band called Noyce TM. What band is it and why did you choose them to warm you up during your tour?

Well, it’s in the European tour that Noyce TM will support us. They are special guests on this tour basically, and they will not be present at most of the international shows, just two weeks from the middle of January till the beginning of February. But why did I choose them – it’s always a very difficult task to find a band that you feel comfortable with in everything – on stage, backstage, in bus, personally and musically. By coincidence we stumbled over Noyce TM when we were looking for somebody to tour with and we are very good friends with the vocalist of the band. So he said, “Well, it’s surely quite a good idea to tour with you!” It’s really great to get on the bus together, because we are friends already, we like what we’re doing, each other, we respect each other, and that’s a great basis so that’s really where it came from, then the other steps and the organizational parts were pretty quick, everything was decided within one conversation.

Let’s return to the single. On the single the song “Plague” will be presented in two versions. What versions will it be?

We have two different versions on the single and a different version on the album. And the single versions are – I would say one of them is more rough and more brutally sounding, and the other one is more electronic. I just wanted to dig into the two musical corners which to my mind are the basis of our music – which is the more guitar rhythm parts and on the other hand the more electronic part. And I think we succeeded quite well doing that. And

the album version sound is pretty much the middle of these two versions.

The new live DVD of Diary Of Dreams is called "Nine in Numbers", it was released in the year 2006 at the label Accession Records. Why did you choose such a title?

I wanted the title to be a secret. I wanted to make the listeners interested and to make them think about it, to make them guess what it means. I wanted to make them reconsider and maybe find the connection between what they hear, what they see and what they read. There are several meanings to the title. But I definitely never say the true meaning is. One of the meanings is quite obvious and quite simple, but it’s interesting to use the titles as inspirations and to explore the story that lies behind the albums or the CD or DVD or whatever. And I would hate myself if I said to anybody what the true meaning is, and I never did that and I won’t start now. (laughs)

And could you tell about the limited edition of the new Diary Of Dreams album? In what way will it be different from the usual version?

The limited edition is printed in Italy in a very special factory, they have a very very nice packaging which consists completely of paper. And then the CD is gonna be black on both sides which I personally very much like, because it’s my favorite color. (laughs) And then the booklet is a 32 page booklet and it has pictures of these photography sessions that we took for this album and they are only on this limited edition. And then there is the second part of the mythology in their offer in written words that we started in the “Nigredo” limited edition and now continue in this “Nekrolog 43” limited edition.

You’ve said that this single, “the Pleague”, will open up a new page for the band. What is especial about this single that it’s called to open up a new page?

I think that every new single opens up a new chapter for us and every new album is a new chapter for the band, because it’s a new step, it’s a new part of the band’s evolution, it’s pretty much the appetizer, a first impression of what the album may contain, and basically this is the opener of the new album.

I know that Diary of Dreams have spontaneously decided to enhance the release parties in Leipzig (Dark Flower, 26. Oktober 07) and Munich (Nerodom, 27. Oktober 07) with a very special event: Exclusively at these dates you played 30 minute acoustic concert limited to an audience of just 80 people. What aim did you pursue when you auctioned on Ebay the tickets for this show?

Well important to mention is that of these 80 tickets for show only 40 tickets were sold on Ebay and were giver away for free in a lottery. And it’s very important, because I don’t want people think that we put all tickets on the Ebay and let p

eople be part of the auction and that’s it. No, no! 50 per cent of all tickets were given away for free. So that’s the very important part of the whole idea, when we came up with this acoustic show before the release party. During the last tour it was obvious that the audience is very much welcoming the acoustic parts that we had in the concerts. For instance “Amok” was the song we played in a piano-version as you can hear on
"Nine in Numbers” DVD and “Alive” which is the live CD. When we’ve been working on several songs in acoustic versions we thought it would be a pretty great idea to give a very very private bunch of people, a very limited amount of people, a very special concert. And that’s why we invited only 80 people, because if we had given the more people the opportunity to listen to this would have bin a gig again, and the spirit of the private event would have been lost. And moreover these two places (Nerodom and Dark Flower) are very familiar to us and have been very supportive over the past years and have done their best to promote Diary Of Dreams in clubs here in Germany. And it was the way to say “thank you for the support!” And it was a very special evening together which we were very much looking forward to, there were two guitars, classical guitars and piano and three vocals. So I’m very excited and we had many rehearsals before it – almost every day. We were very happy and maybe one day we’ll do it on a bigger scale. For us the release of the album is also a moment to celebrate. We have quite a few albums now and every new album is a really good moment in time to sit together in a very close round of people and dear heart fans and have a celebration together and … to celebrate the beliefs of the new album!

As far as you mentioned a close round of people, what is more suitable for you – big venues or small clubs?

In general both are fascinating, both have these high moments of amazing experience, for instance in South America or in Germany of course – during all these festivals we have thousands of people, a huge audience and you cannot even see the faces, because they are so far away – that’s an amazing moment, but like you said the smaller venues are much more personal and the feeling is much more intense, because you know that this thousand of people standing before the stage have come just for you. That’s a different thing, not like at a festival. Though I personally like those venues around one thousand people – that for me is a perfect thing, that’s for me is fun, you can create an enormous mood with a thousand of people and still it has a personal character, you still can look the people in the eyes. Not of course the people in the last raw, but at least to some portion of them. And you still have a kind of feeling of doing for yourself with those people and

having a personal celebration. While a festival, a huge festival is like a stadium (laughs). That’s not my cup of tee, but they’re both enjoyable. You just have to look at it differently.

Who worked at the cover artwork for the single and the album? They both are very impressive, but still they look a little bit terrific.

The ideas came from me and the realization is the combination of many people. We had two different photographers; we had a graphic designer Ingo (Romling – ed.). He is a very well-known graphic designer. We discussed things entirely in the band. The next step was that we discussed it with Ingo, then we booked appointments for the shootings and the results of the session were handled to our graphic designer and he worked over it. It’s a step by step production and it takes quite a time, but I wanted a very strong impact, I wanted a very strong impression – to make something when people look at – no matter if they like what they see or not – I wanted them to be drawn to the picture and I wanted them to deal with it and make up their minds how they feel about it and what it could mean. And I think a nice, pretty whatever cover will not draw so much attention and I wanted people to be really forced, be focused on the cover for a moment and consider: “What is this person on the cover trying to tell me?” That’s the question that I wanted to arise in everybody’s head: “What is he trying to tell me? Why is he going in such an extreme?” And the next step is dealing further with the material, dealing further with the content of the record, dealing further with the graphics and understanding where I’m coming from, what I’m trying to say and why I’m trying to TELL people in general.

Let’s speak a little bit about your personality. It’s very well known that you are really a busy man. Do you pay so little time to yourself to your private life? Have you ever thought of finishing music and to found a family for example? Or is the music everything in your life?

Diary of Dreams for me is to make dreams come true and I think I’ve walked very far, and I’ve really invested a lot of things: a lot of time, anticipation and enthusiasm in this project and in the whole music in general and into my love for music, that I find it a sin to not work as strong as I do. And yes, you’re right – my private life is not very existent, it’s very small. I’m sure that most people will not imagine the extend of this, but … if you wanna say so my private life consists of a few hours a day that I take care of my dog and a little bit for myself when I sleep and that’s pretty it. Besides that I take care of music – I play music, I write music, I answer e-mails and I do the label work. There is always a lot to do and the more you do yourself, the more sure you can be that it all will be

done the way you wanted. Not that I’m saying that: “I just couldn’t but do this”, but I’m just saying that I like to have a sort of a general control of the things, because like I said, I put so much time and effort to this project that I wouldn’t like it to be ruined by others. I have a great team of people, and without their help I would not be able to keep this all running anymore – they are managers, booking agency, and of course the band, the whole crew, live crew, the production crew, photographers, designers, producers in the studio and out of it. It’s a huge bunch of people that help me, that support me and that’s extremely important. Without them I would be practically nothing. But on the other hand I still wanna be sure that things age gone the way I’d like to hear it. And private life… if it happens or it doesn’t – it’s something that you can’t force, I’d rather stick to what I’m certain of and what I enjoy, than doing two things half way. I’m very much looking forward to the forthcoming tour, it’s a huge privilege and that’s my sort of vacation, if you wanna say so – playing in different places is interesting, it’s a great privilege that I’ve seen so many wonderful countries and so far we’ve toured in 26 countries – that’s a lot. And to me it’s very enjoyable, so it’s my vacation if you wanna say so (laughs)

You said you have a dog. And who takes care of the animal when you are on tour? I can hardly imagine that you take your dog with you on tours!

It’s funny that you ask! Do you have a dog?

No, not quite. I have a cat.

Ok, because whenever somebody asks me what I do my free time and I mention my dog, nobody ever asks me what I do with the dog when I’m on tour, so it’s a pretty good question! (laughs) I have very very nice and reliable people and take care of my little spark here, when I’m not here, because as you just said very right that it’s not possible to take him along, because it would be just torture. But he has very good friends besides me and I know that they take care of him very well. When I fly out or go on the road, I know that he is taken care of properly and when I come back he is happy to be again back with me, so it’s not like he’s having a bad time without me, fortunately not, fortunately not.

Now I have a question about the design of all your albums. I’ve noticed that all your cover-artworks have one style. There’s a line on the cover, at the upper side of the cover there’s the name of the band, in the middle there’s a picture and at the lower part of the album there’s the album’s title. Is it a kind of permanent scheme to you?

In my eyes it’s a sort of a trade mark for the band. If you go on tour and you see this style you always know that it’s a DoD release. I’ve done this from the first record ev

er. From “Cholymelan” till today every album, every best-of, whatever has looked like this. And I would find it a sin to break this rule. Because I think it’s a strong image. And if you look around quite a few bands copy this style. There are quite a few bands that look like this. And that’s o’k, if they copy me it means that they like it, and that’s wonderful. And for us it’s a kind of trade mark and it’s a part of the whole concept. And I think it’s a great thing to have this cover in your hands and to see part of the picture and then you open it up – the front and the back is one picture. Also it looks like a wide screen effect like in movies when you have black lines on the top and on the bottom like in old movies for instance. I’ve always thought that it gave the film something very special, and that I wanted to do as well. I wanted to realize this wide-screen effect basically musically.

All your albums are rather dark. It’s especially very well seen on your previous two albums. Are you really such a dark person in your private life?

I’m a melancholic person, I live rather secluded, I live in a forest in a living house. I like to be by myself. And to a certain extend I would say, yes, I’m a dark person, I’m certainly not that type of a happy guy bouncing around and jumping and laughing at everybody. That’s not really my cup of tea. But I’m also not depressed or superagressive. I’m just a calm person, I like to be by myself. I have melancholic moments, but I enjoy life, I I enjoy happy moments and I enjoy being around my friends and we laugh a lot and we are a big crew on tour, we’re enjoying ourselves very very much. We have a lot of fun and it’s very funny, because when we go on tour and we come to the location, when the promoter and the venue see the band for the first time and we’re joking around, they usually say like … the say they didn’t expect us to be such easy and funny people. So I think we’re ambiguous, we have fun and we’re enjoyable and we easy, but on the other hand we have a complex structures in our heads, we have ideas about the mankind and we like to be by ourselves.

While reading the lyrics of DoD I came across such a thing. In your lyrics there are a lot of play of words, there can be several words which start from capital letters, there are lots of brackets, dashes. I think there is something much deeper in all these signs than might seem at the first sight…

Yes, you’re right! Every signal, every dash or slash or whatever point, every capital word has its meaning. It’s always on purpose. And if you look deeper, you will always be able to find things within the words that I’m trying to point out. And sometimes I’m trying to connect letters because the meanings within the words.

You sing in German and in English. What l

anguage is easier for you in terms of writing and singing?

It’s not only the matter of the easier, but it’s more like what fits to the song, what color… the language is a color you know, it’s a sound. And when I have a song on paper or on screen, I wonder what in words the song should sound like, what color it should have. And then I decide upon the language. Sometimes I have completely done lyrics in German or English and I sing it on top of the music and I decide: “It doesn’t work!” And I change the language. What is more enjoyable to me is difficult to say, because the English language is a bit complicated to me and I’m not so good at it as you can hear (laughs), but still it’s a convenient and a very important language for me, because I’ve been raised speaking English as I lived in America for a while. And my parents lived in Scotland for awhile – actually for quite a few years. So English was always present in my life. So it’s not like that I need very much concentrate writing lyrics in English. I think each language has its charm, specific color, specific feeling and mood. And that I try to capture when using the language. I used to have something in French. On “Freak Perfume” there is a song called “Rebellion” and the lyrics were partly in French.

Do you know French as well as English?

No, unfortunately not. I used to be able to speak French quite well, but I’ve lost a lot of my vocabulary, because I just didn’t have the time to practice it on the regular basis and as for English for instance- I speak it every day. So a lost a lot of the French words, I’ve lost a lot of the grammar. It’s just a continuity and you must speak the language every day to be able to be good at it. And I don’t do it with French, but I do it with English, German and I used to beable to speak a bit of Italian, too, but I’ve lost almost completely the average unfortunately – it’s a wonderful language.

The last song on your single “The Plague” is called “Traumtanzer” and you said that it’s a memorial version of this song. In what way does it differ from the original?

For me it was important to give this song a new feeling, a new vibe, a new touch basically – the way that I would basically do it today. I wanted to transfer it to the material of the new album. And it was important for me to do it as a thank you for the audience. I dedicated it practically to the audience for the enormous support and for the unreal experiences of the last tour. I just wanted to say “thank you for it” to every single person and this is my little “thank you” to them, because it very difficult to a person like me to say thank you to everybody, so I chose this way. And I thought it would be a personal way to say “thank you” to our audience.

What is your attitude to the current state of things of humanity? What can save humanity from itself?

That’s a good question! What can say humanity from itself…Nature is the strongest thing, something that’s superior to us, something that has more power over us – call it luck, coincidence. I’m not that kind of person that looks very positively on today’s society and on the world as it is today. And I’m quite skeptical if the evolution that we are part of that we actually went through as human beings is so positive. Of course there are a lot of positive aspects in this world. I fund it hard to believe that a human kind spends thousands of years in wars and killing and trying to make differences between races and between countries and religions and all these differences much rather than looking into the aspects what do we have in common? We should concentrate on that. What do we have in common, and enjoy that. And be open-minded and accept other people and their differences, their strangeness, their normality or whatever. We should be more flexible, more tolerant and that is one of the main messages I’m trying to give on the record. I’m trying to say, “Keep on fighting, keep on holding on, but don’t keep on fighting in a war, try to turn things into positive view and make this world a more enjoyable place for everybody and change the differences.” There’s no necessity for wars except if you care about greed, money – it’s so sad and so destructive if you look at the way we develop. We could all have such a wonderful life on this planet. There are too many people all over the world. And moreover the main problem of the human being, of the humanity is in its character, in its loss – that is greed, urge for power. This planet will never be balanced unless this planet is able to get rid or us. People are viruses actually on this planet. But don’t think that I’m in so hatreds to the mankind. But unfortunately the wants (in people) of making war on this planet are much stronger, than wants of making good things. I wished there were more care for good aspects in life, than for money and for oil.

When you performed in Moscow in 2002 the keyboard parts were performed not by Torben, but by another person?

Torben is pretty much permanent person of the band. He is in the background of DoD, but he is not somebody who is always present. But he’s on a lot of productions he participated. He’s been on stage with us in the last couple of years and this will always be like this: he’ll be on stage again, then he’ll be offstage again and somebody else will be playing the keyboards. He is the constant member of the family as we say, but he is not that dominantly present as the others.

What inspires you to write music? Could you tell about the process of creating new compositions?

It’s a very very difficult question. It would probably take hours to discuss all this. There’s no force, no strength that brings me to do it. It’s just something that I need to do, I need to write music. To get the things that out of me, out of my system – it’s like that some people eat chocolate when they are nervous, some go in for sports – and I go in my studio and make music, if something bothers me. I’m just putting my insight outside and trying to get balanced again. That’s the music is for in my life. I would never write a completely happy song – because when I’m happy I don’t feel the necessity to write songs, then I enjoy life when I’m happy. And if I’m unhappy, is happens something which I dislike – then I put it on paper.

What is the most important thing for you in life?

Obviously music. Another thing is my love for animals, the third thing is my friends and family.
20 янв 2008 the End


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