Having just delivered third album Snuff || Hiroshima on Cold Dimensions German act Faulnis as ever posed a musical conundrum that got my imagination flowing and intrigued as to where exactly it was coming from. With a melting pot of ideas behind it musically along with the cold and harsh Teutonic vocals it was an album that had me wanting to get more of an insight into its varied themes. Thankfully the answers quickly arrived allowing at least some of these dots to be joined together.
AN: Greetings and first and obvious question, it has been some time since last album ‘Gehirn zwischen Wahn und Sinn.’ What has happened in the last five years and why has it taken so long for the new album to appear?
A: Hey Pete, nice to hear from you again!
The last five years, wow, turbulent! But let’s talk about the important things. In 2010 for example I spent six months in Hiroshima/ Japan. This was a very intense time for me and I was totally burnt out. This had nothing to do with jobs or whatsoever, more my personal situation. And at that point nearly two years passed without writing anything essential for FÄULNIS, so I decided to put it on hold. I had to sort my brain and got distance to a lot of stuff. This is why it took so long. Burnt out…
AN: I find there is a certain amount of an anonymous mystique about the band, without members being officially listed on your web pages. I assume that the principle member (who is answering questions here) is Seuche with other members coming and going on a more or less guest status? You describe them as “the orchestra of terror” and I note that a couple of members are listed as having left in 2013, I am assuming after the album was completed but you have a tour coming up. So who is actually in the band for this?
A: Yeah, Seuche here! It’s like you say although nobody here has a guest-status. The who is just not important. Behind the scenery we are always talking about decisions and it would be very stupid to refuse good ideas of my band just because FÄULNIS is my “baby” and I always have the final say. At the moment FÄULNIS has a complete line-up and we are well prepared for the tour!
AN: You may remember I asked some questions around the release of the last album for Terrorizer magazine. I labelled you as more of a depressive, black metal band than anything else but you pointed out that you owe as much sound wise to doom and punk rock as this. It is difficult not to get tied up in genres but how would you describe yourself sound wise and what sort of bands would you consider as inspirational?
A: It’s annoying getting labelled as DSBM/ Depressive Suicide Black Metal, especially the suicide-part. OK, FÄULNIS has something to do with depressions, something to do with Black Metal but it has nothing to do with what you may have in mind when we are talking about Depressive Black Metal. BlackDoomPunkRock, Depressive Punk with Black Metal influences, Black Metal with depressive Punk-influences, I don’t know… Al least I mix up everything I have in mind and that is FÄULNIS. Inspirational Bands are all these German melancholic Pun bands from the 80s/90s for example. Fliehende Stürme, EA80, just to mention two… But this is just one influence. I listen to music all day long, different stuff… Tom Waits I like a lot at the moment.
AN: would you say that anything has changed or developed much in this respect between the two latest albums?
A: There is no change, it’s just development. All the time…
AN: To me the sound is cold, harsh, misanthropic and hateful with a melting pot of musical styles combined within it. Would you agree and is that the overall feeling you would expect someone to come away with after hearing the new album.
A: The interesting part of this question is that we have to talk straight about the music itself although the lyrics are very important for FÄULNIS. But they are in German so you as an Englishman are judging FÄULNIS just by the sound. This independent judging just by the sound makes me curious because I see the whole issue concentrated on the interaction between sound and lyrics. Sometimes I read, that the music is much too happy for the theme which I don´t follow. It’s just another style and no “Black Metal”-darkness, also a play with contrasts. In the end I would say you are right but it’s difficult to say.
AN: Also speaking before we discussed language and you told me that partly your vocals are in German as your “English is horrible” (better than my German by far) and you thought more bands should have the courage to sing in their own language. Quite honestly the tone and the expression in your vocals give a good indication of the feeling of the music. Do you think it has hampered you getting more notice further afield though and spreading your music wider? Is that even a concern due to the more underground nature of things even?
A: For me it’s more natural to sing in German, I feel confident. Expressions, sound and the whole articulation. Singing in my mother tongue is the purest way to express myself I´m not playing Pop music, if language hampers you spreading your music wider… Shit happens…
AN: The album has a double barrelled title Snuff || Hiroshima can you give us some sort of meaning and insight into this?
A: It’s about association. “Snuff”, murder for entertainment. “Hiroshima”, the atomic bomb. It’s about what people are doing among themselves. And you hear the words and you have certain pictures in mind. It’s a concept I need for writing an album. “Gehirn zwischen Wahn und Sinn” was about the void, concrete, centering the inner-self, on “Snuff || Hiroshima” I am dealing more with the whole thing, the nature of men among themselves.
AN: I remember you said you were moving to Japan for a year is this the basis for some of the ideas behind Hiroshima and was it somewhere you visited? If so what effect did it have on you?
A: I stayed in Hiroshima for six months. The last two songs “Atomkinder und Vogelmenschen” and “Hiroshima” are dealing with my experiences there, combined with some historical references. As I said, it was an intense time. I will never forget the memorial-museum of Hiroshima for example.
AN: The word snuff obviously has extreme connotations within the film world and I myself am particularly interested in some of the extreme cinema coming out of your country with directors from Jorg Buttgereit, Olaf Ittenbach, Andreas Bethmann and the recent revolting work of Marian Dora whose ‘Melancholie der Engel’ comes across as a particularly grim and arty pseudo snuff movie. Are you familiar with many of these films / directors and has perhaps seeing any of their works rubbed off on you influencing the themes here.
A: I have seen a lot of Buttgereits movies. It’s not easy to say “I love them” – they have a very special hurting atmosphere, it’s like masochism to watch them. “Todesking” describes it, the pictures, the music (oh, maybe I mean the music of “Nekromantik”), this bad quality (VHS!). I never heard of the others but thank you!! Have you seen “8mm”? The album-title deals with associations, and as a big (horror) movie-fan there might be some influences, too.
AN: Film is something that you have been involved in making your Letharg EP into one, can you tell us a bit about that?
A: Yes, someday my now-guitarist from Hard Drive Media called me and asked how about making a movie for “Letharg”. When we started talking about picturing Letharg” we had the idea to realize a clip with a stringent story in the style of a strange but comprehensible black/white short-movie. Not as we want to be convulsively different to the traditional music clip but we didn´t want to create something operating with the typical Black Metal stereotypes.
We worked out a plot and searched for an actor, so finally Stephan Lenze got the job. It was a very exciting experiment and the result has a fantastic atmosphere, in my opinion. I don’t really know, but I think, this movie even makes sense, when you don’t speak German, it is styled a bit like a silent-movie. The lyrics of course describe the sense of it all but haven´t much to do with what you see. The protagonist in a dirty chamber, working on a machine. It’s a dark trip into your mind, grey eternity, a circuit of recapitulation. The movie is also dark with a special atmosphere but in another way than the pictures I had in mind while creating the music for the EP. We tried to get a new way of interpretation.
AN: You also have a new video clip for track Weil wegen Verachtung, the black and white starkness of it and the industrial truck settings and scenes of torture jumped out (in a Bunny Game sort of way). Who was responsible for making this, the same people who were behind Letharg perhaps?
A: Yes, Hard Drive Media was responsible again.
AN: Looks like there was a fair bit of suffering for art happening there with rot and putrefaction being very much part of the theme and slime and maggots being part of the make-up, was it an intense experience?
A: Of course! But it is an intense theme!
AN: I believe you were still to play your first ever live gigs when we last spoke. What was that like finally getting on stage and is it now something you are more comfortable with and have you to date played many shows?
A: The first time was strange but finally it works. I was curious about FÄULNIS live on stage, a lot of people said, FÄULNIS is no live-music. But its long time ago… Nowadays it’s one of my most important experiences in this music-thing, staying in front of people and they are shouting my lyrics.
AN: These dates were with Lifelover a band who I admit comparing Fäulnis to a fair bit. What were they like to tour with? Sadly I never got the chance to see them. You must have been as shocked as everyone by the sudden passing of B Jonas Bergqvist.
A: I wasn´t shocked, I didn´t care. Lifelover has a special sound and I like the music but live it was absurd. I saw them two times and didn´t like it. People say it’s this special contrast between music and silly dancing but it was just silly dancing without charisma. It’s a pity but in the end I don´t care. In my opinion the band destroyed a lot with the decision to play live.
AN: I see you have dates coming up with the likes of Eis, Fyrnask and Harakiri For The Sky amongst others and you are playing the whole of Letharg. What are your expectations of this and would you like to play more dates further afield as it is only taking in Germany with one date each in Switzerland and the Czech Republic by the looks of it? I am sure England is not a proposition in the future unless the right tour or promoter comes along to bring you here.
A: Having a “good” time, playing intense shows. Nine/ ten days in a different universe!
It would be great to play afield, so get in contact if you want to see FÄULNIS!
AN: So I am guessing that it is a relief to get the new album out after such a long while, how have you found reactions to it so far?
A: Some people love it, some people hate it, it seems to be this polarize-thing! That is good! I am curious how the new songs are working live. Mehr Hass!
AN: What do you envisage for the future with the band, I hope it is not going to be another five year time out?
A: No no, I am still writing new stuff. At the moment I am very motivated and frustrated!
AN: Thanks for taking the time to answer especially as the questions were in English.
Any final words to our readers?
A: To the end my answers are getting shorter and shorter, sorry, but this was a lot of questions!
Thank you very much for it!
Interview Pete Woods
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