Lord of the Lost



Russian Version

insurgent__lotlSo, INSURGENT team is at the TrashFest VI, (5th of October, Gloria Kulttuuriareena, Helsinki, Finland). You have the unique possibility to see the results of our wonderful and friendly conversation with Chris Harms and Gared Dirge from "Lord of the Lost" (gothic/industrial/metal band from Hamburg). We are speaking about TrashFest, crazy Russian fans and plans for the future. Enjoy!



Now we’re at the Trashfest where you have been many times before as a musician yourself and with the band “Lord of the Lost”… What does Trashfest means to you? What makes it special as a musical festival for you?

Chris:

The TrashFest for me is like the meeting of the old friends and it’s not like a festival in the ordinary sense. I don’t want to say that it’s not professional and it’s some kind of a party, but as for me it’s also a chance to hang on with friends. And we look forward to it every year. Maybe the next year we’ll be performing here too. If Mama Trash will ask us and if we’ll have time.

By the way, how did you meet Mama? I’ve heard it was before “Lord of the Lost”.

Chris:

I wrote to her on MySpace when I was with my former band “Pleasures” and asked her to promote my band. And she answered something like: ”No, this band is shit, I don’t want it”, it was friendlier, but the general sense was like that.

So that you could create a new band that she liked :) By the way, did TrashFest help you to promote your band somehow? Last year you performed before the headliners, and now you are headliner yourself.

Chris:

You can never say how much the certain concert or festival reflected on your career, but I know that one of the reasons that we played in Russia was TrashFest, because Russian people saw us here in Finland.

As we know, Mama Trash is your booking manager in USA and Finland, and some time ago you started the crowdfunding campaign to get money for USA tour. Who suggested this idea?

Chris:

It was Mama Trash.

So in this campaign you had may perks for fans. For example, you made a design for a t-shirt and so on, you displayed your another talent. Could you tell about your other talents we didn’t know before? Designing things? For example, this T-shirt’s on you?

Chris:

Actually, I made only writing for this t-shirt, but I didn’t draw this picture. First Mama wrote that whole design is mine, but then she changed it, but still everybody thinks that these credits belong to me. (Laughing.) I made a design for some CDs and tattoos, but still I think it’s more like a hobby.

lord of the lostAnd what about the DJing?

Chris:

You have to respect real DJs and not place me among them. What I do as a DJ has nothing to do with talent. I just take CDs and mp3s and push “Play” button. What real DJ does, it can really be some kind of art, but what I do everybody can do, even him :) (pointing at Gared)

Less than in 1 month there’ll be “Lord of the Lost” shows in Russia. It will be the third time for you. What was the weirdest experience for you in Russia?

Chris:

At the airport when they check passengers for weapons and prohibited items, you should be checked with X-ray in a special dark room, and they don’t ask you, whether you want it or not. I mean it’s really dangerous for your health. And everybody knows that X-ray may cause cancer.

And one positive experience, maybe one you’d want to repeat?

Gared:

Last time we came to Saint-Petersburg right after the TrashFest. We were on the way the whole night and we were so fucked up and looked like zombies. And maybe still drunk. And when we got to the hotel there were about 20 fangirls standing in front of it with flowers and presents. And it was really strange, weird… but lovely!

Chris:

They waited for us the whole morning; they didn’t know the certain time that we will arrive. It was so cute…

You’ve never had this experience in Germany before?

Chris:

No, Russian fans are fucking crazy. These flowers and stuff is a really different way to say “Welcome to our country”. It’s nothing that anyone would do in Germany. I have many Russian friends in Hamburg. And I had a Russian boy in my school and every time I visited him at his home, his family offered me a dinner. And this is not normal in Germany. When you come, they usually offer you a drink or something, but they never cook for you, never offer a food…It seems weird because we never get used to it, but I think it’s a nice thing.

According to our information, you’ll be shooting your next music video in Russia. Tell me more about it? Is it something connected to Russia as a country or just studio work?

Chris:

We shoot the video on the day before the show in the studio. It will be one of 3 or 4 music videos from the new album and the title of the song is “Kingdom Come”, it will be nice opportunity to work with our friend and director of “Die Tomorrow” Katya Tsyganova. Last time we were working with her in Germany and now we’re coming to Russia. This music video is going to be really dark, disturbing, embarrassing and disgusting!

Speaking about music videos, I’ve noticed that there are no more girls there since “Die Tomorrow”, will there be another “Sex on legs” in the future or we can forget about this image of seducer?

Chris:

No, definitely I will do some “girls” stuff in the future, because it’s something we really like to have in the videos. Because this very strong powerful connection between two lovers gives the special drive to the music video. Maybe even in this video which we will shoot in Russia next month…

As for the last time, I’ve noticed that you had some kind of a dance support… Do you like to get other people to take part in your show or you’d like to be without any additional show on stage?

Chris:

Usually I only work with people that I know and like. But that time I only saw the pictures of those girls that our booking manager sent to us. We didn’t even speak, they came very professional, having done their work they just left, and after the show I just wanted to say “Thanks”... Okay, it would be “Spasibo”, but they were already gone.

Also speaking about your stage behavior, sometimes it becomes really dangerous – stage diving, pouring of the water on your body without t-shirt and so on. When we saw the last show in Russia we saw that fans pulled off your t-shirt and you almost fell from the stage. Is it something that always planned for the show or it happens unintended?

Chris:

I’m not very spontaneous with those kinds of things. There’s like 2 Chrises in stage: the first one that doesn’t recognize anything so it just comes out of me and the second who controls everything. And when it comes to stage diving I really have to think about it before the show. Actually I don’t like to be in the crowd among the people and I don’t like to be touched by the people. But it’s fun even if it’s prepared.

This summer you released a live album “We Give Our Hearts”. What was the main point of releasing it?

Chris:

There’s no message in it, this is the live album, just the “document” of the performance. People just asked about it, we didn’t want to say something special with it.

chris harmsThis album also includes 3 new songs. And they have really different sound. Will these songs remain only as a part of a live album or do you want to add them into a new album?

Chris:

These songs will just stay as a part of live album; we won’t include them in the new one.

And when are you going to release a new album?

Chris:

End of April or maybe May, next year. All the material is ready and now we’re in the middle of recording.

Are there going to be any covers on the new album?

Chris:

No.

And by the way, regarding your covers, is there any song or band you definitely will not make cover on?

Chris:

“Rammstein”. You just can’t make it better.

Gared:

There’s no point in covering the band from your own genre.

Chris:

“Rammstein” is not so far from us… And when I make a cover on the song I just take it and “undress” it and “redress” it and make some kind of a new style for it. I want to make it really different, that’s why it’s fun for me to cover pop songs and R’n’B or very old songs.

Will you perform any new songs from the next album in Russia?

Chris:

As for the last album “Die Tomorrow” we started to play songs from it 1 year before releasing it, and it was cool in a way our fans knew most of the songs from it already, but for the next album we decided not to play songs from it now so this album could become a surprise for fans.

Do you prepare something special for your fans in Russia?

Chris:

Sure we will, I don’t really have a final idea, maybe we will make a cover on “Kalinka”. Oh no, this would be silly.

And this is the last question for you guys: maybe you have something to say to your fans?

Chris:

This is always the hardest question for us. All answers are always so silly. For the next time I’m going to think about it before, but thank you anyway for reading and coming to our show. Or not. (Smiling.)

Thanks to Mama Trash (Jo Sheldon) and Trash Family for the help with this interview!

And here is our surprise - the funny mini-version of the interview:

insurgent__lotl