Despite being a new band, The Beautiful Dead is actually an ensemble of experienced musicians. They are doing some of the finest Dark Wave music in this New Millennium, their sound is very 80’s inspired and there is no doubt about the quality in their music. They have a stunning new album (their second one) called “To Lunar Canyons”, and they will talk here about their previous bands, those musicians which inspired them, and of course the 80’s…..
Daniel Olvera
Hi thanks for accepting this interview for This Is Gothic Rock.com. My first question is about your musical roots, which other musical styles did you used to listen to, besides Metal?
Tom: Maybe I have a wide field of musical preferences. I like Rock, Progressive Rock, Reggae, Wave, early synthie music, country. But most times it is pure rock, my favorites are AC/DC and Judas Priest
Christian: Besides Metal i like the Progressive Rock of the 70`s, early Punkrock-Bands like “Ramones” and “Misfits” and the Wave-Bands of the 80`s.
Patrick: Rock from the 70`s and everything for the The Blues Brothers to Michael Jackson
Axel: My first record was the 'Fade to Grey'-single from Visage in 1981. I also collected all the well known Wave-Bands from the early 80's like Sisters, Bauhaus, Joy Division and Echo and the Bunnymen etc. I also listen to Progressive Rock like early Yes, Genesis and Eloy and classic music like Mussorgsky, Brahms and Bach and Arabian folk music.
Who are your musical heroes and personal influences ( I mean, if you play guitar who is your favorite guitar player, etc.), including every musical style that you actually like.
Tom: My heroes on bass are Geezer Butler, Steve Harris and some of the proggers, like Geddy Lee or Chris Squire. But I also take a bow for the “ background” bass players, like Cliff Burton or Cliff Williams
The Beautiful Dead has a very interesting sound, in my opinion you are great fans of music and you listen and like too many different styles of music. Which bands were specifically your influences and inspiration in this new musical adventure?
The band’s name sounds like if it has been taken from some verse of the Romantic era. What is the origin of the band name?
Christian: It`s much easier. The Main Origin is a Killing Joke Song from the “Extremities, Dirt And Various Repressed Emotions” Album with the same name.
Some words about your experience with previous bands?
Tom: OH oh, there are many. I play music since 83, started with metal and hard rock. Had some Cover Bands in between. The most expressive band and most near to TBD was Murder She Wrote which I joined 2001 and met Axel, the singer. Chronological my bands were: Crystal Ball, Donnybrook fair, Arson, High Moon, Crimson Tide, Murder She Wrote and now TBD
Christian: Just Metal Bands and we only play around the local area. Chronological: Arise, Dawnrazor, Dark Century, Oblivion and Roadrash/Skellington. Currently I`m also playing with Axel in a CELTIC FROST Cover Band
Patrick: I started paying drums in 1994 and my first band was Roadrash/Skellington followed by Guerilla Radio. Right now I play drums with The Beautiful Dead and The Manly Pony Riders Club ( 70`s Rock): Beside that I have some Heavy Metal project (most studio projects)
Axel: My first relevant band was The End Of Music, formed in 1990. Back then we had already this special mixture of Gothic and Metal but I think the time wasn't right for this style in our small hometown, haha! In '95 we formed Murder She Wrote and everything got a little bit more professional.
And now let’s talk about the origins of The Beautiful Dead, how did all started? How do you meet each other and eventually decided to form this band?
Tom: Axel and me were friends since the days of Murder She Wrote. Chris replaced me as bass player after I left MSW. And after pointless trials to reunite MSW some years later, we wanted to found a new band with our old keyboarder. The keyboarder didn't had the time for a band and so we started with me, Axel, Chris and Patrick, who is the brother of Chris. We started as a quite NORMAL Rock Band and found our sound and style by incident, as we started to write songs.
What can you say about your activity in terms of live shows? , Any gigs outside of your country, some fest? With which bands do you have shared the stage?
Tom: Live shows are the best thing for us as musicians, but the venues are very very few in Germany. As a party or cover Band, you could play everywhere, but with original material it is very rare to find a good gig. We always keep eyes open, and now we watch beneath the borders of Germany. But it is just the beginning
Your Facebook page states 2010 as the year of the creation of the band; one year later you managed to obtain the record deal with Sonorium, which is a very positive thing. How did you get that record deal?
Tom: It was quite easy. We had recorded a promo CD with 5 songs and got that deal on first trial. We may fitted the style of Sonorium well and some recognized our potential in songwriting.
Please some words about your lyrics, what is your inspiration when writing lyrics for your songs?
Axel: Everything from current political developments to current personal catastrophes
Tom: It was quite easy. We had recorded a promo CD with 5 songs and got that deal on first trial. We may fitted the style of Sonorium well and some recognized our potential in songwriting.
Please some words about your lyrics, what is your inspiration when writing lyrics for your songs?
Axel: Everything from current political developments to current personal catastrophes
You have the collaboration of Tommy Steuer from Arts Of Erebus, in the mastering of your albums. What can you tell about this process of recording and mixing the first album?
Tom: Tommy Steuer is not only the Bass player of Arts Of Erebus, he is the Boss of Sonorium. He owns a recording studio and is into music production for the whole time of his life. We keep the following work process for all of our releases: We record it and mix it, Tommy masters it and gives it the FULL SOUND. Also we had the luck to have him as live sound engineer for some of our gigs. He always manages to let us sound as from CD.
Christian: The first album was also a learning. Process in producing , recording and mixing an Album, so the sound could be better. But we learned a lot while producing the first on, as you can hear on the new Album “To Lunar Canyons”. It sounds much better.
You had received quite a positive feedback with the first album, and now you have a second full-length: “To Lunar Canyons”; and you are evolving as a band and have done such a good work. What can you say to all the people who are following to TBD about this new release?
Tom: Oh, we could say it in a few words, or we could referate some days about it ;) OK, we used more synthies, but also more guitars. We were more into composing around our ideas. On Moonlight we were putting some pieces of songs together and had some good songs in the end. Real great songs I would say. For Lunar, we used more time to compose real songs. Each idea grew with the number of plays in rehearsal.
Christian: I think it`s a natural advancement from the “Moonlight and Hollywood”-Album. The Songs are more mature and we spent a lot of time for arrangements. Also in a few Songs you can hear our Prog-Rock Influences. Everything is a little more epic.
At this moment I guess that you are working in the promotion of this new album, some words about your next dates for live gigs…
Patrick: It´s not so easy to find good gigs in Germany. We have no booker and need to do all by our own. So far we are working on our next album. No gigs in view...
In” To Lunar Canyons” everything is about the 80’s; and I think not only about the music of that wonderful era, I also think about the culture of that decade. Next questions are about 80’s: Let’s start with your favorite movies from that time…
Tom: Back to the future, Conan, Brian, Die hard, some Zucker movies and tons , billions of tons east Asians cheapeys.
Christian: Back to the Future, Terminator, Ghostbusters, A Nightmare on Elm-Street, The Thing (all Carpenter-Movies from the 80`s, Indiana Jones, Highlander.
Do you remember the first album that you owned?
Tom: Van Halen - 1984
Christian: Accept – Breaker and Iron Maidens “Number of the Beast” (Bought together)
Patrick: Judas Priest – Painkiller, Manowar – Kings Of Metal (Bought together)
Axel: Fade to Grey - Visage and Valley of the Dolls by Generation X
Talking about good music from that time, mention five records that you like so much from that era (80’s). The first ones that came to your mind; this is not necessarily a top five.
Tom: Priest: Defenders of the faith, Metallica: Kill em all, Police: The singles, everything from Marillion w/ Fish.
Christian: Metallica – Master of Puppets, Iron Maiden – Somewhere in Time, Field of the Nephilim – Nephilim, Slayer – Reign in Blood, Anacrusis – Screams and Whispers
Patrick: Rush - Moving Pictures, Rush - Signals, Danzig - Danzig, Candlemass – Tales Of Creation, Thin Lizzy – Renegade
Axel: Einstürzende Neubauten – Halber Mensch, Sacred Blade – Of the Sun and Moon, Rush – Hold Your Fire, Dead Can Dance – Into the Labyrinth, Dead Kennedys – Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
Finally I want to say thank you very much for this interview, and congratulations for the new album; it sounds really great. Please some words to the people who reads This Is Gothic Rock…
Tom: We have to thank you Daniel. For the listeners: Enjoy our music and let your minds fly to our music. There is no border!!!
Christian: Thanks for your interests in this Interview and I hope you enjoy our new Album “To Lunar Canyons”
Patrick: Support the bands by buying there CD`s or load them legally down! We don`t count our money in large amounts!
Axel: Guten Abend
