Klabautamann
Wywiad przeprowadził Wouter Roemers
That Germany has a rich and stylistically diverse black metal scene is known for several years now to anyone watching the underground. Recently Klabautamann released their third album "Merkur" through their own label imprint Zeitgeister Music Distribution. This new record combines progressive metal chops with harsh black metal, soothing acoustics and folk metal segments. Masterful Magazine talks to Florian Toyka (guitars, bass) about the creation of their latest stunning record, the forming of their own label and their commitments besides Klabautmann.
Hi! Thanks for doing this interview with us! What are you and the rest of Klabautamann currently up to?
At the moment we're rather occupied with stuff like working, studying and other bands… Tim started his own studios (Nomad Recordings) and I am much involved in another band, Valborg. We're going to record a new album in January, so we're in the rehearsal room almost every day: in the morning, in the evening… So, sadly, much is going on but almost nothing has to do with Klabautamann. But the time will come again!
Since this is your first interview for Masterful Magazine, could you provide us with a brief history of the band up till now?
I'll really keep that brief: Tim [Steffens, vocals/guitars and bass] and I started on a not so serious level in 1998 and recorded our first demo. We rather liked what we did so we made another demo, two full-length recordings, a 7" picture disc and now "Merkur", album number three. The demos we produced completely on our own, while we had some session drummer support for the other releases. But in the end Klabautamann was always Tim and me, we know each other since first grade and somehow we never assembled a full band due to different reasons.
When I looked up the name Klabautamann, I found out it was the name of a goblin that is able to predict shipwrecks. In Norse mythology, Nóatún (Old Norse "ship-enclosure") is the sea-side abode of the god Njörðr. You also have a track called 'Nóatún' on this record. Where does Klabautamann's fascination with Scandinavian mythology and maritime activities come from?
Well, I'm from the northern part of Germany, from the coast. My dad was in the navy and I always had a strong connection to the whole maritime thing. I guess the Scandinavian folklore and mythology was introduced into the band when we first saw pictures of Theodor Kittelsen and John Bauer. Also, we're big fans of Enslaved and (old) Borknagar, and I think I remember Tim was already personally interested in this field when the band took shape.
Klabautamann is obviously a collaborative effort between the two of you. Do both of you deliver song material in equal measure or does one take the lead over the other?
That depends. The debut has more songs Tim came up with, while the second album goes a little bit in my direction. "Merkur" now has again more songs which were composed by Tim. But since always no matter who came up with the original idea we both write our own lines and melodies for each song it's pretty much 50/50 all the time.
Prior to "Merkur" you released two albums; "Our Journey Through the Woods" in 2003 and "Der Ort" in 2005. What can you tell us about those, do these differ great from "Merkur"?
I guess they do, although I thought the same when "Der Ort" was released. But the step between those two and "Merkur" was surely the biggest we made so far, regarding song writing, production and our skills as musicians. Also on "Merkur" there are less classical guitars and we broke away from this strong dominating wood- and nature elements. You will still find them but we expanded the whole band "theme" a little bit. Concerning the production somehow the focus shifted stronger on warm clean guitar sounds, which was rather new for us. Another difference lies in the writing-process: we withdrew from our current places to our home town for two weeks and wrote the album in this undisturbed, yet familiar surroundings. I think this had a huge impact on the material, it all strikes me as much more homogeneous and closed in itself.
"Our Journey Through the Woods" was mixed and mastered November/December 2002 at BGM Tonstudio by Pavor guitarist/main composer Armin Rave. Is there much kinship and camaraderie between Klabautamann and Pavor, seeing how both of you defy standard genre descriptions?
We've been close friends with Armin since 1999, in fact he was my guitar teacher for one or two years. I'm a big fan of Pavor and I admire their work, including their old school attitude towards modern pseudo bands. Also, his consequent way of working fits very much with how I like things to be done. I've worked with him on four other albums so far (2x Woburn House, 2x Island) and it was always a great experience to be in this relentless workflow with him. Hopefully we'll mix another record again soon, there's enough in the pipeline…
"Our Journey Through the Woods" and "Der Ort" were recorded and produced at Flammenmeer Studio. Was this an early incarnation of what now is Nomad Recordings where the bulk of this album was recorded?
I guess one can say that. Tim was always very much interested in the whole recording process, and while we both built up decent home-studios (I recorded, for example, the recent Woburn House record) he got into it on a more professional level. He is around 90% responsible for the production of "Merkur", and I think he did extremely well!
You hail from Germany in Central Europe, while your sound is firmly rooted in atmospheric Scandinavian black metal of North Europe. I couldn't help but notice the profound influences of acts as Borknagar, (later) Enslaved and Vintersorg. Tell us about that.
First of all, I really can't get anything out of Vintersorg. Not my thing. But you're right, especially in the early days bands like Borknagar, Enslaved and Opeth had a big impact on us. The first two Borknagar-records are amongst the best Viking metal can offer, and Enslaved are gods, no matter at which period of their history you're looking. But I sincerely hope that those bands just gave us a push in the right direction, we never tried to sound like them or something like this.
The album is named "Merkur", which is mercury. Does this have anything thing to do with the Roman god or the element of the same name? How did you come up with the album's name and what is the meaning, or concept, behind it?
That was a rather big coincidence: Christian Kolf (Valborg, Island, Woburn House) wrote lyrics which he entitled "Merkur", I think he liked the word as a title along with it. Jan (Valborg), our illustrator, thought that this title would heavily inspire him while conceiving the artwork, while we thought the song would represent the whole album the best, so there we were. There's no big pseudo-intellectual wanna-be philosophical concept behind it. But this doesn't mean that you can't design your own interpretation of title, music and artwork. To the contrary, everybody should feel invited to do so! Also there's a Sting-record called "Mercury Falling" (the last good one he did), and I have no idea if he means god, planet or element… well, it's just a name.
The lyrics written by Christian Kolf and Maria Koch seem to deal with themes of nature, sorrow and heathendom. What was of particular inspiration when these lyrics were written?
I can't tell you that because I never ask. Christian writes when he feels like it and he likes to use words which in his opinion fit nicely to the overall atmosphere of his theme. But I never ask him too much about it, I somehow want to take it like it is and not question it too much. Writing lyrics is not easy… if he wants to explain himself more than he does in his lyrics he must tell me voluntarily. We don't talk too much about it, most of the time we just tell him "we like it" and that's it.
Klabautamann and Pavor both hail from the same region in Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia, and play a distinct progressive and technical variety of their chosen genre. Is being progressive and technical of a trait of the North Rhine-Westphalia metal scene?
I cannot say that. There are so many bands… another interesting black metal act from our area is Grabnebelfürsten, also closely tied to Pavor and Klabautamann. On the other hand, my favourite "progressive" (black) metal act Kerbenok is from the Northern part of Germany. But I'm not really a part of any metal scene, so I can't tell for sure. But while we're at it, the other bands I and friends of mine play in are all united under the roof of Zeitgeister Music. Might be worth checking them out if you like Klabautmann…
Germany is mostly known for its strong heavy - and power metal scene and its pivotal role in the thrash metal scene with bands such as Destruction, Kreator and Sodom. Bands like Deadborn, Debauchery, Necrophagist, Obscura, Pavor and Resurrected prove that death metal is also present in the German scene. Are there any noteworthy bands that we should be aware of?
Well I'm really glad you keep mentioning Pavor. They are the true heroes of technical death metal because they are indeed technical but on the other hand they didn't forget about the metal-part like many modern bands. I don't care for any of the other groups you mentioned. I know Obscura and Necrophagist and, in my opinion, they are really boring on a high technical level. Congratulations. Another noteworthy death metal band from Germany: Dark Millennium. They released two fantastic albums but split up in the early 90's. What a loss.
"Merkur" was recorded with the assistance of session drummer Patrick Schroeder (Centaurus-A). Germany has gifted the international scene with quite some talent: Hannes Grossman, Slavek Foltyn, Marco Minneman, Jan Benkwitz, Michael Pelkowsky, Tomasz Janiszewski and Torturer. Do you tend to work with whichever extreme metal drummer is available at the time?
Absolutely not! Patrick is a close friend and this is an important condition for joining us. It's really important for me that I have a good personal connection to the people I play music with. By the way, he also did "Der Ort" and the 7", so he's almost a constant member of Klabautamann for me. I really enjoy working with him, and his drumming is good for our songs. That's all I can ask for!
What prompted you to form your own label/distribution company with Zeitgeister Music and how did the North American distribution deal with The End Records came about?
Christan Kolf and I put Zeitgeister into being to have one page with one shop where all our musical projects would unite and thus promote each others. This seemed like the logical step with that many bands at hand, all available on the respective homepages only… that made no sense. So in the beginning it was mainly a selling- and promotion-platform for our music. But the dream was always there, to change it into a real label eventually, and the release of "Merkur" was the right time to take matters into our own hands. So far it is working well; the next release ("Gruenewald", Christian Kolf's solo-project) will come just before Christmas an album which you must check, this guy is a genius! Teaser available here: myspace.com/gruenewald1
Thanks for the interview, and good luck with all your future endeavours. Feel free to add anything you want...
I thank you for your questions! I really hope we can attract some people outside of Germany to our music. Also, I want to thank everybody who already bought the record instead of stealing it through the Internet. You're keeping the underground alive!!!
Info: www.zeitgeistermusic.com
