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Experiments are going on in the house of The Other. Two years after releasing their last album now the fourth full-length CD of those horrorpunks from cologne is upcoming. On this occasion wie talked exclusively to Rod Usher, singer and frontman of the band.
Josi:
For everyone who has not heard of you before, I’d like you to sum up your attitude and music in one or two sentences.
Rod:
The Other is Europe’s most famous horrorpunk band. Basically it is spookish sound - a cross between punkrock, metal and gothrock - which consorts with the appropriate outfit. The band members become the monsters they’re singing about.
Josi:
I’ve heard that your new record New Blood will be released on May the 21st. Does the title have a special meaning?
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"A show with KISS? That´s what I´m dreaming of."
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Rod:
New Blood describes the atmosphere of departure we experience. In 2009 we took it nice and easy and had to concentrate on the songwriting process, besides some festival shows. The new songs are consciously straighter and less top-heavy, they feel like a fresh blood transfusion. The undead always need new blood to survive, so New Blood tells us that we’ve freshened up with some new blood, and now we rock more than we ever did. And besides New Blood is an animadversion on inexpressibly Teenie-Horror of New Moon, in which blood and sex are totally ignored. Such a "Romantic Horror" is for 12-year-old catholic school girl and is not concerned at all with Horror.
Josi:
What does the change to Steamhammer/SPV mean to you? I’m sure that opens lots of doors.
The Other und Josi
Rod:
For us, the change is a big deal because every one of us owns a lot of SPV records. Now we are a part of a label we accompanied for many years. At the same time we signed a publishing contract with Universal Publishing, so that we get more attention from festival hosts. Of course, it’s a pity that we leave our own label Fiendforce Records, but this step was necessary, and because I’m still going to lead FFR, collaboration should be no problem when it comes to make Samplers and plan tours.
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Josi:
You can find one song on each record, which bases on short stories written by Edgar Allan Poe. Can we look forward to a forth one?
Rod:
Indeed, the song The Burial bases on his short story "The Premature Burial", which is about a man who is shortly comatose very often, he develops a phobia of being buried alive in this state. But we concentrated on the feelings a person, who is buried alive probably must undergo. The so called Taphephobia is actually a primal fear of the human being.
Josi:
Why Poe? Does he influence you in other, non-musical areas of life?
Rod:
I could excessively talk about Poe, he fascinates me like no other author. His life is a story in itself, of pauperism, insobriety, his beloved wife’s death, and finally of his own unexplained death. Poe used to hurt other people in order to hurt himself, as he relates in his story "The Imp of the Perverse". He was very self-destructively assessed. And we don’t need to talk about his literary benefits: He kind of invented the whodunit, he decisively formed the Phantasmagorical Literature and adopted the "unreliable narrator", the narrator who may be unreliable because of psychosis. Especially his story "The fall of the house of Usher" shaped me very much (also Roger Moore’s movie with Vincent Price), so that I chose the name of the (Anti-)hero as a pseudonym.
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Josi:
Passion for the kill (We are who we eat) contains a German stanza, Der Tod steht dir gut (The Place to bleed) is a whole song in your mother tongue. So it is logical to ask for more German songs. Is there another one?
Rod:
Indeed, there is. Der Tod steht dir gut established as one of the audience’s favorite songs, it is even played in many clubs. Besides, it’s fun to write in German, because you can and have to leave the (fair) Horror-clichés of "night", "darkness" and "dead". German lyrics have to be written much more advised. The most recent German song is called Hier kommt die Dunkelheit ("Here comes the darkness") and is cursorily about a curse, a disease, which detects the country, similar to Poe’s "The Masque of the Red Death". But it also means the increasing brutalization because of globalization, media overkill, financial meltdown and elbow mentality. Horror likes to be retrospective and I also think that some things aren’t what they used to be.
Josi:
Will there be a special guest on New Blood?
Rod:
On the last record I sang a duet called Der Tod steht dir gut with the singer of Germany’s most famous Pop-Bands. It was never allowed to tell her name because of legal reasons, but whoever listens to the song will know, who she is. Thank god, BILD (a German newspaper with a bad reputation) didn’t find out that she sang about necrophilism for us yet… This time there’s no noteworthy collaboration. A few friends came to sing the backing vocals, that’s it.
Josi:
If you just had three words to describe your new album, which would it be?
Rod:
dark, evil, sexy
"Horror likes to be retrospective and I also think that some things aren´t what they used to be."
Josi:
Will there be a tour this year?
Rod:
At first, we are going to play some festival shows, for example at the legendary Wacken, or the M’era Luna, or the Ruhrpott Rodeo. And we won’t stay in our graves around Halloween, but we’re going to terrify the whole nation in October.
Josi:
How about a US Tour?
Rod:
Yes, definitely. Actually we wanted to play some shows over there this year, but the festivals interfered. But in spring 2011 their time has come. Our first tour was very successful. If you sell the Key Club in Hollywood off, then you should definitely come back! The Americans seem to love the German monsters, probably we’re like exotic to them as Rammstein.
Josi:
You studied Anglistik (Science of English Literature, Culture and language). So you busied yourself with text of different authors and ages and with their subtexts. Does the knowledge you gained whilst your studies help you to write songs in any way?
Rod:
Absolutely. Otherwise our lyrics probably would be as profound as songs of millions of other painted horror rocker. Freud’s concept of the human psyche – with id, ego and super-ego – impressed me very much, because it can be applied perfectly on pieces of Horror literature and movies. The engagement with it opens the reader’s mind, you don’t read a horror story just to be entertained anymore, you analyze the text. Stephen King is the master of hiding animadversion on wars, policy and media in the US in his texts. Only skilled readers will notice them. But it’s fun to write fun lyrics as well, for example about a tunnel of horror in Phantasialand, an amusement park near us.
Josi:
You are going to play at some festivals in 2010, for example at Wacken (German Metal Festival). How does it feel to be invited to a "pure" metal festival as a horrorpunk band?
Rod:
Every one of us grew up with metal, I got my first KISS-record when I was 9, Powerslave by Iron Maiden and Shout at the devil by Mötley Crüe when I was 12. And now we play on a festival with both of these bands, and with the king of horror rock – Alice Cooper himself. For us, a dream comes true and I hope the audience will get that metal plays a decisive role in our dark punk sound, and will receive us benevolently. Besides this will probably be the biggest audience we’ve ever played, aside from a Bela B. concert and a show at the WGT. The only question I ask myself is: When will we reach the end of the rope? What’s next? A show with KISS? That’s what I’m dreaming of.
Josi:
Is there anything you want to tell the world in the end?
Rod:
Horror conveys creativity. So, shock your parents, read a book, and visit us at www.myspace.com/theother
Josi:
That’s it. Thank you very much and have an awesome year 2010!
www.myspace.com/theother
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