Interview with
Lennart Hammerer (lead guitars Skullwinx)
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Lennart Hammerer (guitar, on the left) -
Johannes Haller (vocals, on the right)
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Hello Lennart and thank you very much for take
the time to talk with me. The new album, the second one, of Skullwinx is out
now and is named The Relic. First I would like to know, how are you? I think
that you and the band are excited and satisfied?
-Hi wanderer, thank
you very much for the interview, we are really satisfied with the relic. We
developed, of course there is a difference between being 18 and 20 and we
believe it's exactly what we should have been doing after Missions Of Heracles.
We didn't get stuck in Greece, although we were very tempted continuing there,
but we decided it is time to go mid-Europe and explain what our name is all
about!
Could you presents shortly your band
Skullwinx to our readers, please?
-Of course, we are a
young (average age is 20) epic metal band from upper Bavaria (which is located
very south of Germany, so to say nearly Austria) and our albums are planned to
be legends and tales built around a concept. Our debut has been about all the
missions heracles had to solve to save the souls of his family. Now we opened
our corset a bit and wrote about Siegfried, Beowulf, Attila, Carolus Magnus,
etc. But still around a concept.
So The Relic, only if I stare at it, it
presents something new. New logo (the wings are changed), new name of the band
(now Skullwinx, before Skullwinx The Relic Of an Angel). Could tell more this
changes?
-Shortening the name in sense of cutting of this "Relic of an Angel"
part was necessary already because the album is called The Relic and it would
look silly. Furthermore a long name isn't really comfortable for use.
We used this part to
explain what "Skullwinx" stands for, now as we got the title track of
our new album it shouldn’t be necessary anymore. As some bands have their song
with their band name (Iron Maiden-Iron Maiden, Blind Guardian - Guardian Of The
Blind, Evil Invaders, Manowar, Medieval Steel, ...) so Skullwinx has their The
Relic.
But except for those
"makeup" changes we stayed the same!
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| Skullwinx - The Relic (2016) |
Yes, I know it. You are the same and as you
said I think that a shirt name is simpler to be learned by heart. At the same
time “The Relic Of An Angel” became a song, the song of your band, giving you a
strong identity. I saw and I appreciate
your interest in mythology, history, and religion. I mean mythology of course
thinking about your first album The Missions of Heracles that was a concept
album about Heracles. History about your album The Relic with Charlemagne,
Attila or Arminius. Religion with your Ep St George and the song The Relic Of
An Angel from your last album. So I wonder, where you find this strong inspiration.
Have you some books or films or else to advise us?
- I am only reading
those legends I am writing about from the books I extra buy for it or simply
read my stuff on the internet. Its not that I am reading books all the time,
although I'd like to. Unfortunately I am missing time to do so.
The story behind the
song "The Relic Of An Angel" has been constructed by myself. Just a
little playing with the ideas behind gods existence. Mainly connected to the
theodicy question.
The song The Relic Of An Angel is about
religion but first of all is a metaphor talking about our world. It is a kind
of “what if?”. What if a relic of an angel was find? Men should trust in god or
they will be battle for the power to hold this relic? I listened to the song
and I read the lyrics. It is a very epic song, power and sometimes with “doom”
parts. The lyrics too are very deep. Could you tell more about this title,
about his meaning and music?
- Yes of course!
First of all I am not really religious but I like the topics around this all,
it's really inspiring.
It starts with the picture of a monk finding a piece, a wing of an angel. Which
is obviously the prove of a heaven, as well as of gods existence. The monastic
bishoprics around find out about this relic and start fighting to get hold of
this piece. The reason is human greed and the search for might, not thinking of
how it can end up.
So in the end of the
wars this monk stands on the battlefield, not able to believe what happened. He
starts thinking if god is almighty, he should have known that it ends up like
this. To conclude: we got an evil god. Otherwise we'd have an not almighty god
who didn't know that it will end up like this.
So is it good then in reality that there never has been a sign of god’s existence?
To underline this
lyrics I wanted to create something dramatic, majestic and heavyweight.
Different to our usually quite fast songs this one has a lot of slow parts. I
am proud of Haller (our singer) who knew exactly where to go with expression to
put this song to the right light.
This album is very good one with powerful
riffs, strong lyrics, and a good feeling. It seems clear that even if The
Missions of Heracles was a very good album too, today the band is stronger. How
do you compose your songs? Have you got an idea and then you compose some riffs
or do start with a melody and that you write lyrics on it?
-Usually my composing is splitted. I
am sitting at home playing guitar, finding riffs which I record. So I got
around 300-400 riffs on my computer stored.
When I got the time and the idea I write lyrics. To create a song I take
finished lyrics and search in my riff archive for fitting riffs. If there is
none (which is quite rare) I built something to those lyrics which describes
the feeling. The chorus is usually already in my head during the lyrics
writing.
Then I put everything on notes to fix the order of the parts and add more harmonies.
Carolus Magnus is a good example of a big playing with harmonies and a bunch of
riffs I putted together.
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| Skullwinx live, from left to right : Konstantin Kárpáty (bass), Lennart Hammerer (lead guitars), Johannes Haller (vocals) |
How the member of the band are involved on
creating the songs?
-I can't write drums,
sometimes I have a rough idea. But when we start rehearsing I come up with
finished songs. Kili makes his drums to it and Haller corrects few lines in the
lyrics that they are easier to sing. Otherwise the songs stay how they are. :-)
You have got some live activities in Germany
and Hellas. How were these experiences? Have you preview some live gigs to
promote your album The Relic?
-The experiences had
been amazing. We got our strong fanbase in Germany now, but not only there...
we noticed from the sales of The Relic so far that our fans are spread all over
the world. We delivered to every continent already and the list of countries grows
and grows.
In Athens it has been
a blast. More than 100 people watching us, some sang along to our songs. That’s
a fantastic experience.
So far we have some
shows in the making for the upcoming year but there is nothing to announce yet
:)
Listening to The Relic, it is amazing to see
that there are some echoes coming from other bands. I think about Sparta,
Running Wild, Iron Maiden (for some musical progressions), Grave Digger (for
the importance of concept album or historical / religious theme). Could you
talk about your influences or artists that you like?
-I am a fan of all of
those artists you mentioned now. I'd really like to add Trouble (influence
especially on the Titletrack), Virgin Steele, Warlord and of course there
are many more.
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| Skullwinx from left to right : Lennart Hammerer (lead guitars), Severin Steger (guitars), Johannes Haller (vocals), Kilian Osenstätter (drums), Konstantin Kárpáty (bass) |
Are there some bands in Germany or elsewhere
you would like to suggest us?
-There is a great and
living scene all around. On the Trveheim samplers one can find the finest what’s
running to date. My favorites in the German underground are right now bands
like Blackslash, Forensick, Spitfire, Booze Control, in Austria Diamond
Falcon and Liquid Steel. There are so many fantastic bands, what’s awesome for
a fan of the music because you'll never end finding great acts. But for the
bands it's rather a tragedy, because you can be a killer band and still
stand no chance. The people are drowning in good music and it takes a lot to be
outstanding. PR runs nowhere, bands are struggling for good shows, denials
everywhere. One really gets disillusioned running against a wall all the time.
I see it when i am booking bands for the Trveheim Festival... I get
applications from bands I really like and need to tell them I can't book them
as the festival is already full. Hundreds of bands being blocked although they
deserve their stage. One can't change that, therefor Skullwinx has one
motto: "We continue playing until nobody can excape anymore". And we
are growing, gaining fans, recording new and better music. The journey
has just begun.
We could listen to and buy The Relic on your
Bandcamp page. The album is out via the label Metalizer Records too. I know
that you wish that a label could release an album of yours when you feel that
the time is came. So how you judge the Bandcamp experience and the label
experience?
-For our debut and
the EP we didn't want to have a label, usually one runs bad with them. But
Metalizer Records is different. They are caring for us and don't try to take
our money or similar. They are passionate for the music and really wanted to
sign us, so we did this.
Bandcamp is a good
platform to promote your albums, sad there are fees to the page and not all the
money goes to the bands. But it definitly makes sense for bands like us.
Whit the download of you album (always via
Bandcamp) there is the bonus song “Hammer Of The Gods”, a song that was on your
Ep St George. This is a killer song, how do you choose a song as bonus and why
do not talk about it on the credits of your Bandcamp page?
-We were incredibly
fast in our studio and had the time to record more. Instead of recording a
cover song we decided to revise Hammer Of The Gods which is probably our second
most known song! It's a bonus track because we already released this one and
it's not really part of the album. I guess the fans are happy about hearing
this song in better quality and more power than before :-)
This interview goes to his end. Are there
something else that you wish to tell us? Maybe your last words to our readers,
to yours fans?
-Yeah, thank you
most, wanderer for this interview, it has been a pleasure. To all the readers
thank you for reading so far! ;-)
I am already working
on new material but as I know me it can take some time... approximately 2
years. Stay in tune, as always: more epicness, more speed and more power!
Cheers!
