Having found the exits from the most intricate labyrinths, having discovered a supernova, having learned the secret of eternal youth, after nearly 30 years they are on the crest of a wave, vigorous and full of fresh ideas.
January 19, OOMPH! presents his new album. Anticipating a certain excitement among music lovers, we interviewed Dero Goi, the vocalist of the band.
EM: What made you decide the time was right for a new album? How you decide that it’s time?
DERO GOI: After our very successful tour in Russia for the album XXV on which we´ve catched so many different positive emotions, we´ve had the feeling that it would be great to go directly into the studio to have some writing sessions to transfer all those awesome feelings into new music. So thanks a lot to all our Russian fans who helped with their enthusiasm, energy and power to create this album!
EM: You said that the new album is a return to the roots. Was it a challenge determining to what degree you wanted to recapture your old sound versus doing new things?
DERO: To us, it was completely new to imagine to enter a time machine and got back to the middle of the 90ies and combine the emotions that we felt back then with our actual emotional status quo. For us it was the very first time to work that way. As I said in may interviews before, the main trademark for OOMPH! is constant change and the guts to explore new dimensions. The fact that we never did this way of writing before kept the working process very fresh and vivid for us.
EM: What was the timeframe of making the new album?
DERO: We created 80% of the songs in about 2 months. The rest was written in one more month. After these 3 months we started the production which took us about 10 months. You must know that we also had to find a new label in between and this took also a lot of effort and time, so we got interrupted during the production every now and then. We had the luck to choose between 8 awesome labels and after a certain time to think it all over, we decided to sign with NAPALM RECORDS. We think that they have the proper worldwide distribution network and a general philosophy that perfectly matches with OOMPH!.
ЕМ: What equipment were you using on the early recordings and today? How has the evolution of musical technology affected your creative / working process?
DERO: Of course, we can realize a definite evolution as human beings and personalities with us which is a very positive thing. It would be very disappointing for us if we´d just repeated ourselves over and over again. As we´ve always been spending our money for new studio equipment, our studio and the way to work grew and evolved with the band. We´re very proud of the fact that all of our albums differ from each other which proves that we always dare to try out new things instead of remaining on the old path. I fear we´re not conservative and philistine enough for a behavior like that and that´s why we leave this up to other bands! ;-) I guess that our guts to change and evolve made us the «poineers and inventors of NEUE DEUTSCHE HÄRTE», as bands like Rammstein, Eisbrecher or Megaherz call OOMPH!. We´re very proud of the fact that we inspired many bands!
ЕМ: Are there any particular tracks on this album?
DERO: I hope that the whole album is versatile enough to not have a single song to be named as the most important track from „RITUAL“. It deals with many different shades of abuse and as we all know there´s abuse in almost every chapter of society, from sex, over politics to religion. Abuse of power and abuse of people.
ЕМ: What made you title the album Ritual? What Ritual is it?
DERO: The album title can be interpreted in many different ways. It´s mysterious, dark and versatile as we think our music also is. The whole world is still packed with rituals. Some of them are good and necessary, other rituals are bad, dangerous and prevent a society from a proper and healthy development. So we have to decide ourselves which rituals we support and which ones we fight.
ЕМ: You had collaboration with Chris Harms. You worked with him for new album Lord of the Lost, Chris recorded with you Europe and band remixed one song. Couple of word about this work.
DERO: We´ve been knowing each other for a couple of years now and Chris were always saying that he´s a huge fan of OOMPH! and that he would like to do something with us or for us if there is the possibility. At first he asked me to take part in the LOTL Song «Abracadabra». Then we asked him if he could imagine to join the vocals of «Europe» which we´ve had finished and found that the song would be perfect for a duet. He was very happy to be asked and liked the song very much even though he´s not very used to sing in his mother tongue. I think our two dark and mysterious voices match pretty well and suit the song very much. Later on he was listening to the whole album and asked if he could do a remix of the song «TRRR-FCKN-HTLR». Of course we agreed…
ЕМ: LOTL are from Germany. How do you feel about long distance collaboration?
DERO: In times of digital media it should not be a big problem to work with someone who lives in Australia, Russia or Malaysia without meeting in real life. But i prefer face to face collaborations because I need to feel the spirit and vibes of someone…
ЕМ: What other musicians from friendly bands worked on the album?
DERO: A good friend of mine joined two songs and Chris Wolff from What About Bill? worked together with us on one more song.
ЕМ: Do you tend to start out working with live instruments or do the electronic parts come first?
DERO: Usually this varies but on this album we started 90% of the songs with real instruments in sessions.
ЕМ: Do you feel that the evolution of technology over the years has impacted your creative process?
DERO: Of course it gets easier to fix ideas with digital media immediately but the risk is very high to lose the human spirit. So you have to be very careful while creating songs with the help of digital equipment. That´s why we always add a lot of analog instruments to keep the balance right…
ЕМ: As you’re creating music, are you consciously thinking about what your fans / potential fans will like and/or be expecting?
DERO: No, never! If you start this, you lose your authenticity and your true spirit. Bands who do music like that start to lie either to themselves and to their fans!
ЕМ: You do other types of art as well. I know that you writing prose. How do you see the relationship between music and different types of arts?
DERO: I try to be interested and keep on learning wherever I can. That´s why I´m inspired everywhere and anytime. I like art itself. It´s like self therapy to me. A tool to get to know myself better.
ЕМ: You seem to do a lot of touring. Do you have any particular favorite countries to perform in?
DERO: No. I like the whole World and I´m interested in people in general. I appreciate the fact that there´s many different cultures.
ЕМ: Besides the upcoming album, do you have any other future plans you’d like to tell readers about?
DERO: We´re gonna shoot some videos for the new album and gonna be on tour next year. Of course we will also come back to beautiful Russia with this album because we have a true and very deep relationship with our Russian fans. They are able to really feel our music with all of their hearts and minds. As I said before: we´ll be back!
EM: Thank you so much for your time and for this interview.
DERO: It´s been a pleasure! THANK YOU!
