Interview: Chris and Daniel from When You Scream

Band: When You Scream

Genre: Melodic Death Metal

Location: Osnabrück, Germany

Members: Chris - guitar, backing vocals
Daniel - guitar
Matwey - vocals
Michael - drums
Sven - bass

Website: http://whenyouscream.com/

Interview with: Chris and Daniel

Interview through Email:

Is it hard being in a Death Metal band in this decade?

          Chris: "Well, it depends on what your plans are. If you just wanna get famous, then doing death metal is definitely not the ideal way. But if you just want to have fun, play gigs and have loyal fanbase, it's not so hard. It's always the same: If you enjoy a thing, it never gets too hard."
          Daniel: "Also if you want to get your music noticed its much easier to record and release albums today than it was 10 or 15 years ago."
     "The cost for recording equipment is significantly lower, because of new technologies and stuff, which is pretty great."

What are some of the bands that influenced your music?

          Chris: "Mainly those bands doing the classical swedisch (melodic-)death-sound: At The Gates, Dismember, Dark Tranquillity, Illdisposed, Callenish Circle.. But also other Bands, like The Black Dahlia Murder, Neaera, Bolt Thrower and even some black metal bands such as Catamenia, Siebenbürgen.."

"The Alchemist" is your latest album, what was the game plan going to record this album, and do you have a favorite track on this album?

          Chris: "Well, first of all, we wanted to do a full-length record with a lot of our newer stuff on it. After our first EP, it was the next logical step. We did a lot of research to find someone who could capture the sound in the way we wanted it to be, and luckily Matwey came up with this guy he met in Berlin, Shay Ofer. He really pushed us to do our best, came up with lots of ideas, and we're pretty happy with the result."
     "The recording procedure was quite different from what we had done before, more professional and focused on the overall sound and feeling. Favorite song.. that's a hard one. My personal favorite is Painted In Shades Of Red, but I love all of the other songs nearly just as much."
          Daniel: "The main difference was that we weren't in a hurry. Our first album was recorded in just a few days, everyone had basically just a couple hours to record his parts.
     Fortunately, now the recording wasn't under such a pressure. I guess my favorite songs come down to these three: Precious Noise Desire, The Alchemist, Waves of Sparks, from which I cant really pick one out."

What is the Metal scene like in Germany?

          Chris: "We have a pretty big metal-scene in germany. Without this scene, well known festivals such as the Wacken Open-Air or the Summerbreeze wouldn't be possible. There is also a wide difference from region to region, especially regarding the favoured style of music. For instance, in our region, around Osnabrück, there is a good audience for oldschool death and thrash metal.
For other styles it's difficult to get attention. And it's pretty hard for a smaller band to get out of your hometown. That was one of the reasons to do a new record: Getting noticed by other bands, venues and organizers."

          Daniel: "And it seems to pay off so far. I think the metal scene here is like any other basically. My experiences with the metal scene make me think that some people really need to open up their mind for new things. "Metal isn't the only music there is, you know?" is my reply to people who can't listen to anything except metal and dislike everything else (for some silly reason like: it's not brutal enough...etc). We as a band and individually are pretty open to most kinds of music and I guess thats also shown in our music. We mix up old school metal influences with new school elements and it's cool to do that."

We would like to thank When You Scream for doing this Interview with us. We wish them nothing but the best. And don't forget to pick you up a copy of "The Alchemist"