Part 1 (13.02.2013)

The interview was to be continued on February 15, the day when Dreadful Shadows were to play a full set show. That time it looked a bit more official: we were met by the crew and guided through the backstage to a small and dark room upstairs. The main hero appeared in some minutes. As Sven greeted us, he made it clear that we were a bit short of time that evening. The condition was accepted, the conversation went on.
 

 
Torrie: So, today another concert takes place… Do you sometimes have dreams where you see yourself performing on a stage?

Sven: Basically I don’t see anything rational when I have dreams… Everything is so mixed up, and most often I don’t see anything at all.

Torrie: Dreadful Shadows are playing today, so can I ask about images of the past? Just a lot of time has passed since then, and it might be impossible to remember, or anything, but still… do you mind?

Sven: No. I mean… sure, let’s try at least (grins)

Torrie: Two tracks “Crusade” and “Burning the Shrouds” contain some kind of chants and prayers. Are these melodies from middle Ages, or did you write them together with the band?

Sven: I wrote them myself, actually. They are not from middle Ages, bus they are composed according to the laws of musicology, to the rules which were typical for the music of that historic time.

Torrie: But the text is in Latin, isn’t it?

Sven: Yes, sure, the text is in Latin, but it’s just some old chant. But I don’t know Latin myself.

Torrie: On Facebook some German fans discussed these tracks and supposed you might know Latin, probably learned it at the musical college or so…

Sven: (grins) No, no, no, wrong, I’ve never learned Latin.

Torrie: Only German, English and Welsh.

Sven: Exactly (laughs)

Torrie: One day I found by chance the original picture from the Homeless artwork. It is “a Brown Lady”, one of the best ever-taken pictures of a ghost. Is it connected with the lyrics of the song?

Sven: No, not really! (thoughtfully) Though it can be…

Torrie: So that the homeless character in the song is a ghost and that’s why he can’t find the place to belong and so on… Actually everything can be connected with anything.

Sven: Might be. I mean, it all can’t always be connected— but in this case, yes, quite possible. But it was not the idea (smiles)

Torrie: In one of the chats you were asked about an old song called “Only to Live”. And on DS-cassette there is a track called “A Long Way”. Is it one and the same track?

Sven: Now that you asked me… I can’t really remember if it’s one and the same song… I remember the song “Only to Live”, definitely, but not sure, probably that was some version of Estrangement… Too much time has passed since then, you know.

Torrie: That’s why I asked you whether I could ask about the old things (smiles) Anyway, there are also some questions from fans, and we had some selection… So here’s one of them. During the production of “Beyond the Maze” album you worked with Jorg Hüttner. Was it by all means a positive collaboration?

Sven: Yes, it was a positive collaboration indeed. He is a very creative person, and he’s always composing new sounds, moreover, each time he starts from the very beginning, that is, from a sound wave (draws a wave in the air) The result was interesting, but actually we had to separate him from the main studio, because the production of his sounds took the same time as production of the whole album!

Torrie: Any further plans for collaboration with him?

Sven: I think it’s impossible right now, because he lives in America, co-working with some film director and writing music for him.

Torrie: In the modern history of Dreadful Shadows are you going to do any modern coverversions, e.g. to Diary of Dreams or Das Ich?

Sven: No actually, though coverversions have become our tradition, but we never take the songs from the same scene. For example, True Faith is a very old pop-song. We have already prepared one cover for today, but let it be a surprise (grins)

Torrie: Another question from a fan: what is your favourite time of a day?

Sven: It depends. I like everything, I like to work in the morning, but only if had enough sleep…

Torrie: Because sometimes you don’t?

Sven: Yeah, happens (grins) If days may be quite busy, in the evening I can’t work productively and I just go out, to a club or go walking my dog.

Torrie: You have to leave home quite often, how do you manage to take care of your dog?

Sven: There are some people to take care of her, so that’s okay.

Torrie: Coming back to questions from fans: have you ever wanted to grow a beard or a moustache?

Sven: No! No, never! (laughs) In fact I don’t like body hair in any way.

Torrie: Ok, and what about an “Irokese”, just like punks do? (grins)

Sven: No, no, no. It’s just not for me (grins too)

Torrie: We go on with fan-questions. If you had an excellent possibility to change the world for the better, what would be your plan?

Sven: (suddenly gets very serious and straightforward) My plan would be… to eliminate all human beings. Because only they create all the problems.

Torrie: You write music and lyrics, you do web-design and animation, but do you draw by hand?

Sven: No. I’m not talented in it. So when I need to have something drawn by hand I ask some designer to help me with it.

Torrie: Solar Fake logo is adorable, I must say. I had a quiz for the community, what this symbol can be associated with. There was a variety of answers… a detail for a watch mechanism, a jigsaw, a gear wheel, a throwing weapon, a Ying-Yang symbol, a solar fake that is a fake sun… What was the original meaning?

Sven: Interesting! Originally I just wanted to develop the logo, so that it could combine all the meanings, I also thought about a wheel, and it also reminds me of the logo of EBM in general. And it also has SF, if you take a closer look. I just wanted to include these elements as well.

Torrie: I can’t but also ask about the old round logo of Zeraphine: a circle, a line and a dot inside…

Sven: Oh yes! We just were too busy with arranging everything, changing the name, we were requested for a logo, and it was just a quick and simple variant to go. And on the later albums we had that double Z.

Torrie: I’ve wondered for a long time, if it was a handwritten font.

Sven: Hm, I don’t know for sure, only the designer who made this can know it. We just asked her, and she drew this logo for us.

Torrie: Early years of Zeraphine were also marked with two demos: “Auf den neuen Wegen” and “Tote Fische”. Why were they thrown away when the tracklist of “Kalte Sonne” was formed?

Sven: Oh, there were several reasons. Firstly, the company we had a contract with wanted only 11 or 12 songs for the tracklist, and we had 14. So we made a selection. And… secondly, we didn’t like them much, so we left them.

Torrie: Well, it’s not a problem nowadays to find them in the internet… You played them on Zeraphine-Radio once.

Sven: Yes, we did.

Torrie: By the way, Zeraphine-Radio worked, it seems to me, not longer than a year, what has happened to it?

Sven: In the beginning we recorded shows and uploaded them on our website, but it turned out a bit too expensive, because you have to pay for space, and then a separate radio was constructed for us.

Torrie: But the server was overloaded?

Sven: It was only one part of the problem. The shows became longer, we had to write a program for two hours, it took a lot of efforts, and at some point we decided to stop.

Torrie: The chatroom was eliminated as well, as some people told me, who were there that time and could participate. They say, it was quite possible to meet the musicians there, to have a talk. But it all changed greatly, many disagreeable people joined the chat…

Sven: Yes, definitely. They wrote many offensive things, the friendly atmosphere was lost; it was not pleasant anymore for the musicians and for the people, so we removed the chat some time later.

Torrie: Anyway, Zeraphine is back with some shows in September. Are they just for those who miss you?

Sven: Yes, actually! It’s really hard to say now if something new is coming, because now we have Dreadful Shadows to work on, then comes Solar Fake… Time will show.

Torrie: Keep your December free in case you can be called to our Synthetic Snow festival again. We really want you back! The Russian Synth Community, which organizes the festival, has a kind of a wish-list, and people keep on writing there: “Bring Solar Fake to Moscow!”

Sven: Yeah, sure! I would really like to come again! Each time we plan a tour, our booking agency always asks, whether we want to perform in other countries. So we will keep it in mind (smiles encouragingly)

Torrie: Our latest festival was in December 2012, and we missed you greatly, especially when Daniel Myer was around… The only moment reminded of you a bit, when the DJ played “Lucretia My Reflection” at the afterparty…

Sven: Yeah, I can imagine… It’s great to work with Myer. We thought of doing a cover to Wolfsheim, but it ended up as a life performance only. A kind of a mixture between two songs, starting with “The Sparrows and the Nightingales” then turning to “Lucretia My Reflection”.

Torrie: And will you record “Papillon” as a coverversion for Solar Fake?

Sven: I don’t know, probably not, though it works perfectly on stage. If I have no more ideas, I will of course return to this song, but… I will see. It’s good to surprise (grins)

Torrie: Have you ever thought about leaving Berlin forever, like Chris Corner left England for Berlin? Just for a new experience, for instance, or a new inspiration…

Sven: No, no. I travel a lot, but Berlin will always be a very special, native place for me. I was born here, many important things happened here, concerts are always successful here, so… It feels like…

Torrie: Like home?

Sven: Yes, definitely.

(Lars appeared on the stairs to announce ten minutes to the fanclub entrance)

Torrie: So we have to stop here… You know, it’s always silly when musicians are requested to say something to their fans, I’d like to make it vice versa. I’d like to tell you, what our people think of you and your music. They feel a lot of light in it, their lives change positively, and some personalities I know have become milder and more sensitive. The general feeling is just to hug you and say: “Sven, don’t ever change!” Maybe your music is exactly the way to change the world for the better!

Sven: (smiles warmly) Thank you very much for the interview!

Torrie: My colleagues also asked me to blow a kiss to you, so here it is (blows a kiss)

Sven: (catches it in the air) Received and returned.