Here’s an interview with Freiburg, Germany’s hardcore punk band LASTING TRACES.
The band hits European roads joined by REASON TO CARE, CROWNS AND THIEVES, KUNG-FU GIRLZ, and many other great bands supporting them on single dates. Make sure to catch up.
Below is a nice chat with Thomas, the singer of LASTING TRACES. The interview was conducted by START TODAY Agency.
Where the band take inspiration, if we can look forward to a new release or why the band is more close to 80´s pop – this and much more you can read below. Press play and go for it!
Due to the fact that we put a major emphasis on vegetarian/vegan lifestyle, can you tell us, how is this perceived by the whole band?
First of all I can only speak for myself, cause not the whole band follows a vegan or vegetarian diet. Due to this, our eating behaviors have never been topics of our songs and I’m sure it will never be. I’m a vegetarian for almost 8 years now. It was a personal decision, and I still feel really fine with that ;-)
Can you tell us about the beginning of LASTING TRACES? What were the biggest reasons to start a band? Maybe you can start with brainshot.
Daniel & Fabi are playing together for a really long time now.Their old band split up, and they were looking for a drummer to continue with a new project, new direction and new influences. They started jamming with Andy on drums, and after a couple of weeks they asked me (Thomas) if I want to sing. The rest is history. Probably most bands started like this, so we aren’t really unique. But all of us put in a lot of effort and energy.
How is it to play in a German melodic hardcore band these days? I mean, there are hundreds of bands of this genre coming especially from Germany last years. Is it hard to be visible?
Actually I just know that there are many bands around, but I’m barely listen to hardcore at the moment. We are already around for a couple of years, so I think we already reached a solid state within the scene.
The image of this kind of music has suffered a bit through the last years. Probably people feel kind of jaded from all the band that appeared and disappeared. The trend is probably over, but good and honest band always deserve the attention of the people, it doesn’t matter if their kind of music is hip or not.
Your debut “Old Hearts Break In Isolation” was very well previewed by the criticism, and also by fans. How you see it? Are you satisfied? And do you have any plans to record new LP in sight?
Yeah, we are still happy with the record and how it turned out. A lot of sweat and energy was flowing through the writing process and it’s a good feeling that people like it.
We just started writing new songs at the end of last year and I’m pretty sure that we’re releasing a new record when we have finished enough songs. We definitely changed the way how to write songs and due to the fact that we all listen to different types of music it also changed the sound of LASTING TRACES. We advanced our sound and definitely ourselves. People should expect something different but we’re still LASTING TRACES.
Where do you get inspiration for your music and lyrics? If I listen carefully to the lyrics, I can feel a lot of personal frustration and confusion, so it´s clear, that the life itself is on of the big topics. And do you take inspiration for your music just from hardcore and punk scene, or do you’ve deepest musical background?
You listened quite carefully ;-) Main inspiration is for real our everyday life. We all stuck somewhere in between the mid-20ies. We left all our teenage-stuff behind, but still life doesn’t provide all the answers that we look for.
We are questioning ourselves through our songs. Probably our lyrics are more influenced from 80ies pop songs than from the average hardcore topics and issues.
If you look forward, do you have any dreams about your band that should come true?
I see that you are planning South Asia tour in the end of June and start of July, you must be really excited about it, am I right?
Going overseas and playing countries we have never seen before is probably one of the main goals and wishes that we had. Touring Asia still feels like a dream that came true. On the other hand we have no other specific dreams or goals.
We are thankful that we can play, and it would be cool to reach a wider audience in the future.
We really hope that we’re able to get more attention from people who ‘re not based in the hardcore-scene only.
What you guys do in your personal life? Is playing in a hardcore band the most fulfilling part of your lives?
We all have our daily jobs, cause HC doesn’t fill our pockets or feeds us on a daily basis.
But besides that, this band has a high priority for all of us.
For the last four months, we didn’t play any show because we were at a point where all of us needed a little break, so we took this time to focus on different things in our lives. But after this break we can’t wait to be back on the stage and especially playing this tour.
It´s something you want to achieve in your life, if we don´t speak about the band now?
That’s a hard one, puuh. For myself I always try to be happy with the things I am doing and trying to grow and develop myself as a person. If I could name one fact, I would say to travel the world and see as many places as possible. That would be a huge goal.
You play in Prague together with your friends REASON TO CARE and CROWNS & THIEVES.
Are there any other bands from Germany that you would like to tell us about?
REASON TO CARE are great guys, I remember the 1st show we played together in March 2009. I always respect bands that play their asses off and put a lot effort into their band. REASON TO CARE are definitely one of those bands.
Our friends in TOGETHER are just a great band and they will record new songs within the next weeks.
We are pretty excited.MIDNIGHT SOULS from Belgium are more than a band. We’ve became friends since our tour last spring.
They just released their new record which is one of the best albums I’ve ever heard.
Are you excited to play in Prague? That´s the first time playing in Czech Republic ever, isn´t it?
We’re stoked to play in Czech Republic and especially Prague for the first ever time. It’s weird that we never made it to Czech Republic due to the fact that we played many shows that were so close.
Hopefully we will have so time to hang around in the city.Thanks for this interview!
LASTING TRACES live:
