Today marks the day of the new split release between two German bands: Zweibrücken’s alternative rock band AMPERSPHERE and Pirmasens’ experimental post rock act COLARIS. Both bands teamed up for this new release and will be supporting it on the road starting tomorrow! Here are 2 interviews that introduce you both packs and the whole idea of this project.
Full stream courtesy of Nothing But Hope And Passion.
COLARIS:
Guys, you’re the reason why I should probably mend my ways. How come I’ve never heard of you? Please shoot me some introduction of COLARIS.
Hi Karol. We are COLARIS a three piece (heavy / progressive / post-rock ) band from the southwest of Germany.
Maybe it`s related to our focus over the last 3. year`s. As a small DIY band we were strongly occupied with playing shows in Germany until 2012. Then with the release of our first full length album “Renewal” on Revolvermann Records and Wooaaargh.
We had the opportunity to play shows in Switzerland, Netherlands, and Belgium and bigger city’s in Germany as well. But also a lot of webzines, reviewers and bloggers in the world wide web started writing about us.
Yup.. and now you’re releasing a split with AMPERSPHERE. How did you come up with the idea for this project?
We often thought about releasing a split with friends which we have a bigger releationship to. And we always been mesmerized by a lot of split`s we`veown. For example, the ROSETTA / YEAR OF NO LIGHT / EAST OF THE WALL three way split with that great THE CURE “Homesick” cover. Or the latest ROSETTA / JUNIUS split. Mixing different genres of music also offers to reach out other groups of listener’s und fans. When we start working on the split, we`ve decided to cover each other in our way`s. They did a cover of “Way of the Origin” with vocals. Sascha, the singer of AMPERSPHERE wrote lyrics based on the concept of “Renewal” and all titles of the songs fitted in the lyrics.
We broke up their whole song and wrote a lot of new guitar melodies for our cover of “Drowning in Bitterness”. It was really exiting seeing the song grow and grow with every run.
In the end, there was our first vocal part on a COLARIS song, with gangshouts of us all.
Who’s putting it out? Apart from WOOAAARGH, Revolvermann and Puzzle Records, do you have any plans to reach out to other labels in the future? Who would release your next full length?
At the moment we are really happy to work with Christoph and Revolvermann Records. He follows the same spirit as we do. Keeping things DIY as possible and bringing more love and passion back to it. It surely would be great to have a bigger distribution for Europe and to do more support shows for well known bands, but we are mainly connected to the “underground thing” and happy with it.
Going back to “Renewal”, I’ve seen lots of nice merch items supporting that outing. Who’s designing all that stuff for you guys? Tell me more about its meaning and the whole idea for the COLARIS ‘ adornments.
The whole merch and artworks for “Renewal” and the “Split” are done by Oliver Hummel at Hummelgrafix. A great artist from Munich in Germany. You might know him from his work with OMEGA MASSIF and PLANKS.
“Renewal” is a kind of concept album about a person who`s been under pressure from his whole life and the society. Starting with feeling uncomfortably and framed, over reflecting his whole life, till finding the will to change. The artwork fits to the whole concept. Imagine the clouds on the cover are like the thoughts of the fictive person and the lines that look like a “tree of life” is like a labyrinth. Each fork you take, leads to another change in life.
Ok.. so you’re about to hit the road this month, right? All I can see are German dates. Aren’t you tempted to go farther?
Yep, from April 5th till April 13th. Shure it`s exciting to play outside of Germany, but it`s a lot of work and we had to book the whole tour by ourself. So we specially picked up some german cities that we didn`t play before. But we had some great experiences outside of Germany in the past and we already have plans to play more shows in other countries this year!
How was your January trek?
The small January tour was a blast. It was our first time in northern Germany.We meet a lot of nice people and bands and had great responses/reactions on our live set every evening,. We also sold a lot of merchandise!
How often do you perform live? How was touring over the past year? Was it a busy year for you guys?
2012 was a really busy year. We`ve released “Renewal” on CD in March and toured for about ten shows. During summer we played some single shows and entered the studio for the “Split” recordings.. Afterwards we released “Renewal” on vinyl in October and hit the road again.
We don`t have any fixed guidelines on playing live, but for 2013 we try to get a better organization for the whole touring, rehearsing and songwriting organization!
How do you compose? Where do you continue to receive inspiration for composing?
We are a classic jam band. It keeps the music in some kind of natural flow. We find a lot of inspiration in daily life and personal up and downs.
When you look back your music experience, what do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment?
Maybe to play with bands like ROSETTA or KERRETTA and shurely the offer to play with JAKOB, which is one of my favorite bands of all time . But they were forced to cancel their whole tour in April 2013, in case of the injury of their drummer Jason Johnston. And of course releasing our music on our favorite format vinyl [smiles].
Let’s finish off with the standard question for an instrumental rock band [smiles]. Have you ever considered adding vocals to any tracks? Why?
As Julian and me started jamming in 2009 there was no guideline of using vocals or not. We just wanted to write and play music straight from our heart. No rules or guidelines. But untill now we have not considered using vocals as a constant part of our music
Important for me personal was to have something apart from the bands i’ve played before. By the way, playing in a three piece band is the best experience I’ve ever had so far. Reduced to the max [smiles]. Each instrument has much more space to unfold.
What’s the next big goal for COLARIS?
Puuh, that’s a hard question. Maybe the creation of a really strong and focused concept album. Maybe our next record will probably be like that …
We also always have to goal to avoid too many repetitions the songwriting. We try to discover new sounds and moods. We’ve written a lot of demo songs and can’t wait to work them out during summer vacations.
Thanks so much for your time, guys! Anything else you want the world to know about you all?
Thanks for the interesting interview Karol, we feel very honored. Keep supporting DIY underground music and shows! See you on the road!
Big thank you for given us the opportunity to do this intweview.
Cheers, guys!
AMPERSPHERE:
Hey, guys! What’s up? Is it snowing like hell in Western Germany, too? I can’t believe it’s Easter this weekend [laughs].
We’re fine, we enjoy our day off. Hope you are fine too.
No, it is not snowing right now,the sun is shining, but it is still very cold for this time of the year. Anyway, it does not snow as massive as in East Germany, we had a maximum of 20cm in our area.
Lucky you. I’m currently waiting in a queue to a doctor and I can see the blizzard going crazy outside [laughs].
Alright, please introduce AMPERSPHERE to IDIOTEQ readers, will you?
That does not sound good, hope you come home safely even before Blizzard gets worse !!!
Yes, of course !
We are 4 guys from a small town in South West of Germany and play rock music. The band was founded in 2006 by Thorsten (guitar) and me (Sascha, guitar and vocals).
After Stefan (bass) and Ronny (drums) came to the band, the original line up was complete…we are still in the same line up on the road…probably because we are good friends and have known each other for more than 10 years !!!
That makes it much easier to write songs , because there is no ego stories in the creative process [smiles].
We are open minded to any kind of rock music, whether it is metal, alternative, indie or Even Pop Music… important is only that any kind of emotion is generated… and that’s the way how the sound of AMPERSPHERE works.
How come you ended up releasing a split with an instrumental post rock band, COLARIS?
That was the idea of Jessie, guitarist of COLARIS. We know each other for a long time and have played some gigs together. A year ago, he asked us if we have new songs. He would like to do a split with us. We agreed immediately, because we like the guys and music from COLARIS…and it was Time to release New Songs [smiles].
How many releases have you put out before this split?
We have released a demo with 5 songs and a full length album. The demo was released in 2007 and the album called “Blue Amperience” in 2010.
Have you always been close to other genre’s scenes, or is it your first experiment? To join forces with a band from a different tale?
Our drummer Ronny and I are the only ones who have previously played in other bands. Our drummer played in a death metal band called ENTERRA and a hip-hop band. I played in Stoner Rock band called SHARD and in several local metal bands.
Cool. Tell me about the recording process of the songs from the split. How did you approach making these songs as opposed to your previous releases?
It was a very nice time in the studio with the guys from COLARIS. We had a lot of fun. We were back in the same studio where we recorded our debut album, SU2 Studio, so it was nothing new for us, except to sing the choir Parts for the Songs “The Way of the Origin” and “Drowning in bitterness”. It was very fun to be with several people in front of a micro and to sing the Parts [smiles].
How are you promoting this split? Any plans for a release show?
We play our release show with COLARIS in our hometown next friday. Then we go to a small promotional tour through the south of Germany with COLARIS. The Tour starts on 05.04 in our hometown and ends on 13.04 in Koblenz….we are looking forward to it, it will be certainly an awesome time [smiles].
Germany only? Why? [smiles]
Only Germany, because we do not have enough money [smiles].
Come on! You formed this band back in 2006, you should be rich by now! [smiles]
It would be nice if we had enough money [smiles]. Unfortunately, we were in the first days no good businessmen… we played too many gigs without get money. We just wanted to play live and we gave no thought to money…a big mistake…we must still pay for the sins of the past [smiles].
Meanwhile, this has changed, we have planned the trip so that we can avoid carrying high risk. When the tour went well, as we expect, the next tour is being extended, and so on.
Alright, guys. Before we finish off, recommend some cool artists for IDIOTEQ readers. What do you have loaded on your mp3 player?
Currently we listen to bands like SNAPCASE, ARCHITECTS, PORCUPINE TREE, DAVE MATTHEWS BAND, 12 TRIBES, BURY TOMORROW, SAOSIN, RECEIVING END OF SIRENS, BURY YOUR DEAD and BLINDEAD …a very colourful mixture [smiles].
Alright, so What is next for the band? Anything you’d like to add?
After the tour we will be writing new songs so we can release a new album in 2014 and end of this year we will do a small tour.
Cool. Thanks, guys! Cheers from your Eastern neighbour [smiles].
