by Vpower
The Band: Lunar Shadow
Country: Germany
Answers by:
Max "Savage" Birbaum (guitars)
Believe me when I tell you that LUNAR SHADOW
has booked a place in the history of Epic Heavy Metal with his first
full-length “Far from Light”. Max, the mastermind behind this great German act,
has accomplished a new level in terms of melodies and epic tunes, kind of their
own sound and a path to follow for other bands to come. The work on guitars is
absolutely amazing in this new chapter, the natural evolution from their EP and
genuine Max’s epic concept. It’s a pleasure to talk with Max again, he writes
music as well as he writes about anything, just check it below.
Hello Max and congratulations for you new and
fantastic album, Far from Light
Ave and
thank you, friend. First I'd like to mention, that I'm glad to speak with you
again, you supported us from the very beginning and I don't forget such things.
Thanks Max, I am also glad to talk to you again
and see that Lunar Shadow continues to grow. Last time we talked you had just
released your first songs included in your Ep Triumphator. Around two years
later we get your first full-length, Far from Light. How satisfied are you with
the final result?
I am quite
satisfied with the result and believe me, it has been a long and hard road.
Sometimes I even struggled to see the light in the near future, but getting all
this positive feedback now makes me see, that it was all worth it and I am
proud of this album.
Triumphator was good, but I think with Far from
Light you have given a tremendous step forward in terms of composition,
melodies and feeling
I agree.
This has mostly to do with the fact, that this time we had much more time and therefore
could work more detailed and calm. "Triumphator" was recorded in a
few days, most time being in a hurry, our drummer recorded his tracks in one
fast session, mainly first-takes. This time we took our time, worked everything
out and you can hear the result. Also it was clear to me, that on our first EP
we would feature my faster, shorter songs, that are more direct. For this album
we finally engaged the longer, more epic ones.
Absolutely true. How long have you been working
on Far from Light and how was the composition process?
The
production started in early summer (May) and lasted til autumn, late
October/early November. It was quite an exhausting process for me, because I
nearly attended all studio sessions, not only my own guitar tracks. We
sometimes worked 12 hours per day on the songs and at some point you're just
done. Tired, nothing works anymore, then you have to stop and return another
day. As "Far From Light" is an album about Death, strange things occured
in the studio. On the very first day, our producer, who felt fine all day,
suddenly started to feel bad, he got high fever then and even ended in
hospital, so we had to postpone the recordings for some weeks. Our singer
suddenly got sick while recording, also our drummer. Guess it's the touch of
decay, that somehow flowed into this album.
Nothing comes for free, and surely "Far
From Light" has left blood and tears in his path. All the pieces fit
perfectly in your new album, but I was absolutely surprised by the tons and
tons of great riffs and solos you deliver. Is Max responsible for all that huge
work or you have had some help?
No, in fact
the songs were all written by me alone. It's always nice to hear, that people
appreciate your work. This time we worked on all the small details, the
overdubs, the riffs, if I didn't like a take, we just recorded it anew, on
"Triumphator" we often had to use takes, that maybe weren't perfect,
but we were under time pressure. Only my guitar solos are still 90% improvised
and often first-takes. Only the solo of "The Kraken" had a planned
structure.
I agree,
that there aren't that many acts these days, who work with that many
twin-guitar leads. Dark Forest, our friends, are masters in that
field too, I also like Seven Sisters fe. If we are able to inspire, which is a
strong word, other bands I cannot really tell. If others like our music and get
a bit of inspiration from it, that's nice. But please don't just copy our
sound, I'm quite satisfied with the rather "Unique" sound we have
achieved now haha.
Hahaha I guess it is not that easy to copy it.
It seems there was not change in your line-up since the Triumphator release,
this probably has helped to get to a higher level in terms of composition?
Absolutely.
One important thing fe. was, that on "Triumphator" our singer Alex
was relatively new to the band. This time he was part of the band for longer,
we had many a gig together and I think you can hear this in his singing. It's
wonderful when your band mates are your friends and you can fully rely on them.
Another example, one of the few recording sessions I didn't attend was bass
guitar, because I know Sven and he is so trained and technically excellent, I
knew he'd do a great job and not fuck things up, haha.
Hahaha, really good. I suppose your followers
have been growing steadily since your first songs were published, you have been
touring around and the word of mouth seems that have worked very well, do you
feel that warm welcome from fans?
Certainly
there will be new fans, when "Far From Light" is finally out and
we're already rehearsing a lot to present things properly on stage. I really
love our fans, they are very loyal, they travel for hours and hours from for
example Munich in South
Germany to
the West just to hear us play and sometimes even leave, when our set is
finished. This dedication means everything to me and I will never forget to be
thankful.
I think I do not exaggerate a bit if we say
that Lunar Shadow enters by its on right in the selected club of epic acts such
as Manilla Road, Atlantean Kodex, Visigoth, Omen…, one of those bands always
anticipated by fans
Oh, well
that question is always a little hard to answer, if you're a band member and
directly involved. I love all the bands you listed here, if people become
anywhere as loyal and dedicated to our music as they are to Manilla Road,
Kodex, Omen or Visigoth, I'd be proud and could die a happy man. Guess it's
just wait and see.
If we talk about single songs in the album is
really hard to choose just one or a few of them, because another feature of Far from Light is
that you are able to keep the great level of intensity and elaboration from the
first tunes of Hadrian Carrying Stones till the end of the album
I do have
certain favourites of course and also songs, where I'm in doubt sometimes (but
I don't want to name them). Seen as one, I think the album keeps a certain
level, yes. I really like the acoustic parts in the songs, "Gone
Astray" is extremely important to me personally, the solo of
"Cimmeria" gets me every time, I have no idea how I actually played
that haha. The album should also be seen
and listened to as one.
Yeah, if I had to choose anything for a live
set, probably I would name Hadrian Carrying Stones or Cimmeria. Is there any
truck you struggle more than the others to accomplish?
"Hadrian
Carrying Stones" has already been part of our live set in the last year,
so we'll certainly play that one. Yes, sort of, some tracks are more difficult
than others, "Cimmeria" fe. Has some tricky drum parts. Also it's not
always that easy to recreate the acoustic pieces on stage. But we work on that,
I guess somehow we'll manage to find a good, new set list.
There are songs like The Kraken where the
melodies are simply top, it reminds me of Warlord, with Tsamis mastering of
melodic guitars. This is something you have developed by yourself or it was
inspired by bands as that?
I do love
the early Warlord and the guitars there, but
to be honest I never say "I now want to sound like Bill Tsamis!"
or something. It's something that just happened, I write and play the sort of
Heavy Metal, the sort of melodies and solos, that I personally like. And if
that reminds people of Warlord, I'm perfectly fine with that.
The rhythm section has accomplished a great
task, a very detailed work that prepares the pace for the guitars to shine
I agree, my
bandmates did an awesome job, every one of them. Without them, all my playing
would be worthless.
You have been signed by Cruz del Sur Music, it
doesn’t surprise me a bit, if I tell you the truth, because those guys have a
very good eye for signing cool and great new bands that are rising or giving
their first steps. The strange would be that you released Far from Light by
yourself, as you did with the ep. How do you feel about it?
First of
all, it was always clear, that I wanted this album to be released by a proper
label. We released our EP by ourselves, there was no label involved, we fought
for everything we have now. With the EP this was fine and the way I wanted it
to be, but with this album it was different.
Cruz Del
Sur has been the best solution and I'm proud to be part of it. Enrico is
absolutely dedicated to Heavy Metal and his bands, the whole roster of CDS is
awesome. Enrico liked the EP and we had a long talk then last year at
"Harder Than Steel" Festival, I showed him some pre-production
recordings and when he asked me, if we'd like to join Cruz Del Sur I gladfully
said yes.
I have come to know that Max is also an author,
having written a trilogy called “Sturmwind”. With that background I suppose the
lyrics is only your work? Where did you get that fondness for writing? Do you
still write or you are just focused in Lunar Shadow and all what is around it?
Yes, I also
wrote all of the lyrics, though my prose and LS don't intertwine with each
other. I released two books in the vein of Tolkien or Robert E. Howard and one
book in the style of Houellebecq. I always saw my books as a small tribute to
these authors and it was refreshing and purifying to write down your own ideas
and also sort of therapy yourself through this. I have stopped writing prose
though, I only write some small poems from time to time, for my own pleasure.
Cool enough! Max, in the ep the lyrics followed
the Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard’s themes, I suppose with Far from Light you
continue this working line, right?
In a way I
did, yes. "Cimmeria" was of course inspired by Robert E. Howard,
"Earendil" by Tolkien and "The Kraken" is a perverted piece
of Alfred Lord Tennyson's poems. These are just the things that rouse my
interest, escapism in its purest form. Other worlds, other lands, far away from
this place here.
The coverart, though still epic, has some a
more refined air to me , I mean, in your ep Triumphator the cover was more evident
or direct if you want to say it that way, it seems in this subject you have
also evolved to a more detailed work that really fits your progression in the
compositions
I know,
what you mean. I knew, that "Far From Light" would deal with, let's
say, more serious matters. Death. Loss. Isolation and loneliness. A cover with
a sword-swinging barbarian would just have been strange. Therefore this more
"mature" and epic cover was the logical result.
The songs have grown in complexity and
elaboration, how near is your live performance to the studio sound?
Of course
we cannot play fe. all twin-leads plus rhythm guitars live, we had to hire a
third guitarist for that. But we try to come as close to the album sound as possible when we play
live. I do many backing vocals, our bass player Sven too and it works well.
Do you have already any tour dates programmed
for this 2017? Will you visit Spain?
Right now
as I am writing this there are only two shows set in Germany. We are not a touring band, that
will never happen, but if we get an interesting offer from Spain, of course. I'd like to play there
for sure.
Hopefully you will visit us sooner than later.
Again, a pleasure to talk you, Max. Thank you very much.
Gracias.
Death To Life
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