by Vpower
The Band: Old Mother Hell
Country: Germany
Answers by:
Bernd Wener (guitar/vocals)
OLD MOTHER HELL is giving their first steps as
a band, although the guys behind it are not novice anymore. Their debut album
“Old Mother Hell” is released by Cruz del Sur, which means something by itself,
and offers classic stuff, good ideas and a sense of reality that is really
welcome, what according to Bernd Wener’s words will do no other thing than keep
growing.
Hello Bernd, the origin of Old Mother Hell is
based on the thrash metal band Hatchery, how was the transformation?
Hatchery
bassist Ronny (Ronald Senft, bass) and Hatchery drummer Ruben (Ruben André,
drums) began to work on new material somewhere in 2015, together with former
Hatchery singer Robert Hoffmann as guitar player. They wanted to try something
different, leaving the thrash metal stuff behind. I joined in autumn of 2015 as
a singer. After our first show together in March of 2016, Robert unfortunately
had to leave the band because of his studies and so I took over the guitar as
well. The current line-up exists since summer of 2016. So you could say the
transformation went relatively smooth.
Sorry for Robert then J New band, new album and new label, a good start I would say
Indeed a
great start. We couldn't be more thrilled. This all still feels like the wet
dream of our 16 year-old selves. First the fuzz on social media, then being
contacted by Enrico of Cruz Del Sur. Wow!
OMH was formed in 2015, 2 years to create your
homonymous album or less than that?
As I joined
the band, there were already quite a few songs existing, I added vocals and
lyrics to. When Robert left we had to rearrange some songs so I was able to
play guitar and sing both at once. Some other songs were trashed completely and
some new ones written. So it really depends on how you want to see it. We don't
stress ourselves though. Even when a song is finished in the first version, we
still don't stop to refine it here and there. Good songs take time.
As good wines do yeah. How was the composition
and recording of your debut album?
Our songs
are normally composed together in our rehearsal room. In that regard we are a
quite classic combo, meeting once per week and just letting things rock. The
lyrics are nearly completely written by me. Sometimes I do it while we work on
the songs, sometimes afterwards. There is no "given way" we are
composing.
We recorded
the debut in May 2017 at Rama Studio Mannheim under the supervision of
producer/engineer Jens Siefert. He has the same philosophy concerning the way
it should be done, namely: recording live the old-school way, not even doing a
second guitar, grid-editing, drum samples, copy and paste or other
"fancy" stuff. It was a hell of a ride and felt absolutely fantastic
and authentic. Jens captured that feeling and turned it into exactly the sound
we wanted.
That’s really awesome taking in account how
music studios work nowadays. OMH is a power trio, not the first one either the
last, three better than four or just happened like that?
We did try
adding a second guitar back when Robert was still with us. But we didn't like
what it did to our sound. After Robert left we knew we wouldn't easily find
someone with the same mindset as we had. We three knew exactly which sound and
which kind of music we wanted to do. So we tried to write some songs as a trio,
realized it worked really well for us and so decided to continue on this path.
Demo Of The Month and Self-Produced Album Of
The Month in Rock Hard and Deaf Forever magazines, how do you feel about that
recognition?
It is
exactly what we planned and deserved... Just kidding! We are - even today -
totally blown away by all the accolade. Of course we thought before that our
songs are good. But on the other hand: which band doesn't? We realized starting
to feel that this might be something special when the fuzz on social media
started.
You have accomplished an interesting and
addictive mix between heavy & doom, the ideas were clear from the very
beginning or they were taking shape little by little?
I guess the
truth lies somewhere in between. Ronny and Ruben wanted to do something
different than Thrash Metal. We are influenced by traditional metal bands like
Iron Maiden or Black Sabbath. Especially Ronny and Ruben are also huge doom
fans. We actually did cover Candlemass' Solitude on our very first show. Ronny
and me also like classic Hard Rock stuff very much. So one thing led to another
and now here we are. There is (and was) no real intention like "Let's do
it exactly this way". If a song has a good flow at the rehearsal, we don't
mind if it is more Doom, Hard Rock or more the traditional way of metal
riffing. Feeling is more important than genre.
Old Mother Hell contains six good songs, no
filler, but I have to complain because it ends too fast hahaha, you kept
anything in the drawer for next releases?
Haha, then
you can call yourself lucky: we had planned to do only a 3-song-EP at first.
But we couldn't decide which song to leave out, so we ended up with this mini
album in the end. We are already working on new stuff casually but there is
nothing final yet. So don't nail us on something like a new release date. The
debut is not even 6 months old yet.
We will take it easy then haha I love the wide
sonic range of Narcotic Overthrow, any song you are more proud of?
Thank you
very much. Interesting feedback because in my perception "Narcotic
Overthrow" isn't one of the songs mentioned a lot by our audience. With no
doubt you can call "Old Mother Hell" the song we as a band are most
proud of. I think it describes our band, the sound we want to create and the music
we want to compose perfectly. It has a great flow and doesn't feel - at least
for us - nearly as long as it actually is with it's 8.34 minutes.
It flows
as water, indeed. Germany is a enough big market for most of the bands, enough
to sell & tour, do you feel okay with that or you put no boundaries to your
growth?
We don't at
all look at it this way. For us there is no market or something. We are not in
music for the money nor the fame. We don't want to be rock stars. We are just
three guys creating music we love and would like to listen to ourselves. I
guess that is the advantage when you are at a something older age and have
families and jobs in your "real" life. The disadvantage of course is
that we can't just leave everything behind because there are responsibilities
we have to fulfill. The boundary therefore is the time we can all spare.
Everything has to be organized quite well.
Time is a merciless enemy and we are already
facing the extinction of the big bands and names that set on fire the Metal for
the past few decades, what will happen next?
Oh I don't
own a crystal ball, so I don't know what will happen next, haha. But in my
perception I see two different things: At first I guess there won't be
"legendary" bands anymore, because all of them are from a time when a
new genre was born and formed over the years. You just can't invent Hard Rock
or Heavy Metal again. It is already there. Every new band formed is compared to
that legends and that glory days, so they can only lose. Sounds depressing
right? On the other hand I have the feeling that a lot of fans - and we three
are part of that demographic - are fed up with loudness war, plastic metal,
thousands of guitar layers and all that modern producing standards. They crave
for authentic music. You just have to take a look at how successful bands like
Night Demon, Blues Pills, Graveyard, Horisont and the likes are. Great music
will touch people and gather an audience regardless of legends.
Any plans to tour around Europe?
Unfortunately
there is no tour planned at the moment. As I mentioned earlier there are jobs
and families to be juggled with every live show. Currently there are some shows
planned in Germany, but we love to play live. So maybe
in time there will be a possibility to do a small tour. It just has to be
organized and planned well.
Thank you very much man for the interesting
opinions and wish you all the best, if you wish to add something…
You're
welcome. Thank you for your interest and the interview. I won't get tired to
say thank you to all the fans out there spreading the word on social media and
to their friends. Without you people we would be just three guys sitting in our
rehearsal room, not even thinking about a label deal with Cruz Del Sur. Thank
you from the bottom of our hearts. And to those curious: Feel free to visit our
homepage www.oldmotherhell.de and/or facebook page www.facebook.com/oldmotherhell
and leave us some feedback.
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