Metallspürhunde interview: I recently became aware of Metallspürhunde's amazing sound while listening to Radio Goethe's show on the internet. They were so great I had to buy music & a t-shirt & was even willing to BEG for an interview but Marion is so incredibly cool, begging was not even needed! That said & done, this is an e-mail interview which was answered by Marion Altwegg. Many thanks to Marion & the best of luck to this band in the future! Everyone should check them out, they're excellent! -Mikki 4/04

Marion Altwegg: Yes, our sound has gone through a continuous process, and the structures of the songs have become clearer again. We just knew better what we really wanted to do on the new album. By the way, there has been a female guest singer before, on our first album. But the cooperation with Alev was completely different: We found her through an advertisement and thought she had an amazing voice. We had produced two songs which we wanted her to sing, and she wrote the lyrics herself (that‘s why they‘re in English, because German isn‘t her first language; she‘s actually Turkish but grew up in the French speaking part of Switzerland...). So this was a very interesting cooperation for us, and there have already been two live gigs with Alev.

DML: I noticed that the song, "Rattenfänger", was included on the sampler, "Goth is what you make it 2". It doesn't really sound *goth* to me, though... How would YOU classify your music?

Marion Altwegg: We‘d say our music is a mixture of EBM and electro with some industrial and rock influences... with German lyrics... Actually we haven‘t found a good short name for that until now! Usually it‘s like that: All these different styles like also wave, batcave etc. belong to the label "goth", it‘s just a generic term. So you don‘t have to take that "goth" in the name of that sampler too literally.

DML: On a couple of your CD's thanks were given to artists such as Jürgen Engler, Bruno Kramm & Dero, amongst others... Did they help you directly or more in an influential way?

Marion Altwegg: More in an influential way. Michel is an early Die Krupps fan, and Jürgen Engler is probably the reason Michel started to make music himself. The same with Oomph!, we liked them from the start. It‘s a little bit different with Bruno Kramm: We met him and Das Ich last summer while we were together on a Romanian festival. We just liked them very much and they gave us a lot of good advice and Bruno helped us with making contact with some important people. First of all we wanted to thank him because he‘s such a nice person. But there‘s no musical or direct influence on our album, which unfortunately many people misunderstood. But Das Ich or Bruno has nothing to do with our sound.

DML: Marion, you started as the band manager then also took on the task of playing bass & then keyboards. Why this change of mind?

Marion Altwegg: Well, I joined the band as Michel‘s girl-friend, and I just wanted to help them a bit because I had the most time of all. Accidentally I played the bass, so we tried to integrate me into the band. We did a few gigs but we hadn‘t found the ideal line up yet. The bass thing didn‘t really fit in with the electronic sound, so I changed to keyboards where I also feel more comfortable. It was just a creative process of trying out, and after some line up and instrumental changes we now are finally complete!

DML: What instruments does everyone else play & what influenced you to learn them?

Marion Altwegg: Patrick plays the guitar, but he started with piano and synthesizers. About ten years ago he also started to play the guitar, to "let off steam", as he says... :-) Michel has been playing organ for many years, and today he‘s composing most of our songs (and of course, he sings!). Thomas is our new keyboard freak, he‘s been playing piano since he was a little child and he‘s been busy with keys for a really long time.

DML: I read that the band likes to "absorb new influences and see where they take us"... What does this mean exactly, are you open for other musical influences or instruments or daily events?

Marion Altwegg: All of it! But in that context we meant it more musically: For example our cooperation with Alev and the results of it were quite unusual for us. Also the remixes on "Blut & Spiele" are very different from our own musical style. But if we like something, we just do it, no matter if it fits into the label "goth" or not. We like to keep our minds open so we and our music can grow constantly.

DML: Most of your songs are in German. Do you think this decision limits you to German speaking countries?

Marion Altwegg: We don‘t think so, otherwise we wouldn‘t be doing this interview! :-) But seriously: Of course there are only a few non-German speaking people who take notice of us. But in Europe we have about 100 million people who speak German, so this is no severe problem. On the other hand we know that bands like Rammstein or Das Ich have also success in foreign countries, so you never know...

DML: Since your lyrics are mostly in German, could you let us English-speakers over here know if you have any messages in your songs?

Marion Altwegg: Well, many of the songs on "Blut & Spiele" (which means "Blood & Games" and is a modification of the Roman "Bread & Games") have become quite socio-critical. It‘s about religion ("Lass mich los"), the media ("Blut & Spiele") and dubious leaders. "2003" is actually about your president... One main message of the album may be: Keep your eyes open, be critical and don‘t let yourself be deceived.

DML: I first heard your music on the German music program Radio Goethe & thought it was excellent! Chart toppers for sure! But I had never heard of you before that... How, do you think, most people are initially exposed to your music? Are you played on European radio stations at all?

Marion Altwegg: Thanks for the compliment! We are played by a couple of radio stations, mostly internet radios. Regular radio stations usually don‘t play that kind of music which makes it difficult for us. We‘re also present in numerous online magazines, so we reach a lot of people this way. And of course such samplers like "Goth is what you make it" are very important for introducing ourselves to a wider range.

DML: Reading the news on your site, you seem to really enjoy playing live! What have been your best & worst experiences while on the road?

Marion Altwegg: Difficult question. It‘s true, we very much appreciate playing in different places, and Romania has surely been very special: We‘ve been there twice on a summer festival and we met a very exuberant atmosphere. It‘s an unbelievably poor country, but people there were so nice to us and the atmosphere during our concert was just amazing! Luckily we haven‘t had any really bad experiences yet.

DML: Could you describe the Swiss music scene a bit? Was it easy for a band like Metallspürhunde to be accepted or has it been a constant struggle?

Marion Altwegg: Switzerland is a small country, so you don‘t have too many possibilities if you belong to the gothic scene. Although we have a pretty vivid scene around Zurich with good parties and concerts, we‘re still working on being fully accepted. The fact that we have four different language regions makes it even more difficult, so we orientate very much on our neighbour Germany, where we‘ve been accepted very well by now. In Switzerland we just had this Superstar stuff on TV, so we‘re not too sophisticated...

DML: What does the future hold for Metallspürhunde? What plans do you have for the near future?

Marion Altwegg: We‘re still looking for a good label and we just hope that we‘ll be able to spread our music to a wider range of people. Apart from that we soon will do a remix for ASP, and Das Ich agreed to make one for us, so be prepared for new MSH-stuff...

DML: And finally, when does the US tour begin? ;)

Marion Altwegg: Ha, ha! If you make some good publicity for us over there, hopefully soon! :-)

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