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THE VISION BLEAK
Frankfurt 2005

“Fascination horrormovies”

Suiciderock: Can you tell us a bit about the history of the band?
Schwadorf: In the studio the band consists of the singer and me. We are friends since a long time and we already played in other bands before. As the music was very different in this bands we decided to make our own band due to the fact that we understand each other very well when it comes to the musical aspect as well as the human side. That’s the reason why we founded "The Vision Bleak" in 2001.

Suiciderock: Who had the idea for the name of the band?
Schwadorf: This is actually a quite silly story and we shouldn’t go into it. We didn't have a name for the band and the Popkomm was about to take place. We wanted to spread our promo material there and so we made-up the name over night. But we still stand behind this name. "The Vision Bleak" simply stands for death.

Suiciderock: Where does your special interest for horror movies come from?
Schwadorf: I was already fascinated of horror movies when I was a child, as well as from the literature of the films. H.P. Lovecraft and Poe are my absolute idols. That’s why this concept was chosen.

Suiciderock: How would you describe your music and the work on "The Vision Bleak" so far?
Schwadorf: I would say musically the notion "Horror Metal" brings it to the point. Atmospherically and rocky, live simply carrying away, although the music with atmosphere which allows to appear pictures with the eyes of the listeners.

Suiciderock: Who is responsible for the lyrics?
Schwadorf: I write the songs, but of course we are both involved.

Suiciderock: What kind of musical background do you have and what inspires you?
Schwadorf: That’s very difficult. We listen to a lot of music. Soundtracks of horror movies are very important for us, especially the soundtracks from the Hammerstudios and the old Universal films, such as "Wolfman" and all this stories. Of course, also metal, real old school metal and heavy metal. Slayer and Metallica are bands we like very much. Of course, there are also gothic influences, it's very extensive.

Suiciderock: Are the films inspiring you for your live show?
Schwadorf: Of course they do. They inspire us for the outfit and for the theatralic, which we try to pass on to the people.

Suiciderock: Does the outfit you wear on stage change or do you keep it?
Schwadorf: We have a fix outfit for this album but we may change it for the next album. This time we wanted the look of ancient, broken captains and their zombie crew.

Suiciderock: You shot a video for the song "Wolfman". Therefore you could get the rights of the "Wolfman" film. What have the shootings been like for you?
Schwadorf: They have been fun. We haven’t done something like that before and we didn’t have that much money on our disposal. However it was a great experience to do something like this. There will also be a video for the next record and I hope that it will be promoted better than this one. It was a bit unlucky this time.

Suiciderock: What have you done before "The Vision Bleak"?
Schwadorf: Music. I was in a band, which made music, more quiet than this, with acoustic guitars and folk influences. Konstanz played drums in a band, called "Nox Mortis".

Suiciderock: When did you decide to become a musician?
Schwadorf: I’m interested in music since I was a child. You start to play an instrument and you realise that this is exactly what you want to do. This started when I was 12/13. In school I was a chaot and so I decided to go this way.

Suiciderock: How important is success for you?
Schwadorf: It’s not a primarily aim. It’s important that we are content with our work and the songs we write. Of course we are very happy when the crowd shows us that they like what we do. Success is not everything for us. We stand behind our music and behind what we are doing. We would never change our style because of success.

Suiciderock: What is it like for you to be on tour with "The 69 Eyes"?
Schwadorf: It’s great cause many people know this band and many people come to see their show. People don’t necessarily come to see our show and this is a challenge for us. We have the chance to convince people who didn’t know us before and didn’t like our music that much.

Suiciderock: How do you estimate the crowd reactions?
Schwadorf: Totally good. We get very good resonances from the audience every night. People like what we do and we are very content.

Suiciderock: Your plans for this year?
Schwadorf: At the moment we are recording our second album. I guess it will be ready in May. We want to play as much Summer festivals as possible and we want to go on tour.

Suiciderock: So you plan an own tour?
Schwadorf: I guess we will play five to six gigs as headliner because of the new album and I hope that we can support a bigger band in autumn.

Suiciderock: Can you already tell us something about the new album?
Schwadorf: It will become a concept album as well. The album will consist not of many small horror stories but of one big horror story. The record will be a bit more harder and gloomy. Also a bit more orchestral, very moody but it will stay very singly.

Suiciderock: Do you have special wishes regarding the new record?
Schwadorf: We want to reach more people. Of course we hope that this record will bring us progress and I hope we are content and that we will develop the band further.