Demon Head – 02-08-2019

Interview with: M.F.L.
Interview by: Basak & Tim

The Danish diabolic rockers Demon Head delivered a fantastic show as the support act for Coven in Hamburg recently! So this was the perfect opportunity to interview M.F.L (vocals) after their set.

Hello guys! Welcome to Hamburg again. How are you? How is the tour going?

The tour has been going great. We are nearing the end of the tour but it’s been very good. Coven are such great gentlemen and gentle woman!

How is it like touring with Coven? How did you get to support them?

We got asked by our booking agent but we played with them before in Copenhagen and I think we hit it off quite well. The sound of Demon Head fits really well to their sound and they are great people so touring with them is like meeting good friends. I think we have been in the underground for a long time; we are on the 16th or 17th tour in Europe and this is a support act but I feel like they respect us both musically and personally.

How do you see Coven’s sound and how would you compare both bands soundwise? Would you say that you have similarities with Coven’s sound?

What I like about Coven is that, back then one didn’t have to fit into any style; at the time everything from Black Sabbath, to Led Zeppelin to Santana to Janis Joplin, it was called pop; it wasn’t even called rock. In our collective, which is called Demon Head, I would describe our music that the music we want to make. Of course, it’s within a sort of genre that has become ‘rock’ or ‘heavy metal’ but for me, it has never been just one style. We try our best to make good music.

Our first time seeing you guys live was with Magna Carta Cartel last year. What are some huge differences between the last tour and this tour for you?

MCC is a band that was quite new to a lot people so there were expectations to how the show was going to be and people were very enthusiastic and some were waiting in line for hours whereas Coven has die-hard fans for good reason as they have already proven themselves. With MCC, it was generally a nervous situation so we didn’t know what to expect; we didn’t even know if anyone was gonna like us since our music is heavier and more noisy. But with Coven, we knew that the fans had already looked into this kind-of music. I am personally surprised to see people of many styles from black metal to punk to people who like 60s/70s rock; sort-of everyone who has been touched by this music.

You guys were also supposed to play some shows in Germany a while ago but the tour has been cancelled. What were the reasons for this?

We were very sad to cancel the tour but it was sadly out of our control. It was an issue with logistics and ticket sales. In the end, it was going to be 3 dates that weren’t cancelled with a lot of time, and of course we had to rent the van so the whole situation became difficult in the end.

Your latest album “Hellfire Ocean Void” has been released this year and as you also described, it is quite clear that you guys just wanted to make the music you wanted to make; the sound is quite diverse! One thing that caught our attention right away is the cover artwork. What does it mean to you?

It has a deep meaning to us but it didn’t have a deeper meaning in the beginning. In general, we have always wanted to do the album art by ourselves; it may not be as important as the music but the first thing people see when they look at our record will be the symbol. We also never wanted to say too much with the album cover; we have always wanted to stir some kind-of curiosity as well and leave something for the imagination. We don’t want people to guess the music from the album cover.

Our bass player M.S.F., who does a lot of our art, dreamt of this symbol. We were living together and it was in the middle of the night as I remember it. He was like “Marcus, I got this thing!” and I could see that it wasn’t just a doodle, and then it became clearer that we had to make it into something more physical. The album art is actually the physical thing that we have with us but we forgot our foot in Düsseldorf. It is a 3 meter high wielded iron symbol. The cover was put out onto the sea and put onto the fire. We had to run from the top of the hill with torches across the beach out into the sea because there was so much wind, and then we had to take photos and we had around 60 seconds to manage it!

The symbol also reminded us of the Neptune symbol or the Trident!

True, the symbol is actually inspired by the Lyre of Orpheus, so it is somewhere between the trident and the fork of evil.

When you look back at this tour, what has been your highlight or your favorite show?

The show in Spain was definitely my highlight. I love the language and I love Barcelona. It was a very nice evening with an intense atmosphere!

What are the next steps for Demon Head?

We have pushed-on very hard the last years so it has been fun but very draining. So we have not had so much time to be creative and to put out new music. What we will do now is close the gates and build new things. There is a lot coming but it will take some time so we won’t do so many tours. We did 16 tours in the last 6 years mostly by ourselves so we will take a step back now.

Special thanks to Demon Head, Thorsten at Rodeostar Records and Ana at Master of Metal!