Apoptygma Berzerk – 18-11-2010

Interview with: Stephan and Thomas
By: Nina Mende

Luckily Apoptygma Berzerk is just support on this long tour, or else this interview might not have happened due to several things that were going on. But, it happened and here it is:

Apoptygma Berzerk are currently on tour with Unheilig. Some 40 shows throughout Germany, Switzerland and Austria as well as some headline shows of Apoptygma Berzerk in some other European countries in between. Thomas, the drummer, and Stephan took a whole lot of time for this awesome interview.

After a short education on e-cigarettes – I have never seen them before, unbelievable I know… – and talking about Starbucks, cheesecake and cookies, talking about liquorices and the candy (especially the Norwegian – and Finnish -) being unavailable in the States … we finally started our interview.

The tour had just begun but they could already tell that this tour is far different from all the previous stuff they have ever done: They were playing arenas now and they were being a support act to Unheilig, a German band that has gone huge in the past two years.

By the time of the interview they had played four shows already. Two in Siegen, one in Helsinki – a very interesting and long lasting experience they had there, it was Stephan’s first time there and also the first Apoptygma show in Finland, ever! – and Berlin. During the Unheilig tour Apoptygma Berzerk also plays some headliner shows- not in Germany though of course – where they play full sets. As support they only play a short version of the full set which lasts for 45 minutes only. Headliner shows are usually 90 minutes plus encores. One of their headliner shows will be in Spain, where they have not played a show in far too long. Prague will also be a first time for APB.

Apoptygma Berzerk had just been touring in USA and South America, so they are basically in the tour modus already. South America was awesome, Stephan said. The tour there was incomparable to anything. It is like a complete different world. Real poverty and people who have literally nothing is something there that makes you think and appreciate things a little more. In South America fans had been waiting for ten or more years to see Apop live. It was just amazing. Somehow it reminded Stephan of a show in the former East of Germany, right after the wall came down, where people were not used to see Scandinavian bands and highly appreciated it. The audience was always so excited that the band ended up having the best shows there, it was just like an euphoric trip. The shows in South America were somehow like that. Europe and USA are so spoiled, people can go to a show every night, in big cities you even can pick out of many shows each night. In the countries in South America hardly ever have European bands play a show there, you could tell they had been looking forward to it for long and the fans partied as if it was 1999 all over again. But that tour was also stressful because they did a lot of flying from show to show. They did about 19 flights in 18 days. Also did they play on rented backline, which means they never knew what equipment they got to play on every night. That was also a little exciting and like a sport because you have to deal with different stuff every night. The complete opposite of this tour now. But a well-organized tour like this one with Unheilig can only happen if it is planned way in advance and every cable is right at the spot it’s supposed to be and broken stuff gets replaced right away. Stephan and Thomas mentioned though, that somehow the situation in South America was fun though. It was like a punk rock sport and felt a little like being a good old garage band that had to work with what was there – or not -and still play an awesome show. You never knew what would expect you and everyday was different.

Thomas told us here that in Lima, Peru the whole PA system went out and the venue was black for long. It turned out that somebody had turned on the air conditioning which was too much for the power system and blew it out. So as soon as the air conditioning was turned back off the power was back and the show could continue. Stephan’s monitor system was fried though and he had to continue performing in a punk rock style. During the black out people were just standing there, waiting patiently and talking. In Norway or any other European country people would have just left and not waited for ages for the power would come back on. In Lima they were still happy and partied as if nothing happened.

Being the Unheilig support was a wish of Unheilig. Stephan did not know the guys of Unheilig personally until a week prior to our interview but they had a lot of friends in common like FAQ or Zeromancer. Also Apop doesn’t have a new album out yet and hasn’t been to Germany in quite a while, so they decided to do the tour as support act. Now they even enjoy being a support act, because for once there is no huge pressure on Apoptygma Berzerk to give their best. But they can actually relax and enjoy the time and the shows more,they don’t care as much what other people think of them. Their main chore is to support Unheilig and warm up the crowd for them. Being a support act also gives them more free time and they have time to relax or work on the new album. (I could tell. Stephan was a lot more relaxed than when I usually run into him at their headliner shows!)

The Unheilig fans have been very polite to Apoptygma Berzerk so far, but probably still happy when Apop went off stage. But there was never any booing or throwing stuff on stage. The guys of Apoptygma Berzerk are amazed how people show up early and watch all the support acts whereas Stephan would always show up half an hour before the main act and not “suffer” through openers. The band also believes that Mono Inc, Apoptygma Berzerk and Unheilig are a great package.

Apoptygma Berzerk is already working on the new album. In February, when they are done with this tour, they will go straight to the studio. But there are no plans with labels yet, also are they working on some stuff in the USA and South America. So there still needs to get a lot of things sorted out and worked out before they can actually working on any details of the new album. Stephan is already writing on new songs though, and drums will be recorded when they get home, some guitar tracks are being recorded on the road already. Recording right after the tour is a brilliant time to do so, because everyone is still in the touring mode and is still in their best shape and it would be great to capture some of the tour mode on the new album. The line-up as of now will stay!

The last album of Apoptygma Berzerk evolved around conspiracy theories. Stephan explained that it had somehow become a hobby of him but at first he didn’t really believe it. One day it all clicked though and Stephan began to believe most of it – he basically ate the red pill, to say it in terms of “Matrix” and saw some things clearer than before. That was the day he decided to not believe in coincidences anymore, but everything happened for a reason and everything was being controlled. With that he had an entirely new view on the world. For Stephan it was the most important thing to discover and he wanted to share it with the world, or at least with those who’d listen which were a little to few though. Now Stephan is going to step back a little on that because he came to the conclusion that most people simply don’t want to see the truth and prefer living the way they were told to, prefer being part of the system and a little marionette to the NWO and the system. Even the music industry is being controlled that way. But once you swallowed the red pill, there is no turning back. You simply have to live with what you discovered. For some people this is simply too much and they are afraid to walk down that path. With “Rocket Science” is basically a best-of of the conspiracy world, and the only original thing about it, is that it’s summed up by a band and being released as an album. On this album Stephan combined everything that is most important to him: Art, Apop and the truth in all the conspiracy stories. For the first time ever. Yet this album was not only for the conspiracy fans and people who want to listen to the conspiracy stories but also be an album for people who just want to buy a new album. 1984 is now!

After some drifting off about conspiracy stuff, I was curious what other projects the guys were having. To Stephan it is simply important to be creative all the time, no matter h9ow. Thomas is doing comics, documenting stuff, illustration and design, and so on. Very interesting. Brandon has his other band The Anix amongst other creative stuff. The guys are pushing and inspiring each other in their creativity and became very observant. Even when they are just walking around in the city and look at shopping windows they find stuff they could use for a sort of tour diaries or others. Whether they release it or not is still in the talk. Unfortunately the day does not have enough hours to get all the creativity and ideas worked out. …
We could have probably gone on forever…. But we had to make a cut.

Stephan wanted to make sure that you all know that they are having a great time and are glad to be back in Germany, even though it’s not a headliner tour!

THE END……

Thank you for your time, the coffee and the candy. It was a pleasure.

Links:
Apoptygma Berzerk Official