Stay up-to-date with the Virus newsletter.

Stay up to date with Virus.
  

Read current newsletter

Friday, Nov 21, 2008

Is there a philosphy that the band lives by?

Learning to navigate on the edge of your personal frontiers and looking through others eyes helps understanding, and growing in a personal and spiritual way.

Das Ich is one of my favourite bands, they're like number 5 on my list. I felt so honoured when they told me to send them questions. These guys are truly amazing, they've been around for quite a long time, and they're still going strong. They've toured the world, given people a different perspective on life, made incredible music, influenced so many people internationally, and so much more.
It's somewhat hard to believe that Das Ich is mainly just two people, three if you add in Kain who goes on tour with them. But for the most part, 15 years of music to die for, has been brought to you by two men, Bruno Kramm who writes the music, plays and produces the albums and Stefan Ackermann who writes the lyrics, and sings them to you with that great voice of his. (Might I add, I love his voice.)

Like I said, they've been around for 15 years. That's a pretty long time in the music business nowadays. So what keeps them going strong? I asked Bruno how they keep the "essence" alive, he responded, "Doing music is the essence of it all for us. We love to try out new song concepts and live performances. This is our driving motor." Basically, they're two guys that have something to say, but don't want to say it like everyone else is saying it. I haven't had the opportunity to see them live yet, however, I talked to a couple of people who have seen them live numerous times. And the general response to my "How is their live show" question was, "Oh wow, where do I even start?" and "Words cannot describe it, it's something you need to experience." So now, I feel like I've missed out on a whole lot of stuff, and I feel out of the loop, almost. It's definately on my "To-do before I die list". Yes, I have a lot of lists, I've already mentioned two in this article.

With a long career comes obstacles that needed to be overcome. A lot of bands don't overcome these obstacles, and that's why there are so many new bands, and not many stay in the game for very long. I asked Stefan if he could explain a particular obstacle that had stood out, and I got this response, "After this disastrous time with Edel records. One week before the release, our whole staff (A&R, Promoter, product manager) were kicked out of the company, the new guys gave us this look of disgust and wanted to change us into a Europop band like DJ Scooter..." I'm kind of glad that he didn't continue. This happens to tons of bands, people want them to change, and I must say I am quite thankful that they didn't change into a Europop band. I can't even imagine them being one. The only good thing that would happen, if they did become one, would be if they corrupted the Europop scene from the inside out. Like a tapeworm. -=pictures it=- Yes, that would be quite the sight to see. Erm, moving on..

Das Ich's songs are for the most part constructed on the complex side of things. When I asked what kind of muusical knowledge they had before getting into Das Ich, I was actually surprised to hear that Bruno has classical music experience, and he was once a classical composer. After thinking about it for a little bit, I realized it really isn't all that surprising, if you listen closely to most of their songs, you'll start to notice the classical training. Or it could have just been me, you decide. They're worth the 4 minutes out of your life to listen to them. Speaking of the songs, they have so many CDs out, I asked Bruno about how the music and his feelings changed from the start of his career, to the present time, I don't want to butcher his words because I really like how he put it, so here's what he said, "More or less pathetic, hurt, happy, depressive, and moody. The musical concept is always the same, the emotions of the time, the decade you are living in fill the songs with flesh to the bones of architecture." As I was saying earlier, I had talked to so many people about Das Ich, throughout the time that I've liked them. And every person that has been listening to them for a while, and enjoy them have said the same thing, Das Ich has changed the way their lives are, some have started a band, some a zine, some have quit their normal jobs and become artists, and some were affected differently just seeing life in a different light. When I told Bruno this, he was so pleased to know that, it brought a smile to his face, and brought these words out of him, "There is nothing better than to give people an impulse to become creative. What else is life without this individualitys, and so this is an amazing feeling."

Their genre is greatly accepted worldwide, and of course isn't it everyone's dream to travel the world and see how others live their lives? And what better way to do this than being in a band, and giving something to fans worlwide, almost like trading your live show, for some knowledge of how the scene and culture there is. As of late, they've added Israel, Mexico and Russia to their list of favourite places to be. By gaining knowledge on all the different cultures they've come across in their travels, they've become so inspired and where you're sitting right now, that country, that town could have been what made one of their songs what it is today.
In Das Ich's songs, a lot of things are addressed, or so I learned after I took forever trying to translate. And of course, each person will interpret the songs differently, so I asked what they initally addressed lyrically, in their songs. "In terms of positivity: Individuality, Freedom, Vegetarismn. In terms of Negativity: Hate, Religious Misleads, Politics, Bush." Blend all that together, and you got one hell of a band.
"What's next?"

"New album, new ideas and concepts. And of course, we want to come soon to Canada, again"

All I have to say to that is "eeeeeeeeee" And yes, I actually did say that.