Interview Gothicrock
06/2007
REPTYLE
Russion Version: Click here
Gothic Rock.Ru (GR): Greetings! At first let's speak about some common
things. How did you know each other and what was the main reason to start
the music activity? Why did you take the title REPTYLE? Does it symbolize
something important or this word is considered only as spectacular title?
Zulu: Cheers! When we began, it was pretty much the usual story - coupla
guys, same musical interests, wild mood swings and too much free time
- for various reasons. Some of us had known each other for a while, all
of us had been into some kind of goth, everyone else hated the stuff we
liked, so it came somewhat naturally. The rest fell in place fairly quickly.
The name originates, to the best of my recollection, from some murky NIN
allusion, we gothed it up with that sexy Y and that was that too. Symbolism?
I guess we all picked up some ideas. Choose yours
GR: In the music of REPTYLE a lot of rock'n'roll variations of last 30
years have found it's place. Please, tell which concrete bands of 70's,
80's and 90's affected your sound?
Zulu: Speaking for myself: Being my age, I started with the better early/mid-nineties
goth metal stuff. Still love Paradise Lost, Tiamat and some others. It
didn't take me long to find out about the real thing, being the b/w edition
of the 80es - Joy Division, Fields of the Nephilim and Nick Cave becoming
my favourite drugs. But I never really got over metal (real metal), which
means an ongoing weakness for everything called Black Sabbath and the
likes. Now again, that's me personally, but I think you'll get similar
answers from the others (if you exchange some band names). So I guess
it was pretty obvious how the results would sound
GR: The REPTYLE's lyrics are very metaphorical and there are a lot of
unusual surrealistic representations in it. What do you consider as inspiration
for your verses? Were you inspired by literature (or art) works or all
of the events in your lyrics somehow comes from the real life?
Zulu: Oh, there's lots of books in there - mainly prose (Faulkner, Freud,
the Bible). Poetry normally makes me envious, so I tend to keep my distance.
The really good stuff gets me anyway Trakl, George and even Whitman for
some reason I haven't understood yet. The real-life part (as far as everyday
life is concerned) is fairly marginal, thank heaven.But two sources that
should be mentioned are films and dreams, which I think are closely connected.
I guess on A High And Lonely Place some 60 % of everything are direct
dream adaptations. I also like to sketch lyrics from theory - starting
from Crowley or Kittler, building some metaphysical skeleton and then
clothing it in dream flesh. Thats more the kind of approach I used on
Consequence
GR: Keeping on speaking about lyrics. You use English for verses and the
whole structure of the texts is pretty glossy. But since you are from
Germany it's rather logically to ask - why don't you use the German for
the lyrics instead of English? Zulu: I was forbidden to. No, seriously:
It's mainly a question of individual taste, and the rest of the guys is
pretty pro-English. I guess that's got to do with the ridiculous German
language goth kitsch we're being swamped with here. I personally like
both languages, it's just two different ways of working - English being
a bit more distant, a bit more abstract for me as a non-native speaker,
but that's got its own advantages
GR: Your debut LP is called - "A High and Lonely Place". Its concept sometimes
seems over endowed by some religious experience. In the lyrics and titles
of the tracks there are such words as "Martyr", "Redemption", "Light",
"Hell" etc.. Is it correct presumption and is there any inner connection
between the songs? What's your relation to religious sphere of human life
and how important is it for you?
Zulu: Yeah, that's funny. I'm a pastor's son as well as a convinced atheist
and I can tell you, I was somewhat taken aback when my girlfriend pointed
out to me how bloody eligious that album had become. But then, as I said
above, it's a very dreamlike thing, so in a way it's not too surprising
that all manners of subconscious shit should come in through the back
door. More importantly, though, this religious code to me is simply a
strong way of talking about strong and bloody issues, and A. H. A. L.
P. is mainly about strong and bloody things. So I think, in retrospect,
the language fits the subject. But I wouldn't do this again. It's thoughtless
in a way, and religion is too dangerous to be used thoughtlessly
GR: Your last album - "Consequence" - was released in the end of May.
Tell a few words about the new material and its concept. Especially it's
interesting to ask about "Tower of Bridges" track, which is really epic
because of chorus. What was the origin of its creation and why was it
called like that?
Zulu: That one was one of the last songs we wrote for the album, but in
fact, the lyrical idea was one of the oldest - it's from the A. H. A.
L. P. era, and it's a good example of how I worked at that time. Basically,
I had that picture in my head of a huge structure hanging in the sky,
some kind of inverted gothic cathedral (or maybe an open air version of
Piranesi's Carceri), and I had been reading a number of things about martyred
woman saints at that time, so the story fell into place pretty much on
its own. (And yes, you may call me a hippie now.)
GR: According to your site, there are 4 members in your band. However
at the REPTYLE's photos sometimes there are more people including girls.
Who are they - provisional musicians?
Zulu: Nah. Regrettably, two band members (Kufi and Moci) who co-recorded
the album left afterwards. Calling them provisional members wouldn't do
them justice at all, since they were part of Reptyle since the beginning
respectively since 2000. In fact, they're still pretty much members 'honoris
causa', they're just not part of the active line-up any more
GR: A lot of European issues consider REPTYLE as one of the most interesting
band in modern German gothic-rock. How serious your relation towards the
opinions and reviews of press? How important for you the question of fame
in the border of styles which you play or wider?
Zulu: Do they? Haven't noticed much of that yet, but then, there aren't
that many modern German goth rock bands around ... Seriously: The everyday
difference can be a bit bewildering. One day you read a rave review of
your album in one of Europe's biggest "dark music" mags, the other day
you play in front of 15 people in some underground bunker - it's a bit
surreal at times. But then again, I tend to read every good press piece
as an honest endorsal of what we do, which makes me happy. Of course,
every bad press piece is probably written by some paid industry hack ...
GR: What do you think of modern underground European scene? Does it exist
for you? As we know, this scene (if it does exist) is overflowed by synth-electro-industrial
bands. Don't you think that because of so large amount of such bands listener
can forget about more natural & classic variations of music?
Zulu: In fact, we don't care a lot about the wider scene. Obviously, we
notice and support the kind of music we like, but whether there are 1.000
or 10.000 synth pop bands around is really below our radar. I don't even
want to sound disrespectful to them, but we simply choose not to spend
our time on them
GR: You performed with rather famous gothic rock, deathrock-punk bands
from Europe and USA. Are there any bands which became your personal friends?
Which show do you consider as successful? Do you have any tradition or
"rituals" before going at the scene?
Zulu: For some reason, we tend to get along well with the bands we play
with - no knife-fights there. But of course, there are some we especially
like to remember: a heart-felt "Skal" to Funhouse, Cinema Strange are
pretty cool guys too, as are Sepulcrum Mentis, and gigging with Ikon and
The House Of Usher was always fun, as well - cheers, dudes! *wax nostalgic*
- as for rituals, we normally sacrifice an elephant immediately before
hitting the stage. Apart from that, coupla drinks will have to do...
GR: Do you consider the internet or your myspace profile as something
important? What do you think of spreading the mp3 albums via web to let
the listener make an impression about some band?
Zulu: Well, myspace seems to be working fairly well - we were late to
join the trail, but it really helps with networking. In general, the web
is a two edged affair. Its far easier to get information out, but the
same of course applies to everyone else, so you tend to get drowned out.
The same applies to music online. Giving millions of people across the
world an opportunity to taste the sound is great, but on the other hand,
over-supply means devaluation. Putting whole albums on the web seems to
me self-contradictory: a blob of music data without material substance,
cover art or anything is not an album to me
GR: In the end of interview, according to tradition of our site, there
will be such question: do you have any words for Russian fans?
Zulu: Bolshoye spasiba for your interest (and patience with my rambling
digressions), we hope to see (at least some) of you live, someday! Cheerz
from Reptyle!
GR: Thank you for this interview and let us once again congratulate you
with the release of your new album! Phil a.k.a. FTM Še
Gothicrock
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