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