Why did you start with Nachtmahr?
I have already been Djing since 7 years, but after opening a club in vienna (www.club-pi.at) with some friends I started Djing regularily again. That was maybe the most important factor in creating the urge to start NACHTMAHR. I was really disappointed with Electro/EBM/Industrial in the past few years, so I listened to a lot of rock and other musical styles. Through Djing I got back into the dark electronic styles, where my musical roots are and felt that I needed to do something to satisfy the need for creating brutal, uncompromosing club-oriented music.
What inspires you for making the music of Nachtmahr?
A lot of songs have been written straight when I got home from DJing early in the morning. I could conserve the energy of a night of sweat and extasy and put it into a NACHTMAHR Song. Stylewise there is a 50-50 share of incluences from the Techno Scene and Industrial Scene which I try to incorporate. I try is to deliver the power and energy of hard techno with the harshness and brutality of industrial
What was your biggest struggle for making the album?
The first album is always quite hard because you need to create a vision of the sound you have in mind – creating a trademark NACHTMAHR sound. I had to try a lot of different worlds of sounds and atmospheres until I felt “ Yes !, THIS is NACHTMAHR!” The more songs I wrote, the easier it has got to find the general idea that holds everything together.
The “Kunst is Krieg” album is out now for a short period. How are the responses?
The responses are far beyond everything I expected. At first I didn’t really want to release the tracks I wrote, I just played them at my club and gave them to some friends, but in the end everybody came up to me and said “you need to release that stuff, it’s fucking awesome”, so I did J Already when I put the first songs on my Myspace site the repsonse was overwhelming and when the album was released it was sold out within 6 weeks.
The tour with Samsas Traum also gave the the projekt a lot of attention…
Nachtmahr did some concerts in germany already, how did these go and what can people expect from a nachtmahr concert?
I have big plans for further shows, but as usual they are quite megalomaniac J In difference to L’ÂME IMMORTELLE where we have a band playing all music live, NACHTMAHR has to use a lot of artifical elements and so I try to focus a lot on the visual aspect of the show with stage decoration and visuals to create a certain atmosphere.
Who is in Nachtmahr besides you for live performances?
There is no fixed line-up. It can differ from Show to show depending on the budget and size
Does composing music for nachtmahr differ from composing for l’ame Imortelle and in what way?
Oh yes, a lot – it’s a totally different game. With L’ÂME IMMORTELLE the focus on songwriting is a lot on melodies while NACHTMAHR focuses mostly on sound and rhythm.
I really spend a lot of time in finding or creating and then tweaking the drum and synth sounds as well as different rhythmical variations. My 12 years of experience as a songwriter and professional musician are a big help, but I had to go back a few steps, as the method is totally different and I sometimes feel a little bit like when I started out with L’ÂME IMMORTELLE in 1996
In those 12 years of being a songwriter, what is the most important thing you have learned?
That is a very hard questions, cause this time has really developed me as a person, forged my character and made me a more serious person. Musically speaking it is the self esteem to trust your inner voice. When a new song is finished I now instantly know if it’s good enough or not, when I started out I was unsure about the quality of what I created.
Your music reminds me a bit of bands like Noisuf-X and XotoX. Do you think this kind of music is the future of electronic music (also because I see a return of old school ebm), what is your view on this?
There were so many opinions about that already and after all it was just a trend in that style of music, think about “Future Pop” a few years ago. Everybody said: “This is going to be the future” and now people nearly flee the dancefloor, when you spin a future pop track J.
There’s always some bands that already have been there and started it all and then a few good ones, that will remain, when the hype is over…
Why did you decide to quit with Siechtum in 2002?
L’ÂME IMMORTELLE took over most of my time and after I had the time again I wasn’t feeling comfortable with the concept anymore, although I still really love the albums I did.
What’s next for Nachtmahr, there are rumors about a new release very soon?
Working on it now… but it’s to early to say more.
Any last words for the readers?
Check out www.nachtmahr.at or www.myspace.com/nachtmahrprojekt :)