What is the current line-up of Stahlmantel?
The line-up is:
Juergen Bartsch – songwriting, machines, programming (Germany)
Reiner Tiedemann – sample loops, arrangements, mixing, mastering (Germany)
Marco Kehren – Vocals (The Netherlands)
You started Stahlmantel 10 years ago yet it is still an unknown band to many people in the industrial scene in the Netherlands, why is this, what are your ideas about it?
Yes, that´s true. We still are an unknown band which has several reasons. When starting with Stahlmantel back in 1998 it never was meant as something done for the public. I only wanted to satisfy my personal interests in doing some kind of weird and disturbing soundscapes I could not live out in my other band Bethlehem. So basically the first “demo” (which surely wasn’t one) was nothing but some disturbing sound experiments with a sampler and an old Roland keyboard. Some of that stuff was used for a Bethlehem recording in 2001 but of course never found its way elsewhere. It took me nearly 5 years to create something more organized, with a real song structure. Those tracks were done as the “from snuff...” demo in 2003. “from snuff...” is containing 7 songs which best could be described as some disturbing Noise songs which a very unique personal note and real harsh beats. A friend of mine who is used hanging around in all those German industrial clubs in the Ruhrgebiet once gave it a listen and was directly blown away by this. Some quick Demo CDs were done which were all spread in this scene and some of the songs were played in Clubs and on Goa parties. Seemed like I instinctly created a track which was frenetically celebrated on any Goa party in that time. This surely wasn’t done by purpose because I still had no fucking clue about Electro in general, did not listen to Electro bands and surely wasn’t also part of whatever scene. But this first “success” which also was featured by NIN KUJI a lot who showed huge interest in this kind of music, I decided to write some better, more danceable material for the local club scene. An old friend of mine, who did his own techno/trance songs, became part of Stahlmantel and together we produced some new songs for the “Opus Abgott” demo in 2004. Strangely enough that this thing became the complete failure coz nearly nobody wanted to give it a listen and no track ever was played in any club around. The demo is containing 8 songs from dancecore to harsh industrial, all sung by myself. All lyrics done in German. The whole production is so terrible because of lack of money we worked with real shitty instruments and had no clue how to mix and master this thing in the end. So basically it became a fully “overproduced” demo which is destroying your ears in a more negative sense if getting played loud. The songs themselves aren’t so bad and we surely will re-produce some of them one day, because they are really worth it and somehow reflect first ideas of how Stahlmantel is sounding today. Later songs like e.g. “Biomechanische Stahlgeburt” (Engl. Biomechanical Steel Birth) found their way on e.g. the VAWS compilation Vol. 5 in 2008 and were also used as bonus material for the Polish release of “Satan Snuff Machine” in 2007. Anyhow, disappointed from this flop I stepped back to my older song ideas and created 7 ultra sick and disturbing Noise oriented songs which were sung by “Nihilist” from Seattle/USA who wrote his own lyrics about child abuse and other dark experiences of his former life. Lyrically seen it became a concept album. Those tracks are really dark and disturbing and also supported by heavy metal guitar riffing here and there, all done with virtual instruments of course. “Nihilist” is an old friend of mine who once was the singer of the US black metal legend “Wraithen” and sings in “In Memorial” and other black metal bands arround Seattle/Washington DC/New York City. This album was released by “Dyingart Productions” from China, a small industrial label over there. All copies were sold around Asia and did not find their way to Europe. Later the CD was also released by “Metalrulez Poland”, a small black metal underground label. But again nobody showed interest in this kind of music, for Metal heads the music was too electronical, for Electroheads it was too metalish. Gosh, we were damned !!! Only some Scandinavian Industrial folks found this thing completely amazing and yeah, most of the copies were sold in the USA. After all those disappointments with public releases we nearly were ready closing this book forever, when we spontaneously started to write some new tracks in March 2008 and presented them on the MySpace profile which originally was created in the last year but was as dead as a boneyard. And basically only had some hundred clicks and nearly no plays. Those first tracks only were done just for fun, without any purpose. We again stepped back to the more danceable stuff we first created in 2004, because although we surely are no experts with electronical music in general, we always and ever felt those dance-vibes in us. So yeah, what shall I say ? From one second to the other everything changed completely. More and more people came in and the music was played like fuck. More songs were done and from the some hundred clicks it changed to many thousands in only some weeks. The interest was gigantic. Sometimes things in life are pretty strange, you never know what happens next if doing music which exclusively is coming from your heart and soul and don’t follow any trend or momentary fashion. I definitely would not say that the “new” music has so much changed compared to the stuff from the past, apart from maybe the sound itself which became so much better because we tried out a lot in the last years and surely progressed with producing a powerful and pretty energetic sound. We again asked Nihilist whether he would be interested in also singing those songs, but he somehow was too busy with his own musical projects. Also is touring a lot lately. So the only logical possibility was asking Marco Kehren from Brunsum/The Netherlands who is one of my best friends and also is the singer of his own band Deinonychus, he did lots of records with. I also knew that since many, many years Marco completely is involved into Industrial, Noise, EBM, Neofolk, whatsoever and has a massive clue about this music in general. Because me personally still don’t listen to so much Electro in general, basically I am listening to really nothing since many years. I am overheard with this all to be honest. And better want to concentrate on my own personal thing and it´s a very good inspiration if not being influenced by other bands then. Fortunately he agreed and in the last week we recorded all the vocals in my own studio, so basically the new record is finished. And is containing 10 tracks, 5 with vocals, 3 with (self created) samples and 2 instrumental ones. Our goal now is finding a record company which wants to release this thing and although some are already showing interest in this through MySpace, we surely want to give it more time finding the right company for that thing. It has some huge potential, also as a possible live act, so one really should stay a bit more relaxed with this thing. Nothing to say against smaller Electro labels, but this time the music should reach some more people than exclusively in Scandinavia, Asia or the United States. Labels who might read this and probably got curious about should get in contact with us. Thanks.
Well, surely the harsh industrial/noisy sounds we are creating since the very beginning of this band. You know what I am talking about, don’t you ? Machine sounds, lots of distortion, a metalish sounding snare, an ultra-fat and deep bass-drum with some strange distortion in, not the usual “disco clean kind of pock-pock-pock”. More sounding like an enourmous door slamming in the depths of hell. This all in combination with high-end synthi + keyboard sounds playing the “usual” electro themes, okay maybe not so usual. Maybe more in the e.g. Combichrist direction, more tight, not so playable. Stahlmantel also uses more techno oriented bpm´s, more fast but still using those harsh industrial sounds. And yeah, the main thing is that every song is pure energy, you won’t find atmospheric breaks or 110 bpm songs for a nice chill or the whatever. It all is directly in your face, you won’t get a break to breath. Dance or die.
What influence does the German industry region, ruhrgebiet, have on the sound?
A huge one. I was born in a huge industrial area and am surrounded by 4 power plants and the biggest brown coal mine in Europe. I again am living here and you also at night, especially at night, are surrounded by those machine sounds I am used to listen to since I was a kid. So basically I never had any other chance than creating some industrial influenced music one day because since my birth those sounds and “rhythms” were always around me. Guess, personally seen, this is my biggest influence in music and I ever used those special industrial sounds in all of my musical projects I have ever done since today. My life somehow is heavily influenced by huge machines and what they have to “tell”. And be sure they have a lot to “tell”, also in my dreams.
The music style of Stahlmantel has changed over the years, did you find your definite style now or will it keep changing?
I don’t know. Really. Surely at the moment the actual style is exactly this thing. Not because we at least have found some listeners for that style. See, we all are “burning” momentary and immediately would like to do another CD with another 10 or so songs in that direction. This exactly is the style we are searching for since a very long time now and had to produce many failures and disappointments to reach this momentary standard. It surely will change a bit here and there in future, but you never know before what else might happen with this in general. I really cant tell.
Like I said before, I wanted a more danceable sound for Stahlmantel back in 2004 but had no clue how to do this because I more was used doing harsh noise influenced sounds which of course also had a beat but were far away from usual dance stuff played in the clubs. Tiedemann made lots of experiences with more techno oriented songs and therefore, was a huge inspiration and help for me. I also once was one of those dicks who thought, doing electronical music would be pretty easy. But of course is not and if you have no clue about a special feeling and also the techniques behind, well then this won’t work. Or sounds like some stupid try of somebody who has no fucking clue what he is doing.
In the past you sang yourself but now you are working with Dutch singer Marco Kehren, how did you meet him?
I met him back in 1993. To that time I was in very close contact with the Dutch black metal scene and a friend of mine from Roermond was Marco´s girlfriend. So we came in contact together. But also over our bands which to that time already had a name in the early black metal scene and we already before had some mail contact here and there. This scene, globally seen, was so small that nearly everybody knew everyone, it surely was a complete different thing like it is in these days.
Having a singer is important for the live shows, have you played already with Marco live, how did these shows go?
Nope, we never played any live shows together. Before last week Marco never did any vocals for Stahlmantel. And we also never did live shows together with our metal bands. But I really am not afraid of this, we both are entertainers since the beginning of our musical career and doing things live together should be petty all right. Marco is quite an impressive and very powerful person with lots of real power in his voice. We definitely won’t support this strange “head-voice” style from most other industrial bands. Sure, we also use distortion but the sound of the voice itself still is very powerful and straight.
In 2007 you released the album “Satan snuff machine” how were the comments on that and how do you look back at it?
We ever will stay to that album, it was one of the most important creations in the whole history of Stahlmantel. It is so raw, pure and honest. The sounds already were ultra-fat and smash your face like a steel hammer. The atmosphere is grateful, so dark, disturbing and machine influenced. The screamy vocals are killer. Without that release and all the experiences we have made during the whole process, we never would have been able creating those actual songs of us. Surely this is my own interpretation. The rest of the world wasn´t so amused from this piece of art. Can remember that I once red an article in some Electro fanzine which was like: “God help us. The psychopaths are back introducing their own suggestion of a death-torture-soundtrack.” I mean, well, this should say it all. Although basically this means nothing. I once also red some similar thing in the German Metal Hammer bout my other band and specially that album they hated so much got the biggest success of our band and pure cult in the world. Okay, I am sure “Satan Snuff Machine” won’t become the cult one day, but yeah, what can I say ? People hated it. Totally did. Sad but true. The “Machine” is everywhere and if you are creating something far away from the usual stereotypes, well, you basically never will reach the crowd with that. Other than that this of course is okay, I mean, the most important thing if doing your own music is, that you like it best and it satisfies you, whatever all others might say or think about.
This Chinese guy somehow has found our web site and was fascinated by some of the songs been posted there. He already had released some very harsh underground Asian industrial acts I somehow already have forgotten who this was. But we found it pretty amazing that some Chinese guy showed so much interest in our material nobody over here ever was interested in. We surely knew that such a release never would find its way to Europe, specially on such a small and unknown label as well. But what to lose ? I mean, we definitely expected that this album would become the next flop like with nearly all our demos before. So why not trying something in China or Asia ? And we were right with that, in those countries over there people liked that stuff and we red some really charming and good reviews from there (fortunately this guy translated some of them). Sorry, I really don’t want to repeat myself the whole time or want to sound too cocky, but the rest of the world never showed much interest in us. It more was the opposite, especially in my own country people hated Stahlmantel like a pretty worse disease. We really hope this will change one day and at the moment it seems that we finally found a way to reach some German listeners as well.
You are about to finish the new album, what can you tell us about it, what can we expect?
You can expect a CD with 9-10 tracks on. Completely energetic tracks, no break fillers or whatsoever. Everything directly in your face, raw, pure, unique and surely honest. A definitely danceable album which beside its rawness has a huge drive which won’t let your feet stand still. All songs go one direction, forward, strictly forward. The sound itself wasn’t done in a professional studio but was recorded, mixed and mastered in my home one with an old 2Gigaheart computer and an ancient mixing desk. We all are not wealthy and mainly had to work with what was possible, most times pure trash. But don’t panic, the result is awesome, blowing your ears away. Just give it a listen at “www.myspace.com/stahlmantel” and although you only find some mp3s in average sound quality you will get a better idea of what I am talking about here. But if you are supporting some new, refreshing and unique ideas, we are sure you will find what you are looking for. Thank you very much.
Any last words for the readers?
Sure. I honestly must say that this is my first interview in my life I did for an industrial mag. So basically this was my debut doing here. Hope, I did not get on your nerves with what I tried to explain here. Other than that, we wish you a great time folks and thank you so much for your great support and help we in the last time experienced so often by some of you. Thank you very much and take it easy !