Can you give us a brief introduction to Stahlnebel?

[RALPH] :
Hello , sure ... I created STAHLNEBELon the last days of august 2006 , after a long time of thinking about it and wanting to realise this dream!
I met [VOLKER] a year before on a party and we talked a bit about our passion in music , on that party I told him … “one day I will stand before your door , and we will create music together” … this day came on the 26th of august … STAHLNEBEL was born ! [BRANKO] completed our line up the next week , because he is a good mate of me with the same dream in his head ! 

You were dreaming of having a band for many years before Stahlnebel was born, why not started sooner, what needed to be done before your dream could become reality?

[RALPH] :
The technology … ha , ha … ! I have to admit that I am not the best in computer working , and I had to learn much before I could take this step [… and we still have to learn more ] . [VOLKER] has a good background in this business , but he never finished a song before and his style was more trance / techno … so I had to torture him to create DARK-ELECTRO/INDUSTRIAL music with us , because this is the scene I love !
I worked and wrote the last 15 years [ … yes , old freak] for magazines of our dark-scene and primary the words from Daniel “why not creating your own music-project ?” of AESTHETIC PERFECTION in 2004 give me the kick and the device to plan a music project .  


Now Stahlnebel you must have some dreams about it as well, what would you like to achieve?

[RALPH] :
Living without dreams is boring … so everyone must have dreams . Until this point some dreams became reality for us … creating the music style that we love , see the people move to our songs on the dance floor  [… best feeling for a musician] , getting kindly reactions from people all over the world , found a spot on brilliant compilations like ENDZEIT BUNKERTRACKS ACT 3 or EXTREME SÜNDENFALL Vol.6 , creating “Dark Genesis” together with CHROM for a great party we often join and the release of the “Anxiety neuroses EP” with VISION ANOMALY this march !

So , what can we expect more ? … For certain , we want to create more good songs with STAHLNEBEL  and cooperate with these good friends we met in the scene like VISION ANOMALY [Argentina] , BLACK SELKET [Nederlands] or ANAMADIM [Mexico] … at this point every next good happening must be like a addition for STAHLNEBEL ! 

[RALPH] :
STAHLNEBEL is …    [VOLKER] keys , programming , mixing
[BRANKO] keys , programming
and me [RALPH] voice , lyrics , programming      

The name Stahlnebel (steelfog) is a bit strange, can you explain it to us?

[RALPH] :
Yes , it is strange and not really a word ... it’s a fusion of STAHL [Steel] and NEBEL [fog] . As I create my project I searched for a name what is a reflection of harshness and darkness … so I put the words together and it sounds good , and … by the way ,  I hope the name is so strange , that it will go straight into the brains .

Your music is a mixture of hard beats and great melodies, how would you describe your music?

[RALPH] :
Yes , ED … hard , fast beats and ear friendly melodies and as you can hear in our music … we are fans too . We like bands as SUICIDE COMMANDO , GRENDEL , TACTICAL SEKT or VNV NATION , so we cant affirm that there are no influences of them in our music . Our target is to create music for the “dark dance floors” , with interesting lyrics which are not so much destroyed so that the adience can understand it … it is a target too that the listeners can understand my words and voice . My personal argument is … no musician can create music that is totally new in our decade , we only can leave our traces in the music what we create !

Who writes the music, is it a band process or do you all work on your own and discuss the ideas together?

[RALPH] :
For STAHLNEBEL the songs are a real band process , most time I go with an idea to our meetings and into our little studio , and then we, three freaks, begin to work on a new song . Perhaps you can surmise , its often not easy to complete three different concepts and thoughts into a final result … perhaps it is sometimes easier to create songs over big distances with this friendly projects around the world I have !

[RALPH] :
To let an old dream become reality … music is passion , and we want to act out this passion . After all these years as members in the dark scene , we are very glad to give something back and to create music for the culture we call our own home . For my lyrics I get much different inspirations , once it can be a movie what builds the basic of my thoughts … then it can be the lifestyle of  people or the situation in our world today as by “EVIL:HUMAN” , and finally … it is a really good valve for my common anger in my crappy job !

Gustavo Dunn of Vision Anomaly seems to be an important guy for Stahlnebel, how did you meet him and what can you tell about the collaboration?

[RALPH] :
Gustavo is my lost brother … in aspect of music we are soul-mates . Create a song like “Anxiety neuroses” together about a distance of 12000 km … says it all . I found his project on myspace and I liked his music even before I founded STAHLNEBEL. As he discerned that we create music and lyrics too , he asked me to work together for a song. This first song was “Anxiety neuroses” … we all worked very hard for this track , STAHLNEBEL was still at the beginning and had to learn how to create music , so he taught me how to sing in tempo and I gave him briefings how he had to change his music to enter the dance floor … This collaboration is and was a very important experience for us all !


You also worked together with Black Selket and Anamadim, how were these collaborations realised?

[RALPH] :
The world wide web makes it possible … Sander [BLACK SELKET] created a great remix of “Anxiety neuroses” and after he finished it , we stayed in touch and planed to create a song together . Sander is a brilliant musician and these days a very good friend of mine , its very nice to work with him because he has a good feeling for the music I like to create … yes , I  suggested to release a complete EP of STAHLNEBEL VS BLACK SELKET songs in the future with him .
With Yugao of ANAMADIM a collaboration was planned over a year ago … and in February this year he asked me to write and sing the lyrics for his fine instrumental.  It’s a great pleasure for STAHLNEBEL to realize all these collaborations , and it shows that our scene stands together.   

Who would you personally love to work with in the future, doing a remix for you?

[RALPH] :
To create songs with musicians like Sander [Black Selket] , Gustavo [Vision Anomaly] or Yugao [Anamadim] satisfied us very much … my personal thought is this :
Every collaboration let us make a step forward and gives us the chance to learn more about creating good music for our dark scene . The second nice effect in this collaborates around the world is this , we show the rest of our crazy world , that it is possible to work together no matter where your from and who you are . This scene stands together against racism .
A remix for us … , Johan from SUICIDE COMMANDO … that would be very cool , but in our point of view is that we don’t wanna pay for this … because music is passion and not business for us .

[RALPH] :
Unfortunately I had to cancel these gigs as guest singer last week , some things went wrong.
I was supposed to sing “Dark Genesis” in the same way as it sounds in the original version … but this seems not to be possible for the organisers , so a bad performance and disappointing the people who pay for a good performance was not what I wanted to do ! Sorry !

Is there a chance that Stahlnebel will ever perform live?

[RALPH] :
Ohhh …. Who knows what the future brings , it was never our plan as we start with STAHLNEBEL , but time will tell if this is needed and possible .

When can people expect a full length album of Stahlnebel?

[RALPH] :
Sorry , it’s the same answer as before , we never planned a complete album . The success with “Anxiety neuroses” and the nice reactions of “Storm” and “Evil:Human” came totally unexpected , so in this reflection the release of our EP with VISION ANOMALY via Null Republik Records from Buenos Aires in march [free download] is a big step for STAHLNEBEL and hopefully a nice gift for the listeners .
But ,  … my thoughts about an STAHLNEBEL VS BLACK SELKET EP later this year becomes more and more reality with every nice reaction or comment of our listeners.

Any words for the readers?

[RALPH] :
I like to say : “thanks” …  for your support and interest in STAHLNEBEL , this is the best food for our passion to keep STAHLNEBEL alive , THANK YOU VERY MUCH !
If you see us on a concert , festival or disco-event inside the dark scene … don’t be shy to say “hello” if you like our music .

A video of "Dark Genesis"