Can you tell us a bit about the history of Virtual Victim?
I founded Virtual Victim as a solo-project in 2004.
To that time I worked on new tracks for my former project which
was influenced by darkwave-/gothic style. One evening I was in
the studio, played with my synths, programmed some electronic
drum-loops and some hours later I listened to a nice melody with
a typical ebm-beat. The day before I recorded a movie. I watched it,
took some short samples, implemented them in the track and there it was: the first song called “Letztes Opfer”.
It was astonishing to discover that I was also able to make such
electronic music. I had a lot of fun and felt very happy:-)
While listening again and again to the song it was clear that it
could not be released as a song of the former project.
So I called a friend and played it to him.
Immediately he suggested to me to found another
project - just for fun, of course;-) I liked the idea and started
thinking about a name. You know the result: it was “Virtual Victim”.
Some months later I recorded the second track called “Feel The Devil”
and released that one and “Letztes Opfer” on the website
mp3.de. A lot of people downloaded both tracks; many more than I
ever expected. From time to time I composed further songs, used new
elements and tried to find my own style. At the end of 2005 I applied
for the participation in the Sonic Seducer Battle Of The Bands 2005,
a famous contest for newcomer bands in Germany.
You cannot imagine how happy I was when I got the acceptance to be one of
the 50 best newcomer bands. Again two months later, in February 2006,
I received a letter in which I was told that I won the reader’s choice
of that contest with the song “Away”! That was absolutely unbelievable
and the signal to start writing more tracks in order to release the first album.
What are the musical influences of Virtual Victim?
Before founding Virtual Victim I mainly listened to darkwave and gothic music.
In the last two or three years I became more interested in EBM and all kinds
of (dark) electronic music. To me, the basis of a good song is an intoxicating
melody, no matter if the track is hard or soft. That’s what I call my influences
without giving concrete names;-)
You won the Sonic Seducers Readers Contest, what happend after that,
did you get many responses?
The time after winning the contest was very exciting - and so it is even now.
I got many emails of readers who congratulated me and ordered the
“Opfer E.P.” which included the winning song “Away” and some other tracks that you can find on my website. Furthermore the song “No Escape” was
published on the compilation “Extreme Sündenfall 4”. The most important job
for me was to work on new and better tracks for the debut album. At first I
thought about writing only about four new songs in order to combine them with
those from the “Opfer E.P.” and release them as an album. But after finishing
three new tracks I realized that all new songs had a much better quality
(in songwriting, sound etc.) than the old ones. So I decided to produce recent
versions of my three favourites and compose more songs to get the best
result as possible.
You are currently working on your debut cd,
can you tell us some more about it?
Of course, I’d like to:-) The debut cd is called “Transmission” and will
be released in Germany on February, the 24th in 2007. You’ll be able to
order it on my website, via Rupal Records or several online shops.
The cd will contain a booklet with 12 pages and all lyrics of the 11
(dark) electronic songs. Three of them had already been on the “Opfer E.P.”
(Away, Killing Time & Fragment) in other versions. The other eight songs
are brand-new. I worked with a lots of new elements and tried to
compose a couple of potential clubhits as well as melancholic moments -
Virtual Victim’s typical mixture. In one song you can listen to a duet
between my distorted vocals and a beautiful female voice. It is called
“Save Me From Darkness” and will be one of the emotional highlights
on the album especially as there’ll be two extremely different versions…
What are your expectations on the cd release?
Firstly I’m very happy that I succeeded in finishing the whole work
(writing songs, making the cover artwork and so on). Secondly I hope you
(and the people) like the album as well as I do. With my label I am
quite confident to reach more people than before.
I am very happy with the result!
You have never played live. Is that going to chance in the near future?
What can we expect then?
I’m very sorry to tell you that there are no plans to play live in the near future. I regularly get requests to play live but I’m not able to do that now.
Actually Virtual Victim is a pure studio project. I love being in the studio,
screwing;-) the synths, creating new sounds and composing songs.
Maybe I’ll present Virtual Victim on the stage one day. Let’s see what happens…
You are very active on MySpace, how important is the internet
for a band like Virtual Victim?
Besides my website MySpace is one of the most important platforms to
get in contact to a lot of people who make music, love music.
You can get to know many artists, discuss with fans and promote the music.
Because of MySpace I know that there are people all over the
world who sometimes listen to Virtual Victim’s music. For example
some time ago I received a message from an Australian girl who told
me how she became aware of Virtual Victim: her friend visited
Germany and went to a club one evening. After dancing to one song
she asked the DJ for the interpreter’s name which was Virtual Victim.
Back in Australia she told her friend about the music and both looked for
VV in the internet and found VV on MySpace.
This little example describes the great importance for a band like Virtual Victim.
And… hey, perhaps we would have never met without MySpace.
Or what do you think? :-)
You also have a side project called Decepted.
What is the current status of that?
Decepted is a project of my good friend Karsten and me.
Since we’ve known each other we always wanted to have a collaboration.
This year in spring Karsten sent the instrumental of our first
(and only until now) song “Pray” to me. He wanted me to listen
to the music and tell him my opinion. Instantly I was enthusiastic!
I could already “hear” the (my) vocals and asked him if I could
sing the song. After writing the lyrics, I recorded the vocals and we
thought about a name for our new project. Decepted was born.
In the last months Karsten worked on his project (Embrace.My.Hate)
and I worked on my album. There was no time to make a further song
until now but I’m sure that we’ll find an opportunity in the future!
Any last words for the readers?
Thank you so much for being in this website, for reading this interview
and for your support! Please have a look at my site on MySpace
(www.MySpace.com/virtualvictim), add me to your friends and listen to
some snippets. Soon, I’ll upload new ones of the forthcoming album
“Transmission” that you should not miss! ;-) By the way, here you can download
two songs of the “Opfer E.P.” (Away and Letztes Opfer 2005) for free: http://www.virtual-victim.de/mp3.html.
Virtual Victim links:
Virtual Victim on MySpace
Official German website