Summon: How did the band get started?
Falko: The roots are way back in the late 90s when our first drummer Knut gathered some friends in an old garage outside of town to make some loud music and noise. The story of the actual band IREM began 2003 with the first longer lasting set up with 2 guitars a bass and of course drums. Officially announced to our friends in autumn 2004 and playing weird gigs for example in Merseburg together with a punk band from Berlin. We didn’t really knew at this time, what kind of music we do and didn’t want to copy anything, but after this gig it was clear that it ain’t going to be punk and we figured that drinking before hand of the show isn’t going to work either. So this was the beginning of IREM. In the 10 year history we only had to changes: Thomas the first guitar player went in 2005 for Simon and Knut the first drummer went for Nino in 2011.
Summon: What kind of music do you play?
Nino: At this point today we would call it Melodic Black Metal.
Simon: And for all the others who know it better something else.
Summon: How has the fan response been?
Falko: Ehm… response to what? Well most of the people who were hearing our stuff for the first time meant that we do a good job and that they liked what we do. We also had a nice little fan base really quick.
Summon: Where did the band name come from?
Ralf: Its named after the city in one of H. P. Lovecrafts Stories: „The Nameless City“. U can read all the details on Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nameless_City Basically we are fascinated of Lovecraft’s style of mixing historical facts and his own fantasies.
Summon: Introduce the band members.
Falko: Guitar, songwriting and annoying the band members with his political correctness.
Simon: Guitar, songwriting, being true black metal his entire life.
Ralf: Bass, songwriting. He is the one who pushed the band in the first place and kept us motivated.
Ralf (the other one): Singer, songwriting and definitely the diva of the band.
Nino: Drums, songwriting. Nino kicks ass not only on his drums but also did he record and master our last album in his own studio and did a superb job.
Summon: Who writes the music? Lyrics?
Falko: We do this altogether. Each of us contributes riffs and ideas of which we came up at home. On our rehearsals we try to get this stuff together to a song. We record it and listen to it at the next rehearsal. Then we discuss what we here and almost always change something here and there. After about 4 rehearsals we get a song together. There are songs which were completed by just one of us at home. But this happens not very often and the potential to argue a lot about it is very high.
Summon: And where do the lyrics ideas come from?
Ralf: Well basically the ideas come while listening to the riffs and parts my colleagues play during rehearsal. As they make up the riffs they also play them a lot almost like a loop station. For me this is the moment to just listen and try to immerse myself in it.
Summon: What is your view in satanism and occultism?
Simon: For me Satanism is not about worshiping the devil or something. Its more like an attitude to life – a life of freedom and the power of your own will where u can be like u want to be and can believe in what u want to. We don’t have anything against the Christian God or Jesus but let me tell you something. Last week as I was walking by a church I saw a man kneeing in front of the entrance. Right then the service must have been over and all the people got out of the church. You think someone even noticed the begging man? Not even one of them.
Summon: How many albums/CD’s have you released?
Band: Four.
Summon: Tell me about some the songs on the latest CD.
Nino: In my opinion all songs have a little highlight in them. So its hard to pick a favorite one.
Falko: My favorite is the last one: Arrogance. I like the hard beginning which suddenly gets picked up by a rather smooth riff just to kick in even harder afterward. Nice double-bass parts and a mood changing outro makes this song just great.
Simon: Xul actually is the only song on this album which was made by only one member at home. It kinda has its own structure and it differs from the other songs I would say. It also is more difficult to play with its really fast licks.
Summon: Do you have any side projects?
Nino: Ralf (Bass) and me, we each play in another band with totally different styles but IREM definitely is the main project. Plus I contribute a lot time in recording and mastering other bands in my studio.
Summon: Who are some of your musical influences?
Falko: Hard to answer this one. Except for Simon who gets many of his ideas from classical music as Vivaldi, Tschaikowski and Paganini, we don’t have any particular bands or music style of which we could say that we are influenced of the most. Of course we listen to rather hard music but the variety is huge. I for instance tend to listen to 60s/70s Rock like Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, The Who etc.
Ralf: Well I hear a lot of classic Black Metal mostly Norwegian. I guess this influences me in some way although I cant say that I try to copy a certain band or style.
Summon: Which current bands.
Nino: Same here. No particular bands really. As long as the drums are fast I like it.
Summon: What is the band like when u play live?
Simon: Nino and Ralf (Vocals) tend to quarrel a lot beforehand of a gig. Just like real divas. As soon as we are on the stage we go pretty straight forward through our play list. No fancy effects or anything – Just pure Black Metal.
Nino: The moment I hit the drums live I kinda get into a state of musical ecstasy. And after the gig Ralf and me are friends again by the way.
Summon: Have you guys ever played in another country?
Falko: We recently played in Zurich, Switzerland for our first time in another country. The gig itself went fine but the circumstances were somewhat different. As an example: We didn’t think of our merchandise being something u need to pay a toll on. So as we got by the customs and we were asked if we got anything to declare we honestly said no. He didn’t believe us and of course he saw our CD’s and Shirts. You can imagine that he wasn’t pleased at all. In the future we will play more often in other countries since we signed with EAM. Now we are prepared.
Summon: How big of crowds shows up at shows usually?
Falko: This is totally different from place to place. We once played just for one guest in a little village outside of Berlin and our last gig together with Eisregen in Chemnitz was filled with almost 400 people. The usual locations can be filled with 50 to 200 people.
Summon: How is the crowd response when you play?
Simon: Well again this can be very different depending on the city we play in. Its interesting to see that in Dresden the crowd is very enthusiastic about head banging and stuff whereas in Halle only 150km away the people are lets say more like “attentive listeners”. Overall the response is very good which also shows in our selling of merchandise.
Summon: What do u think of the US black/death metal scene?
Simon: With the US we associate Trash and Death Metal. I mean Slayer, Metallica u know – those are kings. Obituary, Deicide surely are pioneer Death bands. Other than that we are not really familiar with the scene abroad. But I guess the US lays a black egg from time to time.
Summon: What do u think of the overseas scene?
Falko: Well like Simon said, we are not that familiar with those scenes. But what we definitely see, is that the people abroad are more fanatic about metal than here in Germany. Many Live DVD’s from huge bands are filmed in Southern America or Japan and the people just go nuts. Germany is somewhat supersaturated. We got thousands of festivals and stuff so there are also thousands of bands who play live. Basically each metal-head has its own band.
Nino: What we also see is that the reaction to our new album is far more enthusiastic overseas and in other countries in general. I mean you guys are the first one interviewing us – and you live thousands miles away from here.
Summon: What are some of new favorite black metal/death metal bands?
Nino: Definitely Deaf heaven. Absolute great stuff.
Falko: I recently discovered Graveyard. No black metal or anything but from Sweden and perfect style.
Simon: New bands? Nothing special to hear there.
Summon: When do you guys plan on writing any new material?
Falko: We are right on it. We plan to be ready to record in autumn 2014.
Summon: What does the future hold for the band?
Simon: Our future? Well yours is getting dark!
Contact them at:
https://www.facebook.com/Iremmetal
