Do you find that having an out-of-the-mainstream music project is a help or a hindrance to your day-to-day professional career?
It is a great help to both of us. I am a psychologist by trade. Our music does not pay the living expense bills. Peter uses Sielwolf to express his deepest secrets that we both can not discuss in normal mainstream life. Our musical text is very hard. We use the band as an avenue to vent our thoughts and feelings without any hinderance. It is a great vehicle for release of our truest emotions.
How does the shared experience of Sielwolf help your marriage? Some couples have difficulty working together. Do you find that a stable relationship gives you a different perspective on life and what you want to gain from it?
Both of us have had our ups and down before and during the band. We were
even both seperated for awhile when Peter got angry and trashed our flat.
We both also took on other lovers as well. However we did reconcile our
differences and were even married when we came to the states for the first
time to Florida several years past.
I think Sielwolf has been helpful for our marriage as an outlet to be
candid with each other. Peter is the main lyric writer for this as well.
Until we got married I would not consider our relationship stable as it is
hard also to endue all the problems associated with a struggling band as
well.
You've said that Sielwolf was an outlet for personal stress and tension. Do you find that emotional and financial comfort make it harder to create? Or is it that your creative impulses are directed in different ways today? If Sielwolf's music is a reflection of your temperament or mood at the time it is created, what would the music sound like today?
As artists we don't care about the money at all otherwise we would not be doing Sielwolf but maybe a pop or rap band instead. We don't have financial confort from the band. As mentioned we both have regular jobs to support us. We both have plenty of angst to be able to create plenty of music. Our music would still have a simular sound today. Though our last record was less an emotional release than in the past also because of the influence of our last producer Mick Harris of Scorn. This was definately a departure for us with regard to our normal temperment.
Along these same lines, how do you think you've changed as people since the height of Sielwolf? Have there been any specific events that have triggered these changes? How have your experiences and your perspective as married professionals colored the way you see old friends from "the scene"? How have these things changed the way they see you?
I think other than the frustration and realization of how the music business works we are not so idealistic about events. We understand being artists first and foremost means low expectations of financial success. I think Peter and I are closer now because of all our experiences making records and touring Europe. When we got married we were still part of the scene. That has not changed for us. We did find it strange when coming to the states on holiday and seeing such a small but friendly scene for this kind of music.
How do you reconcile fans' expectations of Sielwolf with your own vision of Sielwolf's future (or lack of future)? Do expectations trap you or give you opportunities to shatter them?
No I think Peter and I think about it as an art form and outlet for us. We don't make records based on what our fans might like from the past. Making music is a emotional and creative expression outlet for us. If it ever becomes a trap I know we will both break up the group.
How has the image of the goth-industrial-noise fan supplanted the true noise-in-the-veins artist? At what point does hype's dominance over substance cause nausea? Has Sielwolf suffered for not matching the angsty/artsy archetype twenty-four hours a day?
We are not out to follow a trend. We want our sound to be uniquely our own. We don't follow hype either. That is something big company's make to get people to buy records. Just like the majors made a big hype over Rammstein. If you read their lyrics they are a big joke. It is all about an image for the masses then commercial promotion and marketing of it. We are not interested in compromising our integrity for this shallow reward. If we wanted to make allot of money we would have sold out long ago or maybe have other careers. It is sick to see great bands here in Germany like Oomph, Testify, and Wolfsheim and elsewhere get ignored and inferior big corporate label bands get all the hype and exposure. It is all a money game. We won't do this, that is why we believe in Independent hard working labels that believe in the music first and foremost like the current one we are on in the states, Van Richter Records.
What really matters?
This is a very broad question. Being satified with who and what we are in
our lives.
Our music is part of who and what we both are. It is part of our soul and
spirit that breaths from both of us. It is also is part of our legacy we will
leave, having a life of its own even after we are gone...maybe Sielwolf's
music having the sense of immortality is what really matters!
You rarely give interviews these days. What drives this reluctance?
We both just are not very media crazy like some other bands. We both are
very private people. We wish idealistically that our music could just
speak for itself and we did not have to contribute to this publicity
machine. After also ten years of this, countless interviews and many
asking the same questions over again we just got tired and did not care
about this anymore even though it is important to help our label out as
well.
Sometimes we feel like media slaves. So I hope you understand this. We are
not arrogant people with big rock star egos! It gets to a point where you
just want to be left alone to make music which is why we are here.....
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