Lacrimosa – “Thankful and honoured”

Lacrimosa must be one of the, if not most successful goth acts around. This Swiss/Finnish duo has been able maintaining itself singlehanded for years now earning itself on top a solid live reputation throughout the world. If “Echos” left you stunned, be sure to get hold of “Lichtgestalt”, the band’s newest studio album which evokes the best of Lacrimosa so far. 15 years and 9 albums further, the Swiss mountains echoed us what this means for the band. Tilo Wolff speaking… (By Bernard Van Isacker)

T. I am thankful, very happy, honoured to have an audience listening to Lacrimosa for so many years. Things could just not have been better! We are doing the tour and so far we didn’t plan any special events because if we do so, we have to do it at one specific location and what country would that me then?

SL. Did it actually influence you when making this album, I think not?

T. All those things or what the people might say about Lacrimosa or me does not reflect in the music. The music is transporting emotions and should be about topics that are a bit higher than what I feel.

SL. The material on the album seems quite stretched open, I have the impression you have been redefining the sound of Lacrimosa in the past two years…

T. I don’t start composing when I have decided to make a new Lacrimosa album. I am constantly composing; when I have the feeling that I need to write something I sit down and let it come out. But it’s not that I am concentrating on composing for a certain amount of time, it just happens throughout the year. And when I feel that I have said everything I wanted to say about a certain topic I hit the studio. This time I wrote so many material that I could maybe fill 2 albums. But it felt like I still didn’t have enough material to fill a whole album. The track “Kelch der Liebe” was one of the very last songs I wrote for the album. I couldn’t have gone back to the studio without writing such a song that in a way completed for me the whole story.

SL. What criteria do you use in order to pull a track off the tracklist?

T. There were a songs that didn’t fit emotion- and topicwise. The way how I felt them just didn’t fit the feeling of the rest of the album. Other songs I liked but I didn’t get this strong emotion… for me it’s extremely important when I do a new album that it develops this way that it becomes even more emotional and that I can get my feelings even more into the music. I want that the listener really senses what I want to express with it. When I can’t reach that by composing than for me I cannot release that particular song, then I haven’t reach my aim.

SL. In that case do you dump the track or do you keep it archived for future use? A 15 year anniversary boxset perhaps?

T. (Laughs) No, if I have rejected them for an album it means they are dead. I might use parts from it but mostly they are dead. It hurst doing that but it is better that way because I always want to give the full 100% to my audience.

SL. “My last goodbye” reveals that you are a true Pink Floyd fan…

T. T. Always! Pink Floyd is my all-time favourite band, you are absolutely right! The compositions of Roger Waters are very emotional and touching. I love his singing and of course I like the guitar playing of David Guilmore a lot as well. All their albums have such a bombast but still very well arranged and composed. It’s pretty hard to say what I like the best about Pink Floyd because there are so many different LP’s, songs and styles… Compare “Dark side of the moon” with “The final cut” which are completely different albums but they both have their special moments.

(...)

To read the complete interview, be sure to buy Side-Line issue 51!

Side-Line issue 51 at Side-Line shop
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