Please tell us a few words about the new release, about the music on it as a whole or a few words on each track in part. How are you happy with the final release?
We have been pretty inactive for a long time and during these years the idea of a „perfect“ album haunted me all the time. I had many strong ideas, but didn't feel able to put them into music. Finally, the urge to create something became so strong that I started writing the song „Angstbeißer“ and it turned out so well that I felt thrilled and started composing the rest of the material. I knew that it would be a concept album about early childhood, parent-child relationships, trauma and personality development; and I knew that there would be a very complex, planned structure with returning motifs and orchestra arrangements, which took me over two years to compose. And I guess that I reached the goal I was aiming for: “Jupiter” is the album I always wanted to make. It's melodic, it's epic, it's full of little details and a has very strong variety of musical styles and atmospheres.
How would you describe/label the music on it? Does it sounds like anything we might have heard before?
If we created music that surprises or even irritates the listener, we reached our goal. Many people would describe our music as some sort of Melodic Black Metal, and this is not really wrong, because you can find typical elements such as blastbeats, tremolo picking and growling. But I, as the composer of the music, feel more connected to the label Progressive Metal. To me, Progressive means to go beyond the limits of the genre, to experiment with styles, to create complex song structures or to use extraordinary arrangements, always in search for something radical new. So you might find some unusual specialties on our album, such as allusions to motifs from Mozart and Schubert, elements from the Portuguese music genre Fado or liturgical chants in Hebrew. Also, there are different choirs that work as leitmotifs that lead through the album.
Where was it recorded and how much time did it take you to record it? Any interesting stories from the recording/producing the material?
The recording of „Jupiter“ was a year-long journey. Nearly everything was recorded by our guitarist Samael in his own studio, what made things much easier for us. But since we are perfectionsts with sometimes too big visions, we faced many problems: Some of the guitar tracks I wrote were nearly unplayable, so it took our guitarist weeks to learn them; we needed a professional opera singer to sing the choir tracks and several guest singers for some solo parts. What was really beautiful for me was that „Jupiter“ is some kind of an all-star-project featuring many musicians I've worked with during the last years: Robin and Jonas for example, who played with me in several bands; Robin wrote two absolute fantastic guitar solos for this album and Jonas composed all the bass lines with his very unique, melodic fretless bass style. Or Immanuel, the keyboarder of one of our guitarist's side-projects, who played a genious piano solo for our album. Or my girlfriend, who sings a very special part on this album. But also besides of the recording, we experienced so many things: We recorded our first music video in the middle of a freezing cold winter night on a nearby castle – and we broke all safety rules of the castle administration, so we hope that they will never see the end product, haha! And then there was the photo shooting, where I had to stand in the ice cold water of the Lake Constance during sunrise – I nearly froze to death, but the pictures were worth it. The hardest part for us was when the producer, who should mix and master the album, had some personal problems that prevented him from working on the album for nearly half a year – the recording was finished, but we couldn't release the material, because we didn't get the final mix. After months, we gave the rough mix to the great Sebastian Moser from Grotesque Arts Studios, but when he was about to finish the work, we got a cancellation of the label that planned to release our album, so we had to search for a new one. Finally, we found a new home in the Schattenpfade label, what we are very happy about since Schattenpfade shares our own values about the qualities of music releases. All in all, it took us five years to release this album, but it was totally worth it.
What can you tell us about the cover artwork? Is there a link between the artwork and the lyrics? What are the topics of your lyrics?
Since I'm a graphic designer I design all my album artwork by myself. The cover artwork shows several symbols that play a role in the lyrics of the album: We have the sun and the moon, both symbols for mother and father in Carl Gustav Jung's archetype theory; these symbols give the title for the songs „Mutter Sonne“ (Mother Sun) and „Vater Mond“ (Father Moon). Then there is a skull and an embryo, which stand for death and birth; both are connected to Jung's mother archetype, that is associated with taking and giving lives. In Hermann Hesse's psychological novel „Narziss und Goldmund“, the fear of death is what drives us to create things that last longer than ourselves, and in my lyrics I try to describe a connection between this search for eternity and the influence of the father archetype. Then there is a wolf, which stands for the song „Angstbeißer“ (Fear-biter), that tells us about uncontrolled aggressions that arise from inner conflicts that we heritate from our parents. In the artwork appear several kinds of Mandalas, and on the front cover, the Mandala takes the shape of a David's star, which stands for the concepts of mother, father and gender that are such a strong part in our religions, cultures and traditions that they become an inescapable part of our subconsiousness. Finally, in the center of the artwork, there is a person that holds the astrological symbol for Jupiter; the person appears to be a woman on the first sight, so she can stand for the Mother archetype. Since Jupiter is the Father of the Gods in the Roman mythology, it feels like the Great Mother is holding the Father, who claims to be highest of the Gods, in her hands like a toy. This is one meaning. But when we look closer, the woman (or the man?) has something androgyne in his / her face, what makes him / her to some being that has overcome all concepts of mother or father, what explains why he / she holds the Jupiter-/father-symbol in his / her hands like a trophy or toy.
What do you expect to gain through this release? What are the band's aims at the moment?
Since we are no full-time musicians and since our music is not really focused on listener-friendly chart-hits, we don't expect to become rich and famous with this album. But if we can reach many people and touch them in an emotional and intellectual way with our music and lyrics, we are happy.
Is there a special format the material is released in? Or is it released in multiple formats? How many copies were pressed?
„Jupiter“ will be released in two formats: double vinyl, limited to 250 copies numbered by hand and with a four pages booklet in LP format; and CD Digipack in DVD size limited to 100 copies numbered by hand and with a 20 pages booklet.
Where and how will you promote this new release?
Sadly, we don't have any live line-up at the moment, so we promote our album only online through different online magazines, our social media pages and our upcoming music video on youtube.
Where can we order it from?
You can order „Jupiter“ via the webshop of Schattenpfade and on our bandcamp page.
Band links:
www.facebook.com/stillerstod
www.instagram.com/stillerstod
August 2020