Interview with: Bjorn Alexander Bremm from GOTHMINISTER

Well on the last album I wrote all the music myself and wanted to give a little bit more organic elements to our music and tried to avoid all these orchestral parts we had at the previous album. We also wanted to go back to what Gothic music was all about, and it was all about heavy guitars and dance beat. We also turned to another direction, a little bit more experimental, at least to what we were used to, we introduced a bit more metal elements.

I start to write songs on my computer, playing them on guitar or on keyboards. Sometimes I write some riffs and other times I write melodies on the synths. It is not the same every time I write a song. So, what happens is that I write the song, I record the demo vocals, I record some demo guitars, I program the drums and then we Go to the studio to record the guitars. I record my vocals in my own studio, we go to the studio to record the drums and then we take all the tracks back to my studio and prepare them for the mix. I edit all the tracks and prepare them for the mix because in my experience it is not easy to save a bad recording in the mixing process so I listen to the tracks as they are 'dry' without the effects and work with them. Working by myself I know exactly how I want the songs to sound like whereas if I worked with a producer it would take much time and various takes to get the result I want.

After some years I realized that my character has a lot to say because I started drawing comic books and I was very fascinated by Batman and I had always fascination towards the dark and unknown, so it was a huge inspiration for my character. I grew up with my grandparents and every Friday night I used to watch horror movies with my grandma and I was like seven or eight years old, so I kind of feel a lot of comfort and safety in the horror movies and the darkness. All these and of course a lot of bands have inspired me, like NINE INCHE NAILS, ROB ZOMBIE, RAMMSTEIN, MARILYN MANSON, BILLY IDOL when I was younger and others.

My mother studied law so I had to stay a lot with my grandparents, especially on the weekends. Also what had an influence and big impact on my life was that I used to be a pretty good tennis player. I used to be in top five tennis players in Norway. I met a good friend of mine on the tennis court and he was into Metal, so this is how it started. We bought our first instruments and eventually started to play in bands.

I never had an idol, I always wanted to be my own idol, so admiring is a much better word. If I have to think of only one artist that I admire that should be DAVID BOWIE, because he has a great voice, he is very creative and he has influenced many artists which I also admire. For example he has inspired Peter Murphy from BAUHAUS and more.

It depends on what you mean when saying 'Gothic scene'. I mean in 1995 Gothic was all about old school stuff like BAUHAUS and post-punk .For example there was a Goth club here in Norway where people had this view that Gothic was all about the old Gothic bands and there were so few people in this club because their music taste did not expand. I was heavily criticized of course for calling my project GOTHMINISTER as it did not sound like the old Goth bands .I just made my own interpretation of the word 'Gothic' because in my opinion it is about the visual thing. There is no such thing as 'Gothic music', you have to add like Goth Rock or Gothic Punk or Goth Metal... I think that the future of the scene is depending very much on the DJs. DJs create their own audiences in the clubs they are playing so as they create influences they have a lot of power .Today in the US the sound is more electronic and in the UK too music is starting to be more electronic but that isn't necessary that good because I find it more interesting to listen to heavy guitars, but the music has grown by including electro elements.

Basically I witness it every day. For example in writing music let's say I try to write more different, more poppy music more happy, but my heart is not keen to that. Maybe I will write one 'happy' song and be fascinated by it at that moment but the next day I will listen to it and say that it isn't me at all. I more or less get sad by happy music.

We had a very successful US. Tour .We had a warm reaction from the audience. Though it was a very difficult trip as he had to do many shows, we could only sleep 3 hours every night and when I got there I got food poisoning. I could not sleep for 48 hours and I had a bucket onstage on the first show. We were very tired and we could not get out and party. I think I drank only one beer in 14 days during the tour. It was really difficult to have fun as we were so tired every day.

I was contacted by Daniel William Bones who wanted to make a video for us. I was a bit skeptical in the beginning, but we managed to record in two days and he was very clever in finding the right people to work on this. He was directing it and he also found all the people like the Swedish model Cecilia Kristensen. We found a very good animator in the US; it was a Russian guy, Alex Popov who is currently working on a few American motion pictures. But we did not have any budget, our money was 1000 euros.

I think that Michael Jackson was one of the world's greatest musical talents and I was really fascinated by his rhythm. The guy was a human beat box. We wanted to make a cover of a song that would not be expected and also pass the message that the world's most selling album. Thriller really shows how human beings are fascinated by the dark and unknown. It is kind of a statement we wanted to make that darkness is a source of inspiration.

It happened when me and my ex-girlfriend were on a TV show with the GOTHMINISTER make up on. So we walked the streets to return home and suddenly a guy attacked us with the knife. It was back in 2003 when we had wide media attention by all the biggest TV stations and news papers in Norway. I don't know what that guy's problem was, I think that he didn't like us and he wanted to make the whole incident commercial. At the end we managed to pull him down to the street and take his knife away. It was really scary especially the next day when the police had to release him. He was on a bicycle and passed towards me but I was without make up and he did not recognize me, so I'm glad I had the makeup on the previous night!

The tour starts in Athens so we did not have the chance to play together with the other bands. I only know the MAGENTA guys but we have not played with them before, so I am looking forward to playing along with these bands.

I have no expectations at all. I really don't know how it is going to be like; I just hope that we will have a lot of fans there and a great evening.

I would never imagine performing without our theatrical appearance. It means a lot because as I told you previously the gothic element has to do a lot with the visuals. We tried once to perform without make up during a showcase of our sound technician on a sound convention in Oslo. So, we just played 4 songs just for this showcase. I saw some pictures of this performance. It didn't look half the band without the makeup so I think it is really important.

No, because we would have to bring our pyrotechnician and we are already 16 people. On the festivals it is easier because the venues are bigger. Well the venue in Athens is big enough but we also need permission for that kind of thing.

We are planning on doing that next year along with the new album. I am also going to give backstage material to Levi, the guitarist of MORTIIS to edit it as I am very full with work, writing new songs and recording.

To play more songs and release a new album in 2010.

We always give 110% of ourselves on stage but I don't want to review anything, I just think they should come for themselves and check us out.