Ron Merz
Bloodred
Hey, thank you for having me! I am fine so far. I largely adhere to the guidelines in the pandemic, so I am at home or in the great outdoors and wear a mask if necessary. Of course, this entire situation also leaves its mark and my own life has been pretty much turned upside down. But you have to accept it and make the best of it.
One of the key findings is that, in my opinion, the pandemic has shown how fragile many things we take for granted are and how vulnerable humanity has become to attacks on their values in this situation.
So far here in Germany we have not only a government that acted relatively quickly and consistently, but probably also simply luck. Nevertheless, the effects of Covid-19 naturally affected almost all areas of life. You are restricted in your freedom of movement, you have to take care of yourself and your fellow human beings (wear masks!), there are restrictions in your job even up to unemployment and, above all, social contacts in the family and with friends are massively restricted.
I think hardly anyone could have imagined that life would change so much for everyone over a very short period of time. This is not only associated with practical aspects but also with massive psychological challenges. Life suddenly got out of joint and became more insecure. Things that have long been considered irrefutable are suddenly very different. It is quite normal for this situation to cause certain fears in people, which can sometimes lead to irrational behavior. On the other hand, it is actually quite easy to adjust to this situation and do the right thing. It becomes dangerous when people take advantage of these uncertainties in favor of their own agenda. Unfortunately, that is what we see happening in some countries around the world. And that is definitely very thoughtful.
On the other hand, Covid-19 has also brought up some good aspects. In my opinion, it is definitely the case that, for example, solidarity with others has increased. People go shopping for the people at risk of the disease or take care of them in other ways. That is one of the points that I hope will survive the pandemic. Just like the realization that working conditions and pay for different professional groups need to be significantly improved (e.g. think of all the frontline workers in the hospitals).
Overall, I am not yet sure which direction the movement will take. However, I am rather skeptical ... What I can say now is that some of these topics will definitely be found in future lyrics.
I can say without exaggeration that the signing by Massacre has fulfilled a lifelong dream. A dream that I almost never thought would still come true. And of course I would have wished that something like that would have worked for the release of the first album "Nemesis". But it is as it is and I am glad that I can now work with Massacre. The label is actually located only a few kilometers away from me, so it was almost a logical consequence that we came together. Of course, I have been following Massacre's work right from the start and I am now happy to be part of the family. I hope that the partnership will last for the foreseeable future.
The raven is of course an icon, which has many meanings, especially in mythology but it can also be found in modern literature (everyone knows "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe). I myself find the two ravens "Huginn" and "Muninn" in the "Poetic Edda" very exciting in their meaning, because "thought" and "memory" are terms that underlie many of my texts. They are also a nice contrast to the white dove, which is often used in Christianity.
In this specific case however, the raven is a symbol for the restless and dark thoughts that leave you lying awake at night and then haunt you during the day. Worries, fears or seemingly insurmountable challenges. I myself have spent many sleepless nights in which I have not been able to get out of the brooding. At some point this can also become a problem. Not just because there is no sleep, but because it is increasingly difficult to get out of these deep valleys. Incidentally, the basic idea behind the song "Hör den Tod" was very similar.
When I look at the global situation, I have to conclude that humanity is unfortunately regressing again. We have the climate catastrophe, mass exodus from the aftermath of wars or from highly disadvantaged regions and, last but not least, many political upheavals worldwide. And there is much, much more that I won't list here.
From what I can observe from my surroundings, the corona pandemic has unfortunately only briefly improved living together in a few aspects. For a time, most people were considerate and looked after disadvantaged groups. In the meantime, however, this is waning again and more and more people only look after themselves. That actually makes me very sad, but also angry. With all of these aspects, I currently see little hope that mankind will continue to develop culturally and can take an important step towards the preservation of its own species.
Of course, not everything is bad. There are also a few bright spots that give hope. People who can make an important contribution to people through their actions and thinking. In this context, I also think it is important to clearly state that these are often women who can show us men the right way. We (men) should recognize this, accept it and work for a societal change that makes this fully possible and does not disadvantage women and girls any more. It will be for all our benefit.
I don't think humanity is fundamentally evil. Every child is born without prejudice and is not interested in skin color, religion, sexual orientation or anything else. But over the centuries and in all cultures, mankind has managed to establish framework conditions that repeatedly reveal the bad side of people. These can be economic aspects, religious dogmas or social issues. Humanity has always been influenced in its actions and often not for the better. Clearly there are also very individual predispositions that make a person do bad things. But often this happens in the context of the circumstances described above.
Don't get me wrong: As already said, not everything is bad in this world and there are also many positive things. Things that may sometimes be overshadowed by negative events and therefore receive less attention. Perhaps it would be an approach to not only do these good things but also talk a lot more about them …
First of all, it is very important to me that music develops at all. I don't want to stagnate in this regard and always add new facets to the songs. These do not necessarily have to be major changes, because the details are also important to me. It also helps me to constantly face new musical challenges. What I try to achieve is not to limit myself too much musically, even if I'm of course within a certain genre. A three-minute high-speed song alongside an epic, very melodic piece? Sure, why not! What's important is, what exactly fits and works for this one song, which mood I want to convey and to a certain extent also what reflects the lyrics best.
If I look specifically at the two albums, I believe that the music as a whole has become more consistent and also reflects the experience that I have gained in songwriting over the years. I now look much more closely at the structure of the songs and try to cut off the "excess fat" so to speak. I absolutely tend to write longer songs and I will keep that, but I'm thinking more about how often song parts should be repeated and where it makes sense to leave things out. This makes many songs more compact and accessible to the listener. I also increasingly write the songs with the ulterior motive of bringing them onto the stage at some point.
I always try to go through life with my eyes open and get the inspiration for my music and lyrics from various sources. Of course, you always already bring a certain set of musical basics with you that are deeply rooted in you. These are the foundation and always have an impact on songwriting. But I also try to listen to a variety of new music (new at least for me), which can then set the creative process in motion. I don't limit myself to Metal but also listen to other genres of music, because there are so many great ideas out there and it would be a shame to miss them. But don't worry, you definitely will never hear an electronic album or Hip-Hop from me.
What I also like to do is to look at transcriptions of songs I like and to see if there's inspiration in it for me. Sometimes it's only one chord, rhythmic choices that were made or the way two parts are stitched together. The songs for an album are usually created over a longer period of time, so the influences can be very different. But I like that, because it also leads to more variance on the album and hopefully it will be more entertaining for the listeners.
This is perhaps the most difficult question in this interview, because actually the listeners should judge the album and not myself.
It is true, of course, that there are a large number of publications today. These differ in many respects, but they have one thing in common: they are all accessible online and can potentially reach every listener. In order to stand out here, in my opinion the whole package has to be right. And I would say that is definitely the case with "The Raven's Shadow". Both - sound and artwork - can keep up with any "big" production, after all I was able to get real established professionals in their field to work on this project. Also the signing by Massacre Records now gives Bloodred much more visibility than it was previously the case. I am very much hopeful that many more people will have the opportunity to deal with my music.
Finally, I am proud to say that the album so far has received good to very good reviews from all over the world. That should also speak for "The Raven's Shadow".
Joris is not only a great person, but of course also a great drummer. I keep saying - and I mean it seriously - that the music is better because of his playing! He gets programmed drums from me and thus knows in which direction I imagine the drum parts to be. However, he always has the freedom to change things and adapt them to his style and music. After all, I'm not a drummer from home and Joris knows much better what goes with the songs. It comes to pass that Joris is a very precise drummer, but this is never at the expense of the dynamism in his playing. And so it doesn't matter whether it is slow songs or Blastbeat-parts, he is always very present with his drums. And what more could you ask for?
Well, it just hasn't happened yet. I tried to find the right musicians in my area for some time, but was unfortunately not really successful. That's why at some point I decided to continue Bloodred as a studio project because I didn't want to let this circumstance slow me down in my creativity. I am very happy that Joris joined the band for the recordings-sessions, but since he unfortunately lives too far away, it is currently not possible to run Bloodred as a real band. However, it is still one of my goals to finally be able to play my music live. And who knows, maybe the release of "The Raven's Shadow" via Massacre will open up new opportunities ...
"Hör
den Tod" is mainly about depression. For many people, depression is still not a serious illness, rather the sick are simply "just a little sad". Of course, it's nothing like this. Depression can affect everyone, many may even have suffered from it in one form or another without being recognized. I myself would say that something like that caught me at night when I lay sleepless and very dark thoughts were in my head (this situation was also the trigger for the text and is reflected in the first verse). Depression can be treated with timely detection and the right environment, and this often happens very successfully. But unfortunately, this is not always the case and those affected then resort to the last exit and commit suicide. The lyrics to the song pick up on this and try to accompany this process so to speak.
Well, I like to not meet expectations. The song "Under This Sun" was actually created as a counterpart to the many rather dark lyrics. I wanted to take into account the fact that there are of course many wonderful and beautiful things in this world that you should discover and explore with your eyes open. At the same time, one should of course not forget that we humans are seriously damaging nature and that we all have to rethink! There is no plan B for our planet.
Lyrically, I take up different areas of fauna and flora in the verses. In the first it is water as the foundation for life, in the second verse it's the animal world and then it goes into the plant realm. Musically, this is reflected by the fact that each verse is completely independent and only the chorus is repeated.
The basis for the text for this song was a documentary about the Christianization of Scandinavia. In this it was described in detail how, on the one hand, the missionaries carried the Christian faith north and how, on the other hand, the "pagan" northern peoples reacted to it. What I found particularly interesting was the fact that the leaders often switched to Christianity from pure opportunism because they realized that this was the only way to maintain their power. It therefore did not necessarily have anything to do with the fact that people were really evangelized, but it was very mundane worldly things.
In my opinion, missionary work is one of the worst excesses of organized religions. Wanting to force one's own worldviews to people of other beliefs (or no beliefs at all) is an abysmal evil for me. The missionized people not only lose part of their own identity, but also a lot of culture is often lost. And that is something that I really regret, because even if I personally do not care about the "spiritual levels", it is art, literature or architecture that often suffer as a result and are eventually forgotten.
In fact, I have already given some thoughts about this but so far have not managed to really tackle it. On the one hand I currently hardly have the time and on the other hand I am not sure if in the end I will be the only one in the stream ... If your readers are interested in something like this, please let me know Twitter or Facebook!
I am always writing new music, lockdown or not. That's why I'm actually quite far with new songs, a good 30 minutes of new music are in advanced stages. Of course I cannot yet say when I will start recording a new album and when it could be released. That would be too hasty in the current situation. But the good news is: I'm working on it!
Thank you very much, stay safe!
More results...
