Winston Ziller
Midnight Prey
Hello mate, I've been alright lately, thanks for asking. And thanks a lot for your interest in Midnight Prey.
Everything basically started out when I was fifteen years old and got to know our bass player Friesen in a cafe where kids from my hometown used to hang out while skipping classes at school. After deciding to make music together he introduced me to Hannes, our drummer, with whom he had already played before. This was a crucial experience for me, because growing up on the countryside, I hadn't known at that time that there are other people my age who still do manically listen to the great, and sometimes for today's standards, 'obscure' sound of the second half of the 20th century, which I had only gotten into through my dad's record collection. But Hannes also really was into that kind of stuff and near his hometown there takes place a festival called "Keep it True" and somehow we grew into that underground metal thing. We spent a great and wild youth partying with people from all over the world who share the love for honest and handmade live music.
Yes, I have been fascinated by those kinds of music for all of my life. I think I always had the impression of this music to be less fake and superficial, less willing to be liked at every price than what the mainstream and in the end also society during the time of my adolescence had to offer.
When it comes to influences, no one of us was ever very limited. Anything that arouses our interest, no matter from which part of this planet or genre and era in music is an influence. Even pictures, movies, art, memories, dreams, drugs, smells, noises, experiences - you name it - are influencing our music. But before getting too philosophical here - we have been socialized in the European hard rock, heavy metal and Punk Rock underground and of course there are cult bands and people from the old and new days which really had an impact on us.
Yeah I mean 'obvious' equals 'boring' for me in this case. If you're hungry some junk food will do the job but a well-made and balanced meal with proper ingredients has more taste and nourishment hasn't it? To make vintage sounding music only for the sake of nostalgia never was enough for me. I want to express my thoughts and feelings closer to reality and in a way that creates something new of some kind. Only reproduction never created anything.
Really getting deeply into that topic would take me more words than I could write down right now. And as an artist it actually isn't my job to explain my work to the listener or spectator in anyway as it is standing for itself. Otherwise, we would not leave space for interpretation in the music or lyrics. But to not reject the question: I think there have always been few people in the world who know where we are going, and who know which way would be the best to go for most of humanity. Unfortunately, history teaches us that most of the times something terrible has to happen before those people are heard by the masses. And I also think "Uncertain Times" can be around yourself as well as inside yourself.
I don't know. Did it work? Joking aside, again - it's not my job to explain my work. But I can say, once you free your mind from borders of genre, scene, what belongs where or what's right or wrong in a situation of creativity, you're basically able to do whatever you want.
The album was recorded digitally but without a metronome / triggered drums / line-in recording and other unnecessary things and partially live with as few overdubs as we could manage. Producing analogue is what we wish for but unfortunately it would've gone beyond the scope of finances and time. Chief of recording was Jörg Uken at his "Soundlodge" and our stay there was just amazing. He fully understood what we wanted and also gave us some really great input. A studio I would recommend at any point.
Except for the lyrics, which I regularly write, it is always the three of us! We all come up with ideas that we discuss and when any decisions are made everybody's in the room and has the same voting weight if there are disagreements. Often we just jam together and something cool happens.
This question is difficult to answer for me. I think "Stoff" was the longest in the making and originally very different compared to its final form. "Black Forest" existed and was played live even before our previous release "Blood Stained Streets". The title track "Uncertain Times" was in contrast to that written within one or two evenings at the studio, after a day's work of recording. So yeah, I'd say „Stoff" was the foremost effort.
Yeah you're right, I also have the feeling that there's some kind of revival going on. I hope that people re-developed their appreciation of a guitar actually sounding like a guitar and drums sounding like actual drums. I don't like the over-produced sound that the modern metal or rock mainstream seems to be all about. A good production in my opinion is not to erase every last mistake and editing the whole arrangement until you have a plastic-like sound that could also have been produced by artificial intelligence. I like music when it still has a 'soul'. No matter which style. And now that the digital revolution is in full swing, I'm confident that in the future more people are going to share this opinion.
We have two shows in Germany (with Tanith / Intöxicated) and one in London (with Ice War) coming up as well as a little four-day Germany/Austria tour supporting our brothers in arms of "Vultures Vengeance" in the middle of November!
Thank you very much for your interesting questions and your kind words and appreciation!
Was a pleasure!
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