Eclipsed März 2010 (dt)

The Obelisk January 2010

Doom Metal Front Dezember 2009 (dt)

Cosmic Lava August 2009

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Interview mit Eclipsed

Hallo Christian, du hast ja schon bei Terraplane gespielt. Ich wusste gar nicht, dass es die Band nicht mehr gibt. Stimmt das? Aber zu Samsara Blues Experiment: Bist Du so etwas wie der Mittelpunkt der Band? Hast Du die Band zusammengestellt?

Ja Terraplane gibt es schon seit dem Sommer 2007 nicht mehr. Kurz nach dem Split der Band habe ich SBE gegründet. Ich sehe mich jetzt aber nicht so sehr als Mittelpunkt der Band, nicht so in dem Sinne "alles dreht sich um mich", das wär mir ein bisschen doll narzistisch. Ich bin Teil der Band, mache aber sicher viel, zumal die Musik halt größtenteils von mir ist. Ansonsten bin ich halt jetzt auch Frontmann, während ich bei Terraplane eher "nur der Gitarrist" war.

Was fasziniert Dich/Euch so an dem Heavy Psychrock der später 60er/frühen 70er? (Das ist ja heutzutage nicht gerade ein angesagter Musikstil.)

Ich bin mit Terraplane ja schon seit 2000 auf dieser "Retro"-Schiene und halt zum einen mit der Musik von Jethro Tull, Black Sabbath, Rory Gallagher und so weiter aufgewachsen - Dank meines Vaters - zum anderen kann ich mich mit aktueller Musik mal überhaupt gar nicht identifizieren. Woran das liegt? Ich denke, die Musik der 70er hat einfach viel mehr zu entdecken, es stecken viel mehr Emotionen dahinter als heute, wo 90% sich an erfolgreichen Bands orientieren und mir oft eher wie - ich sags ehrlich - Kopien vorkommen.

Auf "Long Distance Trip" geht es unterschiedlich zu: Lange Tracks, kürzere Songs. Meist recht heavy mit ordentlich Riffs, aber auch ruhige akustische Passagen. Ist dieser Wechsel wichtig? Wie ergibt er sich? Wie entsteht die Musik überhaupt? Sind es Jams? Oder "komponiert" ihr die Sachen zuvor?

Ja natürlich ist der Wechsel wichtig, das ist ja neben dieser "Vernarrtheit in die Musik der 70er" auch quasi roter Faden durch mein musikalisches Schaffen in den letzten zehn Jahren schon seit Terraplane, nur damals vielleicht noch etwas zurückhaltender. Jetzt geht die Spanne ja von megafettem Black Sabbath-Riffing bis zu ganz ruhigen Akustikstellen. Ja wir jammen recht viel, merkt man auch schon direkt beim Album-Opener "Singata Mystic Queen" oder?

Ich habe gehört, dass ihr schon Konzerte in Europa und US-Westcoast gespielt habt. Für eine Band ohne Album ist das ungewöhnlich. Wie sind die Konzerte zustande gekommen? Wie war's denn so an der Westcoast?

Ich sag mal so, wir gehen halt unseren Weg und der führt weit über die Grenzen unseres doch sehr überschaubaren Deutschlands hinaus. Wir wollen auch viele Erfahrungen sammeln, viele Länder bereisen, neue Dinge sehen usw. Die Konzerte an der Westcoast waren in Verbindung mit einer amerikanischen Bookingagentur entstanden, die uns halt schon nach dem ersten Demo sehr geil fanden und dort rüber holen wollten. Nebenbei haben wir noch Kontakte mit Bands wie z.B. Farflung aufgebaut, da wir ja auch dort ne Backline (Verstärker usw.) brauchten und die ja schlecht mitnehmen konnten. Die Tour in Amerika war natürlich eine tolle Sache, zumal niemand aus unserer Band vorher dort war. Wir haben quasi die komplette Westküste der USA bereist und in Städten wie San Francisco, Los Angeles und Seattle gespielt. War schon sehr beeindruckend, auch die Clubs wie z.B Bottom Of The Hill in SF, wo quasi alle großen Bands der Szene (Om, Kyuss usw.) schon waren.

Es stehen ja in nächster Zeit einige Konzerte für euch an. Wie sehen eure Liveshows aus? Seht ihr euch eher als Liveband oder Studioband?

Wie die Liveshows in ungefähr aussehen, kann man sich mittlerweile recht gut auf Youtube ansehen, dazu kommt halt ein sicherlich nicht zu unterschätzender "physischer Eindruck", da wir halt ziemliche "Bauchmusik" machen. Wir sind letztendlich aber weder nur Live- noch Studioband, obwohl die Hauptkonzentration auf Konzerten liegt, weil man dort halt noch sehr viel "echter" rüberkommt. Ich denke beide Teile Konzerte und Studio haben ihre Vor- und Nachteile, auf dem Album haben wir auch noch viel mehr experimentiert als das Live möglich wäre. Wir versuchen dennoch die Konzerte auch so vielfältig wie möglich zu gestalten und so oft es geht auch Sitar oder Synthesizer einzusetzen.
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Interview with The Obelisk

Samsara Blues Experiment Interview: Going the Distance

Few bands’ demos struck a chord like Samsara Blues Experiment’s did in 2008. The lush German four-piece - leader Christan Peters (ex-Terraplane) on vocals, guitar and sundries, Hans Eiselt on guitar, Richard Behrens on bass and recording engineering, and Thomas Vedder on percussive elements - produce a rich jam-based heavy psychedelia that echoes the creative freedom that birthed it. And yet, as we see in the interview with Peters and Behrens below, the process by which the expansive songs come together is nearly as complex and multi-layered as the tracks themselves.

Samsara Blues Experiment’s recently reviewed full-length, Long Distance Trip, is set for release this year via World in Sound Records. The album contains the two songs that made up the demo, plus an assortment of new adventures just waiting to be discovered. Thanks to Peters and Behrens for the time and clearly-evident thought (and emoticons) they put into their answers for the Q&A, which can be found immediately following the jump. Please enjoy.

What has it been like for you starting this band after Terraplane? How did everything come together for SBE and how was the decision made to bring Hans into the band?

Chris: The last months in Terraplane have been a bit frustrating, due to personal issues and all the line-up changes. Seems like with every half year we had to start all over again. We played some last shows in Spring/Early Summer 07 and even if most of them turned out pretty good, for me it was time for a change. Then the first rehearsals with SBE were just like one big relief, even when or because these were only free jamming sessions with my mates Florian Furtner (Bass) and Rob Green (Drums)… it was a heavy load of fun… Then in August I moved to Berlin. I had to change all over again and after a long period of almost one year I found new bandmembers. The first “Berlin line-up” has been Michele Gambararra on Rhythm Guitar, Richard, Thomas and me. Anyway, while recording the first demo we saw that Michele´s style (his main influence is more extreme Metal) didn´t fit with SBE and decided to proceed as a three-piece. But we began to miss the punch of two guitars, so we started looking for a new guitarist. Hans was a buddy of Richard´s and fit the job almost perfectly, so he became our “latest addition” and since then did pretty well.

How did you wind up with World in Sound for the release of Long-Distance Trip?

Chris: In fact, World In Sound Records have been one of the very first labels to show interest - shortly after the demo release in late Summer 2008. We also had a bunch of other offers, also Craig Williamson (Lamp Of The Universe) who became one of our first fans, offered a CD release on Astral Projection. World In Sound remained with the best deal and it´s also a little advantage when everybody speaks the same language and you can catch him by the phone you know.

How important is it to you to get the record out on vinyl? With such a natural, organic sound, it seems to be a great fit.

Chris: You just mentioned it ;-). It is still the best medium to release “real music”. We listen to LPs, we hardly ever buy a CD. I only buy a CD when there´s really no other chance to get the music – which should be like 2 out of 100 releases.

Do you feel that giving the demo away for free online helped spread the word in a way MySpace couldn’t? There’s obviously a big difference in sound quality.

Chris: I think so. Who´s buying a demo from a band he never saw live, he never really listened to? A very few… For instance, Terraplane never received half of this attention before their first label release. Times have changed, I think for the better and especially internet – free demos and myspace - helps a lot to promote music. In the last months I´ve seen many bands offering their music for free, that seems bitter on the one hand because you get no money, but on the other hand we are small independent bands and happy if there´s someone to listen to our music, right?

The problem with myspace is, that our songs are too long to offer them in hearable quality. So it was only natural to put up the first demo for free. Nonetheless – and thanks to playing live - in one year we sold like 800 copies of the demo (s/t and the USA-version), which is still pretty good I think.

What made you decide to re-record “Singata (Mystic Queen)” and “Double Freedom,” and was there anything special about placing them first and last with all the new tracks in between?

Richard: The sound quality on the EP was really not the best so we decided to record these essential tracks again, as they are meant to be heard! I think the position of the songs on the album goes along with our live set, which always starts with “Singata” and concludes in the monolithic “Double Freedom” jam.

Chris: These songs JUST HAD TO BE recorded in better versions, no question. Both songs are very personal parts of my history; “Singata” is the only song that Green Monkey – the “Bastard” child of Terraplane – ever wrote, but we never had it recorded before. Only the few lyrics have been added in the first SBE jams. While “Double Freedom” is a dedication to my wife and so one of the most important songs of my life.

Tell me about the recording process for the album. Where was it made? Did you use tape or digital? Do you think it matters one or the other?

Richard: We first thought about going to a studio, but this idea was very soon replaced by the decision of just doing everything by ourselves, so we would have complete control on the musical result and of course on the costs. Fortunately I had an education in Audio Engineering, so we put up a little studio setup in our rehearsal room, borrowed a couple of mics and tube preamps and recorded everything live on 8 tracks on my Macbook... many overdubs should follow. So we did this digitally. The big advantage is that it is cheap and you can edit and do what you want with the recording very very easily. Tape and the maintenance of big tape recorders up to 24 tracks is expensiv man, believe me! Also when you record on tape the whole band needs much more discipline while playing and reduce the music only to its important tracks... I wished I would have a tape everytime Chris came up with like 6 more Synth tracks which he had recorded at home ;).... but maybe next time! Within the last months more and more bands have come to record at our little studio... so i am expanding it to become a real studio these days (we call it the Big Snuff studio).

Chris: I think I am a bit too fuzzy for analog machines and yeah I would need tons of tapes… I think - for the final sound - it matters much more how you play - your skills - and what kind of instruments, effects or amplification you use. Surely also microphones and media have some importance, but I think that´s rather few when you look at this big fat fuzzing thing which is SBE right now. And hey of course you might use an digital vibrato-effect on your guitar, but how does that sound? Rather crappy! You can correct your vocal lines whatever. For what use? That´s surely not the thing we are thinking of by saying “we recorded on a computer”… And yeah it was a Mac anyway…

How was it for you guys playing those shows on the West Coast of the US? What was the response to the band like? How would the shows compare to playing in Berlin and other places in Germany?

Chris: From the “emotional side of view” it was just amazing. I mean it´s like everybody´s dream to tour across America or at least play in some of his “favourite cities” - the ones that we know from a million movies and actually have had some pretty naive ideas before we´ve been there. Anyway, in my opinion the West Coast is one of the most exciting parts of the States. Playing live in LA, SF, Seattle, of course this is something very special. It was a great, almost overwhelming experience – not just playing, also being on that continent with all its natural wonders. I – I guess all of us -really fell in love with the Redwoods and the Pacific Ocean. Especially the area around Santa Cruz and Big Sur, but also the vibe of SF is unforgettable. I am very grateful for this big chance and just hope to come back as soon as ever possible – even if not ONLY for touring!!!

The response on our music was mostly very good and I would not say that the audiences here or there differ so much from each other, it always depends on the people individually if they might “freak out” or just look at you from a distance and nonetheless might really enjoy the music. It´s always interesting to see how people react.

The one thing I really didn´t like in the states is how clubs treat bands. I mean most times you get no food, no place to sleep and for the little money after the show you feel like you have to beg for it. We take these things for granted in Germany, even if there are some few poor exceptions also here.

The jams on the record are absolutely massive. How much of that is improvised in the writing process? Are those parts planned out, or do they just happen as the songs are coming together? Are the jams different every time, or is what’s on the album the way it’s played live?

Chris: Every song contains at least one jam part which will give us enough freedom to improvise and so - although all our songs are still structured - they won´t ever be 100% identical. We jammed a bit while recording the album, that´s obvious ;-). To me this “Long Distance Trip” feels like “floating and floating and suddenly there´s some whoaaaaaaaaaaa… I can´t get any higher…” you know… I don´t know how to explain better haha… Let´s say the album reflects a good SBE-concert as it could have happened in 2009. Only “Wheel Of Life” is this kind of intermezzo. We never played this one live, also because I would need to play four tracks of Acoustic Guitar alone by myself…

Richard: I really like to play these songs live when everything around us affects the way we play... the lights, the high volume, the audience, the sweat in our eyes and so on, its unique everytime! During the recording sessions we tried to capture this energy in playing live together... you may have less recording tracks and some guitarsignals on the drum-mics, but you get to record much more energy - especially in our kind of music.

With so many influences and different elements added to the songs – sitar, synth, effects, organ, etc. – how do you know when a song is finished? Does it ever feel like too much, and how do you handle all those parts live?

Richard: I think none of these songs will ever be finished! We just decided to leave them as they were at one point and put them on the record. I think everyone is lucky with it and we like the sound... maybe we would have done everything diffrent only a few months later... but like every band, we wanted to capture the energy of the moment. We didn't want to produce it in a rather “artifical way”, it should turn out the way we really sound!

Chris: Absolutely right, in some parts I always change the lyrics and then we use other effects and even instruments and you feel like the songs will never be finished. And yeah, sometimes on some point this record record really felt like too much… “Center Of The Sun” had like 40 recording-tracks and more than half of them were played or sung by me. So yeah, we had to delete some material. I often work very intuitive, while Richard, who had a real big influence on the final sound, works more practical. So we try to get together there for the best possible result.

In our concerts we try to intregrate Sitar and Synths since the first time we played in Germany, but since the concert in Rome where we could take only the most necessary gear with us - due to flight restrictions - we became a more classical rock outfit when playing live. It´s also quite complicated to carry all of our stuff, as still we don´t own a tourvan but on the other hand have a lot of gear. Sitar needs extensive soundchecks and often stages are too small for all that stuff. As the result of this we concentrate on the most important issues and so can give another, in my opinion, refreshing impact of our music without too much “distraction”. Which doesn´t mean that from time to time I might play Sitar and Synths, if the occasion fits ;-).

I saw you’re doing a string of shows with Lucid in March. Any other tour plans, and any chance of coming back to the US in 2010?

Chris: We´d like to play some festivals in Summer. There´s so many places where I would love to play, like the Roadburn Fest or the ancient greek theater of Taormina in Sicily ;-). This year I´d love to play UK, Ireland and France, but we have not much contacts yet. We thought about coming back to the USA in 2011 and maybe do some more shows on the East and Central parts, but who knows? Who knows!
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Interview mit Doom Metal Front

Hi Christian, was hat dich denn dazu gebracht, der schönen Stadt Wernigerode im Harz den Rücken zuzukehren und in unsere Bundeshauptstadt Berlin auszuwandern?

Hey, tja sagen wir es war ein großer Neuanfang in jeglicher Hinsicht (Band, Arbeit, Privatleben) und außerdem habe ich mich damals entschlossen mit meiner mittlerweile Frau zusammen zu leben und Wernigerode bietet mittlerweile nicht mehr viel außer der schönen Landschaft. Also keine Clubs, demzufolge keine Konzerte, kaum Musiker, nichtmal ein ordentliches Kino usw.

Das klingt hart, aber für mich als ehemaligen Ackerhüpfer sehr nachvollziehbar. Gehörte das Ableben von Terraplane dann also nur zu den einkalkulierten Kollateralschäden oder gab es andere Gründe?

Sagen wir so, es war für mich in vielerlei Hinsicht damals Zeit was Neues zu machen. Wenn ich so zurückblicke, war auch Terraplane für mich im Sommer 2007 immer mehr zu einer Einschränkung geworden. Da war ich ja "nur" Gitarrist und schrieb zwar den Grossteil der Musik und ein gutes Maß an Texten, aber irgendwo war ich, glaub ich, in mir drin schon immer eher Frontman als Terraplane-Sänger Christian Oelke und, was noch viel schlimmer war, das Line-up der Band damals war relativ komisch, mit nem über 50-jährigen Drummer (Nichts gegen ihn persönlich!), den man halt gezwungenermassen genommen hatte, weils keine anderen Leute in der Gegend gab und der dann aber lieber so was Dream Theater mochte als nen guten Heavy Psychedelic Jam. Da ging halt einiges am ursprünglichen "Spirit" verloren. Ich hab mich dann so im Juni 2007 entschieden nach Berlin zu gehen, wollte aber noch die letzten Konzerte mit den Jungs spielen und zumindest alle zwei Wochen proben, aber der Herr Oelke hat dann sofort seinen Austritt verkündet, der Drummer zog ca. zehn Minuten nach... so daß ich in den letzten Wochen in Wernigerode dann zusammen mit Florian Furtner (dem letzten Terraplane Basser) und Robin von Marogreen den Grundstein für Samsara gelegt habe. Wir haben uns da quasi dann bei nur drei oder vier Proben ins Nirvana gejammt. War sehr cool und ich denke manchmal sehr gerne dran. Steht ja auch ein bisschen was auf Youtube davon. Terraplane hatte in den sieben Jahren Bandbestehen natürlich auch viele tolle Momente, aber es ging halt so nicht mehr...

Mit Samsara Blues Experiment bist du sozusagen auf deiner musikalischen Insel angekommen. Was ist, mal abgesehen von den beschriebenen Umständen, der Unterschied zur Musik von Terraplane?

Meine musikalische Insel... hm... ja sagen wir ich bin sehr zufrieden mit dem was WIR machen. SBE haben sich ja auch nochmal ein richtig weites Stück entwickelt und werden sich hoffentlich so lang und weit wie möglich weiter entwickeln. Es gibt einige sehr bedeutende Unterschiede zu Terraplane, z.B. sind nicht alle Texte depressiv bzw. in irgendeiner Weise negativ, so weit ich mich erinnern kann haben wir bei Terraplane quasi immer nur geschrieben, wenn uns irgendwas angekotzt hat. Ich bilde mir ein, die Lyrics selber auch besser zum Ausdruck bringen zu können ;-)... Besser als das jemand könnte, dem ich da (wieder) erst erklären müsste wo er was zu singen hat. Das war halt bei Terraplane manchmal so und ich hatte manchmal ganz andere Vorstellungen von "meinen" Songs. Auch musikalisch sind wir etwas breiter gefächert, Hans und Richard bringen manchmal die kuriosesten Inputs, wie den funkigen Jam-Teil "Double Freedom" oder Maultrommeln... Die zweite Rhythmusgitarre gibt vor allem live nochmal nen echten Schub. Generell sind alle meine Mitmusiker jetzt schon auf einem sehr hohen Level, wodurch die ganze Sache halt auch mehr Spass macht. In meiner Vergangenheit musste ich z.B. manchmal anderen noch Sachen beibringen, was mich echt immer genervt hat... Hab da generell wenig Geduld und will immer am liebsten sofort 100% von allem. Musikalisch unterscheidet sich SBE nicht sooooo viel von meiner letzten Band. Wir hatten bei Terraplane auch so den Mix aus Heavy Psychedelia, 70er Jahre und Doom. Bei SBE kommen halt noch diese vorher genannten Nuancen dazu und wir sind glaub ich auch noch ein bisschen extremer. Auf manchen Songs des kommenden Albums haben wir 40 Tracks mit zweifachen Leads, Synths, Orgeln, Sitar, Tanpura... Sagen wir SBE ist eine sehr viel intensivere Erfahrung und Live zu 99 % überzeugend, was bei Terraplane bei weitem nicht mal annähernd so war. SBE ist eine echte Liveband! Terraplane war leider in den meisten Belangen sehr viel weniger professionell... Sagen wir ich fühle mich auf dem richtigen Weg und bestätigt alles Alte hinter mir gelassen zu haben.

Der Bandname ist ziemlich originell. Wie bist du denn darauf gekommen. Und inwiefern spiegeln die Worte Samsara, Blues und Experiment euer Schaffen wieder?

Samsara Blues Experiment... jaaaaa... ich hatte damals - so irgendwann 2006 glaub ich war das - zum zweiten Mal Herrmann Hesses "Siddhartha" gelesen und schon beim ersten Mal hat mich das Buch halt ziemlich begeistert und das mit dem Samsara ist halt irgendwie hängengeblieben. Irgendwann kam ich zu so ner Art Eingebung mit der Phrase Samsara Blues Experiment. Nach "Siddhartha" kam auch eine Zeit, in der ich mich sehr für Hinduismus und fernöstliche Lehren interessiert habe. Dazu noch die Sitar, perfekter Hippiekram, könnte man meinen ;-)... Zur Gesamtdeutung und der Frage in wie weit diese Worte die Band widerspiegeln, kann man das so sehen: SAMSARA bezeichnet im Wesentlichen den Kreislauf des irdischen Seins. Ich hatte vorher schon gesagt, dass ich hoffe das sich die Band und ich selbst als Musiker und Mensch ständig weiterentwickeln werden und nie an einem Punkt stehen bleiben an dem man denkt "ja geil, jetzt fetzt alles, lasst uns nichts verändern"... Das bezeichnet Samsara, das Streben der Seele oder des inneren Selbst, nach Vollendung. Auch mal andere Wege zu gehen, auch mal die Unbequemen auszuprobieren. Das geht halt aber auch über viel mehr Punkte als nur die Musik hinaus, die aber letztendlich alle dann im Gesamtbild eine Rolle spielen. Alles was dich zu dem macht was du bist. Ich gehe ja z.B. nicht nur zur Bandprobe und spiele einfach meine Rolle, sondern reflektiere Dinge aus meinem Privatleben oder Sachen die mir sonst so passieren in meinen Texten und der Art wie ich einen Song spiele... Im Hindusimus und anderen Religionen oder spirituellen Wegen - z.B. auch der Buddhismus kennt ja Samsara - gibt es aber auch einen großen Negativaspekt des Ganzen, wo Samsara Gebundensein oder gar Gefangensein in einem schier ewig erscheinenden Kreislauf bedeutet... und damit kann man ja wunderbar den Blues verbinden ;-)... "Woke up this morning, realized I was still alive in all this mess on Earth..." Naja haha... Der Faktor BLUES wird bei mir sicher immer präsent sein, das belegt meine musikalische Vergangenheit, mein Gitarrespiel, meine persönlichen Vorlieben, bezogen auf die Musik die ich mir kaufe... Sehr viele Leute sagen "das ist gar kein Blues was ihr macht" und ich würde hier direkt Jimi Hendrix anbringen, dem man das schon in den 60ern zum Vorwurf machte und der für mich persönlich einer DER Überblueser schlechthin bleibt. Es geht beim Blues für mich ausschliesslich um das Gefühl und nicht um ein beschissenes Musikschulschema und das ewige "Woke up this morning..."-Gejammer. Klar gibt es nen Haufen Spartendenker, die das vielleicht nie kapieren werden... Ich sehe uns natürlich nicht als klassische Bluesband, aber der Blues ist generell da - ohne Frage. Zum Thema EXPERIMENT passt halt das alles. Wir mixen letztendlich munter alles durcheinander, Blues und Stoner und Doom und Indien und Space Rock und 60er Jahre Acid Psych und 80er Jahre Metal und Infectious Grooves haha... so ungefähr...

Zusammengefasst also eine Band, die sich HOFFENTLICH nie an nur einer Sache aufhält oder an einer Stelle verharrt, ihren eigene Weg geht und sich stetig entwickeln wird, so lange ihre Existenz gegeben ist. Dabei wird sicher nichts völlig Neues - keine neue Musikrichtung - rauskommen. Das geht im Jahr 2009 eh schwer bzw. fast gar nicht oder? Aber es sollte halt irgendwo originelle Musik sein. Ich persönlich könnte nie in ner Band wie Motörhead - jetzt mal als krassestes Beispiel - glücklich werden, wo jedes Album und eine Vielzahl Songs gegeneinander austausschbar sind.

Sehr interessant! Das mit der Allgegenwärtigkeit des Blues unterstreiche ich einfach mal stellvertretend für den Großteil der Doom-Szene. Auch weil Black Sabbath aus dieser Richtung kamen und sich fast jeder irgendwie auf die Jungs bezieht. Hast du Hans und Richard beim ersten Treffen gleich in das Mysterium von SBE eingeweiht? Wann und wo war das denn überhaupt?

Ja eben, auch alle Wino Bands haben ja mal richtig Blues!!! Richard und Thomas habe ich beide nach langem Suchen im Juni letztes Jahr getroffen. Beide über Internet. Wir haben dann halt einfach mal zusammen gejammt und es hat quasi endlich alles gepasst. Das war damals noch mit dem zweiten Gitarristen Michele aber leider hatte dieser dann nicht den richtigen Zugang zur Musik, da er eher aus dem Metal kommt. Aber Thomas und Richard sind geblieben. Hans wiederum war ein Kumpel von Richard und hat vorher fast nur Bass gespielt. Wollte aber schon immer Gitarre zocken und hat auch gleich super mitgezogen. Das war so im Oktober 2008 und damals war schon klar das wir nach Amerika gehen werden und halt viel live spielen wollen. Die ersten Konzerte waren ja dann auch schon Anfang November. Nach jetzt gerade mal einem Jahr haben wir echt auch viel zusammen durch und werden immer mehr auch zu einer "richtigen" Band.

Apropos Amerika: mich interessiert, wie ihr euch auf die Tour gebeamt habt. Versteh mich bitte nicht falsch, aber es ist doch recht ungewöhnlich, bereits nach einer Demo auf der anderen Seite vom großen Teich spielen zu können. Welche Eindrücke hast du mitgebracht?

"Gebeamt" haben wir uns in nem KLM Flieger für 500 Eu pro Person hin und zurück. Das war halt so, neben dem Anteil von ca. 80 Eu pro Person am Auto, das Eigenrisiko das halt jeder einbringen musste... aber letztendlich auch gerne gemacht hat. Für uns war da jetzt die Konzert-Tour an sich auch mehr Anlass das überhaupt zu machen und das Ergebnis dann halt mehr so ne Art "Bandurlaub" mit acht Konzerten in den Staaten. Wir sind halt auch irgendwo im Prinzip nur vier Typen, die gern Musik machen, gerne reisen und viel Erfahrung sammeln (wollen)... Kann man vielleicht auch so simpel sagen, ohne da jetzt nen Riesending draus zu machen, obwohls ja sicher schon ne andere Welt da drüben ist und ausser uns vielleicht noch drei andere Bands in der deutschen Szene überhaupt je soweit getourt sind. Naja wie dem auch sei...

Für die Tour haben Farflung zwei sehr geile Konzerte in LA und SF organisiert und der große Rest danach kam über Redwood Curtain Booking. Die haben auch den Auslöser gegeben, als sie uns irgendwann im September 2008 gefragt haben, ob wir Bock hätten auf deren Festival zu spielen. Ansonsten klar war das irgendwo schon ne recht "verrückte" Aktion, wenn mans so von nem ganz nüchternen Standpunkt sieht, aber wir hatten halt die Chance und haben sie genommen. Warum da noch auf nen Albumrelease warten, wenn die Zeit da ist... Wer weiss denn, wie wir in einem Jahr dastehen, dann hat der eine nen Fulltime-Job, der andere nen Kind oder was weiss ich... und touren wird schlecht möglich. Wissen kann man das doch eh nie und dann ärgert man sich.... "hätten wirs doch gemacht". Die Tour lief dann nach unseren Erwartungen eigentlich echt super. Manche Leute kamen auch ohne uns zu kennen, quasi in erster Linie wegen dem Exotenbonus und haben danach das Shirt gekauft und waren begeistert. Wir haben auch schon den ersten Gig in LA als Headliner gespielt. In nem Club, wo wir in der Größe in Berlin wohl noch lange sowas nicht hinkriegen werden... schon sehr überwältigend und eine große Ehre Farflung überhaupt dabei gehabt zu haben.

Eindrücke habe ich jetzt so viel, wie wir Fotos von der Tour haben und mehr... also echt tausen Sachen, damit könnten wir sicher ein komplettes Interview füllen... in Stichworten... Das beeindruckendste ist die Natur!!! Wir waren mehrmals in den Redwoods, am Highway 1 direkt am Pazifik nach von SF nach LA gefahren. Am Strand von Pismo Beach gechillt ;-), usw. usw. LA ist z.B. mal auch nen unglaublich krasse Stadt, sind natürlich durch Beverly Hills gefahren und am Rockwalk gewesen und so weiter. Wir haben natürlich sehr viele neue Leute getroffen, Freundschaften geschlossen mit Farflung, mit Darwin und Rachel von Treetarantula und den Jungs von Nudity, die uns fast während der gesamten Tour ihre Backline geliehen haben... und auch manche echt unglaubliche Typen kennengelernt, wie Tony Reed von Stone Axe/ex-Mos Generator, der ein ganzes Haus voller Musikinstrumente besitzt (Gut 200 qm voller krassestem Jelumpe, KEIN SCHEIß!!!). Damit aber nicht genug, der Typ hortet Laney Klipps, 70s Sunns und Earth Amps wie andere "normale" Leute nicht mal Harley Benton kaufen könnten... Von seinen Fähigkeiten als Musiker brauch ich gar nicht anfangen... alles in allem echt der krasseste Musikfreak vor dem Herrn. Aber gut, wir haben San Francisco, Los Angeles und Seattle beschallt. Allein das ist fast Eindruck genug.

Auf jeden Fall! Außerdem war die Tour eine gute Werbeaktion für euer anstehendes erstes Vollzeitalbum, das ja Anfang nächsten Jahres erscheinen soll. Wie weit seid ihr damit?

Tja im Prinzip fertig, vielleicht müsste das noch jemand mastern, aber ansonsten liegt die Scheibe inklusive Artwork fertig hier und bei einigen Labels auf dem Tisch. Heisst wir suchen nach wie vor noch nach einem passenden Labeldeal!

Dann kannst du ja schon einiges über das Album erzählen. Worauf dürfen wir uns denn gefasst machen?

Auf 66 Minuten feinsten Heavy Psych, hätte ich jetzt gesagt. Wenn ich persönlich das Album resümieren sollte, naja... sind halt fünf Songs, die man von den Konzerten kennt plus einem Instrumental, wo ich alleine Akkustikgitarre spiele. Insgesamt ein recht rundes Werk, heisst die Songs hängen zwar vom jeweiligen Inhalt nicht direkt zusammen, also kein Konzeptalbum im klassischen Sinn, aber quasi ergänzt sich alles und läuft dann mit "Double Freedom" in nun 22 Minuten zum absoluten Höhepunkt. So ungefähr... Wir haben diesmal relativ viel mit Synthesizern gemacht, ein bisschen mehr Drone bei "Singata" und generell is mehr Jam Feeling dabei, aber lasst euch einfach überraschen... Leider wird ein Song bei der LP-Version wegfallen, aber der soll später nochmal auf ne Split, höchstwahrscheinlich zusammen mit Skywise. Aber das ist im Moment noch alles recht unklar. Klar ist nur es MUSS eine LP und auch so eine Plastikscheibe geben!

Ob jeder die fünf Songs schon von euren Konzerten kennt und ein Konzeptalbum das gelbe vom Ei ist, wage ich mal zu bezweifeln. Also ich bin auf jeden Fall gespannt und die Konservierung des eigenen Schaffens für die Nachwelt ist immer eine lohnenswerte Sache! Wie sind denn die Stücke im einzelnen entstanden?

Jeder der mal auf einem unserer Konzerte war, kennt sie auf jeden... das meinte ich. Wir haben auch im Moment nur acht Songs oder so, obwohl man die meisten davon mindestens durch drei teilen könnte und hätte immer noch gute Stücke ;-)... Also generell entstehen die meisten Songs durch ein Riff oder eine Melodie, auf die wir aufbauen und dann halt so im Schnitt acht bis zehn Minuten Riff an Riff, Melodie an Melodie reihen ;-)... Ganz selten hat mal einer einen Song komplett parat. Ich teile mir bislang quasi mit Richard das Songwriting, so ungefähr 70/30, Thomas und Hans geben ihre Inputs und dann entwickelt sich das bei Konzerten und Proben vor allem bei den ganz langen Songs wie "Double Freedom" und "Center Of The Sun" über einen Zeitraum von so gut zwei bis vier Monaten bis der Song fertig ist. Kommt halt textlich auch ständig ne Änderung, weil ich ziemlicher Pedant bin und halt Standarttexte á la "the desert sun is rising high, i think tonight i´m gonna fly... yeah... alright" oder so vermeiden will, haha... Aber einzeln auf die Songs einzugehen, auch wenn´s nur sechs sind, das würde mich wohl zwei Stunden an die Tastaur fesseln und vielleicht zur Schlafdroge 2009 werden. Sagen wir so alle Songs haben eigene Charakter und es steckt unvermeidlicherweise viel Persönlichkeit drin.

Das hört sich vielversprechend und definitiv nicht nach Einheitsbrei an. Kann man das Studio, in dem ihr aufgenommen habt weiterempfehlen?

Das Studio ist jetzt gerade im Aufbau. Im Wesentlichen Idee von Richard, unserem Basser, der am SAE Institut Audioengineering studiert hat und damit allein theoretisch schon gut was auf dem Kasten hat ;-). Das "Big Snuff"-Studio, von dem im Moment ein Drittel auch unser Proberaum ist, wird im Moment erweitert und soll ab Anfang nächsten Jahres richtig an den Start gehen. Sind im Endeffekt drei Leute, die das dann betreiben werden und vor allem Richard hat halt ganz klar die Affinität zu Stoner und Doom Mucke. Also ist es schon empfehlenswert für Leute, die sich in der Schiene bewegen. Aber auch darüber hinaus setzen sie sich glaub ich keine Limits, sondern haben einfach auch Lust auf Musik. Wir haben ja auch relativ viel Akkustikinstrumente aufgenommen und nebenbei mal ein paar Samplerspielereien gemacht, all so was...

Gut zu wissen für alle, die nach einer Aufnahme-Location in Berlin suchen. An wen können sich interessierte Bands denn wenden?

Am besten über Myspace unter www.myspace.com/bigsnuffstudio gucken. Ich denke die Jungs sind auch preislich sehr erschwinglich.

SBE geht ja ab Ende November auf eine kleine Deutschland-Tour. Wo und mit welchen weiteren Bands kann man euch denn dann live erleben?

Ja wir haben quasi sieben Dates, alles in Ostdeutschland, mit Ira de Dios, Pater Nembrot aus Italien, mit denen wir im Oktober schon durch deren Gefilde getourt sind und dann auch Tanker aus Potsdam, bei denen der ehemalige Terraplane Drummer Andreas Herbst spielt. Ich bin besonders auf Halle gespannt, auch weil wir da ja mit Terraplane schon zweimal waren und Halberstadt, weils halt alte Heimat ist. In Zerbst spielen wir noch mit Rings Of Saturn, die ich über Myspace kennengelernt und spontan zu dem Gig eingeladen hab. Alles eher so im Space oder Psychedelic Bereich zu Hause. Pater Nembrot machen ja auch schön Oldschool Zeug und wir verstehen uns echt super mit denen. Die konkreten Dates kann man unserem Myspace oder Website entnehmen.

Na dann werde ich auf jeden Fall auch nach Halle/Saale in die Rockstation pilgern und mir einen Live-Eindruck von euch verschaffen. Danke, dass du dir die Zeit für das Interview genommen und meine Fragen so ausführlich beantwortet hast.

Alles klar, danke Dir fürs Interesse!
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Interview with Cosmic Lava

I had been looking forward to do an interview with musician/music journalist Christian Peters for a long time. The reasons for this were simple. Firstly I really like his old band TERRAPLANE, who, unfortunately, have only released one proper studio album during their short existence. Secondly I like his new band SAMSARA BLUES EXPERIMENT much more. Their demo is very promising, combining Indian raga music with heavy psychedelic rock. The result is very pleasing and ambitious, so it's no surprise that this young German band played a couple of shows in the USA at the beginning of 2009. Thirdly, Christian Peters is running his own webzine Electric Magic, previously known under the name Generated-X. There he proves his musical knowledge, and it's always nice to see a site that isn't crammed with weird and half-baked ramblings. Therefore, there are enough reasons for an interview. The outcome of our talk is decidedly detailed, and I would recommend to take enough time for reading. (KK)

Hello, Chris. Before we talk about the beginning of your new band, let's take a look at the latest activities. Not too long ago, you've been in the USA where you played a couple of shows together with Farflung. I can imagine that it was an interesting experience for such a young band like SAMSARA BLUES EXPERIMENT (SBE). Who organized the tour and when was the idea born to make this trip?

Hey Klaus. Talking about the beginning of our USA tour, it all started with a mail on Myspace when the guys of Redwood Curtain Booking wrote to us. They organize these so called 'The Future is unwritten' festivals in Humboldt County (basically Arcata and/or Eureka). I still remember the lines from their mail, like “Hey guys, love your music… how about your plans for touring the US?” and I was like what the fuck, this band (at least the line-up back at this time) does not even exist a half year and people want us to play America! I got some mails from Americans though and many great comments on our videos and music, but playing shows there sounded a bit unbelievable. Right after this myspace-mail we had a little talk in the rehearsal room – at this time we were still a three-piece with Thomas and Richard – and decided to just do it. Also we had only like four songs at this time but worked very hard for the tour and acual set. At this point we ONLY thought of touring California as it seemed “big enough” for us.

All this happened in August/September 2008 by the way – SBE haven't played one live show anywhere at this time. Unbelievable? Yes! So I started to write to the Californian bands that came to my mind like Earthless, Ancestors and Heavy Water Experiments if they were interested to play with us – as we only had one possible gig in Humboldt – and for our own astonishment, all of them were really cool and open to play a show with us! They would even lend us their equipment… BUT we still had to organize the concerts, look for locations and had almost no idea how to do this. So we decided for a second option and asked Redwood Curtain to book some more shows for us. Quite at the same time I got a mail from Laurel of 420 Trainwreck Internet Radio, who has always been a fan of my previous band TERRAPLANE. She told me about Tommy Grenas of Farflung, who was interested in our music and about the possibility of playing with them. I knew Farflung only by the name back then, but wrote to Tommy and he was very enthusiastic for the whole thing from the start. He would organize some shows in California! You can imagine how fucking exciting this is for such a young band! So we would do a tour – in CALIFORNIA!

But for the whole time we expected not too much, we were just realistic, with only one fucking Demo-CD in the backhand. We knew for such a “project” our expenses would be a lot higher than what we would get back from the concerts, so it wasn’t important to play as many shows there, even if we thought of ten concerts in the best case. Most important for us was the “Experience USA”. That’s why we stayed for 23 days on the West Coast. We wanted to see, feel, breathe and even taste America ;-). Anyway in February 2009 we had a tour of seven concerts: Redwood Curtain did Eureka, Salem (Oregon), Seattle and Bremerton (Washington), Farflung did two very cool shows in Los Angeles and San Francisco and our tourmates of Nudity arranged a concert in Olympia. Later Treetarantula organized a second show for us in Seattle, on the day after we played there the first time. We owe a lot to all of them, at least our deepest respect and gratitude. Only from these few line you can understand that in a certain way we feel “blessed” to have had such a chance. All lend us their complete backline (some cool stuff like vintage Orange and Sunn Amps), let us stay in their houses and so on… So yeah, we had a real good time you know.

That's a really an amazing story, and I would say that you're really blessed. It's like a win on the lottery, especially because the band was still at the beginning. Aside from the fact that each band was very supportive, how was the reaction of the audience? How many people came to the shows? You also met Tony Reed from Mos Generator (R.I.P.)/Stone Axe, and stayed and jammed at his house. Please, tell me more about it, because it sounds really interesting.

All shows were quite different from each other. Not only hundreds of miles were in between, also the venues were so much different, so I should tell you more details at least from the impressive ones. The most professional concerts (by chosen venues) have been LA and SF – the two shows with Farflung. And when you think we're blessed already, what do you think when I tell you that we even have been headlining the LA show and should do same in SF? Also the bassplayer of Sky Saxon's (The Seeds) American band played guitar with the opening act. Not enough: a light-show guy (Sorry forgot his name.), who has been working with Hawkwind did lights on both shows. After our very cool show in SF he even bought two SBE shirts...haha... great.

It was truly unbelievable, we were treated like “stars” sometimes. Not that we feel like this actually, but all of the bands and guys in the clubs showed so much respect for us coming over there and everyone has been full of excitement. Of course, relatively few people knew or still know us, but it seems that Germany has a “strange attraction” to some Americans. We spoke with quite many people whose ancestors have been Germans. Some always asked us for some phrases in German and repeated them like mantras, haha… I even heard of one guy in SF who only came to the show because there was a German band playing. “In Germany we call it…” was one of the most used phrases for us anyway… so much fun mixing languages. So in the end we had concerts with a 50 people audience in LA (though it wasn't the best idea to play after Farflung in their hometown – they exist for 20 years you know…), 80 in SF and in all the other cities - except Seattle - a lot less due to various reasons. It's been the beginning or middle of the week then and concert-promotion apart LA, SF, Eureka and the first Seattle gig almost didn’t exist.

When we recognized this we even went around Downtown Olympia for hanging up our own posters. In fact many things went on other ways over there, in some venues we didn’t play a single note before 11 pm, without a proper soundcheck or that we have gotten anything to eat (Looking for good food was the whole tours most difficult quest!), while in SF we got a bottle of whiskey plus food and stuff. In fact SF remains the best show. The audience, the venue itself (Bottom Of The Hill!) and our set simply rocked. But we enjoyed every or most of the concerts. Only Bremerton and Salem were a bit “weird”. In Salem we played on a Monday night in front of 15 people. The venue looked a bit like my Grandparents living room, with sofas and little lamps and stuff like that and everyone was just sitting there and staring at us. A bit strange you know… We didn’t feel “linked” with the audience there. Also on the day after in Bremerton it wasn´t the place or time for us, we had problems with the sound-system and people seemed not so much interested in this long-winded psychedelic stuff we do. In the end there were only Tony Reed and his lady, the guys of Nudity and like three other guys to witness our 30 minute epos 'Double Freedom'. I was destroyed, but these things happen.

Tony also organized the concert in Bremerton after he got a call from the Redwood Curtain guys. He was very, very friendly in any way. He gave us like ten CD's of Mos Generator, Stone Axe and other stuff, maybe just because he felt pity when I told him that we have to listen to this one stonerrock sampler again and again and again, as we haven't taken any CD's of our own over the pond and the radio-stations in Oregon and most parts of the countryside just played shit music. The only cool radio channel seemed 'The Bone' in SF. They really rock… on the other hand there's a lot of very weird Mexican music in California and very old-fashioned 'Hillbillie'-tunes in Oregon (Does anyone remember the music in 'Mars Attacks' what they “used” to kill all the aliens? Exactly this kind of stuff!). So after the show in Bremerton we also went to Tony's house in Port Orchard, since he offered us to spend the night there. And even as it felt a bit funny when we entered a side way that led us inside a forest - with an opening street-sign that said 'Dead End' - this became one of the coolest moments of the trip.

Those who don't know Tony or his bands should check them out immediately. What a damn good musician this guy is! I felt like a little boy watching him, playing guitar on one of his good dozen of vintage Laney amps and taking over drums right after. He said he spents all day playing in his house. I believe him, though we still wonder where the hell he has got all the money to buy all his fantastic equipment. The house is split in two parts and this second part, where we also slept, is his studio and it is full of most exciting amps and guitars and records. He even has got a Mellotron, what was once of Bob Rock (the producer of Metallica). We felt somehow like entering 'Willy Wonkas Chocolate Factory'.

Oh yeah, it's really interesting, that some Americans have some kind of attraction to the German language and the country. Like you said, I suppose it belongs to the days when some of the first immigrants came over from here to start a new life there. But it's great to hear that most of your shows were so amazing. By the way, I agree with you that more people should check out Mos Generator and Stone Axe. Excellent stuff! But let's go back to your own band. What is you conclusion about the tour? Would you do it again or is there something you would like to change if possible?

The conclusion is that all of us are full of images, impressions and memories. We seen so much new things, experienced the almost “shocking” beauty and diversity of the American nature (Have you ever woken up in the Redwood Forest or seen the sun go down beyond the Pacific Ocean?). Also we met so many people over there: friendly people, funny and weird people of all kind and color. As we stayed for 23 long days, there's been quite many, even apart the “official side”: Guys we used to hang out with here or there in hostels, camp-grounds and so on, though most of them I guess we'll never see again. But I hope that with the bands Farflung, Nudity and Treetarantula we can stay in contact and repeat this tour as soon as it's possible. Also because theres so much left on the way to discover still you know ;-)...

Tony Reed by the way never replied any of our mails after we came back, what is weird. I hope he is still alive. For a moment - when we were jamming a bit in his house and were talking about 70's Rock and stuff (both of us love that period more than anything else in music) - I even could imagine to do something with him and Stone Axe, but maybe he has other plans and who knows what the future will bring… but all the guys in SBE would love to return for sure. Even if next time we would make sure that someone promotes our concerts (better), so we wouldn't end up like in Salem. Nudity and we got ten bucks each on that night and earned more by selling merchandise, haha… well… you know that side of touring really sucks.

Yes, it can be annoying. But it's good to know that you had a good time over there in the USA. What for an intense and important experience for a new band like yours. But actually, you've been around and playing music before you formed SBE. Maybe some readers remember you from your old band TERRAPLANE. Sad to say, that they broke-up, but SBE is definitely a strong successor, but what was the reason for the end of your old band?

Well I have been around in several bands for ten years now and almost seven of them were dedicated to TERRAPLANE. Actually you have to consider that the band broke up a first time already in 2005 when our “original” drummer Andreas Herbst left. Somehow we felt the “spirit” been gone, even though we had other drummers till the definite end in 2007. That’s also a reason why we had chosen another name and called the band GREEN MONKEY for a couple of months. TERRAPLANE were from the very start brainchild of singer and bassplayer Christian Oelke and me, but became “mature” with the initiation of Andreas.

After the Nasoni Records re-release of 'Into The Unknown' and a few concerts in a complete different line-up (Oelke just singing, Florian Furtner on bass and with Edward Bernatek a more than 20 years older drummer) some things became too complicated to handle, our “spirit” seemed complete gone or at least became a very different one. I don’t want to say there was no spirit at all and we played only lame pop rock (at least we managed to arrange a pretty cool 'Snowblind' cover – even though it's never been never recorded), but we couldn't even do a jam and that was one of the basic “principles” in our band. Also we became tired of changing the band's “shape” so often, theres been no other good musicians for TERRAPLANE in the Harz area (we all were from around Wernigerode), some important clubs have been closed and also many people and friends had moved to other areas where life for young people is more “entertaining” while “our” city Wernigerode became more and more a residential area for old farts haha...

In Summer 2007 I also decided to leave this provincial area and move to Berlin due to various reasons, so in any way it would have become difficult to rehearse and I really felt it was time for that change! Theres no hard feeling from my side, though the one or other of us seems to be more attached to the TERRAPLANE “spirit”. I learned to be thankful to the experience. But many things were completely different compared to SBE. For example I never felt so secure or confident with TERRAPLANE when we were playing live, though I can't say I didn't enjoy. It was just another thing, even if the music was quite similar…

Yeah, sometimes it's better to let it go and make a change. But you can be proud of TERRAPLANE and 'Into The Unknown' is a real good record. It's unique and although your sound was deep-seated in the heavy rock of the 70's you came up with your own musical vision. The band's leaving present was 'Low Tide & Shockwave', a self-released compilation featuring unreleased and different versions of your songs. Did you ever look for a proper record label release for 'Low Tide & Shockwave' and is it still available?

Ah yeah thanks, Klaus. Actually I haven't ever thought many people could like the music of TERRAPLANE, not BEFORE 'Into The Unknown' was re-released on Nasoni Records. By the way, by coincidence I have seen that our record is sold for 45 Bucks on Stonerrock.com/All That's Heavy Store. That's sheer madness! It seems a bit weird, maybe we had a little lack of self-confidence, though times or trends for music were different in 2003 - 2006. "Re-animated" 70's psychedelic heavy rock was very much "underground", especially in Germany I presume. Also we were so much unexperienced and "provincial" at this time. We never played somewhere except in very small venues in very small German towns. Before 2006 there was no Myspace with guys from all over the world who wrote you comments like "I really dig this shit" .. haha... Nonetheless one might acclaim that there have been like 12 outputs with TERRAPLANE. Many self-released EP's on CD-R and albums, but also we had a lot of bad luck with the products of our provincial studios. Of course they had no clue how we wanted to sound like. Not that hardcore or Limp Bizkit stuff they were used to, nor that screamo, punk or metal.

Two complete albums 'Orange Sunshine' and 'Psychedelic Wonderland' were kinda like destroyed by real bad studiomixes... and we had no idea to help it. Money for studioworks was the even bigger problem. So in the end, desperately, we sold like 100 CD-R items of these albums and never did more copies because we were so much unhappy with it and didn't want to go further. There's really a lot of stuff and many songs that got lost. Even good songs, but what can I say, the original tracks got lost for real and the finally mixed versions are too often really crappy. Concerning 'Low Tide', as you said that was a kind of Best Of-Release from those few tracks we could identify with still, though we weren't really satisfied with the sound. Actually we never tried to find a label to re-releases anything of the old stuff. Iguess it was because we haven't had a good experience with Nasoni Records and as I said we weren't too much optimistic anybody would be interested still. So okay it's two years since the split now and for me, definitely, TERRAPLANE is history. 'Low Tide' seems sold out and at this point there's no concrete plan to re-release anything, but maybe one day I will, on alternative ways without involving third parties.

Shit, I didn't know that two of your unreleased albums have been mutilated by incompetent producers. One more proof that listening to crap like Limp Bizkit (it makes me sick to write that name) can seriously damage your brain. Well, TERRAPLANE is history and it's about time to focus our attention on your new band SAMSARA BLUES EXPERIMENT. You've recorded one excellent demo in 2008, and received a lot of good feedback. What I really like is that Raga element in your music as well as the warm and free flowing heavy sound. How do you create your songs, Chris? Do you start with a main riff or what's going on in your rehearsel room?

Well, it's the bigger shame that the original tracks got lost, otherwise I DEFINITELY would remix and re-release everything you know. And thanks again Klaus, I am still kinda overwhelmed by all the good reviews for SBE, just because when I came up with the idea it was like "this time I am gonna do something really PSYCHEDELIC and really HEAVY by meaning INTENSIVE, some far out stuff that maybe only a few dozen guys would listen to, BUT they would become real addicts". A kind of "weird" vision... But speaking about the whole feeling I see TERRAPLANE way less intense then SBE has already been with the release of this demo. We just played together only for one or two months when we recorded the first demo. I have been playing around with some other guys before, most of the time in very very loose concepts. We only had the main line of 'Double Freedom' and the structure of 'Singata', not even half of the lyrics and I was improvising a lot, which actually became a bit stressing as no one can deliver high quality (and I am very much demanding) with every strike and sometimes we simply sucked.

So for instance 'Double Freedom' started off as a "innocent love song" that may remind a bit of my SOULITUDE project, where I do this kind of acid psych. We put this first version on our special release for the US-Tour and it can be downloaded from our website as well. So, by time 'Double Freedom' grew up to almost a thirty-minute epic. I still don´t know how haha, maybe just because we still like jamming and droning in low frequencies, but also added some more riffing from rehearsal to rehearsal. Anyway there is no straight concept for us, neither about how we come up with a song, nor in which direction this or that song might lead us. Sometimes someone has got an idea, a riff and we work it out. Other times we just make a lot of noise ;-). 'Army Of Ignorance', which is one of our coolest songs at least in my opinion, was written almost completely by bass player Richard. I have been lucky to find very talented young guys to build up this band. SBE is very much part of my personality, but also Richard, Thomas and Hans have a growing influence on everything we do. And unto now this works really good.

Yeah, it's easier to lose oneself in the huge sound of SBE, even if you don't consume any kind of mind-altering substances. It's intense, and I can't wait to see you live for the first time. But, hey, we've to make a short break here, because you've mentioned SOULITUDE. Honestly, I hear that name for the first time, so I suggest that you tell me a little bit more about it before we continue with SBE.

Oh really? Okay actually it's no big surprise, though everything is linked in times of Myspace, I never did so much promotion about this. I do SOULITUDE for almost ten years now. Imagine me sitting at home with loads of soundeffects and a guitar and record "my" weird stuff at the same time as I create it. At least that's what I did for the last record. Sometimes also the guitar is in quite "wicked" tunings and I don't mean standard open tunings for playing slide guitar etc., I mean really weird tunings that make the guitar sound like an Indian or Arabian instrument. Most of them I can't remember at all. I should note them somewhere. A bit chaotic maybe, just to fit the artist-cliché haha... So most of the times I do these sounds very spontaneously. Lately I added also sitar, acoustic guitar, mandoline and keys and most of the stuff you know from my "real" bands but more experimental. It's like at least five layers of guitar on every song. VERY psychedelic AND no drums until now. One time only I used a drumcomputer. In this project I also sang for the very first time ("public"). I have to thank my girl-friend a lot for encouraging me so much. Otherwise who knows, even SBE would still look for a singer? SOULITUDE is my most personal music project but also a kind of playground. So in the first years I told only people "I knew good enough to know if they might like it or not" about this. Fortunately I began to be more open, so here's the link for the brave person who read our interview till this very point: www.myspace.com/soulitudesound. Enjoy. Some guy told me he always plays SOULITUDE when he has a long bath, one of these fine cigarettes and...

Let us return to SBE. The demo was very promising, but when can we expect the first full-length? Do you have any plans?

Oh well, matter of fact the album is almost finished. At least recording and mixing. Also the artworks are almost done. I guess that the final works on these will be finished within August. Afterwards we will decide which label to take, as we want to release it on vinyl and so we are in need for a deal. Also later on there has to be done a proper mastering and we haven't yet decided whos job this will be. So I really can't promise anything, but hope that we can manage to release our first album in late Autumn or Winter this year. You have to know that it's supposed to become a very detailed, almost conceptional, album and we care a lot for every - even small - part of it.

That sounds really good and interesting. I can't wait to hear it. Apart of being a musician, you're also running your own webzine Electric Magic, previously known as Generated-X. When did you begin and what was the reason for that decision?

We started in early 2006 (around March?), initially on my idea that's right. It came up simply because a German (speaking) stoner (psych/doom/space and so on) zine was missing. At least I haven't heard of someone else doing it, not DEDICATED to "stoner music" exclusively and I would say we are. Okay I know there are some metal zines that mention stoner releases here or there. But I can't stand their (often too much) superficial stuff to read, like many always write "oh here's another band that sounds like Black Sabbath"... I find these pretty much annoying even. I won't say ALL of them do, but too many of the more popular ones. So I wanted to do start up something more "specific", to give people who are interested a deeper "in-sight", you know. People who maybe won't speak English that good and find it rather tiring to read about some interesting music only in english as the best sites seem to be only in english (Cosmic Lava, Monolith, The Obelisk, Roadburn back in the days...).

Thanks a lot for the compliment, Chris. That feels really good. I agree with you, because a lot of sites have no further interest than receiving tons of promo discs, instead of guiding the listener to the thicket of releases. How do you rate the current situation of the "our" music community?What, for example, do you think about the ever-increasing number of releases?

There must be a reason why you're around for ten years Klaus ;-). But speaking about my own intention... actually I had to slow down works on the mag. I really can't write about everything that's newly released, can't interview every band or artist I would like to interview, can't write about everything that's on my mind (artcles like the "history of rock lessons")... neither the rest of our small crew can't manage to do so. We all have jobs, bands and other things to do besides and still Electric Magic is "only" a fanzine, though dedicated to the music itself. So speaking about reviews for instance we concentrate only on a couple of current releases that in our opinion are worthy to be mentioned. Though I won't say that the number of releases is really "ever-increasing", at least not on the higher levels. There is and for long terms there has been a lot of, well... let's name it crap. I have received some CD's that were really making me worry for the people who released that stuff ;-(...

I had some really weird things here on my desk haha... seems like some people really have no clue what our magazine or what the term "stonerrock" is about. Okay you may say it became a pretty blurry description for a whole lotta things and influences and maybe everyone has his own idea what stonerrock is... I don't know. Well, just speaking about "stoner-relevant" releases (what I consider stonerrock ;-)...) I think the scene became a bit more transparent when you are really into it. There's a few really good bands around that deserve all the attention they get and a lot less kinda fancy wanna-be-stoner-bands with namedroppings from Kyuss-songs. Also I appreciate that more and more bands tend to play the more old-schoolish 70's style... though in these days I find it most "appealing" when a band does their own thing and not trying to copy others by trying to play what seems "popular" somehow you know.

Yes, sometimes it's horrific, and unfortunately there is also a lot of false information out there. Most sites are completely redundant, but it's good to know that they have a short life span. Well, ok, let's change the topic. As far as I remember you were involved in the Bad Acid magazine and you're drawing poster etc. Please, tell us something about it.

Oh well Bad Acid... you know from time to time I am happy to do some layouts for Dave. Back in Summer 2007 I did the cover for Tab 7 and it was like one of my first jobs for Sun Art and also how it all began somehow. In the last one and a half year I did gigposters and flyers for bands like Colour Haze, Witchcraft, Dozer, Blue Cheer, Graveyard, Dead Man, Hypnos 69 among many others, cd-artworks for Fuzz Manta and Ponamero Sundown and some other things like graphics for shirts and so on. Of course I keep on doing artworks for SAMSARA BLUES EXPERIMENT, even though I hope one day we'll have the chance to get some other artists in the boat. I am a bit tired to do so much on my own for my band haha... I was a big fan of Kozik you know... back in the 90s when Mans Ruin was around and he did all these cool things.

Ok, we are done yet, Chris. It was a pleasure to do this interview with you, and I'm grateful for your comprehensive answers. Is there anything you would like to add at the end?

My pleasure Klaus, thanks for your interest and best wishes for you and the mag.